Sektionen am 3. Okt.

Tourism Inequality in White and Black: Landscapes of Race in the American South

Referent/in: Steven Hoelscher, Austin TX

When most people think of the American South before the Civil War, landscapes of storied antebellum mansions frequently come to mind: colossal estates built in Greek Revival style surrounded by fragrant magnolias and luminous azaleas. This historic landscape, made iconic by the blockbuster film “Gone with the Wind,” encompasses a broad arc across the region. Nowhere, however, is the past made so explicit on the landscape, and implicit through stories about that landscape, as in the Deep South, especially in that region’s historic commercial and cultural capital, Natchez, Mississippi. Historic preservation and economic development via heritage tourism have a long, 75-year history in the small city, lending credibility to the claim that a visit to Natchez’s historic landscape is, indeed, a step into the past.

A question that immediately arises, for some visitors, is whose past are we talking about? Despite the many years of associating the grand antebellum mansion with the golden age of Life Before the War of Northern Aggression, recent voices have questioned a singular understanding of these iconic landscapes. Symbols of opulence and gracious living for some become markers of subjugation for others. Landscapes of “romance, grandeur, chivalry, and wealth” are revisited as hallmarks of pain and coerced labor as tourism through the American South’s past is increasingly seen through the prism of race and inequality. Examining the historic creation, current use, and contemporary controversy of these tourist practices is the purpose of this paper.