Tour of all Plantations in Louisiana (New Orleans, Baton Rouge: house, school, living)

[mnacct]

Hello,

I've never been to Louisiana, but want to see all the plantations in the state - including the famous Oak Alley plantation. Are there tour companies that arrange for you to see all of them in the state, like a bus tour? I assume there are tons of plantations to see, but I have few days to spare, in December.

If anyone can point me to the right direction, please do.

-M

[Anole]

I have lived in south Louisiana all my life and never heard of a tour for all the plantations, I really think that is too much to do with just a "few days to spare". Maybe you should pick out a section of Louisiana and see as many as time will allow. There are several along the Mississippi River north of New Orleans, some in the Florida parishes, some in central Louisiana, some along Bayou Teche, and others spaced out all over the place. There are books on Louisiana plantations-maybe you should check these out to get a general overview then home in on a general area and take your time to enjoy. Good luck.

[MetroBTR]

If you mean to see ALL the major plantations (Oak Alley, Destrehan, Nottaway, Parlange, Laura, and several others) it might be possible, but there is really no way to see every single plantation home in the state unless you make a life's work out of it.

[MetroBTR]

Some other plantations you should make sure to see:
Madewood
Rosedown
Bocage
Evergreen
Rienzi
San Francisco
Felicity
Houmas House
Chretien Point
Oakley
The Myrtles
Magnolia Mound
Belle Helene

[ral31]

In Central Louisiana, Alexandria's most famous plantation is the Kent House. In south Rapides Parish in the Cheneyville area there's the Loyd Hall Plantation. The Natchitoches area has plantations as well. You can see the Frogmore Plantation near Ferriday, which is across the Mississippi River from Natchez.

[mofford]

Hello, Im from Iowa and we have something known as living history farms. It has 1800's time period actors that perform their jobs and behave as they would for those days. Does LA have anything like that for a sugar or cotton plantation ? Dont want to see any real whippings or anything, but would like to see how they ran the plantation, and all types of labor involved. Some of them were like a town within itself, producing everything they needed. If they used all white actors for the slaves could they do something like that ? Imagine that many people would pay to see how they ran it, but I could be wrong.

[MetroBTR]

Originally Posted by mofford

Hello, Im from Iowa and we have something known as living history farms. It has 1800's time period actors that perform their jobs and behave as they would for those days. Does LA have anything like that for a sugar or cotton plantation ? Dont want to see any real whippings or anything, but would like to see how they ran the plantation, and all types of labor involved. Some of them were like a town within itself, producing everything they needed. If they used all white actors for the slaves could they do something like that ? Imagine that many people would pay to see how they ran it, but I could be wrong.

There is the Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge. It's not a real plantation but it is a museum dedicated to history of agriculture and plantation life in Louisiana. There are numerous artifacts that have been donated from plantations around the state. These include everything from plantation bells to entire buildings from plantations. They have an old plantation school house, a plantation kitchen, a slave church. It is pretty interesting and worth a visit if you are passing through.

[mofford]

Thanks for the info about the rural life museum. Would really like to see some of the machinery they used to process the cotton and sugar, looms they used to make clothes ect. Really want to see an operational old time plantation along the banks of the mississippi. With the steamboat docking to drop off goods and pick up cotton. Want to gamble on the steamboat with guys in stovepipe hats like bret maverick. Wish to see it all restored with real crops where a tourist could pick a basket of cotton to take home. Want to see how they collected and weighed it, how the gin worked. Want to see women in the spinning house making clothes, the servants quarters with garden patches out back. Want to see a slave marriage ceremony. Like to see what they fed the slaves, how the field workers lived vs the house servants. People may not admit it, but thats what they really want to see when visiting an old plantation. Probably will never happen, but Im still holding out for a titanic replica project so us history nuts can book passage to ireland. Hey, it will save jet fuel.