Oak Alley Plantation, Louisiana, built in 1839
A Wal-Mart, Arkansas, contemporary
Wal-Mart, the new southern plantation
“Throughout its career, at home and abroad, Wal-Mart has maintained two key policies: a paternalistic attitude and a powerful aversion to trade unions…Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and former presidential candidate, was only slightly exaggerating when he said that Wal-Mart was a modern plantation, with workers toiling in its stores rather than in the fields of the deep south…Its CEO is adamant that any alternative is a utopian vision pandering to the over-privileged. Adopting such a solution would mean the less fortunate ‘can’t have as good a life, because you have chosen your image of the world versus what is the most efficient manner of serving that consumer.”
A tidewater plantation, Virginia, circa 1750
A flooded Wal-Mart parking lot, North Carolina, 2004
(article via wood s lot)