This article examines the contested versions of history, defined as a
kind of discourse, surrounding the attempt to establish a museum in Tampa, Florida.
As part of a strategy of urban redevelopment, white elites in Tampa in the early
1990s attempted to attract a museum with a piracy theme based on artefacts recovered
from The Whydah Galley, an 18th-century pirate ship — the piracy
image fitting well with their own `invented tradition'. However, when it was
discovered that the ship was originally used in the slave trade, local African
American civic leaders mounted a protest, using a counter-discourse that challenged
interpretations of `history' by addressing issues of identity, partially through
references to slavery and utilizing a rhetoric of cultural authenticity, questioning
the elites' cultural and class ascendancy. The project was eventually cancelled.
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