A Cultural Experience

Fort Monroe National Monument

(Photos by Mark) Historians study and script about cause and effect, consequences intended or not. One amazing value instilled in our National Park Service (NPS) is to research and interpret all aspects of an event(s) – to shine an unbiased perspective of light on the pride, and the scars, of our national identity.

Just look at the remarkable diversity of historic sites within the NPS. Some 60 national park areas tell the legacy chapters of Black America and Black Americans. Recently, I went on a nice camping road trip to one of these 60 sites located here in Virginia.

After the War of 1812, the United States developed a new defensive strategy by constructing an improved generation of waterfront defenses. Fort Monroe at Old Point Comfort (today’s Hampton), at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, is the largest stone fort ever constructed in the United States. Named after President Monroe, it took 15 years to complete. 

Its exterior granite walls are 10-feet thick with enhanced vaulted chambers and arches for formidable strength, and its strategic perimeter is 1.3 miles in circumference surrounded by a moat. Under supervision, in part by U.S. Army Lt. Robert E. Lee, enslaved made up most of the workforce during the first several years of hard labor construction.

On May 22, 1861, a curmudgeon of sorts, Union General Benjamin Butler was in charge of Fort Monroe. Three slaves ran away from Hampton and asked for asylum at the fort. Two days later their “owner,” a Confederate Colonel, demanded their return. Butler’s answer changed American history. In essence, since Virginia voted to secede, the Fugitive Slave Act no longer applied. Butler declared the three men “contraband” of war, and said “no!” Once word got out, thousands came to the safety of its massive walls – a first step towards making the Civil War about freedom. 

Fort Monroe remained a Union stronghold deep in enemy territory. Another interesting “twist of fate:” during the Civil War, the famous Underground Railroad Conductor Harriet Tubman spent some time at Fort Monroe; so did Jefferson Davis, but his time was in a prison cell after the War.

But this Virginia peninsula has a more profound history beyond military defense and powerful walls. For this is the spot, where (on August 25th) just over 400 years ago, the first kidnapped Africans were brought to the English Colonies. In 1619, Virginia Secretary John Rolfe listed in a log that "20 and odd Negroes" were traded for supplies. Human cargo that marked the beginning of 246 years of slavery in the United States. 

As another fascinating arc in the history of this place, in 2011, Fort Monroe was designated a National Monument by the first elected black president, Barack Obama. 

Just a couple months ago, Forbes Magazine reported that the administration has ordered a new sign be posted in every national park area with chilling language asking visitors to snitch on the NPS by reporting “any signs or other information that are negative about either the past or living Americans …” 

According to the National Parks Conservation President, “Across the country, new signs are going up encouraging people to report rangers and placards that discuss so-called negative information about America. The signs are asking people to contradict crucial scientific and historical facts that have been vetted for accuracy by experts at the National Park Service. These signs are the latest in a long line of disturbing administration efforts to rewrite American history and undermine the Park Service. Forcing rangers to post these signs is an outrage and shows deep contempt for their work to preserve and tell all American stories.”

Some 60 NPS sites tell stories of slavery; others interpret Japanese-American internment camps, forced Tribal relocations with death along the way, women’s rights, discrimination, and civil rights. Our country’s history is sometimes complex and at times uncomplimentary. One news outlet reported that “It is hard to imagine how these stories could be told if everything is required to have a big beautiful spin. But that’s the point.”

From a recent round table news discussion, guest Theresa Pierno (formally with the National Parks Conservation Association) remarked: “Well, I think as most people understand, our national parks are really the place that preserves our history. And national park rangers are the most beloved and important storytellers in this nation. And so to erase and to even think about [erasing] history and erasing these stories or changing how you tell them, so that they no longer are actually factual or follow what the history has told us, is just unfathomable. Where do you go to learn about those things? It's our national park sites. And so we have to protect them.”

 General Butler, the “contraband three,” Harriet Tubman, and former President Obama might agree.

"Contraband" of War

Algernourne Oak "Witness Tree" in Ft. Monroe

Department of Interior Memo to National Parks Area