And They Played Angola Prison Spirituals as the Recessional

by Belle Waring on September 24, 2012

So, some celebrities got married: Blake Lively, who was in the TV show Gossip Girl, and Ryan Reynolds, who was in the Green Lantern and is one of those dudes who is stipulated to be handsome but his eyes are too close together so he just looks moronic. Like a younger…thingface. Whoever. Lively herself is an off-brand Gwyneth Paltrow so it’s suitable.

They had the wedding, which was all perfect and arranged by actual Martha Stewart with color-coördinated jordan almonds (OK I made that detail up, but almost certainly yes), at Boone Hall Plantation, outside of Charleston in South Carolina. Boone Hall almost alone of the pre-Civil War plantations has its slave quarters intact. I think this is actually awesome about Boone Hall. At all the other plantations, you go, and some nice white volunteer shows you around, and you have to just use your imagination. The main house is now surrounded by vast lawns, and live oaks and azaleas, wisteria and breath of spring, tea olive, daphne odora, gardenias, and mounds of Lady Banksia roses. Mmmm, up in Charleston that Lady Banksia will get up to one-and-a-half stories high. I’m not sure why it doesn’t grow so well in Savannah. Pretty little yellow roses on a climbing vine, heaping up on itself, all up around old fenceposts. But no hovels! No wood fires, no chickens, no foundries! No crying babies, no foremen, no one making grits, no one getting beat the hell up, no black people!

It’s not entirely inconceivable one might see some Gullah people selling sweetgrass baskets. But for whatever crazy reason, local black people haven’t just dropped everything they were doing and rushed over to all those plantations to volunteer as pretend slaves. So the house is sitting there all pretty, all by its own self, and, like I said, you have to use your imagination.

People commenting at the Gawker article said it was sort of like having your wedding at Auschwitz. I discussed this with John and he, too, felt that having your wedding with the slave quarters right there was horrifying and depressing in a way that having your wedding at one of the other plantations would not be. As if people razed Auschwitz and 100 years later you got married on a grassy hill, it’d be different. But I feel more like the plantation house all by itself is a lie, more like having the SS officer quarters preserved, and razing everything else, and then walking around on the grass, yeah this is pretty nice… The slave problem doesn’t go away if you destroy the slave quarters, you can’t erase it. But then, even I think getting married in the slave church would be a hideous bummer. (John and I have been, but more than 10 years ago.)

Full Disclosure: For a while I was planning to get married in Savannah, Georgia, either at my grandmother’s (built 1815), or in a historic building with walled garden, until plans changed and I got married at my granddad’s house up north. That house in Savannah was built by slaves, just like all the other ones in the whole town. I didn’t intend to interrupt the flow of the tradish Episcopalian ceremony to acknowledge this in any way. My back-up plan was the Oglethorpe Club. Ow, racism just happened! Luckily we got married in East Hampton, NY, where no one is racially prejudiced or anti-semitic or for Christ’s sake tells jokes about Polish people who the hell is racist against Polish people anymore? Is it 1912?

I wasn’t able to find the version I wanted, which was recorded in the dread Angola Prison in Louisiana, but this is still great: “See How They Done My Lord.”

{ 41 comments }

1

rm 09.24.12 at 1:35 pm

If you get married at the historic Marsh House in Lafayette (La-FAY-et), Georgia, the bride uses the slave quarters as a changing room. I think a lot of cursed (CURS-ed) marriages have begun at that house.

No, not mine, but I know this from the pre-wedding location scouting. Perhaps this arrangement has changed in the decades since.

One of the photos in Marsh House album was of a wedding where one side dressed as Confederates and the other side as Americans. People are EVIL.

2

rm 09.24.12 at 1:37 pm

Left out the link, sorry: Marsh House.

3

ajay 09.24.12 at 1:49 pm

a wedding where one side dressed as Confederates and the other side as Americans.

Good choice of words :)

4

Max Panaccio 09.24.12 at 2:03 pm

Christophe Lambert?

5

Anderson 09.24.12 at 2:53 pm

2: not really. Confederate States of America, right?

Re slavery, the Confederacy began the war doing what had been perfectly legal under the U.S. flag for generations. I think it’s complacent to turn the CSA into the slaveholding Other and retroactively whitewash (ha) slavery as an American institution.

6

ajay 09.24.12 at 3:40 pm

5: I’m not American. Lots of people aren’t, you know.

