Imagining Plantations: Slavery, Dominant Narratives, and the Foreign Born

Abstract

This article examines the responses of over 1000 tourists to an exit survey at Laura Plantation, a tourist museum site located outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. Using Critical Race Theory, we evaluate visitor interest in slavery at the plantation compared to other, more dominant narratives commonly associated with promoting plantation history throughout the U.S. South. By separating the respondents on the basis of race and country of origin, we examined the relative importance of different narratives between these various socio-demographic groups. Findings from some white visitors were not surprising; they out-ranked other visitors groups in their interest in dominant narratives other than slaves. However, the responses from sub-groups of black and foreign born visitors were surprising in that the foreign born group was most interested in slavery at the plantation, even over that of some blacks.