Hi,
I know that there was a message posted several months back on the Georgia-L
asking why the 1850 Decatur Co., GA census was transcribed with only the
"White people" and why the "Blacks" were excluded. In the message it
basically accused the transcriber of being racist because the blacks were
not listed.
I had transcribed it. I did not response to the message, thankfully someone
else did. If I had responded I don't know if I could have written in a
polite manner.
This is just 1 example of the type of emails that I have seen or have
gotten.
I think that this 1 is an example of someone that was new to doing research
and how little they knew about census records and slaves schedules. Plus,
maybe they didn't stop and think that in the South in 1850 almost all blacks
were slaves, goes back to not knowing.
I am still transcribing records. I am still typing them exactly as they are
written. I will not change the words. I believe that changing the words
the meaning is some how changed. <Watch out political talk coming.><bg>
I also believe that we as a country, a nation, and society can't afford to
change the words such as: Negro to black/African American or colored to
black/African American, because it hides what happened. We must all
remember what happened and how African Americans were treated in order to
overcome and prevent anything similar from happening again. We should not
hide our history but be willing to learn from it.
Now when I get messages that have this type of content in them, I email the
person back and let them know that I am transcribing the records exactly as
they appear. That I am doing this because I won't change them, and because
we must remember how African Americans were treated so that we will
remember, learn from it as a nation, and to prevent anything like that
happening again. <I even have a draft message for that purpose and copy
and paste the message over>
Every message that I have responded to with this information has always been
responded to with basically this thought "Put like that I completely
understand and agree!"
Enough of my soapbox.
Have a good weekend and happy hunting.
Denise Smiley
Decatur Co., GAGenWeb CC
Grady Co., GAGenWeb CC
GAGenWeb Unknown Queries CC
SW GAGenWeb Regional CC
----- Original Message -----
From: <Gregwain(a)aol.com>
To: <GAGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Friday, April 30, 1999 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: [GAGEN-L] African-American Research complaints
In a message dated 4/30/99 1:19:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
Grmargie(a)aol.com
writes:
<< Subj: Re: [GAGEN-L] African-American Research complaints
Date: 4/30/99 1:19:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Grmargie(a)aol.com
To: GAGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com
In a message dated 99-04-20 11:31:28 EDT, you write:
<< I point out that I am providing a record for research, not to be
politically
correct or to rewrite history. To my mind, substituting other words, or
otherwise changing the record serves further to point out the silliness
of
the PC crowd. >>
I also transcribed info and got such negative responses that I no longer
post
or transcribe these records. I instead will direct the person to where
the
records are and invite them to do the transcribing and the advise
them
where
they may submit the info to be posted. I personally think all the
info
should go to one place the African American. The info is so hard to come
by
that a central clearing house, in my humble opinion is where it
should
all
go. It could then be listed by name and easier to research.
Get this I transcribed a very old census and tax report for Putnam when
slaves were not listed and just in the past few weeks received a real
nasty
email about the reports with accusations of being bigoted, biased
and
wanted
to know if I was getting government money for the site.
Putnam is not my site, I just transcribed the info while I was
researching
my
family there. I politely wrote back and said that I was a volunteer that
took the time to gather the info for all and that it would be to the
writer's
advantage to also take the time to transcribe the information they were
looking and that way other researchers would benefit from it.
Can't win for losing it seems on this issue.
Margie
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What kind of complaints are people getting? I don't guess I understand
what
there is to complain about. How is someone "bigoted" or
"biased" by
transcribing public records? It seems to me that "facts are facts".
Thanks,
Greg Wainright
County Coordinator - Charlton and Wayne Counties
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