After the nation’s largest antebellum mansion, Nottoway Plantation, burned to the ground in an unexpected and devastating fire, the owners are sharing what’s next.
Last week, just days after the property’s main house was consumed in what authorities presume was an electrical fire, the property’s owner, William Daniel Dyess, an attorney and preservationist, told the New York Post he intends to rebuild. He also said he understood the property’s polarizing past, however, he said he and his wife are “non-racist people.”
“I take this position — we are non-racist people. I am a lawyer, and my wife is a judge. We believe in equal opportunity rights for everyone, total equality and fairness,” Dyess told the outlet. “My wife and I had nothing to do with slavery but we recognize the wrongness of it.”
On May 15, at dusk, the 64-room, 53,000-square-foot structure in White Castle, Louisiana, went up in flames, Nola.com reported. No injuries were reported.
Almost immediately after the news of the fire broke, Black people all over the world rushed to the internet to celebrate and a debate around the appropriateness of repurposing a plantation as a resort and venue was reignited.
“Nottoway was not only the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the South but also a symbol of both the grandeur and the deep complexities of our region’s past,” Iberville Parish President Craig Daigle wrote in a statement posted to Facebook. “While its early history is undeniably tied to a time of great injustice, over the last several decades it evolved into a place of reflection, education, and dialogue.”
Speaking to the New York Post, Dyess said, “We are trying to make this a better place. We don’t have any interest in left-wing radical stuff. We need to move forward on a positive note here and we are not going to dwell on past racial injustice.”
The attorney came into possession of the property recently after the previous owner was killed in a car crash. The outlet reported that he’s also the owner of the Steel Magnolia House in Natchitoches from the 1989 hit film “Steel Magnolias.”
