Tag: Natchez

Posted on

Natchez Trace Parkway to Nashville Pt. 2

After our sojourn to visit Oprah Winfrey and Elvis’s birthplaces, we rejoined the Parkway and took one of the walking trails.

A varied walk from lush green forests, to open grasslands it was an opportunity to stretch our legs.

And among all the greenery, there were small pockets of wildflowers and pops of colour.

We’ve discovered that America is a wonderful destination if you enjoy history. It’s not only travelling destinations, like the Natchez Trace or specific towns that provide historical information but across the country we’ve seen many signs that give historical information in a few short sentences. They’re similar to our Historical Markers in Australia. For the signs we see along the road we can rarely stop, and if we did we would never complete our lap, there are so many. We also notice that many of these signs, monuments and statutory are attributed to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

The above historical marker is an example. Today, we spoke with someone who told us that they are greatly esteemed in America, so it was about time we found out more about them.

They were founded on October 11, 1890 by four women, and now boast a membership of over one million women. There was a renewed patriotism at this time and women, being excluded from men’s organisations, sought a way to make an impact in society. As a result, Mary S. Lockwood, Ellen Walworth, Mary Desha and Eugenia Washington formed a female only organisation to perpetuate the memory of those who helped America gain independence, to preserve history, promote the “diffusion of knowledge” and to foster freedom, patriotism and liberty throughout America.

They raise money to maintain historical sites, including graves, headstones and monuments, contribute to restorations, memorials and commemorations and preserve historical archives and documents. They also provide scholarships, volunteer and support veterans past and present and provide awards and medals.

To become a member you must provide proof of descendance from an ancestor who helped America gain independence and provide their Revolutionary War service history between 19 April 1775 from the Battle of Lexington, which was the first major battle of the war and 26 November 1783, when British troops left New York.

So, now when we read historical markers like those here on the Natchez Trace Parkway, we can appreciate who was responsible for them. And, as we travel further north, we’re learning not only about the settlers and westward expansion but the ecology, geography and the original inhabitants of the land.

For example the Pharr Mounds

There are a number of locations along the Trace that have burial mounds like these, but this is the largest, and most important grouping in Northern Mississippi, containing 8 mounds. Some have been excavated by archaeologists and then returned to their original state.

They are deeply spiritual locations where members of the Chicasaw and Choctaw Indian tribes still come to remember their ancestors.

It wasn’t long that we passed from Mississippi into Alabama and another walk through the beautiful forest.

Shortly after, we crossed the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway on the Jamie L. Whitten Bridge. A navigable route from the Gulf of Mexico, for the early settlers however, the Colbert Ferry provided access across the waterway. Chicasaw George Colbert ran the ferry between 1800 and 1819 and also a stand that provided travelers food and lodging. He was one of many Chicasaw that owned plantations and used slave labour.

And shortly thereafter, we crossed another state line

During our last lap of America in 2008/09 we spent some time following the Meriwether and Clark history trails. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were appointed by Thomas Jefferson to undertake an expedition exploring the newly purchased Louisiana region. Lewis was Jefferson’s protege and personally chosen for the expedition. They began in May 1804, reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805 and completed the journey in September 1806. Meriwether returned with detailed documentation, maps and journals, having established the presence of Americans across the new land as a deterrent to European arrivals and had favourable encounters with at least 24 Indian tribes. The endeavour was hailed a great success. Meriwether was appointed Governor of Louisiana as a reward but it was a posting that caused him great depression. While journeying along the Natchez Trace in 1809 he committed suicide and is buried where he died at Grinder’s Stand.

This monument was erected over his grave in 1848, the broken column symbolising a life cut short.

After we visited the small Meriwether museum, we did another of the hikes through the forest.

Finally, we’d come to the the end of journey along the Natchez Trace Parkway and Gordon House, one of the last historical homes. Built in 1818 by Captain John Gordon, it was one of the most imposing homes in the region. Gordon and his wife Dolly had 11 children and ran a ferry across the river and a stand for weary travelers. Gordon died not long after completing the house but his wife remained until her death in 1859.

And just like that, we were in Nashville, Tennessee, the home of country music, Ryman Auditorium built in 1892 and the Grand Ole Opry launched in 1925.

