wwyd, slave-made chair

[Xahm]

One of the "heirlooms" in our family is an old wooden chair, made on the plantation of a slave owning ancestor,presumably by a slave. I don't know that this will become my responsibility, but the possibility has me thinking. What should I do with it if it comes to me?

If we knew the name of the plantation carpenter it might be possible to track down descendants and offer it to them as rightfully theirs, but we don't have that information. I really don't think there's enough information about this chair for a museum to want it. It seems disrespectful to toss it out.

Perhaps fittingly, it is very uncomfortable. As is the whole "my ancestors had slaves, I still benefit somewhat." Maybe just keep it as a tangible reminder of our past that we should be uncomfortable with? Or is there an organization that collects slave relics for the descendants of slaves?

I know that anything involving race is highly sensitive, but I hope this can be a helpful discussion. The timing of this post is motivated by my need for adult conversation as my husband has been away for work for more than two weeks, but this is something I think about from time to time as it comes up.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Museum.

[Ravin]

I found this article on the topic:

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20120729/PC1207/120729267

 

It's not something I've ever given much thought to. I do have one ancestor line that came out of white Arkansas, but the family was poor so I doubt there were many slave owners among my recent ancestors.

[poppy]

Offer it to a local university?

Otherwise I would .......... well I have a 1200 sq ft house and not much storage, so I would toss/donate any uncomfortable chair. But only after photographing it well to tell my kids about it as a humbling lesson and piece of history.

[LucyStoner]

I would donate it to a musuem, if one is interested.

[Xahm]

I found this article on the topic:

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20120729/PC1207/120729267

 

It's not something I've ever given much thought to. I do have one ancestor line that came out of white Arkansas, but the family was poor so I doubt there were many slave owners among my recent ancestors.

 

That's a really interesting article and makes me think it might be far more possible to get a museum to take it and actually do something with it. I actually thought this sort of thing was very common, but maybe it is more common in the, "let's not talk about the chair over in the corner" kind of way.

 

I think that, if I end up with this chair, I will donate it somewhere after gathering as much information about the history of the family and chair as I can. I think I'm almost afraid to do that kind of research though.  I know our family has its dark history, but with no specifics, it's pretty easy to ignore those parts and focus on the more noble parts.

[Pippen]

If I liked the chair and saw it as something I might see in my house, I would keep the chair. I would teach my children about its history, saying that it's a reminder of who our family was during that period in history, but this is what we believe now. 

 

If I didn't care for the chair and/or didn't want it in the home, I would first offer it to other family members who would appreciate it. 

[Xahm]

If I liked the chair and saw it as something I might see in my house, I would keep the chair. I would teach my children about its history, saying that it's a reminder of who our family was during that period in history, but this is what we believe now. 

 

If I didn't care for the chair and/or didn't want it in the home, I would first offer it to other family members who would appreciate it. 

 

The thing is, it's not a particularly great chair. I wouldn't keep it on it's own merits.  I have a large extended family, so if we want to keep it in the family, I'm sure someone will be willing to keep it, but I'm not entirely sure we should.

[I talk to the trees]

Please take it to a museum! You may find that there is someone out there who can spot an identifying mark or feature on the chair!

[Xahm]

Please take it to a museum! You may find that there is someone out there who can spot an identifying mark or feature on the chair!

 

Good point!

[LucyStoner]

That's a really interesting article and makes me think it might be far more possible to get a museum to take it and actually do something with it. I actually thought this sort of thing was very common, but maybe it is more common in the, "let's not talk about the chair over in the corner" kind of way.

 

I think that, if I end up with this chair, I will donate it somewhere after gathering as much information about the history of the family and chair as I can. I think I'm almost afraid to do that kind of research though. I know our family has its dark history, but with no specifics, it's pretty easy to ignore those parts and focus on the more noble parts.

So much wood furniture from the south was destroyed during the Civil War (firewood, looting, arson) that there's definitely an interest in maintaining the remaining examples.

[Stacia]

I found this article on the topic:

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20120729/PC1207/120729267

 

I would contact the people in the article & see if they have suggestions/want it/etc.... Also, there is supposed to be an African American Heritage Museum opening in Charleston (SC) in the next few years. They might be another place to potentially contact about donating the piece.

