Tuesday, March 21

There are a number of old plantations along the river north of New Orleans, and many of them are now tourist attractions. In 2001, we visited three different plantations; this time, we just visited one.

We started the day with a bus ride upriver to Destrehan Plantation:

A map showing the location of Destrehan Plantation relative to New Orleans, about 23 miles upriver.

...where we were greeted by our tour guide, Judy:

An older woman dressed in period costume; a floor length purple dress, a feathered hat, and black lace gloves.

Given contemporary attitudes regarding American slavery, plantation tourism can be somewhat problematic. As I recall from the tours we took in 2001, little was said about slaves, and what was said was simply factual, with no judgement implied. It was a little different on this tour. The existence of slavery was discussed more prominently, and in more disapproving tones. Sort of "we recognize now how wrong this was, but this was the way it was."

One of the first things we saw on the tour was a reconstruction of a slave cabin:

A one room wooden shack. A cot with a straw mattress and two pillows is in one corner, and a smaller straw mattress, presumably for a child, is on the floor in another corner. Clothes and a hat hang on a wall from wooden pegs.

Not a pleasant sight. But this was more chilling:

A framed document is mounted on the wall outside the cabin. Its heading reads "Men, Women, and Children enslaved on Destrehan Plantation." The document is divided into several sections.

And as if that wasn't enough, here's a closeup:

A closeup view of one of the sections of the document. This section is headed "Inventory of Slaves in the Estate of Antoine Robert de Logny, 1792." The list is divided into columns: Name, Class, Origin, Age, Other, and Value in Piatres. The Class column indicates of the person was a Negro, Negress or Negrillon (a child). The Origin column indicates what part of Africa, or what tribe, the person was from. The Other column gives other information about the person; examples include "Laundress and Good Domestic," "Good Digger and Woodcutter," "Having a Hernia," "With her Three Children." And the Value column, of course, gives the person's sale price.

Antoine Robert de Logny was the plantation's original owner. It was later bought by Jean Noel Destrehan, who married de Logny's daughter, and gave the plantation its name. Mr. Destrehan was instrumental in Louisiana becoming a state, and was one of the state's first two senators.

The tour took us through the various rooms of the house, and told us about its various occupants. Here's a picture of the drawing room:

An elegantly furnished room. A round table sits in the middle, with playing cards, drink glasses, and lamp sitting on it. At one end of the room is a large marble fireplace. Other furniture in the room includes a couch and several chairs and tables. A large mirror hangs over the fireplace, and a portrait painting hangs on another wall. A large ornate carpet covers most of the floor.

At one point, we were "introduced" to Mr. Destrehan himself:

A mannequin representing Mr. Destrehan sits at a desk at one end of the room in the previous picture. An inkwell, a quill pen, and several books lie on the desk.


A sign on the floor next to the mannequin reads: "Jean Noel Destrehan. 1759-1823. A Cornerstone of Louisiana History. Largest Sugar Producer in St. Charles Parish. Helped Perfect the Granulation of Sugar. President of the Louisiana Legislative Council. Elected to the United States Senate. Well Respected for his Fariness and Intelligence."

Further along, we met a woman who I originally thought was Mr Destrehan's wife, but turned out to be his daughter:

A mannequin representing Ms Destrehan. She wears a floor length blue gown and a white lace shawl.


Her sign reads: "Eleonore 'Zelia' Destrehan. 1800-1830. Daughter of Jean Noel and Eleonore Celeste Destrehan. Married at age 16 to Stephen Henderson. Owner of Destrehan Plantation. Died in New York."

And then there was this person, of a considerably lower social position, but nevertheless an essential part of the household:

A mannequin representing a slave woman working in the kitchen. An armoire behind her is filled with fancy china. On the table in front of her are two loaves of bread, platters of fruits and vegetables, and two pitchers.


Her sign reads: "Marguerite. Born in Louisia in 1740. Enslaved Resident of Destrehan Plantation. Cook and Laundress."

Before leaving the plantation, we heard a short presentation on the slave uprising of 1811 (w), which took place in the area. In January of 1811, anywhere from 100 to 500 slaves, armed mostly with hand tools, marched for two days and 20 miles from their plantations towards New Orleans, burning plantation houses and crops, and killing two men, along the way. They were stopped on January 10 by a militia, in a battle which resulted in 40 to 45 of the slaves being killed. Another 44 were tried and executed. Mr Destrehan was one of the judges.

After the plantation tour, our next stop was a swamp tour, with our guide, Rocky:

A middle aged man wearing camouflage pants and jacket and a black baseball cap.

Here's an example of the scenery:

A wide waterway, lined with trees on both sides.

Rocky explained to us the difference between bayous and canals. Bayous are natural waterways, which wind all over the place. Canals are man made, and go in straight lines. In the picture above, you can tell that we were on a bayou, because of the curve in the distance. Actually, though, for most of the tour we were on canals, which I thought wasn't as authentic - when we took a swamp tour in 2001, it was all bayous. By way of comparison, here's a picture from the 2001 tour:

This waterway is narrower, and the trees are taller and extend branches out over the water, giving a more closed in feeling.

Anyway, canals or bayous, it was all swamp. And we saw lots of alligators:

Four pictures of alligators sunning themselves on the banks.

Rocky passed around a baby alligator for us to look at:

Lucia holds the baby alligator in both hands. It's about a foot long, and the tail makes up at least half of its length.

...and then he passed around a somewhat older gator:

Another passenger holds the alligator, which is about two feet long.

Terry commented that the baby alligator didn't really feel like an alligator - more like a snake with feet.

In addition to the gators on the banks, we also saw several swimming around. Rocky would toss out marshmallows to them - apparently, gators don't see too well, and they think the marshmallows floating on the water are baby ducks. The gator will come gliding up to the marshmallow, with just its nostrils poking above the water; then, the jaws open up, and... SNAP!

At one point, Rocky got out of the boat and got up close to a gator to feed it some chicken wings (raw, not Buffalo). I didn't get a picture, but I got this one from another passenger. It's not a very good picture, but it shows how close the gator was:

An extreme close up view of the gator's head and open mouth.

When Rocky got back on the boat, I told him "You're a braver man than I am, sir!"

Alligators weren't the only wildlife we saw, by the way - we also saw two turtles and several birds.