GREAT RIVER ROAD

30-31 May 2013: Days 16 & 17 of 43 – Plantation Houses LOUISIANA, Natchez MISSISSIPPI (State 7), Vicksburg National Military Park MISSISSIPPI.

Overnight in Natchez & Clarksdale MISSISSIPPI.

Today 401km, Total 6,301km.

On 30 May, it was farewell New Orleans and hello Sugar Cane Plantation Mansions located along the Mississippi between 100-150km upstream. Established in the 1930’s, The Great River Road is one of the classic, epic, scenic drives of America, following the Mississippi from its origin in the northern lakes of Minnesota to New Orleans. It is not one road as the name suggests but a myriad of roads that straddle the great river – approx 3,330km in total. The Mississippi is quite frankly in my reckoning, the “Cultural Backbone of America”!!!

We drove the last 25% or 811km of The River Road from New Orleans to Memphis. Over the section between New Orleans and Natchez you can see all the grand Plantation Mansions that date from the start of the 1800s – back then that part of the river was called “Millionaires Row” for obvious reasons – lots of sugar and lots of money. The average estate is 12,000 acres with incomes back then of between $100,000 and $300,000 per year depending on season ($1.3m-$4m in 2012 USD). We visited a total of three mansions: Oak Alley, Laura and Houmas House – each with a very different story to tell.

Oak Alley was built in 1837-1839 in the Greek Revival style and purchased by wealthy Creole Sugar Tycoon Jacques Roman as a gift (country home) for his bride Celina. The Greek revival style is characterised by huge white columns. A covered veranda surrounds the home to keep the sun out. All Plantation Mansions faced the Mississippi with a corridor of trees in between to create a “venturi” or wind tunnel effect sucking air cooled by the river down the column of trees similar to a chimney. These “trees” are actually twenty eight 300yr old Oaks!  Add several doors at the front and back of the mansion and opening them creates a draft through the home – vintage aircon!!!

We took a 30min tour of the interior of the mansion, learning all about the family who occupied the home which sadly ended with the bank having to sell the home in 1866 for $32,000 ($494,000 USD in 2012) because the husband died young and the wife spent the family fortune. It remained destitute for many years, changing hands several times until the Stewarts picked it up in the early 1900s for $50,000, restored it and lived in it until Josephine Stewart died in 1972 – she set up a permanent trust, funded by the existing sugar cane and tourist sales to preserve the site for future visitors.

There are even two original condition 1928 Model A Fords on site. The second mansion we visited was Laura Plantation – much smaller and a completely different style of building – this one is typical Creole with bedrooms surrounding a central entertaining parlour and dining rooms. This home was built in 1805 and Laura was the third generation daughter who lived in it for 103 years and was the only ne to keep a diary – 5,000 pages in fact! This enabled a detailed story to be told about how slaves lived and worked on the sugar plantations. Life was hard.

Most estates had between 80 and 200 slaves, with families of 8 living in a room that was 16 by 16 ft (5 by 5 metres). Work began at 5am and was 10-12hrs of sun burning, humidity killing cane harvesting – many died of deadly snake bites. While we were there the temp was 95F with 90% humidity – how did they survive. Many plantation owners actually “bred” more slaves by forcing teenage boys and girls to live together to procreate more children and faster. Sad stuff. Laura Plantation had 200 slaves at its peak.

 

The final mansion was Houmas House, built by Alexander Latil in the 1770s but later purchased by John Burnside who became the largest sugar plantation owner in the Union at 300,000 acres and earned the nickname of “The Sugar Prince of Louisiana”. He went on to name the Mansion after the local Houmas Indians and made it the plushiest house around. This place is awesome. The interior, gardens and even café and restaurant are immaculate, ornate and completely dripping with wealth.

