On the evening of May 15, the south wing of Nottoway Resort in White Castle, L.A., was engulfed in flames. By 10 p.m., the 64-room, 53,000-square-foot Antebellum structure was a pile of rubble, according to Nola.com .

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