Whitney Plantation

Whitney Plantation Whitney Plantation is a non-profit museum dedicated to telling the history of slavery in the U.S. Visit or donate today: https://whitneyplantation.org
(2051)

Guided, self-guided, educational, and group tours are available. We are the only museum in Louisiana devoted to telling the history of slavery. The Whitney Plantation is located on the historic River Road, less than an hour from both New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Through the use of restored buildings, museum exhibits, memorial artwork and hundreds of first-person slave narratives from the Federal W

riters’ Project, visitors are offered a unique perspective on the lives of Louisiana’s enslaved people. Hours: 9:30 a.m. — 4:30 p.m. Last entry 3:00 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.

🎼Before Juneteenth, there was the summer of freedom jubilees in New Orleans.“Accounts from New Orleans in the summer of ...
06/19/2026

🎼Before Juneteenth, there was the summer of freedom jubilees in New Orleans.

“Accounts from New Orleans in the summer of 1864, in a city that was once the country’s largest slave market, confirm that the moment of liberation was America’s second Independence Day—and as in 1776, it marked the beginning of a fight, not the end. New Orleans’s celebrations were the first battle cry in African Americans’ struggle to achieve something more than freedom.”

The Atlantic article from Susannah J. Ural and Ann Marsh Daly explores freedom celebrations across the nation that predated the day Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, including a summer of New Orleans celebrations.

Juneteenth is a celebration of liberation, connection, and remembrance. At Whitney Plantation we rely on your support to help us keep doing the work of remembrance year-round.

Shop 19% OFF everything in our online store. Link in bio. Use code JUNE19 at checkout. https://loom.ly/W6KvQoA

In the 1950’s, 80% of Baton Rouge’s bus riders were forced to stand in the back of half empty buses–with plenty of front...
06/18/2026

In the 1950’s, 80% of Baton Rouge’s bus riders were forced to stand in the back of half empty buses–with plenty of front seats wide open. Why?

Jim Crow segregation laws meant that Black riders had to stand in segregated sections, despite making up the majority of the population of public transit riders.

In 1950, the city council revoked the licenses of several independent, Black-owned transportation companies. Then, they increased bus fares.

A few years later, the city passed Ordinance 222, a “first come, first served” basis for seating. In response, white bus drivers went on strike, and the state attorney general declared the ordinance invalid.

Black bus riders were fed up. in 1953, Rev. T. J. Jemison and other Black community leaders formed the United Defense League (UDL) and launched a five day citywide boycott of the buses.

Every day, a “free ride” network of Black volunteer drivers got people to work, church, and school. Every night, UDL meeting rooms were packed with supporters.

The value of the Black dollar was so impactful that bus companies were under threat of going out of business until an agreement was reached.

Two years later, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others would adopt the UDL’s model and launch the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama.

In 2026, residents of Baton Rouge still face poor transportation equity. Buses have inconsistent schedules, many bus stops don’t have overhead coverage, and many parts of town don’t have sidewalks. The majority of public transit users in the city are still working-class Black people.

This is not a coincidence, this is the continued legacy of slavery and segregation in the South.

Follow to learn more about Black History and legacies of slavery.

📷: 64 Parishes
📝: 225 Magazine , Zinn Education Project

What does it mean to truly "reconcile" with our national story? In this virtual book club session, you’ll have the chanc...
06/17/2026

What does it mean to truly "reconcile" with our national story?

In this virtual book club session, you’ll have the chance to hear directly from author John Garrison Marks and ask your own questions during our live Q&A.

🤓 Perfect for educators, history buffs, and anyone curious about the power of public memory.

Join us on July 2 at 3pm! Register now for this FREE event: bit.ly/WP-Book-Club

Y'all turned OUT for our 4th Annual Juneteenth Freedom Festival! It's one of our absolute favorite days of the year, and...
06/16/2026

Y'all turned OUT for our 4th Annual Juneteenth Freedom Festival! It's one of our absolute favorite days of the year, and it's all because of you. There is nothing better than welcoming all of you to celebrate this day with so much joy and reclaim to this land.

Thank you for sharing this day with us here at Whitney Plantation. We can't wait to see you next year!

Our fourth annual Juneteenth Freedom Festival starts in just 45 minutes! Free tickets are still available at whitneyplan...
06/13/2026

Our fourth annual Juneteenth Freedom Festival starts in just 45 minutes!

Free tickets are still available at whitneyplantation.org/Juneteenth.

Come see Louisiana Children's Museum with their crest stamping activity. St. John Parish Library is here with a bracelet, making activity, coloring sheets, books, and more. We even have a bounce house!

Tomorrow is the big day! Our Juneteenth Freedom Fest is here! Brings your families, friends, and fans and get yourself a...
06/12/2026

Tomorrow is the big day! Our Juneteenth Freedom Fest is here!

Brings your families, friends, and fans and get yourself acquainted with the schedule and map so you don't miss anything.

