Natchez (2025) Movie Script
1
[distant steamboat horn]
[steamboat horn fades
to sound of calliope]
[calliope plays Ol' Man River ]
[women chattering]
Ladies.
[glass clinking]
I need everybody's
attention for just a minute
because you have a very, very
special guest here today.
Mayor of this grand city
of Natchez, Dan Gibson.
[applause]
How are y'all doing?
Great. It is so
good to be with you.
It is awesome.
And I always love being
with the Garden Club
because it always means a lot
of, a lot of fun conversation,
a lot of good food,
and also occasionally some good
planting tips.
If I could get everyone's
attention again.
Hello everybody.
By the way, guys,
this is my brother from
another mother.
[crowd laughs]
Elaine and I go way back.
I am excited that
Natchez is a new Natchez.
It is a Natchez that appreciates
and loves our history.
All of it,
even the bad.
But it is our history.
It is also a city
that believes in coming
together in love.
And if we ever needed it in
America, we need it today.
We need love.
[applause]
You know?
Gimme your hand.
Gimme your hand.
- [Garden Club lady] I love it.
- [Mayor Dan] You know, this is
what Natchez is right here.
Thank you.
[applause]
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll never...they'll?...
Than we'll never know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I think to myself
What a wonderful world
- [Rev] What y'all doing?
- [Tourist] We visitin'.
- [Rev] You're visiting?
- [Rev] Well, I'm the
guy you need to see.
- [Tourist] Okay. - [Rev] I am
Rev from Rev's Country Tours.
- [Rev] I am the best
tour guide in America.
- [Tourist] Okay.
- [Rev] And I do a comprehensive
historical tour of this place.
- [Rev] You know, there are more
millionaires here
- [Rev] than anywhere
else in the world.
- [Tourist] I heard.
- [Rev] Yeah.
- [Rev] There's more money
here than any place...
- [Tourist] We was gonna see
if they would drop us some.
- [Rev] Ain't that something.
Ain't no money here now.
- [Tourist] It's all gone.
- [Rev] No, it's gone.
There was once upon a time
- [Rev] It was. - [Tourist] This
was a rich place.
- [Rev] And so, you can't
talk about cotton without
talking about slaves.
- [Rev] So I'm gonna
get you that history.
- [Rev] Some of the downtown
businesses.
- [Tourist] Hey, we're from
- [Tourist] Alabama, so we
- [Rev] So y'all.
- [Rev] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So
y'all know the Southern history.
- [Rev] I should have
known by the hats, huh?
[laughs]
- [Rev] Some Southern belles?
- [Tourist] That's right.
- [Rev] Well good.
- [Tourist] I would
love to do that.
- [Tourist] I would love to. -
[Tourist] I would love to do
that.
- [To urist]You got three
ladies who want to join.
- [Rev] Hot diggity. We
gonna take some pictures,
- [Rev] I'm gonna send 'em to
Brenda. She gonna cook for two
weeks.
[laughs]
- [Rev] When she see me
with these pretty women,
she gonna say, "I gotta
get something on the stove."
Yeah, she know how to
keep old fat Tracy at home.
[laughs]
Welcome to Rev's Country Tours.
Welcome to Natchez,
Mississippi.
I'm Tracy. Everybody calls
me Rev. I'm a local pastor.
I've been in the same
church for 17 years,
and a former county
supervisor who realized
that he didn't know anything
about what he represented.
So I started little
pilgrimage to learn the history.
I thought it was
gonna be a couple
of weeks and a couple of books.
Ladies, that was in 2015.
And I'm still on the
same journey today.
So I went on
and combined the love for
history and the love for people
and that's how this was born.
What church do you pastor at?
East Mount Olive
Missionary Baptist Church
in Red Lick, Mississippi.
Redneck, Miss?
Red Lick. Red Lick.
Red Lick Mississippi.
I got 200 members.
70 of 'em come to
church, 30 of 'em pay money
and 2 of 'em do what I tell 'em.
[laughs]
[whimsical music]
There are only
14,000 people here.
So it's a small town.
But it's got a very old,
rich, deep peculiar,
and I do mean peculiar history.
I'm gonna share with y'all
just a little bit later.
They settled Natchez in 1716.
And that makes us
the oldest settlement
on the Mississippi River.
We've got New Orleans
beat by two years.
We have homes from every
period in American history.
Antebellums, Victorians,
even Colonials.
[music full of wonder
and anticipation plays]
I'm Tracy McCartney. I'm
very much a country girl.
I grew up poor.
We grew up literally at
the end of a dirt road.
My hoop skirt has
five steel hoops.
Seeing movies of the South
and of the antebellum times.
And of course, Scarlett,
everybody always thinks
of Scarlett O'Hara.
The ladies have someone
who dresses them
and someone who does their hair.
And I always thought,
you know how spoiled
that just seems like
a little over the top
until I first tried to put
this dress on.
And I tried
and I tried and I thought,
surely I can do this.
I've been dressing myself
for quite a number of years.
Okay, cool.
Cannot.
Absolutely impossible to do.
I'm getting ready for
Spring Pilgrimage.
And the Pilgrimage for
those of you who don't know,
it's held twice a year
when our pilgrims,
as we lovingly call them,
come from all over the world
to see these beautiful homes
and to experience the
culture of Natchez.
Welcome to Choctaw Hall.
Come on in.
Tha's your normal attire?
This ol' thing.
[door creaks]
We're at the home of David
Garner and Lee Glover.
- [Tracy] Hey ladies. How are
y'all?
- [Tourist] Good, how are you?
- [Tracy] Would y'all like to
take a tour of Choctaw Hall? -
[Tourist] Yes, we would, please.
Well, let me tell
you how Pilgrimage began.
[nostalgic music, bell rings]
In the 1800s, cotton was king.
It was a very,
very wealthy city.
Thus all of the
beautiful homes you see,
all the beautiful architecture.
But in the early 1930s when
the boll weevil came through
and destroyed all
of the cotton crops,
this city fell to its knees.
I mean, it really, really
devastated the economy.
So the Garden Clubs went on
a mission to save Natchez.
They decided to do garden tours.
And so all of the ladies worked
for months and months and
months.
Preparing their
gardens, planting, cleaning.
The azaleas were in full bloom.
All the gardens
here were pristine.
And as fate would have it,
[thunder and lightning crack]
It rained and rained.
All of the blooms were
laying on the ground.
The yards were a mess.
It was just a mudhole.
They're thinking, "Oh my
goodness, what do we do?"
But like any strong little
resilient Southern lady,
they thought,
"We're gonna do this."
"Ladies, clean your houses,"
"make some tea
cakes some punch."
"Spike it if you need,
whatever you need to do."
It became the tour of homes.
You know, they say the
little ol' society ladies
got together and
saved this city.
And they say it in jest.
But in a way it's true.
And it has been in existence
nonstop ever since.
Let me check and see if they're
ready for the next tour,
and you'll come in.
Good morning, girls.
Good to have y'all.
Well, we didn't get started.
We were gossiping.
Well, anyway. We'll
quit gossiping, y'all.
Where are you girls from now?
San Clemente, California
Oh way out yonder.
Well, I'm David Garner.
The other owner.
Mr. Glover and I maintain
Choctaw as our private home.
Let me tell you what,
this old house is a home.
My bulldog ran
and jumped on that
yellow Scalamandre sofa.
And the lady said, "Mr.
Garner, Mr. Garner,"
"your bulldog's up on
that gorgeous fabric."
I said, "She does
it all the time."
"Doesn't she have good taste?"
[laughs]
My grandmother was one of the
first families in the state of
Mississippi.
She definitely believed
and I totally agree.
My great-grandfather
and I were reincarnated.
We look exactly alike.
Wild. Hateful.
Arrogant. Overbearing.
Totally out of control.
I played it up, y'all.
And it paid off.
Don't you think?
My grandmother said that,
"The dining rooms of
Natchez, Mississippi"
"were the battlegrounds
of the aristocrats."
The more silver, the more
porcelain you could pile up,
the more affluent you appeared.
We even have turtle forks.
Have you ever seen
a turtle fork?
You don't see them
hardly at all.
Look. They look like
a terrapin turtle.
People get 'em confused
with ice cream forks.
They are similar,
the ice cream forks are larger.
But aren't they
the cutest thing?
[calliope plays]
Natchez is a lil blue
speck in a sea of red.
-Ahhh.
Natchez had the first
openly gay mayor
in the state of Mississippi.
Now Natchez don't really
need a mayor
as long as you got the president
of the Garden Club.
And the Garden
Club runs the city.
I call them the
blue-haired mafia.
[chuckles]
[fantastical music]
And most people don't understand
what our Garden
Clubs really are.
They're preservation
organizations.
And we own Stanton
Hall and Longwood
and maintain those houses.
And we own Natchez Pilgrimage
Tours, which is a tour agency.
So it is really a big business
that we're responsible for.
The people that own these homes.
You know, we're invested
in 'em a hundred percent.
They're part of
our personalities.
And we spend time talking
about the history to the point
that it feels like
it's still alive.
Hello. Hello.
Thank you for
coming to Glenfield.
My great-grandfather
bought this house,
bought it in 1865?
- No, he didn't.
When did he buy it? Excuse me.
1840?
Mother, 1880.
Are you okay?
Oh, it was fabulous.
Famous people,
Cecil DeMille was here.
He came and, well,
we had a fit over it.
And now governor would
come every Pilgrimage.
Oh, it was so exciting.
Cause see, I was in the fourth
grade when all that was going on
and just thought
it was wonderful.
Welcome to Green Leaves.
This is our family home.
- [Tourist] Oh, nice. -
[Homeowner] And Hazel and I are
the sixth
and seventh generation.
Every girl in Natchez
grew up, including myself,
wearing hoop skirts.
Look at the teeny tiny hoop
skirts. See? Isn't that cute?
They made these for us when
we were like two and three.
And so everybody has worn these.
Riding my tricycle when
I was five years old,
out at the home Arlington,
and then going in the house
and making up stories
as to why this dangled
and that looked blue.
Cause I didn't know what in
the world I was talking about.
I felt very close to
the Civil War growing up
because my great aunt
and my grandfather
grew up in this house
with their grandparents who
lived through the Civil War.
She'd be wearing this dress
and she'd be in the dining
room that was her room.
And she would tell how Union
soldiers broke into the house
and knocked her grandmother down
because her grandmother
wouldn't turn over the
keys to the soldiers.
So that particular war
was very real to me.
I've never seen
such a collection
of Confederate
uniforms and dresses.
- [Tourist] Right.
- [Tourist] It's wonderful.
The members of our Garden
Club select from our youth,
a king and queen of Pilgrimage.
These were actually
worn by queens
of Pilgrimage over the years.
So they're just a
beautiful assortment.
For many years, the young men
wore the Confederate uniform
and there's been a, a
move against...
lemme say, say this right.
Um...
How do I say this?
For many years,
the young men wore the costume,
or the, I'm sorry, wore the
uniform of their ancestors,
the Confederate uniform.
There's been a movement
in the past three
or four years to kind
of reduce the um...
I'm going to get
in trouble here.
Um...
There's been a movement
within the past five years to,
to take away,
um, no.
Ah!
[music plays, Todd
continues in the distance]
There's one thing
though, that I wanted to
take to my grave, but I, I am
outed. The city knows it.
And I was like, whoo.
I'm the first African
American woman in
this city
to become a member
of a Garden Club.
Garden Clubs in this town
are slaps in the face
to the African
American community.
- [Debbie] Yeah.
- [Tourist] Wow.
You know, they put
on the hoop skirts
and they sashay around.
I was working for
Monmouth Historic Inn.
So I'm finishing up a tour
on a particular afternoon,
and I say to my guest, "Oh,"
"and that is an original
slave dwelling."
And then I started to talk
about the enslaved woman Dicey
and how she loved her tobacco,
just telling the story.
And then they called me in
and they said, "Stick
to the script."
Oh my goodness.
Stick to the script.
Oh.
Today I wrote my own script.
This is my own slave dwelling.
And this slave dwelling sits
on the grounds of old Concord.
The big house burned in 1901.
