It’s Time to Shut Down Plantation Weddings and Rethink Plantation Tourism
Are we close to reconciling the relationship between horrific history, capitalism, weddings, and slavery?
Plantation tourism has an image problem. By evidence of the sheer numbers of plantation bed and breakfasts, wedding locations, and family reunion offerings, these entities are still profiting off of slavery. And to boot, many are not acknowledging either the Atlantic Slave Trade at all or its aftermath. With a few notable exceptions, they largely fail to tell visitors the full story of the harsh living and violent working conditions of the enslaved people who once built, populated, and worked those plantation lands.
But some are beginning to do things right, even among a history of wrong. Others? Well, it remains to be seen how they will adjust in light of America’s new era of racial enlightenment.
“Plantation museums, in many cases, will discuss slavery as an isolated event,” says Brigette Jones, social curator at the Tennessee State Museum and a former plantation tour site director. “But they’re not trying to discuss how slavery impacted race relations moving forward because it brings [things] too current and starts to affect your visitors.”
