Interesting Day at the Old Surratt Hacienda

[L Verge]

(08-30-2016 09:10 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  

(08-30-2016 01:33 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I will let Kate explain her self-researched and written script -- or better yet, Gene, why not come to the conference yourself to hear it? I know you would really enjoy it.

As for Helen Jones Campbell, let's not bad-mouth her completely. I can honestly say that she is one of the most frustrating authors on the subject, but I cannot discredit her. I can fuss about her not including sources and not giving assurance that some of her anecdotes and historical references did happen. However, for every frustration in that direction, there are also redeeming features where her text is dead-on correct.

In the good old days, I would be traveling to William & Mary to peruse her papers - if the library there ever catalogued them. Bettie Trindal tried to use them and got turned away.

I've always thought of her books as historical fiction. They certainly have all of the apparatus of historical fiction--imagined incidents, dialogue, etc. Did she market them as nonfiction?

I would love to have a look at her papers. William and Mary was very helpful when I asked for some papers in their collection last year, so perhaps they've become more accommodating.

I may have shared some "suspicions" about why Campbell's papers were not available for awhile (the claim was that they had not been catalogued). Mrs. Campbell was a native of the Yorktown/Williamsburg area and was well-versed in the socio-political life (i.e. gossip) of that region, especially during the time that the Rockefellers were footing the bills for the restoration of the colonial capital.

I was told years ago that she first wrote a book on Yorktown and spilled some beans. She was also one of the first docents at Colonial Williamsburg and knew some inside secrets. The person who told me this suspected that the Campbell Papers contained materials on these things as well as the Surratt research and that the College didn't want these unearthed and didn't have enough staff and time to do a quick search to find "incriminating evidence."

Many years have passed (even since Bettie Trindal made her initial plea to see the papers) and certainly the old-timers are no longer on the scene to react to egg on their faces. In defense of that protection, however, there is a southern code of honor that is struggling to survive - don't speak ill of your forefathers...

I suspect that William and Mary will now allow access to the Campbell material. I would just like to know who/what her sources were and if there are any pieces of legitimate history that she found that we don't know about. Nearly a century has passed since she began her research. Did she get to talk to people alive then who shared information that we don't know about?