You know the saying: “We are our ancestors' wildest dreams.” These Louisiana twin sisters in Louisiana did the unthinkable to ensure that their ancestral history would never be buried and forgotten.
Jo and Joy Banner purchased the Woodland Plantation, the site of America’s largest slave revolt. In LaPlace, Louisiana, nearly 500 enslaved men and women fought for their freedom in January 1811. Now the land is under Black ownership. Here’s why this matters.
For years, dozens of former plantations in the area have been turned into tourist attractions by corporations or wealthy white owners. Think luxury resorts and event spaces for plantation weddings. Sickening.
Now, the plantation owners are people whose ancestors were enslaved in the area. Folks who are properly stewarding the land to honor the history as it deserves. Through The Descendants Project, the Banner sisters plan to refurbish the plantation home and turn it into a museum and community space. It's intended to be a place to honor the revolt’s history and be a hub for training and education, particularly of today’s and tomorrow’s activists, given the climate threats facing the area.
When we move with this same energy, no matter how much, we’re honoring the people we come from, those sharing this timeline with us, and future generations of Black people. We owe it to ourselves to reclaim what has always been rightfully ours.