Huntsville gazette., 1882-01-21
Plantation Life in Louisiana Before
the War.

brown sugar, sold it for $4,000. This
enterprise established the sugar industry
firmly in Louisiana. The rich planters
at once embarked in it, while the small
planters of cotton and tobacco pros
pered by this opportunity to cultivate
with less competition. In five years
from the time of its second introduction,
100000 pounds of sugar was the an
nual yield of the colony, which had now
some fifty or sixty thousand inhabitants
The income from the culture of sugar
was about twenty-five per cent. Pom
talba reports of the province about this
time that 'tthe facility with which man
can supply his wants is such that two
hours of daily labor are sufficient TO
procure him all the means of existence. -
One may Judge from this statement the
value of the slave system to the planter
of that day. The average Southern ne
gro, in his present condition of citizen
ship and individual responsibility, is the
LATEST of mortals, and will work no
longer than is necessary to assure to
him the qualification of to-day's wants.
How much this state of things would
have been aggravated in early Louisiana
we can form some estimate; but we
cannot grasp the extent to which it
would have interfered with the brilliant
career of the colony. AS it was, the
prosperity of Louisiana was marvellous
despite the troubles existing between
the colonists and the people of the Unit
ed States, who looked upon the prov
ince with greedy eyes, and to whom the
possession of it was only a matter of a
few years at most. Life on the planta-
tions trod in velvet-soled slippers, and
the harshest winds were tempered with
balmy warmth and the perennial fra
GRANGE of millions of wild flowers
pass. Domestic ennui and their own
strange combinations of character fos-
tered in the fair sex the softer elements
of romance, which were instrumental in
imparting the knightly tone to the socie-
ty of the day.
When the United States acquired pos
session of Louisiana, and for many years
thereafter, New Orleans was the most
luxurious city on the new continent.
During the first half of this century a
style of living was kept up in Louisiana
which, in an attempt to picture it,
becomes simply indescribable, and
which if described would not be believ-
ed. The best wines of Europe flowed
more freely than beer does to-day. The
equipages were the finest the world
could produce. The jewelers. of New
Orleans grew rich in year on their
commissions, while New York agents
ransacked Europe for novelties in plate
and artistic jewelry. The fine arts
were largely patronized, although the
effect of the atmosphere of slavery was
to encourage tastes not consistent with
high degree of admiration for pure
art. There is massive service of gold
in the safe of the St. Charles Hotel at
New Orleans which recalls the splendor
of ante -bellum louisiana Yet in all
this luxurious display very little money
was handled. Immense bills were paid
at time, but the transactions which
took place on credit were enormous and
went on for years in some cases without
involving the introduction Of dollar.
assured me of repeated instances of this,
and of the utter carelessness of these
wealthy patrons in ordering on credit.
But when the accounts of the tradesman
or merchant were finally presented, this
carelessness was even exceeded by the
indifference with which the creditor met
the gigantic total and paid the debt.
The earliest plantations were situated
along the Mississippi south Of the city,
and many of them bear the names they
received from the original French and
Spanish owners, as Conception, Magno-
| liza, st. Andrews, etc. In many cases
the planters houses were massive struct-
ures, constructed on no particular ar
chitectural principle, with little attempt
at finish or ornament, built OF wood
scarcely redeemed from its natural
state of timber, but providing the am
plest room for all household purposes.
Few of them, indeed, there were which
did not suggest the idea of space suffi-
cient to meet all the requirements of the
feudal baron, who sheltered under his
castle roof an army of knights and vas
sails. The old Southern planters notion
of comfortable home was house with
plenty of g elbow-room" in it. Other
mansions were built of stone or brick,
brought up or down the Mississippi, in
a square, antique style of architecture,
with great varandas, and massive Ro-
man pillars-the outside of the structure
being succeed and more or less orna-
mented. Beautiful flower gardens, in
which were cultivated every variety OF
blooming plant obtainable, graced the
front view of these great houses; and
sometimes statuary might be seen taste
fully scattered about, and visible
through the glistening spray of perpetual
fountains. The style and situation OF
the planters house has not changed
much in century, and a visitor to the
sugar plantations in Louisiana to-day
viii see in this respect what he would
have seen in the early part OF the CEN
tury. 1t is needless to say he will find
changes in the social atmosphere and
methods of life so contrasted. There is
nothing left Of the old days now, save in
the memory of a few venerable lingerers
on the scene e.-InterrntiO1a0L RerieU.
1t is proposed to erect monument
to Sallust at Aquila, in the Abruzzl,
overlooking the River Aterno-the site
of the ancient Aniternum where the