May 19, 2025 ā¢ 34 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What if I told you that the fire wasn't just a
blaze, it was a release.
That 155 spirits cried out fromthe soil, the bricks, the sugar
cane, screaming throughcenturies of silence.
That the most luxuriouswhite-columned plantation in the
American South, built by blackhands soaked in black pain,
wasn't destroyed?
It was finally heard.
(00:20):
What if I told you, family,that some fires don't destroy,
they liberate.
Because the flames thatswallowed the Nottoway
plantation weren't just flames.
They were a reckoning, a roarfrom the other side, a message
from the ancestors themselves,and we weren't supposed to look
away.
Trigger warning.
(00:42):
This episode contains deeplyemotional themes, including the
violent legacy of slavery,spiritual trauma, generational
grief and historicalexploitation.
Listener, discretion is advised, especially for those healing
from ancestral wounds.
Please know this conversationcomes from a place of reverence,
truth-telling and soul healing.
(01:03):
Before we dive in, please takea moment to support this journey
.
Follow, subscribe and sharethis episode with someone who
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(01:25):
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lifepointswithrhondacom, becausethis episode isn't just history
(01:47):
, it's healing.
Let's begin, ladies andgentlemen.
I know that your time isvaluable, so let's get started,
okay, and dive into the episode.
Welcome to Life Points withRhonda, where truth, healing and
reflection always meet at theintersection of history and
humanity.
Today's episode is not justanother story.
(02:10):
It's a spiritual confrontation,a sacred moment to remember the
155 enslaved men, women andchildren whose blood, sweat and
very breath built the NottowayPlantation.
You see, what burned inLouisiana was never just a
historic mansion.
It was a tomb with chandeliers,a shrine to stolen labor.
(02:32):
And when it caught fire, theworld may have called it a
tragedy, but those of us wholisten, with our spirit, we
heard it as a cry for justice, aspiritual release.
This is Life Points with Rhonda, and this episode, this one is
for the ancestors 155 soulsbuilding a palace on black backs
(02:54):
, before the fire, before thetourists, before the plantation
became a wedding venue, a photobackdrop, a southern fairy tale.
There were 155 enslaved Africansouls and they didn't ask to be
remembered with brochures, theyasked to be released.
Those 155 didn't just buildNottaway, they were buried in it
(03:15):
, not with caskets, not withnames carved in stone, but with
sweat that mixed into mortar,with breath trapped between
walls, with blood that driedbeneath floorboards and with
prayers, desperate, tremblingprayers that the world would one
day see what they endured.
Nottoway Plantation is thelargest antebellum mansion still
(03:36):
standing in the South, or itwas Over 50,000 square feet, 64
rooms, white pillars that reachtoward heaven, but were rooted
in something much closer to hell.
That grandeur didn't come fromwealth.
It came from whips, from stolenfreedom, from backs broken
under the weight of a whiteman's dream.
Those enslaved people werekidnapped from lineages of
(03:57):
royalty, spirituality,craftsmanship and deep ancestral
knowledge.
And yet, once purchased by JohnHampton Randolph, they were
seen as inventory tools, bodies,commodities.
Can you imagine that?
To be sacred in spirit,divinely created, and yet
reduced to a line item in aslave ledger?
Randolph didn't just build ahome, he built a plantation
(04:20):
empire on sugar, pain andsilence.
And those 155 were hisfoundation, his machinery, his
currency.
Children as young as five weremade to carry water, stack,
lumber, sweep after grown menwith whips.
Women were raped to reproducemore labor.
Men were shackled, starved,mutilated for the smallest
(04:40):
resistance.
And yet they rose with the sun.
They built in the swelteringLouisiana heat.
They endured storms, abuse,grief and the ever-present
threat of death.
Because they had no choice andstill they built.
And don't let anyone ever tellyou they built it for pride.
They built it to survive.
(05:01):
But survival doesn't meansilence not forever, because
walls hold memory, wood holdsbreath and souls that are denied
justice will speak in fire.
That's why, when Nottowaycaught flames on May 15, 2025,
it wasn't vandalism, it was aspiritual eruption, a
celebration.
The screams that were muffledfinally broke free.
(05:23):
The chains that once echoed inthe sugar mills now clanged
through the blaze and theancestors said enough.
John Randolph, the sugar kingof suffering.
He wasn't just a man, he was amachine, a system wrapped in
flesh.
And his name, john HamptonRandolph, still echoes through
(05:44):
history like a command barkedacross a cotton field.
In the myth of Southerngentility, men like Randolph are
often painted as refined,industrious landowners,
visionaries who built legacies.
But in truth, randolph didn'tbuild a legacy.
He extracted it from the bonesof 155 enslaved people, whose
lives he twisted into labor,whose futures he turned into
(06:05):
profit Born into Southernprivilege.
Randolph was a wealthyLouisiana planter who saw
sugarcane not as a crop but as acurrency of control.
By the mid-1800s, he had becomeone of the most powerful men in
the South.
And his wealth lavish, decadent, untouchable was built entirely
(06:26):
on human suffering.
To the outside world he was afather, a husband, a gentleman
of means.
But behind those tall columnsand manicured lawns was
something else entirely A brutaloverseer, a plantation
patriarch and the calculatedarchitect of economic genocide.
Randolph didn't purchase slavesto support a household.
(06:48):
He purchased entire lineages,generations of black life,
stolen, broken and bound.
He knew the sugarcane industryrequired relentless labor and
backbreaking endurance.
And so he engineered an empirewhere pain was a business plan,
where enslaved women were forcedto birth children for future
labor, where men were pushedpast human limits just to meet a
(07:09):
quota, where resistance meantdeath or disfigurement.
And when he built NottowayPlantation, he didn't just build
a home, he built a monument tohis ego, a palace where
suffering was hidden behindvelvet drapes and gold-framed
mirrors.
The house boasted 365 windows,one for every day of the year.
That wasn't just design, it wasdomination, a reminder that
(07:37):
every day someone black wasworking, bleeding or dying to
make this white man's dreampossible.
Randolph's mansion was amasterpiece of architecture and
cruelty, and he knew it.
But even the grandeur couldn'tsilence the spirits, even the
wealth couldn't erase the criesand even in death.
(07:58):
Randolph's legacy has neverstopped bleeding, because the
people he enslaved weren't justforgotten shadows in history.
They were names, faces, souls,and the fire of May 15, 2025
brought all of that back to thesurface.
You see, when you build yourempire on suffering, you may
leave behind riches, but youalso leave behind a reckoning,
and that's what the fire was Nota crime, not a random accident,
(08:19):
but a reckoning, a roaringrejection of the lie that this
place was ever just a house.
It was a house of horrors, andRandolph's name deserves to be
remembered, not in admirationbut in accountability.
The spirits never left thehaunting legacy of the 155.
They never left, not really.
(08:40):
Their bodies may have beenburied in unmarked graves or
thrown into swampy soil.