It was great to see our Keith Urban front and centre.

This mural is painted on the Honky Tonk Bar. How many can you recognise?

Fun fact: The fellow on the barstool sitting between Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson is Brad Paisley. His image replaces Taylor Swifts, because she “shifted away from her signature country sound”. Effectively, the locals complained that a “pop” idol shouldn’t share the same space as “country legends”.

Our sojourn into Nashville, the capital of Tennessee was on a warm but overcast day that threatened rain. We left Joey behind, about a 40 minute bus ride out of town, so he could have a scheduled service. With the booking for 7am, we arrived in Nashville city centre before the tourist crowds and enjoyed our walk around the famous streets, sans tourists.

As you can see, even at 8am in the morning, the neon lights were ablaze.

Cowboy boot shops were prominent too, but don’t let the street frontage fool you. There were long racks with hundreds of boots lined up in this store! We also noticed that a lot of tourists(mostly women) wear fancy boots around and some are quite amazing. If I thought for a minute that I’d actually wear a pair, I would have been very tempted! But I was told by a local, “they’re pretty uncomfortable to wear all day”. He said most tourists buy them, take them home and don’t wear them again. So I left without a nice new pair of boots.

Our city walk took us down to the Tennessee river front, with the intention of walking along the boardwalk to Riverfront Park and the Nashborough Fort. However, we discovered a slight issue.

Unbeknown to us, they’d had a lot of rain here, which we had pretty much managed to dodge, and the river front was flooded.

So, we wandered back to the happenin’ part of Nashville.

There were guitars everywhere and I lost count of how many establishments had drum kits in the windows. We discovered, as the morning wore on, that all these establishments have live bands playing from about mid morning until well into the night.

Artists sculpture of Charlie Daniels “Reflections”

Nashville city centre is certainly a colourful and vibrant city, that comes to life once the tourists venture out. By mid morning, live band music was playing from most establishments and the streets were quite busy. It’s hard not to immersed in the music vibe.

This sculpture was in an Ariat store (they sell riding apparel and country clothing) and very well done.

it seems Taylor Swift wasn’t ousted from everywhere in Nashville.

At one point during our wanderings we came across this police officer/security guard who was exceptionally chatty and very happy to give us some hints and tips for visiting his city.

There was a lot of road and building works causing road closures so I asked him some directions. We learned that a man had detonated a car bomb in downtown Nashville on Christmas Day 2020 which had decimated an entire city block. More than 50 buildings were either destroyed or damaged and the building works are ongoing to restore the city block that was destroyed.

But our friendly police man also pointed us in the direction of some iconic venues.

Chief’s, a music/bar/restaurant is quite famous and a must see, he said.

There are 5 floors in the venue and it’s open for anyone to wander through. So we did. The “stained glass” windows are actually stickers but in conjunction with the floor to ceiling artwork, it’s serious sensory overload. In the photo above, you’re actually looking at the floor and a wall. In the picture below, the ceiling is also covered.

The band were playing, people were sitting around the bar and it was barely 11 am! And this was the vibe everywhere! Numerous venues were serving food and alcohol and playing live band music. Including on the rooftops.

Determined to explore more than the country music scene, we took in some of Nashville’s food, the Capital building, learned about their push for women’s vote and visited their Parthenon.

Seriously, a heart attack in a jar!

And to go along with the milkshakes, a GooGoo. The “Home of America’s First combination Candy Bar”, according to the sign.

The novelty here is that you use a touch screen to customise your GooGoo biscuit by choosing the chocolate, nuts, caramel etc. You pay at the screen and it takes about 10minutes for someone to hand make it. We made a selection but at $12.95 for 1 biscuit, decided to give it a miss.

We walked around Nashville State Capital building which is situated upon a grassy hill, providing great views of the surrounding area. Like other state capitals we’d visited, they welcome the public, so we took the chance to have a look inside.

Although it wasn’t as ornate as Baton Rouge, it wasn’t any less majestic.

It was interesting to see the bust of David Crockett sitting in the company of Andrew Johnson and that his credentials were frontiersman and Militiaman.

