Mississippi ‘slave shack’ removed from Airbnb

By Judy J. Beasley Last updated Jan 7, 2023

GREENVILLE, Mississippi (WLBT) – A “slave shack” in Greenville, Mississippi, has been removed from Airbnb after a TikTok video criticizing the property went viral, according to NBC News.

In the description, the Panther Burn Cottage on the Belmont Plantation was described as an “1830s slave cabin”.

It was also used as a “tenant sharecropper’s cabin and medical office for local farmers and their families to consult the plantation doctor”.

The cabin was moved to the Belmont Plantation in 2017, the description adds, and was “meticulously restored over the course of a year.”

“How is it acceptable in someone’s mind to rent that?” A place where human beings were kept as slaves? asked TikTok creator Wynton Yates, whose video has had 2.6 million views. Yates is a black lawyer from New Orleans.

“I was just dumbfounded when I watched it at first. I was like, This can’t be real“, Yates told NBC News.

In a statement to NBC News, Airbnb said “properties that once housed slaves” have no place on the rental company’s website and that they “apologize for any trauma or grief created by the presence of this list, and others like it”.

Airbnb also told the outlet that they are working on new policies to deal with properties associated with slavery.

Brad Hauser became the owner of The Belmont three weeks ago and told NBC it was advertised as a ‘slave shack’ under the previous owner.

He has since apologized for the decision to host the cabin on Airbnb and promised to provide future guests with a “historically accurate life portrayal” of The Belmont’s history.

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