Magnolia Plantation visit.... some thoughts...

My internet connection here is SLOW and frustrating; I feel like I'm on dialup, so this may be brief.

Today I visited Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, which is mentioned extensively (as compared with other sites) in Lolita. It wasn't as productive a visit as I had hoped; they just don't have extensive accessible archives, but Ms. Jane Taylor was extremely generous with her time and did find some useful material. I'm hoping my visit tomorrow to the SC Historical Society produces some good material too.

What struck me today was my visit to the "antebelleum house," aka slave quarters. I heard a slave talk given by a member of the staff there. The focus of the talk was on how slaves were treated well at the Plantation. I kept hearing about how things were not as bad for slaves as people think, etc. The idea of the talk was to deal with some of the misconceptions regarding slavery. It really made me uncomfortable. Yes, there were all sorts of experiences for slaves, and we can't essentialize the experience of slavery, but at its heart, the idea of one human OWNING another is beyond repellent.

The idea, too, that the place where I was sitting was used as a home up until 15 years ago was also pretty shocking; these cabins, which were once homes for slaves then became homes for those living and working on the plantation. You can see the picture of the outside here, and I have ones from the inside as well. Maybe I'll post those later.

Anyway, I want to post this now since the internet connection is so slow. I'll try to post more later.