I had the chance this week to drive across the heart of the South, twice. I have done this every year as long as I can remember, but I’m usually either asleep or watching a movie. But this time I decided to keep my eyes glued to the landscape. Well what I saw was pretty interesting. For example, driving down the freeway in the heart of Tennessee, I saw a sign for a “Real Life Plantation”. You could see it from the highway, it was a large house made out of what looked like cardboard overlooking about half an acre of land with a huge sign saying “Real Plantation” on the roof with a letter or two falling off.
After I overcame the sticker shock that they were actually advertising a plantation, I thought that if you’re going to sell yourself in that way, you could at least make it nice. Like make a real house on an open field, without the huge sign that needs a paint job. It really shows you how much this is a part of their identity. Even though plantations are widely considered a negative thing, it’s such a part of Southern culture and southern identity that they’d rather do it poorly, then not do it at all. It also makes you wonder about how “they” see plantations versus how “we” see plantations. I hate you use a broad term like “the north” but I have to in this situation. The North probably sees plantations as symbolic of oppression and rebellion, while a Southerner could see it as a symbol of the glory days, when the only thing larger than their property was their wallets. This resembles what we talked about with the south retaining their individual identity, completely separate from the North’s after the end of the war, and even after Reconstruction.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that they wish to draw tourist in this way; it’s just pretty interesting that that is how they wish to embrace their past. Could it truly be better to do it poorly, than not do it at all though?
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