Bearing Witness: The Whitney Plantation

The memorialization and commemoration of the lives taken and lineage affected by the Atlantic slave trade and the institution of slavery in America is a fairly new field. On December 7th, 2014, the Whitney Plantation opened as a memorial ground and a museum in Wallace, Louisiana. It was the first of its kind in the US. In this episode we speak with two people whose work helped make the museum and memorial what it is today. Director of Research, Dr. Ibrahima Seck is a preeminent researcher, author, and educator in the field of study of the Atlantic slave trade, especially the history between West Africa and Louisiana, and Ashley Rogers is the Executive Director of the Whitney Plantation whose has wide expertise in museum operations. Together, under commission of The Whitney Plantation’s custodian John Cummings who envisioned it as a sight of remembrance and acknowledgement, they helped to create the nations first ever slavery museum and memorial. 

This is one of three episodes that discuss the topic of memorialization and commemoration of those enslaved in the Atlantic slave trade. Please be sure to listen to our two other episodes in conversation with the Equal Justice Initiative which operates the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, and Les Anneaux de la Mémoire (The Shackles of Memory), an association memorializing and commemorating slavery along the ports in Nantes, France.

This episode is brought to you by Dr. Stephanie Arel and produced by Shrine13.