Working Iron

At Oakland, enslaved blacksmiths Philippe and Solomon Williams made iron latches, hinges, cross grave markers and well-drilling tools. The plantation's enslaved population rose from 38 in 1795 to 145 within fifty years and nearly 160 by the Civil War. Farther down Cane River, an 1833 bill of sale at Magnolia records Saturday, an enslaved blacksmith. Documents also record enslaved carpenters Dominique Toussaint and Solomon Wilson, and the raised Creole house went up in 1821. Oakland's blacksmith shop no longer stands.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cane River Creole National Historical Park — steps away
  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.
• Melrose Plantation — 5.0 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.
• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 5.3 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.
• Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site — 7.8 mi
  A reconstruction of the 1716 French fort beside the Natchitoches village, with a palisade of nearly 2,000 pine logs, a chapel and storeroom, and living-history programs, open Wednesday to Sunday.

More markers nearby

• The Battle of Bermuda Bridge — 0.2 mi
• Ghana House — 5.0 mi
• Yucca House — 5.0 mi
• Clementine Hunter Home and Studio — 5.0 mi