An Open Letter to the Alabama Historical Commission

and the Directors of Belle Mont Mansion

The recent event, “A Plantation Christmas,” held on Sunday, December 8th at Belle Mont Mansion is
troubling because of the event’s interpretation and remembrance of our shared past. We hope you take
into account our concerns and please know that our aim is ultimately to improve our collective
interpretation and understanding of our history.

• Belle Mont Mansion was constructed using forced labor beginning in 1828. Dr. William Mitchell
enslaved roughly 115 people at the property. Most of the enslaved people labored on Mitchell’s
property in Virginia before being forced to move to Alabama.

• Isaac Winston purchased the property in 1833. By 1855, Winston owned 119 enslaved people who
labored on his 1400-acre property. The farm was valued at $40,000—over $1.1 million in today’s
currency. The Winstons, like the Mitchells and countless others, became incredibly wealthy from
plantation slavery.

• Christmas on the plantation would likely have been a time of extreme uncertainty for the enslaved
population, who mostly lived in 13 wooden shacks. While the holidays brought a brief respite from
work, many enslaved people took the opportunity to escape the bondage of the plantation. Others
feared the upcoming slave auctions commonly held in January and February in north Alabama as well as
upcoming contracts for slave labor that was “hired out.” In addition, any “celebration” of Christmas for
white enslavers required further labor from an enslaved workforce to make the event possible.
The celebration of a “Plantation Christmas” is therefore historically inaccurate. Belle Mont was built by
and powered by enslaved labor. The enslavers were served by enslaved people. The wealth generated
for the benefit of the antebellum families was at the expense of enslaved people. None of this is
represented in the depiction of a “Plantation Christmas.”

The celebration of a “Plantation Christmas” is racist. The antebellum plantation experience, as lived by
the enslaved, was neither happy nor joyous; indeed, it was brutal and terrifying. This celebration clearly
ignores the perspective of those who experienced Belle Mont as a forced labor camp. For enslaved
workers, that is what Belle Mont was.

The celebration of a “Plantation Christmas” represents a willful ignorance of the experience of enslaved
people and a concocted memory of a joyous, white supremacist Christmas celebration. It is
unacceptable to continue to celebrate white supremacy. It is unacceptable to subject the descendants
of enslaved African Americans to whitewashed versions of history that ignore their ancestors’
experience.

Our historical sites must be honest. They must reconcile the brutality of the past with an understanding
of the present. Plantation houses must be more than monuments to white supremacy. We must be able
to hold our society accountable for the past in order to learn anything from it. Events like a “Plantation
Christmas” are not educational. They deliberately obscure our understanding of the past. The deliberate
obfuscation of the past enables the continuation of white nationalism and racial bigotry.
In addition to requesting that you no longer hold historically inaccurate tours and events that continue
to deny the brutality of the past, we are requesting a public apology that addresses the historical
inaccuracy and white supremacy that has made this event possible year after year.
In Solidarity,

Project Say Something

Pastor Wesley Thompson
Standing in Power (Decatur, AL)
Shoals Young Democrats
Equality Shoals
Beyond the Women’s March