The South has always been known for its hospitality and the stretch of the Great River road from New Orleans to Baton Rouge is no exception. Just check out the San Francisco, Oak Alley, Laura and Houmas House plantations.
These advertisements say it all right? Beautiful extravagant mansions, Cajun and Creole restaurants showing off the best of Louisiana cuisine. The southern hospitality could be yours with overnight cottage stays at Oak Alley priced from $175-325 per night, breakfast and Wi-Fi included. All the cottages have central air conditioning and heat, and most have cable. Better yet, have your wedding there; $2500 for a private evening ceremony and up to 125 guests in this beautiful place. What’s not to love? Slavery? I remember learning about that at some point. In fact, the old slave quarters are available for your viewing pleasure too, if you’re into that.
In fact, now that I think about it, maybe pay this other place a visit first, a place called Whitney Plantation. No lodging or weddings there, but it offers guided tours for just $22 at most giving you the opportunity to see another huge mansion right after you walk into the old slave jail. You’ll have to deal with bars in the way though. Other attractions on this guided tour include memorials listing the names of all the slaves who worked and died on the plantation. Throughout the tour you can see statues showing what slaves looked like. The last thing you’ll see is a row of sixty ceramic heads lining the lagoon in memory of those slaves that were executed in 1811 for a revolt known as the German Coast Uprising (the area had been known as the German Coast due to the many German immigrant planters in the area.) The insurgent slaves all underwent show trials before they were executed, and their heads mounted and displayed as a warning to other slaves.
On second thought, don’t go to Whitney. It’s too scary. Having all that dark history thrown in your face might scar you for life. How’s that for Southern hospitality?
Author’s Note: The above article is meant as a satire and does not reflect the opinions of the writer. I hope that this project calls attention to the important ways in which large plantations like Oak Alley ignore their own past and the cruelty that made it all possible. The Whitney Plantation serves as an important and unique exhibition of the true human cost of the lifestyle and excess that defined the South before the Civil War. While both are considered as plantation museums, only Whitney seems to market itself as such, by including information about slavery on its website and marketing based on educational tours. The Oak Alley website, meanwhile markets its event planning, lodging and restaurants more than tours making it seem more like a destination resort.