History is not there for you to like or dislike. It is there for you to learn from it. And if it offends you, even better. Because then you are less likely to repeat it. It’s not yours to erase. It belongs to all of us. –Unknown
I have read many books on plantation life and have seen several movies. I’m glad that the most recent of them show it in a manner that is more true to history. I had never been to a Southern plantation. After seeing this on a Louisiana map, I wanted to see for myself. The Cane River Plantations are called “Creole” because this term refers to those born in Louisiana during the French and Spanish periods, regardless of ethnicity. There are two plantations 10 miles apart, Oakland and Magnolia. We visited Oakland first, built with enslaved labor by the Prud’homme family, descendants of French settlers. Cane River farmers originally planted indigo and tobacco until the invention of the cotton gin.
There was a park ranger in Oakland who, when hearing we were heading to Magnolia next, gave us detailed directions on how to get there. Apparently the road was closed at Magnolia, and you needed to get to the other side for the parking lot. There was something about not going over a river, a turn in a town, and a stop sign. But we only listed with half an ear, and there were more things to look at, and a picnic lunch happened. Needless to say we ended up on the wrong side of the closure. We had a very scenic drive to the correct spot.
The house at Magnolia burned during the Civil War. It was rebuilt in the late 1800’s and is now in private ownership. We were able to walk through the grounds at that plantation. Magnolia’s history goes back to the mid-1700’s, during the colonial Louisiana era. By the start of the war, the plantation owner had several properties of over 6,000 acres.
In my last post, I mentioned that Natchitoches was where Steel Magnolias was filmed. Actually, several movies have been made in the area. A John Wayne movie, “The Horse Soldiers”, was filmed at Oakland. A horror film was made at the Magnolia Plantation home in 2009, “For Sale By Owner”. Looking at the home, pictured below, I could see why!
The book I read most recently on this subject was historical fiction. “The Invention of Wings” was written by Sue Monk Kidd and I highly recommend it.
Next post–Moving on to Texas
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