#Whitney Plantation

[wandering-jana]

Live oak.

Whitney Plantation, Louisiana

Oct. 2023

[mediaomnivore]

I found myself in New Orleans, Louisiana on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year so a few friends and I went to the Whitney Plantation, which has been turned into a museum where the history is narrated in a way that centers the experiences of the enslaved people who worked there. This is some of the art we saw.

[ausetkmt]

Alabama sculpture park evokes history of slavery

[blackhalee]

Whitney Plantation

[hungrytravellers]

New Orleans And All That Jazz

[armandposting]

if you're going to go on any plantation tour ever go to the Whitney Plantation, which is a museum and preserved plantation focused exclusively on the history of slavery. it's the first and possibly still only museum dedicated to slavery in the US and does not present itself as a pretty venue but a site of tragedy. and for the love of god go to actually learn something.

[littlebitfurtheron]

btw its actually crazy that plantation tours are a thing that exist in the u.s. and that theyre not all set up like memorials similar to concentration camp museums like how is this marketed as a chill tourist activity or wedding destination and not extremely disturbing and depressing to see. worthless country

[ladiablesse]

what yall aren’t gonna do is invalidate plantation tours as a whole and act as though they are inherently bad. like ik the whitney plantation in nola does a really good job of providing a space for education and mourning that centers the lives of the enslaved without any mysticism or fetishization. it’s important that those sites exist to preserve history in the same way that it’s important sites like auschwitz are preserved. but like if you’re going to do it you have to do it right the stakes are too high and you cannot afford to allow any space for trivialization. that being said i feel like it takes effort to do something as evil as host/attend a haunted plantation tour. like you must want to burn for eternity.

[little-desi-historian]

So, I’m researching the seven years war.

All I have to say is, God damn it! English, French, and all colonizers (extremely derogatory).

Also, George Washington and Robert Rogers are here to!

I’m convinced you can’t research the American revolution without researching the seven years war first.

Just this once, in this sole instance, historical! Washington had a very small semblance of moral high ground, he was an aid to camp on the English side, but he didn’t want war, he did everything in his power to prevent the war. His superiors and the French still blamed him.

I’m still dragging all colonial powers equally, additionally, Jefferson and Washington aren’t safe from my disdain.

👏 Tallmadge 👏 only 👏 gets 👏 a 👏pass 👏 because 👏 by 👏 the 👏 regency 👏 era 👏he 👏 hated 👏 slavery and 👏 we 👏 fully 👏would’ve 👏lost 👏 the 👏 revolution 👏 were 👏 it 👏 not 👏for 👏 the 👏 culper 👏 ring 👏 and 👏French 👏 backing. 👏

Tallmadge & slavery: not an exception, but in hindsight, better than most. (borrowed from @mollafer)

Above average, comparatively. Re: Benjamin Tallmadge the historical figure. (An opinion from @mollafer I generally agree with, and, but, cultural genocide and subjugation are still… well that).

Slavery is still an atrocity and makes people chattel and enforces white supremacy, it was designed as such.

American revolution, an ever growing master list of reading, compiled by me (I’m willing to crowd source should anyone have recommendations!).

New Orleans: Whitney plantation. Slavery from the black experience.

White man’s law.

On historical fiction and representation.

[kolajmag]

KOLAJ INSTITUTE NEWS

Plantations as Buildings, Metaphors and Systems of Power

Artists Tyler Allen (La Marque, Texas, USA); Rashad Ali Muhammad (Clinton, Maryland, USA); Alicia Saadi (New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA); Jennella Young (Brooklyn, New York, USA); and Karin Williams (Socorro, New Mexico, USA) gathered at Kolaj Institute in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 13-17 October 2024 for a week-long artist residency focused on Plantations as buildings, metaphors, and systems of power. On Monday, the artists visited the Whitney and Laura Plantations. On Tuesday, they heard a presentation from Jeanna Penn (Oakland, California, USA) about Reconstruction and how she incorporates history, material culture, and archives into her artwork. Penn also spoke about contemporary artists who use history in their artwork. Ric Kasini Kadour presented a curatorial framework for the larger Castles project to which the artists are invited to contribute artwork. Click Read More below to learn about these individual artists. Read More

To participate in an upcoming virtual residency or to learn more about the Castle project, CLICK HERE.

*****************************

Kolaj Magazine, a full color, print magazine, exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present.

