00:00Hello, I'm Dana Blair, host of Essence Live, and presently we are at the Whitney
00:06Plantation here in Wallace, Louisiana, an extremely beautiful and historic plantation.
00:11And I'm joined by Dr. Sek.
00:12How are you?
00:13I'm fine.
00:14And you?
00:15I'm very well.
00:17And you're going to take us on a tour of the Whitney Plantation and share a little bit
00:18of the history with us.
00:20What is the significance of the Whitney Plantation?
00:22The Whitney Plantation is a sacred ground so many people suffered here.
00:27I will share with you the history of the plantation.
00:29The people who lived here and who were enslaved, who they were, where they came from, the contribution
00:35of these people, not only to the building of wealth, but also to the making of the culture
00:39and American identity at large.
00:48Can you ring that bell here?
00:49Can I?
00:50Yeah.
00:51Go.
00:52Go ahead.
00:53Go ahead.
00:54I'm not going to break it, am I?
00:55No, no.
00:56Pull it.
00:57Okay.
00:58It's a way to pay homage to the people who suffered here.
01:04But also to remind people that this was the clock on the plantation.
01:10Now we can go and see the Wall of Honor.
01:12And this is a place where we honor the memories of all the people who enslaved on this plantation.
01:17On one side of the wall, we'll have people mostly born in Africa.
01:20On the other side, we have people mostly born in the United States.
01:23The slave codes, starting with the French, was really harsh on the runaway slaves.
01:30You run away for the first time.
01:31The first time they cut you, they would brand you on one shoulder with the fleur-de-lis,
01:34the old French flag, and then they crop your ears.
01:38They cut your ears.
01:39The second offense, they brand you on the second shoulder with the fleur-de-lis, and then they
01:44cut your arm strength.
01:45Cut the muscle?
01:46Yeah.
01:47They cut it.
01:48You cannot run anymore.
01:51And if by any chance you crawl away again, they cut your head.
01:55It is the death sentence.
01:57So slavery was a very, very violent institution.
02:02It was about a lot of pain inflicted to the flesh of the enslaved people in order to tame
02:09them.
02:10This is a most larger memorial.
02:14We call it the Gwernli Midler Hall alleys.
02:21This guy here is being punished, and you see, this is the master.
02:25Yes.
02:26Yeah?
02:27And who's holding the whip?
02:28A slave.
02:29A slave.
02:30It was a system of divide and conquer.
02:33That's why they say that there was a lot of hatred between the field hands and the domestics,
02:37and between the field hands and the slave drivers.
02:40But I'm telling you, in time of revolution, they all get together.
02:45This is what we call the Field of Angels, a memorial dedicated to children who died in
02:49slavery.
02:50In the middle of this field, we have a statue.
02:53It's about an angel with, like, black and female features coming down on a plantation to
03:00take a dead baby to heaven.
03:02Every day, the people were taken to the field to work.
03:06Young mothers with nursing babies.
03:09But you see here, you have young ladies giving the breast to their children, because they
03:17were allowed to get back to the quarters twice a day to give the breast to their children.
03:24Is that enough?
03:25Just twice?
03:26Twice?
03:27No.
03:28This one is about the middle passage from Africa.
03:33You see, these people are caught like in a vortex.
03:35Yes.
03:36You see hands sticking out with shackles.
03:38They are drowning, asking for rescue that never came.
03:44And this one to the left, this is the celebration of freedom.
03:47This is so powerful.
03:48Yeah.
03:49These two slave cabins, they are original to the grounds of the Whitney Plantation.
03:59And how old is this?
04:00I suspect that they date back to the early, early, early 19th century.
04:10I hate going in there, I'm not going in there.
04:39It was my pleasure to take you through this.
04:44Thank you very much.
04:45It is not a pleasant story, but we have to, we have to tell it.
04:50We have to tell the story of slavery.
04:52Yes, sir.
04:53Definitely.
04:54Thank you so much, Dr. Swap.
04:55This country will be greater, it has been already great, but it will be greater if they
04:59decide to solve the problem of the African Americans.
05:02They may tame the flesh, but they never were able to tame the spirit.
05:07It is not just about the history of pain and frity to the enslaved people.
05:11It is also about the tremendous contribution to the culture.
05:15The Lord's soul is called existe.
05:16Hallelujah.
05:17Am I guilty of sorrow?
05:18Oh, my goodness!
05:19It is also about the grieving and the sin of the human being.
05:20It has been a good time for me to pray.
05:21Who has the love in their feelings and the suffering.
05:22The father of God.
05:23For the mother of God.
05:24For the mother of God.
05:25To them to become a joy in the world.
05:26The mother of God.
05:27The mother of God.
05:28Hmm.
05:29To him.
05:30The mother of God.
05:31When the mother of God.
05:32Yes.
05:33The mother of God.
05:34The mother of God.
05:35The mother of God.
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