Our minds are full of information and our souls are stirred by information. We started today with a trip to the Natchez, MS visitor center where we caught "Rev's Country Tours". Rev (Pastor Tracy Collins) took us back to the Native Americans in Mississippi in the 1200's, along with the French, Spanish, and British, the Civil War and the beginning of reconstruction. Natchez is certainly a very unique city with an over 50% African American population. Many black "firsts" came from there - first black mayor, black congressman and more. Another geographical feature is that Nachez is on a bend in the river so viewers can see 7 miles up the river and 7 miles down the river. So much more!!
We needed something to eat and time to "digest" what we had learned. Found a cute little barbeque place with good food--even got a drink cup for a souvenir. On our tour with Rev we found out about an antebellum (pre war) home that is managed by the National Park Service--the Melrose House.
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| Melrose House, Natchez |
We went to the "estate" and spent a little over an hour on a self-guided walking tour that told about many aspects of the estate including the laundry, kitchen (separate building), cisterns, stables, orchards and even the latrines, and more. We heard over and over that this was an "estate" NOT A PLANTATION. A 2022 equivalent would be someone who is so rich that they have expensive houses in several different locations. The actual ranger-guided tour (an hour) was just for the house and the over $5,000,000 worth of original antiques in the house. Can't believe the way some people lived.
It was 90+ degrees when we finished our tour of Melrose but it was only 3pm--too early to go back to our room. We found an old city cemetery (very well maintained) and explored. There are people buried there that have been dead for over 200 years. Hard to understand, especially since the history we're accustomed to in the west doesn't begin until after that.
We returned to our room and rested--the heat and humidity did us in!
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