This first written
record would lay around for many years until discovered in St.
Louis by Joel Shanler Harris who would publish the story after
creating the legendary character Uncle Remus, to tell the time
old tale of cunning and deceit. We wandered through the old
plantation from its stately manor house to the still standing,
original slave quarters as our presenter guided us through
the history that surrounded the shabby dilapidated buildings
scattered about the yard. Now just beginning a twelve year
restoration project, Laura Plantation gave us a glimpse of
reality rarely available in these grand estates that dot the
shores of the Mississippi. We had visited such splendid mansions
as Oak Alley and Nottaway, during a previous trip, and while
gracious beyond imagination, they could not hide a certain
commerciality present in their presentation. Laura Plantation was
raw, un-retouched to the point of being unsafe to enter many of
the outlying structures. Created in 1804 by a Frenchman,
Guillaume DeParc out of a land grant for serving in Washington's
Revolutionary Army, it remained a Sugarcane Plantation until sold
by his great granddaughter Laura
Locoul in 1891. Laura moved to St. Louis where
she wrote "Memoirs of Laura", a 150 page history
detailing plantation life, family fights and the horrors of
slavery. It was discovered along with over 100 photographs taken,
up to 1891. The Memoirs were never published and have now been
acquired by the Marmillions who are finishing up the last bit of
work required to publish her writings.
It is always fascinating to me, going through old mansions that
have been able to acquire or maintain memorabilia from the
original family, which allows us to revisit some of the unusual
customs of the day. In this case as we approached the front of the house; there
was the main front door, double doors to the left and double
doors to the right, which all opened off the front porch. In the
days of the original plantation guests were not taken into the
house through the main front door, but either to the left (by the
lady of the house) or to the right (by the gentleman). By taking
the guests to the left or right the owners took them into their
own private bedchamber which showed the guests that they were
special or friends. If the guests were only casual visitors then
they were taken in through the back door. In those days the
Master and the Mistress lived on separate sides of the house with
the main parlor between. One of the major things
that led to the
demise of the large plantation houses were children. When the
parents died, the children would live in the house in separate
areas. Finally, when one would decide they wanted their own place
they simply cut off their section of the house and moved it
elsewhere. This happened to the Laura mansion. Originally it was
in a U shape until one of the brothers moved his arm of the
"U" to another plantation. Our guide Andrea Meek took
us outside to where the slave quarters were. She explained that
each morning the bell was rung signaling the beginning of the
work day. At this time several small slave children who were too
small to do any other kind of work, went to the kitchen with
buckets. They were given the rations for each slave family for
the day. They would get a bucket
of lard, butter, and clabber (thickly curdled
sour milk) for each of the over 150 slaves that lived on the
plantation. After that the slaves went out to their respective
jobs. The work areas were partitioned off. The slaves were
assigned to a particular section and were not allowed to go to
any of the other sections without permission. Laura's mother,
Elizabeth, was very strict with the slaves. She ruled the
plantation with an iron hand. After she got too old to run the
plantation any longer, a small house was built in the back for
her to live in.
The tour and the people we met were very thorough. I really got a
feeling of what the Laura Plantation must have been like in its
hey-day. We had a great time and I would recommend it to anyone
going through the area.
*** THE END ***
Laura
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