Merchandise and Mail

Merchandise and Mail. . Reconstruction brought changes to all the people on the plantation. The Store was originally built for members of the formerly enslaved community who remained as sharecroppers and tenant farmers. It later became an important community store, offering food, drinks, and gasoline sales until 1982., Foodstuffs or goods that could not be grown or made could be purchased with plantation tokens. Planters used tokens, which could only be spent in the plantation store, to pay workers. Families were extended store credit by using their future crop as collateral., In the 20th century local residents would gather at the Store to catch up with relatives or friends, swap stories, and hear the latest news. Residents moved away as the need for human and animal labor declined with increased mechanization and the Store closed after 110 years., "We had two mail riders who went from here, one that brought the mail in and went down to Magnolia Plantation. The other one started here, by horseback usually in wintertime, and he would go out to Red River delivering the RFD mail" , Mayo Prud homme Oral History Interview, 2015, Bermuda Post Office , The delivery of mail to Post Offices after the Civil War provided a link to the outside world. However, Post Offices were few and far between. For many rural residents, it might be weeks or months between trips to the Post Office., In 1877 the new Bermuda Post Office opened at Oakland Plantation. Most rural Post Offices were associated with stores. The development of the Rural Free Delivery (RFD) system brought home mail delivery to residents and the Bermuda Post Office closed in 1967., Captions , (Photo #1) NPS Photo , (Photo #2) Bermuda Post Office mail room area in the Store. NPS Photo