Awesome tour guide at 1 of 3 memorials on Whitney Plantation grounds
It was 3 or 4 four years ago, I stumbled across the Whitney Plantation on-line. I soon knew I was going to visit the plantation, some day, some how. Today was that day. My drive from Baton Rouge to the Whitney was stunning. Not just for the scenery, but because the route was so far off the beaten track. There was a 'where the %&#@ has this stupid GPS brought me?' One sec on a highway, the next tic I was driving 'twixt rows of sugar cane that towered above the car. I stopped driving and looking up, saw a bedraggled Shrike setting up high on a wire. The bird looked like it knew the stuff that once went on down below amid the sugar cane.
I arrived at the Whitney, early for my tour group. Checking in, I received an ID tag. It showed one of the Whitney's child statutes, a little girl. On the back it read...
My ID tag
Francis Doby
Age 100
... OUT IN DE CAMP, OUT YONDA IN DE
CAMP NEAR DA CANE FIELDS, DE OLE,
OLE WOMEN TOO OLD TO WORK AND
TOO OLD TO MAKE DE BABIES, DEY STAY
AN MIND DE YOUNG CHILENS SO DAT
DE MA KIN ALL WORK IN DE FIELDS AND
DEY FEED DAM AN ALL SO WHEN DE MA
COME BACK ALL DEY GOT TO DO IS TO
PUSH 'EM IN DE BED. ALL OF DEM IN DE
SAME BED.
The quote has to be from the Slave Narratives when -during the depression - the memories of the formerly enslaved were set to paper for prosperity. I felt like the living memory of 100 year old Ms Doby. I noticed all tour participants wore a different ID tag, each representing another voice from America's gawdawful & not really all that distant past. The last enslaved man of the era died in 1971.
Had to put my brain on 'simmer' for this day's post. So much information from our excellent guide, I mean, if there was an Oscar for tour leaders, he'd have several. Decided to cut to the chase & if y'all want to know more, take the tour on your own - you'll be both edified & stunned by a wealth of history you will hear.
The tour began a short way from the visitor center, at the Antioch Baptist Church. This old African American church was moved to the Whitney when it was replaced - by a new church in Lutcher Louisiana.
The Antioch Baptist Church
Watched a short presentation inside the Antioch
Throught the church there are statues of small children. Below is their story in brief.
The Children of Whitney, a series of sculptures by Ohio-based artist Woodrow Nash, represent these former slaves as they were at the time of emancipation: children. Whitney presents the stories of these children as told in their own words. The visitors are introduced to the lives of the enslaved workers based on the recollections of those who endured, and who shared the stories of their lives as children in slavery.
silent witnesses in the Antioch
One can argue, all the formerly enslaved children were broken as are we, their descendants
The tour group watched a short presentation in the church, and afterwards moved on to the first of three areas dedicated to the formerly enslaved of Louisiana. A horrifying fact of Louisiana's sugar cane plantations is that the lifespan of its slaves was 7 years. That's how long an enslaved individual survived on average, from arrival to death by extremely difficult and dangerous work.
The Wall of Honor
The wall has reflects for all Americans
We had time to read as many of the dedications and names as we pleased, as well as peppering the guide with questions. Then we headed to the second memorial area where there were even more dedications and remembrances. It was startling to think of all the slaves that at one time existed just in Louisiana alone.
Allees Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
Far off in the field
The plantation replaced dead slaves the way today we toss used electronics in the trash and just buy a new one.
Alligator ridden swamp still holds bones of the formerly enslaved
Our guide made a strong point that you can't treat another 'human being' with such callousness. One had to be taught from an early age to view the enslaved as less than human.
The third memorial area was the most sobering. Children born on the plantation were incidental to its operation so many died, or rather were allowed to die from starvation or enforced neglect.
The Field of Angels
The Field of Angels is dedicated to the 2,200 who, due to their treatment as expendables, died before their third birthdays. The centerpiece statue is of an African Angel, carrying off one such baby to heaven.
The plantation originally had 22 slave cabins
The Whitney children watch us as we toured...
The Blacksmith
The cook house where all plantation meals were prepared
The cookhouse was just steps away from the Plantation mansion, separate so as to not heat up the living quarters. Separate also in case the cooking fires set the cook house ablaise, everything wouldn't burn down.
Inside the cook house with prepared food on the table
The plantation 'big house'
The big house's upper story has sleeping quarters. The shuttered windows at the second story are part of a breezeway.
The second floor breezeway
Stairs at the end of the breezeway
This picture was taken in the upstairs bedroom where the Mistress of the manor lived. The statue represents a child whose job it was to run errands for the lady of the house.
Here is the child statue again, this time the photo was taken using flash. The picture looks rather startling as the empty hollow eyes seem to have jumped to life.
The statues have empty eyes to represent the lack of hope for children born into slavery.
View from the upper floor of the Plantation mansion
View from the back garden walkway
The Whitney Plantation is duplicitous, while being simultaneously beautiful and terrifying. It is fascinating in its hundreds of stories and easily dismissable by the cowardly - at least in my opinion.
If our guide had one lesson he wanted us all to know by tour's end, it was that slavery hasn't gone anywhere. It's just adapting to new models, such as the American prison system. Yeah. A brother told it like it is.
Here is a video that fills in a little more about the Whitney Plantation.
It was 3 or 4 four years ago, I stumbled across the Whitney Plantation on-line. I soon knew I was going to visit the plantation, some day, some how. Today was that day. My drive from Baton Rouge to the Whitney was stunning. Not just for the scenery, but because the route was so far off the beaten track. There was a 'where the %&#@ has this stupid GPS brought me?' One sec on a highway, the next tic I was driving 'twixt rows of sugar cane that towered above the car. I stopped driving and looking up, saw a bedraggled Shrike setting up high on a wire. The bird looked like it knew the stuff that once went on down below amid the sugar cane.
