Heather and Bryan had the pleasure of traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana for a week in Spring 2019. As for any good history nerd, much of their trip was devoted to seeing the unique historical sights of the lower Mississippi. This post begins a series on their experiences with the interpretation of New Orleans history for the public.
While visiting New Orleans last week, Bryan and I made a day trip west of the city to two of Louisiana’s most famous plantations: Oak Alley in Vacherie and Whitney in Wallace. Although the sites are only separated by a 15-minute drive, they’re worlds apart in how they grapple with our nation’s most painful and contentious history: slavery.
At their agricultural zeniths, Oak Alley and Whitney were titans of the lucrative Gulf Coast sugar trade. Each growing season, they relied on slave labor for the planting, cultivation, and reaping of acres of sugarcane. Through backbreaking and dangerous manual labor, the cane was processed into refined sugar and packaged for sale to wealthy buyers.
Like many others over the decades, the two plantations fell into disuse and disrepair. It wasn’t until outside buyers purchased the properties and funded their renovation in the last 50 years that they reclaimed some of their former grandeur. Today, these plantations are preserved and interpreted as historical sites for crowds of tourists from across the country and around the world.
Visiting these sites back-to-back on the same day was a purposeful decision for me and Bryan. We knew of Oak Alley’s reputation as one of the many “moonlight, magnolias, and happy slaves” house museums. We’d also heard of its recent attempts at a more conscientious interpretation of slavery and were curious to learn how those attempts would hold up to scrutiny. The priority for both of us, though, was visiting Whitney. When I was in college, I read a fascinating New York Times article about the opening of the Whitney Plantation museum, and I’d kept it in mind to visit ever since.
Because Whitney is, in large part, a response to tourist destination plantations like Oak Alley, we decided to begin our day at Oak Alley and continue on to Whitney after lunch.
The first feature you notice when pulling up to Oak Alley is the eponymous rows of live oaks leading up to the Big House. It’s a breathtaking and iconic view that’s largely to thank for Oak Alley’s popularity. After you purchase your ticket (in 2019, $25.00 per adult), the first exhibit you encounter is “Slavery at Oak Alley.” Admirably, it’s also listed before the Big House on the introductory panels at the plantation’s entrance. Included in the exhibit are several reconstructed slave cabins with furnishings, chicken coops, and laundry kettles. Each cabin includes a small sign with interpretive text detailing the day-to-day lives of the plantation’s enslaved laborers. Repeatedly, the signs remind visitors of the cruelties of life under slavery; at least in this exhibit, there is no “happy slave” mythology to be found. Another refreshing surprise: Outside the slavery exhibit, the plantation gift shop includes a bookshelf dedicated to the history of slavery and freedmen.
Despite these pleasant surprises, though, Oak Alley remains shackled to a whitewashed interpretation of its history.
In the Big House, tours are lead by docents in antebellum hoopskirts, and guests can choose from three flavors of mint julep to sip on the restaurant patio. Oak Alley’s biggest problem, though, is that the “Slavery at Oak Alley” exhibit by its very nature offers none of the glamour of the Big House. Its humbleness makes it easily bypassed by tourists chasing Kodak moments of the plantation’s iconic architecture and landscaping. In short, Oak Alley’s slavery interpretation is an opt-in experience.
Just 10 miles down the road, though, visitors can find slavery interpretation that is anything but optional.
There’s nothing elective about dealing with the tough stuff at Whitney. At this site that one reporter goes so far as to call “America’s Auschwitz,” no matter where you turn, hard truths are staring right back at you. Even before you meet your guide and begin the tour ($23.00 per adult), you’re given a lanyard to serve as your ticket throughout your visit. On the front of each lanyard is a photo of one of Whitney’s famous clay sculptures that depict children who were enslaved on the plantation. The reverse gives what little information historians have salvaged about that person’s life and death. To reconstruct the lives of Whitney Plantation’s enslaved laborers, the site leans heavily on oral histories recorded by the Depression Era Federal Writers’ Project and on historical records kept by the plantation.
Throughout the grounds, memorials to the enslaved dominate. The Wall of Honor lists the names of all those known to have been enslaved at Whitney during its operation. The Allées Gwendolyn Midlo Hall lists the 107,000 names recorded in the Louisiana Slave Database. The Field of Angels is dedicated to 2,200 enslaved Louisiana children who died before the age of three.
Where Oak Alley’s atmosphere buzzes with admiration and delight, Whitney is decidedly solemn and reflective.
Our tour at Whitney Plantation was well researched and informative. Our guide, Ali, drew clear connections between racism and capitalism throughout history and between slavery and its echoes of poverty, colorism, and mass incarceration in the present. With authority, he laid out slavery’s naked truths and repercussions. There were no frills or theatrics, and we came away with a sense of gravity. From the slave cabins to the Big House, at no point did Whitney give us the luxury of ignoring the unpleasant truths of the past. For those uninitiated into the harsh realities of plantation history, the tour would no doubt be uncomfortable. We got the sense, though, that Whitney may be more of a place of pilgrimage than learning. Those in our group were quiet and respectful. The eager faces of Oak Alley were nowhere to be found.
While it was refreshing to see the progress being made at Oak Alley, the contrast with Whitney was stark. Oak Alley’s interpretation may have given a nod to slavery and its atrocities, but Whitney looked it square in the face and refused to back down. We were grateful to have had the chance to see both, and we look forward to watching how the two institutions continue to evolve in response to the changing backdrop of current events.
One reply on “Interpreting the Big Easy: Wrestling with the Past at Oak Alley and Whitney Plantations”
Thank you so much for such a thoughtful and conscientious article. It’s very helpful as one researching where I want to go on a brief trip to New Orleans. I’m excited to see if much has changed in the last five years.