Staff and Volunteer Training and Mentoring in the Humanities

FAIN: TA-296535-24

Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, Inc. (Brookneal, VA 24528-3302)
Hope Elder Marstin (Project Director: June 2023 to present)

Staff and volunteer training on best practices for interpreting the history of the enslaved residents of Patrick Henry’s home, Red Hill.

The humanities encourage our communities to engage in deeper thinking related to the meaning, value, and purpose of human life. Humanities topics and programming at Patrick Henry's Red Hill also push the questions of "what is justice?" and "what is equality?" Patrick Henry's "liberty or death" speech rallied the Second Virginia Convention to arms against Great Britain. He compared the price of peace under British rule with being bound in "chains and slavery," but most of the audience, including Henry himself, enslaved people on plantations. As the staff at Red Hill uncovers more layers and more truths about those enslaved and buried at Red Hill, we can more fully engage our visitors in these critical topics of justice and equality. Staff training becomes more and more critical as our conversation and educational content prompt deeper thought and understanding on these topics within the broader field of humanities.