After Being Exposed On TikTok Airbnb Listing For ‘Slave Cabin’ Pulled From Site
An Airbnb listing boasting a former slave cabin has been removed from the site. Source: SOPA Images / Getty
Plantation weddings were once all the rage, but now it seems some people are taking to renting out former slave cabins for their personal enjoyment. An Airbnb site exposed on Tik Tok used its history as a slave cabin as a selling point. With 68 reviews and a 4.97 rating
As Mic reported, the host of the offensive listing has “Superhost” status on Airbnb. The outlet noted that there were similar listings on the site despite claims to support diversity and inclusion. (Read the full article here). First reported TikToker @LawyerWinton, the post has since been removed from the Airbnb website.
While the listing has since been removed from Airbnb, a booking for Belmont Planation was still active on Booking.com as of Saturday evening. The cabin is also listed on Booking.com as a “cottage with garden view.” It lacks the colorful description of the Airbnb site and is described as merely a bungalow with no mention of slave quarters.
Saturday evening, the Belmont Plantation website returned a 404-error suggesting it had been removed offline entirely, at least temporarily. A post on Only In Your State notes the cabin was constructed in the 1830s as a slave cabin. It later was allegedly used as a medical office for “local farmers.”
The website’s description fails to grapple with the depravity of vacationing on a site. Unlike the cabin’s original inhabitants, “guests” at the cottage can join folks in the big house for meals, including breakfast.
A 2018 profile of the plantation called it the last of “the antebellum plantations” in the Mississippi Delta. At one time, 80 enslaved people resided on the property. It remained in the family of its owner until the early 1920s.
In the mid-1940s, former Gov. Dennis Murphree purchased the site and converted it into a hunting lodge. According to listings, it is currently owned and operated by his relatives.
No amount of “meticulous restoration” given to a plantation and surrounding properties can erase the stench of oppression and white supremacy. But who cares so long as you get cute pictures, right?
Located in Greenville, Mississippi, in the heart of the Delta, the Belmont Plantation was established a few years before the start of the Civil War. The comments on the listing on Booking.com and from a few former guests on Facebook show an apparent disconnect between their enjoyment and journey into “history” and the brutal nature of plantation life for enslaved Black people.
This goes far beyond “memorializing the past.” The voyeurism in hosting events, taking respite at plantations, and accompanying slave cabins show particular depravity of mind and spirit.
Mic uncovered several other sites, including in Georgia and New Orleans. There has been similar outrage at using former sites related to the Holocaust. The latest season of “Stranger Things” was set in part in a former Nazi prison turned into an Airbnb. Reports indicate
In 2019, NewsOne covered a racist Airbnb host who referred to a Black guest as a “monkey.” This followed years of Airbnb being called out for racism. The hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack trended in 2016 with stories from Black guests who had racist experiences with Airbnb.
SEE ALSO:
Who Were The Buffalo Soldiers And Why Are They So Important To American History?
Grand Closing: Plantation With Juneteenth Event Honoring ‘Massa’ Shuts Its Doors
‘The Downfall Of Allensworth: How Racism And Lies Destroyed A Black Town In California
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