美国国家公共电台 NPR--They're strangers with a painful shared bond: Robert E. Lee enslaved their ancestors

They're strangers with a painful shared bond: Robert E. Lee enslaved their ancestors

Transcript²

ARLINGTON, Va. — There was a one-of-a-kind reunion over the weekend at Arlington House, the national memorial to Robert E. Lee that sits atop a hill in Arlington National Cemetery³. Descendants of the Confederate general gathered with the descendants of the people the Lee family once enslaved on the property in Virginia.

Many of them are seeing one another in person for the first time after meeting virtually for the last two years in pursuit of racial understanding in what's known as the Family Circle.

"I'm on this committee, the Family Circle, to bring back the memories of our ancestors, as well as reconcile with the family that enslaved them," says Cecilia Torres, a retired⁴ teacher from California. She's the great-great-granddaughter of Selina Gray and Thornton Gray.

Selina Gray was the personal house servant to Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Custis Lee, at Arlington House. To show how deep the roots are here — Mrs. Lee inherited the plantation⁵ home, surrounding land, and the enslaved African Americans working there from her father George Washington Parke Custis. He was Martha Washington's grandson.

This is the first time Torres has been back to Arlington House since she was a child. Back then, she says, she got a sanitized take on the family history.

She wouldn't say "a slave"

"My grandmother kept trying to push it on us when she would bring us up here — 'That's your great-great-grandmother's house. She was kind of like a maid to Mrs. Lee,'" Torres recalls. "She wouldn't say a slave."

For decades, there was little public acknowledgment of the enslaved people who cared for Arlington House, but in the last few years the National Park Service has created a more inclusive experience, like restoring the cramped⁶ slave quarters where Selina and Thornton Gray lived with their eight children.

Torres walks inside and asks, "What? How are 10 people going to sleep in here?"

Torres says being here to see this and unite with the Family Circle gives her chills.

"It's spooky in a way, but it's also reassuring," she says. "My great-great grandmother, she took care of this house and cleaned it for years, for like 30 years. So I feel like she's here, and she's glad I'm here too."

The celebration on the grounds of Arlington House on Saturday was called "Finding Our Voice" and drew about a hundred people.

"We are at the first ever reunion of descendants of this space," said emcee Stephen Hammond, a docent, who is a descendant of the enslaved Syphax family.

"To have these families be apart and going their separate ways for 160 years, and then to be able to come back together to start a conversation about our lives and what we can do and accomplish together is extremely powerful," Hammond says.

Honoring the legacy⁷ of the families of the enslaved

He's been working with the National Park Service to honor the legacy of the families enslaved at Arlington House, because he says the house would not have existed without slave labor⁸.

"They built the plantation house. They took care of the fields. ... They took care of the livestock⁹. And they took care of the people," he says. "So their stories are just as important as those stories of the people who enslaved them."

During renovations two years ago the park service helped start the Family Circle dialogue, bringing together descendants of everyone who had a role here.

Among them is Rob Lee.

"I am Gen. Lee's great-great-grandson, and I am Robert E. Lee the Fifth," he says.

Lee and his sister, Tracy Lee Crittenberger, say they were surprised at first that the descendants of the enslaved families wanted to get to know them, but they've found the conversations fruitful.

"Everybody was so gracious and everyone really just looked at, who are you right now? Who is sitting zoom¹⁰ across from me? And we started from there," says Crittenberger. "And then your story is your story. But what your ancestors did doesn't have to necessarily impact who you are."

That's not how we were raised to be

"I think where people would like to paint us as a certain way being General Lee's grandchildren," Lee says. "But that's not how at all we were raised to be."

The siblings¹¹ are eager to see what comes from the Family Circle process.

"If this conversation can become a blueprint¹² for other people, that would be a whole separate victory," says Crittenberger.

The work is being guided by Susan Glisson, a Mississippi historian who has worked for years to help disparate groups reckon with the country's fraught¹³ racial history.

It's happening as some conservative politicians are pushing laws that would restrict frank discussions of race.

"The past doesn't need to be an anchor. It should be a buoy¹⁴. And that's how the circle sees this," Glisson says. "The past is a navigational tool to point us into a better way to be."

Glisson says it's significant that Robert E. Lee, the Confederate figure so revered¹⁵ by some and loathed¹⁶ by others can be the catalyst¹⁷ for this work.

"These families refuse to allow him to be a figure of division and instead take the opportunity to come together and grapple with hard history and find the family tie that exists," she says.

It's about building relationships says Cecilia Torres.

"At the end of the day, we're all friends, we're all able to talk about things that are difficult without fighting or being in our feelings or angry," Torres says.

Some of the newfound relationships have been transforming.

"The generosity¹⁸ coming from the descendants of people who my ancestors hurt so horribly, it feels like an incredible gift," says Sarah Fleming. Her fourth great-grandfather was Robert E. Lee's uncle.

"We all grew up being very excited that we were connected to the Lees," she says. "We also grew up knowing slavery was horrible, but the family didn't talk about the space in between, that the Lees were enslavers."

Providing a forum¹⁹ to explore that space holds promise, says Stephen Hammond, among the organizers of the Family Circle.

"I think this opportunity is presented that allows our country to repair itself and to heal over some of the division that we've had for so long," Hammond says. "So much of the time, we're talking past each other. We're not talking to each other."

The group is pushing to change the official designation of Arlington House to drop Robert E. Lee's name and make it a national historic site that embraces the full history here. It will take an act of Congress.

Lee's direct descendants support the name change.

"I don't feel like we're taking the name away," says Rob Lee. "I think when you call it the Arlington House, you're just opening it up to more of the families who lived there, honestly. And I think it's just more appropriate."

Organizers say they want to see this historic descendant reunion become a yearly celebration.

The gathering²⁰ held special significance for Leah Coleman, an African American park ranger¹ at Arlington House. She came to tears taking in all in.

"Just seeing all of these people come together in this moment, at this site, it just symbolizes²¹ hope for me — hope for our country, because if they can do it, we all can do it," she says.

"It means the world to me."

1 ranger   

n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员

参考例句：

• He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
• He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

4 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

5 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

6 cramped   

a.狭窄的

参考例句：

• The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤，但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
• working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作

7 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

10 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

11 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

12 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

13 fraught   

adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的

参考例句：

• The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions.未来数月将充满重大的决定。
• There's no need to look so fraught!用不着那么愁眉苦脸的！

14 buoy   

n.浮标；救生圈；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The party did little to buoy up her spirits.这次聚会并没有让她振作多少。
• The buoy floated back and forth in the shallow water.这个浮标在浅水里漂来漂去。

15 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句

16 loathed   

v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢

参考例句：

• Baker loathed going to this red-haired young pup for supplies. 面包师傅不喜欢去这个红头发的自负的傻小子那里拿原料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Therefore, above all things else, he loathed his miserable self! 因此，他厌恶不幸的自我尤胜其它！ 来自英汉文学 - 红字

17 catalyst   

n.催化剂，造成变化的人或事

参考例句：

• A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical reaction.催化剂是一种能加速化学反应的物质。
• The workers'demand for better conditions was a catalyst for social change.工人们要求改善工作条件促进了社会变革。

18 generosity   

n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为

参考例句：

• We should match their generosity with our own.我们应该像他们一样慷慨大方。
• We adore them for their generosity.我们钦佩他们的慷慨。

19 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

20 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

21 symbolizes   

v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The use of light and dark symbolizes good and evil. 用光明与黑暗来象征善与恶。
• She likes olive because It'symbolizes peace. 她喜欢橄榄色因为它象征着和平。 来自《简明英汉词典》