Laura Plantation Tour

General information

Destination	Category
New Orleans, United States	Sightseeing Tours

Program details

Immerse yourself in the Deep South with this intriguing tour of Laura Plantation. This relic of a bygone era gives you an insight into one of the most shameful chapters in history through the eyes of a Southern belle.

This visit has been described as ‘the best history tour in the US’ and a ‘national treasure’. It is extremely thought-provoking and you will learn about the tragic slaves who lived and carried out backbreaking work in this estate, which at its height covered 12,000 acres. Slaves such as Fontine, a ‘good field worker’ valued at $600 in 1808.

The sugar plantation was founded in 1805 by a French veteran of the US War of Independence with just eight slaves. At the outbreak of the Civil War there were 186 slaves on the complex. You'll also visit the 11 historic buildings that make up the plantation and are on the US National Register. Among these are the slave cabins in which the west-African folktales of Compair Lapin (later known as Br’er Rabbit) were recounted more than 140 years ago. Walking the grounds is an integral part of the tour experience.

The tour is based upon thousands of documents found in the French National Archives and upon the Memories Of The Old Plantation Home by Laura Locoul, a great-granddaughter of the founder who was born at the outbreak of the Civil War and died more than a century later in the Swinging Sixties.

Miss Laura left a treasure chest of true-life stories of the Creole women, slaves and children who lived, worked and died here.

On your journey to this historic plantation, you'll also have the opportunity to enjoy a panoramic view of Lake Pontchartrain as you cross the Bonnet Carre Spillway (the flood outlet of the Mississippi River).

Meeting point: is at 12pm in the Gray Line Lighthouse Ticket Office on Toulouse Street in the French Quarter, with return at about 4.30pm. Video filming is not allowed inside the Big House.