Day 6 - Natchez

What a way to start the day - a good ol' Southern breakfast in the Garden Room of an antebellum (literally "pre-war", US Civil War that is) mansion house. Many antebellum houses were destroyed by the advancing Union troops but a large number survived in Natchez as, although located in Mississippi state (a Confederate state), its population was largely in favour of the Union. The antebellum homes were extremely ostentatious displays of wealth mixing many styles including Roman and Greek columns and planned English park-like gardens. Temples to successful capitalism?

We had the pleasure of a guided tour around the Monmouth, our accommodation, by Gandy and it was quite amazing to learn that the place that we found in immaculate order had in fact fallen in to complete disrepair by the end of the 1970s before being purchased and restored by a (wealthy) couple from California. Our good fortune.

After the tour we drove down to the river front, high on the bluff (cliff), and spent a very educational hour or so in the outstanding Natchez Visitor Center (again, clearly no expense spared in its construction and execution). In many ways it was quite uncomfortable reading about the history of the place, its vast wealth based as it was very much on enslavement that, even once slavery was abolished, led to segregation and appalling treatment of blacks for generations and right into our lifetimes. Thought provoking to say the very least.

We then took a leisurely stroll along one of the marked trails - a 3/4 mile walk along the top of the bluff with panoramic views of the Mississippi River before heading in to a strangely deserted Main Street to view one of the many Mississippi Blues Trail markers: this one commemorating the Howlin' Wolf song Natchez Burning

We rounded the afternoon off visiting another magnificent (still containing many original pieces of furniture and artwork) antebellum home, this one curated by the US National Parks (equivalent to the UK's National Trust): Melrose Mansion It, and its outbuildings, took 8 years to build and contains over 600,000 bricks. Impressive!

Dinner? Where else but in the 1818 dining room back at the Monmouth. A mere taste of how life was and what went before. Perhaps just enough of a taste?