This image was taken from inside a restored/preserved slave cabin on the Magnolia Plantation, near Charleston SC. The contrast between the dark and hostile interior and the light flooding in from the green and beautiful scene outside struck me not only as a metaphor for slavery but as perhaps a taste of what slaves on this plantation faced daily.
The few cabins remaining were occupied by large families, each with only half or less of the cabin. Workers on the plantation, whose buildings and gardens are open to the public, continued to occupy some of them until 1990.
Well, I did say it was as it struck me, but I can certainly see the other view as well. If it’s a metaphor for slavery, though, coming into the light seems to make sense for the end of slavery.
Interesting that you use the words “hostile interior”. I imagine it being more refuge than hostile, considering what one’s experience might be in the “green and beautiful outside”. I don’t think we can make assumptions about an experience that, no doubt varied drastically, depending on where luck landed the residents of such basic dwellings.
Admittedly these cabins lacked the comforts of the white plantation owner’s dwellings, but they are much nicer than many homes I have seen in my travels. I think here specifically of the huts made of cow dung and sticks in Tanzania as an example. I am also inclined to see the interior as a place of safety to those who lived in them, but understand your point and the metaphor.