Airbnb takes down listing for '1830s slave cabin' in Mississippi

  • 03/08/2022
Airbnb takes down listing of '1830s slave cabin'
Airbnb takes down listing of '1830s slave cabin' Photo credit: TikTok// Lawyer Wynton

Holiday home rental site Airbnb has taken down a listing for "an 1830s slave cabin" after a video of the property went viral on TikTok.

The listing, which has since been deleted from Airbnb, described the Greenville, Mississippi property as "an 1830s slave cabin from the extant Panther Burn Plantation to the south of Belmont".

"It has also been used as a tenant sharecroppers' cabin and a medical office for local farmers and their families to visit the plantation doctor," the listing continued.

On Monday, Airbnb apologised and removed the listing for the cottage, located on Belmont Plantation.

"Properties that formerly housed the enslaved have no place on Airbnb. We apologise for any trauma or grief created by the presence of this listing, and others like it, and that we did not act sooner to address this issue," Airbnb said in a statement provided to CNN.

The owner of the cottage, Brad Hauser, also apologised for the inappropriate listing and told CNN the previous owner had locked him out of the social media and property rental accounts - until the TikTok of the property went viral.

"As the new, three-week owner of The Belmont in Greenville, Mississippi, I apologise for the decision to provide our guests with a stay at 'the slave quarters' behind the 1857 antebellum home that is now a bed and breakfast. I also apologise for insulting African Americans whose ancestors were slaves," Hauser told CNN.

Hauser also added that when he purchased the cottage, it was not old enough to have housed enslaved people.

In the video of the cabin, created by lawyer Wynton Yates, he said the reviews were what shocked him the most.

"Memorable. Highly recommend watching the sunset," one person wrote.

Another person who stayed in the cottage said: "We stayed in the sharecropper cabin and ate in the main house. The house tour was great and so was the breakfast."

Many outraged viewers commented on the video, declaring how wrong the listing was.

One user commented: "How do you sleep there and not feel the pain in that room?"

Another said: "The same people that would book that are the same people that get married on plantations."

Hauser told CNN he has no plans to rent out the cabin again.