Ghosts of Oak Alley Plantation
During my short drive through Vacherie, Louisiana, on Saturday morning, I wasn’t paying much attention to the green stalks rising from the roadside fields at first because I see so much corn growing in Iowa, I’d assumed this was more of the same. Then I noticed that their appearance was all wrong and guessed that this was, instead, a sugar cane field. If you know for sure from the pictures below, please let me know. Oak Alley Plantation was one of at least three plantations in the area. I chose it because they had advertised their focus on the role of slavery in the life of the Antebellum Era community. I wanted to see how this was exhibited and discover how I reacted to it and what I could learn from it. Even with my studies and museum visits with their historical displays of the American South’s “particular institution,” I…
Just a Little Update
Yes, I’ve made a major change in my upcoming trip route. I’ve been keeping an eye on Mississippi and its “Bathroom law” situation. They made one state-wide step in the right direction when they decided not to fight the federal guidelines defining student use of school locker rooms and bathrooms based on their gender identity. However, the law itself is still on the books, so I’ve removed Jackson, Mississippi, from my route. Gulfport is still there because it’s in about the same situation as Charlotte, North Carolina, as a city trying to be welcoming to the LGBT community despite the backwards-leaning state government. Instead of Jackson, I’ve added Vacherie, Louisiana, site of the Oak Alley Plantation. They offer a tour that focuses on the history of the plantation’s slave population and how they lived during the Antebellum Period. This seems a very fitting addition to the Civil Rights history aspects…