Why Descendants Are Returning to the Plantations Where Their Ancestors Were Enslaved

Some Black Americans are reclaiming antebellum estates as part of their family legacy, reflecting the power and possibility of these historic sites

Whitney Nell Stewart

Author, This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations

July 11, 2024

Breanna Henley had a powerful, inspired idea. To document her 2021 graduation from dental school, she donned her Alpha Kappa Alpha colors and academic regalia, then strode confidently toward the camera. Before her was the ground that her ancestors cared for generations ago. Behind her stood the cabin where her great-great-great-great-grandparents, Lucy and Anthony Henley, lived while enslaved at Redcliffe Plantation in South Carolina.

Asked why she chose this setting, Breanna noted the sense of immediate “attachment” and “belonging” she felt there. Captioning a photograph of herself on Instagram, she wrote, “I stand tall on the soil of MY ancestors. I stand directly where the Henley family legacy began out of sacrifice and perseverance.”

This March, Henley returned to Redcliffe to claim that legacy alongside three generations of her family. At the historic site’s Descendants’ Day, the Henleys collectively continued a tradition that extends back to 1857, when their ancestors were forced onto a new plantation by their enslaver, James Henry Hammond. Despite Hammond’s brutal enslaving tactics, the modern-day Henleys feel connected to this place. It is their ancestral home, their family legacy. But it wasn’t supposed to be.

. . .

Plantation tours that downplay the brutal violence of slavery distort historical truth. But those who see plantations solely as sites of exploitation can’t explain why the Henleys keep coming back to Redcliffe. The usefulness and power of these places rests in their ability to tell multiple stories at once: white supremacy and Black resistance, loss and hope, slavery and freedom. A plantation like Redcliffe has the potential to do much more than what Hammond originally designed it to do.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-descendants-are-returning-to-the-plantations-where-their-ancestors-were-enslaved-180984671/