"Arlington" is the oldest home in Birmingham...a city founded after the civil war. But the mansion is also the performance location for a group of women who dress in plantation hoop skirts and perform as the "Birmingham Belles".
The website of the formerly largest daily newspapers in the state--- AL.COM--- can't seem to decide whether Arlington is
"a little gem hidden in here "
as a story focusing on Christmas tours this week described it, or, as a critic described in another story last year:
"an excuse for white women to ‘play plantation’ for a day”.
Both stories were written by AL.COM's Greg Garrison, who writes features and covers religion for the newspapers.
The man who built Arlington---William Mudd--- owned slaves, who lived on the property, and that gives some people pause. What are they celebrating when tours of the house are offered?
Birmingham is a majority-black city and has elected a black mayor for decades. Arlington is just west of downtown Birmingham and is owned by the city.
Garrison refers to the building's "complicated history" in his newer story.
TIME has just posted a story exploring that complexity of slavery at Christmastime:
"While they lost the war, one way they tried to win hearts and minds—and political power—was by telling romanticized stories about Christmastime. These accounts supported the Confederate myth that enslaved people appreciated their masters and mistresses, often describing them dancing and feasting and taking part in Christmas gift exchanges with the families who enslaved them.
The older AL.COM story included information about budget cuts for the property, and questions from the mayor, wondering aloud whether the city should even own the property. But none of that is part of this week's story.
A complicated history indeed.
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