Laura Plantation

We visited Laura Plantation today and took their tour. This historic Creole sugar plantation is about 45 miles west of Bayou Segnette, on the Great River Road. We chose to drive along the River Road (Louisiana 18) although it's a longer route to the plantation, because we were hoping for a scenic drive. Unfortunately the very high levee cuts off any view of the river. We did, however, see some small towns and some very large industrial plants, including a giant Dow Chemical facility.

At the plantation we parked and entered the plantation store to buy our tickets. Fortunately a tour was starting in ten minutes. The tours last about an hour and a quarter. Our guide was very professional and clearly had a memorized script. We learned some interesting facts about the Creole culture that reinforced or added to what we had learned on our bicycle tour on Friday.

This plantation was run by three generations of women, a not uncommon situation in Creole culture, where women had more civil rights than in the Anglo-American culture. The Code Noir also provided more rights to slaves than they had in Anglo culture. For example, husbands and wives could not be separated, and children under fourteen could not be separated from their parents.

This table looks rather elegant to us, but we were told that the family had a much more elegant home in the French Quarter, the one they lived in during the winter and entertained at.

Slave cabins housed two families, one on each side.

The Mississippi River was lined with sugar cane plantations. From our observations, much of it still is. Cane plantations were run somewhat differently from cotton plantations. The cane harvest was crucially time dependent, and masters offered cash bonuses to their slaves at harvest time. Slaves could buy their own freedom, and they could and did own slaves themselves.

On the way home we noticed this building and just had to stop and get a photo. How wonderful!

As we drove along the River Road, we noticed that a hike and bike trail follows along the top of the levee. From that vantage point we figure there must be a much better view of the river, so tomorrow we're planning to go check it out.