When Love Island USA alum Jalen Noble and his girlfriend, influencer Monet McMichael, shared the news about their new Texas property, they expected to hear congratulations and advice on their renovation journey. Instead, they were met with backlash and accusations of living on a plantation and glamorizing a former slave cabin.
Noble began showing peeks of his home in Austin, Texas, on TikTok in November. The home that he called his “dream house” is a ranch-style residence with a modern interior, which fans praised, noting its impeccable design and showering him with congratulations.
@alwaysjalen Slowly moving in and making this house a home! A lot of fun home projects coming that I can’t wait to share. The house was staged when I filmed this and we’re definitely making some decor changes!
♬ original sound – Jalen Noble
As the couple set into their new homestead, they began to show areas that they planned to renovate, including an old barn they wanted to convert into a gym and a smaller cabin that would become a guest house.
The home gym renovation was already underway, and fans were happy to see and be part of the progress.
However, when Noble posted the plans for the guest house, the praise turned to online hate, with followers suspecting that the couple’s new guest house was possibly once used as slave quarters.
The speculations were based on the home’s location in the South and the content creator’s claim that the guest house was built in the 1850s.
On Jan. 16, Noble posted a tour of the one-room structure, giving his plans for its renovation.
Comments under the video ranged from “I don’t think those people wanted to be a ‘guest’ there!” to “No, sir. We have progressed. I’d like a room in the big house,” and someone blatantly saying, “The slaves used to be in there.”
The video made its way around social media, with discourse centered on the couple being tone-deaf and dismissing the possible painful history associated with the structure and land because they are biracial.
@alwaysjalen 175 years old! I’d say it’s a pretty unique guest house! All family and friends are welcome
♬ original sound – Jalen Noble
Rather than ignoring the chatter and continuing to work on his home, Noble came back with a video on April 29 to set the record straight.
He started the video by mentioning he had hired a genealogist and an architectural historian to uncover the property’s history. They discovered that the guest house was originally a cabin built by an early settler, later converted into a hunting lodge. The barn, which the couple had now converted into a gym, was built in 1999, and the main house dates back to 2016, decades after the abolition of slavery. Most importantly, there were no historical ties to slavery or plantation life on the property.
Overall, Noble expressed that owning the massive property gave him a sense of empowerment, especially since, as a Black man, it wouldn’t have been possible 175 years ago.
@alwaysjalen Excited to share this process! For now it’s a guest house, next it’ll make a perfect mother-in-law suite, and then hopefully we can convert it to a larger piece of the main house ❤️
♬ original sound – Jalen Noble
While Noble’s video dispelling misconceptions was a great educational tool and a way to clear himself and his girlfriend of any insensitivities, it proved that even today, there is misinformation and mischaracterization around Southern history and Southern architecture.
News flash: Every large house in the South was not a plantation house, and every wood cabin in the South was not slave quarters.
With the recent attention on the burning of Louisiana’s Nottoway Plantation, social commentary made it clear that some people, especially those in northern regions, have never seen these structures or knew that some of them are still standing.
Understanding the features of these structures may help explain why Noble’s Texas home, although old and rustic, does not automatically equate to a slave cabin or plantation house.
Like Nottoway, plantation or antebellum homes are typically characterized by sprawling porches, which provided ventilation, and large, ornate columns that served as a foundation for the multilevel structure. The indications on the inside would often be enormous foyers, open stairways, ballrooms, grand dining rooms, intricate design details and excessive closed-off or hidden hallways that usually served as the work paths for the enslaved.
The cabins where the enslaved would dwell were usually the most minimalistic and inadequate structures built on the grounds. They were typically just four walls, a low roof, and a single room. Their basic human comforts or functions were not considered, so there were no restrooms or designated cooking areas, and sometimes the flooring was even obsolete.
Knowledge of these differences would instantly disqualify Noble’s guest house from being mistaken for a slave cabin. The high multilevel ceilings and well-built structural walls, which ensured protection from the elements, were more suited to the living standards of a hunter or someone who voluntarily chose to live outside the main living quarters.
Every pocket of the country has architecture or structures that are synonymous with the area, from New York brownstones and the slim Victorian-style homes of San Francisco to the shotgun homes of New Orleans and the boxy Tudor homes of Denver.
However, it’s no mystery that many assume certain homes of the South contain the painful memories of our ancestors. While that’s often the issue, sometimes it’s not, and in Noble’s case, the loud accusations and misunderstandings almost missed a moment to reflect on progress and advancement.
Legally, Black individuals in Texas were unable to purchase a home until 1868, and it wasn’t until the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 that this right was widely acknowledged.
That’s less than 60 years since Noble or any Black person could participate in the American dream.
In the effort of playing devil’s advocate, if Noble’s home and guest home did have a connection to enslavement, wouldn’t it be a positive to see a Black person buy the property and change the narrative that once belonged to a piece of land or four walls?
Although Noble’s renovation content was a small viral moment, it serves as a reminder of the importance of due diligence and the dangers of snap judgments online, especially when the moments come with receipts and history.
