THE OLD SLAVE PLANTATIONS. In this series comparing the movie. In the film, the planter’s houses are portrayed as opulent and classical, grand homes for wealthy people.
The same was almost certainly true of the plantation houses in Guiana. However, in modern-day Guyana very little slave-era architecture has survived, and I never visited a surviving example of a slave-owner’s house (if there is one). Nor did I find any slave accommodation (which tended to be of the simple cabin type).
An example of a planter’s house has however survived in Suriname (in fact, many have). This one, on the Commewijne River, near Fort Zeelandia, is not as fine as the mansions seen in Louisiana, but has been built to last. There has been a house on this site since at least the 1770s (and it was known to John Stedman). On the paved area in front, the slaves would have done threshing or drying beans.
