We woke up this morning to a beautiful sky in a new state for us, Mississippi. Our morning excursion took us to the largest octagonal house in the United States, Longwood.

It was mostly built by enslaved people (like most plantations), but there were also many skilled craftsman from Philadelphia working on the project. The entire structure had been built, requiring a million bricks, all made on site. The basement was finished, and the workers had started on fitting out the principal floor, ready to add windows and doors, plaster the walls, and so forth – it was going to be a beautiful summer house (a mere 30,000 square feet).

But it was April, 1861, and the Civil War had just begun. The Northern workers dropped tools and fled back to their homes. They never returned. The family moved into the basement rooms (probably 10,000 square feet) temporarily, planning to finish the project after the war. But the owner, Haller Nutt, died in 1864, and his wife never had enough money to finish the house. Neither did his children. Or their children. By 1969, no one lived in the house and it was in bad condition; Kelly McAdams, a Texas millionaire, bought the house for $250,000, spent a similar amount to repair it, and donated it to the Pilgrimage Garden Club to be used as a museum – on the condition that it never be finished.

Here’s what the outside looks like today.

The basement is fully furnished (most of the furniture is original to the house). Our guide James (who is also the curator) showed us this bedroom chair, which has a special feature for overnight use.

There were other interesting touches, too, like this plate warmer near the fireplace. The interior rotated, so you could get the plates nice and hot, then turn them back into the room and use them.

We ascended the stairs to the first floor to see what the rest of the house looked like.

There was no glass in the windows (screens were added once the house became a museum); the ceiling beams were all visible; and yet, it was still beautiful.

The house was intended as a summer house, and it gets hot in Natchez, so they’d designed a huge airshaft that ran from the first floor to the attic. The idea was to open a window in the cupola at the top level and let natural ventilation cool the house.

There was a piano in the basement; its box was still in the house, here on the first floor!

There was a great view from the veranda.

You could see the workmanship that had gone into the house; the decorative capitols on the columns around the veranda are intricate and still mostly in good shape.

We couldn’t go to the higher levels, so we went back out to the lawn and stopped at the Selfie Station (probably not part of the original design).

Our afternoon excursion was “Path to Freedom”, about the Civil Rights movement in Natchez. We started with a short visit to the Zion Chapel AME Church, where we were greeted by the pastor and heard a few beautiful Gospel songs from their soloist.

We traveled to the William Johnson House, part of the Natchez National Historical Park. Johnson was a free man of color who built up a barbering business and became wealthy; he was killed in 1851 because of a land dispute and his murderer was never convicted because he claimed to be white, so testimony from non-whites was inadmissible. Later investigations showed that his murderer was also a man of color, but it was far too late.

Our next stop was the Natchez Museum of African American Culture. A guide met us and told us a bit about Natchez black history and the Civil Rights movement; then he showed us a video from the Mississippi Department of Archives and Museums which gave a very superficial overview of the subject (I couldn’t read the copyright date on the video because it was a blurry VHS copy, but I think it was 1997).

The exhibits in the museum are a mixed bag; there are artifacts and lots of books and magazines, all mixed together.

Despite the technical issues, I found the museum moving; it gave me a little bit more of an idea of what it was like to be black and face active discrimination (not just covert racism).

We next stopped at Forks in the Road, which was the site of the largest slave market in the South. There’s not much to see there now, just an open field, but there are many interpretive signs explaining the market and the economic environment it operated in.

Our final stop was the “Proud to take a Stand” monument, commemorating the more than 400 people who were thrown into Parchman Prison for protesting for civil and voting rights in 1965.

We walked back to the ship along a trail above the waterfront.

I’d like to come back to Natchez sometime and explore it more thoroughly.

We docked at the edge of Bayou Sara in West Feliciana Parish early this morning; today’s excursions would take us in and around St. Francisville. Our first excursion took us to Rosedown and Catalpa Plantation Houses. Both were originally owned by the same extended family and were cotton plantations.

Rosedown is the older of the two plantations, originally built in 1834 by the Turnbull family. It originally occupied a plot of land seven miles long (3455 acres total), but most of the land has been sold off over the years. Like all Louisiana plantations, it ran on the labor of enslaved people, both inside the house and out in the fields. The owners were fabulously wealthy and furnished the house accordingly.

This tapestry was sewn by Martha Washington.

The children were home-schooled, of course.

Today, the house is part of the Rosedown State Historic Site.

In contrast, Catalpa is still owned and lived in by descendents of its first owner, William Fort, whose wife was the daughter of Sarah Turnbull of Rosedown. The house was severely damaged during the Civil War, but it survived…until 1885, when it burned down. The house we visited was built a few months after the fire on the footprint of the original house.

We were greeted by Mary, the owner, and given a tour (and a glass of sherry!).

The house was filled with wonderful antiques, like this Sevres lamp.

This fireplace is actually cast iron – even the bricks.

The family was well-connected, and was even invited to attend Mardi Gras parties thrown by the Krewe of Rex in New Orleans.

The family were also fashionistas; this is a 3-D illustration of the latest fashion from Paris.

Mary had the Spanish Land Grant for Catalpa on display.

I really enjoyed visiting Catalpa and hearing Mary tell about her life and family history; Rosedown was grander, but Catalpa made me want to come back.

This afternoon, I went to Port Hudson State Historic Park to learn about the Battle of Port Hudson. We walked out to Fort Desperation to see the earthworks that the Confederates had erected, like this dry moat (well, it was dry in 1862; the recent rains have turned it into a mosquito hotspot, and I have the bites to prove it).

The Confederates repelled two Union assaults but were eventually starved out after the longest full siege in American history and surrendered a few days after Vicksburg, giving the Union full control over the Mississippi and cutting the Confederacy in two.

We also visited the museum on site, where we saw many artifacts recovered from the battlefield and saw (and heard) them fire a cannon.

While I was at Port Hudson, Diane was exploring St. Francisville. People who live close to the Mississippi have to worry about flooding, so they build their houses on cinderblock stilts.

The houses in town are prettier.

St. Francisville was our last stop in Louisiana; it’s been a good visit.