Wounds of Returning: Race, Memory, and Property on the Postslavery Plantation

241 Pages·2007·1.874 MB·English

by  Jessica Adams

Wounds of Returning
new directions in southern studies
Editor
Charles Reagan Wilson
Editorial Advisory Board
Robert Brinkmeyer
Thomas Holt
Anne Goodwyn Jones
Alfred J. Lopez
Charles Marsh
Ted Ownby
Tom Rankin
Jon Michael Spencer
Allen Tullos
Patricia Yaeger
ounds eturning
W of R
race, memory, property

and
postslavery plantation
on the
Jessica Adams
The University of
North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
∫ 2007 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed by Michelle Coppedge
Set in Bulmer types by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
This book was published with the assistance of the Anniversary
Endowment Fund of the University of North Carolina Press.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Adams, Jessica, 1970–
Wounds of returning : race, memory, and property on the postslavery plantation /
Jessica Adams.
p. cm. — (New directions in southern studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8078-3104-5 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-8078-5801-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. African Americans in popular culture. 2. Racism in popular culture—United
States. 3. Capitalism—Social aspects—United States. 4. Property—Social
aspects—United States. 5. Memory—Social aspects—United States. 6. United
States—Race relations. 7. Slaves—Emancipation—United States. 8. Slavery—
Southern States—History. 9. Plantation life—Southern States—History.
10. Southern States—Race relations. I. Title.
e185.6.a24 2007
307.72089%96073075—dc22 2006036295
Chapter 2 was previously published in somewhat di√erent form as ‘‘Local Color:
The Southern Plantation in Popular Culture,’’ Cultural Critique 43 (Spring
1999): 163–87; copyright 1999 Regents of the University of Minnesota. Chapter 5
was previously published in somewhat di√erent form as ‘‘‘The Wildest Show in
the South’: Tourism and Incarceration at Angola,’’ tdr/The Drama Review 45,
no. 2 (Summer [t170], 2001): 94–108; ∫ 2001 by New York University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both are reprinted here with permission.
cloth 11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
paper 11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue xi
Introduction 1
1. Sex and Segregation 21
2. Plantations without Slaves 54
3. Roadside Attractions 86
4. Southern Frontiers 108
5. Stars and Stripes 135
Epilogue 159
Notes 161
Bibliography 195
Index 217
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Illustrations
A slave cabin at Evergreen 65
Evergreen slave cabins in their original configuration 66
The big house at Evergreen 67
Inside Graceland Too 99
Waiting for the rodeo to begin 143
‘‘Souvenir photos’’ 143
Inmates watching tourists shop for hobbycrafts 145
Cabinet covered with a design made of used matchsticks 148
Convict Poker 151
Buddy Pick-Up 153
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Acknowledgments
On my journeys through New Orleans, walking or driving
with the windows rolled down because my air conditioning
was always broken, the city seemed to murmur things—messages,
questions—that I sensed were urgent and profound. I needed to try
to decode them, though I knew these mysteries must be infinite. At
Tulane, Supriya Nair helped ground my flights of fancy in scholarly
rigor, and her kindness has been a still point throughout graduate
school and beyond. Rebecca Mark revealed expanses of creative
possibility and sponsored their exploration. Felipe Smith o√ered an
oasis of calm, blues and jazz floating from his o≈ce like a smoky
haze; down the hall, Molly Travis was always ready with a warm
welcome and an ideal teaching assignment. Joseph Roach intro-
duced me to the antidiscipline of performance studies, and his
embrace of the poignancy of history showed me that scholarly work
could be poetry. Katy Coyle and Alecia Long took the time to share
their unmatched knowledge of Storyville with both me and my
students at Tulane. Wilbert Rideau and Ashanti Witherspoon, two
extraordinary men, shed light on life inside Angola. At the Univer-
sity of Michigan, Patricia Yaeger generously read and commented
on early drafts of this work, lending her brilliance to help me see my
way through it. Charles Reagan Wilson at the University of Mis-
sissippi was a source of unwavering support for the project, for
which I can never thank him enough. When I met him in Oxford, I
immediately recognized a fellow connoisseur of the wild and strange
in southern popular culture, and I have been incredibly fortunate to
have him as an editor. The book benefited immensely from the
comprehensive critiques of Russ Castronovo and an anonymous
reader for the University of North Carolina Press. David Perry
encouraged its completion across the varied landscapes of Georgia,