I do so agree with you! A museum is preservation, a party venue is totally glossing over the atrocities that happened there. I am sickened by people who bird hunt, party, and showcase these plantations that were built on slavery and the misery of others.
This, right here: "That’s not preservation. That’s theater." Damn straight, MK. As someone who grew up so far removed from this, all I can say is that your words carry weight, and I hope they reach the people they need to.
"Turning it into a museum..." It's not preservation if it only tells one side of the story. It has to be a bloody "tell all" accounting of subjugation, oppression of Black people and how evil the White overlords were during those "antebellum" days. Preserving the White way of life at the expense of the people they stole from their families and their native lands is not "preservation," it's renewed oppression.
This right here....this sums up what I try to articulate but couldn't, "Y’all wouldn’t buy a house where one person died tragically, but you’ll throw a whole entire party at a place where hundreds were enslaved AND killed" Thank you for speaking and writing what we all feel and think!! Thank you for being brave and courageous when others around us act like we are overly emotional, overly woke, overly everything. Thank you.
Yeah, as a disabled person tomorrow I'm going to a protest as my state plans to turn a site that tortured disabled folks into a theme park. It's devastating disabled folks have been crying out since the start of a plan. They won't include our desires in plans. Even while some of the tortured are still alive to watch it happen.
This article is a valuable addition to the corpus of writing on how we treat the past. (The current searing controversies surrounding many Black cultural sites and school curricula come to mind.) Remembering history is important; how we remember and interpret it is critical.
I understand the anger and the heartbreak in this post—and I agree that the way we talk about plantation homes in the South has often been steeped in denial, erasure, and deeply offensive nostalgia. But I don’t think celebrating the destruction of a 166-year-old structure is the answer either.
You say “there is Nottoway to get it back,” and maybe that’s meant to be cathartic. But burning history—even the darkest parts—doesn’t change it. It doesn’t cleanse it. It just removes the evidence of it.
And before anyone assumes this is about siding with “Susan” and her nostalgia-drenched history takes, let me be clear: I don’t believe in glorifying plantations, whitewashing their legacy, or treating sites of human suffering as backdrops for weddings and brunch. That is offensive. That is a moral failure. But swinging the pendulum in the opposite direction—rejoicing in their destruction—doesn’t put us on higher moral ground.
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: both revering and reviling the structure can miss the point.
The real reckoning we need isn’t architectural—it’s internal. It’s in how we tell the stories, how we pass them on, how we confront the truths we’ve buried beneath family lore and Southern charm. It’s in how we speak to our children, how we vote, how we resist turning symbols into shields that keep us from doing the harder work of reconciliation.
Fire can’t do that work for us.
We can’t claim to care deeply about justice while reducing historical loss to a punchline, even when the place in question stands for something painful. That kind of joy in destruction—no matter how justified the anger behind it—can start to look more like vengeance than truth-telling. And if we let vengeance drive the conversation, we don’t move forward. We just stay angry.
So no, I’m not mourning Nottoway as a tourist destination, and I’m not shedding a tear for wedding venues and photo ops. But I am pausing at the tone. Because while wood may burn, history doesn’t disappear with it. It just becomes harder to confront.
If we truly want people to understand the weight of what happened on those grounds, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to cheer when the evidence turns to ash.
Nothing I can say can add to how well you encapsulate my thoughts on this. Burn them all down. This was the push I needed to finally get on this platform, if only to show support.
Well said MK, we shouldn’t still be pretending like pride in the ways of the “Old South” is charming and about honor and dignity. It’s about trying to keep “people” in their place, that includes black folks, women, poor people, immigrants and of course LGBTQ + people. And that means preventing them from having things like owning land, businesses, voting rights, body autonomy and much more.
What a powerful piece. As a son of the South, I agree wholeheartedly that we shouldn’t be celebrating these monuments to torture, rape, and inhumanity. If they served as museums telling the truth about our past, it would be a different story.
I do so agree with you! A museum is preservation, a party venue is totally glossing over the atrocities that happened there. I am sickened by people who bird hunt, party, and showcase these plantations that were built on slavery and the misery of others.