SUBSCRIBE | CURRENT ISSUE | GET A COPY

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[benandstevesposts]

Federal Agency Rejects Developer’s Report That Massive Grain Elevator Won’t Harm Black Heritage Sites

For the second time in six months, a federal agency reprimanded a Louisiana developer for failing to adequately assess the harm that its proposed $400 million agricultural development would cause to neighboring Black communities and historic sites.

In a forceful letter dated Dec. 23, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected claims by the developer, Greenfield LLC, that its massive grain transfer facility in St. John the Baptist Parish upriver from New Orleans will have “no adverse effects.” The Corps is considering a permit application by Greenfield to build on federally protected waters and has the power to halt the project.

That new report, which the Corps received in November, did not address the agency’s demand that the developer conducts a more complete assessment of how the project could damage historic sites and harm residents of nearby towns, according to the Corps’ December letter.

“The report,” the letter reads, “just doesn’t demonstrate adequate engagement, and that must be rectified.”

A Greenfield spokesperson said our team of respected expert consultants and have done thorough evaluations to consider any and all potential impacts. The statement said Greenfield takes seriously its responsibility to provide regulatory agencies with accurate and complete information consistent with the regulatory requirements.

The Corps’ letter criticizes Greenfield and its contractors for failing to meaningfully consult with people whose lives would be impacted by the dozens of looming grain silos, new rail, truck, and shipping traffic, and pollutants from the facility. It says Greenfield and its consultants have not done enough to account for how the development project might harm communities of color, a requirement under federal environmental justice standards.

“It’s very disappointing that they would continue to double down on the report, that they are still saying there will not be any detrimental effects,” Erin Edwards, who blew the whistle on the earlier report, told ProPublica in a recent interview.

“It’s very disappointing that they would continue to double down on the report, that they are still saying there will not be any detrimental effects,” Erin Edwards, who blew the whistle on the earlier report, told ProPublica in a recent interview. Edwards co-authored the first version of the information when she worked as an architectural historian for Gulf South Research Corporation, the for-profit cultural resources, and archaeological consulting firm hired by another of Greenfield’s consultants to conduct a federally required assessment of historical sites.

Edwards resigned in late 2021 after her report was stripped of every mention of possible harm to communities or cultural properties, including her conclusion that the area surrounding the development should be listed as a historic district because of its connection to histories of slavery. In internal Gulf South emails obtained by ProPublica, a company manager wrote that it would lose its contract for the report — and could lose future work — if it didn't change the findings.

“Gulf South knew all along that the project would harm the historic plantations there, and they knew that it would hurt the area as a whole,” Edwards said. “There’s no way to look at the evidence and not see that it’s going to be detrimental.”

The Greenfield grain facility has been the target of sustained pushback from nearby communities, civil and human rights groups, and historic preservation organizations, as well as from other federal agencies, including the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which oversees national preservation policy. The land where the development is planned sits beside the Whitney Plantation Museum, which serves as a memorial to enslaved people in Louisiana. One plot of land down the river is another unusually well preserved plantation designated as a National Historic Landmark.

To read the ProPublica Report, you can find the complete publication by clicking here and going directly to the information by visiting their site.

[yr-obedt-cicero]

I think the reason why Hamilton never addressed slavery or abolition after John's death was because it all reminded him too much of his partnership with John and would have been really painful to go back to. but I think if John was still around he definitely would have worked more on ending slavery then what he did

That is actually quite far far from the truth.

Hamilton didn't just completely dismiss slavery or abolition after Laurens's death. After the Revolution, Hamilton became a founding member of the New York Manumission Society. Hamilton, Robert Troup, and William Matlack, proposed imposing strict timetables on when a member of the Society would be required to free any slaves they owned. Hamilton was a loyal and hardworking member of the New York Manumission Society. He remained a member until his death in 1804, and he also served as legal counsel for them when he was in desperate need of money and had turned down jobs with payment. Additionally, Hamilton prioritized his work at the Society enough so that he would stay nights working there instead of returning to his family at the Grange. [x] Also when the Manumission Society was established in 1785, the society sought both to agitate the New York legislature for a gradual abolition law and to protect freedmen from the scourge of kidnappings plaguing the city. [x] All of which Hamilton helped contribute to. [x]