After an equally lush lunch in the cafe it was back in Mustang cruising over lush green steamy fields listening to local country radio with lyrics like “All the John’s I need are John Wayne, John Cash and John Deere”!!! Just 3hrs later we crossed into Mississippi state and into Natchez, the oldest city on the Mississippi founded in 1716 by the French but named and occupied by the Spanish in 1790 to serve as their Capital until 1798 when it was reclaimed by the Union. Natchez, population 18,000 is perched on top of a cliff (called a “bluff” in local speak) overlooking the Mississippi

River, chosen for its strategic position since you can see up and down the river for miles. This was critical in the Civil War. I jogged along this bluff with commanding views of the river and past the old Civil War Cemetery – it was the most scenic and informative jog of the trip so far. That night we enjoyed grilled Catfish, a local, ugly looking fish with whiskers but sweet, light and tasty. The following morning I took the others to the places I had jogged and thanks to Bubba we got to look inside one of the 668 antebellum  homes that are all heritage listed and characterise this old town. Another 90min North and we arrived at Vicksburg, a very important

town during the Civil War. It was occupied by the Confederate Army of the South and President Abraham Lincoln called it “the key” to reclaiming control of the Mississippi and hence controlling supplies to the South, effectively starving them of victory of the entire Civil War. It was in Vicksburg that Major General Ulysses S Grant of the Federal or Union Army of the North (Yankees) fought a 43 day series of battles to reclaim Vicksburg and control of the Mississippi on 4 July 1863 from Lieutenant General John C Pemberton of the Confederate Army of the South (Rebels).  

This reshaped the Civil War which ended in 1865. These epic series of battles took place around and in Vicksburg which is now a huge National Military Park. The set-up is unreal. You buy a CD, sit in your car and drive a 16 mile circuit to 15 key historical markers positioned around the actual battlefields following the entire saga as it took place. I wonder what the two Generals would have said if they saw a black Mustang convertible driving around with its top down through their battlefields! A further 2.5hrs from the Civil War Battlefields and we were in Blues Music loving Clarksdale and the apparent birthplace of the Jukebox music machine.

My jog that evening was the sweatiest I have ever experienced but took me thorough cornfields with quiet setting sun. That night was simply divine in a town that was almost dead. How is this so you think? Even though the streets were deserted and most houses collapsed, everyone was huddled inside listening to glistening Blues. “Ground Zero Blues Club” on Blues Alley looked like a bomb had landed on it but inside it was Blues Nirvana. Packed to the rafters with locals, tourists and even military guys on break this was for us, quintessential Mississippi America. We had our first Fried Grits (taste like chicken nuggets but made from corn flour), Fried Green Tomatoes, Black-eye Peas, Fried Ocra and Catfish Salad.

This Blues venue is famous. Not just because Morgan Freeman owns it but because every person who ever played Blues plays here. It was so good that we all got up and danced! The highlight of the evening was meeting Lieutenant Gary Gillmor of the US Army, half Irish, half Norwegian who had just returned from his third tour of Afghanistan. He came over to drink and listen with us on Thelma’s request, only because he had served with several Aussies and respected them greatly. His daddy had served in Vietnam. He was wearing his camouflage greens. We had found heartland America that night…

QUICK EXPLANATION OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR: The American Civil War 1861-1865 was fought because the newly elected Abraham Lincoln wanted to abolish then limit slavery in the South. By that time the South had amassed 4 million slaves producing 75% of the world’s cotton and more than half of the Unions exports. The South felt that Lincoln would destroy their economy if Lincoln cut slavery so 11 Southern states formed the “Confederate States of America” and voted to leave the Union or United States of America governed by Washington DC of the North. When the North said “no”, the South rebelled and attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1861. 

Lincoln then made the difficult decision to go to war to retain the 11 Southern States in the USA rather than let them secede. The North eventually won with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E Lee to Ulysses S Grant in Appomattox, Virginia in April 1865 and the 11 Southern states stayed in the Union. 600,000 soldiers had died but slavery ended in 1863. If the South had won the USA may have been called the CSA today!!! Root69 will visit the places where the Civil War started and ended. The other very very interesting fact of our Vicksburg Visit is that many attribute the Unions success to “Pea Bread”, a mixture of mushed up black-eye peas (actually beans with a dark spot that looks like an eye) surrounded by cornbread baked until it is rock hard to preserve the nutritious interior in the oppressive Southern heat.