Ancestors of Worthy Life - (Cultural Heritage Studies) by Teresa S Moyer (Paperback)

About the Book

This book presents a rich and contextualized study of the inextricably entangled lives of the enslaved, free Black people, and white landowners at the historic site of Mount Clare.

Book Synopsis

Recognizing the lives of the enslaved at the historic site of Mount Clare

Enslaved African Americans helped transform the United States economy, culture, and history. Yet these individuals' identities, activities, and sometimes their very existence are often all but expunged from historically preserved plantations and house museums. Reluctant to show and interpret the homes and lives of the enslaved, many sites have never shared the stories of the African Americans who once lived and worked on their land. One such site is Mount Clare near Baltimore, Maryland, where Teresa Moyer pulls no punches in her critique of racism in historic preservation.

In her balanced discussion, Moyer examines the inextricably entangled lives of the enslaved, free Black people, and white landowners. Her work draws on evidence from archaeology, history, geology, and other fields to explore the ways that white privilege continues to obscure the contributions of Black people at Mount Clare. She demonstrates that a landscape's post-emancipation history can make a powerful statement about Black heritage. Ultimately she argues that the inclusion of enslaved persons in the history of these sites would honor these "ancestors of worthy life," make the social good of public history available to African Americans, and address systemic racism in America.



Publication of the paperback edition made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Review Quotes

"Teresa
Moyer's book serves as an important bridge between the work of history,
archaeology and modern activism: it gives a structure of how to begin to change
the telling of the past."--Anthropology Book Forum

"Moyer's
case study of the historic house museum of Mount Clare plantation is a boldly
put, compelling call to action that embeds in its traditional site
interpretation a more fully developed narrative of its black enslaved occupants.
Her premise is that access to black heritage within the context of plantation life
and its aftermath is a social right."--Journal of American History

"In
addition to being a well-defined case study, this volume has wide implications
for the field of public history. Moyer does a fine job situating the history of
Mount Clare within larger historical contexts, and, most importantly, shining a
light on the social justice imperative of sharing more inclusive historical
narratives."--Public Historian

"This
valuable book joins . . . other works calling for a more inclusive and just
tackling of race at American historic sites."--Journal of Southern History

"In
this well researched and pointedly critical book, Teresa S. Moyer has brought
into view a failure that affects many museums, particularly those of the
Southern United States, but also anywhere that slavery was part of America's
economic base."--Museum Anthropology Review

"A
moving and meticulous black history at Mount Clare, and a thorough and
convincing analysis of the role of power in the production of history."--American
Anthropologist

About the Author

Teresa S. Moyer is an archaeologist with the National Park Service and coauthor of The Making of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: A Devil, Two Rivers, and a Dream.