New Orleans: Laura Creole Plantation Guided Tour – Vacherie, Louisiana

EXPERIENCE

Experience the disappearing world of Creole Louisiana on a 75-minute guided tour of the Laura Plantation main house, gardens and slave quarters.

Located on the West bank of the Mississippi in the heart of Plantation Country the main house dates from 1805 and has been restored to the time when it functioned as both a family home and the office for the sugar plantation.

Visit the raised basement and galleries, men’s and women’s parlors, service rooms and common rooms. Walk through the 200-year-old sugar plantation homestead, including 3 gardens: Jardin Français, the kitchen potager & BananaLand grove. Continue the tour on the grounds with 12 buildings on the National Register, including animal barns, overseers’ cottages and the 1829 Maison de Reprise.

Hear intimate stories about four generations of free and enslaved members of the Creole families who lived here. Gleaned from handwritten memoirs and archival documents from the United States and France, each story told in the 1805 Maison Principale, on the grounds, and in the original 1840s slave cabins is a true, personal account of the women, children and men who spent their lives on this sugar farm.

Spend time touring the onsite museum exhibit on your own after your tour ends. When Laura Plantation opened to the public in 1994, it became the first historic attraction in Louisiana to include stories of enslaved Africans as part of the tour. Today the permanent exhibit “From the Big House to the Quarters: Slavery on Laura Plantation” is dedicated to telling the authentic story of the enslaved community of this Créole farm.

HIGHLIGHTS

Hear personal stories of four generations of the Louisiana Creole family
Tour the 1805 “Maison Principale”, the heart of a vast sugar plantation.
Visit the original 1840s slave cabins where the Louisiana stories of Compair Lapin were recorded
Discover the authentic story of the enslaved community on this Créole Plantation.
Learn how the Laura Plantation got its name.

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