[stainlessbanner]

Dixie Ping!

[billbears]

The William Johnson house, now being restored by the National Park Service, will soon be a major attraction. Mr. Johnson was a free African-American, a successful businessman, and a plantation owner.

Johnson was a member of the free African-American aristocracy, whose members owned property, operated businesses, entered into business deals with white landowners, had marriages officially recorded, and owned between five and twenty slaves.

Notable Natchez African-Americans

Let's see, he owned land, was married officially, and owned slaves. Well we can say one thing. We know he didn't live in Oregon or Illinois now don't we? Mr. Johnson looks to be a stand up man, although a bit of a gambler. According to the few records I've found he had a family of ten and died from a gambling dispute

[ikka]

Maybe those in the South have a better perspective. They have not been indoctrinated, Pavlovian-style, with the white-guilt reflex.

When it was legal to own slaves, they did. When it was illegal, they stopped.

Oddly, I don't see Teddy Kennedy cringing while moving around Boston because his daddy was a rum-running, stock market manipulating crime kingpin - but if your great-great-grandpappy owned a slave, expect to be looked down upon by the same people who think Teddy is OK.

[Romulus]

Natchez is a beautiful little town of great historical interest. They do well to peddle their heritage, but it may be time to repackage it. God forbid they should adopt the Disneyfied Williamsburg model, but it's time to re-discover the antebellum South as something more complex and multi-dimensional than the paradigm manufactured by Hollywood moguls. I'd suggest they begin with a thoughtful presentation of the Old South as a society that, with all its complex mixture of evil and nobility, was a reflection of the values and beliefs of those who created it, and not something forcefully imposed by external interests intent on their own agenda.

[ArrogantBustard]

I'd pay good money for a decent NTSC VHS or DVD copy of "Song of the South". I've seen it in the cinema (aeons ago), but the miserable buggers at Disney want to pretend it doesn't exist.

[MissAmericanPie]

I wonder if the "Cock of the Walk" restuarant is still a thriving place to eat? Natches is a wonderful place to visit.

[Swiss]

""Laura Godfrey, director of the Natchez Chamber of Commerce. "Sure, I think one reason is because blacks have a certain pain associated with that time in history."""

Kind of strange I don't feel any pain about the Irish Famine or the Great Depression even though my forerunners went through it.

I think much of that Black pain is from watching "Roots" when they was young. Just like "Birth of a Nation" and "Gone with the Wind" created in many Whites minds in the 20th Century what the Civil War era was like.

[RippleFire]

BUMP

[aomagrat]

"The thing about Natchez ... is that people still live like they did in the 1800s, among the family heirlooms and antiques,"

They're lucky. Most of my family heirlooms and antiques are up north somewhere.