Day: October 3, 2021

Fort Sumter and Middleton House

On Sunday we wanted to attend one of the historical churches in Charleston, but I was the only person awake on time for this to happen. Saturday was a big day, and after everyone woke up we packed up and headed over to the visitor center at Fort Sumter. We bought tickets for the ferry over to the fort and waited about an hour for it to come. While we waited the kids played on the dock and collected shells next to it.

Fort Sumter, the site of the first shots of the Civil War.
This national park guide delivered one of the most moving speeches I’ve ever heard. Abe and I were exchanging astonished glances while he talked, and by the end I had tears in my eyes. I can’t do justice to his speech, but he spoke about the enduring power of Fort Sumter as a symbol to people from the Civil War until today.
Ammon enjoyed running all around the fort examining the cannons. I felt sobered by all of the fingerprints of slaves in the bricks.
After Fort Sumter we drove over to the Middleton House plantation. We started off part of a garden tour before heading inside for a house tour. At Middleton House I was struck by how cultured the Middletons were–and at the same time how depraved! Arthur Middleton was a signer of the constitution–and yet he owned a thousand slaves. His son or grandson (I forget which) was an ambassador to Russia for ten years, and he and his family were present at the coronation of a Russian Tsar. Their art collection evidences a family with culture and taste. And yet they owned almost two dozen plantations and a thousand slaves.

To me this means that travel, culture, education, and good taste have nothing to do with a person’s worthiness or character. I am very proud of my ancestors who gave up being slaveholders once they woke up to the realization it was morally indefensible. I hope I can have “eyes to see” areas of my own life in need of moral reform and the self-discipline to make vital changes so that my descendants do not have to be ashamed of me.

After Middleton House Abe and I talked a lot and decided we need to cut out red meat (again) from our diets. It’s not slavery, but it’s also not morally defensible. So here we are, trying–again–to edge toward becoming vegetarian. Here’s hoping we actually do it this time. I know it’s a baby step, but it’s also one of the areas of my life that I can both see and change. There are weaknesses I have that I can see but can not seem to change (like losing my temper, swearing too much, being quick to judgement, occasionally to jealousy, and often to imprudence)– but a lot of my weaknesses are personal. Being overly absorbed in my personal flaws is, ironically, one of my major flaws! It’s its own form of self-centeredness. What I am interested in after reflecting on the plantation are changes I can make to extricate myself from involvement in societal depravities that I might take for granted. Or better yet, I would love to wake up to a way I could actively be involved in improving our current societal issues.

Clarissa gave us a great monologue about how the statue was going to give her powers to be a princess. Videos below:

After Middleton House we ate dinner at a restaurant called The Ordinary. It was delicious, delicious food.

After dinner we drove back to the French Quarter to try to get a carriage tour, but they were sold out. So we got more pralines and drove the four hours home. In the parking lot our rental car’s key battery died, so we set off the alarm and could not get it to stop for what felt like forever. When it finally stopped the entire square cheered. (There is a lot of outdoor and rooftop eating around the square, and our alarm was very, uh, loud.)

Here is what Mary captured in her travel journal about today: