Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1804

The Park Service calls it the 1804 Insurrection from Cane River. At least 30 enslaved people left the plantations of five local enslavers and crossed Magnolia land, heading west toward Los Adaes and Spanish Texas. Louisiana had changed flags only months before, and the border with Spain was unsettled, so the line they aimed for was one that neither country had yet drawn. Los Adaes is itself on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, and Magnolia and Oakland joined that list in a March 2022 announcement.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 3.6 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 — 3.8 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 — 8.8 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

• Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1863 — steps away
• Unearthing The Past — steps away
• The Tornado — steps away
• The Quarters Community — steps away