7

J. Otto Pohl 09.24.12 at 3:45 pm

5

It is true that Americans tend to view slavery as something unique to the CSA. The slave holding Union states of MO, MD, DE, and KY tends to completely disappear. But, what is even more distorting is the view of Americans of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade as being something entirely or predominantly American. It is strange because nobody in Africa would leave out the very important role of the Asante and other indigenous slave traders or the British and other Europeans. If you go along the coast of Ghana there are lots of slave forts built by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danish, and most of all the British. There is not a single slave fort built by the Americans, not one. But, none of this seems to ever make it into public discourse anywhere on the Internet.

8

JJ 09.24.12 at 4:32 pm

Well, you could say the same for the rulers of the European states and the United States, who made it possible to refine the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade by redefining the institution of slavery. The slave forts in question were the European states themselves, and the slaves in question were the waves of American immigrants who were expelled from the European states for their inability to sell themselves on the European labor market.

9

rm 09.24.12 at 4:44 pm

History sure is complicated, and I surely did not intend to express a “we-virtuous-Northerners” vibe. As Belle original post notes clearly, Yankees are often just as clueless and evil as anyone else. In fact, some of my Yankee relatives chose (without my knowing about it beforehand) to stay at the Marsh House, and they just loved it. While some of my Southern in-laws would have been way too savvy to sleep in the presence of those sorts of ghosts.

10

Mark Field 09.24.12 at 5:00 pm

Anderson: I don’t see it as a whitewash. “Under the US flag” is doing a lot of work in your phrasing. Slavery was considered a state institution at that time, not a federal one, and the northern states had all abolished slavery by 1804 (the process of abolition dragged on longer than that in some). By 1861 it’s fair to say that slavery was a purely Southern institution.

More to the point, what made the secesh a “slaveholding other” was their willingness to kill hundreds of thousands of their fellow Americans in order to maintain millions more in slavery.

None of which is to let Northerners off the hook. They were bigoted and enabled slavery in the South in many ways. But not to the extent of killing their own citizens to do it.

11

Maria 09.24.12 at 5:01 pm

But anyway, back to the OP … I’ve been to Boone Hall, too! It’s kind of pretty but the slavery parts are strangely sterile and scrubbed of all but the cleanest, pre-treated way-back-when treatment of actual slavery. An odd place; useful for visualising the physical layout of a plantation, but weirdly apolitical and not at all conducive to nuptials.

Also, the entrance hall is very small and the drawing room done over in rather dark nouveau-Victorian style, as I remember. I can’t even think where the dancing would be. Why go to all the trouble and expense of hiring it if you need to stick up an enormous marquee?

Also, while I agree that Ryan Reynolds’ eyes are too close together and he absolutely cannot carry off the whole James Bond look those fancy watch-makers have him put on in glossy magazines, he does give off a genuine Nice Guy vibe and is, after all, Canadian.

12

Nickp 09.24.12 at 5:30 pm

Plant nomenclature geekery:

It’s Lady Banks Rose or Rosa banksiae, but not Lady Banksia. The plant is named after the wife of Joseph Banks (Sarah????), not Joseph Banksia.

Also comes in a white form.

13

Hogan 09.24.12 at 5:30 pm

the Confederacy began the war doing what had been perfectly legal under the U.S. flag for generations.

I forget–which constitutional amendment finally made it illegal to shell Fort Sumter?

14

Steven 09.24.12 at 6:33 pm

But, but how can an argument fail when it invokes a criticism of the idea of the Other? Is nothing scared anymore?

15

J. Otto Pohl 09.24.12 at 6:43 pm

Steven:

Only certain others count. Politically incorrect people can never be the Other and Politically Correct regimes can never Other people. You should know this by now.

16

rea 09.24.12 at 6:51 pm

Lincoln on the guilt for slavery, North and South:

‘The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”‘

17

Jeffrey Davis 09.24.12 at 7:28 pm

Something rotten has happened almost everywhere, so I suppose it’s a question of how much your mind is stunned and stunted by associations with the past. I remember the story of a drinking water main which got mistakenly linked with a sewer line. Some kind of weird stuff like Peter Parker’s spider fibers came through the pipes. Eventually the truth came out, and the mistake was corrected, but how soon would you resume drinking the company’s own water? The next day? Never? How many gallons of Listerine would you gargle? How long would you brush your teeth?

http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/articles/OT/FA07/OT_07_FL_CCC.pdf

18

jim 09.24.12 at 7:56 pm

At Montpelier (which a long time ago was Madison’s), there used to be a private railroad station: the Southern Railway (which Served the South) ran past the plantation. Trains stopped stopping there before Integration and the station sat there quietly mouldering. It was recently restored in all its Jim Crowish glory: Ladies, Gentlemen, Coloreds, for example. It’s not slave quarters, of course. But it’s something.

