In order to discuss these problematic issues and how this Old South fantasy is still present in 2022, it is important to explore this through physical sites and spaces in New Orleans’ French Quarter, the outskirts of the French Quarter, and a stark contrast between the Whitney Plantation and the Oak Alley Plantation. Jackson Square, one of the most popular tourist attractions in New Orleans, is quite literally placed in the center of the French Quarter, and surrounded by shops, and every street emerging from the square has shops. In the square, there are musicians, palm and Tarot readers, and artists selling their works. Cafe du Monde is located in the square, which no doubt brings tourists and brings in a lot of money for the tourist industry. The shops in the French Quarter, specifically Jackson Square, are insanely expensive, and I can imagine these shops bring in a lot of money and business considering their proximity to Jackson Square. Close to Jackson Square is Congo Square, now known as Louis Armstrong Park. Congo Square is located on the outskirts of the French Quarter, and our group did not notice nearly as much tourist activity here as we did in Jackson Square. Congo Square is the location of a meeting spot where enslaved people would meet every Sunday and perform traditional dances and celebrations from West African traditions, and became a space of resistance. There are little to no shops located in close proximity, at least in the same way as those in Jackson Square, and Congo Square is not advertised the same way Jackson Square is.  There is an abandoned auditorium in Congo Square, and it is separated from the French Quarter by a major road. This separation is obviously in part because of history and the way New Orleans was built, with all the implications that come with this, but how can this be altered today? Why does Congo Square continue to be disregarded as a major tourist site? Why do tourist companies and advertising agencies choose to advertise some locations, and disregard others?  

Over the course of a day during our trip, we spent half the day at The Whitney Plantation, and immediately after we went to the Oak Alley Plantation to eat lunch. The Whitney Plantation is a site of memorial for what happened to enslaved Black Folks, and acknowledges the brutalities, torture, and sufferings that happened on that land. Every site is specially curated to cater to memorial, and one of the most notable aspects of the plantation was how the big house was completely empty; The Whitney refused to cater to the Old South, Gone with the Wind fantasy, as one of the English professors, Dr. Salinas, described on the grounds of the Whitney Plantation. The big house being empty symbolized, in a way that highlights the effects of enslavement and how horrific this system was, a ghost-like, haunting time that should be long gone, hence the lack of this fantasy, and very much still present in the modern age, as the big house is still standing. The Whitney Plantation was haunting and one of the hardest sites I have ever been to; there was an overwhelming feeling of heaviness and grief in the air, and the land was treated with great respect and acknowledgment with not just the way the big house was portrayed, but the artworks, memorials, and research that went into giving enslaved folks a name beyond a number and categorization of “slave,” or an unfortunate by-product of this fantasy; here, this fantasy does not, and will never, exist. At the Whitney, enslaved men, women, and children will be memorialized, and as an educational tool, the Whitney is immensely valuable. By not playing into this fantasy and brushing the history under the rug as “just the way things were,” we can see this time in American history as not normal, and not something to be glamorized and holds a tragic legacy hundreds of years later. 

Media and literature surrounding the Whitney Plantation is another element of the representation of this site as both a tourist site that brings in revenue, an educational tool, and a memorial is also something to be considered. There have been news segments that describe the Whitney’s mission and path to becoming a site of memorial. However, when our group did research into the history of the Whitney Plantation, we could not find any literature that describes the horrors that happened on the plantation, or even an acknowledgement into the legacies of enslavement. Our group found a book that included the Whitney in relation to a list of plantation homes along the Mississippi River, and the chapter on the Whitney Plantation discusses the ownership history, names of enslaved people that lived on the property, and how the Whitney evolved as a place of dubious business. (Rehder. Chapter 9) 

The Oak Alley discusses enslavement in a completely different way, this being not at all. The house is the centerpiece of the whole experience, with perfectly trimmed bushes and paved pathways to the big house, with the slave cabins being made into “overnight cottages” (oakalleyplantation.web) We ate lunch in a small venue, that Dr. Baptiste described as a small wedding venue, fit with a dance floor and romanticized images of the house and the history of the house. One of the tourist selling points of the space is that many films, television programs, and music videos were filmed on site, the most famous being Interview with a Vampire. (oakalleyplantation.web)  