Their bodies may have beenburied in unmarked graves or
thrown into swampy soil,forgotten by record books and
erased from polite Southernmemory, but their spirits, their
spirits, lingered.
They echoed in the creek of thefloorboards.
They whispered through thesugar cane fields.
At dusk, they wept in the wallsof Nottaway when no one was
(09:00):
listening.
Because how could they leave?
How do you rest when your lifeended in chains?
How do you cross over when yourname was never spoken again.
How do you ascend when you wereforced to build a heaven for
someone else and live in hellFor 155 enslaved souls?
Nottoway was not just a place oflabor.
It was a prison of unfinishedbusiness.
The trauma didn't end withemancipation.
(09:23):
The pain didn't evaporate withreconstruction.
And the truth sure, the traumadidn't end with emancipation.
The pain didn't evaporate withreconstruction.
And the truth sure as helldidn't disappear just because
tourists began sipping mintjuleps on the front porch.
What the world saw as a grandestate luxurious, timeless,
elegant was in truth a hauntedgrave, a spiritual pressure
cooker, because no matter howmany times they painted the
(09:44):
walls, the stains remained.
No matter how many times theypainted the walls, the stains
remained.
No matter how many weddingphotos were taken on those
marble steps, the screams echoedbehind them, and no matter how
many times they told the liethat Nottoway was just part of
history.
The ancestors knew.
They knew what was buriedbeneath the manicured lawns.
They knew who cried alone atnight, chained to a wall in the
sugar cane quarters.
(10:05):
They knew the names that werenever recorded the babies that
were born into bondage, themothers who couldn't save them,
the men who died silently underthe weight of the fields.
They remembered it all.
And when that fire came on May15th, 2025, it was not random,
it was not coincidence.
(10:25):
It was not coincidence, it wasa release.
The flames didn't just burnwood, they burned silence.
They burned history, sanitizedby lies.
They burned the illusion thatanyone could ever really own
that land, because the landdidn't belong to Randolph, it
belonged to them, to the 155th.
And when the fire consumedNottoway, it felt like a portal
opening A spiritual rupture, soloud the living could feel it.
(10:48):
Those who stood near the smokereported a strange stillness.
Some said they felt a cold windon a hot day.
Others said they saw shadowsmoving behind the fire line.
Some cried and didn't know why.
Some stood there and simplyknew the spirits were leaving.
They weren't trapped anymore.
The spirits were leaving.
They weren't trapped anymore.
Their blood had spoken, theirpain had been acknowledged.
(11:09):
And that fire, that was thesound of 155 doors opening, one
by one and their souls finallywalking through.
Let that settle in your chest,because this wasn't just a
haunting, it was a homegoing theeerie transition from slavery
to souvenirs After the Civil Warand the fall of the Confederacy
(11:33):
.
The physical chains of slaverymay have been broken, but the
spiritual bondage, the denial oftruth, the distortion of memory
and the sanitization of traumapersisted.
Nowhere was this more evidentthan in the slow and disturbing
transformation of the NottowayPlantation.
What was once a site of brutalforced labor, human degradation.
More evident than in the slowand disturbing transformation of
(11:53):
the Nottoway Plantation.
What was once a site of brutalforced labor, human degradation
and generational traumagradually morphed into a
pristine southern attraction.
The grandeur of itsarchitecture remained, but its
soul was rewritten.
The largest survivingantebellum mansion in the South,
built entirely by enslavedAfrican labor, was repackaged as
a luxury bed and breakfast, awedding venue and a place for
(12:15):
tourists to sip sweet tea andmarvel at chandeliers, all while
standing on blood-soaked ground.
This wasn't an accident.
It was a calculated erasure.
Over the course of decades,nottoway's horrifying truth was
stripped away and replaced withnarratives of southern elegance,
hospitality and charm.
The stories of the 155 enslavedpeople who constructed the
(12:38):
plantation, who carved bricks,cleared land, harvested sugar
cane and endured unspeakableatrocities, were reduced to
footnotes, if mentioned at all.
Tour guides rarely said theirnames.
Brochures might haveacknowledged enslaved labor, but
never dared to speak of therape, the lashings, the sale of
(12:58):
children or the deliberatedestruction of Black families.
Instead, the plantation waspraised for its architectural
detail, its fine imported marble, its extravagant staircases and
the so-called genius of JohnHampton Randolph, the very man
who commodified human life tobuild his empire.
The grounds were manicured, thecabins of the enslaved were
(13:21):
demolished or ignored, the sugarfields were romanticized as
picturesque landscapes insteadof sites of exhaustion and death
.
Guests checked into suiteswithout knowing, or perhaps not
caring, that the walls aroundthem had once echoed with the
cries of men being tortured,women being assaulted and
children being dragged fromtheir mothers' arms.
(13:42):
Brides posed in white gowns onbalconies where women of African
descent once stood in chains.
Anniversary dinners were servedin rooms where enslaved cooks
once labored in silence,forbidden from speaking, looking
up or resting.
This wasn't just historicalamnesia, it was spiritual
violence, it was themonetization of generational
(14:04):
grief.
This practice of convertingplantations into event spaces
and tourist attractions is notunique to Nottoway, but what
makes this site particularlyhaunting is its scale and its
unrepentant glossing over ofhorror.
Nottoway was advertised as asouthern fairy tale, with no
mention of the blood sacrificesthat made it possible.
And in that silence, in thatwhitewashing, the spirits of the
(14:29):
155 were ignored.
But they were never gone.
They remained watching, waiting, whispering.
For decades they endured asecond kind of bondage the
denial of their truth, whileguests toasted champagne and
posed for Instagram photos.
The ancestors waited forjustice, because sacred land
cannot be repurposed withoutconsequence, and trauma that is
(14:49):
never acknowledged becomes aspiritual fire waiting to rise
for justice, because sacred landcannot be repurposed without
consequence, and trauma that isnever acknowledged becomes a
spiritual fire waiting to rise.
When Nottoway burned on May 15,2025, many saw it as a tragedy,
the loss of a historic home.
But for those who know thetruth, who feel the truth, it
was a reckoning.
The fire was not merelydestruction.
(15:11):
It was a form of release, arefusal to allow the lie to
stand any longer.
The very foundation of thatbuilding was laid by people who
never had the chance to speak.
But fire speaks when silencebecomes unbearable, and through
the flames, the land cried out.
The 155th were not backgroundcharacters in some romantic
(15:32):
plantation fantasy.
They were the builders, thebreath, the heartbeat of that
estate, and thecommercialization of their pain,
without reparation, withoutremembrance, without reverence,
was an abomination.
The transition from slavery tosouvenirs was never just about
rebranding.
It was about control.
(15:52):
It was about whose story getstold and whose suffering gets
buried.
But now the lie has turned toash and in that ash, maybe, just
maybe, the truth can begin torise.
