The Whiteness of Audubon’s Snowy Egret

Posted on by

At this plantation, the slaves are invisible.

I’m cross-posting from my other blog:

The Whiteness of Audubon’s Snowy Egret

4 thoughts on “The Whiteness of Audubon’s Snowy Egret”

  1. Hello Steve,

    Thanks for getting me onto the Cottonwood Post email list.

    Your article on Audubon’s Snowy Egret was an eye-opener. I never noticed the plantation in this picture, but I never spent much time looking at Audubon’s paintings. I have a small folio-size book of reprints, and the plantation is clearly visible in the background.

    In full disclosure, I have four 16 x 21” reprints of Audubon bird paintings. I found a package of the four prints many years ago at a yard sale and bought them for just a few dollars. I have no idea of what they might be worth today, but the quality is good. They were put together by Northwestern Mutual life insurance which used the prints in their 1960 calendar. I had two of them framed and they are hanging in my house: Common Loon and Red-breasted Merganser. The other two are Purple Heron (listed as Ardea rufescens but now Reddish Egret Egretta rufescens) and Cock of the Plains (listed as Tetrao urophasianus, but now Greater Sage Grouse Centrocerus urophasianus) are still in the envelope.

    At this point in my awareness about the reality of Audubon’s life, I have some ambivalence about keeping them up on the wall. Can we separate the art from the artist? I have a similar dilemma about the symphonic music of Richard Wagner, composer of The Ring of Nibelung and other works. His music is beautiful, but he was an avowed Nazi and the favorite composer of Hitler. Jews with whom I am related are very ambivalent about Wagner and his music, but they listen to it, and attend the opera, as we do. About 10 years ago, Wagner’s music was played in Israel for the first time since the end of World War II. It was a momentous and controversial occasion.

    It is distressing to have a plantation pictured in the background of the painting of the Snowy Egret. I’m sure you know that Audubon hired artists to paint backgrounds for him, but he certainly would have approved it and maybe even liked it.

    I am a bit familiar with the tourist attractions that some plantations have become. Just as you described them, we saw advertising for plantation tours offering architecture tours with dinner and music, when we were in New Orleans this year in early June. I had not heard of the refurbished plantations being used this way and it was shocking to see that.

    However, before we set off on our trip, we learned about the Whitney Plantation http://www.whitneyplantation.orghttp://www.whitneyplantation.org/ located north of New Orleans in Wallace, LA, and made a reservation for the bus ride and tour. The plantation has been organized to tell the story of plantation life from the point of view of those enslaved. The grounds are pleasant and kept natural. The history is told by docents who are part of the legacy of the plantation and connected to the community in some way. The docents guided us to visits to the living quarters, recounted histories taken from survivors of the Whitney Planation, explaining the equipment in the field including a large cage the size of a railroad car where those deemed “uncooperative” were kept out in the sun, or transported to another plantation as rented field hands. The plantation owners profited from the unpaid work of the enslaved and from rent when they worked for another plantation.

    There is a cemetery in the back of the houses with busts of the heads of those buried there as a memorial to them. The experience is moving and difficult. The feeling reminded me of the dread and sadness I felt when we visited the Nazi camp at Theresienstadt in Germany in 2010. It is difficult to confront the reality of these places, but important to do so. Your blog posting about your visit to the holding facility in Tennessee and your description of the field as a cemetery, also reminded me of our visit to Theresienstadt.

    At check-in for our tour of Whitney Plantation, we were given a badge which we wore on a lanyard during the guided walk around the grounds. When we finished, I offered to return the badge, but we were told to keep them as a reminder. Each is printed with a photo of a statue and a quotation from one of the enslaved people who lived and worked at Whitney Plantation. My badge was about Julia Woodrich.

    This visit was especially moving for us because our two grandchildren, who were not with us, but whose mother was, are mixed African-American and white. Their father is deceased and from what we know about him, he was most likely a descendent of enslaved Africans and his family was part of the Great Migration out of the south and in his case to California and Washington.

    Please keep me on the list for future postings.

    Thanks,

    Andy

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Andy, Thank you for mentioning the Whitney Plantation. Several friends and my son have been there and said it was a powerful experience. It’s also described in Clint Smith’s book, How the Word is Passed. It’s an important contribution to un-erasing American history.

      Like

      Reply ↓

Leave a comment