The Whitney Plantation

This story begins earlier than my actual visit.
It all began with a chance listening to NPR in February, 2015. My Mother-In-Law, is a teacher in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.  While she was driving home from work, she was listening to NPR on the radio.  NPR was featuring a radio story about The Whitney Plantation, a very special museum in Louisiana. You can listen to the same story online on NPR now.
On Sunday, March 22, 2015, my husband, his parents and I traveled to the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana.  The Whitney Plantation is about an hour from New Orleans.

When I thought of plantations, I always thought of a Big House.  However, there is much more to the story.

The Whitney Plantation opened in 2014 and is currently the only plantation museum in the state of Louisiana where slavery is the focal point.  
I am not sure whether it was luck, fate or coincidence but the same tour guide who was featured in NPR was our tour guide.
This is our tour guide Mr. Sakura Coné, (pronounced Kohn-AY) who kindly reminded me of my French Studies and the importance of the accent aigu.

He is an incredible tour guide

 “I need the accent [aigu]. I can't go through life being a cone,” Mr. Coné said.
The tour begins in The Antioch Church, which was originally built in Mississippi and moved here to Wallace, Louisiana.The church was donated to the Whitney Plantation to help teach individuals about slavery from the perspective of the slaves. 
 

There is a bell in the steeple which visitors are invited to "ring."

Once inside the church, almost immediately tourists are greeted by statues created by Artist Woodrow Nash.  Mr. Nash looked to Civil War photography for his inspiration.  Specifically, Mr. Nash used photographs of freed child slaves.  The clothing depicted on the statues are tattered, their eyes are hollow.  I found them powerful and heartbreaking.

Statues of slave children are seated and standing throughout the church

After a short video presentation which gave a background of the Plantation and the Federal Writers' Project (which I plan to do my own personal research on), we were lead to three memorials: The Wall of Honor, The Allées Gwendolyn Midlo Hall and The Field of Angels.

The Wall of Honor is dedicated to the individuals enslaved on the Whitney Plantation

The Wall of Honor is made of granite slabs which are etched with information retrieved from original records kept at the plantation.  
There is stunning artwork included on the Whitney Grounds.  

Sculpture created by Contemporary Artist, Ed Wilson

Longboats are also known as Pirogues

At the heart of the Field of Angels is this bronze statue created by Artist Rod Moorhead

The Field of Angels commemorates the 2,200 Louisiana enslaved children who died before they reached the age of three.  Disease epidemics, drowning and other causes claimed the lives of young children.
One other common cause of death for slave children was due to accidental burning.

These iron sugar cane pots are lined throughout the plantation grounds

Slave children were expected to use these pots to make cane syrup.  The process requires boiling water to "cook down" harvested sugar cane to create sugar cane syrup.  If a young child had an accident while doing this job and was burnt, it would almost certainly lead to death due to infection.
When Mr. Coné brought us to the "Slave Jail."   The "Slave Jail" is an iron cell where slaves were kept as a punishment. I found this very poignant on a personal level.  I am "a Northerner."  Until visiting Whitney, I had not understood the role some Northerners played in slavery.

There were companies in the North which provided manufactured goods used to aide slavery such as this jail and the iron sugar cane pots pictured above.

 

This cell was manufactured and purchased from a company located in Philadelphia

No matter the weather, slaves were stripped nude and lashed 50 to 100 times and put into the cell.  The punishment was meant less for "the offender" and meant more as a deterrent for other slaves. The cell as well as the iron sugar cane pots were manufactured by Northern companies.

After learning about the jail, we visited the cabins where slaves were housed in cramped conditions.  

 

 We also learned about several structures on the plantation called "Outbuildings." 

A scene from the movie Django was filmed here.

The Blacksmith Shop was where torture devices were created.  One of these devices was a branding tool.  Slaves who were thought to be trouble makers were branded with the fleur-de-lis symbol.

The Carriage House could fit five carriages

Mr. Coné described carriages as, "The BMW's of the day." The Haydel family was incredibly wealthy.

This is the back-side view of "The Big House" where the Haydel family lived

 We ventured inside the Big House but I am going to save those images for you to discover on your own.

 "I'd like to encourage you to do your own research,"Mr. Coné said at the conclusion of the tour.

At the end of the tour, I ventured back into the Welcome Center.  Visitors are encouraged to write their thoughts about the tour on post-its and stick them to the wall.  This is an incredible way to create and share a dialogue about what the museum means to each visitor.  The post-it testimonies are transcribed and uploaded daily to the Whitney Plantation Facebook page.

  

I encourage you to visit the Whitney Plantation and experience the memorials in person. I hope you get the chance to visit and write your own post-it testimony.  The Whitney Plantation is one of the best museums I have had the privilege to visit.