As lunch time approached, we discovered the market and these interesting artworks.

After lunch we found out that our service was complete but that Joey had a leaky seal in the front hub that they needed to order a part for but they could finish it first thing the following morning, Friday. No worries, that meant another day exploring Nashville.

On Friday, we caught the same bus at the same early morning time then walked out past Vanderbilt University to the Parthenon. Apparently, for the 1897 world exhibition, Nashville movers and shakers decided to build an exact size replica of Greece’s iconic building. It was to be the centrepiece of the exhibition but also only a temporary construction built from wood, plaster and brick.

When the exhibition concluded, Nashville locals petitioned to stave off the demolition and it remained until 1921. By then, it was such an iconic part of the city that over the following ten years it was reconstructed in permanent materials. So, here it is, the Parthenon in Nashville.

If you ignore the wide expanse of lush, green lawn, you would easily think you were in Greece. It’s also not only to look at. They hold regular exhibitions, and give a variety of guided tours, including studies on the architecture.

Our walk back to Nashville’s city centre took us through the beautiful park that the Parthenon sits in, some stunning murals and a walk through the old Marathon Motors factory.

And I can never resist a cute squirrel photo!

Another lesser known fact about Nashville, it’s home to the Marathon Motor Works which began in 1907 and was relocated to Nashville in 1910. Although it lasted only 4 years, closing in 1914, it was the first factory to make automobiles entirely in the Southern USA and this was not surpassed until General Motors made the Saturn in 1990. In 1910, Marathon made 600 cars but also all the components. Today, there are as few as nine Marathon cars in existence.

The building now houses an eclectic collection of gift and souvenir shops, a micro brewery, a Harley Davidson apparel shop and a couple of art galleries/shops, however many of the original tools and machinery pieces are on display in the halls and there are information display boards detailing when and how the Marathon car was made.

As we walked back to Nashville city centre, we got a call from the mechanic. Grim news! No one could find the part they needed and being a Friday afternoon, everyone was going home. While they were confident they could locate a part, it would have to wait until Monday. So, instead of being on our way, Joey would be parked in their forecourt for the weekend and we were without transport. At least they hooked us up with power. We figured, if you’re given lemons, you make lemonade! So after some googling, we located a reasonable car to hire for the weekend, picked it up within an hour and drove it back to Joey. Now, to plan where to go on our unexpected extra weekend of sightseeing, with unlimited mileage.

Posted on

New Orleans to Baton Rouge the Plantations

We’d already discovered that there are about 70 plantation homes along the Louisiana Scenic route road, and a dozen that offer tours. We chose three that have different histories to Southdown Manor in Houma and learned a lot about the sugar plantations, the mansions, and the people who lived and worked there. Along the route we were very surprised to see how much water lay on either side of the roads. There were many, many, miles of swamps and effectively, unusable land.

Destrehan, the closest to New Orleans, is also the oldest plantation in the Mississippi Valley. We were greeted with a very warm and humid day and by staff and guides in traditional period costume, complete with petticoats and hoops. Wonderful when in the air conditioning of the gift shop. Not so, walking around in the heat and humidity. We were the first to arrive so had time to have a lovely chat with the guides who were very happy to pose for pictures.

The history of Destrehan begins with Jean Baptiste Honore Detrehan Sieur De Peaupre (1716-1765), an obvious Frenchman whose father was a counselor to King Louis XIV. He arrived in Louisiana and in 1745 married Catherine de Gauvry, moved into her family home and together had 7 children. After his death, Jean Baptiste’s youngest two sons moved in with their elder sister and her sugar plantation owners husband, Etienne DeBore. In 1776 Etienne bought them their own plantation with their inheritance and ten years later, the youngest, Jean Noel married Celeste Robin de Longny. Her father contracted Charles Paquet, a mulatto slave (someone with African and European ancestry) and master builder to construct a French Colonial style house which began in 1787. This would be Destrehan.

Charles Paquet

The plan of the house and the contract

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and like many of the plantations, it moved from growing indigo to sugar, becoming the top sugar producing plantation in the region. As one of the wealthiest and influential plantation owners, Jean Noel was appointed to the Orleans Territorial Council, tasked with creating Louisiana’s government. They take great pride in showcasing the original document signed by Jean Noel, President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison (who would become the fourth US president). It’s kept in a dimmed room below the house in a climate controlled, sealed case. No photos allowed!

