The Laura Plantation is an authentically restored Creole sugar cane plantation, originally built in 1805 by a Frenchman for his bride. The marriage was not made in heaven; he wanted her to live on the plantation; she wanted to stay in New Orleans for parties. But the Laura plantation is unique for it is one of the few plantations that encourages visitors to reflect on the reality of slavery.

Creole tradition has the family business passing to the smartest child, male or female, even in the 19th Century. In two generations' time, Laura was that child. When Laura was a young girl, she asked one of the slaves, "Why are your cheeks marked up?" He answered, "Because I ran away, I was branded." This was the beginning of Laura's rebellion. At 16, she refused to become the president of the family company, and she sold her share of the company business. She refused to remain in the south, instead falling in love with a young man in St. Louis, marrying and living there, and later writing her memoirs.

At Oak Alley Plantation (we had visited earlier), the houses where slaves once lived had not been restored, though a plaque memorialized how many slaves had once lived and worked there. At the Laura Plantation, every effort was made to restore buildings and artifacts to show how the plantation owners and the slaves once lived. I found it moving that many implements had been donated by families of former slaves to be a part of the treasures and history of the Laura Plantation. Laura's memoir, Memories of the Old Plantation Home, is available on amazon.com and tells why she gave up her ante-bellum home.

Oak Alley Plantation, a sugar cane plantation established along the banks of the Mississippi about 35 miles outside New Orleans in 1835, welcomed us with a double-row of 28 oak trees some 300 years old. It was 79 degrees and sunny, but the breezes up from the river were cooling, and the grounds meticulously maintained. This old Greek Revival style mansion was furnished with period pieces, including intricately painted cypress wood fireplace mantles, made to look as if they were marble.

If you were an honored guest, you would be greeted with a fresh pineapple each morning. If you outstayed your welcome, your morning would begin with two pineapples, a subtle hint to take one home on your journey.

The entire house was built with slave labor. The owners kept some 20 house slaves and 93 field slaves, their names, ages, and values commemorated in a bronze plaque. As we read the names, it was hard not to draw conclusions about each person listed: Desiree, Creole (meaning born in the West Indies) female field hand aged 16, value $200; Louisa, female field hand aged 15, value $25; Mary, mulatto (meaning born of Caucasian and Negro parents) female aged 35 with her five children, seamstress, value $1,500. Four slaves were over the age of 60: Mary, aged 69, cook for the Negroes, value $50; Mercury, age 62, African Negro field hand, value $100; Louis, age 62, American Negro, one-armed field hand, value $50; and Leandre, age 63, Creole Negro field boss and driver, value $500.


This undated photo above, most likely late 19th or early 20th Century shows the former slave quarters, now burned down. You might recall the threats Southern slave owners made to sell their slaves down river to the cotton and sugar cane plantations. This is that land, and a way of life that ended with the coming of the Americans, the Civil War, and the civil rights movements of the 1960s.