The American Duchess

My sister and I just came back from a cruise on a paddlewheel boat up the Mississippi river from New Orleans, Louisiana to Memphis, Tennessee. Here are some impressions of my trip.

The theme of the cruise was the Antebellum South, which brought us to ports of cities steeped in the history of the South before, during, and after the Civil War. Before the cruise, we did some sightseeing in New Orleans. I didn’t think much of Bourbon Street. It seemed dirty, and I don’t like to party like a schoolgirl. There was some jazz bands playing in bar, but not much else to see otherwise. To me, the only thing the street has going for it is Mardi Gra which happens only once a year. I which we had gone on the optional tour with the cruise to learn more  about the city’s history.

Anyway, the next day, we disembarked for our first port at Nottoway Plantation on the boat the American Duchess. We met many interesting people on our trip. We ate most meals with two lovely ladies named Barb and Pat from L.A. who were retired from working in publicity for television. They told fascinating stories about working with stars like Ted Danson and Brooke Shields. A man named Bill also joined us when his wife left the cruise with a medical issue (she is better now). He added a lot to our conversations by asking each of us to answer a question about ourselves. For instance, he asked what our number one goal was on each of our bucket lists. We each came up with a new question for the group to answer at every meal. This was a great way to get to know new people.

Nottoway Plantation

Touring Nottoway Plantation gave me new insights into the injustice of slavery and how plantation owners lived. According to the tour guide, the slaves barely had enough to eat, and I am thinking it was barely edible. They were given little plots of land to plant a vegetable garden, but after working a 16 hour day, they were probably too tired to plant and harvest food or would have to wake up at 3am to tend it before work. What I found especially egregious was learning that they had to serve their masters rich, abundant, delicious food while they nearly starved. The kitchen was outside the owner’s mansion because of fire concerns. Naturally, the slaves would be tempted to sample the food while carrying it between the kitchen and the dining room. I was dismayed to learn that the servers were forced to whistle constantly as they carried the food to keep them from snacking because they couldn’t whistle and eat at the same time. For a moment, I thought that Nottoway’s owner actually had a heart when I was told that he insisted on buying whole families of slaves since families were often torn apart by being sold to different masters. But then I learned that he did this for only business reasons because it would make the slaves less inclined to run away and leave their families behind.

cotton field

Next we stopped at the port of Natchez, MS where we went to an active cotton plantation. Of course machines do the work now, but when slaves were there, they had to pick 75 to 100 pounds of cotton each day and drag this heavy load behind them in big long bags. They had to avoid thorns in the process. After 16 hours of work, they probably fell into bed, but the so-called mattresses wouldn’t give them a good nights sleep because they were stuffed with Spanish moss that was filled with bugs. We were taken to the one place of respite they had which was a church where all on the tour sang negro spirituals. It makes me wonder if the slaves were introduced to Christianity when they were brought to America which would have been a good thing.

Part 2 coming next Sunday!