Plantation Home Research Paper

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Along with culture, food, and people, Louisiana offers many historic attractions. Plantation homes have been apart of Louisiana’s unique culture since the late 1700’s. Many wealthy people migrated from the north to the south to make a profit by farming. These owners bought slaves to do various activities such as picking cotton or farming. Slaves lived on plantations in slave homes where they remained for the rest of their life or if they could work enough to pay for their freedom. Many know that these plantation homes were built for farming tobacco and other cash crops such as rice and indigo, but most do not know the history and who built them. There are over 40 known plantation homes and the most popular plantation homes include Oak Alley, …show more content…

Charles Parish, was home to Robert de Longy and built by Charles Paquet, a free mulatto in 1787. The planter designed all aspects of the home including the decorations. When Mr. Longy Died in 1800, his daughter Marie-Claude Celeste and son in law Jean Noel Destrehan de Beaupre took control of the plantation. Jean Noel Destrehan de Beaupre is a descendant of Jean Baptiste d’Estrehan des Tours, royal treasurer of the Louisiana French colony. The couple added two new wings in 1823 to fit the size of their large family consisting of four children. Descendants of the family lived in the home until 1910. This home has symmetrical wings built during the Greek Revival expansion with columns on the outside. When the house was built, indigo was the main commodity in the area, but Destrehan later switched to growing sugarcane. In 1914, the Mexican Petroleum Company bought Destrehan from Pierre A. Rost. When the refinery closed in 1958, the home was abandoned until 1972 when the company gave Destrehan to the River Road Historical Society to begin restoration. The Myrtles Plantation, located in West Feliciana Parish, was created when General David Bradford, a leader in the Whisky Rebellion in 1794, fled from Pennsylvania by force and migrated into Louisiana in 1796. He was given land from Baron Francois Louis Hector de Carondelet, Louisiana’s Spanish Governor. The general cultivated the 650 acres and built himself a home known as Myrtles Plantation. After his death in 1817, the property was passed to his son-in-law, Judge Clarke Woodnuff. In 1834, a new owner arrived and extended the total area of the land. A recent restoration was done by Mr. and Mrs. James Meyers in 1976 when the couple was traveling on the Mississippi Queen from California and fell in love with the

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