May 5, 2014 Natchez Trace

Monday, May 5

Woke early this morning to a beautiful sunrise.  Last night was a different kind of noise with a chorus of bullfrogs, crickets and other critters.

 We walked a bit and then headed out "across the fields" as per our host's directions - we were happy to see that there was a road across those fields :).  Passed  Lake Cocodrie and fields and fields of crops.

The plantation parking area wasn't open yet, so we continued on to Vadalia and the local McDonalds. Had breakfast and very slow wi-fi till it was time to head back to Frogmore.

Frogmore is a working cotton plantation and has been since the late 1700's.  The most recent owner gathered historical buildings from neighboring plantations to re-create Frogmore of the antebellum 1800's.

 The tour, by Bethany and Melissa, included a few films and lots of information about soil,  cotton, slavery, share cropping, and life on a plantation. We were the only ones there, so had private tours! Buildings include an 18-pew Baptist church, a laundry, smokehouse, kitchen house, overseer's home and slave quarters.  The "big house" here is still occupied by the owners and not a part of the tour.

 St James Baptist church still functions.

 wagon that gathered and weighed the picked cotton

the beds were on a base of ropes and mattresses were filled with corn husks or moss.  Sleep tight referred to tightening the ropes and "don't let the bedbugs bite" was a hope and a prayer.

overseer's cabin

Cotton plants just beginning to grow

Many books about slavery and plantation life were quoted and discussed.  Our guide threw in some discussion of slavery in the world today, sex slaves, etc.  There were implements and examples of the mechanization of cotton farming beginning with slave labor and then changing to the cotton gin in its various phases, to todays ginning processes (which removes the seeds and cleans the cotton)and mechanized picking.  It wasn't until the 1970's that machines replaced manual labor in the picking process!  A slave picked about 250 lbs of cotton a day; today a machine can pick 45 acres in one day.

From here we went on down the road a piece, to the Delta Music Museum in Farraday.  It was closed for lunch, so we went to a park down the street and had our lunch.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart were cousins who lived in Farraday and the docent spent a lot of time talking about these three.  She has lived in the area over 50 years and shared stories and history.  There have been 21 people inducted into the Museum's Hall of fame and each has a display, with some clothing and other memorabilia included.

 Greg got a kick out of this billboard on our way out of town.

We left Vidalia and crossed the Mississippi River into Natchez, Mississippi.  There, we hopped onto the Natchez Trace, a lovely road through the Mississippi countryside, mostly wooded and very little traffic! It follows trails originally formed by Indian trade routes.

We took a little side trip to the Windsor  Ruins, remains of a once-magnificent home built in 1859.  It survived the Civil War, only to accidentally burn in 1890.

Thought this church steeple was kind of unique - First Presbyterian Church in Port Gibson.

 Arrived in Rocky Springs campground, a nice free campground on the Trace, close to 7:30 so had a relaxing drink with snacks and called it a night.







Scratch 'n Sniff of the Day:  The clean, sweet smell of the fresh air and woods at our camp ground.