The Moral Dilemma of How to Document and Archive my Black Family's Land History in the U.S. South
Topics: Black Geographies
, American South
, Historical Geography
Keywords: Black geographies, Black ecologies, agriculture, farming, death, afterlife
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 59
Authors:
Priscilla McCutcheon, University of Kentucky
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Abstract
In this talk, I wrestle with the moral and ethical question of how to document my family’s land history in South Carolina. My 90-year-old grandfather is the holder of much of our family’s land memory and desires to have the history documented. However, I am deeply concerned with the afterlife of his words and where they will be archived. Place matters and having a physical space to honor his words and memory of the land are important. In this talk, I tease out some of the possibilities of how we might honor his words and memory in the afterlife. First, I discuss why a physical resting place for his words about the land matter so much. While digital archives have longevity, they do not seem adequate given his commitment to the physical space of the farm. As someone who has had his final resting place planned for over sixty years, the land, and the soil matter. Second, I detail my own discomfort in even documenting the words without knowing where their final resting place will be. Third, I spend time considering the above tensions within a Black ecologies framework where the environmental injustices and catastrophes that my grandfather and other Black farmers historically and presently experience is coupled with “insurgent knowledge” (Roane and Hosbey 2019) produced by him, our family and community. Simply, we have a unique opportunity to determine where his words and experiences will live in eternity.
The Moral Dilemma of How to Document and Archive my Black Family's Land History in the U.S. South
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
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