Whitewashing Plantations

Summary This article begins with a brief explanation of personal experiences on plantation tours. It follows with an empirical examination of tourist brochures from over 100 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 mar-ginalization of slavery is a legitimate concern now and in the future.