21.6.2012 – 21.6.2012  34 °C

After a pretty good brekky we headed just around the corner to see remnants of the Great Indian Village of Natchez. Natchez is so named for the Natchez Indian tribes who once called these lands home. Originally, the Indian tribes and the new French colonists were able to coexist in Natchez. But like everywhere else in America as the colony got bigger the impact became greater on the Indians until they finally got fed up and attacked the French fort. Of course, this was a poor idea and the French ended up routing the Indians, killing the majority of the tribe. The few survivors made their way to other Indian nations and the Natchez nation was no more.. Today, the only visible remains of the Natchez nation are three large grass covered mounds out in a field. The mounds used to have temples and houses built on top and were used for ceremonial purposes and the home of the chief and family.

From the first nation’s history we headed downtown to see some of the colonial history. Natchez is full of Antebellum homes. Just prior to the civil war, Natchez was one of the wealthiest towns in the South, of course, on the back of cotton and slaves. The city was also saved much of the heavy shelling that occurred in other southern towns so luckily for us we can still see some magnificent homes. Our first stop was into the tourist info where we booked ourselves onto a guided bus tour around town. To say it was a waste of $20 each would be the biggest understatement ever! Our impression didn’t start out well with a greeting of ‘get on the buus’ and our tour pretty much went down hill from here! The bus driver drove us around the town telling us details about each of the houses we saw. The drivers voice was lack lustre (to be nice) and she had such a strong accent (and had such a poor sound system) that I could only understand about 20% of everything she said! Now, I pride myself on being able to understand anyone, but not this lady!! After about one minute on the bus I was tempted to ask her to turn around and take us back!! It was SOO bad!!!! The best thing about the trip is that we were able to see some spectacular houses that we then were able to go back and see.

As soon as our trip was over (we chose not to tip our driver… no one else did either!) we jumped into our car and started our own drive around the town to see some of the buildings. We stopped into Magnolia House this beautiful red brick, white columned house for a squiz. Sadly, we were going to have to wait around for over an hour to see the interior of the house so after a wander around the grounds we got back in our car and headed to see one of the other mansions, Longwood.

Longwood was built just prior to the break out of the civil war. The owner was actually a unionist and did not support the war (In fact, apparently many of the citizens of Natchez did not support the war—probably because they knew it would affect trade up and down the river). However, once the war broke out the workers left construction and the tools were never picked back up! During the war, the family went bankrupt and the ‘man’ of the house actually died so Longwood was never completed. The family managed to make the basement habitable (and actually quite luxurious.. I had imagined I was going to see a dank dark basement.. not so!) and the wife and children lived out their lives in the basement of this huge (it would have been a 5 story mansion) 1/5^th built house. The wife petitioned the union govt for the remainder of her life for compensation (because she was a unionist) but with no luck. The family went from being one of the wealthiest families in America to middle class within just a couple of years. I’m sure they weren’t the only family to lose everything during the war!

The tour of the house is really interesting because you actually get to go upstairs to the unfinished part of the house and see the work that never got finished. Its pretty amazing to see a half finished house from the mid 1800s. The house is octagonal in shape and was the biggest octagonal building built at the time. During the 8 months that the house was worked on all of the exterior (and most of the structural interior) walls were built, roof was put on, verandahs completed, cupola built, everything external painted.. As our guide said to us, we wouldn’t even be able to get council approval in the time it took hundreds of slaves to build the amount that was built in 8 months!!! The walls are at least 30 cm thick and the house was designed to have sky lights that would filter light from the 5^th floor all the way down to the basement! The entry way was designed to be all made of marble.. Absolutely extraordinary.. I can’t even imagine how much it would cost to build today.. Millions I’m sure!

From Longwood we had two more stops in Natchez before we hit the road for Vicksburg, Mississippi. Our last stop in Natchez was down at the “Forks of the Road”. It was the location for the second largest slave auction in Louisiana. Slaves were delivered from northern plantations (not from Africa after the early 1800s) and sold at auction to a new owner. Hundreds were brought in from Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia and sold off like cattle. They didn’t even worry about keeping families together! Most of the slaves were brought to this auction by being forced marched from their homes down the Natchez trail to the auction at Natchez. An awful chapter in history!

Our last stop in Natchez was at this funky cafe that sold Pulled Pork sandwiches. Now this seems to be a real Southern food (everyone seems to have pulled smoked pork) so we just knew we had to test it out. Our lunch was pretty reminiscent of a roast pork sandwich except the pork had been cooked in a smoked oven. It was pretty good, especially when doused in the home made BBQ sauce! I also gave smoked corn a go.. I think I’ll stick to steamed with plenty of butter.. I just don’t think the dry smoked flavour is quite up my alley! 🙂

From Natchez we took the notorious Natchez Parkway (the old trail) up to Vicksburg. The drive is actually one of the prettiest we have done here on the East coast. It actually lives up to its ‘parkway’ title! Trees on either side fringed with grass! Really quite pretty!! In fact, the forests on either side of the parkway remind me of a set from Sherwood forest!!! Maybe Robin Hood also worked the Louisiana forests as well as the ones in England!

We arrived into Vicksburg late this evening and after finding a hotel (this one is 65 tonight with breakfast and free beer!!) we had some dinner, Chinese, and headed straight for bed. Tomorrow we’re off to see the Vicksburg Civil War Memorial and a drive around the beautiful little town!

Song of the Day– Various, Pick a bale o’ cotton