How I Became a Black Reenactor
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- In the coming months I will be sharing what the first few years of reenacting was like.
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I”m a docent for a historic house museum in Fairbanks, Alaska. Folks are stunned when they see me, but that’s because they do not know our history. An Emancipated former enslaved man help found this town, so Black folks have been here since jump. There is a dress code so I wear Edwardian era costumes or a kuspuk - a light summer jacket adapted from local Indigenous people. Being in costume provides a bit of a protective barrier between me and folks who just don’t know how to act when they are just feet away from a Black woman who knows her local history like it’s her job. Which it is.
My mom is from Kake, Alaska but since I've only visited for 3 weeks as a teenager, I have no idea about any real history of the state or its people. Hell, all I know about my tribe is oral history and stories. Now all I want to do is jump down a rabbit hole of learning the written history of Alaska beyond the family stories my mother passed down.
I'm in Anchorage. Which historical home is this? Also, I didn't know Fairbanks was founded by a freed black man.
Speaking of African diaspora history, I was surprised to find out that Oda Nobunaga had an African samurai bodyguard, who was probably from Mozambique and was called Yasuke. I was annoyed that the recent Netflix documentary of the Sengoku period of Japan didn't even mention this. Audiences should have seen a Black samurai during the re-enactments!
@@tacrewgirl Of course because this what they REFUSE to teach our children so that they REMAIN disconnected to anything but in the second.
Thank you for doing what you do. You are amazing!
I am a reenactor in the UK and we are sadly lacking in black reenactors. I love seeing you do this. One of the things I love about re-enactment is that it brings history to life and can be used to teach people about what it was really like. Without black people, we are only telling half the story.
It's a very underrepresented part of reenacting here in the US also.
My little sister would be a great Dido Elizabeth Belle~
You are so right. I’m an American who loves history and I’m ashamed to say that we have been kept in the dark by not learning about other peoples history.
I think there is less interest from the black community, but I'm so glad to see more getting involved.
Hopefully more people will see these videos and there’ll be more interest in reenactments and more diversity. I hope so!
Do you know...I don't ever think I knew the whole story about how you got involved with reenacting! This was so great to hear! 😍 Big hugs my darling! ❤️❤️
Abby Cox I’m just full of surprises. I can’t wait to tell the story of how we met. 😈
As a Jewish, white, Canadian woman, I could never figure out why any Americans would want to re-act the civil war years. Now I understand, they were missing black voices....thank you for removing the dust from my eyes... you are truely, inspiring.
TY, Abby Cox for mentioning your name or I would never have found you.
Binnie Barnacle Same here. I once referred to Civil war re-enactors in disparaging terms and was just skewered. I replied, how would you feel if there were folks in Europe who enjoyed re-enacting WW II? You know, wearing those beautifully tailored Nazi uniforms- wouldn’t that be fun? No! It would not!
@@GiftSparks they do reenactments of ww2, it's called living history. There's a difference between playing a character for a reenactment and endorsing what the people they're playing believed in
@@GiftSparks I’m a Mexican, my step father is white and a civil war re-enactor. It’s living history. I had no idea how brutal some of the battles were, and they did a great job at portraying..
deconsrtuct jwish privilege pls thanks
I'm a member at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. We have a black reenactor named Tony who has ten times more talent than anyone in Hollywood. He's a small man with a giant's voice. To hear him perform the "I have a dream" speech, you would think Dr. Martin Luther King was actually performing it. He portrays many more historic characters in the course of the year. He's accompanied by others that are also very good. At Memorial Day weekend, there's also a contingent of Buffalo Soldiers, who are also great.
I loooooove the energy of "oh, I'll be ready *fan wave*"
Just found your channel and I've been really enjoying it!
Girl you got me all emotional in this video. I have 2 small kids and it is hard to talk about racism and slavery because with covid we have been living in a bubble at home. I hope I do right in raising them to be open minded and open hearted.
I'm sure you will do great :).
I love stories of how people got into reenacting. "I'll be ready" just had me on the floor! Goes along well with "I'll just finish a couple of hems on the ride up to the site." 🤣
I thought all passengers on the way to events were finishing hems! (giggle) I don't think I've ever gone to one where I wasn't just finishing up a sleeve or something.
