- Nottoway Resort (1859-2025 May 15 fire) slave hair chair (31025 LA-1, White Castle, LA) 70788.jpg (125.72 KiB) Viewed 532 times
Nottoway Resort (1859-2025 May 15 fire) slave hair chair
(31025 LA-1, White Castle, LA) 70788
Largest antebellum mansion in the south — built in 1859 with 165 rooms — burns to the ground
https://nypost.com/2025/05/16/us-news/f ... m-mansion/
One of the largest plantations caught on fire, and it's just one more remnant of how history is lost (and society grows dumber by the day.)
Something that basically only existed for a brief time during the period of slavery should have been preserved as a museum and historical reminder of what history was (in contrast with the majority who would have suffered in spite of it; and how that parallels with modern day capitalism.)
The mindset of the idiots that fought for the south during the Civil War have not disappeared, if they didn't realize it (and some parallels can be made to those in Qatar who are linked to terrorists; and the current President of the USA that emboldens those we call terrorists, as well as insurrectionists (or homegrown terrorists as they should rightfully be called,) against the very nation they purport to remind ourselves is a problem from a standpoint of historical preservation (ergo the Constitution and all this nation ONCE stood for. . .)
So basically, is Trump a Robert E Lee with his fanbase playing cosplay Confederates/Proud Boy/Gestapo? Are the new plantations just the big companies who exploit the labor of the taxpayer, while not paying taxes, and destroying our infrastructure to profit from the subsidies?
These kind of discussions get muted in FB groups, since thinking might be a bit too much trouble, so they would rather ignore it and not understand it objectively from a dialectical framework.
*************************************
I was looking over some of the photos of the place, and I believe one of the chairs had been stuffed with human hair (that was most likely from African Americans.)
Even if its time as a slave plantation was cut short, many people would have still been working their in conditions not too different from before the Civil War. Going to the historic Presidential houses like Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, James Madison Montpelier, James Monroe Highland, or George Washington's Mount Vernon estate, have significantly more connection to slavery (and usually because they are able to profit from it as a national park and charge an entrance fee, do they remain open and preserved.)
Whether the place had an arson attack or a wiring issue (or perhaps was an insurance claim if a lot of what made it profitable would have been difficult since covid,) is questionable.
Either way, if the government wants to destroy the historical recognition of what happened in American history, I wouldn't be surprised if people will come for the more historical reminders of what this nation was founded upon. . .
That photo might have been an example of how neglected the place was (the usual things people posts when they spend hundreds of dollars to stay at such places,) but it seems the property owner wasn't sure how to preserve the chairs historical integrity (and fabric that was probably original to when the house was built.) Most of these homes deteriorated rapidly after the Civil War and it's one of the themes of the video game Red Dead Redemption 2, which the property reminds me of.
Assuming it were arson, I tend to think it's no different from if the Taliban destroyed Buddhist statues, or destroyed ancient Roman ruins that happened to remain in a territory where it's now considered "harem."
I also view it as a representation of how modern day capitalism is based on the traditions of slavery, and how only the most wealthy people attained that wealth by owning slaves. Many modern corporations are based on slavery, whether it be IBM (though they deny it) with ties to the number system used for Jews in the concentration camps (which have monuments to the tragedy) or even modern companies like Nestle (that exploited labor) or King Leopold who would chop off the hands of poor people in Africa if they didn't collect enough "widgets" or cocoa pods.
Slavery is far more plentiful today than it was ever in human history; least we forget it (and people continue to "feed the machine" just like babies being incinerated in a sacrificial bull or at the feet of a Moloch statue in Carthage etc.
I suspect much of this will "go over peoples heads."
********************************
Though I fully agree that such a location should never be used to perpetuate the antebellum delusion of prosperity since it's akin to the Gilded Age 1.0 and 2.0 treatment of society and perpetuates inequality on the tailcoats of slavery; it seems to miss the point. Does removing memory erase the ongoing perpetuation of injustice, or does it cause people to forget the ongoing issue of systemic populist rhetoric and tribalistic tendencies (where narcissists can have wet dreams about having people subservient to them and controlling their lives at the end of a weapon, or to sabotage their existence and cause a brooding depression, akin to the Midas touch of poo.)
If it was used as a wedding function, so have airplane museums cosplay as WW2 era "feel good because the bad times are over" wedding venues. . . Go figure. People like to imagine things as if they are some Renaissance Faire, where they get to play King (and omit the fact that their queen get's beheaded and they move onto the next one; so perhaps they should educate about that? It might be important context. . .
I view it the same way as the town of Marshall TX, where a historic church was burned down, but it would have been after the Civil War, and yet the town was also known to have taken part in slavery (hence it was adjacent to Jefferson, TX named after one of the biggest slave owners in the countries history,) and also had the headquarters for the Confederate Capital of Missouri.
If people have no memory of their past, they don't know how to process it, and it only builds antipathy if people don't acknowledge the horrors of history for what it is. The systemic racism and problems society faces are due to the inability for people to acknowledge what is happening all around them (hence the problem with the government destroying black history and dismantling institutions that served in that capacity to educate us about it.)
And perhaps all the statues praising such history should be removed and placed in a location where people realize it's not being glorified, but so should they also see the whipping posts (such as the only one in existence in a Virginia Museum) along with reminders of Civil Rights movements, and how society has progressed. . . And yet VERY FEW even seemed to acknowledge what was happening in the Capital. . . By someone like Elon Musk, no less, and his coterie of droogs.
The history of capitalism:
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10- ... -know.html
