Join living historian Cheyney McKnight as she brings history to life in fun and interesting ways. Q&A videos, historic recipes, reproduction reviews, advice, historic crafts for children, book reviews, clothing reproduction and much more.
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Slavery and “enslaving” people has been an institution as old as mankind. It’s been practiced intensely on the Eurasian-African -American continents, and for millennia nobody thought it to be a bad thing, not even abnormal. It’s been practiced against an enemy people or country, but even against a tribe of the same people, just because “anyway, they live on the other side of the river”, or whatever the reason. People from any social class or position, even royalty, could suddenly suffer an attack from an enemy side and find themselves taken to be gifted or sold on the slave market, unable to ever see or even hear of their family. For millennia NOBODY questioned it. It is a Huge thing we are now talking about and feel abhorred by it. This shows that mankind has evolved, no matter what some might say.
@NotYourMommasHistory - I am seething. It is BS that the securirty lady was so astonished that this happened in such a situation, disseminating this kind of historical knowledge.The experiences you are telling us about here makes my blood boil. Certainly in order to carry out the job you do, a MINIMUM would have to be being granted the authority to turn away visitors and tell them to get off the damn premises if they are harassing you. But you also need the support of your employer, because exactly, we freeze, we get overwhelmed when people are violent and abusive. If your employer do not support you, if they do not realise the CHARITY of you reenacting these things and do not very very actively protect and defend you from abuse, they do not deserve you - they deserve a meeting with a union representative, if you have one (as a European, I know that this is not a given in the US, but one can hope). A way of making it safer for people reenacting the history of enslaving, would be to have a security person present at all times. It could quite easily be argued that this security person would double as audience and witness, facilitating actual healing, and underlining the absolute painful and inhumane artificiality of the interactions that the enslaver/enslaved social structure was composed of, by having the gaze of the present be, well, present. Anyway. Just a thought, and I see that this video is from 2018, but just... as a person within the same field, I simply had to speak up. It is evident how distraught and affected you are in that video, and I compliment your courage and vulnerability. I am glad to see that you are still active doing reenactment. It is such an important tool of learning and dissemination, and the subject of slavery and post-slavery history and its impact, needs so badly to be taught to as many as possible. I am a woman in Scandinavia, trained as an archaeologist and did my share of dissemination in museum and reenactment contexts... I do not know if I would be able to stomach reenacting this subject. But then, I have had other weird and creepy experiences, particularly when Vikings were involved... man did I hate doing reeneactment work about Vikings o.0 the romanticising, the thin varnish of an excuse for people to act chauvinist and sexist... eurgh. A large reason why I left museums and reenactment behind is that. I wrote theory papers on the responsibility of museums, historians and archaeologists in relation to political agendas, and sure, I got a good grade, but in practice, out there in the museums? No dice. Not taken seriously at all. Vikings sell, we were told. No interest in why that is, and who pays the price elsewhere. The WS focussed abuse, colonisation and weaponising of history, is a real and too ignored problem, it has real consequences for reenactors, and you are DEFINITELY not making this up or imagining something that is not there. All this to say: Please please please, always put your self care first, and thank you for the important work you do in sharing these historical facts. I admire your dedication and am glad to see you are still around, and seem to be thriving.
Argh. Just. Just argh. ...also, I can see where Offred's attire in Handmaiden's Tale comes from. Thank you for so frankly and candidly and calmly presenting the facts. They stand by themselves.
What a great presentation you did with decency and grace. You shared the information in a manner that was informative and without making it angry or venomous.
The number of lives spent enslaved, their whole lives spent serving others, with no hope of a better life for them or their descendants...the scale of suffering is incomprehensible.
racism is so ugly the devil and the demons only want to steal kill and destroy But God created all of us and He loves all of us and He is the Absolute Best 😊❤
Hi! Thanks for your video. I found the birrh certificate of my 5ª generation black grandmother, and I felt so sad. In that certificate it was wroten: “Inacia, daughter of the slave so-and-so. His godmother is Our Lady.” No one went to baptize her. Hard times.
It still exist today. The only difference is it’s modern day slavery. Live in home health aides get paid for it but have to be at work 24/7 called day & night. Still slaves but modern day
why can't people compliment someone without having to use racial stereotypes? like wtf also, in another note, glad to see another video! We need so much more
I know this vid is over a year old, but I just started getting into wet plate. In this overcast scenario, how long did she have to stay still to get proper exposure? I've been weary of taking photos of people without harsh light because of too much movement.
You’ve made a claim that slaves were desired to know how to read, that is very incorrect. Slaves were not taught how to read. It was against the law to teach a slave how to read.
Enslaver, owner who cares WTF is the difference. Owning people is just a sign of sucess and prestige. Nothing wrong with it! I have been owned and have owned. Just a matter of capitalism.
This actually makes WP look infantilized and incompetent. Funny. It seems the only thing they are good at doing is using others, harming others, lying to others, stealing from others. So on and so forth. Happy af i wasnt alive then.
I’m late to this video, but huge kudos to these actors/reenactors for their detailed, evocative performance work in what must be a grueling headspace to be in sometimes, especially if you’re Black. This is an amazing performance on an acting level, not to mention the context of working as an educator to the public, which is itself a whole other workload of emotional and intellectual labor. Thank y’all for taking the time and effort to put this together and share a truer, realer history. ❤
Omg the corsalette !! What brand is that?!?! I'm currently working with a collection of deadstock from a historical corset building and they manufactured for Sears, penny's etc and that looks just like it m all that I have are smaller sizes. I'm in tears over these foundation garments
As a fat person that loves vintage style and struggles to find clothing . I love seeing this . I truly hope one day I will find some authetic 40s vintage 8n my size
I really like the emphasis on Elizabeth never getting her hands "physically" dirty. We know what you're saying, and the way you say it with so few words is masterful.
I so deeply appreciate thses videos, thank you for making these and bringing to life the lives and daily experiences of enslaved people in America. I'm from Virginia, and while I've absorbed a lot of this information through suggestion, seeing it all laid out like this is so striking and important. I genuinely think this series is set to change the world, where these stories are, in my experience, solely told from a white perspective or softened to spare feelings of white guilt. Thank you for putting this into the world, hard as it must be to stomach the content, your perspective is invaluable.
It’s insane to me that enslaved maids were made to engage in conversations like they were friends with the enslavers. “You talk to me like a regular person while I don’t treat you like one” is just such deep physiological brainwashing. Keeping a fresh mind in that environment was absolute hell.
