SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson in Nashville, is revitalizing a tour that highlights the lives of people who were enslaved by Jackson and his family. It's called In Their Footsteps. But for some descendants, the approach of the redesigned tour is disappointing, as Cynthia Abrams of member station WPLN reports.
CYNTHIA ABRAMS, BYLINE: The tour never enters the looming Greek Revival mansion where the seventh U.S. president once resided.
CODY YOUNGBLOOD: This is a former slave quarter, and later freedman's cabin lived in by this gentleman named Alfred Jackson.
ABRAMS: Instead, it leads visitors through the living quarters, work yard, stables, spring house and recently discovered cemetery where enslaved people were buried. The tour used to go into the mansion. But this summer, The Hermitage is launching an updated version.
YOUNGBLOOD: We found that there was too much emphasis on Jackson's realm and the enslaved people who worked in it. We wanted to focus on the enslaved people's world and how the Jacksons fit into that.
ABRAMS: That's director of visitor experience Cody Youngblood. He says the revised tour offers a more honest look at who Jackson was. And it's not always a pretty portrayal.
YOUNGBLOOD: Jackson would then put out runaway advertisements.
ABRAMS: Youngblood passes around a copy of the chilling ad, where Jackson offered money in exchange for lashes.
YOUNGBLOOD: This is the only one where an enslaver provided a financial incentive for the beating of an enslaved person.
ABRAMS: Andrew Jackson is known for his battlefield successes against the British during the War of 1812 and his two-term presidency. That's when he paid off the national debt and signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which resulted in the Trail of Tears. And over the course of his life, Jackson and his family enslaved more than 300 people. The Hermitage has faced its share of criticism over the years. Before 2018, there was no guided tour about slavery on the plantation. But some descendants of the enslaved say this year's update is still missing the mark.
Jamel Campbell-Gooch is a community organizer in Nashville. His ancestor is Esquire Hayes, who was enslaved by Jackson and is mentioned on the tour. Campbell-Gooch says, without an apology from the Andrew Jackson Foundation, a tour feels exploitative.
JAMEL CAMPBELL-GOOCH: If we can't even get a simple apology, it's kind of disheartening. And I start to think - is the motivation to solely make money?
ABRAMS: A tour ticket costs $50. The Hermitage did not say whether they plan an apology. They say ticket proceeds go back into preservation of the site and education. But those dollars aren't going toward descendants, which is what Campbell-Gooch thinks should be happening through a scholarship fund because, he says, there needs to be some sort of reconciliation.
CAMPBELL-GOOCH: For me, my family doesn't want to go there. Once they found out that they were actually enslaved there, they don't want to be in that space - right? - because it's a space of tremendous harm.
ABRAMS: Campbell-Gooch says he's aware there are others who feel differently, like Courtney Clayton and her mother, Beverly.
COURTNEY CLAYTON: We are directly related to Alfred Bradley Jackson. And if you've ever been to The Hermitage, he's a slave that's buried right next to him and his wife.
ABRAMS: Her mother, Beverly Clayton, doesn't have the same qualms about being on the site. She used to attend reunions held by The Hermitage. But both she and her daughter would like to see more effort from The Hermitage, like the scholarship idea or help in keeping lineages up to date.
BEVERLY CLAYTON: I'm proud of my family. I'm proud of my lineage. I'm proud just to know 'cause, you know, not too many people can reach back and be able to find, hey, this is my ancestor. He did this, and he did that.
ABRAMS: It's important, Beverly says, because those experiences are where she and her family came from.
C CLAYTON: Slavery was not that long ago. You have living people quite literally walking around the city of Nashville that are descendants of these people.
ABRAMS: Slavery caused immeasurable harm in ways that are still playing out today. And that's the challenge for The Hermitage - finding a way to tell that history without causing more pain.
For NPR News, I'm Cynthia Abrams in Nashville.
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