Plantation Tours Near New Orleans

| The Grand South – Plantation Tours |

Having just recently seen the movie “12 Years a Slave”, it prompted me to go through the pictures from our trip to New Orleans and out to see the plantations. I was then inspired to write about our visit to these places.

On our first trip to the New Orleans area, we were on a work conference trip, and we booked a tour company to take us out to the plantations. It was a profound experience for us to learn more about slavery and what happened on the plantations. It was so profound that on our next trip to New Orleans, we brought our kids to learn about it too. Being from Canada, it was a really good learning experience to have a deeper understanding of the racial inequality that is so systemic in the south.

The tours brought us a sense of realism to the history and stories that we have watched on shows. It is hard to wrap one’s head around how so much sadness, misery and injustice could take place in an area or a place that is also so beautiful.

Over the two trips, we toured three plantations and drove past a few others. Our tour company took us out to Vacherie where we saw two plantation houses, one an antebellum mansion and the other a more modest creole house. On our second trip with the kids, we went back to Oak Alley Plantation and also did a tour of the Evergreen Plantation.

Oak Alley Plantation

The Oak Alley Plantation is a beautiful antebellum mansion that is protected as a National Historic Landmark. Guided tours are offered but I have to admit the tour is a little dry and boring, the Laura Plantation down the road offers a far more interesting narrative. The highlight of the tour for us was sitting down to have some mint juleps. Oak Alley is well known for its oak-lined driveway and was also a filming location for Interview with a Vampire.

Oak Alley Plantation | 3645 Louisiana 18, Vacherie, LA | oakalleyplantation.com

Laura Plantation

The Laura Plantation is just down the road from Oak Alley and the contrast between the two plantations was very interesting. The one thing that we learned that stood out for us is how the Creole people did not feel that they were American’s or Creole. This could explain in part why, as a Canadian, we noticed there was not much ‘Americana’ in and around New Orleans, or at least not as much as we have seen compared to other parts of the States.

Laura Plantation | 2247 Louisiana 18, Vacherie, LA | lauraplantation.com

Evergreen Plantation

When we visited the Evergreen Plantations, tours were still available, and we were able to tour the ‘Big House’ as well as the slave cabins. The property had 22 intact slave cabins that had interpretive signage throughout. It was a very sobering moment to stand on the land that had witnessed so much injustice.

The Evergreen Plantation is no longer open for tours as they are now dedicating their efforts to research and education. The plantation is a privately owned, working sugar cane plantation and they are also committed to telling the stories of the people who were enslaved there. The Evergreen Plantation has also created a slavery database where one can search for their ancestors.

The photos of the Evergreen Plantation may look familiar as it was one of the filming locations for Django Unchained.

Evergreen Plantation | evergreenplantation.org/