For African Americans, the word “plantation” carried terrible connotations of slavery and suffering. It is a prohibitive word that describes a place to be avoided.
Now, residents of several suburban neighborhoods are advocating a name change to remove a word that, for many, romanticizes a horrible past. They are part of a modest trend that gained some urgency after the police’s assassination of George Floyd in May.
Plantation residents, Florida, have asked authorities to change the name of the city. Residents of Plantation Estates, a retirement community in southeastern Charlotte, were successful late last year by changing their name to Matthews Glen. And homeowners at Hilton Head Plantation have been trying to get that problematic word replaced for months.
In Mount Pleasant, the owners of Belle Hall Plantation and Hamlin Plantation also sought to abandon the use of the term “plantation”. Hamlin residents started a petition on change.org last year.
“Keeping the word ‘plantation’ as part of our neighborhood glorifies black slavery in the south, specifically in Charleston and is insensitive to the black community,” says the petition. “As recently highlighted in our community social media group, the word ‘plantation’ seems to serve as a reason why a black family may not want to buy a home in our neighborhood.”
White residents of Belle Hall Plantation, realizing that the name of their subdivision could represent a barrier to an ethos of inclusion, recently launched an effort to remove the word “plantation” from the neighborhood’s name, as it appears on two signs.
The initiative, led by Brigid Sullivan and six others, found support and some resistance. But Sullivan and his allies hope that a vote sponsored by the homeowners’ association will result in a simple change.
Charleston artist and resident Colin Quashie, who is black, said the plantations were places of terror and violence, and the only thing appropriate for them is an honest reckoning with the past.
“This recontextualization is ridiculous,” he said.
When, in the 1990s, he and his wife were buying a house, their realtor took them to neighborhoods that included the word “plantation” in their names. Finally, Quashie was compelled to object.
“If you show me another house in a place called the plantation, I will fire you,” he told the agent.
‘Needs to be resolved’
Most of the subdivisions that include the word “plantation” in their names were built in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Marketing teams sought to evoke a notion of moonlight and southern magnolias before the war, which they thought would appeal to home buyers. Sometimes these neighborhoods were built on land where a real plantation worked or on land cultivated by slaves.
About 20 neighborhoods in the metropolitan Charleston area include the word “plantation” in their names. In 2018, developers of two new subdivisions – Long Savannah, west of Bees Ferry Road, in West Ashley, and Kiawah River, on Johns Island – decided not to include the term after consulting with African-American neighbors.
For advocates of change, the reasoning is simple and the objectives relatively modest. But winning the majority of voters was difficult. Some resist, arguing that the story is being erased or that the effort is the latest example of “canceling the culture”. Some say it has a prohibitive cost.
Sullivan is ready to answer.
It is the use of the term, appropriate for marketing purposes, that erases the story, not the other way around, she said. Being considerate of others is not “canceling the culture,” it is doing the right thing, she said. And the cost is modest – and it would be covered by your group, “Belle Hall for All”.
Belle Hall Plantation residents in Mount Pleasant will vote via ballot papers on whether to change two neighborhood signs, removing the word “plantation”. A signal is at the entrance; the other is the “Plantation Center” sign near the clubhouse. Andrew J. Whitaker / Staff
The board of the Belle Hall homeowners’ association told the Post and Courier in a statement that it maintains a neutral stance on the issue of signage, but that the covenants and bylaws provide community members with a means of expressing concerns and ideas.
“Although the advocacy group supporting this change did not meet the requirements of the Bylaws to convene a special meeting or vote for members of the community, the Council decided that it is in the community’s interest to request a vote from members on this issue anyway” , said the statement. “Written ballots are being printed and will be mailed in the next few days, giving every owner in our community a chance to vote on the issue of removing the word ‘plantation’ from our community’s posters.”
When she moved to the neighborhood in 2004, Sullivan didn’t think twice about the name, she said. The Belle Hall plantation consisted of about 1,000 houses and was predominantly white.
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis motivated her to think about how she could make a positive change, however modest.
“It kind of hit me,” she said. Every time she came home from work, there was a sign. Then, last summer, she saw an article on the subject and that motivated her to consult other residents on the neighborhood’s Facebook page.
The debate on Facebook became heated, so those interested in changing the name of the community formed their own group and established rules of engagement. Sullivan reached out to members of the adjacent community of Snowden, an area colonized by African Americans after the Civil War. Some expressed their support for the name change.
And she examined the history of the treaty that now houses her home. It was never a formal plantation, with a large house, avenue of oaks and slave laborers throughout the year, although some farming was certainly done there.
Letters were sent to the council of the homeowners’ association, which finally agreed to send ballots to residents.
“More and more people came out of the hole,” said Sullivan. Although it is not clear whether the group “Belle Hall for All” has sufficient support.
Michael Allen, a black resident of the 2017 National Park Service subdivision who has long been a promoter of Gullah-Geechee history and culture, said he welcomed the effort to “deal with the waste of racism” in his neighborhood.
For 24 years, he found the sign at the entrance to the subdivision and wished it didn’t include the word “plantation”, he said.
“The developers used it to evoke a memory from the past,” said Allen. “But this is not where we are now in 2021. … Now this needs to be resolved.”
Civility vs. power
Meanwhile, in Hilton Head, Judy Dunning, Sheryl Washington and others are trying to get their community to abandon the word “plantation” as well. Theirs is the last remaining neighborhood on the island to stick to the term; many other subdivisions excluded it years ago.
Dunning and his allies at Hilton Head Plantation were also inspired to act on Floyd’s murder, she said. The neighborhood has 4,000 residences. An eighth of them signed the first petition. A survey released by the homeowners’ association indicated that 47 percent of residents approved the move, but then the POA ended the entire process, citing costs and other complications (although no formal estimates were provided), even when residents volunteered. to pay for signage changes, said Dunning.
One question that should be about civility has now become about power, she said.
Removing “plantation” from the name Hilton Head Plantation is a little tricky, noted resident Sheryl Washington, as the subdivision shouldn’t just be “Hilton Head”. A substitute word like “preserve” or “clap” would be needed, she said. Judy Dunning / Provided
“Every time you want to change something, it is the cancellation of the culture,” said Dunning. “One guy threatened to sue the POA if they changed the name. He said he moved here Why it was a plantation. He wanted to live on a plantation. “
The emails sent to Hilton Head Plantation’s general manager, Peter Kristian, seeking comment, went unanswered.
Washington, who is black, said she calls her subdivision “HHP” soon. “I try not to verbalize the word.”
She and her husband bought the house in 2017, and some already hoped to exclude “the word with a P,” she said. She realized that it was just a matter of time.
Now that the debate has been stifled, Washington, Dunning and their allies are looking for a change in leadership. They hope that one or two people who are more attentive to public perceptions and the misuse of language can win seats on the board.
“We found that this is the only way,” she said.