The narratives of the historic plantations tours in the Vale do Paraíba (known as the Coffee Valley), in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, invite the tourist to recall the past through the prism of the opulence and refinement of the coffee barons of the 19th century. The erasure and containment of all the barbarity typical of the plantation system diminish the horror of enslavement in order to select those memories that find their symbolic power in the nostalgic touristic gaze. These plantations select, preserve and institutionalize places of memory, turning themselves into an aestheticized version of the continuity between past and present. This thesis examines how this gaze for the idyllic plantation poses a set of obstacles to a deeper understanding of the entangled narratives of the past. Note that the Brazilian plantations route is not an isolated case; it s part of a broader context, in which the struggle for civil rights in countries marked by slavery is at stake. Geographical, economic, linguistic and cultural differences aside, the historic plantations tours along the Mississippi River Valley, in the United States, allows us to glimpse similar processes, experienced in different ways. Based on promotional materials, plantations photographs, newspapers and interviews with people involved in these initiatives, we attempt to understand how these spaces shape the slavery past memories in countries where racial inequalities and demands for reparation remain alive. By comparing the plantations narratives of slavery in both countries of Atlantic World, we disclosure disputes, itineraries and strategies of social representations and black resistance. If the starting point is the plantation, the finish line is the racism and its confrontations.