The nation’s largest antebellum mansion, Nottoway Plantation in Louisiana, burst into flames on the 15th of May, due to an electrical fire.
The mansion was originally built for sugar planter John Hampden Randolph in 1859,with over 50,000 square feet of land. It was deemed an industry of slavery. While it was the largest mansion built before the Civil War in the south.
The destruction took everyone by surprise and led to controversy and conspiracy throughout social media. Current owner William Daniel Dyess responded to controversy of the plantation in an article from The Grio stated, “We are non-racist people,… we believe in equal opportunity rights for everyone, total equality and fairness.”
While trends on social media platforms like Tiktok were going around about the fire at the plantation, conspiracies also spread making people really question the real truth behind the fire.
Plantations before the Civil War were extremely horrific for enslaved people. The history goes all the way back to the 16th century when plantations were created which required slavery in order to perform forced labor. While the south was fueled economically by slavery, the treatment of these said enslaved people were torturous and fatal.
People were hung, raped, and or killed by terrible work conditions in which caused them to catch diseases and or die from unsafe conditions. Most people believe that spiritually, all the enslaved people that have died in plantations end up staying there even after their death. Therefore the fire sparked curiosity within the spiritual community and the connection to all the enslaved people who were killed in Nottoway Plantation.
People on social media also raised awareness of a rumor that the infamous Annabelle doll went missing from her horror tour in Louisiana which was claimed to be false. However this spiked conspiracies of a connection between the fire at the plantation and the said escape of the doll in which people quickly catched on. Reports from the doll’s official exhibition in Connecticut provide proof that the rumors of an escape were false.
However, people continue to believe in the conspiracies and the controversies in which all tie back to Nottoway plantation. Therefore now the question is, was it really just an electrical fire?
