Retired lawyer opens first US slavery museum

http://m.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2016/0324/A-retired-lawyer-opens-first-US-slavery-museum-with-8.6-million-of-his-money

A retired lawyer opens first US slavery museum with $8.6 million of his money


WALLACE, LA.

Unlike other antebellum plantations on the winding River Road along the Mississippi known for their manicured gardens and as exotic locations for weddings, Whitney Plantation has a much different purpose: It wants to tell thousands of visitors each year the tragic story of slavery in the United States.

The force behind the first slavery museum in the US, which opened in December 2014, is John Cummings, a real estate magnate and retired New Orleans trial lawyer who has spent $8.6 million of his own money redeveloping the 250-acre site dotted with swampland and banana trees.

Mr. Cummings has been working on the Whitney Plantation museum ever since he purchased the former sugar-cane fields from a petrochemical company 16 years ago.

In researching the history of the plantation, he found household inventories from former owners that showed that “the second most valuable property here next to the real estate was slaves,” he says. “One female slave was described as a good breeder. She was worth more than a woman who did not have many kids.


http://m.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2016/0324/A-retired-lawyer-opens-first-US-slavery-museum-with-8.6-million-of-his-money