March 18 – March 22, 2019: We had 4 nights in southern Mississippi where we stayed in the Natchez State Park near Natchez, MS. Beautiful area, rich with amazing history of the Native Americans, the plantation owners, the slaves and the slave trade, the antebellum mansions and Civil War history and the role of the Mississippi River.
Tom and I watched the Ken Burns PBS series (downloaded from Netflix for the trip) and are in the process of watching it again to get an understanding and better perspective of the history we continue to re-learn as we wander the south. You will hear a lot about the Civil War, the history of blacks in the US from slaves up through the Civils Rights demonstrations over the next few blogs.
Vicksburg National Military Park, Mississippi: Vicksburg was called the nail that held the south together and a major focus of assault by Maj. Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army late in 1862 with a failed attempt and then again spring of 1863, where he is eventually successful by holding the town with a siege. The Vicksburg National Military Park sits on the area where much of the battle was physically fought.
Natchez and the Antebellum Mansions: Natchez and New Orleans were the headwaters for the Domestic Slave Trade–the slave trade that took place after the US outlawed the Atlantic Slave Trade. Natchez had more millionaires per capita in the early and mid 1800s due to cotton and sugar cane plantations in the surrounding area and states. Many Antebellum mansions remain intact and were not damaged after the Civil War since Natchez fell early to the Union and was sympathetic to the Union before the Civil War. Many of the mansions were not on a plantation in this area–they were the city homes of the plantation owners, but still heavily used slaves (or servants as one of the ladies from the tour referred to the slaves) to support all the work the homes required.
The Traveling Lounsburys 