BAYOU & PLANTATION (Day 6 - part 6)

The Roman family most often used imprisonment as punishment. Slaves could also shackled to the point of being unable to move or even lie down. Other restraints made it difficult or loud to run away or hide.

The Louisiana rattle shackle was used for transportation or punishment. Attached to an ankle, metal ball within the two metal pockets created a loud sound.

Wilson Chinn was a branded slave from Louisiana. He demonstrated some of the more elaborate devices as a means to promote the abolitionist cause in the Northern states.

Clothing was limited in terms of quantity and the freedom of expression. ... A tignon (pronounced tee-yon) was a piece of material wrapped around a woman's head. It was worn by enslaved women but in 1785, the Spanish governor ordered all free black woman to also wear them, as a means of restricting their social mobility. Unlike the slaves, they were able to decorate them with ribbons and pins.

A wall of names of those who were once enslaved here. In most cases, that is all that remains of who they were.

Slaves were bought, sold, mortgaged and traded as groups or individuals. When a slave owner died, appraisers assigned them values, just as was done to his furniture and other possessions. Distinctions such as complexion, skills or birthplace played a role in determining one's monetary value.

American meant a slave brought into Louisiana, often from the East Coast. Creole meant a slave born in Louisiana, and African meant a slave born in Africa. Negro was a designation of African race, while mulatto meant a mixture of African and European.

Slavery first started to crumble at the onset of the Civil War. Before if they attempted to escape, they would have been caught and punished. Now they could disappear into the surrounding chaos. After the war, they sought to build new lives in the economically and socially unstable environment of the Reconstruction. While some plantations now paid them money for their work, others agreed to only pay them in tokens to be used in plantation stores. These tokens had no value off the plantations, keeping them essentially still bonded to the land. They could not save up to move away.

After Oak Alley was sold, the next number of owners turned the doubles into single cabins to house workers. Even as they were attaching on additions, the old structures were steadily falling apart. They were finally demolished around 1900 as unsafe and unsanitary.

Post-Emancipation quarters

We had a little bit more time left so we headed to the blacksmith shop.

A fire extinguisher commonly used in sugar mills, from around 1900 to 1930

The blacksmith shop

A blacksmith is a metalworker who uses a forge. "Black" refers to the layer of oxides that form when metal is heated and the color it develops. "Smith" may have come from an Old English word which meant "to strike" or from an early German word for "skilled labor".

Prior to the Civil War, there were many free black men who worked as blacksmiths in New Orleans, helping to create the city's beautiful ironwork railings. On plantations, however, they were slaves and expected to produce more practical things, such as replacement sugar mill parts, hinges, horseshoes and even shackles.

During the Civil War, blacksmiths traveled with Union and Confederate armies, repairing wheels and equipment. But by the 1880s, the Industrial Revolution began to replace their trade with factories.

We returned to the minbus and began the drive back to New Orleans.

Looking down on the Vacherie levee

Rain CII Carbon LLC specializes in the production of calcined petroleum coke, coal tar pitch, and other carbon products. It serves a wide range of industries including aluminum, steel and automotive.

The Atlantic Alumina Company produces alumina (a chemical compound made up of aluminum and oxygen molecules). It can be used to make flame retardant coatings, ceramics, water-purifying chemicals, and many other products.

The I-10 Bonnet Carre Spillway Bridge is nearly 11 miles long. It opened in 1972. To the left is Lake Pontchartrain.

A pumping station for sending excess rain into the canal

City traffic

Construction of the Superdome multifunctional stadium (for football, baseball and basketball) was completed in 1975. It has a diameter of 680 feet and covers 13 acres. The protective dome was required because of the area's extensive summer thunderstorms. After Hurricane Katrina, it underwent extensive repairs but was reopened in 2006.

Back in the French Quarter

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