I wonder if he said that just to motivate you? 😅
I came from Abby Cox’s channel. I’m heavily disabled, so I’m unable to participate in events and re-enactments anymore, but I love living vicariously through others. I’m very much looking forward to learning from you and hearing your perspective. Thank you so much for all you do!
Love this! I hope to see more POC join reenacting to tell the history from as many points of view as possible!!
Totally unrelated to the topic of this video but I love the top you are wearing in this video. The colour is en point
I worked for Constitution Village in Huntsville, AL as a living history reinactor when I was just out of high school. Of the multiple buildings we had at the museum complex, we had two slave quarters. The other historians there would tell it how ever they felt 'comfortable' and often would related to the public that they were 'servant' quarters. This really bothered me as I felt that it was rather smoothing over the truth of history and telling of only one side of the story which seemingly went against the fact we were a 'history' museum. I was torn however, because talking about slavery is always so deeply troubling and controversial especially as a WHITE reinactor giving a tour as the 'lady of the house' to black visitors. We only had one black tour guide that worked with us, a retired high school shop teacher, who I thought the world of and looked up to. Because of this, I worked up my courage to talk to him about my feelings concerning this part of the tour. Should it be a servant or slave quarters? He stopped eating his sandwich and looked me in the eyes and very gently said, "You tell it how it was. You honor the past and the people by acknowledging the truth thus keeping it from ever happening again." So here I was this tiny 19 year old giving tours and telling folks about the slave quarters. I remember one time an all black tour group that came through became very upset when I took then to the slave quarters and at first I panicked and thought, oh no what have I done?! Then I remembered what he said, the importance of the truth and so I repeated, "'We tell it how it was. We honor the past and the people by acknowledging the truth so that this will never happen again...'or be forgotten." There was this silence that was followed by a bombardment of questions which confirmed the necessity of teaching the slave narrative. You know the history of America isn't just the voices of settlers and land owners who conquered this 'wild frontier' and made it their own. No. The American Narrative that has been taught is the voices of the few who prospered, more than not, because of the theft, colonization, genocide, enslavement, imprisonment and forced labor of other peoples. It is of deep importance for white Americans to talk about black history. Why? Because, while African Americans can and need to lay claim to their histories it's necessary for white people to tell this history too and thus acknowledge these trespasses. Speaking the truth makes the history real. It says, I'm ready for an open dialog that acknowledges these injustices and horrors. It speaks from one culture to another 'this happened and it wasn't ok'. Something magic happens when we all sit down and talk. Once that conversation followed something wonderful happened for me that day in the slave quarters. We all 'connected'. Walls came down and we stopped feeling divided because we were on the same page. I no longer felt 'white' in a group of black people. Additionally, I realized that I wasn't the only one who had not been schooled in black history or narrative and had suffered from the 'Lost Cause' education. For someone like me, who values history so very deeply, I realized that many African Americans suffer from lost history. Not just singularly family trees, but literally the whole subject of slavery and post civil war stories because....we don't talk about it. History books, especially educational, continue to be the 'white' narrative. It's time we talk about it. It's time we have this dialog and celebrate the the peoples of America. How can we EVER move forward when we can not even sit down and talk about slavery? How can we begin to talk about slavery if we do not have THAT story at our disposal or are attempting dialog with people educated under this half truth patriotic noble mask of this polished white American we've been fed? Not only do we need to talk about it, but we also need more African Americans celebrating their roots and making the American story as much theirs as the white washed patriotic BS that actively excludes other cultures from the developmental story that is America's history. What you do, is so incredibly important on so very many levels. Thank you for what you do!
OMG. This comment is so powerful. Thank you! ❤ I hope you are still teaching history in some fashion somewhere.❤
I absolutely loved hearing your experiences and how you found your life passion! It shocked me that white supremacists would be there but when I thought about it i guess this is the world they want back so it kind of makes sense in a way? If I ever visit america I hope I get to see you at an event they look so interesting xx
"you won't be ready"
Hahaha, that there is a challenge!