This, right here: "That’s not preservation. That’s theater." Damn straight, MK. As someone who grew up so far removed from this, all I can say is that your words carry weight, and I hope they reach the people they need to.
"Turning it into a museum..." It's not preservation if it only tells one side of the story. It has to be a bloody "tell all" accounting of subjugation, oppression of Black people and how evil the White overlords were during those "antebellum" days. Preserving the White way of life at the expense of the people they stole from their families and their native lands is not "preservation," it's renewed oppression.
MK, you never cease to amaze me with your writings and showing people the truth of the matter!!!
This right here....this sums up what I try to articulate but couldn't, "Y’all wouldn’t buy a house where one person died tragically, but you’ll throw a whole entire party at a place where hundreds were enslaved AND killed" Thank you for speaking and writing what we all feel and think!! Thank you for being brave and courageous when others around us act like we are overly emotional, overly woke, overly everything. Thank you.
Yeah, as a disabled person tomorrow I'm going to a protest as my state plans to turn a site that tortured disabled folks into a theme park. It's devastating disabled folks have been crying out since the start of a plan. They won't include our desires in plans. Even while some of the tortured are still alive to watch it happen.
Where are you talking about. I have not heard about this, but I too would be appalled.
This article is a valuable addition to the corpus of writing on how we treat the past. (The current searing controversies surrounding many Black cultural sites and school curricula come to mind.) Remembering history is important; how we remember and interpret it is critical.
Amazing writing, as usual. Thank you.
Thank you for telling the real truth
I understand the anger and the heartbreak in this post—and I agree that the way we talk about plantation homes in the South has often been steeped in denial, erasure, and deeply offensive nostalgia. But I don’t think celebrating the destruction of a 166-year-old structure is the answer either.
You say “there is Nottoway to get it back,” and maybe that’s meant to be cathartic. But burning history—even the darkest parts—doesn’t change it. It doesn’t cleanse it. It just removes the evidence of it.
And before anyone assumes this is about siding with “Susan” and her nostalgia-drenched history takes, let me be clear: I don’t believe in glorifying plantations, whitewashing their legacy, or treating sites of human suffering as backdrops for weddings and brunch. That is offensive. That is a moral failure. But swinging the pendulum in the opposite direction—rejoicing in their destruction—doesn’t put us on higher moral ground.
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: both revering and reviling the structure can miss the point.
The real reckoning we need isn’t architectural—it’s internal. It’s in how we tell the stories, how we pass them on, how we confront the truths we’ve buried beneath family lore and Southern charm. It’s in how we speak to our children, how we vote, how we resist turning symbols into shields that keep us from doing the harder work of reconciliation.
Fire can’t do that work for us.
We can’t claim to care deeply about justice while reducing historical loss to a punchline, even when the place in question stands for something painful. That kind of joy in destruction—no matter how justified the anger behind it—can start to look more like vengeance than truth-telling. And if we let vengeance drive the conversation, we don’t move forward. We just stay angry.
So no, I’m not mourning Nottoway as a tourist destination, and I’m not shedding a tear for wedding venues and photo ops. But I am pausing at the tone. Because while wood may burn, history doesn’t disappear with it. It just becomes harder to confront.
If we truly want people to understand the weight of what happened on those grounds, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to cheer when the evidence turns to ash.
Nothing I can say can add to how well you encapsulate my thoughts on this. Burn them all down. This was the push I needed to finally get on this platform, if only to show support.
Speak it, sister!! I applaud you. I was born and raised in the South, and let me tell you, I know what you're talking about.
Well said MK, we shouldn’t still be pretending like pride in the ways of the “Old South” is charming and about honor and dignity. It’s about trying to keep “people” in their place, that includes black folks, women, poor people, immigrants and of course LGBTQ + people. And that means preventing them from having things like owning land, businesses, voting rights, body autonomy and much more.
What a powerful piece. As a son of the South, I agree wholeheartedly that we shouldn’t be celebrating these monuments to torture, rape, and inhumanity. If they served as museums telling the truth about our past, it would be a different story.
Thank you for speaking out. I SO agree with you! 💯
this was powerful!!!!! well written MK