The fire this time May 15, 2025.
A reckoning.
May 15, 2025, began like anyother day in White Castle,
(16:17):
louisiana.
The sun cast its warm glow overthe manicured lawns of Nottaway
Plantation, a site that hadlong masked its brutal history
beneath a veneer of Southerncharm.
But beneath the surface,something stirred a restless
energy, a call for justice thathad been ignored for far too
long.
(16:37):
At approximately 2 pm, staffmembers noticed smoke emanating
from a second-floor bedroom inthe south wing of the mansion.
Firefighters from multipledepartments responded swiftly,
battling the blaze thatthreatened to consume the
historic structure.
By mid-afternoon they hadmanaged to suppress the flames,
meticulously, checking eachfloor to ensure all hotspots
(16:58):
were extinguished.
However, the respite wasshort-lived.
Around 6 pm, the fire reignitedwith a ferocity that caught
even seasoned firefighters offguard.
Flames erupted from the roofand the inferno rapidly spread,
leading to the collapse of themansion's iconic white columns
and the eventual destruction ofthe entire main building.
(17:18):
This resurgence of the fire,after it had been seemingly
brought under control, feltsymbolic An uncontainable force
demanding acknowledgement.
It was as if the very spiritsof the 155 enslaved individuals
who had built Nottoway wereasserting their presence,
refusing to be silenced orforgotten any longer.
Witnesses described the air aseerily still before the blaze.
(17:40):
Some claimed they saw shadowsmoving through the smoke,
figures that vanished whenlooked at directly.
Others spoke of feeling watched, overcome with emotion or
chilled to the bone despite theheat of the flames.
These weren't just eeriecoincidences.
They were confirmations.
The spiritual was collidingwith the physical, the past was
(18:01):
making itself known.
And what was the media response?
Minimal, almost mute.
Local outlets reported thedestruction, preservationists
expressed concern, a fewSouthern history blogs mourned
the loss of an architecturalmasterpiece, but few, if any,
spoke the truth that this was asite of mass trauma, that it was
(18:23):
not just wood and plaster thathad burned but a false narrative
.
The silence from nationaloutlets was deafening, as if
America itself couldn't bear toacknowledge the symbolism of
what had just happened.
But we saw it, we felt it andwe will not let it go unspoken.
The fire was a reckoning, notjust for Nottoway but for every
(18:44):
plantation that still standswithout accountability, for
every tourist attraction thatmarkets slave labor as ambiance,
for every wedding held onsacred ground.
Thank you For every descendantwho has had to walk those paths,
knowing their ancestors werenever given peace, never given
(19:05):
burial, never given truth.
That day, the land rememberedand it spoke in flames.
And let's be honest, thisdidn't happen in 1825.
This happened in 2025.
In the era of supposed progress, in the midst of the so-called
racial reckoning Americapromised after 2020, while books
(19:27):
are being banned for teachingthe truth, plantations are still
being praised as picturesque,but not this time, not anymore.
The fire's cause remains underinvestigation, but its impact is
undeniable.
The destruction of NottowayPlantation serves as a stark
reminder that the past cannot beburied beneath layers of
romanticized history.
(19:48):
The flames that consumed themansion also illuminated the
need for a more honest reckoningwith the atrocities committed
on its grounds.
As we reflect on this event, wemust recognize that the fire
was more than a physicaldisaster.
We must recognize that the firewas more than a physical
disaster.
It was a spiritual reckoning, aclarion call to honor the lives
(20:10):
and legacies of those whosuffered and perished there.
The destruction of Nottoway isnot just an end but a beginning,
a chance to rebuild not juststructures but narratives rooted
(20:33):
in truth and justice.
Spiritual reclamation, what theancestors are teaching us now,
rooted in truth and justice.
It wasn't just a rare incident.
It was a message, asupernatural refusal to be
silenced, because spiritualenergy, once awakened, cannot be
extinguished with hoses orhistory books.
That second fire was not just aresurgence, it was an uprising
(20:56):
from the other side.
And if you're listening withspirit, you already know.
This fire wasn't asking forjustice, it was demanding it.
What burned was not just amansion, it was a legacy of lies
.
The ancestors are not interestedin performative history.
They are not pacified bycurated exhibits or
surface-level apologies.
They are calling for a completespiritual reclamation, a
(21:19):
pulling back of the truth, theland, the memory and the power
that was stolen.
This isn't about guilt, it'sabout accountability.
It's about calling forth everydescendant, every listener,
every heart with blood memory torise, reclaim and realign.
This moment is sacred.
It's not just history, it'sactivation.
(21:40):
The fire at Nottoway was thespiritual equivalent of a
breaking chain, an open portal.
It was the cleansing of sacredground long misused.
It was the ancestors sayingenough of our pain being your
scenery.
It was the moment when hiddentrauma was not just seen, it was
(22:02):
felt deep in the bones.
And if you felt chills when yousaw the smoke, that was not
your imagination that was themcalling, reminding, reclaiming,
because now we are being calledinto action, not just to
remember but to respond.
We are the grandchildren ofthose who were never allowed to
bury their dead properly.
We are the living proof thattheir legacy did not end in
(22:22):
bondage.
We are the ones who speak theirnames, light their candles,
pour their libations and writetheir stories back into the
books that tried to forget them.
And through us, the firecontinues, not in destruction,
but in illumination.
So what do the ancestors wantnow?
They want truth-telling tobecome ritual.
(22:42):
They want healing to be asdaily as breath.
They want us to stop performingprogress and start embodying
purpose.
They want the land to beconsecrated, the stories to be
restored, and the names, thenames.
They want the names to finallybe known.
They want no more weddings onburial grounds, no more brunch
on blood-soaked porches, no morespiritual amnesia dressed as
(23:05):
southern hospitality.
And, above all, they want us toremember that we are not free
if we forget them.
We are not whole if weromanticize the systems that
broke them.
We are not healed until theirdignity is fully restored.
What happened at Nottoway wasnot just a fire.
It was an altar collapsingunder the weight of false memory
.
And now, with the smoke stillhanging in the atmosphere, we
(23:29):
must ask ourselves what will webuild in its place?
Because something must risefrom these ashes, and it cannot
be another lie.
It must be a movement, amission, a ministry of
remembrance.
A ministry of remembrance, andit starts with you, with us,
with all of us.
We are the ones who were bornto carry this truth forward, to
not just mourn the past but toresurrect its power, to reclaim
(23:52):
land, language, love andliberation, to light the candle
that becomes the torch Fromashes to action.
What we must do next, now thatthe smoke has cleared, what are
we left with?
Not just ruins, not justsilence.
We are left with a mandate.
The ancestors have spokenthrough fire, through reignition
(24:15):
, through the loss of a mansionbuilt on bondage.
Now the question is no longerwhat happened, it is what will
we do about it?
Because to simply grieve thefire without learning from it is
to dishonor the very spiritswho lit it.
