Magnolia Plantation Store

by Ben Prepelka

Title

Magnolia Plantation Store

Artist

Ben Prepelka

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Photograph

Description

Home to generations of a Creole culture, the Cane River Creole National Historical Park preserves the heritage of the plantation owners and their families, and the enslaved workers and tenants who lived on these lands for over 200 years. The historic park highlights the Oakland and Magnolia plantations, two of the most intact Creole cotton plantations in the United States. After the Civil War many enslaved residents remained on the land as tenant farmers and sharecroppers.
Today, 20 historic buildings remain on the Magnolia Plantation grounds, including the Magnolia Plantation Store. The store served the plantation community and their neighbors for a century. While the plantation primarily grew cotton, subsistance farming provided much of the plantations food. What wasn't produced on the plantation was offerd at the store. Using scrip or tokens, workers could buy goods that included candles, kerosene, wheat flower, sugar, salt, canned goods and small tools. Built in 1873, the store was also a gathering place. Taking a short break from daylong chores, workers could exchanged news and gossip with friends and neighbors. Occasionally local musicians would entertain plantation workers, their families and the locals. As the number of sharecroppers faded, so did the importance of the plantation store, closing for good in 1973.

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June 18th, 2023

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