I discovered you due to the sharing of other costuming channels of black costumers/reenactors. I'm a reenactor myself and I have only been around other white people during events.
I can remember the first time I reenacted. It was in April, quite sunny, and I stood there with my plastic bag full of my new linen garments and my one linen peplos (type of garment in the iron age). It was pretty simple - lots of rectangles sewn together. However, I loved the people and I became good friends with them. We have about three archaeologists, so that is extremely handy. One even corrected a museum guide last February. :)
Thank you for everything you do, I love your channel and have loved every single video! ❤️
I remember making my first gown and I had to pin it in the family kitchen because in the house, we had no floor space except for the kitchen. I can commiserate with the space...and driving my parents insane!
Thank you for posting this! I saw you on Rachel Maksy's "Born in the Wrong Era" video and I've been following you on social media ever since. You rock!
I’ve always been drawn to historical homes, etc. When I was a child I would pick out books in the library that were about the clothing and I also visited most of the major Civil War sites. In later years, I found out that one of my 5 great grandparents back was a slave. I would like to do more research and find out more about that ancestor. I’ve narrowed it down to my Grandmothers line. My family has no clue because of course no one would talk about it. It would have been dangerous.
Hey there NotYourMommasHistory,
Im so glad that you got to experience all that and are helping represent history for the public! I've been CW reenacting since 2006, and would never look back with regret for having joined up, and it sounds like you would say much the same. With love from Oregon.
This is so absolutely amazing to hear! I am so very glad you made this video because for one I believe how people get into reenacting can be so fascinating but also for black reenactors I think it is especially good because I really hope that eventually this can possibly reach other people of color to consider reenacting. Your story about packing up and leaving I have to say is absolutely brilliant and that needs to be a thing for reenactments. I am often times disappointed at the total lack of conversation on the topics that truly need to be talked about of those time periods. I am a gay guy and when I was young I wanted to be a G.I. in WW2 reenacting because I wanted to be the good guy and be the hero...as I am sure most 10 year old boys do. But I studied a great deal on the Holocaust because of meeting a survivor, hearing survivors speak and so on I slowly started to learn more and more about those in Germany. When I came out to myself that I was gay, I took interest in the history of gays in World War II and how they were treated. Over time I started doing more with German because I realized there is a need for someone to talk about that history honestly because there are certain types that go to events and want to tell as we all it the "clean Wehrmacht" myth and want to tell a glorified history. As of today I have my own unit starting up with the goal to have a respectful honest conversation about the brutality of the Germans. I also want to start in and have civilian/resistance to have a added aspect. My "characters" are always gay and I hope to tell their stories of survival and how others perished. Heroes like Willem Arondeus that destroyed Dutch records to save Jews and gave his life, soldiers like Han Scholl who died resisting the Nazis at home in Germany by telling the truth about the Nazis and so on. Thank you so much for everything you do Cheyney because you are truly inspirational!
I think you may be a rare example of someone who still loves their first outfit! This was a wonderful to listen to, and I can't wait to hear more about your reenacting journey!
love your natural hair
I thank you for your series on this very important part of our black history. I appreciate your vast knowledge on the various plantations and the real life experiences of our ancestors. God Bless you.
Abby cox directed me to your channel, and I’m so excited to watch more! You seem like a really fun, smart, incredible woman. It’s so important to have black perspectives and experiences in stuff like historical reenactment and fashion communities! Thank you for the work that you do!
What an amazing story! It’s awesome that you were able to inspire conversations about racism and slavery with your reenacting. I love your channel and your instagram, and thank you for using your platform to educate 💖
I am very new to vintage style and I love your videos. I am looking forward to learning more from you. I will be trying some head wrap styles very soon. Thanks you for all your effort in putting these videos together for all of us to enjoy.
Thanks so much for posting this video!
Such a cool video . I met you at that event . I remember you being nervous but wanting to engage in First Person dialogue . I so appreciate your impression ! Be careful hanging around with Marvin, he's trouble :-)
“... analyze how they feel about [being pro-Confederacy] in their modern lives.”
