By 1858, along the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Natchez, white planters
used slave labor to build cotton and sugar cane plantations.
The long lots of the past still exist. |
Cajun Country House Types:
Laura Creole Plantation
  
Examine the difference between Creole
and Cajun terms.
A typical Creole house style: in the past, silts reduced the
damage from annual Mississippi River flooding and the galleries (or
porches) around multiple-sides of the house provide breeze at different
times of the day during the hot and humid summers. This same sub-tropical
climate was and continues to be ideal for sugar cane production, as the
picture shows. The crushed sugar cane juices were bowled in
large kettles.
Click on the photos to see
more details.
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| This 2,000-acre plantation lies on
the Mississippi River. To protect against the Spring floods, Creole houses
were built on silts -- wooden or, in this case, bricks which extended several
feet into the ground and widened at the bottom to provide support for the
heavy houses in these wetlands. The mosquito netting over the bed also
indicates the health hazards of living in this sub-tropical climate. |
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| This was a working house; the fancy
house was in New Orleans where social status mattered. By 1916, State law
prohibited the speaking of French in the schools of Louisiana. By the late
19th century, the Creoles with their 300 years of culture were adjusting to
the dominant Anglo culture. They modified their house styles: Anglo
influences included 1) white paint, 2) elaborate staircases to the
galleries/porches, and 3) central doorways which were never used
by them. |
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| In 1805, slaves laid the original
bricks -- left-side of the brick photo -- and later when the front door
was added -- right-side of the brick photo -- bricks were added. Slaves
pre-cut all the timbers in the Cyprus swamps, which were then
assembled on the site as indicated by the markings on the beam. Fresh water
was collected from rain water running down from the roof to holding tank.
Gardens were laid out and maintained by slaves for the enjoyment of
the French-speaking planter family. |
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| Slaves prepared all the
labor-intensive food in the kitchen. Olive jars were imported
from Italy, but the olive oil was discarded. Only the jars were used to
store perishables, such as milk, eggs, and meat, by burying the jars up to
the rim in the ground where temperatures were much cooler. wine was imported
from Burgundy, France. |
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| The business dealings of the
plantation, including, of course, slave purchases, were recorded in legers.
Slaves and later freed Blacks were integral parts of white planter families:
nursing white babies, caring for the young and old, cleaning their cloths,
preparing their food, and including sexual relationships -- rape and
"voluntary." |
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| Plantations were largely
self-sufficient requiring large kitchen gardens. Machine, mull, and horse
barns were also present.186 slaves lived in 69 original slave quarters,
only four are left. |
