Natchez, Big Thicket and an Old Classmate

After leaving Gulf Shores, I headed Northwest thru Alabama and eventually passed across the border and into Mississippi. Plugging ahead at around 63 mph, I pushed across the state. By the late afternoon I approached my old friend, the BIG River. There, paused at Natchez which overlooks the Mississippi River.

Natchez has a dark and ugly history in my mind. It was the heart of slave trade on the Mississippi. The only larger slave market was in New Orleans. But so many slaves came to Natchez both by with the river boat and overland, on foot. 

A Coffle of Slaves on The Natchez Trace

It was the nightmare of every slave in Virginia or Kentucky or Tennessee or Missouri to be Sent Down  River. The plantation systems was especially brutal in the Deep South. 

I remember as a young person reading the Mark Twain novel, Huck Finn.  Twain gave a especially affectionate and respectful portrayal of Jim the Slave and Huck’s best friend. Jim was the wiser, more loving, and morally superior of the pair, as Huck was the first to attest. The reason the Jim ran off with Huck was out of his Fear that Miss Watson was going to sell him to the slave traders and he was going to be sent down the river to the slave market and would be separated from his wife and children forever. He lived in mortal fear of this possibility.

Jim and Huck

This portrait of Jim with this shadow of fear hanging over him, emphasized the evil of slavery in antebellum America and it resonated with me.  So I spent some time walking the old town, looking up the river, and meditating and imagining.  

I wanted to pause at Natchez and try to absorb the feeling of the place. There were two specific slave traders that more than anyone else personified evil. These two men were right up there with any Nazi running a concentration camp. They were Armfield and Franklin .  They bought and sold many thousands of humans, raped many captive women, broke up families and seemed to have a good time doing it.  I urge any reader to hit the above link for the Article from the Washington Post that traces the history of these two particularly terrible men.

Looking Up the River From Natchez

River Front Signage

After walking the riverfront and looking over some of the old houses, I got back in the truck and headed west into Louisiana. 

By then the sun was getting low in the sky and so I drove across the bayou's of Louisiana without seeing too much. After camping the night at Walmart the next day a crossed over the Sabine River and into Texas. One specific item of note is how many logging trucks are in the area. This is a big timber area on both sides of the border.  Many saw mills.  Texans call the woods of this section The Great Pine Curtain.

In the late morning I stopped at the Big Thicket National Preserve run by the National Park Service. After a number of hours of driving over the last 24 hours, my right knee was getting very sore from just sitting in the same position. So it was time for me to get out and investigate the Thicket and do some hiking and flex the knee. The Thicket is a famous local ecosystem which is part of the lore on Eastern Texas and I’ve been wanting to see it for sometime. It’s a mixture of many different microclimates and landforms. Nothing particularly spectacular but very special. This is particularly true for anyone interested in the variety of biological systems that can be in close proximity to one another. 

Kirby Hiking Trail Loop

So I spent about half the day, in the Big Thicket, hiking trails and quietly taking it all in. It was good for body and soul. Then, in the later afternoon, I climbed back into the truck and drove until after sunset and into the night. Eventually, I parked at a Walmart north of Houston, Conroe, and called it a night.

The next morning I stopped near Navasota, Texas to visit an old friend from high school whom I hadn’t really seen in over 50 years other than for about 10 minutes at our 50th high school reunion. We spent about 24 hours together and thoroughly caught up on one another’s lives. Besides endless chatting, we drove around the rural area.  One spot we visited was which was Washington-On-The-Brazos the location where the Republic of Texas was founded.  My friend wanted me to walk thru their museum.  Very interesting. 

Founding of Texas Museum

She told me that Texas revolted when Mexico decided to end slavery.  This isn't much discussed by Texans but she's emphatic that this was the original motivation for independence. It doesn't fit the romantic narrative and so it glossed over....  That Slavery Subtext seems to be so much a part of this area's early history.  This portion of the trip has brought the institution of slavery forward in my mind.

My Friend's Living Room

A very good visit with my friend!  She has an interesting home which is a barn/house combo. She has a large living room/event space for weddings, conferences and other gatherings.  Very interesting.

It was so good to get to know her.  We both agreed that as teenagers we didn't really comprehend one another or many of our other classmates.  Now, in our early 70s, we were both hungry to learn each other's story and timeline.  A wonderful retrospective.