Sugar production was also much more labour intensive than indigo, requiring double the manpower. Destrehan’s slave population grew from 49 to 100 with the change to sugar and by 1861, managed over 200 slaves. The dwellings they called home were very much different to the opulence of the manor and several slave dwellings have been relocated from the plantation to the grounds.

These divided cabins would have housed two families with two rooms each. One as a kitchen, sitting room and bedroom and the other, a second bedroom. There was one chimney in the centre with a fireplace in each side and timber shutters covered the windows. Bedding was stuffed with the Spanish moss we’d learned about earlier and while this house displayed an original bed, because the inhabitant was capable of making it, most slaves slept on the floors and they were often dirt, not brick as this depicts.

The list on the wall details the name of every man, woman and child slave on the property, in the hope that their contribution to Louisiana’s history is forgotten.

Our guide regaled us with interesting stories about the house and its inhabitants, including a period tea box complete with a block of tea. No tea bags or even loose leaf tea here! It weighed about 1 lb. or 1/2 kilo and you broke a small piece off to steep in boiling water in a tea pot.

We learned about Marguerite, a slave who was purchased with her two children as the plantation cook and laundress and how formal and tedious the cooking and provision of meals was for the family. As is routine for this era manor, the kitchen was a separate building away from the house. Firstly, to stave off any fires destroying the house and secondly, because it was considered extremely gauche to have cooking smells wafting around the manor. Once cooked, the food was carried to the butlers pantry (a room making a resurgence today to keep the mess from cooking hidden away) in the house and kept warm over coals. Meals were traditionally many courses which only the adults eating at the dining table. The children ate in a separate room next to the butlers pantry and were then whisked away by childminding slaves.

It was Marguerite’s job to tend to the whim’s of the family. She was the chief cook and the one who was present at the dining table. She delivered the food, and cleared the table after each course. That required removing every piece of tableware, cutlery, plates, glasses etc. and removing the top tablecloth to reveal a fresh, crisp tablecloth underneath. Then the table was reset for the next course. There were numerous courses, sometimes, as many as 7 so that’s seven times this ritual was performed for every dinner. The meals were often sumptuous displays of the wealth of the household, including “meat, fish and fowl,” breads, cheese, freshly churned butter and cream, fresh vegetables and fruits picked form the kitchen garden. Imagine completing this task for breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week, sometimes for many extra guests, and having to wash all of these extra table cloths and dishes ready for the following day. Not to mention, preparing and cooking the food in the first place. Marguerite, and her children remained slaves during their lives.

Our guide then took us upstairs to a loft room which shows how the house was built and explained details of its building. It measures 60 ft. x 35 ft. and is surrounded by a 12 ft. balustrade gallery. The house was completed in 1790 with a double-pitched roof and using Louisiana Cypress, which, due to its ability to survive and thrive in swampy conditions, makes it incredibly hard wearing and durable and not subject to the wood rot that infects other timbers. It is one reason why so many of these plantation homes remain in such good condition.

Our tour completed, we were free to wander around the grounds, read the information in the slave dwellings about their lives and enjoy the shade of the 200+ year old oak trees.

I couldn’t resist this little fellow, considering he posed so nicely!

Next up, a trip over the mighty Mississippi river to Laura Plantation and the story of a Louisiana Creole family.

This house and the tour are unique because Laura actually lived in the house and wrote her memoirs in her later life, entitled Memories of the Old Plantation Home & A Creole Family Album and written by Laura Locoul Gore in 1936. Of course, we are relying on her memories of events, written many decades after they occurred, but it still gives a different insight into life at this plantation, especially considering its female biases.

We were on the last tour of the day and again, were the only two, so were able to ask numerous questions. I wondered if we received more candid answers than during the Destrehan tour when we were tacked onto a bus group of about 20 people.

The 12,000 acres which comprised the Laura plantation was amassed by Guillaume Dupare by 1804 and the homestead completed in 11 months. It is raised off the ground on brick columns which created a large underground cellar.

