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    Upon the Ruins of Liberty
    Slavery, the President's House at Independence National Historical Park, and Public Memory

    Roger C Aden (Author)

    9781439911990

    Hardback, published 19 December 2014

    264 pages
    22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.666 kg

    Aden's is one of the best book-length case studies I have seen on contested sites like the president's house. --Ken Foote

    The 2002 revelation that George Washington kept slaves in his executive mansion at Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park in the 1790s prompted an eight-year controversy about the role of slavery in America's commemorative landscape. When the President's House installation opened in 2010, it became the first federal property to feature a slave memorial.
     
    In Upon the Ruins of Liberty, Roger Aden offers a compelling account that explores the development of this important historic site and how history, space, and public memory intersected with contemporary racial politics. Aden constructs this engrossing tale by drawing on archival material and interviews with principal figures in the controversy-including historian Ed Lawler, site activist Michael Coard, and site designer Emanuel Kelly.
     
    Upon the Ruins of Liberty chronicles the politically-charged efforts to create a fitting tribute to the place where George Washington (and later, John Adams) shaped the presidency while denying freedom to the nine enslaved Africans in his household. From design to execution, the plans prompted advocates to embrace stories informed by race, and address difficulties that included how to handle the results of the site excavation. As such, this landmark project raised concerns and provided lessons about the role of public memory and how places are made to shape the nation's identity.

    Preface
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    />1 Discovering the Truth: The Revelation of Ugly History
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    />2 Re-collecting the Past: The Complexity of Public Memory
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    />3 Displacing the Inconvenient: The Incomplete Story of Liberty
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    />4 Honoring the Ancestors: The Quest for Acknowledgment
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    />5 Shaping the Place: The Design Competition
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    />6 Revealing the Foundations: The Excavation of the Site
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    />7 Telling the Stories: The Opening of the Installation
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    />8 Continuing the Conversation: The Legacy of the President’
    s House
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    />Acknowledgments
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    />Notes
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    />Index
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