Memories of the Old Plantation Home

gut, ganz leicht angegilbt, leicht berieben, Ecken leicht bestoßen, aus Nichtraucherhaushalt

"Memories of the Old Plantation Home" invites the reader into the world of Creole Louisiana. It is centered on the family of Laura Plantation, a Creole sugar plantation just west of New Orleans. The bulk of the book is the memoirs of Laura Locoul Gore, who, born into the family and the business, chose to leave it for the world of the man she loved. Eventually, when her own children ask about her life, she wrote down everything she could remember about the old days at Laura. The manuscript remains unknown until the restorers of Laura tracked it down and brought it to publication. It is this book which brings the house to life. It use for this purpose reminds me of how Julia Grant's memoirs are used to enliven her home, Whitehaven.

Laura's story includes both the legends of her ancestors and her own memories. Beginning with Laura's great-grandparents, Guillaume DuParc and Nanette Prud'homme, she tells how the families got to Louisiana and how they started the plantation which would be the family business for over a century. Progressing to her own life, Laura tells of the joys and disappointments, the monotonies and surprises and the characters who came into and out of her world. She tells of her the travels of her family between Europe and Louisiana as well as her own domestic journeys with family and friends that opened her mind to the broader world.

Laura's story is supplemented by the co-authors, Norman and Sand Marillion, managers of Laura Plantation. They tell of the search which they made to discover Laura's treasure and complete it with other information about her family which they have derived from other sources.

I found this to be a very interesting book. The plantation life that is so foreign to anything makes it fascinating reading. Laura lived in Webster Groves, Missouri, the suburb just east of my own. The thought that people I know could have known someone with such a story to tell makes me wonder what stories are within acquaintances of mine. What makes this book unique is its introduction to Creole life. There are other stories about plantation life in the Cotton or Tobacco Kingdoms of the Old South, but few, if any, others which have as their subject the Creole culture which lived alongside the Anglo South. This book illustrates that the Old South was a mosaic of peoples and not the uniform monolith envisioned by many. For any student of French America or the American South, this book is indispensable.

USA; Südstaaten; Plantage;