The Cost of Cotton

By 1860 Ambrose LeComte II held more than 6,000 acres across several properties, and 275 enslaved people worked the crops. Every bale they raised went through the gin, and ginning at Magnolia continued long after emancipation, with sharecroppers and tenants bringing in their own cotton. The complex that survives is unusually whole: 21 contributing buildings, including two gins, one steam-powered and one animal-powered. It is regarded as among the most intact 19th-century plantation complexes in the country, a National Historic Landmark since 2001.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 3.7 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 — 3.9 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 — 6.0 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

• The Battle of Cloutierville — steps away
• Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1804 — steps away
• Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1863 — steps away
• Unearthing The Past — steps away