[Xahm]

Whatever you decide to do with it, PLEASE don't just toss it to the curb. 

 

I won't and won't let that happen.  I also don't want it just sitting in someone's attic with the history becoming more and more forgotten.

[mommaduck]

There is a slave relics museum in Walterboro, SC. It is specifically focused on the history and lives of the slaves themselves, not their owners. www.slaverelics.org

[idnib]

Please take it to a museum! You may find that there is someone out there who can spot an identifying mark or feature on the chair!

 

Yes, this.

[Alessandra]

I have seen more and more articles about museums and exhibits on lives of enslaved peoples, the most recent being in Rhode Island (a center of slave trade). I would try to find a good museum, local if possible.

 

Last year, I saw an exhibit on slavery at Monticello. Every shard of pottery was valuable.

[mommaduck]

I agree with the "local if possible". If not, then try further.

[Tanaqui]

Perhaps fittingly, it is very uncomfortable. As is the whole "my ancestors had slaves, I still benefit somewhat." Maybe just keep it as a tangible reminder of our past that we should be uncomfortable with?

 

You know, a good deal of the goods you purchase today are made partially or in whole by slaves or forced/coerced laborers. (Here I am not using the word in the sense "person who makes, by Western standards, a pitifully low income but who is allowed to choose their job, albeit from limited options, and to live as they please". When I say slave, I mean slave.) It can be difficult or even impossible to follow the labor chain back to ensure that your product is 100% slave free.

[Tap]

I would say, museum, university or even a reenactment center.  I wouldn't care if it was used, its purpose in life was intended to be used as a chair, so to see it actually used/sat on, would make me happiest.  

[maize]

You know, a good deal of the goods you purchase today are made partially or in whole by slaves or forced/coerced laborers. (Here I am not using the word in the sense "person who makes, by Western standards, a pitifully low income but who is allowed to choose their job, albeit from limited options, and to live as they please". When I say slave, I mean slave.) It can be difficult or even impossible to follow the labor chain back to ensure that your product is 100% slave free.

When I first saw this topic header I thought someone had somehow figured out that they had furniture made by contemporary slave labor.

[maize]

As a slight tangent, I do not think that the darker parts of our family histories should be kept a secret. Or ancestors were real people, with their own flaws, living within the context of their time and culture.

[Ausmumof3]

When I first saw this topic header I thought someone had somehow figured out that they had furniture made by contemporary slave labor.

That's what I thought too. Also that there is a possibility that our kids will look at this stuff one day and wonder how we let it go.

[kroe1]

You are assuming it was made by slaves, but have no proof?

 

Refinish the chair and keep it for yourself. You may have a very thankful grandchild or great great grandchild. All you know for sure is that the chair was built in a certain time frame and owned by a certain relative. He could have bought it or made it himself for all you know, right?

 

History was what it was. At the time, your relative was just a regular Joe doing what was considered acceptable for the time. Throwing his furniture away does not vindicate him or you. It is just a chair. Put a note under the chair that lists all the facts you do know and maybe your assumptions and how that makes this generation feel.

 

in the future, some of our society's practices may seem barbaric or cruel like what happens in the diamond mines. If your engagement ring made it up to a 5th or 6th future grandchild, would you want it to be tossed? Would the ring itself have anything to do with our society? What if the ring was made with a diamond picked up on a family vacation in Arkansas to the diamond mine there. How would anyone know that the diamond was a socially acceptable one?

[maize]

 

in the future, some of our society's practices may seem barbaric or cruel like what happens in the diamond mines. If your engagement ring made it up to a 5th or 6th future grandchild, would you want it to be tossed? Would the ring itself have anything to do with our society? What if the ring was made with a diamond picked up on a family vacation in Arkansas to the diamond mine there. How would anyone know that the diamond was a socially acceptable one?

 

Thanks for reminding me of the reasons I do not own a diamond ring :)

 

We went with lab created emerald, though there's a pretty good chance the gold band was mined in awful conditions.

 

Sigh. I've been in a silver mine in Bolivia. That is forever seared in my memory; modern slavery indeed.

 

Ugh. Just thinking of precious gems and metals makes me shudder.