I know that oftentimes
people come to Natchez
to see our big, beautiful homes.
But you come here
to see the kitchen,
you come here to
see the quarters.
You're coming here to
see my mother's collection
of china from the
A&P Grocery Store.
Huh?
There is no Old
Sev and Old Paris
and that sort of thing in here.
The enslaved worked in here
and they slept above.
Behind the big house is
the rest of the story.
Tourism is a
lifeline to the city,
but that's waned 30%
in the seven years or so.
It turns out that millennials
and generation Z folks,
them 20 something,
30 something year
olds, they're not
as interested in the
antebellum stories.
I call 'em the Gone
With the Wind stories
that are being told here
as the baby boomers are.
And Natchez has been
really reluctant
to expand the narrative, even
in the face of lost revenue.
- [Tourist] Okay. - [Rev] Which
is where I come in.
I'm about to violate some
Southern pride narratives
with truths and facts.
So hold your hat on!
So when you looking at
these houses, you going
through Natchez, understand
that they were built by slaves.
And that's the
piece of the history
that you don't get in
the antebellum houses.
They use the word
"servant" or "help."
But these are slaves.
Okay. This was Dr. Duncan's
servant.
That was their favorite servant.
He became the overseer
of this house.
They taught him
to read and write.
Those are his actual
writings right here.
Oh yes. Yeah.
And back then it
was against the law.
- [Tourist] Yes, that's what I
wanted to know. - [Tour guide]
Uh huh.
So Dr. Duncan, he
was good to his people.
[phone rings]
Good afternoon. This
is Auburn, this is Gwyn.
Yeah. This will be our
last day to stay open.
[cash register dings]
I've been a member
here 40 years.
For years we made really,
really, you know, good.
And we could pay our bills.
But when you get to where you
can't pay your bills...
Duh.
[laughs]
We're all gonna miss doing this.
But it's just gotten to the
point where we're all...
I hate to say this, we're
getting all too old.
I guess there's are't
politically correct anymore.
I'm guessing.
What can you say?
You know, older people
sometimes wants it
to remain the same,
but regardless of what you want,
you can't live in the past.
- [Tourist] This is it. -
[Tourist] This is it. This is
it. - [Tourist]Tragic. It's
tragic.
I hope somebody keeps
it open to the public so
that we can see the history.
Instead of rewriting history,
we continue the history.
From the back, where we from?
- [Tourist] Little Rock, Hot
Springs. - [Tourist] This is
Hamburg, Arkansas.
Arkansas, Arkansas.
I think we're all Arkansas.
I think we're all from Arkansas.
Ohhhh,
Sweee'
Pig!
[laughs]
Wonderful. Wonderful.
I ain't got no damn
Yankees on here,
this gonna be a good tour.
[laughs]
Hey, how did they
make their money?
Oh, I'm gonna tell you, baby.
When I get through with you,
you gonna be able to buy a van
and be my competition.
- [Tourist] There you go.
-[Rev] Yes sir.
- [Tourist] I'm very
inquisitive. - [Rev] So well
just ask away.
By 1815, the textile
mills in Manchester,
England are producing
90% of the cloth
for the entire continent.
I said, the continent of Europe.
And the number one raw material
for the cloth is?
Cotton.
Grown in the Southern states.
The demand for cotton
becomes insatiable.
Newspaper ads in Natchez
say, "Buy more slaves,"
"to grow more cotton,
to buy more slaves,"
"to grow more
cotton, to buy more"
"slaves, to grow more cotton."
And the Cotton Kingdom,
my dear friends, is born.
[morning birds chirp]
First of all, I want to thank
you for coming to Melrose.
My name is Barney and
I'll be your tour guy.
[key chain clatter]
Anytime you're open
for public tours,
you're gonna have the
whole world come in
and they're all gonna
have their own education
and their own experiences
and their own expectations.
We can never be
everything to everybody.
I mean, I will speak as a
Southerner and as a
Mississippian.
Natchez is a
complicated little town.
Because of tourism,
Natchez swallowed a master
narrative about the Old South.
We all wanna be rich and
we want to be princesses
and live in palaces.
If it's a fairytale,
that's one thing.
But if it's what you then
decide is truth,
then that can be
much more dangerous.
[whimsical music plays]
The first time I
put this dress on,
as an older woman, I probably
felt the most beautiful
and ladylike that I've
ever felt in my life.
- [Tracy] Hello. [Natchezians]
How you doing? Beautiful.
It changes the way
people look at me
and it changes the way,
I feel about myself.
I grew up always knowing
that I was adopted.
I didn't know any specifics
because it was a very
taboo subject back then.
So I've struggled with a lot
of thing about myself.
So when I put on this dress,
I felt like I belonged.
Like I did fit in.
Natchez, Mississippi
was built upon ambition.
This lady from up
North, she said,
"Why is it that all
of you Southern"
"-- little Southern gentleman,"
"why are y'all
always so arrogant?"
I said, "Honey,
we're not arrogant,"
"you're totally misconstrued."
"We're just proud of
what we accomplished."
And that's the truth.
There's a great
deal of difference.
Cause let me tell
you, look around.
We worked our butts
off for what you see
for seven generations.
And still working 'em off
to keep it above water.
[fanciful music plays]
[laughs]
We better not stay too long.
[laughs]
[watering plants]
David Garner at Choctaw,
they throw me good
pieces of business
from time to time.
Every effort is made to be
civil and sweet,
but my interactions
with the Garden Club
folks are a surface level.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We enjoyed it.
All righty. Thank
you, my friends.
I don't live in Natchez.
Natchez is in Adams County.
32 miles from where I
live in Jefferson County.
Alright, doc. What's
happeni'?
I'm still at school.
- [Rev] You still there?
- [Local Man] Yes, sir.
[Rev] It been a long time, ain't
it? - [Local Man] Yes, sir.
So Jesus, he say,
"Who do men say"
"that I the son of man am?"
Cause he knew who he was.
Yes, sir.
Listen, let me help
y'all with a lil history.
You know, I'm a big
time history buff.
One of the master's main
tactics was to get us
to hate one another.
The light-skinned slave better
than the dark-skinned slave.
The house slave better
than the field slave.
The old better than the young,
the female better than the male.
And resentments would arise.
But it really wasn't
about hating one another,
it was about hating ourselves.
See, it don't matter what
the world call Christ.
Tha's right.
In fact, let me help you.
It don't matter
what they call you.
[light applause]
Huh?
And you can't let other people's
opinion determine your
outlook on who you are.
Huh?
[The band plays
Something's Got A Hold On Me]
Something's Got A Hold on Me
Trouble in my way
congregation:
Trouble in my way
I got to cry sometimes
congregation: I got
to cry sometimes
Hey, so much trouble
congregation:
Trouble in my way
Our Father God bless this food
and let it nourish our body,
entire soul.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
[Re's family laughing
and chattering]
I know that my Jesus
congregation: Jesus,
he will fix it
I know my savior
will fix it.
congregation: Jesus,
he will fix it
After while
[Rev finishes song and prayer]
[tiny roars at each other]
[insects and birds]
Did y'all enjoy your tour?
- We did. Thank you.
- [Tracy] Thank you so much for
coming. - [Tourist] Thank you.
[door creaking]
As I said before, I grew
up in a very small town.
At the time that I met my
husband,
he was much older than me
and is in the oil and gas
business.
When we married,
we visited Natchez
very, very often
and was looking for a place.
And one of the ladies
from the Garden Club,
a past president, invited me
to join the Pilgrimage
Garden Club.
[laughs and chatter]
So we bought the
condo here in Natchez.
17 years we've been married
and um,
you know, w're having
some really hard times,
but neither one of us have
have drawn a line in the sand.
[semi tense music]
[hoop skirt dragging
on concrete]
You know? We'll, we'll
see what happens.
Franklin, Armfield, and Ballard.
They could buy a slave in
Virginia for $600
and sell the same slave
in Mississippi for $2,000.
They can almost
triple their money.
So the cheapest way
and the most common way
to get slaves in the deep
South was to make them walk.
One million and one half million
people walked.
800 plus miles
barefoot and in chains into
the cotton fields and the
sugarcane plantations
of the deep South.
And it's gonna take nine weeks.
The second largest domestic
slave market in the history
of America was right
here in Natchez.
And it was called the
Forks of the Road.
We right in the
middle of it now.
And this is the market itself.
Please guys, do not allow
the size of this place
to betray the magnitude
of what happened here.
The total number is 750,000.
That's three quarters of a
million human beings,
men and women, boys and girls
who are bought and
sold at this very site
on their way to servile
labor until they die.
The slaves came here bound
at five points. Both ankles.
Both ankels,
both wrists and
around their necks.
And then a chain between us
and one going back
50 people deep.
The neck collars and
ankle braces are riveted
on by a blacksmith.
By the time slaves get to
Natchez, this iron is season
with flesh and with blood.
And people ask,
"Why would you harm a product
you're trying to sell?"
Well, how do you control
6 to 10,000 people for 30 years?
You control them with
violence and fear.
This is a Park Service site.
They already started
buying properties around it
to make this the premier slave
market museum in the country.
They're trying to
buy these businesses,
but the people
are gonna try to hold off
for more money.
From this point here,
every plot of land
that you can see
with your eyes, all
of these are slave
trading companies.
Franklin, Armfield,
and Ballard's Southern
Office, was where
that red muffler shop
is across the street.
[phone rings]
Hello, Natchez Exhaust.
Okay, that'd be cool.
Alright, Barbara,
thank you, baby.
I'm Gene Williams.
I own Natchez Exhaust.
Across the street
from the slave market.
The state park.
They made some offers
on my property,
and, uh, it was a joke.
[pensive music]
I have been working
with the Forks of the Road
for 18 years now.
Land acquisition is a slow
and complicated process.
And so the challenge is
always to find sellers
who are willing and to have
an appraised market value,
which is what we can pay that
meets their expectations.
Well, I mean, I've made a
living here all my adult life.
You can't just up and move a
business, you know, you got
to rebuild your business again.
And at 64, I don't feel like
rebuilding anything, you know?
They're going here and,
and try to buy me out
for this much money.
And then they'll
spend this much money
redoing everything that's here.
And I told the guys, I said,
"What I look like some poor
old, dumb country guy"
"with my bib overalls on"
"and chewing tobacco"
"running down my lip"
going, well, yeah,
I'll take that"
"for it, if you
just gimme that."
And I'm going,
No, I don't want that.
The National Park Service is
in the forever business.
And every parcel
has its own stories
and its own complications.
Across the road is
where Franklin, Armfield,
and Ballard were located.
And Franklin and Armfield
were the largest slave traders
in the United States.
They became millionaires
off of human trafficking.
I don't know what
that Forks of the Road is
supposed to prove.
I think it's just like
everything else they said
they're promoting the memory of
something that was bad,
tha's over and done with.
And I hate it. I wasn't
here. None of us were here.
Had I been here,
I wouldn't have done it.
Just have to keep
reminding people of
what happened a
hundred years ago,
and if it's a bad, bad thought,
don't remind them of it.
You gonna take down
all the statues,
take down all the statues.
You're gonna go build
something there to promote
what they're taking
the statues down about.
Why would they do that?
That's, that's kind of
what my thoughts about it.
I'm not trying to be a racist.
I'm not trying to be
anything like that.
I'm just sayi'.
[pensive music]
I thought about maybe just
opening up my own
Forks of the Road over here.
It'd be different than that.
[laugh]
I hope I'm around
when they finish the
Forks of the Road project,
when it's developed.
Cause man,
that's gonna be,
that's gonna be mind boggling.
That land literally has
our blood in it.
Literally.
Literally has our blood in it.
that story may still
be lost to time.
The enslaved ancestors
here asked the question,
"Who is going to
tell their story?"
And I said, "I would."
[pensive music continues]
And from that time on, I'm
waging a protracted struggle
to bring the Forks of the Road
from forgotten
to a National Park Service park.
From here on out,
for as long as your generation
and your generation's generation
exists, they're gonna have
to tell our story here.
Boxley fought for that.
I mean, he fought hard for that.
And he has been
working with politicians.
He has worked with
nonprofit groups tirelessly
for more than 30 years
to call attention
to this forgotten site.