And I don't even think Laurens has any relation as to why Hamilton didn't make as much of a commitment in antislavery proposals and opportunities. When Hamilton was Treasury Secretary, he undermined the plantation system of the South that perpetuated the institution of slavery in favor of industrialization, which he had initially hoped would eventually get resolved into a thriving economy—And in extension, would no longer rely on slaves labor. Hamilton's lack of assistance in abolitionism was arguably due to his belief - that eventually proved wrong - that such activism wouldn't be necessary (Although that also could have just been his excuse when associating with other planation or slave owners like Washington or the Schuylers'). The Massachusetts's courts had abolished slavery entirely, while Pennsylvania and New York were already instituting gradual abolition laws. Also influential men like Washington were setting examples of manumitting slaves upon their death (That didn't work out so well). The Industrial Revolution took hold, even inventions like Whitney's Cotton Engine were coming to light, and the need for financial investments like plantations were seemingly becoming unnecessary. Unlike England, the US didn't have such a large population of the landless lower class to supply labor for industry. So, for a period of time, the inevitable demise of industrial slavery seemed concrete. Hamilton didn't even mention slavery once in his report of exploration in labor forces on Manufactures. [x] Because if slavery was indeed going to slide down the landside of declining need over the same time as manufacturing and industry increased in need, then it wasn't even worth a thought in his solution to the foreseeable labor shortages.

It is true that Hamilton didn't prioritize putting an end to slavery as much as he passionately felt about other issues at the time, but I think it's just ridiculous to tack on grievance as an excuse to not speak out or do anything against human suffrage and bondage. This is Hamilton, who wrote several pamphlets during his life time, and was notorious for doing so with such a passionate drive and talented skill—he should have written about it far more, but he also didn't throw it all out the window due to Laurens's death. I mean, I'm sure Laurens would have given him that push to do more, but I don't think it's relevant to why Hamilton didn't do more.

[geneajournals]

Georgia Land Lots - A key to researching deeds

I first encountered the term land lot in the Early County, Georgia Tax Digest. As I transcribed the tax information on Mingo Bryant I noted the land lot number and did not give it any thought. Little did I know that this was the key component for Georgia property records. Land lots are unique to Georgia.

Georgia Land Lots

After the American Revolution, the new state of Georgia experienced an influx of people seeking their fortunes.  Fueled by the invention of the cotton gin, cotton became the major cash crop.[1]  The state of Georgia coveted the Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) territories for expansion of the plantation system. Increasing the population of Georgia would ultimately increase the state’s political power in Congress.[2]

 

Georgia. Drawn by S. Lewis. D. Fairman sc. (Boston: Published by Thomas & Andrews. 1812). Shows Cherokee and Muscogee territory. [3]

Over a period of time Georgia  obtained ancestral Cherokee and Muscogee lands. In 1803 the state of Georgia devised a Land Lottery system to redistribute the land to white settlers.  As Georgia gained aboriginal domains, new counties were created by the Georgia Assembly. Land within the county was surveyed and divided into districts.  Each district was subdivided into numbered land lots.[4]

Georgia held eight land lotteries between 1805 and 1833.  The lands west of the Oconee River and south of the Altamaha River were distributed in lotteries prior to 1833.[5]  Each lottery had different size land lots, eligibility and fees.  

Early County was created in 1818 from Muscogee (Creek) lands.  It was part of the third land lottery which took place in 1820.[6]  The original county was divided into districts 1 to 28 (except 24 and 25).  Each land lot was 250 acres and the grant fee was $18.00 per land lot.[7]  Click on the link 1820 Land Lottery for additional information.

1830 map of Early County, Georgia showing land districts. [8]

Early County, Georgia, District 6

Look at this MAP to view the 1820 District Plat survey of Early County, District 6.  Click on the double headed arrow to expand the map. This will enable you to zoom in and see the actual land lot numbers.

Several of my ancestors are recorded living in District 6, Early County Georgia in the 1870 U. S. Census. So far my only ancestors associated with a land lot number are my 2nd great-grandparents, Mingo and Jane Bryant.  In the 1879-1881 and 1883-1884 Early County tax digests Mingo is recorded in District 6 with 250 acres real estate, [land lot] no. 223. [9]

Beginning in 1885 Jane Bryant appears in the Early County, Georgia Property Tax Digest as follows:

Now I have a land district and land lot number for Jane Bryant.  My next step will be to search for a deed to the property.

The state of Georgia still uses districts and land lots in legal descriptions of land.  Georgia requirements for property surveys specify,  “The land lot, district, section, militia district number (in Headright Grant areas), city (if known to be within the city limits) and county shall be called out in said description.” [13]   A  legal description of land in a Georgia deed consists of the land lot, district, lot number and a recorded plat map.  A more detailed legal land description has details of the metes and bounds in lieu of the recorded plat map. [14]

Sources

Wikipedia contributors, "Eli Whitney," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eli_Whitney&oldid=1158507059 : accessed July 31, 2023).

