Oak Alley - Part 4

This is the last post about Oak Alley, a plantation in Louisiana that we visited on our southern road trip in January.

These large saucer type kettles were scattered throughout the grounds of Oak Alley.  According to the brochure "sugar kettles, made of cast iron were vital to the process of making molasses and crystallized sugar in the South during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Each cane plantation in Louisiana had its own sugarhouse and the cane was crushed using an animal-powered three roller mill.  The extracted cane juice was heated, clarified and evaporated in a series of four kettles from large to small..."

All these jobs from planting and harvesting sugar cane to making sugar and molasses were done by slaves.  Oak Alley has a re-creation of the slave quarters with informative signage.

There were other jobs done by slave labor throughout the plantations of the south.

Manumission was rare as this sign attests.

 Slavery was a terrible wound in our nation's history, one we are still trying to find ways to heal.

Oak Alley - Part 3

The Virginia live oaks at Oak Alley Plantation, Louisiana were magnificent.

An air plant called resurrection fern grows on the trunk and limbs of these trees.  The air plant can withstand long drought periods and resurrect once they receive water again.

Oak Alley - Part 2

"The Big House [at Oak Alley] was a gift from Jacques Telesphore Roman (1800-1848), a wealthy Creole sugar planter, to his bride Celina (1816-1866).  Believed to have been designed by Celina's father, Gilbert Joseph Pilie and constructed primarily by slave labor under the direction of building contractor, George Swainey.  This splendid Greek Rival [sic] style principal house and its dependencies took three years (1837 to 1839) to complete.  Most of the basic materials were found or manufactured on the plantation with finishing details imported from other parts of the United States and Europe." (from Oak Alley brochure)

Jacques Roman

Celina, his wife, 16 years younger

The parlor

Brandy soaked fruit in large jar for women who were not supposed to drink strong liquors.

Below our guide through the house, full of stories about what life was like.

Not sure why he dressed in a Confederate uniform.

The dining room.

The Romans were a large family who liked to entertain each other.

A youth would sit in the corner and gently pull this device for a breeze.

I think these two rooms were on the first floor.

There was a third floor, too.

Upstairs are more bedrooms.

Not much is original to the time the Romans lived here, except that cradle and the small chair.

View from upstairs through the alley.

Jacques and Celina's daughter Louise is pictured on the left.

After the death of Celina in 1866 the house went through nine owners with the last ones being the Stewarts who restored it, modified it and upon the death of Josephine Stewart in 1972 set up the Oak Alley Foundation to preserve it.

Celina did not take to living at Oak Alley.  She had grown up in New Orleans and the plantation was a far cry from the activities of the city.  Once she produced some children she remained in New Orleans rarely coming to visit her husband who was then dying of tuberculosis.

"The Roman Family tombstone was discovered in the 1990s resting upside down in a garden at the Carmelite Order Convent in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

In the 1880s, Jacques and Celina's daughter Louise had the original family marker removed from the Family Tomb at the 'St. Louis No. 3' cemetery in New Orleans.  Louise, Mother Superior of the Order at the time, then had a new marker placed listing the Carmelite nuns she allowed to be buried in her family tomb."  (from Oak Alley brochure)

Oak Alley - Part 1

When you think of antebellum plantations you probably picture what Oak Alley looks like now.  When it was built it didn't look like that.  It went through a transformation when it was purchased in the 20th century by its new owner.  All the columns were added!

From the parking lot you approach the house from the back.

A docent dressed in period costume welcomes you and directs you around to the front.

The front looks out through this alley of Virginia live oak trees that are 300 years old.

"Sometime in the early 1700s an unknown settler planted an alley of 28 oaks in two equal rows spaced 80 feet apart leading to the river." (from Oak Alley brochure)

The river is the Mississippi.  At the end of the alley is a flood control levee.

I zoomed in on this ship passing on the river with only the top structure visible.

Every one of those windows is really a door to allow for air circulation.  It's a hot place in the summer.

This plantation has figured in quite a few movies and soap operas.

Live oaks have a life span of 600 years so these trees are just middle aged.

The plantations of Louisiana between the capital, Baton Rouge and New Orleans grow sugar cane still.  When we pulled into the parking area for Oak Alley we were surrounded by fields in cultivation.  I had to ask what was growing and the answer was sugar cane.

More on Oak Alley and its history in the next post.

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