It starts with a new kind ofremembering, not the kind you
find in dusty textbooks orcurated tours.
(24:35):
No, we must remember in a waythat revives.
We must reclaim Nottoway andevery place like it, not as a
structure of white wealth, butas a spiritual site of Black
resilience.
We must speak the truth of the155, not once a year, not during
Black History Month, but aspart of our everyday breath.
We must stop treatingplantations as tourist
(24:58):
attractions and start treatingthem as sites of spiritual
consequence, sites where prayersneed to be spoken, where altars
must be built, where namesshould be chanted, where
libations should be poured.
Every time you step foot onland built by the enslaved, you
are on holy ground.
Act accordingly.
If you are an educator, teachthe truth even when it's
(25:21):
uncomfortable.
If you are a parent, tell yourchildren the full story, not
just the polished version.
If you are a descendant of theenslaved, honor your bloodline
with offerings, rituals andremembrance.
If you are a descendant of theenslavers, do not hide.
Research your lineage,acknowledge it and do your part
(25:41):
to repair the harm.
And for those with power,resources or platforms, don't
just talk.
Fund initiatives that reclaimand preserve Black history,
invest in grassroots ancestralhealing programs.
Help create spaces forspiritual restoration, not
spectacle, because the workahead is not just political, it
is sacred.
We must also be careful not toget lost in symbolism alone.
(26:05):
The fire at Nottoway waspowerful, yes, but it was a
warning, a signal, a breakingopen, but the work must continue
long after the embers cool.
That means advocacy.
That means truth commissions.
That means reparationconversations that are no longer
whispers but policies.
That means reparationconversations that are no longer
whispers but policies.
That means we stop allowingpeople to profit from our pain
(26:28):
and instead turn pain into powerand memory into movement.
The spirits didn't rise just tobe seen.
They rose to remind us thatjustice is spiritual, that
healing is generational and thatnow we are the ones holding the
torch.
So ask yourself, what are youbuilding with the ashes?
Will you plant something sacred?
Will you tell the stories theysilenced?
(26:50):
Will you be bold enough tospeak the names they erased?
Will you ensure that yourchildren and your children's
children never call these placesbeautiful without also calling
them what they were?
Because when our ancestors crythrough fire, the worst thing we
can do is turn away, and whenland cries out, the only correct
response is to listen, kneeland vow to do better.
(27:14):
Relationships with the land.
Relationships with the pastEvery relationship tells a story
.
Relationships with the land,relationships with the past
Every relationship tells a story.
Some begin with love, somebegin with trauma and some like
our relationship with the landwe walk on are older than memory
itself.
The land at Nottoway was neverneutral.
It has always carried weight,not just from the architecture
that once stood there, but fromthe footsteps of the 155 who
(27:38):
were forced to serve.
It remembers every chain, everyprayer.
We're not just talking aboutpeople.
We're talking about ourrelationship with history, our
relationship with truth, ourrelationship with the land and,
(28:01):
yes, our relationship withourselves, because, whether you
are black, white or somewhere inbetween, the legacy of slavery
shaped us all.
It divided us, trained us,haunted us, and the only way we
heal is to face it, not flee it.
So ask yourself what is yourrelationship with the past?
Do you flinch from it or do yousit with it?
Do you tryinch from it or doyou sit with it?
Do you try to rewrite it or doyou honor it, even when it hurts
(28:24):
?
Too many of us were taught todisconnect from our lineage, to
ignore what happened, to keepfamily secrets buried alongside
unspoken shame.
But we're in a new era now, onewhere the ancestors are calling
us to reroute, to get grounded,to stop floating through life
without understanding the earthbeneath our feet, because you
(28:46):
cannot truly love yourself oranyone else, if you are not in
relationship with where you comefrom.
This episode is not just about afire.
It's about what it revealedthat so many of us have been
taught to love stories that werenever told in full, that we
were groomed to romanticizepower, wealth and tradition
without ever questioning whoseblood made it possible.
And that until we learn to seehistory through ancestral eyes,
(29:10):
we will always be inrelationships built on illusions
.
To my sisters, my brothers, mycollective, let this be the
moment where we no longerseparate healing from history,
where we stop pretending thatland has no memory, where we
realize that every relationshipwe build today is shaped by the
relationships our ancestors weredenied.
Rebuilding means unlearning.
(29:31):
It means unloving some of thethings we were taught to cherish
.
It means revisiting the land,not just to admire it, but to
apologize to it, to cry into it,to cleanse it, to thank it, and
(29:53):
in doing so, we begin to repairthe most sacred relationship of
all our connection to thedivine, to our ancestors and to
ourselves.
Let this not just be a podcastyou listen to.
Let it be an altar you returnto.
Let it be a vow you make tonever again walk blindly through
history.
Let this be your beginning,when fire becomes memory and
memory becomes mission.
We've walked through the firetogether, not just of Nottoway's
(30:15):
destruction but of ancestralresurrection.
We've unearthed truth buriedbeneath chandeliers.
We've honored the 155 souls whonever got a funeral, only
flames, and we faced a reckoningnot just with history, but with
ourselves.
What happened on May 15th, 2025,was not just the end of a
mansion, it was a spiritualbeginning.
(30:37):
The fire did not just burn abuilding, it burned the illusion
.
And in its place, somethingsacred now breathes, but family.
If this fire was a message, wemust ask ourselves what comes
next.
It's not enough to mourn, it'snot enough to repost.
We are being called to rememberdeeply, honor loudly and live
(30:59):
truthfully, and I want you tocarry this with you, not just
today, but every time you passland you know was once watered
with blood and built by blackhands.
Because our ancestors are notdone speaking.
They never were.
And after Nottoway, I have toask you where do you think the
ancestors will show up next?
Will it be in the crackingwalls of another plantation tour
(31:21):
?
In a courtroom where justicehas been long delayed?
In your dreams, your DNA, yourchildren's questions?
Where will they rise?
Because they will rise and whenthey do, may we be ready, ready
to receive them, to honor them,to finally walk beside them,
not behind their silence.
(31:42):
Thank you for sharing thissacred space with me today.
If this episode moved you,taught you or awakened something
in you, please don't keep it toyourself.
Share this with your community.
Leave a review wherever youlisten to your podcasts.
Subscribe to Life Points withRhonda on YouTube at Life Points
(32:08):
with Rhonda 2968.
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.
Support the podcast bysubscribing, sharing and
(32:29):
contributing to help us continuecreating powerful healing
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Every share, every donation andevery word of encouragement
helps this community thrive.
Together, let's reclaim thestories together.
Let's rebuild the legacytogether.
(33:39):
Thank you, thank you.
What if I told you that the fire wasn't just a
blaze, it was a release.
That 155 spirits cried out fromthe soil, the bricks, the sugar
cane, screaming throughcenturies of silence.
That the most luxuriouswhite-columned plantation in the
American South, built by blackhands soaked in black pain,
wasn't destroyed?
