July 13 - Natchez

After a good night’s sleep, we packed up and headed out to downtown Natchez. We got a good history of this Mississippi River town, and watching a short film at the visitor’s center, learned about its Indian, French and British roots. We then left for a quick driving tour of some of the antebellum (pre-Civil War) homes that the wealthy inhabitants of Natchez built in the 1800s. We saw some beautiful homes and churches along the route, which led us to our final stop at the Melrose Estate, an elegant home built in 1849 by wealthy Natchez lawyer/plantation owner John McMurran, and purchased by the National Park Service in 1990. Melrose sits upon 132 acres of land and is one of a handful of preserved estates. The grounds were rolling and green and dotted with trees, many of which were draped in Spanish Moss that occasionally whispered in the light breeze. The beautiful mansion and many other buildings remain on the estate. We toured the slave quarters, the dairy and the main house. The main house had some reconstruction work going on but we were able to view all of the rooms. The large wooden 'punkah' which hangs over the dining room table is a fan which would be operated manually by one of the owner's slaves. The kitchen/slave quarters housed in brick buildings just behind the estate now houses the NPS office (when the McMurran family lived at Melrose, their 'favorite' slaves would have lived here). Further beyond that were the other slaves' quarters. I think the condition of the slave quarters may have initially given the children the wrong impression of what life as a slave might have been like (beautiful, crisp white painted walls, bright, airy and air-conditioned! The kids remarked how wonderful it all was – “It wouldn’t be so bad living in here!” they said) but the walls were covered with information about life as a slave in 1800 Mississippi and the kids were able to get a better understanding of the horror of it all - that the slaves worked before the sun rose until after the sun set and were essentially at the beck and call of their masters – that they were someone’s property. We gave the kids some time to finish off their Junior Badge Booklets and turn them in for their patches, and left Natchez just after 4.