Download Lost Plantation: The Rise and Fall of Seven Oaks AudioBook Free
Along the fertile banking companies of the Mississippi River across from New Orleans, planter Camille Zeringue changed a mediocre colonial plantation into a flourishing jewel of antebellum sugar production, filled with a columned mansion known as Seven Oaks. Beneath the moss-strewn oaks, the privileged expert nurtured his own family but enslaved many others. Excelling at agriculture, business, an ambitious canal business, and local politics, Zeringue ascended to the pinnacle of Southern culture. But his empire soon emerged crashing down. After the ravages of the Civil War and an awful struggle with a railroad company, the family eventually lost the great house. Seven Oaks in the end ended up in the hands of distant railroad professionals whose only desire was to rid themselves of this heap of history. Lost Plantation: The Rise and Street to redemption of Seven Oaks says both of Zeringue's climb to the top and of his legacy's eventual ruin. Preservationists and community participants abhorred the railroad's indifferent frame of mind, and the question of the plantation mansion's destiny fueled many years of fiery, political battles. These hard-fought confrontations ended in 1977, when the exasperated railroad professionals sent bulldozers through the decaying house. By analyzing one failed effort, Lost Plantation provides information into the complicated workings of American historical preservation attempts all together while illustrating how Southerners deal with the multifaceted recent. The rise and land of Seven Oaks is much more than only a local tragedy - this can be a glaring exemplory case of how any community can be robbed of its history. Now, as parishes around New Orleans identify the great visual and monetary value of rebuilding plantation homes and attracting travel and leisure, Jefferson Parish mourns a manor lost.
