On Sat, 21 Feb 1998, Boylan P wrote:

> Anyone who thinks this discussion has been worrying should spend a few
> days visiting Lower Mississippi Plantation Houses open to visitors but run
> by private owners or foundations as my (historic house curator) wife did
> just a few years ago.
>
> The source of the estates' wealth and even the purpose of house slave
> quarters were routinely ingnored and questions were either denied or at
> least brushed off with at best a quarter-truth.

I used to work in a historic house museum in New Orleans, and the
fantasies perpetrated by the plantation tours cropped up on a daily basis
when I was giving tours.  The problem is that many of the plantations are
not *museums*, but are rather in the tourist business as entertainment
more than anything else.  As far as I could tell, those responsible for
the plantation tours felt no obligation to maintain historical accuracy
and certainly have perpetuated any number of myths about the antebellum
South.  The dismissal of the reality of slavery, or total omission of
historic contextualization for the practice of slavery, is entirely common
at such places.  I guess they want the tourists to feel good about their
experience and not have to deal with the icky underbelly of plantation
luxury.   Unfortunately most of our guests really didn't make a
distinction between historic house museums and historic houses that are
open for business.   Alas, I'll probably get flamed by someone who works
at a non-museum plantation that DOES strive for historical accuracy, but I
speak as I find.  And I have spent many, many days trying to disabuse New
Orleans tourists of the misconceptions they acquired on plantation tours.
I can, however, vouch for the fact that the New Orleans historic house
museums I am familiar with do their best to acknowledge and interpret the
presence of slavery in those homes.