The Hampton Project Analysis

After one hundred and fifty year, since the abolishing of slavery, for scholars there is yet still a lot to be discovered, about the impact it has on today’s African American communities. Moreover, to many, more than two hundred years of slavery in America, is way too long for its remnant to be completely faded away, or can be considered only a “history”. While dedicating an anthropological scholarly work in a subject that is related to a historical event, may did not raise the ethical dilemma in regard the nature of the relationship, and the dynamic of power between the researcher and the researched. However, there is still the issue of dynamic of power, which this paper tries to examine and illustrate some of its form within such subject.
Cheryl LaRoche in the Hampton project, which is basically an attempt to compile the names of the slaves on the Hampton plantation and the Northampton ironworks, which both were owned by the Ridgely family for generations. The project collects the names of hundreds of slaves, from the end of the eighteenth century, till the the abolishment of slavery in 1865. And eventually, tracing and finding their successor who may still live today in and around Baltimore county. Since the beginning of my work in the project, I worked on sorting and editing lists of names of slaves who at some point worked or owned by Ridgely’s. Among the many documents I had to go through to find names and information of birth, place of work, escape, date of manumission, where all documents from the masters which includes bills, gift lists, clothing lists, taxes ..etc. With this in mind, many slaves were denied access to education, except for learning the craft they were asked to do, whither it was; ironwork, farming, or serving at the house (Bullock, 10). Or else, they were taught the faith of their masters. James Dane, a freed man, talking about the education he received, in the plantation he used to work in: “No one was taught to read, We were taught the Lord’s Prayers and catechism” (Maryland, 5,
Moreover, Sarah Howard believes that her grandfather silence is due his feel of shame from the fact that he was an illegitimate child (Brown was a son to … Ridgely, by one of his slave). Richard Follett in the book The Problem of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation discussed what he call the “inheritance ideology”, which is his opinion restricted the freedom of many emancipated African American in the nineteenth century (Follett, 50). And even though freedpeople tries to maintain an individual, whole identity as citizens, usually the white master holds the position of superiority towards those whom once were their slaves. In the case of Charles Hall Brown, according to his granddaughter he was bounded to the Ridgelys in so many ways. First, though Charles Brown tried to leave Baltimore, he had to turn back, and ask for legal papers for his manumission, as he was afraid to as an escapee, then never left again. Secondly, Charles Brown worked in Baltimore Club as a doorman after his manumission, where hi frequently encountered many members of the Ridgely family (Oral). Whilst, Sarah Howard did not, or could not talk about her grandfather feelings towards his life as a slave, Ivan Schulman in the introduction he wrote for Autobiography of a Slave by Juan Francisco Manzano, a freed man