A few months ago, we posted a story about how many Southern plantations gave tours that whitewashed their histories and made life there seem genteel and aristocratic. Today marks a step in changing that.
The Whitney Plantation in Louisiana was founded in 1752 by Ambroise Heidel. His family raised indigo and then sugar cane by the labor of slaves for generations until the Civil War. New Orleans lawyer John Cummings purchased the Whitney Plantation in 1998 and spent $7 million transforming it into a museum of slavery. Slave quarters, work buildings, and a church have been brought in to restore the plantation to what it may have looked like as a working sugar plantation. There’s also a granite wall inscribed with the names of the slaves who worked there, and life-size statues of slaves. The original “big house” is still there, but it’s not the focus of the museum tours.
The Whitney Plantation Museum will have its ribbon-cutting ceremony today, and open for regular tours on Monday. You can see more pictures here. -via reddit