NEW ORLEANS FEATURES - Who's Who In The Plantation Country
Who's Who In The Plantation Country
Plantation mansions are some of the most recognizable images of South Louisiana, but most of the people behind them are far from household names. With such prominent addresses along the river and such a bounty of activity and trade, however, the region was full of colorful characters. Bigeasy.com takes at a brief look at who was who in plantation country.
Oakley Plantation
Not a permanent resident, but one of plantation country's most recognized names is John James Audubon.
The illustrator and naturalist stayed at the Oakley home near St. Francisville for a summer in 1821 and was a frequent visitor to the area after that.
Audubon was hired by James and Lucy Pirrie to tutor their daughter. He spent the summer at their plantation but left following a dispute over money. The area, however, figured heavily in his illustrated guide Birds of America. Of the book's 435 illustrated birds, roughly twenty percent of the drawings were started in West Feliciana Parish, the area surrounding Oakley where Audubon camped for weeks on end while observing the wildlife. A total of 33 illustrations were done at Oakley itself.
Audubon was a lifelong traveler. He was born in Haiti in 1785 but grew up in France. When he was 18, he moved to a plantation his father owned near Philadelphia. The move kept him out of Napoleon's army and led to his marriage to Lucy Bakewell, a resident of a neighboring farm. Audubon failed in several businesses before he decided to focus on his hobby of painting. In his travels, he discovered a love of wildlife and it became his art as well. He is well remembered in plantation country and his name is everywhere.
The Oakley home is located on the Audubon State Historic Site (off Hwy. 965 east of St. Francisville). Like many of the plantations on the higher and drier ground east of the Mississippi, cotton was the main crop. Built in 1806, the home is remarkable for its shallow depth and the uncommon use of "jalousies," to ventilate the home's galleries. The heavy, angled slats forced breezes to circulate the air in the home but screened out rain and direct sunlight.
Nottoway Plantation
One of the strongest figures along River Road during the Civil War era was Emily Jane Liddell Randolph. She and her husband John were from Woodville, Mississippi. They bought the plantation and in the 1840s built the beautiful asymmetrical wedding cake home, that is now Nottoway Plantation (30970 Hwy. 405, 1-866-527-7884). As the Civil War approached, John Randolph took the plantation's slaves and went to Texas to build railroads for the Confederacy.
Emily and several of the youngest of her eleven children stayed at Nottoway. She is known for facing down Union gun ships and protecting the home. New Orleans fell very early in the war but plantation country was a place of constant gun battles as pockets of Confederates hid out trying to ambush Union ships. The opposition came to a head at Nottoway as ships prepared to fire on Confederates encamped behind the house. As they prepared to open fire, Emily went up to the front verandah to face them. Miraculously, they didn't fire. Instead, a still unknown Union officer came ashore and met with Emily. Emily is credited with saving the home since many homes were burned if Confederates were found there or if the homes were found to contain weapons. Besides saving the home and her family, Emily was able to raise 40 acres of sugar cane with the few people left at Nottoway.
Laura Plantation
Of all of plantation country's residents, the richest details of any one family center around Laura Locul of her namesake Laura Plantation (2247 Hwy. 18, Vacherie). In renovating and researching the plantation, Norman and Sand Marmillion were able to acquire her memoirs, which they published as Memoirs of the Plantation Home by Laura Locul Gore. From Laura's scrapbooks and the memoirs, completed in 1936, the story details the four generations of women who oversaw Laura plantation. But the diaries also tell the story of a changing world. The old Creole culture of New Orleans was giving way to a new American way of life.
Laura Locul was born into a very traditional Louisiana Creole family. When she was 13, the plantation was named for her.
But as she matured,she yearned to go to New Orleans and live amongst the family's French-speaking relatives. Her mother also loved New Orleans and Creole sophistication. But Laura yearned to be a modern American woman. She married a Protestant American man from Missouri, far detached from Creole society. Though she spent many years in New Orleans and living in St. Louis away from her family, the family plantation always occupied her mind. Later in her life she recorded her memories of the family and its life in Louisiana.
Evergreen Plantation
Pierre Clidamant Becnel is another figure torn between the old and new world. The Becnel family came to own what is now Evergreen Plantation through a marriage involving the original founding family, the Heidels. Pierre was born in 1803, when the United States bought Louisiana. His parents both died of yellow fever two years later and he was raised by his grandmother and became a very wealthy young man. He married a cousin and the two moved to New Orleans and fell in love with the influx of Americans and their culture. When his grandmother died he returned to the plantation and decided to renovate the home to its current Greek Revival style, uncommon in plantation country then, but very popular in American architecture.
Evergreen has 39 buildings still intact, including the original outbuildings and slave quarters. The grounds are still used to grow sugar cane. The home is open to the public but only through New Orleans Tours (592-0560).
See details and book a tour of Evergreen Plantation
River Road African American Museum
In recent years, one of the most significant additions to the documented history of life in plantation country has been the creation of the River Road African American Museum (225-562-7703). It details the lives of slaves who worked and helped build the plantations. Those generations of contributors have often been left out of history. The museum seeks to redress that. A second museum site is under way in nearby Donaldsonville. The museum is located on the grounds at Tezcuco Plantation (3138 Hwy. 44, Darrow). The home at Tezcuco was recently lost to a fire.
Destrehan Plantation
The oldest documented plantation home in the region is Destrehan Plantation (13034 River Road, Destrehan). It has, however, undergone some notable changes. Original construction of a French West Indies-style home began in 1787. But the original owner Robin deLogny died in 1792, two years after it was completed. The home came into the hands of the d'Estrehan family, who had to add the two flanking buildings to house all of their 14 children. The house was eventually bought in 1840 by Judge Pierre Rost who had it remodeled in the Greek Revival style. The family went to Europe during the Civil War period and the house was turned into a school to teach trades to freed slaves. Following the war, the home was returned to the Rosts who maintained the home into the 20th century.
Oak Alley
One of the most recognizable plantations in the South is Oak Alley (3645 Hwy. 18, Vacherie). While it is uncertain who planted the double row of majestic live oaks, much is known about the plantation builder. Jacques Thelesphore Roman built the home in the late 1830s. His brother André Bienvenue Roman was a two time Louisiana governor. The family was wealthy from holdings in cattle farther west in Cajun country and from indigo and later sugar grown on the plantation. But the family also had ties to the city of New Orleans. Thelesphore's mother lived in the only French Colonial plantation style home in the French Quarter. Now called Madame John's Legacy (632 Dumaine Street), it's a Louisiana State Museum site. But Thelesphore always preferred the more quiet life in plantation country.
See details and book a tour of Oak Plantation
San Francisco
San Francisco Plantation (2646 Hwy. 44) is one of the most stunningly restored mansions. The original itself was quite inspiring. Its beauty and mystique were behind Frances Parkinson Keyes novel Steamboat Gothic. The story was about a fictional family that she imagined living at San Francisco. But more than a work of fiction, she coined a term for a particular style and sense of Southern society.
The home was built in 1856 by Edmond Bozonier Marmillion. The house is not typical of the period. It resembled the ornate and top heavy looks of the river's paddleboats. Inside, the home was remodeled in 1860, adding magnificent details. The current look was painstakingly restored to that period. The decor is highlighted by ceiling frescos.