That was so powerful to hear. I cried a little. It’s incredibly frustrating lately, feeling like so many people aren’t just uncritical of the opinions they were raised around but now being *actively* hateful and bigoted in the face of so much evidence. But... those are the loud ones. There must have been others quietly reevaluating their assumptions and actions during the past year. Conversations had between parents and children, those children talking to their peers, those peers being exposed to new ideas even if their parents didn’t have those conversations...
I’m heartened by your story and the wider implications. Thank you so much for sharing.
UA-cam recommended this video i didn’t know i need it but now I’m binge watching love your channel
wow, that's so amazing that you were able to make people reevaluate their views. very powerful. thank you for sharing!
So I'm not big into historical reenactment but I have heard of your channel recently. As soon as you said you felt like you were under a chicken light I subscribed
Thanks for sharing! I love history, so finding new historical dress/reenactment voices is always exciting. I can't wait to watch more!
I am so happy that you didn’t get scared off. Keep up the good work. It’s important to show everyone, black and white, that black history is a part of American history.
I am late in finding your amazing channel but I am so glad I did find it. Thank you so very much for bringing to light the side of history we don't get to learn about.
Thank you so much for your funny and inspiring story! I can totally relate to the stress before events. :D
Thank you for sharing your story. I'm glad that your introduction to reenactment was so positive. 😃
Awesome story, thanks for sharing. I worked as a historical interpreter for the Paul
revere memorial society and that was a fun job! I’d love to get into living history.
This was so fascinating to listen to, thank you.
I'm so excited to hear this side of reenacting! I'm a white girl from Virginia with family history on both sides of the war. I love history, and I want to have as much understanding as I can about the people. People make history, not dates. Thank you for making yourself available to us to learn another way of thinking! It keeps us honest.
This is amazing! I sooo want to see or be in this. I remember going to a reenactment place in West Virginia as a child and looking around for the Black people. This just made my heart happy.
Thank you for sharing! I can't believe I'm only seeing your stuff now, but I am so glad nonetheless.
Love hearing your stories, thank you for sharing! And being brave enough to bring your history to light in well-researched and well-presented ways!
I swear I could watch your channel all day. Soooo good 😭❤
That sounds like an amazing experience and I love that there are POC who love to do these reenactments and share the history. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that first dress! It looks amazing on you!
I loved hearing you describe your first event and the photos made it even more vivid. You have a beautiful voice for retelling experiences and making me feel like I wanted to be there too...delightful video! Thank you!
I'm so glad I found you through Abby's channel. I really enjoy history. My degree is in international relations and one of the things I was taught was to try an understand things from others perspective. I'm Canada and my favorite place to visit in the United States is New Orleans. I love jazz and blues music. We visited oak alley plantation. There was an interpreter but was white and most was done in the big house. We did see the slave quarters and was told something but I would have liked a black interpreter. You have add to my knowledge and I do plan on continue to fallow you. Were I live we are trying to deal with Colonialism and our native population and just what we can do to help to make up for the things they lost and continue to deal with in our society . Thanks again
"the chicken light" I can never call it heat lamp again
Thank you! I would love to hear more of your experiences! You are a treasure, Cheyney.
Oh, man-- first time viewer. When you flashed the photo of your group of reenactors following the "Union Army" out of town, I just suddenly welled-up in tears. What a powerful image, along with your description. Really hit home with me. I'm a white "liberal" and "Yankee" from birth, who mistakenly moved to Georgia from Pennsylvania thirty years ago. We are all going through such an important, and upsetting time. Thank you.
You are amazing! I’m so glad I found your channel.
Loved hearing your story. You are a great storyteller, and I would love to hear more.
This is so cool!!! Glad I found your channel!!! Keep educating people!!!
I'm a frontiersman reenactor in MN/WI. We have events called Rendezvous (in case you're not familiar with it), where we spend a weekend showing people what living was the fur trade was like.
I love it, because I grew up in the country, but the other types look cool to try check, too.
Yay cheyney!! You are such an inspiration. I'm planning to get back into reenacting (and starting to sew historical garments) and you're a large part of why. Representation matters!
Perfect thing to watch on this 4th of July.
