Write a 3-4 page paper in which you will offer guidance to the Fredericksburg Area Museum on how to exhibit and interpret the “slave auction block” in light of
everything you have learned this semester. Writing this will require three separate steps, so I suggest that you get started the week before Thanksgiving if
possible.
Read Some Background
The “Slaved Auction Block” was embedded in the sidewalk at the corner of Charles and William Streets in downtown Fredericksburg from sometime in the
antebellum period until it was removed in 2020. In in the wake of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017, the City of Fredericksburg began a
community-based process to study the removal of the block. It was ultimately removed in summer of 2020 and transferred to the Fredericksburg Area
Museum. Please start by carefully reading and watching the videos on this City website
(Links to an external site.)
about the removal of the block. Please also read this Free Lance-Star article
Download this Free Lance-Star article
about the current state of the block in the Museum.
Visit the Museum
Next, you should visit the Fredericksburg Area Museum to see the block in its current state, to check out the temporary interpretive materials that they’ve
generated, and to see the broader context in which it sits. I’ve canceled class the week of Thanksgiving to give you some room in your schedule to visit FAM,
although you certainly don’t have to go then. You can find more information about visiting FAM on their website
(Links to an external site.)
.
You can walk to FAM if you’re so inclined; it’s a straight shot down William Street from campus, and the walk is about ¾ of a mile from the edge of campus. If
you walk, be sure to pause on the corner of William and Charles to read the marker where the block used to be. If walking isn’t your thing, you can catch the
Fred bus
(Links to an external site.)
at the stop on Double Drive. Route F5 (Downtown Loop) will take you to the Museum; or on weekends, you can take the Eagle Express. The Fred bus is free
with your UMW ID.
If getting to FAM poses an accessibility issue for you, let me know and we can work out an alternative means of completing the project.
Write the Report
Museums use objects to help them tell stories, and FAM is currently studying how best to display and interpret the block. For your take-home final, you will
write a 3-4 page paper making recommendations to FAM about how you think they should integrate the block into their permanent exhibit, based on what you
learned in class this semester.
One part of your paper should focus on interpretation. Why does the block belong in a museum narrating United States, Virginia, and Fredericksburg history?
What contextualizing information should be included, both about our historical period (the 17th-19th centuries) and the 21st century, to help visitors
understand its significance? You might want to consider different perspectives, particular events, specific historical persons and their experiences, additional
visual materials that might effectively accompany the block, etc.
While an artifact may be significant, the history it evokes can be painful or traumatic for some of the people who encounter it, and so your paper should also
consider how the block is displayed. Why have some members of the Fredericksburg community objected to the block’s former location and supported its
relocation? Are there any downsides of removing the block from its former location? Should something replace it, and if so, what? As for the block itself,
where should it be placed within the museum, and how would you display it? Among the factors you might consider are its visibility and its position relative to
other exhibits, entrances, and main thoroughfares. How would your approach balance the need to preserve and share this history with a sensitivity to those
whom it might upset?
When you make references to specific readings or primary sources from the course, please be sure to cite them. Feel free to include images or renders of
proposed exhibit designs if you feel so inclined.