It was finally heard.
(00:20):
What if I told you, family,that some fires don't destroy,
they liberate.
Because the flames thatswallowed the Nottoway
plantation weren't just flames.
They were a reckoning, a roarfrom the other side, a message
from the ancestors themselves,and we weren't supposed to look
away.
Trigger warning.
(00:42):
This episode contains deeplyemotional themes, including the
violent legacy of slavery,spiritual trauma, generational
grief and historicalexploitation.
Listener, discretion is advised, especially for those healing
from ancestral wounds.
Please know this conversationcomes from a place of reverence,
truth-telling and soul healing.
(01:03):
Before we dive in, please takea moment to support this journey
.
Follow, subscribe and sharethis episode with someone who
needs to hear it.
Listen to the Life Points withRhonda podcast on all platforms
YouTube Life Points with Rhonda2968,.
Website lifepointswithrhondacom.
(01:25):
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Life Points with Rhonda, merchbooks and more at
lifepointswithrhondacom, becausethis episode isn't just history
(01:47):
, it's healing.
Let's begin, ladies andgentlemen.
I know that your time isvaluable, so let's get started,
okay, and dive into the episode.
Welcome to Life Points withRhonda, where truth, healing and
reflection always meet at theintersection of history and
humanity.
Today's episode is not justanother story.
(02:10):
It's a spiritual confrontation,a sacred moment to remember the
155 enslaved men, women andchildren whose blood, sweat and
very breath built the NottowayPlantation.
You see, what burned inLouisiana was never just a
historic mansion.
It was a tomb with chandeliers,a shrine to stolen labor.
(02:32):
And when it caught fire, theworld may have called it a
tragedy, but those of us wholisten, with our spirit, we
heard it as a cry for justice, aspiritual release.
This is Life Points with Rhonda, and this episode, this one is
for the ancestors 155 soulsbuilding a palace on black backs
(02:54):
, before the fire, before thetourists, before the plantation
became a wedding venue, a photobackdrop, a southern fairy tale.
There were 155 enslaved Africansouls and they didn't ask to be
remembered with brochures, theyasked to be released.
Those 155 didn't just buildNottaway, they were buried in it
(03:15):
, not with caskets, not withnames carved in stone, but with
sweat that mixed into mortar,with breath trapped between
walls, with blood that driedbeneath floorboards and with
prayers, desperate, tremblingprayers that the world would one
day see what they endured.
Nottoway Plantation is thelargest antebellum mansion still
(03:36):
standing in the South, or itwas Over 50,000 square feet, 64
rooms, white pillars that reachtoward heaven, but were rooted
in something much closer to hell.
That grandeur didn't come fromwealth.
It came from whips, from stolenfreedom, from backs broken
under the weight of a whiteman's dream.
Those enslaved people werekidnapped from lineages of
(03:57):
royalty, spirituality,craftsmanship and deep ancestral
knowledge.
And yet, once purchased by JohnHampton Randolph, they were
seen as inventory tools, bodies,commodities.
Can you imagine that?
To be sacred in spirit,divinely created, and yet
reduced to a line item in aslave ledger?
Randolph didn't just build ahome, he built a plantation
(04:20):
empire on sugar, pain andsilence.
And those 155 were hisfoundation, his machinery, his
currency.
Children as young as five weremade to carry water, stack,
lumber, sweep after grown menwith whips.
Women were raped to reproducemore labor.
Men were shackled, starved,mutilated for the smallest
(04:40):
resistance.
And yet they rose with the sun.
They built in the swelteringLouisiana heat.
They endured storms, abuse,grief and the ever-present
threat of death.
Because they had no choice andstill they built.
And don't let anyone ever tellyou they built it for pride.
They built it to survive.
(05:01):
But survival doesn't meansilence not forever, because
walls hold memory, wood holdsbreath and souls that are denied
justice will speak in fire.
That's why, when Nottowaycaught flames on May 15, 2025,
it wasn't vandalism, it was aspiritual eruption, a
celebration.
The screams that were muffledfinally broke free.
(05:23):
The chains that once echoed inthe sugar mills now clanged
through the blaze and theancestors said enough.
John Randolph, the sugar kingof suffering.
He wasn't just a man, he was amachine, a system wrapped in
flesh.
And his name, john HamptonRandolph, still echoes through
(05:44):
history like a command barkedacross a cotton field.
In the myth of Southerngentility, men like Randolph are
often painted as refined,industrious landowners,
visionaries who built legacies.
But in truth, randolph didn'tbuild a legacy.
He extracted it from the bonesof 155 enslaved people, whose
lives he twisted into labor,whose futures he turned into
(06:05):
profit Born into Southernprivilege.
Randolph was a wealthyLouisiana planter who saw
sugarcane not as a crop but as acurrency of control.
By the mid-1800s, he had becomeone of the most powerful men in
the South.
And his wealth lavish, decadent, untouchable was built entirely
(06:26):
on human suffering.
To the outside world he was afather, a husband, a gentleman
of means.
But behind those tall columnsand manicured lawns was
something else entirely A brutaloverseer, a plantation
patriarch and the calculatedarchitect of economic genocide.
Randolph didn't purchase slavesto support a household.
(06:48):
He purchased entire lineages,generations of black life,
stolen, broken and bound.
He knew the sugarcane industryrequired relentless labor and
backbreaking endurance.
And so he engineered an empirewhere pain was a business plan,
where enslaved women were forcedto birth children for future
labor, where men were pushedpast human limits just to meet a
(07:09):
quota, where resistance meantdeath or disfigurement.
And when he built NottowayPlantation, he didn't just build
a home, he built a monument tohis ego, a palace where
suffering was hidden behindvelvet drapes and gold-framed
mirrors.
The house boasted 365 windows,one for every day of the year.
That wasn't just design, it wasdomination, a reminder that
(07:37):
every day someone black wasworking, bleeding or dying to
make this white man's dreampossible.
Randolph's mansion was amasterpiece of architecture and
cruelty, and he knew it.
But even the grandeur couldn'tsilence the spirits, even the
wealth couldn't erase the criesand even in death.
(07:58):
Randolph's legacy has neverstopped bleeding, because the
people he enslaved weren't justforgotten shadows in history.
They were names, faces, souls,and the fire of May 15, 2025
brought all of that back to thesurface.
You see, when you build yourempire on suffering, you may
leave behind riches, but youalso leave behind a reckoning,
and that's what the fire was Nota crime, not a random accident,
(08:19):
but a reckoning, a roaringrejection of the lie that this
place was ever just a house.
It was a house of horrors, andRandolph's name deserves to be
remembered, not in admirationbut in accountability.
The spirits never left thehaunting legacy of the 155.
They never left, not really.
(08:40):
Their bodies may have beenburied in unmarked graves or
thrown into swampy soil.
