COMMUNITY
Your Education
EMPATHY IN LEARNING “STORIES OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM” BY PAIGE ATWELL
Belle Meade Plantation has always valued the importance of telling a story while educating visitors in the process. With slavery being such a big part of their history, the Belle Meade Education Department has had a specific field trip that focused on the topic for almost twenty years. But in 2018, their staff underwent an in-depth training regarding the ethical development of programs and tours concerning slavery and African American history that inspired a complete overhaul of their programs. “This training encouraged us to launch a new tour for adults that summer called ‘Journey to Jubilee,’” explained Rachel Gibson, vice president of operations and director of education of Belle Meade. “This tour was developed to give visitors a deeper understanding of the harshness, the realities and the nuances of the system of slavery. Likewise, I was encouraged by this training to completely overhaul the field trip concerning slavery that we offered at the time. So that summer, my staff and I retired our former field trip on the subject and developed the ‘Stories of Slavery and Freedom’ tour for school groups.” The “Stories of Slavery and Freedom” tour revolves around the experiences of Millie and Monroe, two children who labored at Belle Meade in the years surrounding the Civil War. Families
“This way of intentionally looking at a historical moment from the perspective of the person who lived it is a very powerful way to teach and learn about difficult history, like slavery.” 66 SEPTEMBER 2020