Were Slaves Really “Well-Fed”? Tour the Whitney Plantation and Find Out | ESSENCE Live

hello I'm Dana Blair host of essence live and presently we are at the Whitney plantation here in Wallace Louisiana an extremely beautiful and historic plantation and I'm joined by dr. sec how are you and you I'm very well thank you and you're gonna take us on a tour of the Whitney plantation ish share a little bit of a history with us what is the significance of the Whitney plantation the Whitney plantation is a sacred ground so many people suffered here I will share with you the history of the plantation people who lived here and who enslaved who they were where they came from the contribution of these people not only to the building of wealth but also to making of the culture and American identity and large can you ring that bell here can i yeah whoa go ahead I'm not gonna break it am I you're no bullet it's a way to pay homage to the people who suffered here but also to remind people that this was the club on the under plantation now we can go and see the war of Honor and this is a place where we honor the memories of all the people who enslaved on this plantation on one side of the wall you'll have people mostly born in Africa on the other side we have people mostly born in the United States the slave codes starting with the French was really harsh on the runaway slave you run away for the first time they catch you they would blend you on one shoulder with the fleur-de-lys to the old french flag and then they crop your ears they cut your ears sock on offense they brand you on the second shoulder you the fleur-de-lys and then they cut your hamstrings you know what a month ah yeah the Cuddy cannot run anymore and if by any chance you crawl away again they cut your head it is the desert death sentence so slavery was a very very violent institution it was about a lot of pain inflicted to the flesh of the enslaved people in order to tame them this is a much larger Memorial mm-hmm we call it the vonlee Midler Hall alleys this guy here is being punished can you see this is the master mess yeah and was holding the whip a slave a slave he told the system of divide and conquer that's why they say that there was a lot of hatred between like the fieldhands and the domestic right and between the fieldhands and slave drivers but I'm telling you in term of revolution they will get together this is what we call the field of NGOs but memorial dedicated to children who died in slavery in the middle of this field we have the statue it's about an angel with like black and female features coming down on a plantation to take a dead baby to have her every day the people were taken to the field to work even mothers with nursing babies but you see here you have young young ladies giving the breast - they - to the children because they were allowed to get back to the play to the quarters twice a day to give the breast to the children is that enough just twice twice now in the day today no this one is about the middle passage from Africa you see these people are caught like in a vortex yes we'll see hand sticking out remove chuckles they are drowning asking for rescue that never came and this one to the left this is the celebration of freedom this is so powerful yeah these two slave cabins they are original to the grounds of the Whitney plantation and how old is this I I suspect that they did back to the early early early 19th century I hate moving them I would it was my pleasure to take you through this it is not it is not a pleasant story but we have to you have to tell it we have to tell the story of slavery yes definitely thank you so much doctor this country will be greater it has been already great but to be greater if they decide to solve the problem of the african-americans they may take the flesh but they know what were able to take the spirit it is not just about the history of pain and 52 games let people because also about the tremendous contribution to the auction you

Channel: ESSENCE

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Keywords: bill o'reilly, whitney plantation, slavery, michelle obama, speech, fox news, well fed, essence, essence live, essence magazine, well-fed, slaves, plantation, black, people, african, africa

Id: ArljJFUX8YE

Length: 5min 33sec (333 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 05 2016