Louisiana Cypress made the structure and it was bricked and plastered inside and stuccoed and painted outside. The house was 24,000 square feet and the separate kitchen another 2,500 ft. The house served as a business headquarters and a venue for large and lavish parties and social gatherings.

Four generations of Locoul’s lived at Laura, who was herself born on the plantation in 1861. But much of her life was spent among various other homes in New Orleans’ French Quarter. In fact, she moved away from the plantation in 1891 when she married Charles Gore, living in his home town St Louis, Missouri. It is because of the manuscript she penned, which wasn’t discovered until 1993, well after her death, that the history of the plantation is so detailed.

After Guillaume’s death in 1808, his wife Nanette Prud’homme ran the manor and the plantation and was the first of four generations of women to manage the plantation. Laura’s grandmother Elizabeth, also outlived her husband and ran the plantation for a further 47 years. She left the property to her son Emile (Laura’s father) and her daughter Aimee. She returned to France having no inclination to run the plantation and Emile renamed it after his daughter Laura. Upon her departure in 1892, it was a condition of the sale that the business remain known as the Laura Plantation.

While we visited the “big house” much of the tour revolved around the slaves and their stories, as remembered by Laura in her memoir.

The four remaining slave cabins are original and were build during the 1840s. By the civil war era, the 1860s, there were 185 slaves that lived and worked on the plantation. When the emancipation was signed in 1866, the majority of slaves remained and continued living in these cabins. Some of their descendants still lived in those cabins until 1977.

The first register of slaves was undertaken in 1808 and there are 17 names on the inventory. Some were born slaves in Louisiana but there are also 5 other African nationalities listed. The inventory provides a name, age if known, skill set and cost of purchase. Historians have pieced together the lives of some of these slaves and in conjunction with Laura’s memoir, their stories are recorded.

Betsey was 29 years old, 5′ 2 1/2″ tall and bought for $550 in 1824. She came from St. Dominigue (now Haiti) and she was a washerwoman, cook and seamstress. It’s assumed her work a a domestic was not suitable because in 1826 she was sold on to his mother-in-law, Nanette Dupare for $600 as only “fit for the field.”

Cyrus Denelin was a “good blacksmith.” Consequently, he was the most expensive slave purchased by the plantation. He was purchased in 1840 at the age of 24 for $2,000. After the civil war, Cyrus started his own successful blacksmith shop and Raymond Locoult was a witness to his marriage.

Sam O’Brien, 23 years old, and 5′ 9″ was sold to Nanette Prudhomme Duparc for $825. he spoke English and struggled on the French-speaking plantation. He escaped but was caught and branded with VDR (referring to his owner) after a poster advertising a $10 reward was published in 1824. He then remained on the plantation and was listed on subsequent inventories in 1829, 1852, 1855 and 1860, but without an occupation. Considering his worth was listed as only $300 in 1852 it is assumed he was a field or menial worker. A plantation journal of 1864 records his death of smallpox.

After three tours around very different plantation homes, we were amassing knowledge of life on the plantation for both the owners and the slaves and it was clear how very different their lives were. Although some slaves were able to manumit from slavery, their lives were manifestly different from the privileged few who owned and lived in the “big houses.”

The last antebellum plantation mansion we visited was Nottoway, an imposing Greek revival/Italian style built for John Hampton Randolph (of THE Randolph’s) in 1859. 

Today, it is a resort venue for weddings, and conferences.  It has 2 restaurants and the bedrooms in the house have had modern ensuites added and are used for accommodation.  There are extensive gardens, beautiful trees, a pool, games room, tennis courts and gym, many utilising the existing buildings.

Our tour was of the main plantation manor and again, we were the only visitors.  The land Nottoway sits on had been a tobacco plantation from 1718 operating with 17 slaves.  John Hampton Randolph arrived in Mississippi in 1820 with his family because his father was appointed as a federal judge by President Monroe.  He married Emily Jane Liddell in 1837 and together they had 11 children.  John realised how lucrative sugar had become, so to increase his wealth, in 1842 he moved his family to Louisiana, bought 1,650 acres of land that would become Nottoway and where cotton had replaced tobacco, replanted sugar cane.  He built a sugar mill in 1844 and tripled his income.  By 1854 he had acquired 7,116 acres of land and managed 176 slaves.  In 1855 he added to his holding with an additional 400 acres of Mississippi river frontage and had the house built, naming it Nottoway after the county in Virginia where he was born.

