Word of the Day - Coffle

February 28 is the end of Black History Month, which didn't exist "back in the day" when I was in school.  This trip has really taught me a lesson or two. Not just about the mistreatment of Black (and Red) peoples, but also at how distorted and selective was my education. 

I just finished an excellent book, Black Indians by William Loren Katz. It covers lives as Black and Red since the beginning of Europeans in the Americas. It is not a replay of the 1619 Project. New to me was the tremendous amount of interbreeding between the groups. The author claims as much as 50% of Native Americans have some Black ancestry. 

Slavery was common in many of the North American tribes; the Seminoles were a distinct minority in not enslaving. White enslavers had a very strong interest in preventing indigenous people from uniting with enslaved Africans, and so  maximised possibilities of discord between the two groups. A complicated but very enjoyable and interesting read, it was a good bookend to Black History Month.

The odometer rolled over to 12,000 miles since we left Maine. Nominally, halfway around the world, but we barely made it beyond halfway across the country. We've left Texas, crossed Louisiana, and now are in Mississippi driving the Natchez Trace towards Nashville.  Metaphorically, sometimes it seems we are across the world.

Mississippi has many challenges. It ranks last or near last in most state rankings, such as education, healthcare, crime, IQ, economy, etc. It has the highest percentage of Black residents (38%), and the highest number on lynchings (581) of any state. It did not ratify the 13th Amendment (end of slavery) until 2013.

Natchez has a nasty past and many beautiful mansions to show for it. Prior to the Civil War, various sources claim "half the millionaires in the US lived in Natchez",  the "most millionaires per capita" and similar claims, all resulting from the "Peculiar Institution" of slavery.

Cotton was by far the most important cash crop in the USA in the first half of the 19th century, and probably the world. US production of cotton depended entirely on enslaved labor. The  expansion of cotton in Mississippi and Louisiana created a huge increase in demand for enslaved persons. International importation of enslaved Africans was prohibited after 1808. The northern forced work camps had excess  enslaved people and sold them. Fortunes were made by enslavers, typically buying in Virginia and selling in Mississippi. 

Franklin and Armfield was one of the most successful/evil of the enslavers, and reportedly earned the equivalent of billions of dollars before the Civil War.  They bought enslaved people in Virginia and Maryland, and sold them in Natchez at the Forks of the Road Slave Market.

Franklin and Armfield was just one of many slave traders in Natchez.

So what is a coffle? To transport enslaved people from Virginia to Natchez, usually groups of 30 to 40 were chained together and walked the Natchez Trace to Forks of the Road. The march typically took six weeks. Some coffles had over 150 people chained together.

This was not a fun hike, like today's Appalachian Trail. "Bathroom breaks" meant everybody stopped and did it then and there, probably in the middle of the narrow trail. Toilet paper didn't exist then, and I doubt the enslavers provided washup water. The chains would be soiled and smelly. The enslaved had no possessions, such as blankets and often not even shoes. If they were lucky, occasionally the enslaved might get to sleep in a fouled shed, but most of the Trace had no structures.

Other enslaved people were transported by steamboat (Ohio, Mississippi Rivers) or sailing ship around Florida to New Orleans. My quick Google search show many conflicting (large) numbers of numbers transported and no numbers of how many died enroute.

This simple monument of slave shackles commemorate this horror at the Forks of the Road.

Over 600 Ante-Bellum structures still stand in Natchez; it survived the Civil War relatively unscathed. A dozen mansions have tours.  The former  owners of these mansions typically owned multiple enslaved work camps, and also had a mansion in New Orleans. 

One of the more interesting mansion is Longwood. Started in 1860, it was never finished.

The 38,000 square foot building is octagonal, five stories tall, and has no halls or corridors. The low shabby building was the kitchen, and much later one of the last descendents lived there in the 20th century.

The four story rotunda was open to the solarium that was supposed to have large mirrors to reflect light throughout the interior. Interesting heating system: just four chimney stacks venting 12 fireplaces on each floor, in a triangular arrangement.

The house was designed before indoor plumbing, and had a separate brick outhouse. Of course, lots of chamber pots and enslaved labor to clean them.

The basement was finished and turned into living quarters for the family during the Civil War. The exterior and rough upper floors were completed, but no interior work was done. The owner died before the Civil War was over. 

The owner was said to be a doctor "with an interest in cotton". He owned six forced work camps (43,000 acres) and over 800 enslaved people.  He had a large free work force imported from New York for construction, aided by an additional 750 local enslaved people. 

Natchez has been a Black majority city since the 1820s. There have always been some free, middle-class Blacks in Natchez. There is an underfunded Natchez Museum of African American Culture and History. Very authentic and moving. One minor display was about a plaque in the Courthouse commemorating only the White servicemen who died in WW I. Finally in 2011 new plaques we mounted outside the building to commemorate the war dead; the majority were Black.

There is a striking set of studio portrait  photographs taken by a Black photographer in the 1800s. Brides, lawyers, politicians, families, etc. Wonderful, although the names of many have been lost to time.

Some activists have complained that modern film is "racist" as it does not portray Black skin complexions well. Very high contrast, especially in a typical wedding photo with a white dress, is very challenging with dark skin. These photos, taken long before Kodak dominated photography, show beautiful skin tones. Nice to see.

Another set of educational moments was seeing Emerald Mound and the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians. I was not aware that these neolithic peoples built such large structures. Truth be told, they are not exciting to see.

Our campground, Natchez State Park, was just off the Trace. The Park people called me TWICE to warn me about the nine mile detour since they had a road problem. The road changed rather abruptly.

The campground itself was quite nice, heavily wooded, next to a lake, acceptable bathrooms and washing machines, etc. 

Onward!

The Mile Zero of the Natchez Trace 

Happy Trails,

Krem and Barbara