Chapter 11: Local People Speak of Slavery Black and White Views
on Addressing Slavery Slavery initially met little support as an
interpretive topic, although individual interest in interpreting
it varied somewhat with age and social features, such as
ethnicity and kinship, business, or labor relationship to the
Hertzogs’. Several older blacks – former Magnolia tenants – and
whites, appeared uncomfortable even discussing the possibility
of considering slavery. They avoided eye contact with Crespi,
for example, and hesitantly addressed the topic. The two local
interviewers themselves objected to raising the topic. Nearly
everyone’s immediate response was that slavery was an
unacceptable interpretive topic. Some whites were concerned with
how outsiders, including visitors from other regions and with
other views, would perceive local people and cultures if slavery
was discussed. Some elderly black former tenants, who found
discussions of slavery untenable, commented that managers and
their treatments of the labor