Creole slave plantation and HOT HOT HOT

We visited the Laura Plantation just outside New Orleans. The plantation was established in 1755

By this family




and like almost every other major plantation was built on the banks of the Mississippi and continued functioning as a plantation into the 20th century.



This was the plant that it was all about, sugar cane. It made the Duparcs and many other growers incredibly wealthy as the demand for sugar in Europe soared.











The house was built in 1805



by a French Créole family. Like most people we only had a sketchy understanding of the word creole. Here it is used to describe a family of French origin but who lives in Louisiana but it is also used as the name for the language spoken by the mixed-race Creoles and enslaved blacks.

It was a patois used by slaves and planters alike. It continues to be used to some extent today and is similar in some respects to the everyday language spoken in parts of the Caribbean.

The house has been repainted in traditional creole colours. It was built on brick pillars to cope with the flooding


and the timbers were old growth bald cyprus from the bayou, a hard wearing long lasting wood that is resistant to insect attack.

This is an original timber with the marks used by the skilled slave carpenter still visible.

The plantation was run by Laura Locoul Gore for 30 years and when she sold it part of the deal was that it be called "Laura" forever.


The interior of the "big house" is furnished with original antiques. Some pieces were donated to the plantation by families of the original owners and some areas inside the home are unrestored.



The slaves lived in a much simpler style


without protection from the yearly floods or systems to catch the cooling breezes.

One story from the early days of plantation life bought home to me how slaves were thought of. Realising that the most valuable slaves were young men, women being much less costly, they purchased some young girls and proceeded to raise a crop of young men, keeping the females as breeding stock.

At it's peak the plantation supported around 200 slaves. This was the maximum that most slave owners would allow as the risk of an uprising was ever present in their minds.

We are heading East now towards Jacksonville in Florida and it is HOT HOT HOT. 100 degrees yesterday with high humidity and the same conditions are forecast for the next few days. Air conditioning, fans and lots of rehydration therapy are the order of the day. I just wish I could get access to my favoured therapy, Theakstons Old Peculiar.