A festive birthday present for herself caused Viola Davis to clarify a few of her words. A story ran yesterday (August 11) rampant that the How can you get away with murder actress bought the house in which she was born. The devastated home sits on a former plantation in South Carolina. “The above is the house where I was born August 11, 1965. It is the birthplace of my story. Today at my 55th birthday …. I own it …. it all,” the actress wrote. “May you live long enough to know why you were born. -Cherokee Birth Blessing.”

Viola Davis, Plantation, Birthday, Instagram
John Phillips / Stringer / Getty Images

Soon, stores were spinning stories about how Viola could come full circle and buy the plantation, but she has stepped forward to make it clear that those reports are not true. “Uhh …. unlike websites …. I ‘own’ not upstairs, I ‘own’ my STORY !! Too abstract I think,” she wrote. Years ago, Viola shared PEOPLE that her grandfather was a sharecropper on the plantation and her family lived there.

“I went back briefly to try, but not yet aware of the history,” Viola said back in 2016. “I think I read one slave story of someone sitting on that plantation, which was awful. One hundred and sixty acres of land and my grandfather was a sharecropper. Most of my uncles and cousins, they are farmers. That is the choice they had. And my grandmother’s house was a one-room loft. I have a picture of it on my phone because I think it is a beautiful image. “View her post below.

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