Just before we left for our plantation visit, the youngest 2 pleaded for a rest day, which I agreed was probably needed. So it was a smaller group that headed out to Oak Alley Plantation.
Our GPS had predictably determined our plotted-in location to be a God-forsaken goat track so that is where it took us. It has done this pretty much every day, so I have had to turn precious 4G on my phone to look up the directions and rescues us. Thankfully some construction men were able to point us in the right direction. And truly you could not mistake the entrance for anything else.
No photos can do the majesty of those vine and moss- covered oaks any justice.
Our visit here was sobering. This French/Louisiana family were not in the slave trade like the plantation owner’s brothers were; however they had a lot of slaves to work the sugarcane fields and tend to the house. Long, dangerous, uncomfortable, unpaid work Where they sustained chronic pain from the same limbs repeatedly using ill-fitting tools, succumbing to illness from poor housing and not enough nutrition.
The ‘enslaved community’ were the backbone of the sugarcane industry here and the tour pays homage to that..
The real slave quarters fell apart and had to be destroyed. This is a recreation made from photos and writings.
Inside a room….
Cooking pot to make food to the enslaved.
The cold drizzle we were viewing the slave quarters through added to the almost palpable misery, in stark contrast to the warm and cosy plantation home we had a guided tour of.
I had wanted to do Laura Plantation as well as it is very different as a creole plantation, but we were out of time.
On the way home we stopped in at Walmart to grab a duffel bag to put our Christmas presents in and then Popeyes for a quick lunch. I usually hate the smell of a commercial deep fryer but walking in here, it actually smelled like good fresh oil! We had tasty chicken and finally…… yummy biscuits! Soft, fluffy, but unfortunately margarine not butter drizzled on them…..
Dory the Explorer 