However, Natchez city itself
was an enslavement selling
market up until the Franklin
and Armfield people brought in
enslaved persons with cholera
that led to banning the selling
of enslaved African
within the city limits.
So there were enslaved persons
sold all over the whole city.
This is my spot, so to speak.
And it's been a long time
that I've sat here
avenging the ancestors.
I'm a Christian woman
and I see him as
a biblical prophet
because that's what
the prophets did.
They were all about pointing
out to the status quo
that they were not fulfilling
their mission of justice.
[shower of clanking metal]
Okay. Slaves came here bound
at five points, both wrists,
both ankles, and around
their neck.
Talki' about the
cussing preacher?
[small laugh]
No, I haven't done, I know,
I know the, I know him.
He's, he's a good guy.
He seems to be doing
well with this.
- May I borrow you?
They would've come
in columns of two.
You can hear him
hollering over here.
A lot of folks come there to
stand and listen
to ol' Rev's story.
So there's a common
misconception
that everybody White in
the South had a slave.
Only 5% of Southerners
ever owned slaves.
Now everybody White in
America benefited from the
institution of slavery then
and today. America status as
the richest nation on earth,
the first big pot of money
that existed on this continent
or in America was cotton.
And cotton can't exist without?
Hmm? Say it.
- [Students] Slaves. - [Rev]
Slaves. So it is right, fair,
true,
just, equitable to say
that America's wealth
was built upon the
backs' of the enslaved.
[ethereal music]
I always loved the
antebellum homes.
Cause as a matter of fact,
my mother spent some
time working in one
of the antebellum homes.
She worked there for
more than 30 years.
And I would go to work with her
and I thought,
"Wow, you know,"
"'d like to own
of these one day."
And then several years
ago, we were driving around
and I saw the top
of the columns here.
You couldn't see anything else
because it was just
covered in vines.
And we crept in and I
thought, "Oh my God."
And I called my
husband right away.
I said, "Oh, Gregory, you
should see this place."
"We could bless a bride."
Plantation style
weddings were really big.
And he says, "We aren't
blessing anybody."
"Get in the car and come home."
You know, when we bought
the place, I was so proud.
And then I start to ask
questions about the property.
We find then that it
is a slave dwelling.
And then we find an inventory
of 124 enslaved African American
men, women, and children.
of 124 enslaved African American
men, women, and children.
of 124 enslaved African American
men, women, and children.
I didn't know what
to do with that.
When I found that it
was a slave dwelling, I,
I didn't know how
to handle that.
Cause I'd gotten a lot of
pushback from my people.
My grandfather, he
was born in slavery.
He didn't talk about it.
And I'd ask him even, "Papa,
what was your dad's name?"
Totally embarrassed
the gentleman was. And he'd
say, "O' master Jones, gal."
"Now get away from here." Yeah.
Here I was living in history.
And so my emotions are
all over the place.
I was in tears. I was
sitting there crying.
I go to Walmart and there's
this colorful gentleman
at Walmart and he says,
"I heard what you were doing."
It was Ser Boxley.
And Boxley says to me,
"These buildings are worthy"
"of preservation."
Still people don't understand
it until they come.
[gently uplifting music]
[rodeo chatter]
You know, and some people
would be offended by this,
but this just smells
like home to me.
- [Tracy] I love it. I do.
- [Friend] Me too.
Aw.
Welcome to the Tiger Den!
It's homecoming!
[school marching band plays]
[classical piano music]
[distant dance music]
I can tell you what causes
sodomizes to kill themselves.
And you ought to humble yourself
instead of being proud
of your perversion.
[dance music louder]
Welcome ladies and gentlemen.
How are y'all
doing this evening?
[loud applause]
Thank y'all so much for
supporting the LGBTQ plus
community.
We're here to have a good time.
We're here to raise a
lot of money for
Y'all Means All Natchez.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Choctaw Hall is one
of our sponsors this evening.
First of all, you two
kids, if you have not been
to see this, oh
my God, stand up.
I wanna know how long
it takes you to run
up that platform to get to him.
That is a mountain worth
climbing right there. I swear.
[fanfare plays]
I am not gonna tell
you how things are, God.
If you make me a
man, then I'm a man.
And if you make me a
woman, I'm a woman.
I love to receive.
I love the beautiful
homes, the beautiful dress.
[sigh]
I love Pilgrimage.
I do miss it. But I have gone
through a recent divorce.
We had a prenup.
I'm at a financial point
where I need to make a living.
Wouldn't all fit on the truck.
Everything that would go
on the truck...
...is there.
But I have one more trip.
I'm downsizing my life.
You know, I don't have to
have a lake house and a boat.
What I do have to have is peace.
I am gonna sort through
and keep the things that
really are special to me.
And then the things
that are not,
I'm just gonna
sell 'em at Kress.
It's a consignment store.
I'll just turn it into cash.
Some days I do really
well. Some days not.
But I gonna be alright.
Yep.
[hip hop plays from car]
By the time the war starts,
half a Natchez is already Union.
A little blue speck
in a sea of red today.
By 1862, the secessionists here
have to make a choice.
My Southern pride or my
million dollar bank account.
I'm gonna give you five
seconds to figure that one out.
Ray Charles can see who gonna
win the war. Stevie Wonder
wouldn't wonder who
gonna win the war.
One more time in
war, poor people die,
so rich people can stay rich.
1865, the Civil War ends
that ushers us into a period
called Reconstruction.
During Reconstruction, Natchez,
I told you it was peculiar.
Natchez get a Black
mayor, a Black sheriff,
a Black tax assessor,
a Black chancery
clerk, Hiram Revels,
first Black man
in the US Senate.
Natchez. John R. Lynch,
first Black man in US House
of Representatives,
Natchez. JB Banks,
first Black physician in
Natchez. Schools,
haberdasheries, grocery stores,
apothecaries, blacksmith shops,
lawyers, banks, and doctors.
Pump your brakes, Rev.
Slow down.
[laughs]
How you move from being a
slave, to having economic
and political power in the
richest city in the world?
Now that does not happen
anywhere else in the South
like it does in Natchez.
Upper mobility for
newly freed slaves
throughout the
South was evident.
But a mayor, a congressman,
a sheriff. Hell no.
Hell no, I say!
[laughs]
I'm gonna require a bit
of brutal honesty from
you for just a moment.
Who do you think wants what's
happening in Natchez
to spread throughout
the rest of the country?
- [Rev] No,
- [Tourist] Nobody.
- If it happened today,
who do you think will
want it to spread?
And I, I fear the answer
would be the same.
And so the aristocracy,
they have to stop it.
[piano plays softly]
You come here and you get
away from the current year,
Current events.
You go, you go back.
I feel like I have stepped
out of the current mess
and muddle and I have gone
back in this lovely way.
To a lovely world.
And I can pick and
choose what I want to
- [Tourist] think about.
- [Tourist] That's right.
Nowhere in America is
everything beautiful.
But Natchez.
I mean, you think
about the lives
we've learned about here.
- [Tourist] Yeah, I know. -
[Tourist] Although they lived in
amazing beauty,
their lives were
turned upside down,
destroyed by current events.
We have the luxury
of removing ourselves from
our unsightly current events
and going back and
enjoying just the beauty
- [Tourist] That's true.
- [Tourist] of their time.
Cheers!
[pensive music]
The history that they learned
and the history
that they believe
is now being yanked
out from under them.
That's how people experience it.
This change that they feel
is being forced on them.
And it's hard work to come
to a point where you're able
to say, "The history I
learned was a mythological"
"construct that was
used to sell tickets."
[semi tense music]
Welcome to the family dining
room here at Magnolia Hall.
There would've been
12 bells in the house.
One for each room of the house.
The bells for what?
Oh, I'm sorry to call servants,
call the servants.
Yes sorry about
that. Yes indeed.
[many different bells ring]
I think ours sound
better than the
Downton Abbey chime
that they had.
That's the tea closet.
At the time it
would've been locked.
Cause, y'all, tea
and sugar were so
expensive during that time
that you couldn't afford
for even a little bit of it
to get pilfered by the servants.
So the lady of the house
would've worn that key
around her neck as I do today.
Do you know what a punkah is?
Some of the homes
here have the punkah
to shoo away the flies.
These originated in India.
So a servant would've stood
to one side of the room
and pulled on the rope.
The punkah goes back and forth.
It would, number
one, cool the guests.
But it was also to keep the
flies and keep the air fanned.
Ladies and gentlemen,
this punkah fan,
Mary McMurran wrote this.
She says, "You know when
the slave is doing it right?"
"When they don't blow the
candles out."
That's the trick.
This was a job. And his job
title was called the punkah
wallah
Punkah's fan. Wallah's
work. Operate.
Punkah wallah.
That was the name of the job.
It was a child.
How do we know it?
She wrote it.
Think about this.
Why a child?
Why a child?
First of all, it's a slave.
Alright? It's a child.
Small. Look at that corner.
Inconspicuous, out the way.
Illiterate. Can't read or write.
Not a person.
Harmless.
Newsflash.
Ladies and gentlemen, ain't
never met a harmless child in my
life.
I don't care if he is a slave.
He's a child.
Children are
intuitively inquisitive.
We're loose at dinner.
Things are coming out.
This child can't read or write.
But words have meanings that
cause an action. I repeat.
Words have meanings
that cause an action.
That's how children
learn. Their products
of not only their
environment, but the culture
and their language
of their environment.
That's how they learn.
This kid is no different.
He's a slave, but
he's no different.
What do you think is gonna
happen when that kid goes
back to the quarters at night?
Man, this kid,
"Man, y'all not gonna believe
what happened last night."
Information is power.
Information is power.
Information is power.
Information is power.
Information is power.
-That's right.
Especially to a race a
people that can't read or write
and it's against the
law to teach 'em.
It's power.
How do I know this?
Why is this park ranger
saying all this?
Simple.
Read John Roy Lynch.
What was John Roy Lynch
job as a child, as a slave?
What was John Roy Lynch's job?
He was at a house called
Dunleith on Homochitto.
What did John Roy Lynch do?
He was a punkah wallah.
He operated the fan.
What did John Lynch do?
Freed himself from slavery
and joined the Union Army.
What did John Lynch do?
Became a postmaster general
during the war in Natchez.
What did John Lynch do?
He became a United
States congressman,
legislator outta Reconstruction.
What did John Lynch do?
He later left
Reconstruction, left politics,
became an attorney
and moved to Chicago
and practiced law for
38 years in Chicago.
What was his job as a child?
A punkah wallah.
A slave punkah wallah.
- Wow. Jesus.
One of our goals is
to try to raise the bar.
To talk about slavery
as a part of every tour.
And I think that some
of the other museum houses in
town move in that direction.
Well, you know,
with mixed results.
This painting of a Black man.
There's only three in
the state of Mississippi.
And by the way, that white
is, I think a reflect,
reflection on his lip.
Not necessarily his teeth.
I was very resistant
to talking about enslavement
because I had so few facts.
But we've gotten
braver over the years.
All of us who from the South
and who come from families
who were plantation owners
in the 19th century
have to deal with the issue of
slavery, chattel slavery.
It's obviously
not a nice system.
Landsdown was my
great-great grandparents' house.
He had a lot of
plantations, owned a huge,
horrible number of slaves.
And, and yeah, that's my
history. That's part of my
history.
And I have to tell it
as much as I hate it.
And the other part
of our story is about
the African Americans
who lived here at
Green Leaves with the family.
Unfortunately, one of
'em we know was not happy
because this is Matilda
who ran away in 1850
and this is an advertisement
for her return.
Alright, this is what I
ring when I want someone
to bring me a Diet Coke.
[bell clangs]
Welcome to the summer kitchen.
This is an original dependency,
as we say in Natchez,
or outbuilding of Gloucester.
In National Geographic 1949,
check out this gorgeous picture.
There is an actress
portraying the shucking of
all these vegetables right
by the fire during
Pilgrimage one time.
Isn't that lovely?
Here I am with this
slave dwelling.
So I said, "Oh, you know,"
"I'm gonna invite the
Garden Club ladies out here"
"to see this house."
And I did.
