Cities, neighborhoods and even one state are moving to drop the word "plantation" from their names amid the growing backlash against Confederate monuments and sports team mascots that reference native Americans.
Rhode Island already announced in June it was moving to shorten the state's name in official communications from the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to simply Rhode Island.
The state, a part of New England, was the first to outlaw slavery in 1652, though Fox News notes historians say there is little evidence the law was enforced until the after emancipation at the end of the Civil War.
"We have to acknowledge our history, that's true, but we can acknowledge our history without elevating a phrase that's so deeply associated with the ugliest time in our state and in our country's history," Rhode Island's Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo said in signing an executive order to begin the process in June.
The word plantation technically refers to any type of farm, especially a large one, but has come to be thought of as the slave plantation of the Antebellum South, hence the move away from the name.
In fact, most places with the word in the name of a city or neighborhood lie in the South.
Plantation, Florida, is currently the subject of a petition drive for one such name change. Resident Dharyl Auguste, who heads up the drive, writes, "I believe this is the perfect time for the city to align itself on the right side of history by casting away a name that does it no justice.
"Plantation and the areas surrounding it are a diverse melting pot that shouldn’t have to carry a reminder of oppression in its namesake," he says. "I believe this will spark a renewed faith in our city council and give way for a new history to be told that separates itself from a shameful past."
Auguste's proposed new name for his city? Jacaranda. That is a species of tree that grows in the area, that Auguste says is a "friendlier name."
Then there is the upscale Sienna neighborhood, a planned community near Houston, Texas. It is original name was set to be Sienna Plantation.
"Something as small as changing the name from Sienna Plantation to Sienna shows a sense of building a community that's open for equal opportunities and equal rights for everybody," former NFL player and resident James Ihedigbo, told Fox 26 Houston.
The neighborhood sits on a former cotton and sugar slave plantation that known as Arcola Plantation, Fox reported.
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