🕊️ Our annual Juneteenth Freedom Festival is a day of history, storytelling, and community at the Whitney Plantation museum. We’ll have local performers and vendors with activities dedicated to community, culture, and remembrance.
🗓️ Saturday, June 13, 2026, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
📍Whitney Plantation, 5099 Highway 18, Wallace, LA

🎟️ Tickets are FREE with registration: https://loom.ly/jqmvGrU

The Whitney Plantation museum is on a former indigo and sugar plantation that tells the true story of life on a 1400-acre sugar plantation from the perspective of the enslaved Africans who lived and worked there.

🪞HOW DID EARLY ATLANTIC TRADE MIX POLITICAL POWER WITH HUMAN EXPLOITATION?🪞In 1643, African ambassador Dom Miguel de Cas...
06/12/2026

🪞HOW DID EARLY ATLANTIC TRADE MIX POLITICAL POWER WITH HUMAN EXPLOITATION?🪞

In 1643, African ambassador Dom Miguel de Castro from the Kingdom of Kongo arrived in Dutch Brazil bearing diplomatic gifts, including 200 enslaved people.

Kongo (parts of today's western DRC and Angola) was a powerful African state that converted to Catholicism in the sixteenth century and built alliances with Portugal and the Dutch Republic, whose transatlantic slave trade was generating enormous wealth. Despite decrying slavery, Kongo’s King Garcia II profited heavily off of enslaving people beyond the kingdom's borders.

Dom Miguel’s 1643 diplomatic mission first arrived in Olinda, a Dutch colony in Brazil. His party gifted Governor-General Johan Maurits two hundred enslaved people and then traveled to Amsterdam. The portraits commissioned of Dom Miguel, Diego Bemba, and Pedro Sunda during this mission are early examples of African ambassadors adopting European dress for cultural capital.

Dom Miguel’s "servants" were likely members of the elite mwissikongo caste, another position within Central African systems of dependency and bo***ge.

These portraits, and the outfits in them, reveal an early Atlantic world made up of entangled hierarchies of power, commerce, and human exploitation rather than a clear line between oppressor and oppressed.

We’d like to thank our followers who pointed out on a previous post of ours that Dom Miguel was more than just a diplomat, but an ambassador of an African kingdom actively participating in the slave trade. The Whitney is committed to truth, discovery and continuing to discuss these matters with the public.

📸: 1. Don Miguel de Castro, Emissary of Kongo. Beckx, Jaspar. c. 1643. Public Domain.
📸: 2. Pedro Sunda, a Servant of Dom Miguel de Castro. Beckx, Jaspar. c. 1643. Public Domain.
📸: 3. Diego Bemba, a Servant of Dom Miguel de Castro. Beckx, Jaspar. c. 1643. Public Domain.

How do we remember a man who was both a “liberator” and an enslaver?George Washington’s ties to slavery have vexed Ameri...
06/11/2026

How do we remember a man who was both a “liberator” and an enslaver?

George Washington’s ties to slavery have vexed Americans for nearly 250 years. He enslaved more people than any other Founding Father. Yet, he was the only one to emancipate them in his will. This contradiction has shaped our national identity and continues to fuel heated debates today.

Join Whitney Plantation for a live virtual book club on JULY 2 featuring Historian Dr. John Garrison Marks, author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory, and Dr. Ashley Rogers, executive director of Whitney Plantation.

Register for free: https://bit.ly/WP-Book-Club

Buy your copy of Thy Will Be Done at the Whitney Plantation Store online or in person.

📰 The May installment of our monthly column, The Unbroken Line, is out now via Verite News.Executive director Ashley Rog...
06/11/2026

📰 The May installment of our monthly column, The Unbroken Line, is out now via Verite News.

Executive director Ashley Rogers discusses how enslaved women bore the double burden of grueling fieldwork and domestic service, while also sustaining cultural traditions and family life under impossible conditions.

📌 Every month, The Unbroken Line traces the laws, systems, and lived realities of slavery and their lasting impact. Read the full piece: https://loom.ly/MM2wVcM

Harriet Tubman wasn’t just the lead conductor on the Underground Railroad, she was also the first woman in U.S. history ...
06/09/2026

Harriet Tubman wasn’t just the lead conductor on the Underground Railroad, she was also the first woman in U.S. history to lead a major military operation.

On June 2, 1863, abolitionist and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman made history along South Carolina’s Combahee River. Tubman served as a Union scout, spy, and military strategist during the Civil War. Working with Union forces and African American soldiers, she helped plan and lead the Combahee Ferry Raid. The raid liberated more than 700 enslaved people, destroyed infrastructure, disrupted Confederate resources, and demonstrated the power of Black-led resistance and self-emancipation.

More than a century later, Tubman’s legacy inspired the Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist organization founded in 1974. Through its influential 1977 statement, the group challenged racism, sexism, class oppression, and homophobia, helping shape what would later be understood as intersectional feminist politics. The collective’s work emphasized that struggles for justice are interconnected.

From liberation on the waters of the Combahee River to the Black feminist theory that followed, Tubman’s legacy continues to inspire generations committed to freedom, equality, and justice

Follow to learn more about Black American history and the legacies of slavery.

📸: National Museum of African American History & Culture

Address

5099 Highway 18
Wallace, LA
70049

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 9am - 4:30pm
Saturday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Sunday 9:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+12252653300

Website

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