Nottoway Plantation burned to the ground this week after a fire broke out Thursday, authorities say. Why it matters: The plantation was the largest antebellum mansion remaining in the South, making it an important but complicated connection to the nation's history of enslavement.

Louisiana’s Nottoway Resort a historic 64-room, 53,000-square-foot plantation home, went up in flames on May 15. Nottoway Resort—or more commonly