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Tours of plantations, historical sites bring area's colorful past to life

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published August 22, 2005

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( 44 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)
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We were introduced to the 19th century South from the point of view of a slave and a slave owner, an alligator wrestler and plantation mistress, even a couple of ghosts. At the old and new state Capitol buildings in Baton Rouge, La., we learned of the infamous former Gov. Huey Long. And in the swampland out of town, we visited a Cajun village.

Our first port of call was St. Francisville, La. In 1850, this was high cotton country and the largest river port between Memphis and New Orleans. Since we only had four hours, we opted for the Rosedown/Myrtles Tour instead of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, known as The Big House. We learned we chose ghosts over criminals as we passed blooming magnolia and tulip trees, camellias and crepe myrtle and dozens of antique stores in this bed-and-breakfast-bedecked town of 1,900 people.


Inside the 200-year-old Myrtles Plantation, listed as one of America's most haunted houses, we discovered Chloe, the servant who poisoned the owner's wife and children. She later was killed by other servants and still haunts the house today along with spirits of the children and other former residents and visitors.

It was enough to send the dining room's Baccarat crystal chandeliers a-tingling, but locals swear it's true. There we uncovered early 1800s customs, such as if a woman wasn't married by 18, she was considered too old to even dream about it. And while women typically breast-fed their babies in public, if they dared show their ankles, they were considered hussies since that was the sexiest part of their body.

The second half of the tour included a visit to Rosedown Plantation, built in 1835 by Martha and Daniel Turnbull, who named it after a play they saw in England on their honeymoon. During the peak years of cotton production, there were 450 slaves working at Rosedown, which at its largest size comprised 3,455 acres. In 1956, Catherine Fondren Underwood, an amateur horticulturist, purchased the manor and began a restoration of the house and the 28-acre formal gardens.

There were no ghosts, but plenty of skeletons were let out of the closets via charming docents in hooped-skirt dresses.

The following morning we docked in Natchez, Miss., one of the oldest Southern cities and home to soybeans, cotton and pecans. The site originally held two towns. The genteel planters built their homes on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi, while the rowdy riverboat men, prostitutes, even pirates populated the thriving port of Natchez-Under-the-Hill. The towns' class distinctions endure today.

Natchez at one time was inhabited by the French, the English and the Spanish before becoming American in 1798. One of the few Southern towns spared by Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War, Natchez has more than 500 antebellum buildings that still line its gracious, wide streets. But today the once-proud town looks more like an unloved, elderly aunt in need of a face-lift.

At Frogmore, a cotton plantation outside of Natchez, we visited an early church on a cold, rainy day where we witnessed a program on slave culture that included spirituals, stories, even the re-creation of a slave wedding. According to tradition, after the plantation master performed the ceremony, couples laid two brooms side by side in the church and jumped over them together, solidifying the marriage vows. But marriages among the 159 slaves on the property in 1860 were performed only after all the cotton was harvested.

We learned how the slaves communicated in a code called "double voicing." When they sang about "stealing away to Jesus," they meant they yearned to escape, a docent explained. And when they sang songs about the "promised land," they were referring to Canton, Ohio, and freedom.

The ship's most popular land tour is the Vicksburg Battlefield Museum and Vicksburg National Military Park. At the beginning of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said that Vicksburg was "the key to the whole situation." And Jefferson Davis urged that Vicksburg be "defended to the last extremity."

Some historians believe that the Battle of Champion's Hill, the last major defeat of the Confederate forces in the Vicksburg campaign, was the most decisive battle of what locals still refer to as "the War of Northern Aggression," as opposed to "the War between the states." The city's ultimate surrender came on July 4, 1863, the same day that Robert E. Lee's troops were defeated at Gettysburg.

The museum features the only diorama of the siege of Vicksburg, a film titled "The Vanishing Glory," memoirs of the battle and a collection of models of riverboats and naval vessels. At the military park, visitors can explore a restored Union gunboat that was sunk in the Yazoo River during the war and was raised 100 years later and eventually restored.

During a drive through the beautifully manicured Vicksburg National Military Park, visitors photographed state monuments to individuals lost in the war. We climbed the 47 steps to the Illinois State Memorial, which was modeled after the Pantheon in Rome. One step was constructed for each day of the Siege of Vicksburg. In this sacred place with the names of the 36,325 Illinois soldiers who participated in the Vicksburg campaign inscribed on bronze tablets lining the interior walls, our guide initiated a chorus of "God Bless America," its somber notes echoing throughout the chamber.

On Friday, the ship docked at Baton Rouge, where we visited a Cajun village. Visitors sampled alligator, cocodrie, boudin (sausage stuffed with pork and rice), jambalaya and cracklins (pork rinds) and learned the Cajun waltz and two-step from costumed folk dancers.

During the afternoon's tour, trumpeter John Gray invited us to partake in the re-enactment of a typical jazz funeral. During the first part of the procession, the group paid their respects to the deceased, following Gray who trumpeted a soulful rendition of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee." But once the trumpeter gave "the call," the mood turned joyous, uplifted by his lively solo of "When the Saints Go Marching In." As 30 tourists swayed and gyrated up the steps of the new state Capitol building, the scene evoked little reaction from locals.
We toured the grounds of Louisiana State University and visited the old State Capitol building (now a restored museum), which was damaged by fire in 1862. The blaze prompted Mark Twain to remark: "It would have been so easy to let dynamite finish what a charitable fire began."

In the 1930s, a new skyscraper state Capitol building was constructed under the direction of Gov. Long, who during the Depression convinced the legislature that the new building would eventually save money. Dubbed by political cronies as "Huey's finest erection," the building remains the tallest state capitol building in the country with 34 floors reaching 450 feet. In 1935 Long was assassinated on the ground floor near the elevators, and visitors still can see bullet holes in the wall.

The chambers of both the Senate and the House are open for tours through magnificent bronze doors, and visitors can take the elevator to the observation deck on the 27th floor for a panoramic view of Baton Rouge and the meandering Mississippi.

On the final day before steaming back to New Orleans, we visited the Houmas House in Burnside, once the centerpiece of the wealthiest sugar cane plantation in the country. This was the setting of the film, "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" starring Bette Davis, who actually stayed in the house in 1963.

Wrapping up the tour, the lovely docent in a long, emerald green period costume signed off with the salute that had become the traditional "ten-four" of our daily tours: "Bye now. Y'all come back soon, heah?"

Meredith Grenier is a staff writer for The Daily Breeze in Torrance, Calif.
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  6. Tours of plantations, historical sites bring area's colorful past to life

published August 22, 2005

( 44 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.

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