Plantations Burning Down To The Ground Is A Good Thing

Last Thursday in White Castle, Louisiana, the Nottoway Plantation House, considered the largest antebellum mansion in the South, was engulfed in flames and burned down, destroying most of the historic structure.

From The Associated Press:

The mansion’s owner, Louisiana attorney Dan Dyess, said in a written statement that the fire had led to a “total loss” after all the time and money he invested in the building.

“We are devastated and heartbroken for this loss,” he said. “This was my dream that has now been dashed.”

Photos from local news outlets showed a giant orange wall of fire consuming the upper portion of the rotunda and sending a plume of thick smoke into the sky.

When news of this incident was posted on social media, there were plenty of responses, especially from the Black users of Bluesky, collectively known as Blacksky. And a lot of those responses sounded exactly like this:

(“This was my dream that has now been dashed.” Really, Dan? Your actual dream was to have a former plantation house?! White privilege truly is a hell of a drug.)

For most of these Black people, the only thing better than getting a ticket to see Sinners in IMAX these last few weeks, was seeing a place where their ancestors were held captive, beaten, humiliated, sexually assaulted, and murdered be reduced to ashes, and without the culprit getting caught (if there even is a culprit to catch).

However, there were others who didn’t share any of this enthusiasm or happiness about what happened to the Nottoway Plantation House. Some of them expressed their sorrow because the Nottoway Plantation House was where they exchanged wedding vows in front of family, friends, and the spirits of hundreds, if not thousands, of enslaved Black people looking upon them and their union with so much judgment. There were wedding planners who just couldn’t believe the sudden loss of such a beautiful location where they could assist white people with lots of money and very little sense (Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe; Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds; Justin Bieber and Hayley Bieber, and far too many others) in planning their wedding ceremonies. And there were even historians who not only expressed their sadness over what happened, but they even took a moment to lecture the rest of the Internet about their overwhelming enthusiasm for such a valuable and important piece of history being destroyed. Because if there’s one thing that we Black folk love, it’s being lectured by #FFFF people about what to say and how to feel, especially when it comes to all things racism.

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According to Grand View Research, the market for wedding services in the U.S. alone is valued at almost $65 billion. Anyone who has attended or participated in a wedding won’t be entirely shocked by that sum, as they know that weddings are not cheap, and that money will be spent to make sure that they turn out perfectly. And there are people who are convinced that one of the best places to have a perfect wedding on their perfect day is at a plantation house, a decision that rarely if ever takes the history of slavery into consideration, but instead focuses on how plantation houses are a beautiful example of Southern heritage on display for all to see and appreciate.

If you were engaged to be married, and you announced to family, friends, and strangers that your wedding will be held at Auschwitz or Dachau, they would hopefully and rightfully judge the absolute f-ck out of you for making such a horrible and inappropriate decision. They would take turns calling you out and knocking some sense into you for thinking that partying and getting married at a concentration camp where pain, suffering, and death were inflicted on millions of Jewish people is anything resembling a good idea. So why is it that this same approach isn’t usually taken when someone decides that a plantation is the ideal place for their wedding, besides the fact that absolutely nothing about a concentration camp can be seen as romantic or beautiful or welcoming?

Because when it comes to anything regarding Black people, especially their pain and suffering, it’s easier and preferable for a lot of white people to whitewash and sweep it all under the rug for their personal gain and satisfaction, and because it ensures that they keep feeling good about themselves, and not have to worry about their feelings getting hurt by being reminded of their very own history. (Remember when we couldn’t stop seeing headlines and news stories about Critical Race Theory, and how most of the people who were furious about its existence were as articulate and thoughtful in explaining what it is, as they are about defining “woke” as a slang term? Same thing.)

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There are some former plantation houses that refuse to take part in the wedding industrial complex, or in allowing visitors to ignore the history of slavery so they can take selfies and swoon over the architecture. The Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana is one of them (and they recently lost their funding, thanks to the Trump administration), and the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters is another. They are fully aware of the indisputable fact that plantation houses were, to paraphrase this Color of Change petition, forced labor camps that brutalized millions of Black people in this country. And if either of those plantation houses burned down, it would be met with the same responses that we’re seeing on social media right now. But at the very least, the owners of these former plantation houses have enough sense to understand their history, to remind others of that history, and to not let them be another place where white people can expect the red carpet treatment to have a rollicking good time while ignoring why and how former plantation house came to exist in the first place.

It has become so much easier for the world, and for most of the (white) people who are now in charge of it to demean and ignore the existence of Black people like Adriana Smith, and to treat them as if their lives mean nothing, as if their pain and suffering mean nothing, and as if they are nothing more than experiments and cautionary tales to show others what can be done to them, and how they can get away with it. So chalk this up as another reminder that Black lives do matter, and that plenty of noise will be made for those who want us to forget the past, while doing everything possible to make sure we repeat it.

And if you’re someone who truly believes that a former plantation house is the ideal location for your wedding, or any other social gathering? May I suggest taking a trip to Lake Lanier and going there for a swim? I’ve heard nothing but good things about the place.