Now, I love how Debbie
has gone through
because the unique history
of this property here.
I would say the majority of us
that have these other homes
don't really have
that type of opportunity to
focus on what she can focus on.
But we have the
responsibility of doing
what we've got at
our places as well.
Anyway, you know, the
thing I like about Debbie
is the one thing we have in
common is that we both seem
to just have our own ideas
and our own research,
and then we just do
whatever we want.
Mmhmm.
I find that very fun about you.
Thank you.
[chuckle]
Thank you.
I am fun, fun, fun.
I'm fun Debbie.
That's just who I am.
She went over to our
house to visit it,
but I didn't even
get to meet her then.
When you're telling
a story about,
say, a kitchen,
a Black woman's kitchen,
for me, you bring
a Black person in
to talk about the kitchen.
And you say to me,
"Well, you come and you do it."
I don't have time to tell
the story for your kitchen,
but I'm almost certain
your guest would most probably
be more receptive
of a Black person, woman
in that kitchen
telling your story.
That's all.
We probably have two different
kinds of people coming.
Some who just wanna
look at pretty things
and some who wanna,
I don't know.
I beg to differ there now.
I know who comes
to my house though,
For the last three Pilgrimages.
Yeah, well, well I
know who comes here
and I know, you know
what I'm saying?
Now, I'm not being
argumentative. I don't want do
that.
- [Homeowner] Oh no.
- [Debbie] Okay. No.
What I, what I want to say
is that a lot of people come
to Natchez and they, and
they see the pictures.
They're not even oftentimes
reading anything about it.
They see that, that mansion.
So they come here
to find,
"Oh it's a slave quarter."
I have people who stay with
me who have no idea.
Yeah, because it's, yes, because
it's concealed by design.
What's frustrating to
me is reading the stories
of the enslaved people.
We're at least getting
to learn some names,
but we don't have, it
frustrates me to know,
we don't know what
they look like.
We don't have a portrait
of any of them or a
and I, I kind, it's
the way it was.
But I'm like, what do you do?
Do you have a
silhouette created?
Is there something to, to
symbolize someone without it?
I'll never have something real.
Or do you just honor the name
or what little bit you know?
You certainly do. Yeah.
You answered your
own question. That is
exactly what you do.
I don't know how
y'all feel about it,
but I like how Helen Smith,
I thought she said it well.
She said, "There's
clearly examples"
"of there being great
affection, you know,"
"between people in the home."
"But she says affection
will never be a"
"substitute for freedom."
Right. - And I thought that
was a nice way to say it.
But you at least like to hope
there's affection. It
makes you feel a little...
Now of course...
Gloucester was built in 1803
and the Emancipation
Proclamation was in 1863.
So it did have
slavery for 60 years.
But then, from
then on, from 1863
to 1920, when they built
an indoor kitchen, finally,
they had, you know, paid
servants out there working in
that
very primitive kitchen.
- [Homeowner] Some stayed on and
just, you know, got paid. I'm
sure. - [Debbie] Okay.
Surely not much. But got paid
and stayed on with the
family long after the war.
We pay our housekeeper,
she doesn't come for free.
Mmhmm.
Mmhmm k.
It was like a nightmare today.
By the time you got here, I
wanted to just burst into tears.
- [Debbie] I did.
- [Friend] Poor baby.
And I mean, cause it,
this shit is hard.
Then you have to sit in here
and listen to all
that old Karen stuff.
Mmhmm.
So she bought a house and
she doesn't know. That's it.
She knows the history of
her house, she knows.
And that is so it. The
lingo, it's not proper.
The things she needs to,
she needs some, she needs
to go get some help with
that because it's offensive.
It, it truly is.
And I was trying not to
be so offended in my home
as well as not to offend her.
That woman made me so...
[laughs]
I don't usually
get that rattled.
Oh, but that is so...that's it.
Bless her heart.
And I'm gonna send
her some candy,
some cookies or something.
Don't send her no
candy and cookies.
Send her a book.
So she need to be educated.
Oh!
[calliope plays]
Perfect.
[workout video
instructor and beat]
[marching band music]
[laughs]
[balloon gas and
festival sounds]
Live in Natchez,
Mississippi, yo.
[Keep On Rollin' by
King George plays]
Alright, take your
time as you exit.
The old aristocracy,
they went from have to have not.
75 years of absolute wealth
and power ended in four
years of war.
At Melrose, they're planting
tomatoes after the war to pay
taxes.
What do you think the first
thing was on the aristocracy's
mind?
How do I get it back?
By 1890, all 13 ex
Confederate states passed the
Mississippi Plan.
And it becomes the law
of land in the South.
These new constitutions in
the South will forbid Black
representation on the
state, federal, local level.
Just like that. All those
elected officials sit down.
I's goi' to create
voter suppression laws,
literacy tests, and poll taxes.
No more Black voting.
White only, and
Color only bathrooms.
Limited access to
public facilities.
A Black man can't wear a
white shirt on Sunday morning.
If you were walking
down the sidewalk
and I approached you, I
had to step into the street
bow my head, called you Miss.
If I looked in your eyes,
Constitutional law called
that "Simple Assault."
You told I went to
jail. Hello Karen.
[laughs]
She born right here in Natchez.
The most insidious
thing it did was
to rewrite criminal
justice codes
called Black codes
for Black people.
This will elevate
misdemeanors to felonies
and create inmate lease
programs so that state prisons,
county jails and local jails
can rent inmates to farmers.
That set of laws had a name.
And it was not the name of
a human. It was the name
of a minstrel act where an
actor put on blackface and,
and pasted feathers on his arms
danced around as a buffoon.
And it was called Jim Crow.
Jim Crow
Ah.
So Jim Crow was not some
spotty municipal ordinance,
social norm or custom. Jim Crow
was constitutional law in the
whole deep South
from 1890 to 1965.
Yeah. I was born in 1964.
It was not until LBJ signed
the Voting Rights Act in '64
and Civil Rights Act in '65
that Jim Crow got
wiped off the books.
It was too late. It was a scar.
It was a wound on
the soul of America.
75 years of government
sanctioned, institutionalized,
systemic racism, and white
supremacy had done its
dastardly deed.
America is still segregated.
There are Black schools,
White schools, Black churches,
White churches, Black
neighborhoods, White
neighborhoods
to this very day in Natchez.
Well, it's got to be on purpose.
Well, but I, you
know, I mean like,
I mean like, are there,
you know, new, new developments
that actual, that White
and Black people are living?
- [Rev] I mean, there are
exceptions - [Tourist] Sign that
says?
- [Rev] No, there's no signs. -
[Tourist] You know what I mean?
But Jim Crow was ingrained
into America's psyche, culture,
heart, mind, and
it's still there.
[pensive music]
Y'all got any questions,
comments, anything?
You ain't gonna get a whole
lot of opportunities to talk
to an articulate Black man
about this kind of stuff.
So go ahead.
- [Tourist] How do you turn that
around? - [Tourist] Yeah.
Oh baby. If I knew, I'd be rich.
Oh I know that.
But I mean, it starts with
sitting down and talking,
just like you said.
It does.
And I, but then, but then
you have to focus more on,
you feel like education?
I always felt like
education was - Was the key?
- [Tourist] Was the key.
- [Rev] Yeah. I think so.
The whole family idea.
- [Tourist] Women having
numerous children. - [Rev] Sure.
- [Tourist] And with no father.
Yeah. You know, I
mean that, that's
Well, they got fathers.
- [Tourist] Well, yeah. Yeah.
- [Rev] They all,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Rev] They're not in the home.
They're absent. - [Tourist]
Right.
Right, right, right,
right, right, right, right.
And that's designed, you see,
if you want to kill a snake,
do you cut the tail
off of the head?
- [Tourist] Right, sure.
- [Rev] You cut the head off.
And so the cradle to the
prison pipeline, the injection
of drugs and, and, and poverty
and the gentrification in
communities, and the redlining,
all that stuff works just fine.
I get thousands of people,
I've done these tours in
the last eight years or so,
and I get this comment
a bit repetitively
where folks say, "Well what
Black people need to do is this"
"or this or this to
solve this problem."
But y'all understand
that Black people
didn't create the problem.
White people
created the problem.
And so if it's gonna be solved,
White folks gonna
have to solve it.
- [Tourist] Well along with
Black people - [Rev] Lemme
finish.
Let me finish.
Black people don't
have enough money
or power to solve the problem.
And so the inequities
that exist in our culture
will require something
that I think is
gonna be difficult.
And that's White folks gonna
have to give up something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Opportunity,
wealth, all those things.
And who wants to give
up anything that they
feel like they've worked for?
- [Rev] You know what I'm
saying? - [Tourist] Sure. -
[Rev] And so how you fix it,
man,
that's, that's real tough.
I welcome those conversations.
And sometimes after the
tours, I'm a little sad
because I feel like
w've made a connection
and now it has to end.
You gotta analyze as
you're talking to people.
And it's, it is almost an art
what they're able to bear.
You know, you get more
from non-verbal cues than
you do verbal cues so,
I'm really in tune
to them while I'm talking.
That's how I know
when to shut up.
Did you ever pick cotton, Rev?
- [Rev] No sir.
- [Tourist] I have.
- [Tourist] My grandmother did.
Okay. I took you to the
highest point on the bluff
and this is the lowest point.
Did you ever do Choctaw Hall?
Yeah, we did it yesterday.
Have you taken the tour?
Oh man, I've been in that
house many, many times.
Many times. I don't think
David does the same thing
with me there as
he does without me.
Cause I've had people come back
and say, you know, "He made
some blatantly racist comments."
I always picture him as
just trying to portray
what a Southern
aristocratic gentleman, how
they would talk.
As opposed to being him.
I mean he gay in America still.
Y'all will get to know
him a little bit more
and maybe you can see
if there's a real him
or if that is the real him.
Jacques Petit loved
monkeys. He owned three.
He made scent bottles
with rose oil in the
shapes of monkeys.
Look at her. She's
dressed in royal clothes.
Her top comes off.
Pour rose oil.
Look, she's got a flask in
her hand. She's smashed.
You can tell by lookin' at her.
And look how beautifully signed
she is.
Look at her face.
Isn't she hysterical?
I mean, this girl is blitz.
And what's so interesting is
it's cracked and crazed.
You can still smell rose oil.
Yes.
Isn't that great?
Don't ya love it?
I feel like I'm doing Communion.
Oh wow.
Wouldn't I have made
a good priest? I'd love it.
[laughs]
But have you been in
Choctaw too? - Yes.
- [Homeowner] Did you see David?
- [Tourist] Oh yes. Yes.
Very entertaining. The biggest
characters you'll ever meet.
- [Tourist] He's a nice guy.
- [Homeowner] Yeah, he is.
And believe it or not, he
took a bunch of stuff out.
- [Tourist] Yeah?
- [Homeowner] He did.
- [Tourist] Well he said,
- "The hoop skirt mafia made
him take a lot of things out."
-[laughs]
They got onto him all the
time about inappropriate words
that he might use.
- [Tourist] Oh. - [Homeowner]
And he didn't like that at all.
So he was reprimanded
numerous times over his tours.
- [Homeowner] But everybody
loves his tours. - [Tourist] Oh,
yeah.
He just says it like it is.
He's entertaining.
- [Homeowner] Bye-Bye. Bye.
- [Tourist] Thank you.
Y'all come back now, ya hear?
In recognition
and appreciation for their
many contributions to our city.
Don't start doing that,
you're gonna make me...
We honor Deborah Cosey
with this key to the city.
[applause]
Wow. I'm so overwhelmed.
Natchez is a place of
healing of the ugly past.
And yes, I am the first
African American woman
to be a member of the
Pilgrimage Garden Club.
And then when they're surly,
my friend here, he'll tell you,
I do this for them
and then I break 'em
down if they wanna be ugly.
Oh, freedom
Oh, freedom
Oh, freedom
Over me
And before I'd be a slave
Said I'd be
buried in my grave
and go home,
home to my Lord
and I'd be free.
[applause]
I have really bad days sometimes
When I think I'm going
to just be this little
wimpy girl, woman
or whatever, it's like I'm tired
and I can't do this
anymore and I can't go.
