Plantation tours struggle with how to address slavery

“Plantation tours offer an abundance of learning opportunities, but they can also offer a stereotypical, even anachronistic, portrayal of slavery and life in the Old South. …

“At Latta Plantation, near Charlotte, North Carolina, during our 2016 tour, students inquired toward the end of the tour about the slaves who had worked on the plantations, since the tour guide had not mentioned anything on the subject. The tour guide asked the students to wait until the African-American family, who had been on the tour, left, at which point, he answered in vague and circumscribed terms….”

From “The Plantation Tour Disaster: Teaching Slavery, Memory, and Public History” by Niels Eichhorn in the Journal of the Civil War Era (Dec. 5)

Eichhorn isn’t the first to take issue with Latta Plantation’s depiction of slavery.

 

5 thoughts on “Plantation tours struggle with how to address slavery”

  1. Dear Sir: – Ms:
    If tour guides are uncomfortable telling the factual history of slaves that pertain to plantations, I suggest hiring an African-American Tour Guide that can ensure this important history is not left out and definitely should not be.
    Far too long, the history of the slaves that performed all the work on the plantations both inside and outside, needs to included in all aspects of the tours. To do otherwise is a gross injustice to the enslaved men, women and children born and died on the plantations.
    Antia Fields
    President – NAACP Jeffersonville, IN

  2. I feel the Latta Plantation should have a Museum for African American slaves.Also admission should be free for all blacks who enter the events…

    1. History is history why allow blacks free admission if your going to charge anyone you charge everyone you talk about equality but still want to be held above someone else because of your skin tone .Blacks have been given every opportunity to prosper some have worked hard and achieved it other still hold hand out wanting prosperity for free can’t have it both ways.

      1. Look fool…..you will NEVER understand what the advent of slavery has had on African Americans, and you should be glad that they have not sought retribution against European Americans that held slaves. The net present value of the labor of enslaved people us about equal to the national debt.

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