[Bluegoat]

I wouldn't really hesitate about keeping something like that in the family.  I wouldn't in any case gift it out of the family if someone within the family wants it.  I don't think there is any serious question of finding the family of the person who made it, since it is worth nothing and is not even nice to sit on - if you could find out easily it might be worth asking, but it would only be a sentimental attachment.

 

I think if we were serious about not exploiting labour, there are many other things in our homes that we should give up before worrying about an item like yours - because their production is affecting people and their economic situation right now.  We like to think that legal slavery is a thing of the past, but its really on a continuum of economic exploitation, and the fact of being legally owned isn't the only issue on the continuum either - there are all kinds of ways to dehumanize people.  Our electronic products alone are likely a problem.

 

Slaves were people, their work happened under less than ideal conditions, but still deserves to be appreciated - or cursed maybe in your case, as an example of craftsmanship.  Getting rid of or destroying it won't do anything against that system of exploitation, but it will destroy the human evidence of that person's work.

[Ellie]

As a slight tangent, I do not think that the darker parts of our family histories should be kept a secret. Or ancestors were real people, with their own flaws, living within the context of their time and culture.

 

:iagree:

[Ellie]

I wouldn't really hesitate about keeping something like that in the family.  I wouldn't in any case gift it out of the family if someone within the family wants it.  I don't think there is any serious question of finding the family of the person who made it, since it is worth nothing and is not even nice to sit on - if you could find out easily it might be worth asking, but it would only be a sentimental attachment.

 

I think if we were serious about not exploiting labour, there are many other things in our homes that we should give up before worrying about an item like yours - because their production is affecting people and their economic situation right now.  We like to think that legal slavery is a thing of the past, but its really on a continuum of economic exploitation, and the fact of being legally owned isn't the only issue on the continuum either - there are all kinds of ways to dehumanize people.  Our electronic products alone are likely a problem.

 

Slaves were people, their work happened under less than ideal conditions, but still deserves to be appreciated - or cursed maybe in your case, as an example of craftsmanship.  Getting rid of or destroying it won't do anything against that system of exploitation, but it will destroy the human evidence of that person's work.

 

:iagree:

[LucyStoner]

The OP said it's an uncomfortable chair and she wouldn't keep it on it's own merits as a chair. Gifting it or loaning it to a museum may be the best way to preserve it.

[scrapbookbuzz]

As I've read others' responses, while I agree a museum might be able to use it, I've been thinking if you had room in your hous you might want to make it a history display. Put it in a corner, possibly put a brief "bio" above it, and some books about the era on the seat. Yes, it's an uncomfortable part of history but it's also an important era to remember.

 

Just my two cents! B-)

[Bluegoat]

The OP said it's an uncomfortable chair and she wouldn't keep it on it's own merits as a chair. Gifting it or loaning it to a museum may be the best way to preserve it.

 

Yes - but people do sometimes keep things they wouldn't have on their own merits because of a family connection. 

 

If another family member likes it that seems like a great solution.  A museum though might want a little more provenance.

[Spy Car]

Spend time in that old uncomfortable slave-made chair reading slave-narratives and the like.

 

That would be my solution.

 

Bill

[Katy]

I would try to take it to antiques roadshow or a similar furniture appraiser and figure out what the history really is.  It's much more likely that someone made it after the civil war than that it was made by slaves.  Once you have more information you'll know the right thing to do.

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT sell an antique to the person who appraised it.

[KungFuPanda]

Donate it to your closest African American History museum. Give them the information you have and let them dig up the rest. They likely have resources you haven't considered. Even if a larger museum isn't interested, it could be a nice piece for a smaller, more local museum.

[HS Mom in NC]

Don’t make a decision based on what you, not an expert, think might be the case. Call the expert, listen to what they have to say and decide what to do based on that information.

[KungFuPanda]

I wouldn't really hesitate about keeping something like that in the family. I wouldn't in any case gift it out of the family if someone within the family wants it. I don't think there is any serious question of finding the family of the person who made it, since it is worth nothing and is not even nice to sit on - if you could find out easily it might be worth asking, but it would only be a sentimental attachment.

 

I think if we were serious about not exploiting labour, there are many other things in our homes that we should give up before worrying about an item like yours - because their production is affecting people and their economic situation right now. We like to think that legal slavery is a thing of the past, but its really on a continuum of economic exploitation, and the fact of being legally owned isn't the only issue on the continuum either - there are all kinds of ways to dehumanize people. Our electronic products alone are likely a problem.

