Reactions to Silencing the Past

Out of all of Trouillot’s examples of ways in which silences entered into historical production, I found the most interesting to be the way in which the West had to adapt their conceptions of the Haitian Revolution as it was occurring, unable to anticipate it, due to the “ready-made categories” (73) that comprised their worldview.  Coming into the book, I had a vague sense of the epistemological issues Trouillot was addressing, but this example really struck me.  I always thought of the “cover-ups” of history as having been conscientiously swept under the rug by people like Ardouin who do not want to deal with “inconveniences” (69) in their narrative.  However, to think that those who have the most power in the production of sources, archives, and narratives could have certain “blind-spots” in their worldview makes the depths of the silences that Trouillot addresses seem truly bottomless.   I would, however, contest his suggestion that “the history of America is being written in the same world where few little boys want to be Indians” (22).  Perhaps I did not understand his point clearly, but I believe that many young boys nowadays grow up wanting to be Indians.  Trouillot addresses the fact “history is also produced outside of academia” (21) as Townsend does, but takes it even further beyond the creation of history in schools and archives.  He addresses that even tourist sites, Hollywood, and Disney play a part in the creation of history. And yes, while Disney’s idea to install a park in northern Virginia with a slavery attraction is absurd, I wonder if there has been a shift in the viewpoints of young children towards Native Americans from the time when they were watching John Wayne movies to when they began watching Disney movies.