Their bodies may have beenburied in unmarked graves or
thrown into swampy soil,forgotten by record books and
erased from polite Southernmemory, but their spirits, their
spirits, lingered.
They echoed in the creek of thefloorboards.
They whispered through thesugar cane fields.
At dusk, they wept in the wallsof Nottaway when no one was
(09:00):
listening.
Because how could they leave?
How do you rest when your lifeended in chains?
How do you cross over when yourname was never spoken again.
How do you ascend when you wereforced to build a heaven for
someone else and live in hellFor 155 enslaved souls?
Nottoway was not just a place oflabor.
It was a prison of unfinishedbusiness.
The trauma didn't end withemancipation.
(09:23):
The pain didn't evaporate withreconstruction.
And the truth sure, the traumadidn't end with emancipation.
The pain didn't evaporate withreconstruction.
And the truth sure as helldidn't disappear just because
tourists began sipping mintjuleps on the front porch.
What the world saw as a grandestate luxurious, timeless,
elegant was in truth a hauntedgrave, a spiritual pressure
cooker, because no matter howmany times they painted the
(09:44):
walls, the stains remained.
No matter how many times theypainted the walls, the stains
remained.
No matter how many weddingphotos were taken on those
marble steps, the screams echoedbehind them, and no matter how
many times they told the liethat Nottoway was just part of
history.
The ancestors knew.
They knew what was buriedbeneath the manicured lawns.
They knew who cried alone atnight, chained to a wall in the
sugar cane quarters.
(10:05):
They knew the names that werenever recorded the babies that
were born into bondage, themothers who couldn't save them,
the men who died silently underthe weight of the fields.
They remembered it all.
And when that fire came on May15th, 2025, it was not random,
it was not coincidence.
(10:25):
It was not coincidence, it wasa release.
The flames didn't just burnwood, they burned silence.
They burned history, sanitizedby lies.
They burned the illusion thatanyone could ever really own
that land, because the landdidn't belong to Randolph, it
belonged to them, to the 155th.
And when the fire consumedNottoway, it felt like a portal
opening A spiritual rupture, soloud the living could feel it.
(10:48):
Those who stood near the smokereported a strange stillness.
Some said they felt a cold windon a hot day.
Others said they saw shadowsmoving behind the fire line.
Some cried and didn't know why.
Some stood there and simplyknew the spirits were leaving.
They weren't trapped anymore.
The spirits were leaving.
They weren't trapped anymore.
Their blood had spoken, theirpain had been acknowledged.
(11:09):
And that fire, that was thesound of 155 doors opening, one
by one and their souls finallywalking through.
Let that settle in your chest,because this wasn't just a
haunting, it was a homegoing theeerie transition from slavery
to souvenirs After the Civil Warand the fall of the Confederacy
(11:33):
.
The physical chains of slaverymay have been broken, but the
spiritual bondage, the denial oftruth, the distortion of memory
and the sanitization of traumapersisted.
Nowhere was this more evidentthan in the slow and disturbing
transformation of the NottowayPlantation.
What was once a site of brutalforced labor, human degradation.
More evident than in the slowand disturbing transformation of
(11:53):
the Nottoway Plantation.
What was once a site of brutalforced labor, human degradation
and generational traumagradually morphed into a
pristine southern attraction.
The grandeur of itsarchitecture remained, but its
soul was rewritten.
The largest survivingantebellum mansion in the South,
built entirely by enslavedAfrican labor, was repackaged as
a luxury bed and breakfast, awedding venue and a place for
(12:15):
tourists to sip sweet tea andmarvel at chandeliers, all while
standing on blood-soaked ground.
This wasn't an accident.
It was a calculated erasure.
Over the course of decades,nottoway's horrifying truth was
stripped away and replaced withnarratives of southern elegance,
hospitality and charm.
The stories of the 155 enslavedpeople who constructed the
(12:38):
plantation, who carved bricks,cleared land, harvested sugar
cane and endured unspeakableatrocities, were reduced to
footnotes, if mentioned at all.
Tour guides rarely said theirnames.
Brochures might haveacknowledged enslaved labor, but
never dared to speak of therape, the lashings, the sale of
(12:58):
children or the deliberatedestruction of Black families.
Instead, the plantation waspraised for its architectural
detail, its fine imported marble, its extravagant staircases and
the so-called genius of JohnHampton Randolph, the very man
who commodified human life tobuild his empire.
The grounds were manicured, thecabins of the enslaved were
(13:21):
demolished or ignored, the sugarfields were romanticized as
picturesque landscapes insteadof sites of exhaustion and death
.
Guests checked into suiteswithout knowing, or perhaps not
caring, that the walls aroundthem had once echoed with the
cries of men being tortured,women being assaulted and
children being dragged fromtheir mothers' arms.
(13:42):
Brides posed in white gowns onbalconies where women of African
descent once stood in chains.
Anniversary dinners were servedin rooms where enslaved cooks
once labored in silence,forbidden from speaking, looking
up or resting.
This wasn't just historicalamnesia, it was spiritual
violence, it was themonetization of generational
(14:04):
grief.
This practice of convertingplantations into event spaces
and tourist attractions is notunique to Nottoway, but what
makes this site particularlyhaunting is its scale and its
unrepentant glossing over ofhorror.
Nottoway was advertised as asouthern fairy tale, with no
mention of the blood sacrificesthat made it possible.
And in that silence, in thatwhitewashing, the spirits of the
(14:29):
155 were ignored.
But they were never gone.
They remained watching, waiting, whispering.
For decades they endured asecond kind of bondage the
denial of their truth, whileguests toasted champagne and
posed for Instagram photos.
The ancestors waited forjustice, because sacred land
cannot be repurposed withoutconsequence, and trauma that is
(14:49):
never acknowledged becomes aspiritual fire waiting to rise
for justice, because sacred landcannot be repurposed without
consequence, and trauma that isnever acknowledged becomes a
spiritual fire waiting to rise.
When Nottoway burned on May 15,2025, many saw it as a tragedy,
the loss of a historic home.
But for those who know thetruth, who feel the truth, it
was a reckoning.
The fire was not merelydestruction.
(15:11):
It was a form of release, arefusal to allow the lie to
stand any longer.
The very foundation of thatbuilding was laid by people who
never had the chance to speak.
But fire speaks when silencebecomes unbearable, and through
the flames, the land cried out.
The 155th were not backgroundcharacters in some romantic
(15:32):
plantation fantasy.
They were the builders, thebreath, the heartbeat of that
estate, and thecommercialization of their pain,
without reparation, withoutremembrance, without reverence,
was an abomination.
The transition from slavery tosouvenirs was never just about
rebranding.
It was about control.
(15:52):
It was about whose story getstold and whose suffering gets
buried.
But now the lie has turned toash and in that ash, maybe, just
maybe, the truth can begin torise.
The fire this time May 15, 2025.
A reckoning.
May 15, 2025, began like anyother day in White Castle,
(16:17):
louisiana.
