Blacks tour slave-built homes

To the editor:

Sam Blackwell's column, "Pictures of Southern charm," was anything but charming. Blackwell wrote of his recent tour of antebellum homes in Natchez, Miss.: "No black people were on the tours, except those working for the mansion owners or selling pralines outside. Would you tour mansions built on the backs of your enslaved ancestors?"

I wonder if Blackwell has ever visited the Baker Plantation House just off of the Danville exit on Interstate 70. It was built in 1850 by Unionist legislator Sylvester Baker using slave labor. The Bakers did not believe in states' rights but found nothing wrong with owning slaves.

Capt. William Anderson, who did not own slaves, raided the Baker House in 1864 after burning the pro-Union town of Danville. As fate would have it, Baker was gone. Anderson and his men were fighting because of the way their families were treated by Missouri's Yankee occupiers. Following the raid, Anderson and his men brought along Baker's personal slave servant, "Uncle Charlie" Baker. Uncle Charlie decided to ride with Anderson and his bushwhackers and was with them when Anderson was killed. He then left to help take care of Anderson's family.

To answer Blackwell's question, blacks tour homes built by their enslaved ancestors every day, the most famous of these being the White House.

CLINT E. LACY, Chairman,

Missouri League of Southern Voters, Marble Hill, Mo.