But, more disturbing than anything, there was no mention whatsoever about slavery. Nice try, Oak Alley, but we know the truth. Even so, if you're going to visit a plantation, this was a gorgeous one that's worth a gander.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Antebellum Memories: Oak Alley Plantation
Neither of us had ever been to a plantation, so we took a trip to Oak Alley.
The place was beautiful, and the trees were amazing. The tour was kind of stupid, though. Pictures inside the home were not allowed. (Yeah, I sneaked a few.)
But, more disturbing than anything, there was no mention whatsoever about slavery. Nice try, Oak Alley, but we know the truth. Even so, if you're going to visit a plantation, this was a gorgeous one that's worth a gander.
But, more disturbing than anything, there was no mention whatsoever about slavery. Nice try, Oak Alley, but we know the truth. Even so, if you're going to visit a plantation, this was a gorgeous one that's worth a gander.
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Great shots!
ReplyDelete-- Oak Alley
Beautiful house. And those trees are amazing. They probably don't want to harsh anyone's buzz by mentioning that pesky slavery business.
ReplyDeleteWe did not have the completed research or proper training for our tour guides to tell an accurate and complete story on slavery, and we would prefer they not spread dis-information to the public.
DeleteAfter two years of hard work, we have now researched extensively the enslaved community at Oak Alley, have trained our tour guides to discuss it accurately, and have just now opened our new exhibit, Slavery at Oak Alley. It is a very complete and compelling story about the enslaved community at Oak Alley, and we agree that it is very important that we tell that part of Oak Alley history, and we do so accurately and completely.
It's beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI went here too! But we were only able to stay for 45 min, which was pretty disappointing. I noticed they never mentioned the slaves on the tour also ... but then again, we didn't stay for the whole tour either. Boo.
ReplyDeletei love so much mr. mo's willingness to ham it up in photos for you.
ReplyDeleteThey are beautiful pictures, but I would like to share some comments regarding the Bloggers comments!
ReplyDeleteFirst, we want every visitor to have a wonderful experience. I am very sorry that yours was not up to your expectations. In regards to tour, I would consider it a favor if you would call me and share with us parts of the tour were sub-par. We are constantly working to get better and better at what we do!
Second, I see your visit was listed as March 2012. Assuming that is correct, I would share two points with you:
Currently, the tour inside of the house DOES allow photography. While we did not allow photography for many years, we are adjusting our policies to meet visitor expectations. Assuming all goes well with this test, we will continue this practice.
Also, the house tour does typically include a very brief discussion of slavery, although we encourage our tour guides to individualize the tours based on questions by the visitors. Perhaps your specific tour guide inadvertently skipped over that part of the tour.
When you were here in March 2012, did you take the full grounds tour and see our reconstruction activities surrounding the original slave quarters? To more appropriately discuss the issues around slavery, and to honor the hard work and suffering of the enslaved people, we are rebuilding 6 of the original slave quarters on our grounds, and will offer a variety of educational materials to help explain this issue with honesty and with candor.
Gary
Director of Technology, Education and Media Production
Oak Alley Foundation
Gary:
ReplyDeleteWe visited Oak Alley in late December of 2011. I wrote about it here:
http://brainsandeggs.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-orleans-for-in-between-holidays.html
Our tour included extended and frank discussions of the slaves at Oak Alley, and your website used to contain a page with the names (and their dollar values as declared at the courthouse in 1848 for tax purposes).
http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/about/slavery/
That page has been removed. May I ask why this history has been recently whitewashed?
Simply because we were in the process of a complete overhaul of our website, and did not want to repost information that had been found to be incomplete and inaccurate. Please see our follow up post for additional information about our new exhibit on slavery.
DeleteWe are pleased to announce that our extensive slavery exhibit opened to the public this week. This detailed project took over two years to complete, and covers all aspect of slave life specifically at Oak Alley. Rather than tell a generic slavery story, we have the names, occupations, families and many other details about those that were enslaved at Oak Alley. We agree that it is important to tell the full story of Oak Alley, and we are pleased that we can now tell an historically accurate, complete, and compelling story of the enslaved community at our plantation. It is very moving, and it will help us to never forget a terrible time in America’s history.
ReplyDelete