The sun cast its warm glow overthe manicured lawns of Nottaway
Plantation, a site that hadlong masked its brutal history
beneath a veneer of Southerncharm.
But beneath the surface,something stirred a restless
energy, a call for justice thathad been ignored for far too
long.
(16:37):
At approximately 2 pm, staffmembers noticed smoke emanating
from a second-floor bedroom inthe south wing of the mansion.
Firefighters from multipledepartments responded swiftly,
battling the blaze thatthreatened to consume the
historic structure.
By mid-afternoon they hadmanaged to suppress the flames,
meticulously, checking eachfloor to ensure all hotspots
(16:58):
were extinguished.
However, the respite wasshort-lived.
Around 6 pm, the fire reignitedwith a ferocity that caught
even seasoned firefighters offguard.
Flames erupted from the roofand the inferno rapidly spread,
leading to the collapse of themansion's iconic white columns
and the eventual destruction ofthe entire main building.
(17:18):
This resurgence of the fire,after it had been seemingly
brought under control, feltsymbolic An uncontainable force
demanding acknowledgement.
It was as if the very spiritsof the 155 enslaved individuals
who had built Nottoway wereasserting their presence,
refusing to be silenced orforgotten any longer.
Witnesses described the air aseerily still before the blaze.
(17:40):
Some claimed they saw shadowsmoving through the smoke,
figures that vanished whenlooked at directly.
Others spoke of feeling watched, overcome with emotion or
chilled to the bone despite theheat of the flames.
These weren't just eeriecoincidences.
They were confirmations.
The spiritual was collidingwith the physical, the past was
(18:01):
making itself known.
And what was the media response?
Minimal, almost mute.
Local outlets reported thedestruction, preservationists
expressed concern, a fewSouthern history blogs mourned
the loss of an architecturalmasterpiece, but few, if any,
spoke the truth that this was asite of mass trauma, that it was
(18:23):
not just wood and plaster thathad burned but a false narrative
.
The silence from nationaloutlets was deafening, as if
America itself couldn't bear toacknowledge the symbolism of
what had just happened.
But we saw it, we felt it andwe will not let it go unspoken.
The fire was a reckoning, notjust for Nottoway but for every
(18:44):
plantation that still standswithout accountability, for
every tourist attraction thatmarkets slave labor as ambiance,
for every wedding held onsacred ground.
Thank you For every descendantwho has had to walk those paths,
knowing their ancestors werenever given peace, never given
(19:05):
burial, never given truth.
That day, the land rememberedand it spoke in flames.
And let's be honest, thisdidn't happen in 1825.
This happened in 2025.
In the era of supposed progress, in the midst of the so-called
racial reckoning Americapromised after 2020, while books
(19:27):
are being banned for teachingthe truth, plantations are still
being praised as picturesque,but not this time, not anymore.
The fire's cause remains underinvestigation, but its impact is
undeniable.
The destruction of NottowayPlantation serves as a stark
reminder that the past cannot beburied beneath layers of
romanticized history.
(19:48):
The flames that consumed themansion also illuminated the
need for a more honest reckoningwith the atrocities committed
on its grounds.
As we reflect on this event, wemust recognize that the fire
was more than a physicaldisaster.
We must recognize that the firewas more than a physical
disaster.
It was a spiritual reckoning, aclarion call to honor the lives
(20:10):
and legacies of those whosuffered and perished there.
The destruction of Nottoway isnot just an end but a beginning,
a chance to rebuild not juststructures but narratives rooted
(20:33):
in truth and justice.
Spiritual reclamation, what theancestors are teaching us now,
rooted in truth and justice.
It wasn't just a rare incident.
It was a message, asupernatural refusal to be
silenced, because spiritualenergy, once awakened, cannot be
extinguished with hoses orhistory books.
That second fire was not just aresurgence, it was an uprising
(20:56):
from the other side.
And if you're listening withspirit, you already know.
This fire wasn't asking forjustice, it was demanding it.
What burned was not just amansion, it was a legacy of lies
.
The ancestors are not interestedin performative history.
They are not pacified bycurated exhibits or
surface-level apologies.
They are calling for a completespiritual reclamation, a
(21:19):
pulling back of the truth, theland, the memory and the power
that was stolen.
This isn't about guilt, it'sabout accountability.
It's about calling forth everydescendant, every listener,
every heart with blood memory torise, reclaim and realign.
This moment is sacred.
It's not just history, it'sactivation.
(21:40):
The fire at Nottoway was thespiritual equivalent of a
breaking chain, an open portal.
It was the cleansing of sacredground long misused.
It was the ancestors sayingenough of our pain being your
scenery.
It was the moment when hiddentrauma was not just seen, it was
(22:02):
felt deep in the bones.
And if you felt chills when yousaw the smoke, that was not
your imagination that was themcalling, reminding, reclaiming,
because now we are being calledinto action, not just to
remember but to respond.
We are the grandchildren ofthose who were never allowed to
bury their dead properly.
We are the living proof thattheir legacy did not end in
(22:22):
bondage.
We are the ones who speak theirnames, light their candles,
pour their libations and writetheir stories back into the
books that tried to forget them.
And through us, the firecontinues, not in destruction,
but in illumination.
So what do the ancestors wantnow?
They want truth-telling tobecome ritual.
(22:42):
They want healing to be asdaily as breath.
They want us to stop performingprogress and start embodying
purpose.
They want the land to beconsecrated, the stories to be
restored, and the names, thenames.
They want the names to finallybe known.
They want no more weddings onburial grounds, no more brunch
on blood-soaked porches, no morespiritual amnesia dressed as
(23:05):
southern hospitality.
And, above all, they want us toremember that we are not free
if we forget them.
We are not whole if weromanticize the systems that
broke them.
We are not healed until theirdignity is fully restored.
What happened at Nottoway wasnot just a fire.
It was an altar collapsingunder the weight of false memory
.
And now, with the smoke stillhanging in the atmosphere, we
(23:29):
must ask ourselves what will webuild in its place?
Because something must risefrom these ashes, and it cannot
be another lie.
It must be a movement, amission, a ministry of
remembrance.
A ministry of remembrance, andit starts with you, with us,
with all of us.
We are the ones who were bornto carry this truth forward, to
not just mourn the past but toresurrect its power, to reclaim
(23:52):
land, language, love andliberation, to light the candle
that becomes the torch Fromashes to action.
What we must do next, now thatthe smoke has cleared, what are
we left with?
Not just ruins, not justsilence.
We are left with a mandate.
The ancestors have spokenthrough fire, through reignition
(24:15):
, through the loss of a mansionbuilt on bondage.
Now the question is no longerwhat happened, it is what will
we do about it?
Because to simply grieve thefire without learning from it is
to dishonor the very spiritswho lit it.
It starts with a new kind ofremembering, not the kind you
find in dusty textbooks orcurated tours.
