Slavery

Interesting article at Salon today on the struggle concerning how to tell the history of the Confederacy. Louise Witt traces the changes that have occurred at the Museum of the Confederacy along with Gov. Doug Wilder's ambition to have a National Slavery Museum built. Witt writes;

And yet, where African nations such as Senegal and Ghana, and even the small Caribbean island, Curaçao, have slave museums, the United States does not. This country has a national museum on the Washington Mall to commemorate the Holocaust, a profound global tragedy, but one that occurred in Europe.

To Wilder, it's striking that it seems easier for Americans to confront the shameful history of Nazi-sponsored genocide. "None of it ever happened here, none of it," he says. "To the extent that Jews were persecuted here, they were persecuted along with African-Americans. There was anti-Semitism, anti-black, anti-Catholic, anti-anything in terms of people who weren't the true bloods. I want to show that there aren't any true bloods in America. I don't want to talk about what was good and what was bad and who was right and who was wrong. I want to lay out the facts, so you can tell the story for yourself."

Salon's a hassle, but the article is quite good. Or you could become a member and not have to click through so many ads.