Viola Davis is setting the record straight on the meaning of one of her most recent posts.
Earlier this week, the How to Get Away with Murder star posted a photo on Instagram of a former St. Matthews, South Carolina, plantation where she was born back in 1965. She was raised in a small home on the grounds that’s still standing to this day (see picture below).
Davis wrote, “The above is the house where I was born August 11, 1965. It is the birthplace of my story. Today on my 55th year of life…I own it…all of it.”
She concluded the caption with a “Cherokee Birth Blessing,” which reads: “May you live long enough to know why you were born.”
Followers and news outlets alike took the caption quite literally, reporting that this meant Davis purchased the plantation and now was the owner of “all of it.” When the actress got wind of the reports, she quickly clarified her comments on her original post.
She wrote, “I do not ‘own’ above house, I ‘own’ my STORY!! Too abstract I guess.”
Davis previously discussed her upbringing in a 2016 interview with People magazine, where she described the plantation’s history.
“I went back to visit briefly, but still not aware of the history,” she said. “I think I read one slave narrative of someone who was on that plantation, which was horrific. 160 acres of land, and my grandfather was a sharecropper. Most of my uncles and cousins, they’re farmers. That’s the choice that they had. And my grandmother’s house was a one-room shack. I have a picture of it on my phone, because I think it’s a beautiful picture.”
Thanks for the clarification, Vi.
