Magnolia Plantation

Magnolia Plantation. . Rarely do you encounter original outbuildings where generations of the same families of workers and owners lived and worked. Here people produced the wealth that supported Magnolia for more than two centuries., Ambrose LeComte established the plantation in 1835. However, Magnolia's history is rooted in colonial Louisiana. In the 1750s, the LeComte (or LeCompte) family received a French-era land grant, laying the foundation for a cotton plantation unrivaled in the region., 235 enslaved persons, housed in 70 cabins, cultivated cotton and other crops. As many as 24 of the cabins were two-room brick structures, accommodating a family in each room. In 1852, Ambrose's daughter Atala and son-in-law Matthew Hertzog took over operation of Magnolia. By 1860, the family owned more enslaved people and produced more cotton on over 6,000 acres than anyone in the parish. The Civil War had devastating effects for the plantation. During the 1864 Red River Campaign, retreating U.S. troops burned the main house., After the Civil War and through the 1960s, the plantation maintained a successful farming operation. This success could not have been achieved without both the descendants of enslaved workers who remained and other families who came to work as sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and day-laborers. Families such as LaCour, Metoyer, Moran, Rachal, Vercher, Cyriaque, Middleton, and Anthony contributed much, and their descendants remain. Their lives continued to revolve around the cabins, which were converted to single-family tenant housing. The cabins had gardens, along with fenced in yards that enclosed chickens and other fowl. Times were tough and life was hard. To lift their spirits residents would visit with neighbors, play cards and games, and enjoy music. Children rode horses and played baseball in local leagues. The transition from working by hand and draft animals to using machines began in the 1930s. The last day-laborers moved out of the cabins in the early 1970s. The National Park Service acquired the outbuildings in 1997. The LeComte-Hertzog family continues to operate the privately-owned property, including the main house that was re-built in the 1890s, as a working plantation., "...used to have a baseball team they called the Black Magnolias... They played in the front yard over there... And then Daddy said when he was young, they used to play ball too. At the beginning of every inning, he'd be the first one at bat because it was his ball and his bat..." , Ambrose J. Hertzog III, Oral History Interview, Magnolia Plantation, Captions , (Photo #1) Likely first built as a hospital for the enslaved, inhabited by the LeComte-Hertzog family following the Civil War, and later a home for the overseer. NPS Photo, 2017 , (Photo #2) Originally built as a store for sharecroppers and tenant farmers, it later became an important community store, offering food, drinks, and gasoline sales through 1972. Photo courtesy Ambrose J. Hertzog III, 1962 , (Photo #3) Plantation laborers take a break at the plantation store porch in 1939. Photo courtesy Ambrose J. Hertzog III , (Photo #4) Young residents of the Magnolia Plantation Quarters on a cabin porch. Photo courtesy Ambrose J. Hertzog III , (Photo #5) At least 20 residents are depicted in this earliest known photograph of Magnolia Plantation Quarters, 1904. Photo courtesy Carey Banchard III , (Photo #6) Members of the John Vercher family in the Magnolia Plantation Quarters. Photo courtesy Ambrose J. Hertzog III , (Photo #7) Magnolia Plantation Quarters Cabin. NPS Photo, 2017