The most problematic, and marketing point, of the Oak Alley Plantation is the construction of the plantation fantasy through the face of the big house, which creates a face of the “Good old days of Dixie Land,” completely disregarding the brutalities that happened so the house could be as grand as it was, and remains. The fact that the cabins, resembling slave cabins, are a marketing point for the plantation, not just add to the false “charm” of the big house, but normalize the horrific and absolutely inhumane conditions enslaved people lived in. This plantation fantasy that is constructed through the big house being the focal selling point of the plantation parallels Margaret Mitchell’s novel, and eventual major film , Gone with the Wind, and the way this film treated the topic of enslavement of Black people and White supremacy. Tara, Scarlett O’Hara’s ancestral home, and Scarlett’s undeniable privilege with her grand, fluffy, and elaborate gowns surrounded by male suitors with a devoted enslaved woman, Mammy, doting on her hand and foot, serves as a backdrop of an idealized world that crumbles after the Civil War; this idealistic backdrop glamorizes this lifestyle as the South diversifies after the Civil War, and the film portrays this as a threat against this fantasy, even going as far as to portray this as a tragedy. The Oak Alley Plantation mimics this fantasy in a lot of ways outside of the big house being a focal selling point for tourists. 

When our group had lunch at the Oak Alley, we were denied entry into the big house, and the land surrounding the big house, because we did not pay the $30 fare. We were allowed into the restaurant and the gift shop across from the restaurant. When we moved closer to the big house, there was a gate with a stop sign, that forbade patrons who did not pay entry, which alarmingly resembles a scene in Gone with the Wind, where the 12 Oaks Plantation has a sign that forbids trespassing, and those who do will be dealt with (Gone with the Wind. 10:47) All of this resembles, and creates, an elitism and hierarchy within the plantation fantasy; if one does not pay, or if you are not of kin to Scarlett O’Hara, you may not make entry. Connecting price to this narrative creates an elitism and illusion of luxury and Southern comfort, which constructs an “American Southern Dream” This elitism promotes this hierarchy rooted in racism and White supremacy; if you are “one of us,” in this instance, the likeness of Scarlett O’Hara, you are “superior” and must exploit others if you are “superior”. This harmful elitism has given birth to not just plantation homes like the Oak Alley capitalizing the fantasy, but a disturbing sub-branch of plantation weddings, that the Oak Alley is more than prepared for. By constructing this space, and thus narrative, as a fantasy place and marketing weddings, this fantasy is not acknowledging the nightmare of this legacy and how that legacy has continued to repeat itself time and time again in the United States, and especially the South.  

To further elaborate upon the idea of capitalizing the plantation fantasy, I would like to add that I had an absolutely eye-opening conversation with Dr. Baptiste shortly after the visit during a dinner with the community partners of the trip. The gift shop was full of coffee mugs, oven mitts, bottles of hot sauce, Christmas ornaments, and informational books with the big house and the Oak Alley’s logo painted on them. Taking the marketing of the plantation fantasy into consideration, this is another element of this outside of the tickets into the plantation. Bringing home a souvenir is something personal, and Dr. Baptiste described this as an element of owning a piece of the plantation. In the words of Dr. Baptiste, if someone buys a coffee mug, and they use it everyday, it is a memory of when they were on their plantation; creating personalized items with this logo adds to this plantation fantasy that can keep this fantasy and its harmful implications alive outside of the Oak Alley’s grounds.  

