-PJ
Posted on 03/11/2023 10:17:12 AM PST by nickcarraway
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez married in Vegas in July 2022. But in August, the couple had a big three-day celebration at Affleck’s massive estate in Riceboro, Georgia. While the pair seemed very excited about the wedding, some fans didn’t approve of the location. Many wondered why the couple held the wedding at Affleck’s plantation-style home, allegedly built on unmarked slave graves.
US actor Ben Affleck poses as he arrives for the world premiere of “Triple Frontier” on March 3, 2019 in New York City. | Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images Affleck bought the house in Georgia in 2003 for $7 million. At the time, he was still dating Lopez, but the two broke up the following year. The mansion, which was built in 2000, was designed by Atlanta-based architect James Strickland to resemble a southern plantation. It was described as “a remarkable re-creation of a Southern antebellum Greek Revival plantation home.”
According to Homes and Gardens, the property spans over 87 acres. It features three structures: The Big House, Summer Cottage, and the Oyster House. With 6,000 square feet of living space, four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and balconies overlooking the murky river, the Big House is the property’s crowning glory. The home features pinewood flooring, 15-foot ceilings, and multiple romantic arched fireplaces and is surrounded by centuries-old live oak trees.
Affleck put the home up for sale in 2018 for $8.9 million. The following year, the actor dropped the asking price to $7.6 million before pulling it from the market in 2020.
Ben Affleck’s imitation plantation in Georgia was reportedly built on unmarked slave graves
The grandeur of Affleck’s Georgia estate is not the only thing that has caught people’s attention. The property’s history and location have been the source of much controversy. According to Daily Mail, the mansion was built on unmarked slave graves.
The property is located in an area that was once home to many plantations, where slaves worked and lived in harsh conditions. And according to WTOC, Roswell King, a plantation manager and slave owner, once owned the land.
The controversy surrounding the mansion did not deter Affleck and his now-wife, Jennifer Lopez, from having their wedding there. The couple exchanged vows at the mansion in a private ceremony attended by close family and friends. The wedding was reportedly an extravagant affair, with a star-studded guest list and luxurious decorations.
Ben Affleck once tried to ignore a similar link to slavery
Some accused Affleck of glorifying the South’s slave-owning history by buying the property and using it as a wedding venue. However, the backlash against Affleck’s mansion is not the first time the actor’s connections to slave owners have made headlines.
WikiLeaks released a bunch of Sony e-mails in 2015. Among them were messages from Affleck asking the PBS show Finding Your Roots to cut out a part where he finds out that he’s a descendant of a slave owner. The network cut the segment, and the broadcast instead focused on Affleck’s mother, a Freedom Rider, during the Civil Rights Movement.
PBS eventually conceded that Affleck had “improper influence” over the show’s editing process. Affleck responded to the allegations against him regarding his family history in a 2015 Facebook post (via Variety). The actor wrote that he was embarrassed. He didn’t want a TV show about his family to include a man who owned slaves.
Lopez and Affleck’s choice to have their wedding on a former slave plantation is sadly not uncommon. Other celebrities—like Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe in 1999 and Hailey and Justin Bieber in 2019—have tied the knot at locations with a similar background to Affleck’s.
But maybe this is just a publicity stunt for a woke reboot of Poltergeist.
The entire planet is built on top of dead people from one time or another. This is just more woke, white-guilt BS.
Unmarked slave graves, Indian burial ground, etc., etc., I think I’ve heard this one before.
Nice to see woke folks like Affleck get treated to cancel culture. Feel the burn, Ben!!!
Correct. Dead people are buried everywhere over the last 2000+ years. But how funny that Mr Woke got woked upon!
Yep.
PBS might as well be dead in this house. I accidentally stumbled across Time Team America (an American take on the British show). Quel surprise—the first episode was about Negro grievances. Click.
Hoo boy. Have fun with this, Ben.
Oh, BS. If they knew that now, they knew it before he built there and it would have been a thing. If they didn’t say something Before, they are making crap up for the show of it. Buck off.
The question now becomes “Will Ben jump down turn aroudn and pick a bail of cotton” to show his submission to the woke crowd?
Just when you think the idiotic busybodies had reached rock bottom with racist equestrian helmets and Los Angeles smog caused by rich white people hurting POCs more, they come up with this.
“The entire planet is built on top of dead people from one time or another. This is just more woke, white-guilt BS.”
A real-estate agent in Florida told me that if someone had died in a house, you’d better list on the disclosures. If you don’t and the buyer wants out of the sale, they can sue for release or “damages.” In Florida, probably few people died in any particular house because they have mostly been built relatively recently. But in other states houses can be several hundred years old and it used to be that people died at home, rather than in hospitals. I bought a home where someone died and got quite a nice deal because of the death. The home had been on the market so long the seller took my offer, which was the only one. Next door to one of my rentals a home where a gruesome murder took place went for a good 30k below market. (It probably would have sold better if it weren’t for the splatter pattern on one wall. Oh, and they left the bullet hole. Banks are stupid.)
This is a real conundrum for me. My first instinct is to demand that Affleck’s house be burned to the ground. But that would contribute to Global Warming.
So I say bulldoze the place. Level it.
Oh, and no insurance payout, as Affleck must not be rewarded for his sins.
-PJ
“A real-estate agent in Florida told me that if someone had died in a house, you’d better list on the disclosures. “
I think people had to do it in CA, but here in TN that isn’t a law. But probably a good idea in any case.
The homestead where Mom lives was built in 1830 by my “greats”. Many births and deaths in that house over the years. It’s not haunted. Although the room upstairs at the end of the hall always has been called “The Spook Room” by us cousins ... for some reason. hmmmm...
First world bs. I bet the folks in Paris worry about the bodies in the necropolis.
It is. But its more than that. Its also about Ben trying to control his image and do what he considers damage control, and trying to hide unpleasant history about his family he thinks makes him look bad. Or hypocritical.
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