the also buy lots of slavery memorabilia. bills of sale. documents. historical photos. etc.
nothing wrong with it. it’s history and owning a historical document makes one feel closer to history somehow. lots of this stuff ends up as research material for books too.
Exactly. I saw an episode of an antiques show (I think it was Roadshow, but not sure) and they interviewed a collector of this memorabilia who happened to be black. She said she had started collecting it in the 60s because she thought it was "cute." Then sometime later, her daughter came home from college all upset and wanted her to get rid of all of it because it was racist. (Where'd she learn that, I wonder?) But once you are a collector, it's really hard to stop. (I personally have not a single inch of space left for any more Bauer pottery, but that does not stop me from buying it. It's a sickness. I had to start limiting myself to certain years of manufacture.) So anyway, the collector said that now she continues to collect black kitsch because she feels a need to "remove it from the market." (Unmentioned was the fact that she is probably making a lot of $$$ from reselling it.)
I agree with you. It's a part of history and if you like it and can afford it and are not stealing it from anyone, you should be able to have it. That's what freedom is about.