Natchez…A History Lesson


Saturday, June 1, 2019

We spent our day in the historical city of Natchez.  It was a scorcher of a day.  By 8:30 it was 26 and by 1:00 it was a humid 35.

Natchez has quite the history.  It was originally a French settlement, became a British settlement, was taken over by the Spanish Empire and then ceded to the United States in the late 1700’s.  It hit its’ heyday from about 1800 to 1865.  It was an important port on the Mississippi River trading goods with the North.  The immediate area became the largest cotton growing area in all of Mississippi with many large plantations.  Natchez became one of the wealthiest cities in all the United States.  Not so much now.  The Civil War ended slavery.  Cotton relied upon cheap labour.  No free labour…no plantations… no cotton…no money.  It appears that Natchez has been on a slow decline ever since.  It is no longer even a port.

We took a ‘hop on hop off’ double decker bus tour today.  It took us by many of the old ‘Antebellum Era’ houses.  They are impressive no doubt.  However, when the tour guide would say “look to your right and…”, if you looked to your left you would see falling down shacks that were still being occupied.  Natchez is trying hard to manage as a tourist town, but tourism is a fickle thing to base your whole economy on.

Natchez has another claim to fame/infamy.  It was the 2nd largest slave trading centre in the US next to New Orleans.  Leading up to the Civil War, 2000 slaves a year were bought and sold here.

We had lunch on the banks of the Mississippi River today.  The river is a lot closer to the restaurants than it should be.  We are so out of touch with the real world that we were unaware of the flooding on the Mississippi watershed.  The river is 26 feet higher than it should be in the Natchez area.  They are going to intentionally flood a large agricultural area in order to try to alleviate some of the flooding downstream.  About 8 buildings down from where we ate the flooding is severe.  Sandbags are at the ready in case it gets worse.  These restaurants are carrying on business like nothing is amiss.  Amazing, by the end of the week they could be flooded out.

Distance Traveled = 50 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Brown Thrasher, Blue jay, Mockingbird, Cowbird, Cardinal, Mississippi Kite (New bird for us!)


Cargo bring pushed up the Mississippi


Barge


The Mighty Mississippi


Sandbags at the ready - just past the restaurant


Rosalie Antebellum House - Natchez

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