First opened to the public on December 7, 2014, The Whitney Plantation Historic District is a museum devoted to educating the public about the history of slavery and its legacies. The museum, including the main house and outbuildings, is preserved near Wallace, in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, on the River Road along the Mississippi River and is the first and only U.S. museum and memorial to slavery.
The plantation was started in 1752 by German immigrants, Ambroise Haydel and his wife, and their descendants owned it until 1867.
References:
- National Register Database, Louisiana. n.d. “Whitney Plantation Historic District.” National Historic Places Register.
- Amsden, David. 2015. “Building the First Slavery Museum in America.” New York Times.
Photo:
- Leiser, Bill. The Big House at Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, 22 June 2016. CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.