Airbnb is receiving MAJOR controversy for listing slave cabin on its website.
The property at the forefront of the controversy is the Panther Burn Cottage at the Belmont Plantation in Greenville, Mississippi.
Wynton Yates, a lawyer from New Orleans, posted a TikTok about the listing Friday, saying “How is this okay in somebody’s mind to rent this out? A place where human beings were kept as slaves, rent this out as a bed and breakfast?”
He shared screenshots of the listing, displaying the small wood cabin with a bedroom and bathroom, dwarfed by the nearby sprawling main house on the property.
The “slave cabin” on the Mississippi plantation overlooked the mansion where the slave-owners lived.
![The Panther Burn Cottage @ Belmont Plantation [pictured] is listed on Airbnb, as an '1830s slave cabin' that has also been used as a 'tenant sharecroppers cabin.' The structure has also been a 'medical office for local farmers and their families'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/08/02/19/60990709-11073625-image-a-1_1659463736852.jpg)
“The history of slavery in this country is constantly denied and now it’s being mocked by being turned into a luxurious vacation spot.”
“Maybe you’re thinking, ‘Okay maybe this will give people insight into how enslaved people had to live, their living conditions.’ No, not at all. Clawfoot tub, running water, tile, nice lighting fixtures, water, towels, dresser,” Yates continued.
Yates said his brother’s friend first found the listing when looking for an Airbnb in the area.
Yates felt compelled to call the listing out, as many Americans should.
“I was just dumbfounded when I looked at it at first, I was like this can’t be real,” Yates said.
The viral TikTok video received over 443,000 likes and 16,500 comments.
@lawyerwynton #airbnb this is not ok. #history #civilrights #americanhistory ♬ Blade Runner 2049 – Synthwave Goose
Airbnb’s Response
Only after a TikTok video went viral did Airbnb decide to remove the listing (temporarily).
The listing will remain available on Airbnb under a different name…
“Turn these locations into memorials where people can visit & actually learn about the horrific actions. Like Holocaust memorials,” one user wrote.
”We apologize for any trauma or grief created by the presence of this listing, and others like it, and that we did not act sooner to address this issue,” Airbnb said in a statement.
“Properties that formerly housed the enslaved have no place on Airbnb.”
Airbnb added that the company is working with experts to develop new policies to address other properties associated with slavery.
The listing had 68 REVIEWS and a 4.97 RATING
Apparently, there are multiple properties that advertise themselves as former slave quarters.
Does This Example Prove Racism is Alive and Well in America?
The Panther Burn Cabin is “an 1830s slave cabin from the extant Panther Burn Plantation to the south of Belmont.
It has also been used as a tenant sharecroppers cabin and a medical office for local farmers and their families to visit the plantation doctor,” according to a screenshot of the description Yates posted.
Slavery is Clearly NOT Taken Seriously!
In the 1800s, thousands of slave quarters and cabins were built on the site of plantations around the country. Children and adults died of disease, mistreatment, and overwork as a result of their horrible living conditions.
Plantations were graveyards and places of unimaginable human misery where families were torn apart.
To turn these slave quarters into hotel rooms is trivializing the human life lost there and demoting the reverence of such a horrific time in America’s history.
In a follow-up video, Yates says he thinks the slave cabins on plantations should be kept in their original conditions, to educate people on the conditions enslaved men, women and children were forced to endure.
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ABOUT THE WRITER:
Elena Patestas is a journalist and writer for Valuetainment media. She attended Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and Adelphi University on Long Island, New York. She was born and raised in Roslyn, New York, and currently lives in Miami, Florida.
Elena is passionate about bringing positive change to our world and believes education is the root to solving many societal problems. After overcoming a chronic health condition, Elena became passionate about health and believes food is the key to preventing dis-ease and achieving optimum health.
Amongst her many goals, she hopes to bring positive, impactful change to our world to create a healthy, financially sound, and unified society.
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