Perhaps he heard my sigh
for he quickly informed me that the plantation we were to
visit was unique. It’s the only one in the United States
that has been reconstructed, he informed, to tell the story
of slavery and plantation life from the viewpoint of the
enslaved Africans.
And so it was.
The Whitney Plantation,
located on the banks of the Mississippi River in St. John
the Baptist Parish, is about 50 miles outside of New
Orleans. The plantation, originally named Habitation Haydel,
was founded by a German immigrant, Ambrose Heidel, in 1721.
Three generations of Haydels (as the name would be spelled
in the second generation) owned and operated the plantation
until the Civil War, first with indigo as the main crop and
then, in the late 1700’s, switching over to sugar cane.
The plantation was in a
state of disrepair for decades until purchased about a dozen
years ago by a local Louisiana family with the idea of
turning it into the museum it is today – a memorial to
African slaves.
The present-day owners
engaged Ibrahima Seck, PhD, a faculty member of the history
department of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, Senegal
to ensure that the reconstruction would be historically
accurate. Seck’s academic research has been devoted to
African history in Louisiana. His doctoral thesis was
entitled “African Cultures and Slavery in the Lower
Mississippi Valley, from Iberville to Jim Crow.”
Over the years, Seck, now
the academic director of the Whitney Heritage Plantation
Corporation, has transformed the plantation into a memorial
to the thousands of Africans who were enslaved and brought
to this country to enrich European landowners and
manufacturers.
Using the Louisiana Slave
Database, built by historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall in 1992,
Seck gathered the names of virtually all the Africans
enslaved in Louisiana from 1719 – the arrival of the first
slave ship directly from Africa – to 1820 when the slave
trade on the high seas had been effectively outlawed by
Great Britain.
Seck has turned the
Whitney into a memorial not only for the Africans who lived
and toiled at Habitation Haydel but also in honor of those
who were enslaved all over Louisiana. Included are names,
many countries of origin and, in some cases, quotes from the
enslaved Africans (gathered from the Library of Congress
from work compiled by writers during the heyday of the New
Deal’s WPA in the 1930’s).
He has also has taken
pains to emphasize the influence in Louisiana of the various
ethnic groups to the region – the melting pot. Louisiana
heritage is a combination of a variety of African, European,
Caribbean and Canadian influences – “Bouki Fait Gombo, Lapin
Mange Li” goes the famous Louisiana proverb from the late 19th
century evoking the multicultural reality of the plantation
slave communities. “The He-Goat makes the gumbo, but the
rabbit eats it.” Bouki – in Senegalese is the hyena who does
all the work; the rabbit is the folktale ancestor of Br’er
Rabbit and Bugs Bunny.
The Whitney Plantation
sits on 40 acres and consists of a blend of restored
original buildings and buildings newly constructed to
resemble the originals.
The Big House, an original
building, is neither imposing nor big. Habitation Haydel was
a working plantation and the owners’ dwelling was not their
primary residence. The house, initially built on stilts,
reflected the practicality of living so close to the
volatile Mississippi.
The plantation houses the
oldest kitchen in Louisiana, a French Creole barn, a
blacksmith shop and quarters for the enslaved Africans.
These cabins originally numbered 22 but most were torn down
in the 1970’s. There are currently seven on the property –
two original structures.
However, the memorials to
the enslaved distinguish this plantation from any other.
Opened in 2014, it’s still a work in progress. The Wall of
Honor is dedicated to all the people enslaved on Habitation
Haydel – the names and related information is engraved on
granite slabs.
Allees Gwendolyn Midlo
Hall is a memorial dedicated to all of the 107,000 Africans
enslaved in Louisiana from 1719 to 1820. The Field of Angels
is a section of the slave memorial dedicated to 2,200
Louisiana slave children who died in St. John the Baptist
Parish. Most recently, a memorial comprised of bronze heads
has been erected to commemorate the participants of a slave
revolt in 1811, those who were captured, tried, found guilty
and decapitated – their heads then placed on stakes at the
sites of various plantations to warn others not to entertain
thoughts of fighting for their freedom.
The most moving part of
the plantation, however, are the 40 life-sized statues – in
terra cotta and bronze – of the slave children of the
plantation. Located in the chapel and in various other
buildings, the life-like sculptures are a stark reminder of
life on the plantation and the very real children who would
grow up to perform the brutal work of the plantation –
growing and harvesting the sugar cane, boiling it into the
raw sugar product so it could turned into rum or sold to
sweeten the coffee of Americans and Europeans.
The bronze heads
representing the rebels of 1811 and the children’s statues
are the work of Akron artist, Woodrow Nash.
The Artist - Woodrow Nash
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