Another Historic Walking Tour, Will They Never End!

I thought we were through with the walking tours but we were in Natchez, Mississippi.

 How could we not go through the historic downtown of Natchez. After all, Natchez is the oldest settlement on the Mississippi River. It has history, and the houses are amazing.

I am not going to bore you with every photo I took, just as I was not going to overwork my camera by taking a photo of every historic building in the downtown. I selected the highlights, and of those I chose a select few to show you. And I am getting lazy, I photographed the descriptions on most of the buildings you are about to see, so you can read the same stuff we did.

Enjoy your abridged walking tour of Natchez.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last residence I am showing you is the house on Ellicott Hill c. 1798. Information on this residence is coming from the walking tour information we had. 211 N. Canal St. Andrew Ellicott, in defiance of Spain, raised the American flag on this hill in 1797. Overlooking the terminus of the Natchez Trace, it is a historic restoration project of the Natchez Garden Club. National Historic Landmark.

That's it for your walking tour. Hope you enjoyed it as much as Ward and I did.

On the way out of town we make a quick stop at this place.

This is not like the Forks in Winnipeg. Oh no it isn't. Natchez, MS was the southwest hub of slave trade in America. Slaves were brought here from the east, being bought and sold to the highest bidder.

 

Here are a few of the ads run in newspapers for the buying and selling of slaves.

 

 

And for us Canadians, the only saving grace for our consciences of this historic site is the mention of slaves escaping to places like Canada and Mexico. Slavery seems so abstract until you are in a place like this and read ads such as those posted.

After visiting plantation country, seeing all these wonderful old mansions and historic buildings and reading about the slave trade, one thing would not exist without the other. The south was built on the backs of slaves. That fact kind of takes the shine off the magnificant houses we have been seeing these past few days.

But we are are in a different world now, and all races can enjoy the beautiful structures left from these historic times.