Whitney Plantation, Wallace, Lousiana
During my trip, my visit to the Whitney Plantation was one of the most emotional experiences for me. I have a soft spot for children, and this plantation's mission is to tell the story of slavery through the eyes of the slaves, most of them through the viewpoint of the children.
When people think of slaves, most people forget the fact that there were generations that were born and raised into slavery and the children were raised into this cruel lifestyle thinking that was all that their life had value for.
There are 40 of these statues throughout the plantation. They are life-size statues of children with no eyes. This was done deliberately by the artist to give the statues a sense of anonymity. When I first saw these statues, I was filled with sadness and I could sense that this was going to be an emotional ride.
Some of their stories
There are a few walls with quotes and different stories from former slaves that they had recalled to people about their time growing up as slave children. Most of them are very hard to read and hard to imagine people treating another human in this way.
When children used to get a whipping, they was taught to turn ‘round and say, “Thank you, ma’am, for whipping me” and bow. This was mighty hard to do, but we were never allowed to pout. If we did, we got another. And if we just needed being punished, we were put behind a door and had to stand on one foot until we were ready to say we were sorry, and promised not to do it again. If we told a story, our mouths were washed out with a soaped rag.
Francis Lewis
Louisiana Slave
I ‘member how my master use to would come and get my sister, make her take a bath and comb her hair, and take her down in the quarter all night, den have de nerve to come down around de next day and ask her how she feel
Julia Woodrich
Louisiana Slave
My father wuz sold ‘way from us when I wuz small. Dat wuz a sad time fer us. Mars wouldn’t sell de mudder’s ‘way rom deir chillun so us lived wid her out de fear ob bein’ sold. My pa sho’ did hate ter leave us. He missed us and us longed fer him.
Honnah Chapman
Slave homes
The slave homes on the property where quite a ways back from the main house and close to the sugar cane fields.
The homes were built in two long rows with the fronts of them facing in towards a main street in the middle. They were built like this by the masters as a form of intimidation because the masters knew they couldn't punish all the slaves because it would make them all less effective in the fields, so they would force all the others come out of the homes and watch as they punished a few of them in front of all of them.
Children were forced to watch as their mothers and fathers were beaten in front of everyone. The amount of mental abuse as well as physical abuse that was inflicted on these people was unimaginable.
The homes were built without nails using tongue and groove and other techniques. They were built this way because the slave owners did not want the slaves to have access to anything that could be used as a weapon against them.
The living conditions were very dismal and cramped. They ended up sharing the bed and rotating the sleeping arrangements as the different shifts worked the fields. Most of the time people ended up sleeping wherever there was space.
In closing
I hope that you have learned something by taking the time to read this post. Slavery in the United States was a horrible time and there is nothing that can be done to change the fact that it happened. Ignoring it and trying to forget that it happened is doing a disservice to everything these people went through. We must tell the stories of those that endured this horrible life and educate people on the atrocities that were committed against them.
I have said nothing political in this post nor have I mentioned the Civil War, so I would appreciate if you are going to make comments, please refrain from making this a political argument or one about the Civil War. The purpose of this post was to shed some light on the life of the slave children and the life that endured.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read my blog. You are awesome.