Day 43: Greenwood to Natchez

Day 43: Greenwood to Natchez

Our first activity for today was to visit the wonderful BB King Museum.  We are starting to get into the area of the African American slaves now and so as we drove, Peter gave us really great background to the history behind them coming to America and the dreadful conditions under which they lived.  This of course eventually gave rise to the civil rights movement and the tensions of the 1960s, the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King and the ongoing discrimination to this day.

The story of BB King goes right along with the story of his people.  I must admit to not knowing much of BB King before this tour but the visit to the BB King Museum has given me not only great knowledge of him but huge respect for him.  What a man! I have documented his life story, as shown to us on the many excellent boards of this museum, in a separate blog which I have entitled ‘Day 43: BB King’.

In the afternoon, after our arrival in Natchez, we had a horse and carriage ride which gave us great insight into the wealth of this city in its Antebellum (pre Civil War) period.  Of course, this wealth was brought about by the cotton industry.  At this time ‘cotton was king’ as America became the world’s largest producer and exporter. Much of it went to England where the textile mills of the Industrial Revolution were fast turning it into cloth.

Originally the lands of the Natchez Indians, the city acknowledged its Indian heritage.

Although a city of great wealth, obviously life was more humble for some.

It was at Natchez that we again caught up with the mighty Mississippi River.

Cotton was shipped to international ports along the Mississippi using steamboats and at that time, Natchez was a major city because of this trade.  But the advent of the railway in 1882 put an end to this trade and so Natchez became almost deserted.  That was until the 1970s when interest in historical tourism caused it to boom again.  With many of the houses restored to their former glory, it is now a major city for tourism.

We visited one of these fine Antebellum homes when we dined this evening at Dunleith.  Although the meal was most enjoyable, I felt decidedly uncomfortable in an environment that had once fostered such misery for the slaves who had worked on this fine plantation. 

It was at Natchez that we also started to travel through country heavily influenced by the French. 

 Fleur-de-lis was to become the theme of decorative details for the rest of our time in the deep south.

Having learned so much about the history of the French inhabitants of Canada when we visited Quebec Province only two weeks ago, here we were with the French again.  But this time, the story does not have the happy outcome that the French in Quebec Province had been able to enjoy. 

These were the French inhabitants of Nova Scotia. When the British took over Canada and insisted that the French inhabitants give up their language, laws and customs, these people refused.  They were subsequently exiled from Canada and made their way down to the Mississippi delta, becoming known as the Cajun people.  We were to learn much about the Cajun people and their lifestyle as we ventured further south.