Natchez, Mississippi: Stately Mansions and Indian Mounds

Natchez, Mississippi is the southern terminus ofBs and the town of Natchez has two festivals of
the Natchez Trace Parkway. Natchez is anhomes: spring and fall. Twenty-eight of these
antebellum city unravaged by the fortunes of war.beautiful show pieces are open for visitation that
Many cotton barons, lawyers, doctors and othertime. The National Park Service controls two
professionals played the game of one-upmanship.mansions in Natchez: the one hundred plus acre
Mansions with names like Monmouth, Magnolia Hall,cotton plantation of Melrose just outside of town,
Fair Oaks, Auburn, Oakland, The Elms, Hawthorn,and the William Johnson House, a free slave, who
Rosalie, Linden, Stanton Hall give testimony tomade his fortune as a barber in the antebellum
their lifestyle. Most of the homes are located insouth. Just outside of town are the Natchez
the downtown area. So it is an easy walkMounds of Grand Village. These are the remnants
between mansions. Two of them require someof a sophisticated society, who lost a war with
driving: Longwood and Melrose. The most unusualthe French. They had attacked Natchitoches,
one is Longwood, a five story octagonal houseLouisiana. The is the only attack by Native on this
the largest one in the US). Haller Nutt had greatcity. The Spanish garrison at Los Adais, eleven
plans for this dream home for his wife Julia. Themiles to the West came and helped the French
Civil War ended construction of the mansion. Onlydefeat the Natchez. The Visitor Center has many
the basement was completed. Mr. Nutt died fromexhibits describing the Natchez tribe and their
pneumonia in 1864. The descendents lived in thelifestyle. The visitor may walk around and view
basement until 1968. The mansion's interior willthe different mounds and the buildings
remain unfinished as a monument to the tragedyreconstructed on them.
of war. Many of the mansions today are B &