A Very Valuable Man

In 1833 A. LeComte received a bill of sale for an enslaved blacksmith named Saturday, bought for $600. The price fits the trade: a blacksmith forged plows, hoes, horseshoes and building hardware, and was often a leader among the enslaved. Many African cultures passed ironworking from father to son. At Magnolia the blacksmith's shop is built of bousillage, the Louisiana French word for a mix of soil, Spanish moss and straw hung on upright staves, a recipe borrowed from Native practice and a method brought from France.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 3.4 mi
  The parish church at the heart of the Cane River Creoles of color, begun by Augustin Metoyer on his family's land and still holding Mass for the community that grew from Marie Thérèse Coincoin's children.
• Melrose Plantation — 3.7 mi
  The Cane River estate built on land granted to Louis Metoyer, son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin, with the Yucca House and African House, later an artists' retreat; guided tours Thursday to Sunday.
• Kisatchie National Forest: Longleaf Vista — 6.1 mi
  A free ridge-top overlook and 1.5-mile loop above the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness on the Longleaf Trail Scenic Byway, in the forest Caroline Dormon helped win in 1930.
• Cane River Creole National Historical Park — 8.6 mi
  Oakland and Magnolia, two Cane River cotton plantations kept as they stood, told through the enslaved families who worked them, the 1864 and 1804 freedom seekers and the tenant farmers who stayed into the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• Plantation Pastimes — steps away
• Cash or Credit — steps away
• The Quarters Community — steps away
• Unearthing The Past — steps away