Ask tourists in the South what terms come to mind when they hear the word \u201cplantation,\u201d and you\u2019ll get these replies: agriculture, mansions and wealth.<\/p>\n
Yet these aren\u2019t all of the words. Some people might mention slavery, hardship and cruelty \u2013 rounding out the narrative of some of America\u2019s most historic southern plantations.<\/p>\n
University of Mary Washington professor Stephen Hanna and three UMW students collected these and other responses while conducting research on the ways plantation museums handle the topic of slavery. Hanna and his research assistants, Meredith Stone, Ian Spangler and Xavier Griffin, were part of a 20-person research team collecting data at five different Louisiana plantation museums from March 4 through March 8.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
This trip was the first round of field work geared to explore representations of slavery at these popular tourist attractions.\u00a0 Funded by a National Science Foundation grant, the project also will include plantation museums around Charleston, South Carolina, and along Virginia\u2019s James River. The $450,000 grant is split between six institutions, including UMW, the University of Southern Mississippi (the host university), The University of Tennessee, Texas Tech University, Norfolk State University, and Armstrong State University in Georgia.<\/p>\n
During the trip, the team interviewed tour guides and hundreds of museum visitors with the dual goals of understanding what visitors expect to hear at Southern plantation museums and exploring how Southern plantation museums broach the subject of slavery in their exhibits and tours. According to Hanna, many plantation museums have romanticized the South, and some have minimalized or tried to erase slavery\u2019s prevalence and impact in their exhibits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe often observed that the narrative told at the plantation Big House doesn’t quite fit the true history of the plantation,\u201d said Stone, a senior Geography major. \u201cThe narratives tend to exclude all the people who were forced to work for free in order to keep the economy of the south afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n
An exception is the recently opened Whitney Plantation, which \u201cturns the traditional plantation narrative and landscape inside out,\u201d according to Hanna. Unlike most plantation tours that start in the Big House, Whitney\u2019s tour guides start on the grounds and focuses on the lives of the slaves who worked on the plantation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data we gathered is a huge step toward understanding the racialized landscapes of plantation tourism,\u201d said Spangler, a junior English and Geography double major. \u201cNo one has ever tapped into this story as far as our research team has.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research will continue in the spring of 2016 with fieldwork in the Low Country Region of Georgia and South Carolina. Findings from the research will be presented at conferences, published in journals, and will likely be compiled into a book. Six articles on the research will be featured in a special edition of the \u201cJournal of Heritage Tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope our work contributes to efforts to remember slavery \u2013 to make this part of our shared past more visible since it has a continuing impact on racial inequalities today\u201d said Hanna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ask tourists in the South what terms come to mind when they hear the word \u201cplantation,\u201d and you\u2019ll get these replies: agriculture, mansions and wealth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":85519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[709,704],"tags":[854,747,753,841],"topics":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-85514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newsletter-archived-latest-news","8":"category-top-stories","9":"tag-alumni2015","10":"tag-bio","11":"tag-geography","12":"tag-shanna","13":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ask tourists in the South what terms come to mind when they hear the word \u201cplantation,\u201d and you\u2019ll get these replies: agriculture, mansions and wealth.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UniversityofMaryWashington\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-16T16:37:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emily Hollingsworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UMaryWash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UMaryWash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Emily Hollingsworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Emily Hollingsworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5f5959f2931c4946190ce14cfdc1a0b5\"},\"headline\":\"UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-16T16:37:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/\"},\"wordCount\":506,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"alumni2015\",\"bio\",\"Geography\",\"Steve Hanna\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Archived Newsletter Latest News\",\"Top Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/\",\"name\":\"UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives - News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-16T16:37:10+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1920,\"caption\":\"Ian Spangler, Xavier Griffin, Meredith Stone, and Stephen Hanna at Oak Alley.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"University of Mary Washington\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Mary Washington\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/2colorUMWprimarywordmark.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/2colorUMWprimarywordmark.png\",\"width\":2255,\"height\":580,\"caption\":\"University of Mary Washington\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UniversityofMaryWashington\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/UMaryWash\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5f5959f2931c4946190ce14cfdc1a0b5\",\"name\":\"Emily Hollingsworth\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/71db93811a6b8f6a3988295890de10fa1774024d4c51996cc0da56198dcb72f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/71db93811a6b8f6a3988295890de10fa1774024d4c51996cc0da56198dcb72f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Emily Hollingsworth\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives - News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives","og_description":"Ask tourists in the South what terms come to mind when they hear the word \u201cplantation,\u201d and you\u2019ll get these replies: agriculture, mansions and wealth.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UniversityofMaryWashington\/","article_published_time":"2015-03-16T16:37:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1920,"url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Emily Hollingsworth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UMaryWash","twitter_site":"@UMaryWash","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Emily Hollingsworth","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/"},"author":{"name":"Emily Hollingsworth","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5f5959f2931c4946190ce14cfdc1a0b5"},"headline":"UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives","datePublished":"2015-03-16T16:37:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/"},"wordCount":506,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg","keywords":["alumni2015","bio","Geography","Steve Hanna"],"articleSection":["Archived Newsletter Latest News","Top Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/","url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/","name":"UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives - News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2015-03-16T16:37:10+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1920,"caption":"Ian Spangler, Xavier Griffin, Meredith Stone, and Stephen Hanna at Oak Alley."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/16\/umw-team-examines-slavery-narratives\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UMW Team Examines Slavery Narratives"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"University of Mary Washington","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"University of Mary Washington","url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/2colorUMWprimarywordmark.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/2colorUMWprimarywordmark.png","width":2255,"height":580,"caption":"University of Mary Washington"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UniversityofMaryWashington\/","https:\/\/x.com\/UMaryWash"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5f5959f2931c4946190ce14cfdc1a0b5","name":"Emily Hollingsworth","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/71db93811a6b8f6a3988295890de10fa1774024d4c51996cc0da56198dcb72f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/71db93811a6b8f6a3988295890de10fa1774024d4c51996cc0da56198dcb72f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Emily Hollingsworth"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/03\/IMG_0057-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 01:29:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85514"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=85514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}