Natchez

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Natchez was going to be a drive through but turned into two and a half wonderful days. Driving up the Natchez Trace, we landed on the Louisiana side of the river at a campground overlooking, though now almost eye to eye with, the river. The Mississippi is expected to crest the middle of the month at 57 feet and we saw the beginnings of sandbagging.

We took an evening stroll through town orienting ourselves with the historic buildings throughout the old downtown area. Natchez surrendered at the start of the Civil War and was spared the destruction many other Southern cities received. Buildings dating back to the 18th century Spanish settlements and 19th century antebellum homes are beautifully maintained and still in use.

On our initial walking tour, we stopped at four houses of worship. St. Mary’s Basilica was the first cathedral in Mississippi. Trinity Church has Tiffany windows. Temple B’nai Israel goes back to the 18th century but is now a museum. It remains a very small congregation but services are held only once a month. Best of all was our stop upstairs at First Presbyterian Church where a large collection of photographs taken by a local professional tell personal stories of residents during the mid to late 1800s and chronicle the economic and social history of the city.

Starting early the next morning, our first stop was the National Historic Park which is located in the home of William Johnson, the freed son of a white slave owner and his freed black woman. Johnson kept a diary of his life as a successful businessman and almost member of society. Though free, restrictions continued to limit his access to society and civil amenities. He was murdered in a dispute with a friend who was acquitted because he claimed to be white and blacks could not testify as witnesses against anyone white, even after the Civil War.

One experience that has repeated itself over and over is the warmth, friendliness and courtesy of Southerners. We met a minister and his wife at First Presbyterian and took their recommendation to eat at the Carriage House, a restaurant which is part of Stanton Hall, one of the local mansions. The Sunday brunch was absolutely fabulous. An artichoke and oyster soup to drool over. Fried chicken, fish, and brisket. A spinach bread with poached egg and Hollandaise so good I want to make it myself. And the strawberry, white chocolate and pound cake bread pudding was a great finale. I left out the ordinary stuff. No pictures either as we ate them.

The Southern friendliness spread to a couple from Chicago with whom we exchanged travel suggestions and to a group of women from St. Louis who gave a list of “don’t miss” places for our upcoming stop there.

After lunch we decided to tour Stanton Hall, a grand mansion with much of its original furnishings in place including gilded pot metal chandeliers. Our entertaining guide told of the many parties held throughout the first floor. Since Natchez had surrendered and the men were off to war, Union soldiers filled the need for dancing companions.

Our second mansion stop was Longwood, an octagonal structure left incomplete when the Philadelphia workers abandoned their tools and took up arms for the Union. The family lived in the basement. The owner Haller Nutt died young and left his wife and eight children with only the house and no money to complete it. It was estimated that the cost to complete it would exceed one million dollars. We will leave it to you to figure out what theat would be in 2011 money. Our less than informed guide showed us the upstairs and Nutt’s plans for a six-story, art filled mansion that could have been the greatest in the area.

Last year in the midwest we became familiar with the term “mound” in reference to a hill created by Native Americans (like a tel in Israel?). A walk through the Natchez Village let us see these mounds which are basically homes layered upon each other over generations and now covered with earth and grass. The French chronicled the Natchez lives then obliterated the tribe.

We ended our visit at the City Cemetery in the Jewish section and near the section honoring unknown soldiers of the CSA.