19

JJ 09.25.12 at 2:49 am

The institution of slavery was transformed by the Industrial Revolution, from an agricultural system of slave labor to an industrial system of wage labor. Nowadays, all of us are owned by someone, some of the time, a distinct material improvement over the former system where most of us were owned by someone, all of the time, and a distinction which adds meaning to democratic ideal of “equal rights for all”. In fact, the state religion was itself transformed by the Industrial Revolution: from Christianity (or Buddhism or Judaism or Islam or whatever) to Democracy, the secular religion of the industrial state, and the ideology of social salvation was thereby transformed from a spiritual Utopian state to a material Utopian state.

20

Belle Waring 09.25.12 at 3:25 am

My post, strictly as written, implies John and I got married in the slave church at Boone Hall, but over ten years ago. Which is false, we just went inside. Agreed with Maria that they are some awfully spacious and tidy damn slave quarters, but since I sort of want to force everybody at the other plantations to build a good city block of corrugated iron-roofed slum in front to make up for it,…

21

Belle Waring 09.25.12 at 3:30 am

Also, NickP, dude, everybody calls it Lady Banksia there ain’t nothing I can do about that. I’m sure they know better at the Charleston Rose Association and stuff. You win a slice of Lady Baltimore cake, but you must go to Charleston and pay for it to collect your winnings.

Finally, I feel as though I was ungracious towards my beloved granddad in this post. He was the man! I formally apologize and promise to write about his wonderful points in the future.

22

derrida derider 09.25.12 at 5:15 am

Yes, rea@16. As a non-american I always thought you yanks had it wrong in revering the Gettysburg address. The great speech of Lincoln’s life was that second inaugural one.

23

Belle Waring 09.25.12 at 10:28 am

22: for real: ‘Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”‘
Fucking A.

On a much lighter note, Drew Magary is at Gawker now, seeking out the “most racist city in America.” As they must be somewhat contrarian he opened with Philly; to be fair, a legitimate choice. “This life-size bronze statue to Rocky and nothing to Joe Frazier? F#%k you.” But seriously, if he ends the search with anything other than, say, Columbia, S.C. or, more generally, a city in the South, it’ll be bullshit.

24

Nickp 09.25.12 at 12:47 pm

Belle,

Not in North Carolina they don’t. If everyone calls it “Lady Banksia” in SC, it would be interesting to know the origin of the regional variation. It’s an odd mashup of the common name and the botanical latin.

25

Jeffrey Davis 09.25.12 at 1:10 pm

re:22

I think you’re right to call it his best, but he had many that are worthy of honor. No need to be stingy.

26

Lurker 09.25.12 at 2:14 pm

The institution of slavery was transformed by the Industrial Revolution, from an agricultural system of slave labor to an industrial system of wage labor. Nowadays, all of us are owned by someone, some of the time, – –.

In fact, from the standpoint of antiquity, none of us would be considered a free man or woman. We are, excepting children, students and pensioners, all toiling for our sustenance for someone else. Xenophon would have no qualms calling us slaves.

However, what you miss here is that the Southern slavery actually was changing with the times. The Southern slaveholders were seriously experimenting with slave-manned factories. In fact, slave labour might even have proved to be economically efficient way of getting industrial manpower had the Civil War not stopped this development. (The difference between a “free” worker under crushing debt to the company, living in a company town, and a chattel slave is, in truth, vanishingly small.)

27

rm 09.25.12 at 3:17 pm

We all talk as if there is not slavery today. (Except for JJ who keeps insisting there is nothing else).

28

ajay 09.25.12 at 4:34 pm

In fact, from the standpoint of antiquity, none of us would be considered a free man or woman. We are, excepting children, students and pensioners, all toiling for our sustenance for someone else. Xenophon would have no qualms calling us slaves.

This is stone-cold nuts, right here. “The ancient world had no concept of employment other than that of slavery”. Good grief.

29

JW Mason 09.25.12 at 4:34 pm

(The difference between a “free” worker under crushing debt to the company, living in a company town, and a chattel slave is, in truth, vanishingly small.)

Vanishingly small.

30

J. Otto Pohl 09.25.12 at 4:38 pm

rm:

I have been told that you can still buy slaves in Ghana in violation of the law and that the fishing industry is notable in using them. But, since are forms of slavery are currently illegal under Ghanaian law nobody seems to have a good handle on just how widespread the practice is. One American woman involved in helping stamp out modern slavery here did tell me that some slaves retail for as little as 40 GH (about 20 US dollars). I don’t think anybody is denying the continuation of the practice here.

