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Does the Cause of the Civil War "Belong" in Interpretation?
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Troy D. Harman (Gettysburg National Military Park): I think you can integrate the cause
of the war into every program. I don't think you can understand even the actions of the
battle and fully appreciate them until you do.
Christopher Young (Chickamauga National Military Park): If I'm doing a formalized tour out
on the battlefield, causes of the war is one of the first things I've written up. Because
this battlefield that we're on right now, Chickamauga, it's only a portion of the entire
story.
Angie Atkinson (Gettysburg National Military Park): I don't really think I'm going to start
with the causes of the war and then focus into a micro-history. Now, granted, it will
probably come up in discussion, there will be some way that it will be woven in. It might
be a tangent, it might be "Mississippi, where are these guys from, what counties," and so
you can kind of pull it in from there and I think most good interpreters would do that.
Chris Mekow (Shiloh National Military Park): It's hard to put the slavery issue, I think—or
let's say the causes of the war—into a 30-minitue, that's usually standard for us, program on
the battlefield, trying to tell the story of the men...the visitors are now standing
on the same ground that these men fought on.
Jason T. Boyd (Lincoln Home National Historic Site): I think that a lot of people don't
want to deal with the issues at hand, especially the reasons of the Civil War, the motivations
behind people for why they did the things they did. But that's what we're here for in
my opinion—the National Park Service—is to tell a story, interpret a story, and for
people to be able to get their own judgments, their own evaluations of the things that we
own and we charter. And I think it's important to talk about those things, definitely.
Barbara Sanders (Gettysburg National Military Park): So do I believe that you need to work
in the causes of the war in every program? No. Do I believe that you could, for a few
minutes, hit on that and should? Yeah, I believe it's very possible and that it is important.
Antony Bates (Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail): That's what a lot of people
don't understand, they don't understand what's the reason for it. I believe anytime you go
to war, there's a reason you're going to war. You don't just wake up one day and say, "Wow,
I feel like starting a war today." At least you hope that's not the case (laughs). But
usually there has to be a reason.
Marty A. Smith (Martin Luther King National Historic Site): With the Civil War parks,
sometimes I think we're talking about the war, but we don't talk about the cause. We
kind of like talk about the effects, but we never go into the cause of it and we never
talk about the whole story of it, we just get the little small segment.
Young: When I'm in control and I have the floor, with a group—if I'm giving a lecture,
Atkinson: I think it's not necessarily, "Okay, let's check them off a list, let's make sure
we hit the causes, let's make sure we do an introduction, let's make sure we hit the body
of the program," I think a good interpreter can weave that in.
do a licensed guided tour, they do ranger programs, they go back into the museum—if
in the course of a full visit to Gettysburg they cannot put that battle within the context
of the greater issues, then we've failed.
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How Can We Discuss Causes at Our Civil War Sites?
Boyd: I think a lot of people say "We'll you can't really think about how they thought
back then because it's a different time period." Well, you know, human beings are still human
beings and they all live by patterns in a lot of ways and so, if you see it that way,
maybe they can relate a little bit more to it.
Harman: If you could air the dirty laundry for both sides and not use the slavery issue
as a divisive issue to say that the North is more virtuous than the South, I think Southerners
would buy into that slavery was the primary cause a lot quicker or be more open-minded.
What they are defensive against is a monoclausic [sic] explanation that places all the virtuosity
on one side and all the demonization on the other, when we all know that there's a lot
of blame to go around.
Young: Southerners, a lot of times—I think I can speak to this and I do often to people,
I say "I'm from Alabama, I'm a Southerner, born in Alabama"—that, a lot of times, we're
very contentious people (laughs), we're controversial a lot of times, and no matter how much information
and how much support you give us, we're going to stand our ground.
of people and you're liable to get some arguments if you have some Southern folks on your tour
or your group, and you're trying to teach them the cause of the Civil War was slavery
they're going to argue about it. If you have some Northerners on your group and you try
to teach them that the cause was state's rights, they're going to argue about it. That's why
I said I think they're both right.
Jason Collins (Lincoln Home National Historic Site): I think if you put out those primary
sources and you try to connect those people to the primary sources and say "It's not your
opinion, it's not my opinion, this is Abraham Lincoln's opinion and he's the incoming president,
so I tend to side with what he's going to say." But obviously there are some people,
even when you present that, they're so stuck in their core view of why they think the war
happens, I really think it is hard to try to show them a different point-of-view.
Sanders: Let the people of the time tell the story. Let there be questions in the mind.
I mean, I think of like a good church sermon. If there's a controversy, do you want your
pastor to talk about controversial subjects? Some might, some might not. I think the best
perhaps church sermon would be one where they do take on that tough subject, but you don't
know at the end--there's more questions for you at the end than answers and you don't
know where that pastor personally sits, but they've given you a lot to think about. So
maybe the same is true for interpretive programs, maybe—maybe—the best interpretation comes
when that interpreter has provided you with lots of things to think about and you don't
know, they're letting the people of the time talk and you don't know where he or she personally
sits on that fence.
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