Oakland Plantation, originally known as the Jean Pierre Emmanuel Prud'homme Plantation, and also known as Bermuda, is a historic plantation in an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana Natchitoches Parish ( or ) is a List of parishes in Louisiana, parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 37,515. The parish seat and most populous municipality is Nat ...

. Founded as a forced-labor farm worked by enslaved Black people for White owners, it is one of the nation's best and most intact examples of a French Creole cotton plantation complex. The Oakland Plantation is now owned by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

as part of the

Cane River Creole National Historical Park The Cane River Creole National Historical Park was established in 1994 to preserve the resources and cultural landscapes of the Cane River region in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Located along Cane River Lake, the park is approximately 63 ac ...

. It has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since August 29, 1979. It is designated as a notable destination on the state's

Louisiana African American Heritage Trail Louisiana African American Heritage Trail () is a cultural heritage trail with 38 sites designated by the state of Louisiana, from New Orleans along the Mississippi River to Baton Rouge and Shreveport, with sites in small towns and plantations als ...

. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

on January 3, 2001.

Geography

The Oakland Plantation grounds and structures are within the

, in the National Park Service's

Cane River National Heritage Area The Cane River National Heritage Area is a United States National Heritage Area in the state of Louisiana. The heritage area is known for plantations featuring Creole architecture, as well as numerous other sites that preserve the multi-cultural h ...

. The

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

is situated on a bend of the Cane River Lake, with access by Louisiana Highway 119 in the Bermuda community near the parish seat of Natchitoches. Oakland Plantation is located near the Magnolia Plantation, which is another

within the Cane River Creole National Historical Park; and the Melrose Plantation. Oakland Plantation is associated with the Atahoe Plantation (of Natchez), which was developed by one of the Prud'homme family. The Cherokee Plantation was built by a granddaughter of Jean Pierre Emmanuel Prud'homme. (with 14 ) It is also associated with the community of Isle Brevelle, a local Creole community.

History

19th century

The original owners, Jean-Pierre Emanuel Prud'homme and his wife Marie Catherine (Lambre) Prud'homme, acquired the land for the Oakland Plantation through a 1785 Spanish-Era land grant. They completed building the Oakland Plantation house in 1821. The family tradition claims that Oakland was one of the first plantations in the area to grow cotton on a large scale, which was cultivated and harvested by enslaved African Americans. They also raised and used farm animals, which were served by extant buildings, such as the dipping vat, the turkey shed, the mule barn, two ''pigeonniers'', and several chicken coops. At the end of 1795, 38 enslaved African Americans lived at the Oakland Plantation. The Prud'hommes also owned and operated a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

on the plantation, which also housed the Bermuda

U.S. Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

for many years. The plantation flourished in the 19th century, and by 1860, 160 enslaved African Americans harvested cotton, labored in the house, or crafted tools and furniture. After the Civil War, the Oakland plantation continued to produce large amounts of cotton. Sharecroppers, primarily the descendants of the enslaved African Americans who lived at the Oakland Plantation, worked on small plots of land and lived in the property's cabins. After the mechanization of cotton farming in the 1960s, tenants like Elvin Shields's family were asked to leave the plantation, putting an end to the Oakland Plantation's sharecropping era.

20th century

Descendant J. Alphonse Prud'homme won the gold medal at the

1904 World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 mi ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

for growing the highest-grade cotton in the South. The

was authorized by Congress in 1994, with support by US Senator J. Bennett Johnston (R-LA).Ginger Thompson, "Reaping What Was Sown On the Old Plantation; A Landowner Tells Her Family's Truth. A Park Ranger Wants a Broader Truth."
''New York Times'', 22 June 2000; accessed 3 May 2018 In 1997, the

acquired the main buildings and surrounding land of Oakland Plantation for the park. The NPS has reached advanced stages in the preservation and conservation of the many outbuildings, and of the

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...

. They have completed furnishing interiors with furniture, paintings, and textiles as it was in the 1860s at the end of the antebellum plantation era. The park's program includes interpretation of emancipation and the history of

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

and

Creoles of color The Creoles of color are a multiracial ethnic group of Louisiana Creoles that developed in the former French and Spanish colonies of Louisiana (especially in New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, and Northwestern Florida, in what is now the Unite ...

, and their descendants, who lived and worked on Oakland Plantation for nearly 100 years after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. They were all integral to the region's community life. In 2018, the National Park Service continued these interpretive efforts and undertook an ethnographic project to hear from Traditionally Associated People from both Oakland Plantation and Magnolia Plantation, creating five documentary films. The community has strongly associated the plantation with the Prud'homme family, many of whose descendants still reside in the area today. File:Overseer's house at Oakland Plantation, Natchitoches Parish IMG 3483.JPG, Overseer's house File:Slave quarters at Oakland Plantation, Natchitoches Parish IMG 3481.JPG, Slave quarters File:General view looking from northeast to store - Oakland Plantation, Plantation Store and Post Office, Route 494, Bermuda, Natchitoches Parish, LA HABS LA,35-BERM,2-O-1.tif, Plantation store and post office File:Oakland Plantation, Route 494, Bermuda, Natchitoches Parish, LA HABS LA,35-BERM,2-17.tif, Approach to Oakland plantation house

References

External links