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Southern Plantations….A Must See.

When passing through the deep south we figured on spending some time exploring the plantation life folks led from the 1700s to almost 2000. We stayed at the Poche (pronounced Poshay) Plantation 30 miles north of New Orleans for 4 nights. The camp host there was also the tour guide for a weekly tour of the place. We also journeyed to the other side of the Mississippi to visit Laura Plantation. As we are in the deep south these plantations are all sugar cane plantations. The cotton plantations are further north.

Our hosts at the Poche Plantation were very knowledgeable regarding the history of the place. We stayed in our Bullet and not in the house itself but, what if……

The Poche Plantation was built for by a very influential judge in town back in the late 1800s after the Civil War. Many folks figure, through research that the judge may well have been the founder of the ABA or American Bar Association. The gentleman who recently purchased the property has put a ton of effort into restoring it to its original form using extensive research and some photos.

LAURA PLANTATATION: Notice the yellow color. If a house was yellow it’s owner was Creole (French speaking) and if it was white the owner was English.

What a gorgeous Plantation House! Laura Plantation was recommended to us by our camp host as we had MANY to choose from. If this were 1870 we would be standing in the middle of the Mississippi! The house was built on the river and moved back a number of floods later.

  • There was not a lot on the Mississippi that was not used as a plantation back in the day. Some have been restored recently.
A picture of the family back in the day…..
The rear of the house is almost as impressive as the front.
Another one of the fantastic southern Live Oaks.
Although the doors look amazing they were not part of the original house. It had no doors, just shutters, as there was always a need for the breeze to blow through the house and out the back, where there were also no doors.
We fell in love with the porches on these huge houses. Folks must have had a relaxing time rocking in the cooler summer evenings.
In front of the two original out buildings you can see the footprint of the original kitchen. It was placed outside the house as it was very hot in the kitchen and no one needed that down in the hot an humid south.
Anyone up for a river paddle? Nice hand made canoes eh?

  • A picture of sugar cane in its rawest form. Cutting the cane was very difficult and dangerous work.

  • After harvesting the cane it was boiled down in these huge metal vats now used ornamentally
These plantation houses were made out of brick from the Mississippi River mud. Would sit well with today’s shop local/buy local movement.

These next two collages represent what we saw as furnishing in the main house versus the slave quarters:


Look at the bottom left and find the convex mirror. this was used by women to check that their ankles were not showing. Bosoms were shown in their full glory but….. ankles,no way!

Now the slave quarters. As the cabins were generally only 1 or 2 rooms there were not too many objects to take a picure of:

This slave cabin is still in original condition according to the tour guide. Yes, it is a duplex so it could house as many folks as possible. They seem in decent repair after all this time as they are made of cypress wood. This is a super durable wood. Descendants remained in these houses until the 1970s!
As the house was constructed from pre-cut timbers the pieces were labelled with Roman numerals as the slave labor used to put it together were illiterate.
Even after slavery was abolished most slaves had no way to make a living so they became share croppers. They were kept on the premises because their wages were paid with coupons that could only be redeemed at the plantation store. Most were never able to pay the debt with their crops so they essentially became indentured servants.
This was freaking weird to see literature such as this all over the museum portion of the tour.

After a full day of plantation touring we headed back toward the Bullet. We did stop for a quick bite to eat at Oak’s Alley Plantation:

You can see why this place is called Oak;s Alley.
Fried alligator!! Tastes a bit like a sweeter and rubberier fried chicken.
This hole in the lawn is the home of crawfish. We waited to see one but they never poked their heads out.
Sunset on the Mississippi. A view across the road from our campsite.
  • A bignet (pronounced been-Yay) is a fried dough. We topped them with lemon and raspberry jam. Oh my!
And after the sun went down…….Very good!

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