Dear NYMH. I am one of your followers and fans and absolutely love your work your vision and your videos. Ive been wanting to be part of a African American - Black Slavery - Negro Abolition - reenactment project event for a long time. I live upstate ny in the Mohawk Valley area where there was a lot of Slavery - Underground Railway activity- Abolitionists. Also Harriet Tubmans home is not very far from where I live. I was invited to exhibit my Harriet Tubman Folkart story Quilt several years ago. There are several historical organizations that have taken a serious interest in putting together many outreach programs and exhibits on the history of slavery and abolition here in this area. Unfortunately the majority of these programs tell these stories from a point of view that not entirely accurate and from a mindset of making it seem that it was not as bad as all of that. They also do not use women and men of color when they have their events. When i was living in NYC I was invited to particiate in a reenactment as a freed slave woman. It was absolutely wonderful. At that time I wanted to continue participating in more of these reenactments but got sidetracted and took another road and began to pursue a career as a self taught folkartist. Once again- they do have reenactments here in upstate but none where people of color can participate. My husband and i live on a small farm with some acreage -22 acres- mostly wooded. We just cleared another acre. It is very very spacious. There are a few turkeys running around in the acreage and the other day my husband said he saw a baby deer. We live in an agricultural hamlet among american farmers who have been farming this hamlet since the 1700s. I am wanting to do some reenacting here on our farm and would luke to speak with you by phone to see if you would be interested in doing a reenactment here on our property. We also have a 19th century old fashioned store we are still renovating and restoring on the property. We have a small extension attached to it. Actually it is a wooden shed that i turned into a small country kitchen. I still have to add 2new wooden doors to it to secure it. The old doors are no good. I love old fashioned early american. I am working on a short story about a Negro slave woman who cooks in the slave kitchen for white Abolitionits who their neighbors are not aware they are secretly hiding these slaves in daylight only to help them eventually get to the next location of white Abolitionists that will help them get to Canada. I am on Facebook. The name of my page is Allens 19th c. General store and folkart Gallery. My email is houseofzion77@gmail.com. We have so many more stories to tell. I would really love to speak with you to see if it would be possible for us to collaborate on a reenactment project here together on our Farm upstate NY. GOD bless you. Denise E. Allen - Self taught Folk Artist.
I'm so glad I've found you through Instagram and now UA-cam! Your smile is just so full of joy when you talk about reenacting and I am so inspired by that!
Love this Cheney!! It's so fun to go down memory lane!
I"m honestly so inspired by the work that her and other reenactors do and would absolutely love to get into reenacting but I'm not sure what age I have to be to do so, and I struggle to find events in my area. I don't really know anyone personally who's involved in reenacting, so I'd love if someone would give me some tips
I don’t know where you live or your age, but if you go to SCA.org there is a tab for local events, put in your zip or postal code and it will give you the community in your area. We are pre-1600’s but it a start.
Thank you for sharing with us! I would love to hear more about your experiences with civil war reenactment events.
I Don’t Know how I found your channel but I love your perspective on things and how you’ve decided to help and educate people.I always wanted to do re-enactments but do don’t really understand my place in it all.
Thank you for being an example
I am a living historian as well and I loved hear about your first event and how you became one as well. Thank you for sharing.
I love this! Thanks so much for your story and for being a reenactor and helping to educate the future leaders of our country.
And you are fabulous at it!
We look to you for accurate facts( as far as possible!), so thank you!❤️🇨🇦
I am absolutely loving your channel! Thank you for you and for sharing all you do about reenactment. Dear lord I miss it.
So, a very different question. I'm not in a position right now where I can support through patreon and I would really like to support you. If you haven't already considered (and obviously chosen not to go that way) would you consider adding commercials to your videos?
Regards from Scandinavia!
Anne Grove yes I will monetize one I qualify at the 10,000 subscriber mark.
Anne Grove I am so glad you enjoy the videos!
@@NotYourMommasHistory I'm glad to hear. I'll share your channel. Hopefully that will give at least few more subscriptions.