Similarly to the other manors we’d visited, cypress logs were used extensively throughout the house.  After felling we learned they were cured in the river for 6 years and then dried.  The bricks used were hand made by slaves on the property and 40 carpenters, masons and plumbers were hired.  The house was completed in 1859.  By 1860 they had also built 42 slave cabins, a bathhouse, hospital, schoolhouse, greenhouse, stable and added a steam-powered sugar mill and meeting house which was also used as a creche to mind slaves’ children while they worked.

When the American Civil War began, John’s 3 eldest sons left to fight for the Confederates and as the fighting neared Nottoway, he moved 200 slaves to Texas to grow cotton while his wife and the youngest children remained behind in the hope that this might save it from being ravaged during the war.  His plan worked, because although some of the grounds and buildings were damaged, the manor was spared.  The only damage Nottoway received was a canon ball shot that became embedded in a front pillar and remained there until 1971 when it fell out.

When the war concluded, he returned to Nottoway with most of his slaves who had few other choices for work but by 1875, with sugar cane losing value, he reduced his land holding to 800 acres.  He died at the property in 1883 and his wife Emily, sold the plantation in 1889, dividing the $50,000 received between her 9 remaining children.  She died in Baton Rouge in 1904.  The property then changed hands several times, until the most recent inhabitants, Stanford and Odessa Owen.  They resided in Nottoway from 1949 until he died in 1974.  In 1980 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places but unable to maintain the extensive house and grounds, Odessa sold the plantation to Arlin Dease with the stipulation that she be able to reside in the house until her death.  When she died in 2003, Dease restored Nottoway then sold it to Australian health care billionaire Paul Ramsay in 1985 for $4.5 million.  It was Ramsay who spent in excess of $15 million converting it into property to the resort destination we see today.

The interior was incredibly opulent with period antique furniture and fittings.  Even the guest bedrooms had the traditional 4 poster beds.

At the conclusion of the hour-long tour, we were able to wander around the grounds at our leisure, and we didn’t see another sole.

Continuing along our roads less travelled, we followed the Mississippi river, arriving at Donaldsonville (there are a lot of towns whose names end in “ville”). Where we had an interesting walk around the town.  We learned that they were Confederates during the war and like many of the small towns we’ve visited, they are proud of their history and their town.

The church was quite beautiful. Founded in 1772, on orders by King Charles III of Spain, the first stones were laid in 1876 but it wasn’t completed for 20 years.

We wandered around the crypts and tombs in the cemetery noting that they, too were all above ground.

We had parked a distance from the main town and walked through the suburbs, new and old to reach the town centre. On the way back I couldn’t resist taking snaps of this interesting domicile.

We guessed this was their security device.

We had one last stop on our journey through Louisiana. Baton Rouge and the state capital building.

As we drove in, we passed one of the 29 locks of the upper Mississippi River, the Port Allen lock. It is the largest free-floating lock of its kind and also one of the busiest.

We drove over the Huey P. Long bridge, opened in 1935 to commemorate the Governor, who was also assassinated in the same year.

We headed for the CBD and the State Capitol Building which is situated among beautiful parklands adjacent the Mississippi River.  They also have the most adorable squirrels and this one posed every so nicely for his photo.

They also have, as we’ve discovered at each of the State Capital buildings we’ve visited, a replica Liberty bell.

The capital building is 137 meters tall with 34 stories. Two separate lifts whisk visitors up 27 floors to an observation deck with 360-degree views of the city.

We were also able to wander around and enjoy the grandeur of the halls of power, so to speak.

Including the Senate chamber that was in session but had broken for lunch.

Our last stop in Louisiana was the historic town of Natchez. Settled by the French in 1716 it is the oldest non-native settled region on the Mississippi River and where we picked up the Natchez Trace Parkway, all the way to Nashville, Tennessee.