Romanticizing Slavery: Are Plantation Weddings Insensitive?
At some point, is it possible to move on from America’s brutal past?
The hanging branches of oak trees with Spanish moss shade the pathway. Lush greenery and rich browns encase any viewer in an ethereal taste of the antebellum South. Towards the end, as if witnessing the fading tunnel light of a lived life, weathered red brick and glistening white columns beckon. A regal history that is rich in American hospitality and the shadowed ghost of slavery encompasses the Colonial Revival architecture of Boone Hall Plantation.
At least 85 African Americans were enslaved on this land that once boasted the annual production of four million bricks and pecans in the United States. The 19th century was some time ago. Similar to the abolishment of slavery, the eradication of its memory continues as young couples eagerly await sharing their vows on what is considered the #1 plantation in South Carolina. Even celebrities like Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were amongst the couples that elected to celebrate the beginning of their next step, a naive hope in the promise of eternal love, in a location that’s grown illustrious foliage over the heartache of enslavement.
Times can change. We remove monuments of the confederacy while commemorating plantation weddings, an erroneous rite of passage. It’s “the perfect…