Wikipedia contributors, "Georgia Land Lotteries," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Georgia_Land_Lotteries&oldid=1132885851 : accessed 31 July 2023).

“Georgia,” digital image, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection (https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~31711~1150506:Georgia : accessed 31 July 2023), citing A New and Elegant General Atlas. Comprising All The New Discoveries, To The Present Time. Containing Sixty Three Maps, Drawn by Arrowsmith and Lewis (Boston: Thomas & Andrews, 1812), map 45.

District Plats of Survey, Survey Records, Surveyor General, RG 3-3-24, imaged as "District plats of survey." 1805/1833. Georgia Archives (http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/landingpage/collection/dmf. : accessed 29 July 2023).

“Schley County, GAGenWeb Project Page -- Land.” the GAGenWeb Project ( https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gaschley/land.htm : accessed 1 August 2023).

Lucian Lamar Knight, A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians, Volume I (Chicago: New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1917), p. 488, digital images, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books : accessed 29 July 2023).

“Third or 1820 Georgia Land Lottery”, Georgia Gen Web, Crawford County Georgia (http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ga/county/crawford1/Land/thirdlottery1820.htm : accessed 30 July 2023).

Carlton Wellborn, Orange Green and W.Hoogland, Map of the state of Georgia, drawn from actual surveys and the most authentic information. (New York: W. Hoogland, 1830); digital image, Library of Congress (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3920.tr000287 : accessed 3 August 2023); clip of Early County, Georgia.

Early County, Georgia, "Georgia, U.S., Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892,"  all years read for entries relating to Mingo Bryant; consulted as "Georgia, U.S., Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892"; digital images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Sep 2021) > Early > 1878-1882 > images 120, 247, 391, 537 and 688 of 702. 

Early County, Georgia, Tax Rolls 1883-1887, unpaginated entries arranged chronologically, all years read for entries relating to Jane Bryant; consulted as "Georgia, U.S., Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892"; digital images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 19 Sep 2021); Images 427, 577 and 733.

Ibid

Early County, Georgia, 1890 Tax Book, Damascus Militia District 854, entry for Jane Bryant; digitized in "Georgia, Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892", database, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 Apr 2021) Early > 1890 > Image 157; citing Georgia Tax Digests [1890], Georgia Archives,  Morrow, Georgia.  

Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, electronic edition, Georgia Secretary of State (https://rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/180-7 : accessed 1 August 2023), Technical Standards For Property Surveys,  “Rule 180-7-.02 Land Titles and Location.”

John Bennett, “Georgia Real Estate Legal Descriptions,”  post, Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/georgia-real-estate-legal-descriptions-john-bennett# : published 8 May 2023).

[ausetkmt]

"Forgotten Slave Cemetery Uncovered After a Century of Neglect | Shell Convent Refinery"

CONVENT, La. (AP) — A major oil company is taking steps to honor once-forgotten slaves buried on its land west of New Orleans in an area where sugar plantations once abounded, an effort that some hope will grow into a larger movement to recognize and protect such cemeteries around the country.

The Shell Oil Company marked, blocked off and spruced up the tracts near its Convent refinery west of New Orleans and held dedication ceremonies in March, about five years after archaeologists confirmed the presence of slave burial grounds in 2013. The company also has been working with the nearby River Road African American Museum to arrange commemorative events and accommodate visitors.

It's the latest example of the South's decades-long path to acknowledging unsavory aspects of its history.

For Kathe Hambrick, the director of the River Road museum, the work is the culmination of years of efforts to ensure that Shell honored and remembered those buried on what used to be the Monroe and Bruslie sugar plantations, just two of many plantations that once abounded along the road. Hambrick said there are likely hundreds more such graveyards between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Some of the restored plantations are themselves undergoing a rediscovery, moving away from their romanticized "Gone With the Wind" portrayals of the past to offer a more realistic look at the South's history of human bondage. One, the Whitney Plantation in the town of Wallace, opened in 2015 as a full-fledged museum with an unvarnished look at the cruelties of slavery.

"We ought to work together to figure out how ... to evaluate the things that we want to preserve, protect and teach about in terms of how this country was really developed," said A.P. Tureaud Jr., the son of a revered New Orleans civil rights lawyer who counts slaves and slaveowners among his ancestors.

Tureaud, who traveled from his current home in New York to attend March dedication ceremonies for the Monroe and Bruslie sites, has joined with Hambrick in an effort to give slave gravesites federal protection. The two have brought their idea to the attention of U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, whose district includes most of New Orleans.

