To understand where we are, we need to know how we got there. I post a ton about Black Lives Matter on facebook because it's important to me. But I refuse to be an armchair supporter that sits home and just posts stuff with no real action. My two main goals are to be a voice to call out racism and to do the best I can to make my kids, the next generation, more active in ending racism.
Today we took the kids to the nations only slavery museum in the country,
The Whitney Plantation. I admit I was nervous about how to explain to my 4 and 6 yr old that black people used to be treated as livestock, if not worse, and not humans. London was somewhat taught about segregation already. But this was a whole new level. With the current events going on and the conversations they are hearing we felt it was time.
When we got the the plantation we were each given a necklace with an excerpt of one of the slaves from the plantation's story. Jordan got a card about a slave boy who was 5 yrs old who got caught trying to learn to write and received 25 lashes for it. This really upset her once we explained what a lashing was. I was pretty nervous to continue at that point, but we did. Our next stop was to go into a church building that was used post war as a school for the kids as well as a church. In the church they had statues of all the kids on the cards that we got. We each found our card's person. When jordan found her statue she softly went up to it and placed her hand on his heart. She was quietly talking to the statue. She was having a moment so we gave her some space and didn't listen in. There wasn't a dry eye that noticed this. Many people afterwards told me how moved they were by that moment. <3 p="">
After the church we were taken to the memorial walls. These walls had all the names they know of for the slaves of just Louisiana. A surreal moment occurred one on girl called to her mother that she found great great grandma's name! I only got one picture of the walls because I was fascinated listening to this family talk and teach about the stories they knew and heard. They were very well studied up on the history and made better tour guides than the one we had. One of the family members was a little boy the same age as jordan. They were buddies throughout the tour. The next memorial area we went to was dedicated to all the slave babies who had died in Louisiana. (under the age of 5). Jordan very much realized that the amount of names was "to much".
Next we were taken to the slave housing. These houses would hold one whole family, sometimes generations. And with women breed to produce more slaves they would have up to 16 kids. Something I learned was that slavery was made illegal for international sales in 1804. But in the USA we kept going and instead started to breed them for more "suitable" workers. (stronger, taller, etc).
The bowls you see in the pictures are what the slaves would put the cane sticks in then boil them down. You may be able to see their are kid statues on the porch of these homes. Jordan sat down next to the one and just sat there and quietly talked to them as if they could understand her. She seemed to feel like there really was someone still there.
After the housing we got to see the "holding cells". These were used to hold the slaves before being sold, up to 15 in one section.
Next up was the kitchen, which is the oldest kitchen of this type in Louisiana.
And near by was the barn (we didn't go in), which we are told is the only creole style barn left in Louisiana.
Lastly we went into the main plantation home. The guided pointed out that main house was closest to the river and the more valuable the items the closer they were to the river. When she pointed that out London was quick to realize that it meant the slaves were valued less then the barn animals.
At the end of the tour we got a few minutes to walk around under the beautiful trees in the front yard of the house. Apparently they would have monthly lynchings on those trees and while that was going on the family and friends of the house would have parties with food and fun under the body. Those same trees I was looking at for their beauty just seem so horrible at the same moment.
On the way out of the main house on the way back to the front Jordan and her buddy who's family is decedents of a slave from there were holding hands and laughing. It sounds so cheesy but to see those to young kids doing that made me feel so much hope for the future!
