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VOL. 17, NO. 3
The Decree
''Wesleyan's Student Voice Since I960**
FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2002
History, Theater hosts Jefferson
By D.K.CAMPBELL
Assistant Professor,
English/Journalism
On March 7, Thomas Jefferson
came to N.C. Wesleyan College.
Interrogated by a reporter and the
audience, Mr. Jefferson stood his
ground on the stage of Minges
Auditorium that evening.
In his email announcement,
History Professor Dr. Rick
Watson had invited the college
community to join the History and
Theater departments and the gen
eral public to see whether ques
tions about “Sally Hemings, sepa
ration of church and state, or the
famous partying at the Univer
sity of Virginia will embarrass
him.”
Thomas Jefferson’s character
is brought to life every day at
Colonial Williamsburg by Bill
Barker, who researches constantly
any writings by or about
Jefferson’s life, actions, politics,
and acquaintances and becomes
“Mr. Jefferson” to his fellow in
terpreters in the colonial town and
to crowds from around the coun
try.
Barker, a history major and an
actor himself, left the formal stage
for this new career of “historical
interpretation” — living the part
of a historical figure for muse
ums, re-enactments, and recre
ations like Colonial Williamsburg
in Virginia, Plymouth Plantation
in Massachusetts, and Old Salem
in North Carolina—when he dis
covered that he had both a knack
for living the part of Jefferson
and the 6’3” height, body build,
and blond hair of the third Presi
dent of the United States.
During his interpretation.
Barker must become Thomas
Jefferson, a situation that requires
his full understanding of the char
acter regardless of his own opin
ions on politics, history, family,
or any other issues.
Barker was brought to the cam
pus by Ken Ripley, publisher of
the Spring Hope Enterprise and
the N.C. Wesleyan Decree and
active in journalism education.
Ripley organizes and funds a tour
in the spring of each year that
includes selected evening events
and Nash County public schools,
where, he says, attendance most
often runs into the hundreds for
each appearance by Barker/
Jefferson.
During the evening perfor
mances, Ripley and other editors
engage Mr. Jefferson in an im
promptu question-and-answer
“press conference,” where any
questions that Jefferson might
have been able to answer can be
asked by the press corps or the
audience. Barker’s job is to an
swer as Jefferson himself would
have answered, with his opinions,
examples, tone, and bearing and
often in Jefferson’s own published
words.
To play his part properly and
well, Barker dresses in period cos
tume, down to frilled cravat and
PRESIDENT THOMAS JEFFERSON INTERVIEWED BY
leather shoes, all made on the
grounds of Colonial Williams
burg. His verbal inflections copy
as much as possible the speech of
an educated late-eighteenth-cen-
tury Virginia planter and the
slightly mocking, often humor
ous, sometimes severe, sometimes
equivocating, but always very
Carneal wins hoop honors
MISTY CARNEAL
N.C. Wesleyan’s Misty
Carneal has nabbed two big bas
ketball honors.
First she was named First
Team All-Region in the South by
DSHoops. She was the only guard
listed on the First Team. The
DSHoops team is selected by Di
rectors of Sports Information in
each region.
Later in the same week, the
Women’s Basketball Coaches
Association and Kodak named her
Honorable Mention Kodak
Women’s All-America. Coaches
in each region select the Kodak
team.
Carneal, a senior from
Bumpass, Va., (Louisa H.S.) led
the Dixie Conference in scoring
this year with 21.5 points per
game and was named the Dixie
Player of the Year for the second
consecutive year.
She finished her career as the
school’s all-time leading scorer
with 1,661 points. She led the
Bishops this season to a 16-9
record, 11-3 in the Dixie, which
was good for second place.
human tone of Jefferson in his
writings.
On the evening of March 7 in
Minges Auditorium, nothing
seemed to embarrass Mr.
Jefferson. In answer to Ripley’s
question whether he “had added
a family to your family tree,” he
responded, “I have never made
any comment on my relationship
with Hemings” and “do not en
gage in discussions of such puer
ile concerns.”
On the general nature of poli
tics and character, Mr. Jefferson
was asked, “Do you believe an
immoral man can be a good presi
dent?” His answer: “If immoral
in actions, then may be; if im
moral in character, then no, most
certainly not.” In response to a
question on the nature of the presi
dency in a democracy, he an
swered, “We elect to office those
whose prior actions we approve.”
On Dr. Watson’s question as
to the relationship between press
freedom, press responsibility, and
the role of government in rela-
Decree photo by Campbell
EDITOR KEN RIPLEY.
tion to the press: “I am against
misinformation and untruth, but
nev/spapers are our only defense”
against an irresponsible or too-
powerful government; and the
people themselves are and should
be “the judges of the newspapers.”
On the apparent difference be
tween the words and intent of the
Declaration of Independence and
his own continued ownership of
slaves, Mr. Jefferson answered
that he struck an anti-slavery
clause from the Declaration in or
der to “procure agreement on the
whole, especially from South
Carolina” [the first state, in fact,
to secede from the Union, after
Jefferson’s death] and reminded
the questioner and audience that
in his day in Virginia, only one to
two slaves could legally be freed
each year, that they must be liter
ate before their manumission, and
that they must move outside the
state after obtaining their legal
freedom.
On Ms. Wilson’s question
(Continued on Back Page)