HISTORICAL INVISIBILITY AND ETHNIC STUDIES

Introduction

Most sociology of race and ethnic studies is macrosociological in nature, abstract structural analyses which assess intergroup dynamics within the framework of historical currents, economic realities and political imperatives and nomothetic rather than idiographic (Weber). What is largely absent from the treatments of these issues is the human drama. We have relied upon fictional literature, novels, etc., to flesh out the characters of history. And, as valuable as these sources may be, they are, still fictional. Historian, Anne F. Scott (1984), has characterized this shortcoming in historical analysis as "historical invisibility."

Most ordinary people (and, from the point of view of written history, that is 99.9% of the people who have ever lived), do not leave behind a documented record of their existence. Consequently, according to Scott, such people are viewed as the "objects of history" rather than the "subjects of history."

Historical View of Historical Invisibility

The idiographic view of history has offered no solution to the problem identified here. It is synonymous with the "great man theory" of history which assumes that history is the product of extraordinary behavior of extraordinary people -- "prime movers" in the unfolding of historical events. The above phrase "great man" theory, while generally used in a generic sense, does also reflect the assumption that most important personages in history have been males. From the view taken here, this fact is not a matter of comparative historical value, of the value of one's contribution to history - rather it reflects the historical invisibility of women.

The nomothetic view of history is infinitely more egalitarian if for no other reason than that it eliminates such comparisons by focusing on the broader currents (economic, political, demographic, and social) which underlie the historical process.

There are numerous examples of historical invisibility which have been, to some limited extent, recognized by social scientists. Military history -- focuses almost exclusively on great generals, the military strategists and, an occasional individual from the ranks of the common man who happened to distinguish himself buy some uncommon act of valor. Throughout military history, however, battles have been fought and won by the lowly foot soldier who puts his life on the front line. The glory of victory is recorded in the name of the general who was in command at the time of the battle.

"Oh, what millions died that Caesar might be great."

The Holocaust

The Holocaust - perhaps the most exhaustively documented event in history - represents an attempt to make visible the invisible. To some extent it has succeeded. First-hand accounts of survivors (Bettelheim, Cohen, Schindler, Frankl, Cherniak, Fanon, and others have personalized the tragedy of the century. Yad Vashem ("a name and a memorial") in Jerusalem (cf., The Old Testament, Isaiah 55:11-15) was built for that very purpose - to eliminate the invisibility of those who perished. The poetic writings of Primo Levi and the anger of Elie Weisel help to bring to life the characters in that human drama. Still our most poignant accounts of the personal lives of the victims comes from fictional literature. The vast majority of the 6 million who perished are nameless abstractions in human inhumanity. Their invisibility is perhaps the greatest inhumanity of all!

As mentioned before, the historical contributions of women have been buried under a mountain of invisibility. Only now are we beginning to put a face on the roles of women in history. Perhaps it took an emergence of women historians to force the issue.

Black Africans in America: Historical Invisibility of Slaves

Historical analyses of slavery have typically focused on: the historical antecedents of slavery. Historians have analyzed slavery in the ancient world. More recently, a number of works have emerged which focus on European colonialism as a context for the emergence of slavery. Sociologists and economists examine the economic demands of a pre- industrial plantation capitalism. We toil over the demographics of slavery: how many, from where, distribution in the new world.

Almost completely obscured by historical analysis is the human drama of slavery (except, again, in fictional literature). It is for that reason that Alex Haley's epic "Roots" has an important place in historical analysis. Despite the quasi-fictional nature of the work, and the recent charges that Haley may have attempted to pass some fiction off as history, it nonetheless represents an attempt to clothe the victims of slavery with human qualities and human identity. Historian, John Blasingame, has attempted to do the same thing in his treatment of the Slave Community.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that slaves were never allowed to construct their own communities or institutional arrangements. (businesses, political associations, religious and fraternal orders). Even the most basic institution, the slave family, is shrouded in controversy. The closest we get to removing the cloak of invisibility which surrounds the slave family is a typology of family patterns permitted by slave owners. African-American sociologist, Jessie Bernard, has identified several types: autonomous families of choice, stable, permanent arranged families, families terminated by the sale of one of the partners (according to Blasingame, 1972, this was the case of one-third of slave families; but see, Genovese, 1972, and Gutman, 1976), and families" created for breeding purposes.

Some evidence exists that mothers and their children were more likely to be kept together than husbands and wives. Even here, however, significant documentation exists to support the fact that even this was not an autonomous relationship. As Kivisto (1994) points out, an additional major problem grows out of the extensive sexual exploitation of slave women by white males. In addition to the powerlessness of black slave women to avoid such exploitation, the African slave male was powerless to perform the function protecting his wife from the advances of the owner or his sons, or his employees.

Solutions to the Problem of Historical Invisibility

Since slaves did not leave behind a written record of their lives, it will be very difficult to reconstruct a human history from primary documentary materials. The relative absence of black slave diaries, journals, etc., the illiteracy of black slaves in the post-slavery period combined with three centuries of historical neglect create special problems for the sensitive historian. It should be noted, however, that important work is currently under way by archaeologists and anthropologists to excavate slave quarters on southern plantations. Exciting new data is emerging which paints a much more personal historical construction than has been possible heretofore.

Fictional literature (written and visual), for all its value, remains fiction and therefore an unreliable historical source.

The only alternative, it seems to me, is to take what few diaries, journals, etc as do exist, elaborate them with what we know of slavery on a day to day basis, integrate the new data from slave archaeology and re- write the history of slavery from a humanistic point of view.

Of course, this whole discussion raises the question of post-modern reconstruction. Any history is an interpretation of an assumed reality. Once history has been interpreted a certain way, or once history comes to be interpreted with a given paradigm, it is reified into an inflexible model of reality. I suppose it comes down to a question of whether we choose to see history through the eyes of those who have been in control of its flow or whether we choose to see history through the eyes of all the actors who have been a part of that flow.