Mississippi is notorious for many things, including its days of vast cotton and sugar cane plantations before the Civil War. With a prime location on a bluff overlooking the strategically important Mississippi River, the city of Natchez cradles a collection of more than 1,000 structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as a collection of former plantation mansions that are now National Historic Landmarks. These antebellum homes, originally belonging to plantation families of present-day Adams County, are now a major draw for heritage tourism, with some offering varying combinations of tours, dining and overnight accommodations.
Several former plantation homes in Natchez are open to the public for daily tours, either on a drop-in basis or as part of an organized group tour. The largest and most famous of these structures is Longwood, a 30,000-square-foot mansion with six stories, mostly left unfinished when the Civil War broke out during its construction period. Tours run every half hour throughout the morning and afternoon. Operated by the National Park Service, the historic Melrose home, a Greek Revival mansion constructed in 1845, is also open to the public with five tours per day.
Monmouth Historic Inn offers a chance to sleep with history in an early 19th-century antebellum mansion filled with period furnishing and antiques. Tours are available to the public every morning, and dinner is served in the parlor of the main house, surrounded by elaborate gardens of magnolias, azaleas and a signature collection of angel statuary. Dunleath Historic Inn sits on 40 acres still housing buildings dating back to the 1790s, including the original mansion, carriage house, stables, dairy barn and poultry house.
Natchez Pilgrimage Tours offer sample itineraries and packages for touring the former plantation homes and historic structures in the city and surrounding areas. Tickets are available for multiple home tours as well as horse-drawn carriage rides and dining at the Carriage House Restaurant. Special events in Natchez include spring and fall pilgrimages where even the private historic homes open their doors to visitors. Descendants of the original plantation owners often appear in period attire, telling stories, and revealing family diaries and keepsakes.
Just a 20-minute drive to the outskirts of Natchez lands you in the heart of Frogmore Plantation and Gins, a 19th-century cotton plantation complete with 18 restored antebellum structures, including a steam gin, slave cabins and a house of worship. Approximately 1,800 acres of cotton still thrive on the working plantation, and visitors are encouraged to drag an old-fashioned sack and pick the bolls of cotton as they did in bygone eras. Organized tours focus on the historical cotton and plantation culture, the plantation during the Civil War era, and the modern-day computerized cotton gin.
