The Quarters Community

The brick row was only part of the settlement. In 1860 Magnolia's 275 enslaved people lived in about 70 cabins, and brick quarters like these were only some of them. After emancipation, freedmen and sharecroppers kept living in the former cabins for roughly a century. As machines replaced hand labor in the mid-1900s, families left for city jobs and fewer cabins were occupied. Sabin Gianelloni Jr. bought part of the plantation from Hertzog descendants in 1951, and the National Park Service now owns the quarters.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 3.5 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 — 8.7 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 Tornado — steps away
• Unearthing The Past — steps away
• Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1804 — steps away
• Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1863 — steps away