Historic Southern antebellum homes are disappearing, and those that still remain are being reinterpreted by activist historians. Author Mike Kitchens joins us to talk about his book “Ghosts of Grandeur” and the current woke assault on Southern home museums and historic sites.
Just over the railroad tracks, past bean fields and pastures, is the plantation home described in a book published in 1964 as the “most beautiful home in the county”. Still a working farm, rented by two different farmers from the absentee owner, the home was abandoned in the mid 1980s. The driveway approach as it enters the homesite is over grown but gives indication of past glory: expansive lawn, shaded by massive, ancient oaks and magnolias, now with lumber and fencing materials from abandoned upgrades among invasive wild cherry and Sweetgum saplings. Adjacent to the house on both sides of the driveway are distinct gardens lined by boxwoods and equally overgrown.
Two brick dependancies, the smokehouse and plantation kitchen, both with metals roofs and trimmed with ivy, are in excellent shape and could do as small homes with a little work. Three dairy barns and stables built in the 1940s add to the attractiveness of the farmstead. The house, built in 1830 of frame and stucco, still appears grand in mid-morning sun from a distance of 500 feet. Also with a metal roof, the walls are solid and at some point decades ago the foundation was treated for termites. Salvageable for a cost, otherwise the home is fit for and inhabited by groundhogs, buzzards, snakes and wasps.
I have free rein to roam the 700 acre property and homesite with my dogs. Early this summer, I had permission to host a local conservator, a lady with some wealth who magnificently restored, 50 years ago, and still resides at one my ancestral homes; she more recently salvaged and restored as a bed and breakfast another of my ancestral homes. At an advanced age, she’s reached her two plantation limit but asked for a meeting with the owner. With a starting point of a million dollars for restoration, she said she knows “people who have money” who would be interested… but I had to plead ignorance. I’ve long known one of the renters, a better friend of my brother, who has dibs on future purchase of the property. His plan is to bulldoze the house and build a modern one. If I introduce over-market offers and he loses his farm I may as well move North.
Sad, indeed. For a time I imagined – probably more like fantasized – the homesite and, necessarily, about 100 acres, would be sold for restoration, leaving the remaining 600 acres for farming. It would be a long shot. The likely outcome would be the 600 acres would be subdivided. Even with zoning restrictions it would result in a minimum of 60 new houses. Bring on the bulldozer.
The Louisiana Confederate Native Guard was composed of free black men near New Orleans. Over one thousand of them VOLUNTEERED to muster for the Confederacy.
After New Orleans was captured, they were ORDERED to join the union army. They could have resisted this ORDER but they would have been imprisoned or killed. That is the difference between truth and lies…and they’re all being exposed on this internet daily.
The first black military officer to exist in the Confederacy was also the first black military officer to exist in the United States (if we accept the yankee lie we were never out of the union).
General Order 63…Banks…Louisiana Confederate Native Guard…it’s easy if you try…here’s a hint…Department of the Gulf: “General Order No. 63”
Many thanks to Ron in Tennessee who was man enough to contact me to discuss issues. This was one of the issues and I was unable to address the reality of the situation without further investigation. Said investigation is now complete…Free blacks in Louisiana VOLUNTEERED to fight for the Confederacy…they were then FORCED to join the union army…but the union got to write the history books…not the Confederates.
Just over the railroad tracks, past bean fields and pastures, is the plantation home described in a book published in 1964 as the “most beautiful home in the county”. Still a working farm, rented by two different farmers from the absentee owner, the home was abandoned in the mid 1980s. The driveway approach as it enters the homesite is over grown but gives indication of past glory: expansive lawn, shaded by massive, ancient oaks and magnolias, now with lumber and fencing materials from abandoned upgrades among invasive wild cherry and Sweetgum saplings. Adjacent to the house on both sides of the driveway are distinct gardens lined by boxwoods and equally overgrown.
Two brick dependancies, the smokehouse and plantation kitchen, both with metals roofs and trimmed with ivy, are in excellent shape and could do as small homes with a little work. Three dairy barns and stables built in the 1940s add to the attractiveness of the farmstead. The house, built in 1830 of frame and stucco, still appears grand in mid-morning sun from a distance of 500 feet. Also with a metal roof, the walls are solid and at some point decades ago the foundation was treated for termites. Salvageable for a cost, otherwise the home is fit for and inhabited by groundhogs, buzzards, snakes and wasps.
I have free rein to roam the 700 acre property and homesite with my dogs. Early this summer, I had permission to host a local conservator, a lady with some wealth who magnificently restored, 50 years ago, and still resides at one my ancestral homes; she more recently salvaged and restored as a bed and breakfast another of my ancestral homes. At an advanced age, she’s reached her two plantation limit but asked for a meeting with the owner. With a starting point of a million dollars for restoration, she said she knows “people who have money” who would be interested… but I had to plead ignorance. I’ve long known one of the renters, a better friend of my brother, who has dibs on future purchase of the property. His plan is to bulldoze the house and build a modern one. If I introduce over-market offers and he loses his farm I may as well move North.
It makes me sad to think of the old place being bulldozed.
Sad, indeed. For a time I imagined – probably more like fantasized – the homesite and, necessarily, about 100 acres, would be sold for restoration, leaving the remaining 600 acres for farming. It would be a long shot. The likely outcome would be the 600 acres would be subdivided. Even with zoning restrictions it would result in a minimum of 60 new houses. Bring on the bulldozer.
The Louisiana Confederate Native Guard was composed of free black men near New Orleans. Over one thousand of them VOLUNTEERED to muster for the Confederacy.
After New Orleans was captured, they were ORDERED to join the union army. They could have resisted this ORDER but they would have been imprisoned or killed. That is the difference between truth and lies…and they’re all being exposed on this internet daily.
The first black military officer to exist in the Confederacy was also the first black military officer to exist in the United States (if we accept the yankee lie we were never out of the union).
General Order 63…Banks…Louisiana Confederate Native Guard…it’s easy if you try…here’s a hint…Department of the Gulf: “General Order No. 63”
Many thanks to Ron in Tennessee who was man enough to contact me to discuss issues. This was one of the issues and I was unable to address the reality of the situation without further investigation. Said investigation is now complete…Free blacks in Louisiana VOLUNTEERED to fight for the Confederacy…they were then FORCED to join the union army…but the union got to write the history books…not the Confederates.