The Airbnb itemizing was easy: A captivating Mississippi cottage with old school decor and entry to Wi-Fi and streaming platforms. Listings in Louisiana and Georgia had comparable descriptions, portraying them as charming, rustic properties excellent for a comfy weekend getaway.
The now-removed listings had one main factor in widespread, although: They have been as soon as residence to these enslaved.
Recent outrage over the listed slave cabins began with the Panther Burn Cottage, a Greenville, Mississippi, slave cabin constructed on a plantation in the 1800s. Wynton Yates, a Black lawyer from New Orleans, posted a now-viral TikTok about the Airbnb itemizing late final month. He mentioned he was shocked when he noticed the itemizing. “My first reaction was ‘This is wild! How does anybody think this is OK?’” Yates instructed NBC News. “I was appalled by what I was looking at. It’s just disrespectful to all of the people who lived and died in those spaces.”
Airbnb has since apologized and eliminated the Mississippi itemizing and any others “known to include former slave quarters in the United States.” But the incident has renewed considerations from preservationists about the state of former slave dwellings in the nation. Preservationists like Joseph McGill Jr., founding father of the Slave Dwelling Project, say the commercialization of plantation websites has been occurring for many years.
“I’ve come across slave dwellings with many uses like rental spaces, she sheds, man caves, garages. I’ve even come across one being used as a public restroom of all things!” McGill mentioned. “I’ve been at this for 12 years and what happened is nothing new. What is new is that now TikTok exists, and this thing called cancel culture exists.” McGill added of those that personal such leases: “In their minds and in their eyes, they’re doing nothing wrong.”
History vs. aesthetic
The Historic American Buildings Survey, a federal preservation program created in 1933, lists greater than 400 slave homes in the United States. But, over the a long time, a number of slave dwellings have vanished, been torn down, or become mattress and breakfasts, workplaces, garages, and so forth., in accordance to preservationist Jobie Hill, founding father of the Saving Slave Houses Project. In some circumstances, residents aren’t conscious that the small constructions on personal property have been as soon as slave dwellings till Hill informs them, she told Atlas Obscura. And lengthy earlier than Airbnb started itemizing the slave cabins, the properties served as rustic cottages for vacationers. To preservationists, that is one more instance of individuals making the most of the ills of slavery, however for some vacationers, the historical past of the web site is precisely what attracts them to keep.
One particular person who stayed at the Panther Burn Cottage final October, in accordance to the Airbnb web site, left a optimistic overview about the former slave cabin on the itemizing, writing that the location made them really feel like they have been “stepping back into history.”
“This place was so beautiful and peaceful. We stayed in the cabin and it was a (sic) historic but elegant,” the consumer wrote, including that the “cabin was stocked with everything we needed plus more.” The reviewer mentioned they’d suggest the cottage and are trying ahead to visiting once more and staying in the important home on the plantation.
In Virginia, the Prospect Hill Plantation Inn provides stays at slave quarters with names like “Boy’s Log Cabin” and “Uncle Guy’s Loft,” which is described as a small carpeted room that served as “the sleeping quarters for up to fifteen field-hands.” A reviewer who stayed in Prospect Hill’s slave quarters in 2014 praised the inn on Tripadvisor for its “amazing history,” and mentioned that the antiquity of the web site contributed to “the charm of the plantation.”
“We stayed in Uncle Guy’s loft for the night where apparently slaves used to stay during the cold winter months. Initially, given how old the plantation is, I thought the place might be kind of scary and I would be up all night and not able to sleep,” the visitor wrote. “However, the loft is actually pretty cozy and I wasn’t really freaked out after I got to the room — doesn’t give off a scary vibe but actually more of a cozy vibe — kind of hard to pull off in such a (sic) old place.
The reviewers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
In 1985, the original owners of the Prospect Hill Inn, Bill Sheehan and his wife Mireille, boasted to The Washington Post about renovating the main home and the former slave quarters installing everything from air conditioning to bathrooms but retaining “the original character, including fireplaces and verandas.”
