“12 Years a Slave,” which takes viewers into the deep interior of a
plantation, may be a Golden Globe-nominated film of searing depth – but
for some, it’s a wedding backdrop.
Plantation weddings aren’t anything new (and as Ani DiFranco showed,
plantations can be sites for other misguided events as well). But with
the popularity of Pinterest, the visual of heterosexual, primarily white
couples exchanging kisses on plantation grounds is being neatly folded
into the virtual “romantic” wedding aesthetic. A simple visit to the
open “wedding” boards can yield a pin or two of large white columns and
an extensive bridal party lined up at various plantations around the
country, sandwiched between pins of classic three-tiered wedding cakes
and fluffy wedding dresses on hangers.
Many of the wedding-venue
plantations currently floating around Pinterest have a pronounced
history of slavery – which is reduced to a mere line or two in the
“history” on some websites.
Oatlands Historic House and Gardens in
Leesburg, Va., which did not respond to emails for comment, was founded
by a “young bachelor” from a prominent Virginia family in 1798,
according to its website. Oatlands openly states that this bachelor’s
“growing wealth was based on enslaved African Americans,” and that the
plantation once had the largest slave population in Loudon County at 128
slaves.
“Unfortunately, little documentary evidence remains about
the personal lives of these workers or the slave culture at Oatlands,”
the website states.
“Workers” is just one of a few curious terms
chosen by these historical properties turned wedding venues, some of
which refrain from explicit use of the term “slaves.”
Belle Meade
Plantation in Nashville, Tenn., which also did not return emails for
comment, describes the “136 enslaved workers” who used to inhabit the
once 5,400 acres of land prior to the Civil War.
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