Would You Have Your Wedding on a Plantation?

By: Rafeeat Bishi

          I was reading one of the articles for homework from BBC that had some interesting quotes I think could be elaborated on. I searched up plantations in Charlotte and Google described it as "historic lush gardens with zoos". Very interesting


         "Kameelah Martin, Director of African American Studies at the College of Charleston echoes Eaves when she says: "We would never go to, say, the 9/11 Memorial and host a big party or have a wedding.""

      
        --- I agree. When we see 9/11 you can consider it a symbol of amazing bravery and the lives of those who were killed, but at the end of the day the dead are dead. And celebrating *your* life is not some act of kindness or honor. 


           "When asked why, 400 years on, we should still talk about slavery, Martin says: "Maybe your ancestors didn't participate, maybe you have no connection to it directly. [But] in 2019 we are still dealing with the implications and the impact and the racial disparities that are a result of that way of thinking, of that way of life."


        ---- I rarely know how to answer this question but I think I'll use this from now on. We interact with the effects of slavery everyday, so why not talk about it?

"They wouldn't go to Auschwitz or Dachau and expect to hear a happy narrative and walk away cheerful, because they have an understanding that this was a place of death and exploitation and forced labour. A slave plantation was just that, even though, yes, this was someone's home."

---- Mr. Gaines brought up the idea that plantations are conventionally pretty as opposed to camps. This is interesting. In my opinion, you can find other pretty places. This country is huge. If you want the scenery a plantation is not necessary. And this isn't HGTV. The slaves didn't just think of cute ideas to cultivate a garden. It's forced labor.

"This is a place of labour and great suffering, but this was also a place of family," Neale says. "Not only for the Middletons but for the enslaved. I think as long as we respect the history, we can also use it as a place for someone to create their own memory out here.”

---- Yeah like I said before, that family aspect of slavery usually came from forced breeding. Not to invalidate anybody's existence, but I'm pretty sure the babies and families that were created - and destroyed - by slavery would consider this a place to create happy memories. I don't think marriages will remove the hundreds of years of negativity. It can't outweigh them.

I think this is a nuanced discussion. What I see often is the argument that this can honor the dead. But in my opinion, both sides need to remember that the dead are dead. We can say what they may or may not have wanted, but unfortunately we'll never know. I think ultimately out of respect for slave descendents and those who suffered in general, these plantations should remain strictly for historical purposes. When we try to take positive aspects of it, we become desensitized to the brutality they represent. Slavery can't just be swept aside.