I think of them.
The enslaved people here.
Flora Upshaw.
Hester Williams.
George and Charity Martin.
I give honor to them.
I say their names.
I ask for their guidance.
[little cry chuckle]
You know...
These were handmade.
They made these
bricks. You know?
[rope swing creaking and birds]
[ethereal music]
One day I was out here
as I am every morning
and a van drove up.
I introduced myself and as
it turns out, I'm Tracy.
He's Tracy. So we chatted
for a little while
and you know, I had wanted
to do his tour since then.
I love learning about all
of the beautiful architecture
that's here and the
culture of our city.
Well, y'all know my,
my name is Tracy Collins
and I'm a local pastor here
and a bit of a historian.
The fastest growing cash
crop in the state is the
Southern Pine.
My very first job was
in the pulp woods.
Shut up. You ain't
been in no woods, girl
Before.
You a Beverly Hillbilly.
My dad loaded the truck
and then my mom drove
the truck to the,
to the mill the next
morning and unloaded it.
Look, I hauled wood for one day.
The next day I went
and got in college.
Right. [laughs]
By the time slavery
moves from the east
to the south, the chains
aren't on their arms anymore,
the chains are on their minds.
[captivating music]
You been in Melrose?
I have not.
It's so sad that people can
be so, you know, so cruel.
He said some things that made
me think about it a little
differently than
what I had before.
You know, I just can't
imagine the slaves.
I mean, how do you
walk 900 miles?
I don't think I
could have. I mean,
I just feel sure I would've died
And no one would've cared.
No. And I would've
been glad of it.
I mean, I would've
rather died than I'm...
Sure some of 'em felt that way.
Slaves couldn't read and write.
So where'd education come from?
Well, some of them are
the bastard children
of the aristocracy.
See the rich, White
male planter get
to have sex with
whoever he wanted to.
And these men are raping
women like 55 going south.
You understand? Your husband
gonna come tell you at
9 o'clock, "Baby, I'm going
to check the chickens."
He ain't going to
check no chickens.
He going down to
the slave quarter
and he gonna do
that every night.
And the only time he even come
to your bed is to make an heir.
And, and the same women that
he having sex with - raping,
put it way it is.
They washing your clothes,
cooking, cleaning,
helping you put your clothes,
she pouring your coffee in the
morning and he got that
"I'm going to have sex with you
look tonight" in his eyes.
But he ain't looking at
you. He looking at her.
And guess what you get
to say about it?
Nothing.
You can't say a word.
Now, do you think you
can't say anything
because you won't say anything
or you can't say anything?
What you think?
I mean if you're the wife?
If you're the wife, why
can't you say anything?
You ain't gonna be
wrong. I promise you.
Where do you go?
Where would you live?
- [Rev] Right.
- [Tracy] What would you do?
- [Tracy's sister] And because
they're supporting your
lifestyle. [-Rev] Right.
[metal grinding]
Jim Crow was constitutional
law in the whole deep South.
Now get this.
From 1890 to 1965.
I was born in 1964. - Me too.
We the same age?
Same name, same age.
You my sister,
now you my sister.
Yeah, you gotta come
to church with me.
That was a drastic turn.
[laughs]
I'm hip, right?
Hey Doc!
Ah man. And you the worst
doggone muffler
man in Mississippi.
Get a job!
Asshole.
The muffler guy?
Oh, that Black boy's lying.
[chuckle]
One of his little
friends was over there.
And every time it is three
or more of them together,
their ignorance just boils over.
I get 'em straight in
the morning though.
[somber music ]
[somber music continues]
[probing and slowly
building music]
Father, I stretch
my hand to thee
He...
The only help I know.
If thy withdraw
thyself from me
Where
shall
I go
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Ready or not, here I come.
Jesus, my God.
I know his name.
The only help I know
If thy withdraw
thyself from thee
Where shall I go?
[reflective music]
This is my youngest son.
- [Rev] Yeah Bobby.
- [Bobby] This the boy you
be talking about?
- [Rev] Yeah.
- [Rev] He's the director of
interpretations for this place.
- [Brenda] Okay.
[solemn building music ]
Melrose here today
commemorates over 700 slaves
that John McMurran owned over
a 33 year period.
Paying homage to the enslaved
people that were
considered less than human
but yet built a country.
This is the history
of Americans.
Are we really not going
to tell that story?
My barber says this place
is never gonna change.
What's going on there, friend?
- [Rev] Yep. Tracy, how you
been? - [Tracy] A couple of
Tracys.
I know, I know.
When I believe that then I'll
sell everything and move.
This is home.
[music fades and cicadas sing]
[cicadas continue]
[distant steamboat horn]
[steamboat horn fades
to sound of calliope]
[calliope plays Ol' Man River ]
[women chattering]
Ladies.
[glass clinking]
I need everybody's
attention for just a minute
because you have a very, very
special guest here today.
Mayor of this grand city
of Natchez, Dan Gibson.
[applause]
How are y'all doing?
Great. It is so
good to be with you.
It is awesome.
And I always love being
with the Garden Club
because it always means a lot
of, a lot of fun conversation,
a lot of good food,
and also occasionally some good
planting tips.
If I could get everyone's
attention again.
Hello everybody.
By the way, guys,
this is my brother from
another mother.
[crowd laughs]
Elaine and I go way back.
I am excited that
Natchez is a new Natchez.
It is a Natchez that appreciates
and loves our history.
All of it,
even the bad.
But it is our history.
It is also a city
that believes in coming
together in love.
And if we ever needed it in
America, we need it today.
We need love.
[applause]
You know?
Gimme your hand.
Gimme your hand.
- [Garden Club lady] I love it.
- [Mayor Dan] You know, this is
what Natchez is right here.
Thank you.
[applause]
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll never...they'll?...
Than we'll never know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I think to myself
What a wonderful world
- [Rev] What y'all doing?
- [Tourist] We visitin'.
- [Rev] You're visiting?
- [Rev] Well, I'm the
guy you need to see.
- [Tourist] Okay. - [Rev] I am
Rev from Rev's Country Tours.
- [Rev] I am the best
tour guide in America.
- [Tourist] Okay.
- [Rev] And I do a comprehensive
historical tour of this place.
- [Rev] You know, there are more
millionaires here
- [Rev] than anywhere
else in the world.
- [Tourist] I heard.
- [Rev] Yeah.
- [Rev] There's more money
here than any place...
- [Tourist] We was gonna see
if they would drop us some.
- [Rev] Ain't that something.
Ain't no money here now.
- [Tourist] It's all gone.
- [Rev] No, it's gone.
There was once upon a time
- [Rev] It was. - [Tourist] This
was a rich place.
- [Rev] And so, you can't
talk about cotton without
talking about slaves.
- [Rev] So I'm gonna
get you that history.
- [Rev] Some of the downtown
businesses.
- [Tourist] Hey, we're from
- [Tourist] Alabama, so we
- [Rev] So y'all.
- [Rev] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So
y'all know the Southern history.
- [Rev] I should have
known by the hats, huh?
[laughs]
- [Rev] Some Southern belles?
- [Tourist] That's right.
- [Rev] Well good.
- [Tourist] I would
love to do that.
- [Tourist] I would love to. -
[Tourist] I would love to do
that.
- [To urist]You got three
ladies who want to join.
- [Rev] Hot diggity. We
gonna take some pictures,
- [Rev] I'm gonna send 'em to
Brenda. She gonna cook for two
weeks.
[laughs]
- [Rev] When she see me
with these pretty women,
she gonna say, "I gotta
get something on the stove."
Yeah, she know how to
keep old fat Tracy at home.
[laughs]
Welcome to Rev's Country Tours.
Welcome to Natchez,
Mississippi.
I'm Tracy. Everybody calls
me Rev. I'm a local pastor.
I've been in the same
church for 17 years,
and a former county
supervisor who realized
that he didn't know anything
about what he represented.
So I started little
pilgrimage to learn the history.
I thought it was
gonna be a couple
of weeks and a couple of books.
Ladies, that was in 2015.
And I'm still on the
same journey today.
So I went on
and combined the love for
history and the love for people
and that's how this was born.
What church do you pastor at?
East Mount Olive
Missionary Baptist Church
in Red Lick, Mississippi.
Redneck, Miss?
Red Lick. Red Lick.
Red Lick Mississippi.
I got 200 members.
70 of 'em come to
church, 30 of 'em pay money
and 2 of 'em do what I tell 'em.
[laughs]
[whimsical music]
There are only
14,000 people here.
So it's a small town.
But it's got a very old,
rich, deep peculiar,
and I do mean peculiar history.
I'm gonna share with y'all
just a little bit later.
They settled Natchez in 1716.
And that makes us
the oldest settlement
on the Mississippi River.
We've got New Orleans
beat by two years.
We have homes from every
period in American history.
Antebellums, Victorians,
even Colonials.
[music full of wonder
and anticipation plays]
I'm Tracy McCartney. I'm
very much a country girl.
I grew up poor.
We grew up literally at
the end of a dirt road.
My hoop skirt has
five steel hoops.
Seeing movies of the South
and of the antebellum times.
And of course, Scarlett,
everybody always thinks
of Scarlett O'Hara.
The ladies have someone
who dresses them
and someone who does their hair.
And I always thought,
you know how spoiled
that just seems like
a little over the top
until I first tried to put
this dress on.
And I tried
and I tried and I thought,
surely I can do this.
I've been dressing myself
for quite a number of years.
Okay, cool.
Cannot.
Absolutely impossible to do.
I'm getting ready for
Spring Pilgrimage.
And the Pilgrimage for
those of you who don't know,
it's held twice a year
when our pilgrims,
as we lovingly call them,
come from all over the world
to see these beautiful homes
and to experience the
culture of Natchez.
Welcome to Choctaw Hall.
Come on in.
Tha's your normal attire?
This ol' thing.
[door creaks]
We're at the home of David
Garner and Lee Glover.
- [Tracy] Hey ladies. How are
y'all?
- [Tourist] Good, how are you?
- [Tracy] Would y'all like to
take a tour of Choctaw Hall? -
[Tourist] Yes, we would, please.
Well, let me tell
you how Pilgrimage began.
[nostalgic music, bell rings]
In the 1800s, cotton was king.
It was a very,
very wealthy city.
Thus all of the
beautiful homes you see,
all the beautiful architecture.
But in the early 1930s when
the boll weevil came through
and destroyed all
of the cotton crops,
this city fell to its knees.
I mean, it really, really
devastated the economy.
So the Garden Clubs went on
a mission to save Natchez.
They decided to do garden tours.
And so all of the ladies worked
for months and months and
months.
Preparing their
gardens, planting, cleaning.
The azaleas were in full bloom.
All the gardens
here were pristine.
And as fate would have it,
[thunder and lightning crack]
It rained and rained.
All of the blooms were
laying on the ground.
The yards were a mess.
It was just a mudhole.
They're thinking, "Oh my
goodness, what do we do?"
But like any strong little
resilient Southern lady,
they thought,
"We're gonna do this."
"Ladies, clean your houses,"
"make some tea
cakes some punch."
"Spike it if you need,
whatever you need to do."
It became the tour of homes.
You know, they say the
little ol' society ladies
got together and
saved this city.
And they say it in jest.
But in a way it's true.
And it has been in existence
nonstop ever since.
Let me check and see if they're
ready for the next tour,
and you'll come in.
Good morning, girls.
Good to have y'all.
Well, we didn't get started.
We were gossiping.
Well, anyway. We'll
quit gossiping, y'all.
Where are you girls from now?
San Clemente, California
Oh way out yonder.
Well, I'm David Garner.
The other owner.
Mr. Glover and I maintain
Choctaw as our private home.
Let me tell you what,
this old house is a home.
My bulldog ran
and jumped on that
yellow Scalamandre sofa.
And the lady said, "Mr.
Garner, Mr. Garner,"
"your bulldog's up on
that gorgeous fabric."
I said, "She does
it all the time."
"Doesn't she have good taste?"
[laughs]
My grandmother was one of the
first families in the state of
Mississippi.
She definitely believed
and I totally agree.
My great-grandfather
and I were reincarnated.
