Confronting Slavery in Historic Charleston: Changing Tourism Narratives in the Twenty-First Century Öffentlichkeit

Abstract

Confronting Slavery in Historic Charleston: Changing Tourism Narratives
in the Twenty-First Century examines representations of the history of slavery and its race
and class legacies within Charleston, South Carolina's historic tourism landscape.
Through fieldwork conducted on selected plantation sites and developing public history
projects from 2007-12, Battle argues that despite recent groundbreaking developments,
Charleston's public history producers cannot develop representations that effectively
address the Lowcountry region's history of slavery just by adding African American
history tours. Since the late nineteenth century, historic tourism in Charleston has
emphasized an exclusive fantasy of the colonial and antebellum past for tourism
audiences by narrowly focusing on white elite lifestyles, architecture, and material
culture. This interpretive pattern continues in the present, even with recently added tours.
To effectively address the significance of slavery and its race and class legacies in
Charleston, public history producers and interpreters must comprehensively transform
traditional representation strategies to include emerging narratives of African American
experiences during and after slavery, and to confront the role of white elites in
maintaining and benefitting from this institution during the colonial and antebellum
periods. Scholarly research, diverse oral histories, and input from grassroots voices are
critical to this inclusive change. Within current economic constraints, Battle suggests
innovative solutions for transformation in Charleston's public history narratives, such as
multi-institutional collaboration and digital interpretation strategies.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface 1

Introduction 9

SECTION ONE
Transforming History at Magnolia Plantation

Chapter One
"A Trance of Enjoyment"
Developing Historic Tourism at Charleston's Magnolia Plantation
from 1870 to the Present 50

Chapter Two
The Cabin Project
Introducing an African American History Tour
to Magnolia Plantation 103

SECTION TWO
Emerging African American History in Charleston

Chapter Three
"As It Really Was"
African Americans Interpreting Historic Charleston 174

Conclusion 245

Bibliography 254

About this Dissertation

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	History, United States American Studies
Stichwort	public history historic tourism African American history in Charleston, South Carolina
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Tullos, Allen, Emory University
Committee Members	Elliott, Michael A, Emory University Harris, Leslie, Emory University

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