The Unveiling... Our little known History.

Down on the Old Plantation

On a visit to Nottoway Plantation in Louisiana in the 1990’s, we were told by the tour guide that the outside path from the kitchen to the main dining room was named “The Whistle Walk.” So named, she said, because enslaved people were required to whistle to assure they did not sneak bits of the food as they carried it to serve their white masters. This, we later learned, is a common story told about plantation life--and some people question how prevalent the practice was. But we’ll report it here because we heard the disgusting story from Nottoway’s own spokesperson.

Let’s state their message clearly: You prepare the fine food we bought with money stolen from your forced labor. You and your family will receive meager rations to keep our profits high. So you may be tempted to eat of this fine food purchased through money stolen from your forced labor. We won’t allow it. We will eat the fine food bought with money stolen from your forced labor, and you must whistle while you bring it to us so we can be sure you don’t get a crumb.

This is a small, nonviolent detail of relations between white and Black people on plantations. We hate to report that the white tour guide shared the story with a smile of amusement at the old ways.

And little has changed. If you google Nottoway Plantation today, you will find “Nottoway Resort” advertised as the “South’s Largest Antebellum Mansion,” at 53,000 square feet. Photos and text lovingly present a place of grandeur, still wistfully hearkening back to beautiful old days. There is no language to reveal it as a place of bondage or violence.

The story still unexamined, the truth still not told.

A Facebook thread, “5’ 7” Black Male, absurdistwords@,” urges us to rethink, rewrite how we talk about the antebellum south and slavery—so that we can see it clearly and not fall prey to the minimizing and romanticizing we’ve been taught. He says in our language we should swap out familiar terms for truthful ones:

Slave owners: Human Traffickers

Slaves: Hostages

Overseers: Torturers 

--We would also say, Plantations: Forced Labor Camps.

So, let’s try it for Nottoway:

Come see Nottoway Forced Labor Camp!

Founded by Human Traffickers, John and Emily Randolph,

Who held 155+ Hostages,

Many relentlessly guarded by their Torturers,

As they worked in extreme heat for no pay from sunup until sundown

in the sugar cane fields

And tripled the Randolphs’ wealth between 1842-1855

Please visit soon!

***

In our own city of Louisville, antebellum history has been preserved in a portion of the Farmington Historic Plantation, which was founded by John Speed in about 1809.

To Farmington’s credit, they are working with descendants of the enslaved (hostages) to tell its true history, the good and bad. They’ve more honestly maintained the name “Plantation” so we can sit with that truth. They’ve also established a memorial to honor the enslaved (hostages) who once lived and worked there, and Farmington’s (labor camp) website includes a discussion of the real lives of those held in bondage.

And that reveals much. Despite claims that the Speeds were kind human traffickers, their hostages did sometimes run away; newspapers ran ads for their capture. One Black woman, who later lived past slavery in Louisville’s Smoketown, often told the story of how she and her mother briefly escaped from Farmington but were caught in a skiff attempting to cross the Ohio River to Indiana. Try to imagine the terror and despair they felt as they were apprehended and then returned to captivity.

After John Speed’s death in 1840, the people he held hostage were divided up as inheritance for his children. To keep the numbers “even” and “fair,” some Black families were broken up and individuals were separated from their loved ones to go and serve their new owners (human traffickers).

At Farmington, the major crop was hemp. Hemp was needed in slavery days to make ropes for tying bales of cotton and to make bags to hold the cotton. The Speed family gained extreme wealth and status from the sale of hemp, which was grown and harvested in back-breaking work by human hostages.

If you’ve never understood why many people feel reparations are necessary, perhaps this will help clarify:

A magnificent home built by hostages at a fraction of the cost if workmen had been paid. Materials of the highest quality acquired with profits (theft) of forced, unpaid African American labor. Enormous wealth to pass down to the  human trafficker’s descendants. A lifestyle of ease created by demanding full servitude (for life) of African Americans, who heard the subtle or overt threat of violence behind every command. All sanctioned by the U.S. government.

And these times are still romanticized as not that bad for those held hostage and economically beneficial and necessary to this country’s development, perhaps the worst insult of all.

         *But their point acknowledges why federal reparations should be studied and implemented: our country did become wealthy and powerful—the most powerful in the world—in large part, due to an economic system in our beginnings that relied on the kidnapping, imprisonment, and exploitation of Africans (enforced by violence) to ensure free labor. Reading history will show how many American industries exploded in wealth due to the slave trade (human trafficking)--not just cotton, not just rice, not just hemp. Insurance. Banking. Railroads. Universities. And many more. And what wealth has grown from them?

To his credit, James Speed, John’s son, divested himself of slavery by 1850 and was a strong abolitionist. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln appointed him Attorney General of the United States. 

As noted above, Farmington has acknowledged the truth of its past. In 2003, they dedicated a memorial “…to commemorate the lives of the people enslaved on this property between 1809 and 1865. Designed to provide a quiet spot to acknowledge the contributions of the people enslaved at Farmington, and to contemplate the local and national impact of slavery, the memorial consists of a bronze medallion set on a landscaped terrace fitted with stone benches.”

Which is a good start for repair. Repayment should come next.