Once upon a time in America, there was a classic feudal system.
Not unlike those built around the of the castles of Europe.
Where serf and slave existed to serve a noble aristocracy,
and protect a grand lifestyle.
“They were the best of times they were the worst of times”
Charles Dickens opening words in a Tale of Two Cities
could as well have described life in the American south
in the Antebellum Era, the days before the Civil War.
It was a time when the planters made enormous fortunes
built on the labor of slaves fueled by sugar cane, rice and
king cotton.
The results were the grand plantations of the old south.
Spectacular homes designed for opulent lifestyles.
It was a time of incredible irony.
Where beauty and ugliness, gentility and brutality,
humanity and inhumanity lived side by side,
in mansion and slave quarter.
On this episode of America’s Castles
we’ll follow the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Natchez
as we look at some of the Grand Plantations of the old south.