31

J. Otto Pohl 09.25.12 at 4:38 pm

OOps that should be “since all forms of slavery are currently illegal”

32

JJ 09.25.12 at 6:17 pm

As stated, we are all part-time slaves to the part-time masters who employ us, and part-time masters to part-time slaves we employ, including our wives and children. We are all secular acolytes at the altar of Democracy, or the material Utopian state, regardless of our religious beliefs, simply because the Industrial state giveth and the Industrial state taketh away. Blessed be the Industrial state.

33

Lurker 09.25.12 at 6:45 pm

This is stone-cold nuts, right here. “The ancient world had no concept of employment other than that of slavery”. Good grief.

I beg to differ. The ancient world had, very clearly, several forms of free labour and employment. However, only few forms of labour were fitting for a free Athenian or a Roman citizen. (Of course, particulars differed.) First of all, work on one’s own homestead was honourable and fit for a free man. Paid work on another’s behalf was different. Locatio conductio opererum, the standard work contract, was considered demeaning in Rome, and especially in Athens, citizens preferred to be employed on a daily basis, as longer terms of employment were considered enslaving.

Any professional who was employed by another was, theoretically, working for free. The later compensation, honorarium which was socially required, was legally considered to be a voluntary gift. Such educated high-level clerical work that is now undertaken by professionals was relegated to freedmen who were socially at a level clearly below freeborn citizens.

Thus, while there were a host of ancient forms of free labour, only very few forms of free labour were considered to be socially acceptable for a free citizen. And if you read Xenophon’s Anabasis, or Herodotus’s Histories, you can clearly see that they describe as slavery such economical arrangements that would, to us, seem forms of free labour.

34

Lurker 09.25.12 at 7:11 pm

And to add to my previous post: the stereotypical contemporary form of white-collar employment: a permanent employment contract with a monthly salary, would have been considered a form of unfree labour by the ancient authors. No self-respecting Roman or Greek would have accepted such employment, and there are no cases of freeborn citizens engaging in such contracts with private entities, that I know of.

The closest parallels to a salaried permanent employment contract are the arrangements between Roman citizens and their freedmen, or the Roman patron-client relationship. However, these were not legal but moral ties, based on fides and pietas, not on legal contracts.

35

etv13 09.25.12 at 7:19 pm

The comments in this thread and the “White Working Class” thread seem to be converging. And I really don’t care about the putative opinions of the misogynistic slaveowners of the ancient world about what sort of work is worthy of a free citizen. Their values are not my values, and frankly, I like mine better.

36

rf 09.25.12 at 8:12 pm

“I wasn’t able to find the version I wanted, which was recorded in the dread Angola Prison in Louisiana, but this is still great”

That is a great version, better than the Angola prison one in my humble opinion .. (btw that’s here)

http://archive.org/details/SeeHowTheyDoneMyLord

(The site appears legitimate to me, but I don’t know anything about copyright etc. Feel free to remove it if it looks dodgy)

37

Alex 09.25.12 at 9:23 pm

In fact, slave labour might even have proved to be economically efficient way of getting industrial manpower had the Civil War not stopped this development

oddly enough, there is history outside the United States.

38

ajay 09.26.12 at 9:01 am

33: you seem to be inadvertently agreeing with me there by listing various examples of long-term paid employment that would not have been regarded as slavery.

And I noticed this nice bit of hedging: “there are no cases of freeborn citizens engaging in such contracts with private entities, that I know of”. Nicely excluding the most obvious examples of Romans who engaged in long-term contracts of salaried employment but were definitely not considered slaves – soldiers, and freedmen (for example, secretaries and stewards).

the stereotypical contemporary form of white-collar employment: a permanent employment contract with a monthly salary, would have been considered a form of unfree labour by the ancient authors

[citation needed]

(Merchant ship captains? Some of them were slaves, or owned their own ships, but not all…)

39

Jeffrey Davis 09.26.12 at 12:59 pm

Jesus told a story in which late-hired workers received the same wages as those hired at the beginning of the day. Now, Jesus may not have existed, but his fictional workers did.

40

Jeffrey Davis 09.26.12 at 12:59 pm

Jesus told a story in which late-hired workers received the same wages as those hired at the beginning of the day. Now, Jesus may not have existed, but his fictional workers did.

41

ajay 09.27.12 at 3:37 pm

Now, Jesus may not have existed, but his fictional workers did.

Nice one.

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