{"id":4846,"date":"2014-06-29T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2014-06-29T06:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=4846"},"modified":"2014-06-29T07:00:22","modified_gmt":"2014-06-29T06:00:22","slug":"a-difficult-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=4846","title":{"rendered":"A difficult history\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Laura Plantation house – built on stumps so Mississippi floods would not touch it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like so many people, I\u2019ve seen Gone With the Wind. My vision of the American deep south was very much formed by Clark Gable’s charm and Vivien Leigh’s accent. I didn’t really believe either were strictly accurate, so on our Mississippi River road trip, I was very keen to visit some of the plantations along the river.<\/p>\n

There are a lot open to inspect – but I wanted to find somewhere that would give me a glimpse of real history \u2013 not what is portrayed in the movies.<\/p>\n

I was very conscious that behind the grand vision of the glorious antebellum South lies the far less palatable vision of slavery.<\/p>\n

Even if at times it is a bit tough, I do like my history to be accurate and real.<\/p>\n

The first plantation I visited was the Laura Plantation \u2013 which differed from the rest in being a Creole Plantation. In Creole society the inheritance would go to the smartest child \u2013 not necessarily the oldest \u2013 and certainly not necessarily a male heir. The Laura plantation was run by women for several generations \u2013 at a time when, according to the movies, Scarlett O\u2019Hara could not think beyond her next bonnet.<\/p>\n

\"All<\/a>
All of the rooms had doors opening towards the river – trying to catch the cool breeze.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I struggled a bit to understand what exactly is meant by Creole. In colonial Louisiana, it meant \u2018not Anglo\u2019 or possibly born in the New World. The Creole people were (still are) a mix of European heritage (mainly French and Spanish) and may also have Native American or even African slave ancestry. They had their own language and food and society.<\/p>\n

\"It<\/a>
It was cool under the house. The huge pots were buried in the damp ground to keep the contents cool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This sugar cane plantation was founded in 1805 \u2013 with 7 slaves. Over the next 60 years \u2013 that grew to almost 200. I was surprised to learn that in Louisiana, slavery was not restricted to Africans. Native Americans and Europeans could also be bought and sold.<\/p>\n

\"Only<\/a>
Only the floor remains where the kitchens stood at the back of the house – but they do have animal pens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The guide told us shocking stories of the plantation owner who purchased thirty teenaged girls in 1830, in order to breed her own workers \u2013 because breeding them was cheaper than buying them. She talked about families being split up \u2013 children forcibly removed from their parents and sold\u2026 a\u00a0terrible\u00a0time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"There<\/a>
There were once more than 70 slave cabins – now only four remain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In these cabins, old West African folk tales were told to children \u2013 tales that would later be collected and written down to become the stories of Br\u2019er Rabbit \u2013 which I remember so very clearly from my own childhood.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Matriarch of the family lived here after handing over the running of the plantation to her daughter. But I think she probably still had plenty to say…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leaving the sugar fields behind \u2013 we headed further north to visit the Frogmore Cotton Plantation.<\/p>\n

Like the sugar plantation, this was also built on a foundation of slavery. I was also fascinated by what followed. After the end of the Civil War, the slaves were free \u2013 but had little. Sometimes not even a home. As for the plantation owners, they had properties that need to be worked \u2013 but no workers.<\/p>\n

\"Mules<\/a>
Mules and sometimes people pulled the wagon – while pickers filled huge bags with the raw cotton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This gave rise to the idea of sharecropping. The former slaves worked the land and shared profits with the landowners. Many of the landowners were harsh, paid little and forced their share cropper to buy supplies etc from a farm store \u2013 thus taking back most of the money.<\/p>\n

Sometimes they lived in communities \u2013 but often the shacks were in the middle of the fields \u2013 it must have been a very lonely life and a very hard one.<\/p>\n

I wonder if\u00a0the boundaries between the old life and the new sometimes became blurred for the former slaves. I bought a book at the plantation – it’s the story of these times in the former slaves own words. Their stories were collected\u00a0in the 1930’s – during the great depression. I haven’t had time yet to do more than flick through it – but am looking forward to seeing this\u00a0turbulent time better through the\u00a0eyes of the\u00a0people who lived a life I cannot begin to imagine.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The sharecropper homes were often former slave cabins – and many were used well into the mid 1900’s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sharecropper\u00a0system lasted a long time, until mechanisation replaced the human workers. Another time of great change – not always for the good.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An early cotton baling machine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was feeling a little sombre as we left the plantations behind \u2013 but we were heading for Memphis \u2013 and you know what that means don\u2019t you\u2026 Elvis!<\/strong> (He\u2019ll be on the blog next week).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Like so many people, I\u2019ve seen Gone With the Wind. My vision of the American deep south was very much formed by Clark Gable’s charm and Vivien Leigh’s accent. I didn’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-my-travels","category-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-1ga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}