MS trip, days 54-56

We’ve arrived at New Orleans today, and our visit here ends the second part of this adventure. It’s going to be a busy few days, and we’re really looking forward to all of it.

Natchez, Mississippi occupied our last two days. We had a grand time there, enjoying some grand architecture and awfully kind people. The city managed to avoid being burned down during the Civil War by a combination of features: they did not resist the Union and had no railroad to tempt either side. Because of this grand old houses are still making the town grand. Some of them date back into the early 1800’s. We had a great tour of the town via a horse and carriage, then a tour of one of the mansions..

The next day we drove out to the Frogmore Plantation; we got to see a working cotton farm, a cotton gin that dates back to the mid-1800’s, and a working modern gin in operation. The guide led us through the daily life of the people working the farm (both slaves and sharecroppers),and the year’s lifecycle of the cotton plant. We wrapped up the day with another BBQ lunch.

We tour two plantations tomorrow, one with a Creole heritage. More then…

This family lived large, but not for very long. For a while the house became a girls school, then was saved/bought by a local garden club

Not every mansion on the tour was in perfect condition; this one seemed to be leaning in about three different directions. A local group is working to preserve places like this.

This is a steam powered cotton gin, separating the fiber from the seeds

You can see why the gin was needed; the seeds are tiny and are buried in the fiber

The plantation did a good job of giving a balanced description of the life of slaves/sharecroppers on their land. Here is their church; they had Sundays off, and services lasted all day

Picture if you will a woman picking cotton. This bag would have held 70 pounds of cotton, and she would have been expected to pick three bags a day. If she had small children they would have been sitting on the tail end of the bag, making mom drag their weight plus the cotton.

The fields are big, and now are handled with big harvesters that bail the cotton into large round packages

2 Luhns

Two Luhns traveling together, drinking all the coffee

MS trip, days 54-56

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