Vincent deForest, a civil rights activist who helped preserve two slave cemeteries in Washington, D.C., said he and others are urging the Congressional Black Caucus to get involved. DeForest would like to see the National Parks Service undertake a study to identify ways to preserve such sites in every state.

"The wholeness of the living is diminished when the ancestors are not honored," deForest said, quoting one of his favorite epitaphs.

Sandra Arnold, a fellow at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, is leading a project to compile a database of slave burial grounds, but notes there is a dearth of records.

"It's as if their humanity is erased," Arnold said.

Thurston Hahn, an archaeologist with Baton Rouge-based Coastal Environments Inc., said it's reasonable to believe many of the slave graveyards along the River Road have been farmed over or covered by levees or petrochemical plants.

"The problem with the slave cemeteries — we just do not know where they are," he said.

It's a problem researchers working farther south, in the Louisiana city of Thibodaux, can relate to.

Anthropologists and geophysics experts from Tulane University are among those using radar and soil samples in hopes of discovering the burial sites of dozens of African-American victims of Reconstruction-era racial violence that came to be known as the Thibodaux Massacre.

The descendants of massacre victims and Confederate plantation owners have formed a committee to honor the victims of that violence and, if possible, find a mass grave. If a grave is eventually discovered, they want any remains exhumed and reburied on consecrated ground.

No such grave has yet been discovered.

The Monroe and Bruslie sites were found during land surveys commissioned by Shell as it prepared for a construction project that has since been abandoned for economic reasons not related to the cemetery discoveries.

Ground-penetrating radar and the careful scraping away of topsoil exposed variations of color and texture in the dirt, indicating the presence of graves, Hahn said. The remains of the slaves were not uncovered and the number of graves could only be estimated.

"We don't want to disturb them at all," Hahn said. "We are just looking for a shaft that the gravedigger dug to put the burial in."

Hugues Bourgogne, general manager of the Convent refinery, said Shell wants to honor and respect those buried at the sites. In addition to protecting, preserving and marking the cemeteries, Shell has installed iron benches where visitors can sit, reflect and pay their respects.

Visitation opportunities are limited, however. One day a year will be set aside for planned activities at the sites and Shell will work with descendants and other interested groups to arrange safe access at other times, he said.

Malaika Favorite, an artist and lifelong area resident, says she knows she has ancestors who were enslaved and buried at plantations, but hasn't been able to isolate the burial sites. Now she feels a little closer to doing that.

"Just making this step with the graves here is a step forward," she said. "And we need more of that."

[thoughtportal]

In 1915, Marcel Duchamp bought a snow shovel at a hardware store in New York City. He inscribed his signature and the date on its wooden handle. On the evening this episode is released, the fourth version of this classic “ready-made,” which he titled “In Advance of the Broken Arm,” will be auctioned off at Christie’s during their 20th Century Evening Sale. It’s estimated to sell for $2 million to $3 million.

How could a simple snow shovel be valued at such a steep price? Was  Duchamp an unmatched genius, or a product of some of the biggest museums’ dirtiest little secrets: the results of pure, unadulterated capitalism?

Northeastern University professor, essayist, poet, and editor Eunsong Kim has illuminated the underlying influences of industrial capitalism and racism behind some of the most prized museum collections in her new book, The Politics of Collecting: Race and the Aestheticization of Property. She traces how Duchamp was brought to prominence through the patronage of collectors Louise and Walter Arensberg, heirs of a fortune wrought by the steel industry. Their family operated steel mills in the same setting as titans such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, whose wealth also underlies their own valuable art collections.

And as it turns out, the “death of the author,” celebrated in conceptual art like that of Duchamp, is a convenient idea for the ultrawealthy. Devaluing labor pairs well with violent crackdowns on striking workers to deny them adequate pay. Or even Frederick Winslow Taylor’s development of “scientific management,” a system that is still cited today but is based on the idealization of the slave plantation.

How much of the Modernist archive was canonized by union-busting bosses? How much of conceptual art in the 20th and 21st centuries has been buoyed by the reverence of scientific management? In this episode, Editor-in-chief Hrag Vartanian sits down to talk with Kim about her new volume, which challenges generations of unquestioned received knowledge and advocates for a new vision of art beyond cultural institutions. In the process, they discuss the craft of writing, how a White artist was counted as a Black artist at the 2014 Whitney Biennial, and how Marcel Duchamp got away with selling bags of air. {listen}