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Go, Visit the Whitney Plantation

Posted on | January 17, 2018 | Comments Off on Go, Visit the Whitney Plantation

I’m delighted to see that the Whitney Plantation, just upriver from New Orleans, is getting the attention it deserves.  Shortly after it opened, I wrote about the plantation devoted exclusively to telling the story of slavery in my EdWeek column ‘On California.’

Now the Whitney is making lists of “must-see” places for 2018.  “These destinations may inspire you,” the L.A. Times headlines.

Cast aside thoughts of soft-accented guides in period costume providing testimony to what promotional material calls the South’s Golden Age.  At the Whitney Plantation there is noromanticism, no glorification of the Confederacy’s “lost cause”.  Expect to be moved, educated, horrified, and perhaps motivated.

Long before #MeToo, the young lady represented standing by her master’s bed became the origin of the dual family tree of the plantation’s 19th Century owners.  One family tree is black; the other white.

This story, and many others, await you.

 

 

 

 

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About

Charles Taylor Kerchner is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Claremont Graduate University. My daily musings appear in the blog. The archives of my EdWeek blog are available via link under the 'On California' head. Some of my photography can be seen by clicking on 'Gallery.' And numerous links to academic work and other research and commentary can be found by clicking on 'Projects.'

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