Representational Politics of Plantation Tourism: The Case of the Hampton Plantation

Abstract

Through the examination of promotional brochures, the commemorative inscriptions and the docent narratives that findings indicated that the plantation past was mediated and constructed as heritage through deflective strategies that directed away from the shameful past of slavery; in some instances, accounts of slavery were extirpated from the grand narrative. Interviews with plantation tourists indicated that the tourists interpreted the plantation in dichotomous polarized ways. That is, the interviewed domestic group of tourists utilized a lens, or terministic screen, which deflected away from slavery while the international group of tourists, adopted a lens of reflection on slavery and race.