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Webmaster's Comment: Interesting exchange of the opinions was published by The Duluth News Tribune. "Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail" book and Amistad are mentioned there as examples and the story echoes many a vivid discussion held on the deck of the Freedom Schooner Amistad. Other tall ships of historical value are mentioned as well .
...don’t they (Owners of Mayflower replica) also have a responsibility to accurately portray the colonists’ political viewpoints? How about showing the head of Massachusett Indian chief Wituwamat impaled on a stick at the plantation’s gate, which records clearly show would have been visible during the period depicted?
“Well, yes, but how far should we go? We don’t want to scare tourists,” I recall the director answering...
Robin Washington is the News Tribune’s editorial page editor.
Doug Bowen-Bailey and Mari Trine are members of the Duluth Anti-Racism Coalition.
Pro/Con:
No: Age of sail belongs to all of us, not just colonialists and conquerors
By Robin Washington
In one of the proudest moments in my journalistic career several years ago, I was kicked off the Mayflower II.
Docked off Plymouth, Mass., the replica ship serves as a living-history museum, with the Pilgrim passengers portrayed by actors under strict orders to ignore modern devices like iPods or airplanes flying overhead.
So when a woman clad in a bonnet and ankle-length petticoat overheard my historically pointed interviews with tourists and scolded me — “I don’t think you ought to be asking questions like that!” — I had to ask if she was breaking character.
“Aye, for this I am,” she said — in character.
My point, which I later made to the boat’s owners at Plimoth Plantation (they really call it that!) was if they’re going to painstakingly display antique garb and cooking utensils, don’t they also have a responsibility to accurately portray the colonists’ political viewpoints? How about showing the head of Massachusett Indian chief Wituwamat impaled on a stick at the plantation’s gate, which records clearly show would have been visible during the period depicted?
“Well, yes, but how far should we go? We don’t want to scare tourists,” I recall the director answering.
I respectfully disagree; history is a concoction of good and bad, and to ignore relevant events for fear of offending someone is whitewashing it.
That said, it doesn’t mean every historic artifact must be packaged with all the historical baggage of its period.
Whether by design or not, the three tall ships visiting the Twin Ports this weekend are replicas of historic craft with relatively clean manifests. Unlike the Nina replica that visited last year, there’s little evidence that the forebears of the Pride of Baltimore II, the U.S. Brig Niagara and the Schooner Madeline were used as slavers or in military confrontation with American Indians. They do share the sails and wooden masts of vessels that did, but so, too, did boats that intercepted slave ships — or, for that matter, the Amistad, a slave ship commandeered by its captives and turned into a symbol of liberation and defiance.
I certainly appreciate a visceral reaction to anything sparking remembrances of oppression. But does that mean you should never ride in a Mercedes Benz, the car of choice for Hitler’s regime? Or, for that matter, my Mitsubishi Lancer, made by the same company that produced the Japanese Zero? Should those vehicles and companies be forever tarnished by their less-than-honorable pasts? If so, don’t forget Henry Ford’s virulent anti-Semitism the next time you hop into an Explorer.
Yes, the age of sail coincided with the age of conquest and colonialism. But the technology of the time is independent of the intent or the color of its users. Indeed, according to “Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail” (Harvard University Press, 1997), African Americans accounted for as many as 30 percent of mariners in the United States from 1790 to 1830. Among them was Capt. Paul Cuffee, a free black man from Massachusetts and “a ship builder and a ship owner, who sailed primarily with crews composed of African American and Indian men.”
Does that change the image of the age of sail from something belonging solely to conquerors of European ancestry to a period that can be interpreted more broadly, in a way in which everyone can find pride?
Aye, in this case it can.
Robin Washington is the News Tribune’s editorial page editor.
Yes: Marking history a chance for celebration, but also a time for critical reflection
By Doug Bowen-Bailey and Mari Trine
Minnesota’s sesquicentennial celebration, including the arrival in Duluth of three tall ships, is an opportunity for the entire state to celebrate its history.
Celebrating history, however, is not simply about looking at the things we love. It is also the willingness to take a critical view of our history to see the contradictions that exist. Perhaps no more clearly is that evident than in looking at Minnesota’s history with the people who were on this land before Europeans arrived.
This has come to light in many events around Minnesota. In June, a horse-drawn wagon train headed for Fort Snelling from Cannon Falls was blocked by a group from the Dakota Nation, protesting the glorification of a colonial triumph.
In Duluth, we have our own opportunity to look at contradictory history with the tall ships in port. Ships such as these brought many things to the so-called “New World.” For many of us, they brought our ancestors, who made a new life in Minnesota. But for some, these sort of ships brought disease, death and the destruction of a way of life.
Raising these subjects is not an attempt at playing some sort of blame game, nor is it implying that native people are not patriotic or good Minnesotans.
The goal in looking honestly at our history as a state, including the contradictory relations with sovereign indigenous nations, is to better understand how to move forward because the acts of oppression are not simply past history. Just to our south, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians is experiencing hostility from the Mille Lacs County Board, which has adopted an official policy that the reservation no longer exists, despite all of the legal precedence and federal government’s position upholding reservation existence and tribal sovereignty.
The effects of racism are certainly not only felt by Native Americans. The Children’s Defense Fund Minnesota reports in its 2008 “Kids Count” report that while Minnesota has the fifth-lowest rate for children in poverty in the nation, it has the fourth-highest rate of poverty among children who are black. Only Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi have higher rates.
In the face of such stark contrast, the truth is that racism affects us all and we all can address it.
On this 150th anniversary of Minnesota statehood, the time has come to take an honest look at our past and the ways it affects our present. Perhaps we can find a model to follow to our north. In June, Canada established “The Indian Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” to look at the effects that forcing native children to attend boarding schools had on the First Nations in Canada. It is a model of learning from the past to move forward to the future.
We could use that here in Minnesota as well. This state is home to a diverse population of people who came here at different times and in different ways.
The arrival of the tall ships offers the chance to broaden our understanding of history.
We encourage everyone to visit the Anti-Racism Coalition booth in Paulucci Hall at the DECC this weekend to gain deeper insight on Minnesota history.
Now is the time to look critically at our past, celebrate what is worth celebrating, and atone for what needs atonement. In the case of current oppression, the way to atone is to change practices so all people can benefit from and contribute to Minnesota history. In this way, Minnesota can become a state where all of those who live within its boundaries can feel at home in a place whose welcome and beauty are worth singing about.
Doug Bowen-Bailey and Mari Trine are members of the Duluth Anti-Racism Coalition.
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