 

Slaves were people, their work happened under less than ideal conditions, but still deserves to be appreciated - or cursed maybe in your case, as an example of craftsmanship. Getting rid of or destroying it won't do anything against that system of exploitation, but it will destroy the human evidence of that person's work.

This is a good point. It's good to be knowledgable about our history and make sure our children understand the difference between right and wrong. However, if you're pointing a finger at the sinners of the past while continuing to eat slave chocolate and wear blood diamonds and sweatshop clothing I'm not sure we've made progress.

[Xahm]

Right now the chair belongs to my grandfather, but it comes from my late grandmother's side. Grandad is a history buff, so I assume he's written down whatever is known about this chair. If I can make it come up naturally, I'll ask him. I'm not going to presume to tell him what he should do, but if it comes to my generation, I'll be looking for a museum local to where the chair is from or a slave relic museum. If they don't want to take it, I think I'd go with a "history corner" with the chair and an explanation of what we know about it. There is a vacation house from the same side of the family, so that might be a good place to put it.

I know that we are still benefiting from the labor of slaves all around the world when we get cheap, or even expensive, goods, but that is still far less personal than knowing that members of my family, who I respect in many other ways and who were pillars of their community, were actively involved in maintaining a system where they owned people. Maybe it should be more personal to me. Certainly I can do nothing to change history but can work to make changes now. If the chair turns out to have value, I guess a third option would be to sell it and donate the money to fight slavery in the world today.

[Word Nerd]

The chair isn't even yours or in your possession, correct? I wouldn't fret over something that may never even happen.

[RioSamba]

Someone upthread advised refinishing. Refinishing diminishes antique values substantially. I wouldn't touch it until you know what you have.

 

As for what to do with it, since it isn't something you use or want, I would definitely donate it.

[MomatHWTK]

I would offer it to our local AA museum.  I also recently read about the existence of a museum dedicated to showing the history of slavery so I might contact them.

[rjand6more]

I would keep it. Forever.  We can not rewrite history.  No do overs.  But we can show compassion and respect.  That chair may have been built by a craftsman.  It may have been a source of pride.  Since the real source is not sure,I would just keep it as a family treasure.  Much of what happened in history is not a reason for celebration, but we definitely need to talk about it and not try to forget.  It was real.  It was so wrong, but we can't make it go away by ridding our lives of artifacts.  Artifacts tell a story.  I would not be ashamed to own something that tells an awful truth about the American past.

[Miss Peregrine]

I would keep it, use it, and listen to its stories.

[marbel]

I would keep it. Forever.  We can not rewrite history.  No do overs.  But we can show compassion and respect.  That chair may have been built by a craftsman.  It may have been a source of pride.  Since the real source is not sure,I would just keep it as a family treasure.  Much of what happened in history is not a reason for celebration, but we definitely need to talk about it and not try to forget.  It was real.  It was so wrong, but we can't make it go away by ridding our lives of artifacts.  Artifacts tell a story.  I would not be ashamed to own something that tells an awful truth about the American past.

 

The OP isn't trying to make anything go away or rewrite history.  She's trying to figure out how to deal with the chair respectfully.

 

If I had such a chair, I don't know what I would do.  If I liked the chair and had room for it, I'd probably keep it.  (Maybe I'd keep it even if I didn't much like it but had room for it.)  If I didn't have room for it, I'd probably try to either give it away or donate it to a museum.  I don't know if a museum would take something that had no documented history.  In any case,  I would not feel compelled to keep a piece of furniture in my home simply because it might have been built by an enslaved person/craftsman.  Honestly, if it became a burden I believe I would get rid of it however I could.  Because when it comes right down to it, it's just a piece of furniture, particularly because of the uncertainty about its origins. 

 

When my mother died she had some religious items related to a faith no one in my family follows anymore.  I wanted to deal with the items respectfully.  I called several local houses of worship to ask for their advice.  They had no interest in the things.  They said I could donate them to a thrift store or throw them out.  It's not a perfect comparison, of course.  But ultimately the things themselves became meaningless. 

 

It has nothing to do with ignoring slavery or being ashamed or trying to forget the past.  It has nothing to do with respect for the person who made the chair.