An essential question to ask, taking into consideration the contrast between the Whitney Plantation and the Oak Alley Plantation, alongside Congo Square and Jackson Square, is why do tourist companies in New Orleans market on the Old South, Dixieland fantasy? It is true that New Orleans has a rich history and unique, distinct culture, but why are these companies and tourist culture focusing on a one-sided, and oppressive, lens of this history? Granted, there are spaces for tourists that represent all groups of people, but plantation tourism is the harmful, and profitable, aspect of this piece of New Orleans’ identity. Why don’t we question these things as tourists? Why do tourists blindly, and willingly, engage in the plantation fantasy? Granted, this does not mean that places like the Oak Alley Plantation should be closed off from the public and banned. With this being said, how can the Oak Alley Plantation take responsibility for the horrors that happened on the property, and turn it into both a tourist site and educational tool that does not glamorize this myth and fantasy? One big question that we asked ourselves over the course of our trip and research was how can tourism in New Orleans become more conscious of all cultures and identities of people, considering the history of New Orleans as a cultural hub. When we visited the Oak Alley Plantation alongside the Whitney Plantation, this question especially came to mind considering plantation tourism is so popular in both New Orleans and the southern states.  

 

Gone with the Wind. Fleming, Victor. Selznick International Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 

1940. 

Rehder, John. Chapter 9; The Whitney Plantation. Delta Sugar. The John’s Hopkins University  

Press. 1999 
Oak Alley Plantation Website 

We noticed in our research of Congo Square, Jackson Square, Whitney Plantation, and the Oak Alley Plantation stark differences between the places that tourists tend to inhabit and places that contain rich cultural history, and what is expressed in the forefront. In Congo and Jackson Squares, we noticed how tourists contribute to the environment of a space and its surroundings. The Whitney and Oak Alley Plantations were met with shock and disgust at the contrast of the differing presentations of the same history. 

When doing a Google search on the Whitney Plantation, we see that it is described as a Museum while the Oak Alley Plantation is described as a Tourist Attraction (see images to the right). This label further emphasizes that while these two locations are both plantations, they are being used and understood very differently. Additionally in this differing advertisement, there is a book on the Oak Alley Plantation titled: Capturing Oak Alley: Visions of a Louisiana Great River Road Plantation completely glamorizing the space with the various images it shows.

When going onto the Whitney Plantation website, like most museums, there are many places that direct the viewer to ‘Plan Your Visit’ or ‘Purchase Tickets’. However, there is also a ‘Education’ and ‘History’ tab that are something that the Oak Alley Plantation website does not have. The ‘Education’ tab provides resources for all ages, a link to their podcast, and has a space for information about their educational tours for 5th to 12th graders. The ‘History’ tab provides detailed history about the plantation itself, with different sections breaking down information into different sections in order to allow folks to really understand the space that they are entering. It also allows those who are not visiting the plantation to have access to information and the history of the space. The Oak Alley Plantation website is very different from the Whitney Plantation website. While they did have a ‘Area Information’ tab, it did not provide nearly as much detail about the plantation— you have to go to other links and another website to get more information about the location. Additionally, the website advertises the ways that people, not just tourists, can use the space. They can stay overnight in the cabins— which also represent slave houses— host events, such as weddings, or even film movies or television shows at the location, all of which completely disregard and erase the horrific history of the plantation and capitalize on the space.

Some things that specifically stood out to me while I was there was the “mapping” of the spaces— the Whitney Plantation aimed to accurately represent the past regarding the locations of the Big House versus the slave quarter while the Oak Alley Plantation grouped everything together to create this false idea of what life was like. Additionally, the ‘gift shops’ at each location were drastically different. The Oak Alley gift shop was very similar to other gift shops that one sees at other tourist spots where folks could buy postcards, alligator heads, alcohol, food, ornaments, and other items that are placed to serve as mementos of a capitalistic fantasy. At the Whitney Plantation, their gift shop was very different where the items all provided a piece of history or were educational resources— one of the books they sell is The 1619 Project which we read in the ANSO 426: Lest We Forget class for this research cluster. 

Overall, these two spaces are used for very different reasons and it is important, as tourists, to understand the locations that we are entering and to avoid contributing to the erasure of certain histories. 


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Whitney Plantation Website
Oak Alley Plantation Website
Capturing Oak Alley: Visions of a Louisiana Great River Road Plantation Book