Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum

What does it take to create a museum?

How can a museum help visitors grapple with a very uncomfortable aspect of their nation’s past?

Ibrahima Seck, a member of the History Department at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, author of the book, Bouki Fait Gombo: A History of the Slave Community of Habitation Haydel (Whitney Plantation) Louisiana, 1750-1860, and the Director of Research of the Whitney Plantation museum, leads us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Whitney Plantation and the history of slavery in early Louisiana.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Ibrahima Seck is a member of the History Department at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, the author of Bouki Fait Gombo: A History of the Slave Community of Habitation Haydel (Whitney Plantation) Louisiana, 1750-1860, and the Director Research of the Whitney Plantation Museum in Louisiana.

As we go behind-the-scenes of Whitney Plantation and through the history of slavery in early Louisiana, Ibrahima reveals details about the creation of the Whitney Plantation Museum; Strategies the Whitney Plantation Museum employs to help its visitors grapple with the very tough subject of slavery; And, lots of information about the history and development of Whitney Plantation and about the enslaved who worked and lived on the plantation.

What You’ll Discover

  • The creation of the Whitney Plantation Museum
  • The need for a museum to interpret the lives of the enslaved
  • Ambrose Heidel, Founder of Whitney Plantation
  • German settlement in French Louisiana
  • Crops of the Whitney Plantation
  • The indigo plant
  • How sugar plantations came to Louisiana
  • The origins of the enslaved of Whitney Plantation
  • Rice and its importance in early Louisiana
  • West African contributions to early Louisiana agriculture
  • Slave drivers or commanders
  • French record-keeping
  • Daily life routines for the enslaved at Whitney Plantation
  • Different types of work performed on Whitney Plantation
  • Local plantation economy
  • Domestic lives of the enslaved
  • African cultural contributions to colonial Louisiana
  • How African culture helped to build the culture & identity of the United States
  • A tour of Whitney Plantation
  • Memorials at Whitney Plantation
  • Work of enslaved children
  • 1811 German Coast Louisiana slave revolt
  • Slave resistance
  • Runaway slaves and maroons
  • Why the United States needs to grapple with its slave past

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In your opinion, how might the history of Whitney Plantation and slavery in Louisiana have been different if the German Coast Uprising had been successful?
 

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