We look exactly alike.
Wild. Hateful.
Arrogant. Overbearing.
Totally out of control.
I played it up, y'all.
And it paid off.
Don't you think?
My grandmother said that,
"The dining rooms of
Natchez, Mississippi"
"were the battlegrounds
of the aristocrats."
The more silver, the more
porcelain you could pile up,
the more affluent you appeared.
We even have turtle forks.
Have you ever seen
a turtle fork?
You don't see them
hardly at all.
Look. They look like
a terrapin turtle.
People get 'em confused
with ice cream forks.
They are similar,
the ice cream forks are larger.
But aren't they
the cutest thing?
[calliope plays]
Natchez is a lil blue
speck in a sea of red.
-Ahhh.
Natchez had the first
openly gay mayor
in the state of Mississippi.
Now Natchez don't really
need a mayor
as long as you got the president
of the Garden Club.
And the Garden
Club runs the city.
I call them the
blue-haired mafia.
[chuckles]
[fantastical music]
And most people don't understand
what our Garden
Clubs really are.
They're preservation
organizations.
And we own Stanton
Hall and Longwood
and maintain those houses.
And we own Natchez Pilgrimage
Tours, which is a tour agency.
So it is really a big business
that we're responsible for.
The people that own these homes.
You know, we're invested
in 'em a hundred percent.
They're part of
our personalities.
And we spend time talking
about the history to the point
that it feels like
it's still alive.
Hello. Hello.
Thank you for
coming to Glenfield.
My great-grandfather
bought this house,
bought it in 1865?
- No, he didn't.
When did he buy it? Excuse me.
1840?
Mother, 1880.
Are you okay?
Oh, it was fabulous.
Famous people,
Cecil DeMille was here.
He came and, well,
we had a fit over it.
And now governor would
come every Pilgrimage.
Oh, it was so exciting.
Cause see, I was in the fourth
grade when all that was going on
and just thought
it was wonderful.
Welcome to Green Leaves.
This is our family home.
- [Tourist] Oh, nice. -
[Homeowner] And Hazel and I are
the sixth
and seventh generation.
Every girl in Natchez
grew up, including myself,
wearing hoop skirts.
Look at the teeny tiny hoop
skirts. See? Isn't that cute?
They made these for us when
we were like two and three.
And so everybody has worn these.
Riding my tricycle when
I was five years old,
out at the home Arlington,
and then going in the house
and making up stories
as to why this dangled
and that looked blue.
Cause I didn't know what in
the world I was talking about.
I felt very close to
the Civil War growing up
because my great aunt
and my grandfather
grew up in this house
with their grandparents who
lived through the Civil War.
She'd be wearing this dress
and she'd be in the dining
room that was her room.
And she would tell how Union
soldiers broke into the house
and knocked her grandmother down
because her grandmother
wouldn't turn over the
keys to the soldiers.
So that particular war
was very real to me.
I've never seen
such a collection
of Confederate
uniforms and dresses.
- [Tourist] Right.
- [Tourist] It's wonderful.
The members of our Garden
Club select from our youth,
a king and queen of Pilgrimage.
These were actually
worn by queens
of Pilgrimage over the years.
So they're just a
beautiful assortment.
For many years, the young men
wore the Confederate uniform
and there's been a, a
move against...
lemme say, say this right.
Um...
How do I say this?
For many years,
the young men wore the costume,
or the, I'm sorry, wore the
uniform of their ancestors,
the Confederate uniform.
There's been a movement
in the past three
or four years to kind
of reduce the um...
I'm going to get
in trouble here.
Um...
There's been a movement
within the past five years to,
to take away,
um, no.
Ah!
[music plays, Todd
continues in the distance]
There's one thing
though, that I wanted to
take to my grave, but I, I am
outed. The city knows it.
And I was like, whoo.
I'm the first African
American woman in
this city
to become a member
of a Garden Club.
Garden Clubs in this town
are slaps in the face
to the African
American community.
- [Debbie] Yeah.
- [Tourist] Wow.
You know, they put
on the hoop skirts
and they sashay around.
I was working for
Monmouth Historic Inn.
So I'm finishing up a tour
on a particular afternoon,
and I say to my guest, "Oh,"
"and that is an original
slave dwelling."
And then I started to talk
about the enslaved woman Dicey
and how she loved her tobacco,
just telling the story.
And then they called me in
and they said, "Stick
to the script."
Oh my goodness.
Stick to the script.
Oh.
Today I wrote my own script.
This is my own slave dwelling.
And this slave dwelling sits
on the grounds of old Concord.
The big house burned in 1901.
I know that oftentimes
people come to Natchez
to see our big, beautiful homes.
But you come here
to see the kitchen,
you come here to
see the quarters.
You're coming here to
see my mother's collection
of china from the
A&P Grocery Store.
Huh?
There is no Old
Sev and Old Paris
and that sort of thing in here.
The enslaved worked in here
and they slept above.
Behind the big house is
the rest of the story.
Tourism is a
lifeline to the city,
but that's waned 30%
in the seven years or so.
It turns out that millennials
and generation Z folks,
them 20 something,
30 something year
olds, they're not
as interested in the
antebellum stories.
I call 'em the Gone
With the Wind stories
that are being told here
as the baby boomers are.
And Natchez has been
really reluctant
to expand the narrative, even
in the face of lost revenue.
- [Tourist] Okay. - [Rev] Which
is where I come in.
I'm about to violate some
Southern pride narratives
with truths and facts.
So hold your hat on!
So when you looking at
these houses, you going
through Natchez, understand
that they were built by slaves.
And that's the
piece of the history
that you don't get in
the antebellum houses.
They use the word
"servant" or "help."
But these are slaves.
Okay. This was Dr. Duncan's
servant.
That was their favorite servant.
He became the overseer
of this house.
They taught him
to read and write.
Those are his actual
writings right here.
Oh yes. Yeah.
And back then it
was against the law.
- [Tourist] Yes, that's what I
wanted to know. - [Tour guide]
Uh huh.
So Dr. Duncan, he
was good to his people.
[phone rings]
Good afternoon. This
is Auburn, this is Gwyn.
Yeah. This will be our
last day to stay open.
[cash register dings]
I've been a member
here 40 years.
For years we made really,
really, you know, good.
And we could pay our bills.
But when you get to where you
can't pay your bills...
Duh.
[laughs]
We're all gonna miss doing this.
But it's just gotten to the
point where we're all...
I hate to say this, we're
getting all too old.
I guess there's are't
politically correct anymore.
I'm guessing.
What can you say?
You know, older people
sometimes wants it
to remain the same,
but regardless of what you want,
you can't live in the past.
- [Tourist] This is it. -
[Tourist] This is it. This is
it. - [Tourist]Tragic. It's
tragic.
I hope somebody keeps
it open to the public so
that we can see the history.
Instead of rewriting history,
we continue the history.
From the back, where we from?
- [Tourist] Little Rock, Hot
Springs. - [Tourist] This is
Hamburg, Arkansas.
Arkansas, Arkansas.
I think we're all Arkansas.
I think we're all from Arkansas.
Ohhhh,
Sweee'
Pig!
[laughs]
Wonderful. Wonderful.
I ain't got no damn
Yankees on here,
this gonna be a good tour.
[laughs]
Hey, how did they
make their money?
Oh, I'm gonna tell you, baby.
When I get through with you,
you gonna be able to buy a van
and be my competition.
- [Tourist] There you go.
-[Rev] Yes sir.
- [Tourist] I'm very
inquisitive. - [Rev] So well
just ask away.
By 1815, the textile
mills in Manchester,
England are producing
90% of the cloth
for the entire continent.
I said, the continent of Europe.
And the number one raw material
for the cloth is?
Cotton.
Grown in the Southern states.
The demand for cotton
becomes insatiable.
Newspaper ads in Natchez
say, "Buy more slaves,"
"to grow more cotton,
to buy more slaves,"
"to grow more
cotton, to buy more"
"slaves, to grow more cotton."
And the Cotton Kingdom,
my dear friends, is born.
[morning birds chirp]
First of all, I want to thank
you for coming to Melrose.
My name is Barney and
I'll be your tour guy.
[key chain clatter]
Anytime you're open
for public tours,
you're gonna have the
whole world come in
and they're all gonna
have their own education
and their own experiences
and their own expectations.
We can never be
everything to everybody.
I mean, I will speak as a
Southerner and as a
Mississippian.
Natchez is a
complicated little town.
Because of tourism,
Natchez swallowed a master
narrative about the Old South.
We all wanna be rich and
we want to be princesses
and live in palaces.
If it's a fairytale,
that's one thing.
But if it's what you then
decide is truth,
then that can be
much more dangerous.
[whimsical music plays]
The first time I
put this dress on,
as an older woman, I probably
felt the most beautiful
and ladylike that I've
ever felt in my life.
- [Tracy] Hello. [Natchezians]
How you doing? Beautiful.
It changes the way
people look at me
and it changes the way,
I feel about myself.
I grew up always knowing
that I was adopted.
I didn't know any specifics
because it was a very
taboo subject back then.
So I've struggled with a lot
of thing about myself.
So when I put on this dress,
I felt like I belonged.
Like I did fit in.
Natchez, Mississippi
was built upon ambition.
This lady from up
North, she said,
"Why is it that all
of you Southern"
"-- little Southern gentleman,"
"why are y'all
always so arrogant?"
I said, "Honey,
we're not arrogant,"
"you're totally misconstrued."
"We're just proud of
what we accomplished."
And that's the truth.
There's a great
deal of difference.
Cause let me tell
you, look around.
We worked our butts
off for what you see
for seven generations.
And still working 'em off
to keep it above water.
[fanciful music plays]
[laughs]
We better not stay too long.
[laughs]
[watering plants]
David Garner at Choctaw,
they throw me good
pieces of business
from time to time.
Every effort is made to be
civil and sweet,
but my interactions
with the Garden Club
folks are a surface level.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We enjoyed it.
All righty. Thank
you, my friends.
I don't live in Natchez.
Natchez is in Adams County.
32 miles from where I
live in Jefferson County.
Alright, doc. What's
happeni'?
I'm still at school.
- [Rev] You still there?
- [Local Man] Yes, sir.
[Rev] It been a long time, ain't
it? - [Local Man] Yes, sir.
So Jesus, he say,
"Who do men say"
"that I the son of man am?"
Cause he knew who he was.
Yes, sir.
Listen, let me help
y'all with a lil history.
You know, I'm a big
time history buff.
One of the master's main
tactics was to get us
to hate one another.
The light-skinned slave better
than the dark-skinned slave.
The house slave better
than the field slave.
The old better than the young,
the female better than the male.
And resentments would arise.
But it really wasn't
about hating one another,
it was about hating ourselves.
See, it don't matter what
the world call Christ.
Tha's right.
In fact, let me help you.
It don't matter
what they call you.
[light applause]
Huh?
And you can't let other people's
opinion determine your
outlook on who you are.
Huh?
[The band plays
Something's Got A Hold On Me]
Something's Got A Hold on Me
Trouble in my way
congregation:
Trouble in my way
I got to cry sometimes
congregation: I got
to cry sometimes
Hey, so much trouble
congregation:
Trouble in my way
Our Father God bless this food
and let it nourish our body,
entire soul.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
[Re's family laughing
and chattering]
I know that my Jesus
congregation: Jesus,
he will fix it
I know my savior
will fix it.
congregation: Jesus,
he will fix it
After while
[Rev finishes song and prayer]
[tiny roars at each other]
[insects and birds]
Did y'all enjoy your tour?
- We did. Thank you.
- [Tracy] Thank you so much for
coming. - [Tourist] Thank you.
[door creaking]
As I said before, I grew
up in a very small town.
At the time that I met my
husband,
he was much older than me
and is in the oil and gas
business.
When we married,
we visited Natchez
very, very often
and was looking for a place.
And one of the ladies
from the Garden Club,
a past president, invited me
to join the Pilgrimage
Garden Club.
[laughs and chatter]
So we bought the
condo here in Natchez.
17 years we've been married
and um,
you know, w're having
some really hard times,
but neither one of us have
have drawn a line in the sand.