Thank you for sharing this. What an amazing story! Loved it ❤️
I just found your channel recently. As a white man, I've been learning more than I learned in all white schools. This career choose you I believe. You're a very endearing story teller. Love your channel. I also never thought how wrong it is to have a wedding at a plantation until your video regarding it.
Just found your channel. But before that, I seen you on one of American duchess seminars posted on you-tube. Too often America history is portrayed one side of culture and not the whole picture of multi-cultures. I've been to a few reenactments here in Indiana , and honestly I don't ever remember seeing black interpreters. The history of black people in American history( or any history in fact) is so very much important part of how this nation had taken shape! We need to hear these stories and I encourage you to continue to tell these stories of their lives. 💖
Hello from Canada! This video made me a patron. Thanks for doing this important work, and with such flair.
So grateful for your videos!
Thanks for your information. I've never thougt about reenacting the closest i come to reeacting is dress for Renaissance fairs. I ive in a small town on the cental Coast in Califorina. It's hard to find things like this.
I am late to the party, and this was amazing! Thank you for doing this work and sharing it with us.
I'm so glad to have found your channel!
I’m so glad I found your channel! I was wondering if you made your own outfits?
You’re incredible. I could sit and listen to you talk for hours.
And I will! Subscribed and sharing! ❤️
you're amazing thank you for all the work you do!
I'm from Australia, and we don't (As far as I know) have much of a reenactment culture here. Far and away my biggest exposure to it has been depictions of "quirky dads" in Hollywood rom coms. While I can definitely understand the interest in an immersive historical experience, I never really understood why there was much of a culture around specifically recreating the American Civil War. Learning about your experience and what you got out of your first event is really eye opening, and fascinating. Thank you for sharing!
I'm that friend who would have purchased you the shoes🤣 Seriously, this is so interesting, thank you for sharing your experience.
Love your story. Would love it if you could share the links for the people you mentioned. Thank you!
This was great! I found your channel thanks to Abby Cox!
This is amazing! I'm multiracial and I worked as a docent at a historical musuem for several years - wish I could get back into it but health has been an issue recently - and this was so inspiring!
This video was fantastic! Thank you for sharing.
I just found your channel, I am binging!!
We are definitely coming for your facts! I love watching your passion. Thank you for this!
What a fascinating start to our hobby you have, thank you for sharing it. I look forward to finding out more!
As an Italian-American with schizophrenia who enjoys libraries as well, thank you. You are beautiful to me.
Thank you so much for sharing your stories. I did civil war reenacting for a bit when I was a teen and I'm realizing how easy it is to make up wrong reasons to excuse events not having Black people involved.
What a great story, I love how life can lead us on these simple and seemingly inocuos events to take us on great adventures. I’m so the all on in kind and would have taken over the living room with you! 🤗
Ok, I’m a Puerto Rican medieval re-enact or in the SCA located in NY. One of the best seamstresses and former queen I know is a woman of color. There is a great book called Black Tudors. We would love to see you at our events. I love meeting new people
I am very proud of you. I used to do reenactments but had to stop due to issues in my life. I did portray a woman from the south but it would have been nice to have seen this. I tried to get my cousin into it but as a black woman she was nervous to do so. I give you two thumbs up.
Thank you for sharing your story! You are such an inspiration.
Amazing story!! I was moved by how much of an influence you had on other attendees.
In Boston there are some black re-enactors that do tours(Freedom Trail, but focusing on African American side of things) if you haven't visited already it might be of interest :)
Just found you (Thank you, Abby Cox!) and I adore your energy! I look forward to seeing more videos from you!
Thank you for this video! It was fascinating !
I love your work! I found you on instagram yeeears ago and must have followed you on here....but youtube never suggested your videos to me... Anyway, thank you so much for everything you do, I will be signing up to your patreon
Love this! I’ve been toying with seeking out different types of historical re-enactment. I’ve attended lots of Renaissance festivals (I know- totally NOT the same thing). Last time I was at a ren fest I suddenly realized how white it felt and it made me sad. This time period of beautiful architecture and clothing that I love is full of painful and ugly experiences that made it into the time period it was. Thank you thank you thank you for all that you do.
Love watching your videos. 😊
I always love your story times.