Introduction
Slavery in the United States had been legal for more than two hundred years. Its history dates back to the first colonial settlements, and first Africans to come to the Americas are believed to arrive with Christopher Columbus. After centuries of struggles, slavery was ended in 1865 after the Civil War. Although the majority of the American population knows that slavery had existed, not many people realized the magnitude of hardships of the enslaved. Slaves were often forced to work at plantations, and one such area was rebuilt as a museum of slavery. The Whitney Plantation, once a sugarcane plantation and a penitentiary for hundreds of slaves, was acquired by John Cummings in the late 1990s. Cummings founded a museum at the site, and this paper will describe its brief history and discuss its significance today.
Brief History
The Whitney Plantation is located near Wallace, Louisiana, less than an hour’s drive from New Orleans. It was founded before the Civil War, and today this place is the first museum of slavery in America. Initially, this area was called the Habitation Haydel in honor of the owner Ambroise Haydel, a German immigrant who moved to Louisiana in the 1750s and bought this land (Tanglen 145). First, Haydel grew plants for the production of dark blue dye (Tanglen 145). Then in the early 1800s, his son Jean Jacques turned this place into a sugar plantation (Tanglen 145). It was Jean Jacques who built the historic house in the French Creole style (“Whitney Plantation Historic District”). In those days, here, like on any other plantation, mainly African slaves were used. It was recorded that 350 African slaves worked on Haydel’s plantation (“About Whitney Plantation”). Slaves were beaten continuously, poorly fed, and were forced to work long hours (“About Whitney Plantation”). There were cases when slaves died because of these harsh conditions. Haydels owned this plantation until the end of the Civil War (“Whitney Plantation Historic District”). Bradish Johnson of New York bought the property in 1865 and renamed it after his grandson.
Ownership of the plantation had shifted many times throughout history. Buyers often had the goal of using the plantation for business purposes. However, in the late 1990s, the plantation would see a major change in how it had been used. In 1999, a New Orleans lawyer, John Cummings, bought the plantation (“About Whitney Plantation”). At that time, the property was owned by Formosa Chemicals and Fiber Corporation (Tanglen 146). Cummings invested 8 million dollars from his personal budget, and, after 15 years, the area was turned into the first American museum of slavery (Rosenfeld). Such an act was dictated by the desire to expose the shameful pages of American history. With the help of Ibrahima Seck, a Senegalese historian who had been thinking of a museum of slavery for 13 years, Cummings managed to tell the dreadful story of American slavery (Tanglen 146). In the beginning, it was challenging to receive a permit to visit the place. However, in 2014, the plantation was opened for the public, and anyone today can purchase tickets and visit the museum.
About the Museum’s Artifacts
The museum has a large number of memorials and exhibitions, as well as drawings and sculptures. There is a Wall of Honor on which the names of all 356 slaves who spent their lives on the plantation are engraved (“About Whitney Plantation”). The etchings are made on the granite plates, and names are listed non-alphabetically (“About Whitney Plantation”). This approach to displaying the names was chosen to emphasize the chaos that accompanied the lives of the slaves. The primary goal of the wall is to honor those individuals whose contributions and hard work had not been mentioned and valued.
In another part of the museum in the middle of the field, there is a bronze sculpture of a black angel with a baby in her arms. Around the sculpture are granite slabs with the names of 2 200 Louisiana children of slaves who died without reaching the age of three (“About Whitney Plantation”). No records were kept on the plantation about the number of deaths, but according to external historical documents, from 1823 to 1863, 39 children died here, and only 6 of them managed to live up to 5 years.
One of the displays that caused public controversy is the exhibition of 60 ceramic heads mounted on steel rods. Visitors often leave negative feedback regarding this display because of perceived horror (Asher and Murphy 64). However, Cummings, who ordered this exhibit from the sculptor Woodrow Nash, advocates for the presence of these ceramic models in the museum (Asher and Murphy 64). He argues that besides the appearance that may cause a disturbance, what is more fearful is the fact that these events took place in reality (Asher and Murphy 64). The display refers to the events of 1811 when more than one hundred slaves attempted to flee the territory of the plantation (Asher and Murphy 64). However, the majority of the escapees were captured and killed by the workers sent to find them. As a warning, these workers placed the heads on spikes.
The Whitney Plantation is a tribute not only to the slaves of this sugarcane farm. Cummings collected and brought relics and buildings that are not original to the property. For instance, there are slave cabins, churches, and other buildings that were brought from other historical places (“Whitney Plantation Historic District”). Among the notable buildings that were added to the territory are the Mialaret House and its accompanying properties (“Whitney Plantation Historic District”). Cummings’s goal was to recreate the experiences of African slaves based on their narratives. Many of the indoor exhibits provide an authentic experience from the perspective of enslaved individuals. The Creole mansion and related buildings comprise the primary point of interest in the museum. On the outskirts, there are fields that are planted with sugarcane even today.
Significance of the Museum
A museum is an effort of a nation to explore its history. The same is true for the Whitney Plantation, which attempts to pour light on the experiences of African slaves in the United States. The museum is an exertion to describe the part of American history that can be attributed as the most shameful. There are national museums devoted to honoring the victims of the Holocaust and September 11. However, there had been no such places that are entirely associated with slavery. The project of Cummings and Seck is the first museum that was built to honor the laborious work and hardships of thousands of African slaves. The museum reminds that racism and slavery are not fiction but are a reality of the near past.
The Plantation in the Popular Culture
Today, the Whitney Plantation is the largest and the only museum of slavery in Louisiana. After presenting this historic site to the broad public, it became of imminent interest to filmmakers. Parts of Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 film “Django Unchained” were filmed at the territory of the museum (“About Whitney Plantation”). In 2015, when the museum started selling tickets for all interested people, the Atlantic shot a short documentary about the place (Rosenfeld). In their interview with Cummings, the museum’s founder emphasized that slavery is not only Black history but also the national history of the United States (Rosenfeld). He mentions that the idea of the museum came to him only after he made the purchase (Rosenfeld). It is significant that people remember what their country has lived through to ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated.
Conclusion
The Whitney Plantation was once a profitable business that made use of unpaid labor of hundreds of African slaves. Today, it is a museum that tells a story of shocking and outrageous periods of American history. A number of memorials and displays provide information about the names and experiences of people that suffered because of the legal institution of slavery that existed during those times. Although some exhibits spark continuous controversy because of their explicitness, the founder urges that the fact that these events happened is more dreadful. The Whitney Plantation is the first slavery museum in the United States. This place is of historical and societal significance and has been mentioned by numerous publishers around the world.
Works Cited
“About Whitney Plantation.” Whitney Plantation, 2020, Web.
Asher, Sally, and Michael Murphy. 111 Places in New Orleans That You Must Not Miss. Emons Verlag, 2017.
Tanglen, Randi Lynn. “The Whitney Plantation.” The Public Historian, vol. 37, no. 4, 2015, pp. 145-149.
Rosenfeld, Paul. “Why America Needs a Slavery Museum.” The Atlantic, 2015, Web.
“Whitney Plantation Historic District.” National Park Service, 2020, Web.