[semi tense music]
[hoop skirt dragging
on concrete]
You know? We'll, we'll
see what happens.
Franklin, Armfield, and Ballard.
They could buy a slave in
Virginia for $600
and sell the same slave
in Mississippi for $2,000.
They can almost
triple their money.
So the cheapest way
and the most common way
to get slaves in the deep
South was to make them walk.
One million and one half million
people walked.
800 plus miles
barefoot and in chains into
the cotton fields and the
sugarcane plantations
of the deep South.
And it's gonna take nine weeks.
The second largest domestic
slave market in the history
of America was right
here in Natchez.
And it was called the
Forks of the Road.
We right in the
middle of it now.
And this is the market itself.
Please guys, do not allow
the size of this place
to betray the magnitude
of what happened here.
The total number is 750,000.
That's three quarters of a
million human beings,
men and women, boys and girls
who are bought and
sold at this very site
on their way to servile
labor until they die.
The slaves came here bound
at five points. Both ankles.
Both ankels,
both wrists and
around their necks.
And then a chain between us
and one going back
50 people deep.
The neck collars and
ankle braces are riveted
on by a blacksmith.
By the time slaves get to
Natchez, this iron is season
with flesh and with blood.
And people ask,
"Why would you harm a product
you're trying to sell?"
Well, how do you control
6 to 10,000 people for 30 years?
You control them with
violence and fear.
This is a Park Service site.
They already started
buying properties around it
to make this the premier slave
market museum in the country.
They're trying to
buy these businesses,
but the people
are gonna try to hold off
for more money.
From this point here,
every plot of land
that you can see
with your eyes, all
of these are slave
trading companies.
Franklin, Armfield,
and Ballard's Southern
Office, was where
that red muffler shop
is across the street.
[phone rings]
Hello, Natchez Exhaust.
Okay, that'd be cool.
Alright, Barbara,
thank you, baby.
I'm Gene Williams.
I own Natchez Exhaust.
Across the street
from the slave market.
The state park.
They made some offers
on my property,
and, uh, it was a joke.
[pensive music]
I have been working
with the Forks of the Road
for 18 years now.
Land acquisition is a slow
and complicated process.
And so the challenge is
always to find sellers
who are willing and to have
an appraised market value,
which is what we can pay that
meets their expectations.
Well, I mean, I've made a
living here all my adult life.
You can't just up and move a
business, you know, you got
to rebuild your business again.
And at 64, I don't feel like
rebuilding anything, you know?
They're going here and,
and try to buy me out
for this much money.
And then they'll
spend this much money
redoing everything that's here.
And I told the guys, I said,
"What I look like some poor
old, dumb country guy"
"with my bib overalls on"
"and chewing tobacco"
"running down my lip"
going, well, yeah,
I'll take that"
"for it, if you
just gimme that."
And I'm going,
No, I don't want that.
The National Park Service is
in the forever business.
And every parcel
has its own stories
and its own complications.
Across the road is
where Franklin, Armfield,
and Ballard were located.
And Franklin and Armfield
were the largest slave traders
in the United States.
They became millionaires
off of human trafficking.
I don't know what
that Forks of the Road is
supposed to prove.
I think it's just like
everything else they said
they're promoting the memory of
something that was bad,
tha's over and done with.
And I hate it. I wasn't
here. None of us were here.
Had I been here,
I wouldn't have done it.
Just have to keep
reminding people of
what happened a
hundred years ago,
and if it's a bad, bad thought,
don't remind them of it.
You gonna take down
all the statues,
take down all the statues.
You're gonna go build
something there to promote
what they're taking
the statues down about.
Why would they do that?
That's, that's kind of
what my thoughts about it.
I'm not trying to be a racist.
I'm not trying to be
anything like that.
I'm just sayi'.
[pensive music]
I thought about maybe just
opening up my own
Forks of the Road over here.
It'd be different than that.
[laugh]
I hope I'm around
when they finish the
Forks of the Road project,
when it's developed.
Cause man,
that's gonna be,
that's gonna be mind boggling.
That land literally has
our blood in it.
Literally.
Literally has our blood in it.
that story may still
be lost to time.
The enslaved ancestors
here asked the question,
"Who is going to
tell their story?"
And I said, "I would."
[pensive music continues]
And from that time on, I'm
waging a protracted struggle
to bring the Forks of the Road
from forgotten
to a National Park Service park.
From here on out,
for as long as your generation
and your generation's generation
exists, they're gonna have
to tell our story here.
Boxley fought for that.
I mean, he fought hard for that.
And he has been
working with politicians.
He has worked with
nonprofit groups tirelessly
for more than 30 years
to call attention
to this forgotten site.
However, Natchez city itself
was an enslavement selling
market up until the Franklin
and Armfield people brought in
enslaved persons with cholera
that led to banning the selling
of enslaved African
within the city limits.
So there were enslaved persons
sold all over the whole city.
This is my spot, so to speak.
And it's been a long time
that I've sat here
avenging the ancestors.
I'm a Christian woman
and I see him as
a biblical prophet
because that's what
the prophets did.
They were all about pointing
out to the status quo
that they were not fulfilling
their mission of justice.
[shower of clanking metal]
Okay. Slaves came here bound
at five points, both wrists,
both ankles, and around
their neck.
Talki' about the
cussing preacher?
[small laugh]
No, I haven't done, I know,
I know the, I know him.
He's, he's a good guy.
He seems to be doing
well with this.
- May I borrow you?
They would've come
in columns of two.
You can hear him
hollering over here.
A lot of folks come there to
stand and listen
to ol' Rev's story.
So there's a common
misconception
that everybody White in
the South had a slave.
Only 5% of Southerners
ever owned slaves.
Now everybody White in
America benefited from the
institution of slavery then
and today. America status as
the richest nation on earth,
the first big pot of money
that existed on this continent
or in America was cotton.
And cotton can't exist without?
Hmm? Say it.
- [Students] Slaves. - [Rev]
Slaves. So it is right, fair,
true,
just, equitable to say
that America's wealth
was built upon the
backs' of the enslaved.
[ethereal music]
I always loved the
antebellum homes.
Cause as a matter of fact,
my mother spent some
time working in one
of the antebellum homes.
She worked there for
more than 30 years.
And I would go to work with her
and I thought,
"Wow, you know,"
"'d like to own
of these one day."
And then several years
ago, we were driving around
and I saw the top
of the columns here.
You couldn't see anything else
because it was just
covered in vines.
And we crept in and I
thought, "Oh my God."
And I called my
husband right away.
I said, "Oh, Gregory, you
should see this place."
"We could bless a bride."
Plantation style
weddings were really big.
And he says, "We aren't
blessing anybody."
"Get in the car and come home."
You know, when we bought
the place, I was so proud.
And then I start to ask
questions about the property.
We find then that it
is a slave dwelling.
And then we find an inventory
of 124 enslaved African American
men, women, and children.
of 124 enslaved African American
men, women, and children.
of 124 enslaved African American
men, women, and children.
I didn't know what
to do with that.
When I found that it
was a slave dwelling, I,
I didn't know how
to handle that.
Cause I'd gotten a lot of
pushback from my people.
My grandfather, he
was born in slavery.
He didn't talk about it.
And I'd ask him even, "Papa,
what was your dad's name?"
Totally embarrassed
the gentleman was. And he'd
say, "O' master Jones, gal."
"Now get away from here." Yeah.
Here I was living in history.
And so my emotions are
all over the place.
I was in tears. I was
sitting there crying.
I go to Walmart and there's
this colorful gentleman
at Walmart and he says,
"I heard what you were doing."
It was Ser Boxley.
And Boxley says to me,
"These buildings are worthy"
"of preservation."
Still people don't understand
it until they come.
[gently uplifting music]
[rodeo chatter]
You know, and some people
would be offended by this,
but this just smells
like home to me.
- [Tracy] I love it. I do.
- [Friend] Me too.
Aw.
Welcome to the Tiger Den!
It's homecoming!
[school marching band plays]
[classical piano music]
[distant dance music]
I can tell you what causes
sodomizes to kill themselves.
And you ought to humble yourself
instead of being proud
of your perversion.
[dance music louder]
Welcome ladies and gentlemen.
How are y'all
doing this evening?
[loud applause]
Thank y'all so much for
supporting the LGBTQ plus
community.
We're here to have a good time.
We're here to raise a
lot of money for
Y'all Means All Natchez.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Choctaw Hall is one
of our sponsors this evening.
First of all, you two
kids, if you have not been
to see this, oh
my God, stand up.
I wanna know how long
it takes you to run
up that platform to get to him.
That is a mountain worth
climbing right there. I swear.
[fanfare plays]
I am not gonna tell
you how things are, God.
If you make me a
man, then I'm a man.
And if you make me a
woman, I'm a woman.
I love to receive.
I love the beautiful
homes, the beautiful dress.
[sigh]
I love Pilgrimage.
I do miss it. But I have gone
through a recent divorce.
We had a prenup.
I'm at a financial point
where I need to make a living.
Wouldn't all fit on the truck.
Everything that would go
on the truck...
...is there.
But I have one more trip.
I'm downsizing my life.
You know, I don't have to
have a lake house and a boat.
What I do have to have is peace.
I am gonna sort through
and keep the things that
really are special to me.
And then the things
that are not,
I'm just gonna
sell 'em at Kress.
It's a consignment store.
I'll just turn it into cash.
Some days I do really
well. Some days not.
But I gonna be alright.
Yep.
[hip hop plays from car]
By the time the war starts,
half a Natchez is already Union.
A little blue speck
in a sea of red today.
By 1862, the secessionists here
have to make a choice.
My Southern pride or my
million dollar bank account.
I'm gonna give you five
seconds to figure that one out.
Ray Charles can see who gonna
win the war. Stevie Wonder
wouldn't wonder who
gonna win the war.
One more time in
war, poor people die,
so rich people can stay rich.
1865, the Civil War ends
that ushers us into a period
called Reconstruction.
During Reconstruction, Natchez,
I told you it was peculiar.
Natchez get a Black
mayor, a Black sheriff,
a Black tax assessor,
a Black chancery
clerk, Hiram Revels,
first Black man
in the US Senate.
Natchez. John R. Lynch,
first Black man in US House
of Representatives,
Natchez. JB Banks,
first Black physician in
Natchez. Schools,
haberdasheries, grocery stores,
apothecaries, blacksmith shops,
lawyers, banks, and doctors.
Pump your brakes, Rev.
Slow down.
[laughs]
How you move from being a
slave, to having economic
and political power in the
richest city in the world?
Now that does not happen
anywhere else in the South
like it does in Natchez.
Upper mobility for
newly freed slaves
throughout the
South was evident.
But a mayor, a congressman,
a sheriff. Hell no.
Hell no, I say!
[laughs]
I'm gonna require a bit
of brutal honesty from
you for just a moment.
Who do you think wants what's
happening in Natchez
to spread throughout
the rest of the country?
- [Rev] No,
- [Tourist] Nobody.
- If it happened today,
who do you think will
want it to spread?
And I, I fear the answer
would be the same.
And so the aristocracy,
they have to stop it.
[piano plays softly]
You come here and you get
away from the current year,
Current events.
You go, you go back.
I feel like I have stepped
out of the current mess
and muddle and I have gone
back in this lovely way.
To a lovely world.
And I can pick and
choose what I want to
- [Tourist] think about.
- [Tourist] That's right.
Nowhere in America is
everything beautiful.
But Natchez.
I mean, you think
about the lives
we've learned about here.
- [Tourist] Yeah, I know. -
[Tourist] Although they lived in
amazing beauty,
their lives were
turned upside down,
destroyed by current events.
We have the luxury
of removing ourselves from
our unsightly current events
and going back and
enjoying just the beauty
- [Tourist] That's true.
- [Tourist] of their time.
Cheers!
[pensive music]
The history that they learned
and the history
that they believe
is now being yanked
out from under them.
That's how people experience it.
This change that they feel
is being forced on them.
And it's hard work to come
to a point where you're able
to say, "The history I
learned was a mythological"
"construct that was
used to sell tickets."
[semi tense music]
Welcome to the family dining
room here at Magnolia Hall.
There would've been
12 bells in the house.
