Plantation Series continues my exploration of social justice by inviting viewers into critical conversations about race, labor, memory, and justice through the history and legacy of cotton cultivation.

This series investigates six of the wealthiest plantations in the American South before the Civil War, examining how their immense prosperity was built upon the forced labor of enslaved African Americans. The plantation system depended on enslaved people to sustain nearly every aspect of plantation life. They planted, cultivated, and harvested cotton; cared for livestock; maintained equipment and buildings; cooked, cleaned, laundered clothing; raised children; and, in many cases, physically constructed the plantation homes themselves.

Yet the history of enslavement is not solely a story of oppression. Despite enduring unimaginable hardship and violence, African Americans forged families, built communities, preserved cultural traditions, and created enduring forms of resilience, creativity, and resistance.

The abolition of chattel slavery in 1865 marked a profound transition, but it did not end the exploitation of Black labor. During Reconstruction and beyond, new systems of racial and economic control emerged. Sharecropping replaced slavery as a means of maintaining agricultural production, while convict leasing subjected disproportionately incarcerated African Americans to forced labor for private employers. Often described as "slavery by another name," convict leasing was characterized by brutal working conditions, physical abuse, and the continued denial of freedom and human dignity.

Today, the grand architecture of antebellum plantations stands as a complex and contested symbol of American history. These structures testify not only to the immense wealth generated by the cotton economy, but also to the labor, skill, endurance, and sacrifices of the enslaved men, women, and children whose work made that wealth possible. Through this series, I seek to honor those lives, challenge romanticized narratives of the plantation South, and encourage deeper reflection on the enduring impact of slavery and its legacy in American society.