April 25-28, 2008 - Driving inland from Bay St. Louis, we stopped in Natchez, Mississippi
for a few days before starting up the Natchez Trace Parkway. This plantation-era city, the
first city built on the Mississippi River, is loaded with beautiful homes. Some are
"antebellum" mansions, which we learned means "before the rebellion," that is, before the
Civil War. Plantation owners engaged in serious one-upsmanship with each other,
building homes that were ever more elaborate. The most stunning of these homes grace
the outskirts of town where they still stand on very large and grand parcels of land. Most
of these mansions have been lovingly restored and are open to the public as museums.
Some are even available to host
weddings.
Urban aristocrats of the 1800's built elegant homes in town, many of
which now offer
overnight
accommodation
as guest houses.
Wandering
around this town
and these
homes made us
feel like we were
peering into a
bygone era of
immense wealth and
of gracious, slow--
paced, elegant living.
We toured much of
the town by bike. It was a perfect way to experience it. The traffic was fairly
light, and the downtown area was so tightly packed with mansions that we
were constantly hopping on and off the bikes to admire them. Each mansion
has a a story to
tell. Perhaps
the most
dramatic was
the story of
Longwood. At
the time that this mansion was being built, it was on track to be the
largest mansion by far. Being octagonal, its construction was
complex. It took 600 slaves 9 years to build it, and by 1859 only the
exterior was completed. However, when the war broke out
construction stopped. After the war ended the man of the house died.
His wife raised their ten children in the basement of the house -- the
only finished part --
and she lived in
the basement until
her death, some
25 years later.
The Longwood mansion was
beautiful, but its sad story hung like
a cloak over the whole estate. The
ancient trees on the property were
loaded with Spanish moss, giving
everything a heavily overgrown
feeling. It made me think of
Sleeping Beauty and the prince who had to cut his way through the thick overgrowth to
find his beloved fast asleep in her cobweb filled castle. Up close Spanish moss has
the appearance of cobwebs growing between the leaves.
As we rode back into town one afternoon we discovered that
the Natchez Bicycle Club was
hosting their Belles on Bikes
century ride that day. The ride
was strictly for women -- the men
in the club were relegated to
providing SAG support!! We
hung around and chatted with
some club members while the
women came in from their
vigorous ride along the Natchez
Trace Parkway. After a morning
of mansion-gawking and
pondering Mississippi life in the
mid-1800's, it was refreshingly familiar to hear about the hills and wind out on the Parkway. Mark
chatted with the bike mechanic about the bike business while I snuck behind the club's peep-through
painting of a 19th century Belle with a Bike.
There is a certain fantasy about wearing
those beautiful long hooped dresses and
wafting about your plantation mansion as
an elegant and beautiful young southern
belle in 1850. It's a girl thing. The bike
club had it right when they painted the
peep-through dress for photos of their
Belles on Bikes. The Natchez Bicycle
Club jersey is a certainly a cool jersey,
and at times in my life I've probably worn
more cycling jerseys than any other
garment. But when we went into the
visitors center and I saw the pink hooped
dress on display -- the real thing -- my
inner princess came alive. What fun it
must have been in those days. It might
have been impossible to sit down, but
wouldn't it have been a thrill to be the
Belle of the Ball
in that dress in one
of those
mansions?
Sadly, not
everyone was able
to live that way,
and when we
climbed on our
bikes again we
decided to go to other parts of town to see how the non-
mansion-dwellers lived. It was startling to see the degree to
which the mansion owners shoved their wealth in the faces of
those around them. Just one street away we found rows of
homes that were as modest as the others were lavish.
Suddenly the conspicuous wealth that had seemed so dreamy
a moment ago now felt offensive. We wandered beyond these homes to back parts of town that were truly struggling, even today,
and we heard loud voices. Turning a corner we came across a group of
men shooting the breeze on a dilapidated porch. They were seated on
battered couches and kicked back on broken chairs, laughing and joking
together as we rolled by. I waved, and they waved back and called out,
"Hi there Lady!" I felt as though we had finally found the real Natchez, the
one that isn't mentioned in all the brochures about the civil war, the
plantations and the mansions.
The Mississippi River was cresting at a record high during the
days we were in Natchez. We rode to a bluff that overlooks the
river and Louisiana on the far banks. We got talking to the folks
around us and discovered we were surrounded by local people
who had come to see the swollen river. Several told us they had
lived in Natchez all their lives and never paid much attention to
the river, but now they were watching it everyday because it was rising higher than it ever had. We rode down to "Natchez Under
the Hill," the rowdy part of town in the old days. We found it was not only under the hill but under water! The Isle of Capri casino
boat was still tied to the docks, but the parking lot for the casino was totally submerged. As on the bluff, we found more local
residents down in this area staring and taking pictures of the high water.
A group of adorable kids was out for a look at the river with their
moms. They were so cute Mark asked if they'd mind lining up for a
picture. They were tickled at the idea and huddled around him
afterwards to look at the shot in the back of his camera. They had
been searching for alligators because there were warning signs
posted at the water's edge. They weren't lucky enough find one, but
that didn't matter. They started looking for sharks instead!
The National Park Service maintains Melrose, one of the antebellum
plantation estates. It is a large complex with outbuildings in addition
to the main
house. The
back of the
house is
almost as
grand as the
front. I was surprised to
learn that some of these
Natchez mansions were
essentially just winter
homes for their
residents. Several
families spent summers
in the northeast or
touring Europe
and returned to
Natchez for just
a few months a
year. It was hard to assimilate the idea of that lifestyle with the
slave building at Melrose which housed several families in very
tight quarters. Kids began helping their parents work at age 6,
parents were deliberately split up and sold to separate owners,
and the only rest anyone got was after sundown.
Back in town we cycled past Ravennaside. This gracious home
was built in 1902 by the woman who spearheaded the effort to
create the Natchez Trace Parkway -- the next stop in our travels.
We just liked the look of the house and the sculptures in the
back yard, and we paused for a moment to admire it. What a
surprise it was when the gates suddenly swung open and a
Lincoln Continental pulled out of the driveway. It is still a
residence!
After enjoying the history and culture of Natchez we struck out to
the north along the Natchez Trace Parkway.