Today we drove to Baton Rouge to visit sugar cane plantations and learn about the history of slavery in Louisiana and the impacts of emancipation on cash crop farming in this part of the South. We visited two plantations. Though they were only a half hour drive apart, they had radically different experiences.
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| Sunrise on the bayou. |
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| Driving by sugar cane fields. |
We started at Houmas House, known as the Sugar Palace. Owned first by Irish immigrant John Burnside who, as the story goes, came to the USA with $1.50 in his pocket, worked to renovate an old trading post into a sugar cane plantation. This estate was then aggressively expanded to encompass over 300,000 acres, including four sugar mills, a narrow gauge railroad, and powered by the labour of 800 enslaved people. Houmas House was one of ten plantations owned by Burnside making it part of the largest and most efficient sugar producing network in the USA.
In contrast, the second plantation we visited was Oak Alley, named for the rows of enormous live oak trees lining the carriage path to the Big House. Founded by Creole Jacques Telesphore Roman, Oak Alley operated on a much smaller scale than Houmas House, enslaving 120 people. Roman owned only this single plantation despite belonging to a large and powerful family. Oak Valley focused heavily on a display of opulent wealth, maintaining up to 19 house slaves strictly to signal social status.
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| Ali in a laundry kettle. |
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| Laundry kettle pond. |
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| Ali and his frog friend. |
Both houses survived the Civil War intact by being pledged by each respective owner to the Union (the North) and neither saw significant fighting on site. After emancipation and despite the collapse of the plantation economy, the sheer scale of the land and remaining processing infrastructure allowed the House House estate to continue producing millions of pounds of sugar into the late 1800s. Conversely, Oak Alley experienced financial collapse. Jacques Roman died in 1849 in significant debt, leaving the plantation to his wife, Celina. The debt worsened under Celina’s oversight and her son and heir auctioned off the plantation three days after Celina’s death in 1866 for a mere $30,000, a fraction of its value.
Houmas House was purchased by New Orleans real estate tycoon Kevin Kelly in 2003 and transformed from a traditional historic site by adding multiple upscale restaurants, a luxurious inn, expansive landscaped gardens, and event hosting. It is one of the most booked wedding venues in Louisiana and its guided tour was interactive, free of rope barriers and allowed us to take photos.
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| A doctor’s vampire treatment kit. |
Again in contrast, Oak Alley was donated to a Historical Foundation in 1972 and operates as a historic site and museum. It relies on standard historic tours and educational exhibits, has lots of ropes across everything and does not permit photos on the guided tour. Oak Valley did place significant emphasis on the lives of the enslaved community at the plantation and had a detailed and thoughtful slavery exhibit on the grounds. This focus on slavery was completely absent from the Houmas House visit which emphasized the opulence of the time with little mention of the slave labour that made this grandeur possible.
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| House slave quarters. |
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| Field slave quarters. |
Interesting facts that we took away were that slaves were fed very poorly despite doing typically 16 hours of labour each day. Their rations included corn meal and water - that’s all. At Houmas House there was also an allocation of pork per enslaved person but this was not typical. Slaves did their own subsistence gardening to supplement their diets. They tended their garden plots at night during their “off” time and often sold produce back (cheaper than market prices) to the plantation owners, especially corn which was in demand as animal feed. They then used the funds to purchase chickens to raise for additional food, for example. The plantation owners did not operate vegetable gardens for themselves or their slaves. Food for owners was purchased at market and slaves were not allocated vegetables and had to grow them themselves.
We learned about the only slave named Zephyr to be freed by Oak Alley plantation owner Jacques Roman following the death of the owner’s mother (Zephyr’s original owner). We were initially surprised to learn that Zephyr did not leave the plantation despite being freed and continued to work for pay. It turns out that this was because he had been freed but his wife and two sons were not and remained enslaved to owner Roman. Zephyr worked for 10 years to earn the $350 to purchase his wife from Roman by the time he was age 70 and she 60. He could never afford to purchase his children.
We had never considered the food allocated to the enslaved communities in the plantations, nor the tricky nuances of being freed while one’s family remained enslaved. It was food for thought, for sure.
After leaving the plantations and driving past several others (there were over 4.000 plantations in Louisiana pre-emancipation!), we checked into our campsite at Bayou Segnette State Park. It is so humid here it feels like walking through soup. And the mosquitoes are enormous!
We then headed downtown for a whirlwind tour of Bourbon Street before it got too rowdy. The boys got decked out in specialty Mardis Gras necklaces, we watched the Dueling Pianos from the street since we had to be 21 to enter the bar, and we got caught in a carriage way (a covered one, thank goodness) while waiting out an epic rainstorm. We attended the 7:30 pm traditional jazz show at Preservation Hall. We were supposed to stand in the back but the hostess welcomed the boys warmly and moved us right up by the band for front row seats! We watched a six piece jazz band (trombone, trumpet, clarinet, piano, bass and drums) from 2 feet away and they knocked our socks off. They were incredibly talented and their music had our feet tapping and hands clapping. It was SO fun! What a cool and memorable experience.
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| Seamus tipping the band. |
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