The Bon Sejour plantation, as Oak Alley was originally named, was established to grow sugarcane b Valcour Aime when he purchased the land in 1830. Aime, known as the "King of Sugar," was one of the wealthiest men in the South. In 1836, Valcour Aime exchanged this piece of property with his brother-in-law Jacques Telesphore Roman for a plantation owned by Roman. The following year Roman began building the present mansion. It was completed in 1839 and presented to Roman's bride Celina.
The Virginia Live Oaks are about 300 years old, and were planted sometime in the early 1700's by an unknown settler, so they predate the house by about 100 years! There are 28 oaks in two equal rows spaced 80 feet apart leading to the Mississippi River. It's said that before the current levees were built that this magnificent "Alley" was visible from ships plying the river, and so the plantation acquired it's nickname, even though this is the "back" of the house!
The entry gate/ticket building is adorned with hundreds of Snapdragons in riotous color and the path to the house leads the visitor into a cool, shaded grove of oak trees.
The formal entrance to the plantation house included a heart-shaped drive. Today, the hard surface path approximates that driveway.
Our tour guide, Jaimie, led us on an animated and informative tour of the house.
We saw cut glass chandeliers,
and the dining room, with it's Shoo Fly hanging over the table. A slave was commissioned to slowly pull the attached rope from the corner of the room to keep bugs away!
Ornate stairs led upstairs to the bedrooms.
One of several guest bedrooms:
The pineapple was the favorite fruit of the plantation, and was used in a most un-orthodox manner. In those days, when guests stayed at the plantation home, they generally stayed for weeks or months at a time due to the rigors of transportation. When a guest was deemed by the plantation owners to have over stayed their welcome, a pineapple was placed in their room, and they had best begone before it spoiled! Just a genteel southern kick in the butt!
Donna was particularly taken by this ornately carved baby bed in the Childrens Room.
Three of the Roman children did not survive, dying at ages 2 to 12 of Tuberculosis, Yellow Fever or "unknown" causes. Their intricately cut silhouettes remain on a wall of family paintings.
This is the view from the second floor veranda toward the Mississippi River.
A nice gentleman was kind enough to let us pretend for a moment that we were sugar barons!
It's hard to get a grip on the size of these oak trees. They have an expected lifetime of 600 years, so who knows what size they will be then!
This "plantation bell" was commonly used to communicate with the far reaches of the plantation. A unique code was used.
Sugar was king in this part of the south, making millions of dollars for plantation owners. Unfortunately, like cotton, it was a labor intensive crop. At Oak Alley, a series of slave house have been reconstructed on the same location that they originally existed. The cabins typically housed two families, with a dividing wall for privacy. The Roman family used a "family" approach to their slaves, providing them with a somewhat better life than might be had elsewhere, but the reality of the situation is that human beings were still slaves and treated as property.
After viewing the rather concise slave cabin exhibit, we walked to the top of the river levee. Nice to know that the River Road on the right is five feet below the level of the water on the left!
With a focus on slave living and working conditions, Oak Alley has a different feel than Houmas House that we visited yesterday. Probably a more realistic representation.
The walkway between the rows of oak trees is a magnificent view.
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