Whitewashing Plantations: The Commodification of a Slave-Free Antebellum South

This article begins with a brief explanation of personal experiences on plantation tours. It follows with an empirical examination of tourist brochures from over tOo plantations and a textual analysis of their data. A frequency count of keywords is created, serving to highlight that slavery, slaves and slave cabins occur less often than such expressions as owners, landscapes and furnishings. Reasons for this imbalance are sought. More specifically, the investigation asks why plantation owners and their operations under-emphasize slavery and what this situation means for the contemporary tourist. In so doing, the inquiry attempts to answer the question as to whether or not such marginalization of slavery is a legitimate concern now and in the future