23 April 2025 - Fire destroys Nottoway Plantation House in Louisiana
This antebellum mansion burned — and took a lot of Black people’s history with it
Michael W. Twitty (MSNBC, 20/05/2025)
With its 200 windows and 165 doors fashioned by enslaved craftsmen and put in place with enslaved labor, Louisiana’s Nottoway Plantation was the South’s largest antebellum mansion, or “big house.” It was also a place that tour guides infamously sold a romanticized and sanitized version of plantation life about, and for generations, those who ran the plantation hosted weddings, graduations and school field trips where Black schoolchildren and their parents often felt diminished and alienated. As The Associated Press has noted, Nottoway “makes no mention of enslaved former inhabitants on its website.”
Video of the Nottoway Plantation fire sparks jubilation. It’s about anger and pain over slavery, too
Fernanda Figueroa and Aaron Morriso (AP News, 20/05/2025)
After a fire engulfed a mansion at Louisiana’s Nottoway Plantation, one of the largest remaining pre-Civil War houses in the Deep South where scores of enslaved Africans labored, video footage of the combusted landmark lit the internet ablaze with mass jubilation and consternation over the weekend. For some, it was a moment to celebrate what they saw as centuries-deferred vengeance for enslaved ancestors. There was no shortage of memes and humorous social media posts to ignite the celebrations: from video of the plantation’s burning mansion set to the R&B hit song “Let It Burn” by Usher to other footage with the volume of burning wood cranked all the way up to trigger a cozy autonomous sensory meridian response.
Plantations Burning Down To The Ground Is A Good Thing
Brian Richards (Pajiba, 20/05/2025)
Last Thursday in White Castle, Louisiana, the Nottoway Plantation House, considered the largest antebellum mansion in the South, was engulfed in flames and burned down, destroying most of the historic structure. When news of this incident was posted on social media, there were plenty of responses, especially from the Black users of Bluesky, collectively known as Blacksky. And a lot of those responses sounded exactly like this: (“This was my dream that has now been dashed.” Really, Dan? Your actual dream was to have a former plantation house?! White privilege truly is a hell of a drug.) For most of these Black people, the only thing better than getting a ticket to see Sinners in IMAX these last few weeks, was seeing a place where their ancestors were held captive, beaten, humiliated, sexually assaulted, and murdered be reduced to ashes, and without the culprit getting caught (if there even is a culprit to catch).
From the Civil War to 2025 fire, here's the history of Nottoway plantation in Louisiana
Julia Guilbeau (The Advocate, 16/05/2025)
The historic Nottoway Resort in White Castle, a former plantation home and the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the U.S. South, burned to the ground Thursday as flames engulfed the 160-year-old building and its storied — and painful — past. The cause of the fire was still unknown by Friday morning, but officials said it started in the building's south wing before spreading to the main house. Iberville Parish president Chris Daigle said the mansion was a total loss. The plantation, a 64-room, 53,000-square-foot property, was built between 1857 and 1859 for wealthy sugar planter John Hampden Randolph. It was added to the National Register of Historic places in 1980.
Nottoway Plantation House. Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
