How plantation museum tours distort the reality of slavery

In this Berkeley Talks episode, Stephen Small, a professor in UC Berkeley's Department of African American Studies, and interim director for the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, discusses research from his upcoming book, tentatively titled Inside the Shadows of the Big House: 21st Century Antebellum Slave Cabins and Heritage Tourism in Louisiana. 

Since the 1990s, Small has visited more than 200 plantation museum sites in 10 states. Tours of these sites included narratives that privileged white elites and consistently avoided mention of slavery and the experience of enslaved people, says Small.

"Slavery is typically described in passive, general and abstract ways," said Small. "If mentioned at all, Black people typically appear as an undifferentiated stereotypical mass, with few exceptions."

Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News.

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