(24:35):
No, we must remember in a waythat revives.
We must reclaim Nottoway andevery place like it, not as a
structure of white wealth, butas a spiritual site of Black
resilience.
We must speak the truth of the155, not once a year, not during
Black History Month, but aspart of our everyday breath.
We must stop treatingplantations as tourist
(24:58):
attractions and start treatingthem as sites of spiritual
consequence, sites where prayersneed to be spoken, where altars
must be built, where namesshould be chanted, where
libations should be poured.
Every time you step foot onland built by the enslaved, you
are on holy ground.
Act accordingly.
If you are an educator, teachthe truth even when it's
(25:21):
uncomfortable.
If you are a parent, tell yourchildren the full story, not
just the polished version.
If you are a descendant of theenslaved, honor your bloodline
with offerings, rituals andremembrance.
If you are a descendant of theenslavers, do not hide.
Research your lineage,acknowledge it and do your part
(25:41):
to repair the harm.
And for those with power,resources or platforms, don't
just talk.
Fund initiatives that reclaimand preserve Black history,
invest in grassroots ancestralhealing programs.
Help create spaces forspiritual restoration, not
spectacle, because the workahead is not just political, it
is sacred.
We must also be careful not toget lost in symbolism alone.
(26:05):
The fire at Nottoway waspowerful, yes, but it was a
warning, a signal, a breakingopen, but the work must continue
long after the embers cool.
That means advocacy.
That means truth commissions.
That means reparationconversations that are no longer
whispers but policies.
That means reparationconversations that are no longer
whispers but policies.
That means we stop allowingpeople to profit from our pain
(26:28):
and instead turn pain into powerand memory into movement.
The spirits didn't rise just tobe seen.
They rose to remind us thatjustice is spiritual, that
healing is generational and thatnow we are the ones holding the
torch.
So ask yourself, what are youbuilding with the ashes?
Will you plant something sacred?
Will you tell the stories theysilenced?
(26:50):
Will you be bold enough tospeak the names they erased?
Will you ensure that yourchildren and your children's
children never call these placesbeautiful without also calling
them what they were?
Because when our ancestors crythrough fire, the worst thing we
can do is turn away, and whenland cries out, the only correct
response is to listen, kneeland vow to do better.
(27:14):
Relationships with the land.
Relationships with the pastEvery relationship tells a story
.
Relationships with the land,relationships with the past
Every relationship tells a story.
Some begin with love, somebegin with trauma and some like
our relationship with the landwe walk on are older than memory
itself.
The land at Nottoway was neverneutral.
It has always carried weight,not just from the architecture
that once stood there, but fromthe footsteps of the 155 who
(27:38):
were forced to serve.
It remembers every chain, everyprayer.
We're not just talking aboutpeople.
We're talking about ourrelationship with history, our
relationship with truth, ourrelationship with the land and,
(28:01):
yes, our relationship withourselves, because, whether you
are black, white or somewhere inbetween, the legacy of slavery
shaped us all.
It divided us, trained us,haunted us, and the only way we
heal is to face it, not flee it.
So ask yourself what is yourrelationship with the past?
Do you flinch from it or do yousit with it?
Do you tryinch from it or doyou sit with it?
Do you try to rewrite it or doyou honor it, even when it hurts
(28:24):
?
Too many of us were taught todisconnect from our lineage, to
ignore what happened, to keepfamily secrets buried alongside
unspoken shame.
But we're in a new era now, onewhere the ancestors are calling
us to reroute, to get grounded,to stop floating through life
without understanding the earthbeneath our feet, because you
(28:46):
cannot truly love yourself oranyone else, if you are not in
relationship with where you comefrom.
This episode is not just about afire.
It's about what it revealedthat so many of us have been
taught to love stories that werenever told in full, that we
were groomed to romanticizepower, wealth and tradition
without ever questioning whoseblood made it possible.
And that until we learn to seehistory through ancestral eyes,
(29:10):
we will always be inrelationships built on illusions
.
To my sisters, my brothers, mycollective, let this be the
moment where we no longerseparate healing from history,
where we stop pretending thatland has no memory, where we
realize that every relationshipwe build today is shaped by the
relationships our ancestors weredenied.
Rebuilding means unlearning.
(29:31):
It means unloving some of thethings we were taught to cherish
.
It means revisiting the land,not just to admire it, but to
apologize to it, to cry into it,to cleanse it, to thank it, and
(29:53):
in doing so, we begin to repairthe most sacred relationship of
all our connection to thedivine, to our ancestors and to
ourselves.
Let this not just be a podcastyou listen to.
Let it be an altar you returnto.
Let it be a vow you make tonever again walk blindly through
history.
Let this be your beginning,when fire becomes memory and
memory becomes mission.
We've walked through the firetogether, not just of Nottoway's
(30:15):
destruction but of ancestralresurrection.
We've unearthed truth buriedbeneath chandeliers.
We've honored the 155 souls whonever got a funeral, only
flames, and we faced a reckoningnot just with history, but with
ourselves.
What happened on May 15th, 2025,was not just the end of a
mansion, it was a spiritualbeginning.
(30:37):
The fire did not just burn abuilding, it burned the illusion
.
And in its place, somethingsacred now breathes, but family.
If this fire was a message, wemust ask ourselves what comes
next.
It's not enough to mourn, it'snot enough to repost.
We are being called to rememberdeeply, honor loudly and live
(30:59):
truthfully, and I want you tocarry this with you, not just
today, but every time you passland you know was once watered
with blood and built by blackhands.
Because our ancestors are notdone speaking.
They never were.
And after Nottoway, I have toask you where do you think the
ancestors will show up next?
Will it be in the crackingwalls of another plantation tour
(31:21):
?
In a courtroom where justicehas been long delayed?
In your dreams, your DNA, yourchildren's questions?
Where will they rise?
Because they will rise and whenthey do, may we be ready, ready
to receive them, to honor them,to finally walk beside them,
not behind their silence.
(31:42):
Thank you for sharing thissacred space with me today.
If this episode moved you,taught you or awakened something
in you, please don't keep it toyourself.
Share this with your community.
Leave a review wherever youlisten to your podcasts.
Subscribe to Life Points withRhonda on YouTube at Life Points
(32:08):
with Rhonda 2968.
Visit my websitelifepointswithrhondacom.
Join the email list and receiveyour free healing affirmation,
a special audio gift and aone-on-one consultation through
ManyChat.
Follow me across all platformsTikTok, instagram, facebook and
YouTube.
At Life Points with Rhonda.
Reach out directlylifepointswithrhonda at gmailcom
.
Support the podcast bysubscribing, sharing and
(32:29):
contributing to help us continuecreating powerful healing
conversations.
Every share, every donation andevery word of encouragement
helps this community thrive.
Together, let's reclaim thestories together.
Let's rebuild the legacytogether.
(33:39):
Thank you, thank you.
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