WHITNEY PLANTATION

Within the boundaries of the “Whitney Plantation”, formerly known as “Habitation Haydel”, the story of the Haydel family of German immigrants and the slaves that they held were intertwined. Built in 1803, the French Creole raised-style main house is the most important architectural example in the state. The plantation has numerous extant outbuildings or dependencies. Included among them are a pigeonnier, a plantation store, slave quarters and the only surviving French Creole barn in Louisiana. The complex includes three archaeological sites which have had varying degrees of exploration.

The 1884 Mialaret House, with its associated buildings and property, were added by later purchase; they help to reflect the long working history of the plantation. Some of the land is still planted in sugarcane. The historic district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Whitney Plantation is also one of 26 sites featured on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. In 2012 scenes from the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained were filmed on and around the plantation.

In December 2014, the Whitney Plantation opened its doors to the public for the first time in its 262 year history as the only plantation museum in Louisiana with a focus on slavery. The Whitney Plantation Historic District is a museum devoted to slavery in the U.S. South that is preserved near Wallace, in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Founded by John Cummings, a trial attorney from New Orleans, the grounds contain imaginative exhibits and original art works, such as life-size sculptures of children to symbolize the thousands of children who died while in slavery. Through museum exhibits, memorial artwork and restored buildings and hundreds of first-person slave narratives, visitors to Whitney will gain a unique perspective on the lives of Louisiana's enslaved people.

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