It's amazing that southern plantation mansions are popular resort and event destinations. People get married there! It's like having your wedding at Auschwitz!
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
I *kinda* get it - The US, esp. in the south, has nuked public edu. The atrocities get washed over, making people think more "Pretty place" & less "Oh dear fuck what"
1 major thing that needs to change when the fascists are dragged out is public edu. in the states & being sure to teach the horrors
What the GoP has done over the years is basically the equivalent of if Germany slashed its pub. edu. & made ut teach propoganda, then sell the idea of Auschwitz as "A part of our HERITAGE! Any who say crimes against humanity happened here are lying to get you to forget your HERITAGE!"
Yeah I totally understand the flippant comments about plantation wedding venues but these are important historic sites and we’re constantly learning more and understanding the lives of enslaved people better because they still exist (source: I used to work in historic preservation on an 18th c site)
A lot of these places often have their venues fairly removed from the historical site parts.. you aren't exactly having your nuptials done inside the old slave quarters and wearing confederate uniforms...
My area has dozens. Many are just shells, some are well kept and were lived in long after the war even if the plantation land was long ago sold off. Some are now breweries, others became museums for a spell, but went into disrepair or just fell apart and torn down.
Come to think of it I don't think its inherently bad to turn what used to be a plantation into something like an event venue. The South is littered with ex-plantation land and it'd be weird to say ALL of it is off limits
But like, at least get rid of the old architecture literally built by slaves
Well slavery didn’t exactly end in one night. Bulldozing an old house just because it’s associated with slavery because of when it was built is just strange. Most every house or structure of appreciable size in the south had slaves. Are we supposed to burn all structures made prior to 1865?
I feel like only the most prominent and well presered ones deserve any kind of historical preservation, and the ones that are should actually show respect to the people who were enslaved there, not glorifying an old slaveowners mansion
This isn’t a defense but come on, Auschwitz is a factory; those plantation houses were (and oftentimes, still are) the pinnacle of architectural achievement in that local area.
If you follow this logic, dude would cheer lighting the Louvre and every other French chateau or British country house on fire, if not its contents, even though they were collected and assembled with ill-gotten capitalist gains!
Yeah, that's your idea of charm? You want to get married on a pile of bones with the screams of raped and beaten people over hundreds of years in the background?
I challenge you to find me ANYWHERE in the US that doesn't have this history. There's really no escaping that white immigrants colonized the entire thing. Any random corner could be where someone was lynched or slaughtered. That said, I don't understand the appeal of plantations, either.
I protested as a kid not to go on a field trip to a plantation in grade school. Yes, we took field trips to plantations in SC at a public school. What’s worse, they staged the slave quarters to look better than some Airbnb’s I’ve stayed at. Disgusting.
Yeah, the propaganda is probably a good part of why people think it's fine to have weddings at such places =/
"See it wasn't THAT bad if you dress up things to look better than even some modern day places instead of preserving the history that shows the horror show it was!"
It was also fascinating to study the civil war/southern plantations in grade school in SC and then CA… very different lens. I understand the relevance of history, but I don’t think they should be a place to go sip wine or whiskey with your bffs.
I grew up with the Spanish missions and love them. It's weird loving something that long ago was a gulag. But most things we have from long ago are sort of like that and nostalgia is a powerful drug.
The important thing to me is to acknowledge the history honestly.
I think it's an overreach. Most any architecture in the US that is older than 1865 deserves as much credit/blame for the institution of slavery, which is 0.
The white house, the Capitol... courthouses and other buildings...
It's not like these people are having weddings there to celebrate it.
Yes, there's some history to these places, but they are not preserved in any sense of recalling that era per se. Most of them have small museums for that if they retain any of their original land. Many are now just the last standing structure because the house was still lived in for many decades.
Human society is full of stupid people who still go to their courthouse to get a driver's license despite the fact that slaves were sold outside its front doors. Maybe they just recognize it's a building with doors and not a slaughterhouse still in operation.
i disagree -- i've been there (but not inside) and it was a solemn, reverential event. it was not a celebration of love and family and friends (and drinking and dancing etc).
Listen, take down Mr Rushmore too, while you're at it. America is solely built on graves and ashes. I mean that literally, its not hyperbole. When we build side walks and streets over them, we just toss one of these little markers at it. Every square inch of America. Some are just better hidden.
They did, then in hindsight gifted NACCP $1 million each for the huge mistake.I know a lot of people that hate them want to use it as an excuse but Ryan has created a diversity program at his company after this and they tried to learn from their mistakes and we should all strive for the same.
I have a black cousin who got married on a plantation, which was odd to me, but maybe it was a sort of empowering thing to use it for her own purposes? Or maybe for some people a nice looking building is just a nice looking building?
the NYT did a piece specifically on Black couples getting married at plantations. "adding solemnity to the event" or some such. i don't get it but i guess i'm not the point. 🤷🏼♀️
Wannsee is just an upscale suburban neighborhood of Berlin; it doesn't have any negative connotations beyond "rich people." The Wannsee Conference House is a very good museum of the Holocaust - better than the city center memorials - and wouldn't host weddings like the plantation houses.
Yeah, so here it's just a neighborhood. Same way Dayton is just a city (and not just the accords), Chicago is just a city (and not just the citation format), etc.
Agreed: as important as the other city center memorials - and definitely wouldn't host weddings (about 1 request per year) or any other event that is not related to the history of the Holocaust or its consequences (about 1 request per year as photo or film location).
In New Jersey there are a number of recently-constructed buildings that are made to look like old-fashioned mansions or castles, but somehow miss the mark and end up looking kinda shit, and those are popular for weddings.
Honestly, most churches would provide a better backdrop...
& the South was poor when Northern states were building grand civic works. So much of the built environment is unrelenting postwar sprawl, and where can you take engagement photos there? (Besides stormwater ponds) https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2015/8/4/suburban-engagement-photos
I agree with you but please do not use Auschwitz whenever a historical atrocity comes to mind. We, as a nation, do not need this word to recognize our own inhumanity.
Comments
1 major thing that needs to change when the fascists are dragged out is public edu. in the states & being sure to teach the horrors
I can't see any other reason to visit a plantation.
2) and that would make it okay?
'What' do you think isn't okay?
But like, at least get rid of the old architecture literally built by slaves
#ThereAreNoCoincidences
it's because people are racist
"See it wasn't THAT bad if you dress up things to look better than even some modern day places instead of preserving the history that shows the horror show it was!"
The important thing to me is to acknowledge the history honestly.
The white house, the Capitol... courthouses and other buildings...
It's not like these people are having weddings there to celebrate it.
Yeah the architecture is cool from a bygone era, but it's not piles of skulls or anything, sheesh.
My ILs in Alabama by the Gulf live with a cotton plantation right up the street. It’s so freaking weird to me
https://www.eonline.com/news/1185191/a-look-at-blake-lively-and-ryan-reynolds-deeply-controversial-wedding
At least in part because it was the first word out of the mouths of most people who'd seen the first three episodes of #Andodr this season.
Honestly, most churches would provide a better backdrop...
https://vizcaya.org
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2015/8/4/suburban-engagement-photos
https://www.facebook.com/dtcarypark/posts/pfbid02ddv9sqb8n7oUMviC1WySmPdBSYcARuK7orrEqjmeBrPNoRzDUF727xfSRtxaCKdql