The 75-year anniversary of the publication of “Gone With the Wind” coincides this year with the 150-year anniversary of the start of the Civil War.
While Atlantans are celebrating the literary phenomenon with dress up and trivia contests that idealize a mythical South, the city is missing the opportunity that the sesquicentennial of the Civil War offers for community-wide examination of an entrenched and brutal slave-based economy that was completely upended over four years of war.
As a middle school teacher from Covington, I had the chance to attend a Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History seminar in Richmond. This weeklong experience in the former capital of the Confederacy has brought into sharp contrast the nostalgia associated with Margaret Mitchell’s popular version of the Civil War and contemporary historians’ understanding of this epic period in American history.
Like Atlanta with its most famous literary work, Richmond is home to celebrated memorials to the Lost Cause. A drive along Richmond’s Monument Boulevard reveals not only some of the city’s most striking homes but also the most prominent reminders of the city’s pride in its Confederate past.
At the same time, however, Richmond is using the sesquicentennial to tell the story of the Civil War through a variety of voices and venues.
As Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones explains, the city is encouraging the telling of multiple stories from multiple voices and the result has been a step toward reconciliation through the validation of the experiences of a diverse population.
Richmond also is capitalizing on the energy and interest in the Civil War to fund a variety of building projects that will educate visitors as well as residents about Virginia’s role in the Civil War and the city’s history as a premier market for slave labor throughout the cotton-based South.
An example of the city’s commitment to unveiling its past is the recent archaeological work done on the site of Lumpkin’s Jail in Richmond’s Historic Shockoe Bottom. Known as “the Devil’s Half Acre,” the site served as the holding pen, punishment and “breaking” center for more than 300,000 slaves and was the largest antebellum slave trade site outside of New Orleans.
Richmond’s city leaders, community activists and area historians are working together to find meaningful ways to mark the anniversary of what may be our country’s most significant historical event.
Meanwhile, Atlantans are confronted with the challenge of dual commemorations.
A measure of the city’s growth as a metropolitan area in the 21st century will be moving beyond the hoop skirts and images of Tara to a historically accurate and dynamic conversation on the broader themes and significance of the war.
The 75th and 150th anniversaries of the release of the movie version of “Gone With the Wind” and Sherman’s renowned March to the Sea, respectively, will occur in 2014. As these anniversaries approach, Atlantans should study the model of the Confederacy’s former capital and set the stage for authentic conversations and actions that will appropriately commemorate the events that led to freedom for 4,000,000 enslaved Americans, the Civil War’s most important legacy.
Sara Vinson teaches seventh- and eighth-grade social studies and language arts in Newton County.
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