“So we found this beat-up old plantation and dumped into it every penny of our life savings and all the borrowed money we could find,” Sheehan mentioned at the time.
Meanwhile, different plantations enable individuals to spend the night time in a few of its buildings, however draw the line at slave dwellings. At Wilton House Museum in Hartfield, Virginia, up to six individuals are allowed to lease the grasp residence and are invited to use the plantation’s slave quarters “to ponder what it must have been like to live and work in this space nearly 200 years ago.” A spokesperson mentioned the cabin will not be “set up for overnight accommodation.”
In Louisiana, Destrehan Plantation serves as a museum, with guided excursions, reveals and academic programming. The house owners of the plantation provide in a single day stays at the “Marguerite,” a slave-era assembly corridor plantation named after an enslaved cook dinner. Tracy Smith, govt director of the Destrehan Plantation denied claims that company can lease out slave quarters on the property. “We have slave cabins here, but they’re part of our tour. And we take that very seriously,” Smith instructed NBC News. “We have never rented out slave cabins on Airbnb or any overnight accommodations.”
Preservation Efforts
Hill, who’s constructing a database of slave properties in the U.S., and McGill have devoted themselves to documenting slave dwellings throughout the nation. McGill recently visited slave quarters at the Neill-Cochran House Museum in Austin, which museum officers found in 2016 and decided it to be the solely “intact and publicly accessible slave dwelling located within in the boundaries of Austin’s original townsite.”
Rowena Dasch, Neill-Cochran House Museum govt director, mentioned she initially thought the small stone constructing was a generic addition to the Neill-Cochran House, inbuilt the 1850s, however quickly realized it will need to have been slave quarters due to its dimension and lack of facilities. She then partnered with Tara Dudley, an assistant professor at the University of Texas, to study all she may about the property. They unearthed the tales of those that lived in the quarters or labored close to the property. The museum has since partnered with the college to launch “Reckoning with the Past: The Untold Story of Race in Austin,” a undertaking to restore the slave quarters and make a extra traditionally correct exhibit, with excursions and different programming to share the constructing’s connection to slavery in Austin.
Dasch mentioned she wasn’t conscious that journey websites like Airbnb featured slave dwellings, however questioned whether or not reworking these areas into rentable properties may very well be executed whereas sustaining the historic integrity of the residence.
“If this was a slave dwelling, it was completed before 1865 and that means no plumbing, no electricity, typically they were one-room structures,” Dasch mentioned.
“So if you’re trying to rent that out today, you would have to change that building in order to make it habitable by people with contemporary expectations. You’re losing the original context. I believe in adaptive reuse. I would rather see structures turned into something functional than torn down. But to market the space as ‘come stay in a slave dwelling’ just sounds so tone-deaf to me. What exactly are you trying to accomplish with that listing?”
For Black Americans trying to monitor their family tree, slave quarters may very well be an necessary piece in household timber largely stamped out by the slave trade and systemic racism via every little thing from lack of report protecting to urban renewal. David Green, a University of Virginia professor and novice genealogist, was ready, in 2020, to visit the home of his great-great-great-great grandmother, Ann Redd, who labored on the property close to Brownsburg.
Green mentioned the outdated cabin, now on personal property, was run down and what he would count on of an deserted slave constructing. He mentioned he couldn’t think about seeing such a significant place become an Airbnb itemizing.
“I would have an issue with it. Especially if they go with the ‘antebellum, good South theme,’” Green mentioned. “To say somebody’s renting out that slave home today without necessarily thinking about what it meant for that slave to be there … I’d say that’s disrespectful. I think it’s about respect, respect for my ancestors.”
In a press release to NBC News, Airbnb spokesperson Ben Breit mentioned, “We apologize for any trauma or grief created by the presence of this listing, and others like it, and that we did not act sooner to address this issue.” Breit added that the firm is working with consultants to develop new insurance policies that handle listings related to slavery.