First U.S. slavery museum memorializes and educates
(The Christian Science Monitor) Unlike other antebellum plantations on the winding River Road along the Mississippi, which are known for their manicured gardens and as locations for weddings, Whitney Plantation, near Wallace, Louisiana, has a different purpose: to tell visitors the story of slavery in the United States.
The museum is the first of its kind in the country. It opened in December 2014 after John Cummings, a real estate magnate and retired New Orleans trial lawyer, spent $8.6 million of his own money redeveloping the 250-acre site.
Cummings purchased the former plantation from a petrochemical company 16 years ago. Researching its history, he found household inventories from former owners that showed that “the second most valuable property here next to the real estate was slaves,” he said.
