It may not beTARA -- but OAKS ALLEY it is.

I may not be Rhett Butler but Frankly My Dear , I do give a damn.

Besides there is always tomorrow.

 This beautiful Mansion is called Oaks Alley which is one of about 8 similar that were all owned as working Plantations by members of the Roman Family -- rich creoles from New Orleans. This was owned by Jacques Roman who had this built in order to persuade his to be wife to move out to be near his business -- which was the sugar cane business, which of course back in 1840 took a great deal of looking after and inevitable had a large slave population working here.

 

Jacques and his brothers had around 900 slaves along a 9 mile stretch called Vacheri that ran alongside one of the many Bayous that still has barges working up and down these waters.

 

 
Below is a wall with the names of those that were slaves on the Oaks Alley Plantation and the name in most cases is all that remains.

It is very difficult to try to capture in words how it must have been for those elite families with the power and the money and that includes the commodity of owning slaves -- they had a huge value.

 

 

 The Bell above was what summoned the slaves to start their 12 hours in the fields and sounded to call them back at the end of the day.

 Some managed over many years to save money that they earnt from growing crops on land they were allowed by their masters to both supplement their own food rations, but also selling it to their masters as it was cheaper for the owners than buying it elsewhere.
Some even managed to buy their freedom but that was rare,

 

The census below is a stark piece of information that shows in 1860 there were nearly 4 million slaves in the South in America, out of 12 million people.

 

 

In the picture up above , the red masts are from a ship on the levee

Inside at the time was very opulent--

 

 

 Has to be a selfie to show we wuz here

 

It was a great day from Lynda and me because while it was still possible to have the luxury to dream about the movies like Gone With The Wind and the romance that there was , it was also quite sobering to remember that it was only around 150 years ago that these plantations were fully loaded with slaves, living in the most dreadful conditions to make the owners richer.

 

This is Mrs Stewart, who was the most recent owner who has set up the Oaks Alley Foundation so that this beautiful place can be maintained in order that the history of what life was actually like here and with all its horrors as well as beauty can be told.

 

If you want to learn more then click on the link below

 

www.oaksalleyplantation.org/foundation

 

While we learnt much on our visit we have the luxury of being FREE to leave when we want , to say what we feel and wont have to worry about if there will be food on the table or medicine when we are sick.

 

How Lucky are we