Months ago, I remember making a list of our 'Must-Dos' while in New Orleans. Yesterday, we visited the WWII Museum. Today, we visited 2 plantations. This blog post will be about the first one we visited. I'll do a separate blog post about the 2nd one we visited. It's so neat to realize, "Wow...we are HERE!" after months of talking about it and planning it.
First up was the Whitney Plantation.
This plantation is a true representation of what plantation life was like for slaves. Slaves are what made plantations function...thrive.
I wanted to visit this plantation for it's authenticity.
I wanted my boys to learn the truth.
The whole story.
No sugar coating.
And we got it.
We had to wear lanyards for the tour, and each lanyard had child who was a slave on it.
I'm weird. This is I know.
I took pictures of the bathroom there!
It was such a nice bathroom!
Ha!
Model in the museum/office.
Shackles for the slaves.
Timeline of slavery on the wall.
This is Dena.
Or Adina.
I'm not sure which is her name.
I tried to ask her after the tour,
but she was busy with other people.
She was our tour guide.
She knew her stuff.
There are about 100 of these clay statues around the grounds,
mostly in this church.
They were made by an African American artist from Akron, OH.
While in the church, we watched a short
video about the plantation that brought tears to my eyes.
The statues kinda freaked the boys out at first.
This is the child that is on Sage's lanyard.
Scott found the child that was on his lanyard.
Ringing the church bell.
Memorial wall for the slaves.
Sadly, so little was known about the slaves.
No last name. No death date. No hometown.
'Congo Nation' just meant they were from somewhere in Africa.
These are more memorial walls for the slaves.
(If you look closely, you can see some in the background.
This is only one side. There is more (too many more).
On the memorial walls, there were little
stories in the words of the slaves.
'The Field of Angels' was in memory
of all the babies and children who died in slavery.
'Houses' where slaves lived.
These jails were placed out in the open so everyone could see who had done 'wrong'. They were also open to the weather conditions.
4 slaves to a cell = 12 slaves in this whole jail.
Not sure what this is...it was inside the jail.
At the end of the tour,
you could write on a piece of paper
what the tour meant to you.
Sage really wanted to do this, and I was pleasantly shocked because
Sage.Does.Not.Write.
Sage is the 10-year-old, not 5-year-old.
Sage hates to write with his whole being,
therefore, he is a strong typer.
Writing hurts his fingers after writing like 2 words so he avoids it at all costs....
BUT...
he WANTED to write about this tour.
(Ha...it was hot...and there were LOTS of wasps!)
After seeing his bubby write a note,
Scott wanted to write one too.
Then, you stick your note on the wall.
I wanted to ask what these things were and forgot.
There was one at the end of each parking row in the parking lot.
I'm so glad that we made the 1.5 hour drive to the plantation.
It was eye-opening and educational!
================
While we were there, there was a film crew there filming in the 'Big House' so we were unable to go inside the big house.
It was a whole big production...not sure what is being filmed.
There were lots of big trucks and big white tents.
There was even a catering company with a food truck there just for the film crew. The film crew even had there own parking lot.
This is the 'Big House'.
There is a black tarp blocking off the front of the house.
If you look closely, you can see the big 'ole cameras
on the end of the big crane. They are covered in plastic.
'Big' is the word of the day.
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