One for each room of the house.
The bells for what?
Oh, I'm sorry to call servants,
call the servants.
Yes sorry about
that. Yes indeed.
[many different bells ring]
I think ours sound
better than the
Downton Abbey chime
that they had.
That's the tea closet.
At the time it
would've been locked.
Cause, y'all, tea
and sugar were so
expensive during that time
that you couldn't afford
for even a little bit of it
to get pilfered by the servants.
So the lady of the house
would've worn that key
around her neck as I do today.
Do you know what a punkah is?
Some of the homes
here have the punkah
to shoo away the flies.
These originated in India.
So a servant would've stood
to one side of the room
and pulled on the rope.
The punkah goes back and forth.
It would, number
one, cool the guests.
But it was also to keep the
flies and keep the air fanned.
Ladies and gentlemen,
this punkah fan,
Mary McMurran wrote this.
She says, "You know when
the slave is doing it right?"
"When they don't blow the
candles out."
That's the trick.
This was a job. And his job
title was called the punkah
wallah
Punkah's fan. Wallah's
work. Operate.
Punkah wallah.
That was the name of the job.
It was a child.
How do we know it?
She wrote it.
Think about this.
Why a child?
Why a child?
First of all, it's a slave.
Alright? It's a child.
Small. Look at that corner.
Inconspicuous, out the way.
Illiterate. Can't read or write.
Not a person.
Harmless.
Newsflash.
Ladies and gentlemen, ain't
never met a harmless child in my
life.
I don't care if he is a slave.
He's a child.
Children are
intuitively inquisitive.
We're loose at dinner.
Things are coming out.
This child can't read or write.
But words have meanings that
cause an action. I repeat.
Words have meanings
that cause an action.
That's how children
learn. Their products
of not only their
environment, but the culture
and their language
of their environment.
That's how they learn.
This kid is no different.
He's a slave, but
he's no different.
What do you think is gonna
happen when that kid goes
back to the quarters at night?
Man, this kid,
"Man, y'all not gonna believe
what happened last night."
Information is power.
Information is power.
Information is power.
Information is power.
Information is power.
-That's right.
Especially to a race a
people that can't read or write
and it's against the
law to teach 'em.
It's power.
How do I know this?
Why is this park ranger
saying all this?
Simple.
Read John Roy Lynch.
What was John Roy Lynch
job as a child, as a slave?
What was John Roy Lynch's job?
He was at a house called
Dunleith on Homochitto.
What did John Roy Lynch do?
He was a punkah wallah.
He operated the fan.
What did John Lynch do?
Freed himself from slavery
and joined the Union Army.
What did John Lynch do?
Became a postmaster general
during the war in Natchez.
What did John Lynch do?
He became a United
States congressman,
legislator outta Reconstruction.
What did John Lynch do?
He later left
Reconstruction, left politics,
became an attorney
and moved to Chicago
and practiced law for
38 years in Chicago.
What was his job as a child?
A punkah wallah.
A slave punkah wallah.
- Wow. Jesus.
One of our goals is
to try to raise the bar.
To talk about slavery
as a part of every tour.
And I think that some
of the other museum houses in
town move in that direction.
Well, you know,
with mixed results.
This painting of a Black man.
There's only three in
the state of Mississippi.
And by the way, that white
is, I think a reflect,
reflection on his lip.
Not necessarily his teeth.
I was very resistant
to talking about enslavement
because I had so few facts.
But we've gotten
braver over the years.
All of us who from the South
and who come from families
who were plantation owners
in the 19th century
have to deal with the issue of
slavery, chattel slavery.
It's obviously
not a nice system.
Landsdown was my
great-great grandparents' house.
He had a lot of
plantations, owned a huge,
horrible number of slaves.
And, and yeah, that's my
history. That's part of my
history.
And I have to tell it
as much as I hate it.
And the other part
of our story is about
the African Americans
who lived here at
Green Leaves with the family.
Unfortunately, one of
'em we know was not happy
because this is Matilda
who ran away in 1850
and this is an advertisement
for her return.
Alright, this is what I
ring when I want someone
to bring me a Diet Coke.
[bell clangs]
Welcome to the summer kitchen.
This is an original dependency,
as we say in Natchez,
or outbuilding of Gloucester.
In National Geographic 1949,
check out this gorgeous picture.
There is an actress
portraying the shucking of
all these vegetables right
by the fire during
Pilgrimage one time.
Isn't that lovely?
Here I am with this
slave dwelling.
So I said, "Oh, you know,"
"I'm gonna invite the
Garden Club ladies out here"
"to see this house."
And I did.
Now, I love how Debbie
has gone through
because the unique history
of this property here.
I would say the majority of us
that have these other homes
don't really have
that type of opportunity to
focus on what she can focus on.
But we have the
responsibility of doing
what we've got at
our places as well.
Anyway, you know, the
thing I like about Debbie
is the one thing we have in
common is that we both seem
to just have our own ideas
and our own research,
and then we just do
whatever we want.
Mmhmm.
I find that very fun about you.
Thank you.
[chuckle]
Thank you.
I am fun, fun, fun.
I'm fun Debbie.
That's just who I am.
She went over to our
house to visit it,
but I didn't even
get to meet her then.
When you're telling
a story about,
say, a kitchen,
a Black woman's kitchen,
for me, you bring
a Black person in
to talk about the kitchen.
And you say to me,
"Well, you come and you do it."
I don't have time to tell
the story for your kitchen,
but I'm almost certain
your guest would most probably
be more receptive
of a Black person, woman
in that kitchen
telling your story.
That's all.
We probably have two different
kinds of people coming.
Some who just wanna
look at pretty things
and some who wanna,
I don't know.
I beg to differ there now.
I know who comes
to my house though,
For the last three Pilgrimages.
Yeah, well, well I
know who comes here
and I know, you know
what I'm saying?
Now, I'm not being
argumentative. I don't want do
that.
- [Homeowner] Oh no.
- [Debbie] Okay. No.
What I, what I want to say
is that a lot of people come
to Natchez and they, and
they see the pictures.
They're not even oftentimes
reading anything about it.
They see that, that mansion.
So they come here
to find,
"Oh it's a slave quarter."
I have people who stay with
me who have no idea.
Yeah, because it's, yes, because
it's concealed by design.
What's frustrating to
me is reading the stories
of the enslaved people.
We're at least getting
to learn some names,
but we don't have, it
frustrates me to know,
we don't know what
they look like.
We don't have a portrait
of any of them or a
and I, I kind, it's
the way it was.
But I'm like, what do you do?
Do you have a
silhouette created?
Is there something to, to
symbolize someone without it?
I'll never have something real.
Or do you just honor the name
or what little bit you know?
You certainly do. Yeah.
You answered your
own question. That is
exactly what you do.
I don't know how
y'all feel about it,
but I like how Helen Smith,
I thought she said it well.
She said, "There's
clearly examples"
"of there being great
affection, you know,"
"between people in the home."
"But she says affection
will never be a"
"substitute for freedom."
Right. - And I thought that
was a nice way to say it.
But you at least like to hope
there's affection. It
makes you feel a little...
Now of course...
Gloucester was built in 1803
and the Emancipation
Proclamation was in 1863.
So it did have
slavery for 60 years.
But then, from
then on, from 1863
to 1920, when they built
an indoor kitchen, finally,
they had, you know, paid
servants out there working in
that
very primitive kitchen.
- [Homeowner] Some stayed on and
just, you know, got paid. I'm
sure. - [Debbie] Okay.
Surely not much. But got paid
and stayed on with the
family long after the war.
We pay our housekeeper,
she doesn't come for free.
Mmhmm.
Mmhmm k.
It was like a nightmare today.
By the time you got here, I
wanted to just burst into tears.
- [Debbie] I did.
- [Friend] Poor baby.
And I mean, cause it,
this shit is hard.
Then you have to sit in here
and listen to all
that old Karen stuff.
Mmhmm.
So she bought a house and
she doesn't know. That's it.
She knows the history of
her house, she knows.
And that is so it. The
lingo, it's not proper.
The things she needs to,
she needs some, she needs
to go get some help with
that because it's offensive.
It, it truly is.
And I was trying not to
be so offended in my home
as well as not to offend her.
That woman made me so...
[laughs]
I don't usually
get that rattled.
Oh, but that is so...that's it.
Bless her heart.
And I'm gonna send
her some candy,
some cookies or something.
Don't send her no
candy and cookies.
Send her a book.
So she need to be educated.
Oh!
[calliope plays]
Perfect.
[workout video
instructor and beat]
[marching band music]
[laughs]
[balloon gas and
festival sounds]
Live in Natchez,
Mississippi, yo.
[Keep On Rollin' by
King George plays]
Alright, take your
time as you exit.
The old aristocracy,
they went from have to have not.
75 years of absolute wealth
and power ended in four
years of war.
At Melrose, they're planting
tomatoes after the war to pay
taxes.
What do you think the first
thing was on the aristocracy's
mind?
How do I get it back?
By 1890, all 13 ex
Confederate states passed the
Mississippi Plan.
And it becomes the law
of land in the South.
These new constitutions in
the South will forbid Black
representation on the
state, federal, local level.
Just like that. All those
elected officials sit down.
I's goi' to create
voter suppression laws,
literacy tests, and poll taxes.
No more Black voting.
White only, and
Color only bathrooms.
Limited access to
public facilities.
A Black man can't wear a
white shirt on Sunday morning.
If you were walking
down the sidewalk
and I approached you, I
had to step into the street
bow my head, called you Miss.
If I looked in your eyes,
Constitutional law called
that "Simple Assault."
You told I went to
jail. Hello Karen.
[laughs]
She born right here in Natchez.
The most insidious
thing it did was
to rewrite criminal
justice codes
called Black codes
for Black people.
This will elevate
misdemeanors to felonies
and create inmate lease
programs so that state prisons,
county jails and local jails
can rent inmates to farmers.
That set of laws had a name.
And it was not the name of
a human. It was the name
of a minstrel act where an
actor put on blackface and,
and pasted feathers on his arms
danced around as a buffoon.
And it was called Jim Crow.
Jim Crow
Ah.
So Jim Crow was not some
spotty municipal ordinance,
social norm or custom. Jim Crow
was constitutional law in the
whole deep South
from 1890 to 1965.
Yeah. I was born in 1964.
It was not until LBJ signed
the Voting Rights Act in '64
and Civil Rights Act in '65
that Jim Crow got
wiped off the books.
It was too late. It was a scar.
It was a wound on
the soul of America.
75 years of government
sanctioned, institutionalized,
systemic racism, and white
supremacy had done its
dastardly deed.
America is still segregated.
There are Black schools,
White schools, Black churches,
White churches, Black
neighborhoods, White
neighborhoods
to this very day in Natchez.
Well, it's got to be on purpose.
Well, but I, you
know, I mean like,
I mean like, are there,
you know, new, new developments
that actual, that White
and Black people are living?
- [Rev] I mean, there are
exceptions - [Tourist] Sign that
says?
- [Rev] No, there's no signs. -
[Tourist] You know what I mean?
But Jim Crow was ingrained
into America's psyche, culture,
heart, mind, and
it's still there.
[pensive music]
Y'all got any questions,
comments, anything?
You ain't gonna get a whole
lot of opportunities to talk
to an articulate Black man
about this kind of stuff.
So go ahead.
- [Tourist] How do you turn that
around? - [Tourist] Yeah.
Oh baby. If I knew, I'd be rich.
Oh I know that.
But I mean, it starts with
sitting down and talking,
just like you said.
It does.
And I, but then, but then
you have to focus more on,
you feel like education?
I always felt like
education was - Was the key?
- [Tourist] Was the key.
- [Rev] Yeah. I think so.
The whole family idea.
- [Tourist] Women having
numerous children. - [Rev] Sure.
- [Tourist] And with no father.
Yeah. You know, I
mean that, that's
Well, they got fathers.
- [Tourist] Well, yeah. Yeah.
- [Rev] They all,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Rev] They're not in the home.
They're absent. - [Tourist]
Right.
Right, right, right,
right, right, right, right.
And that's designed, you see,
if you want to kill a snake,
do you cut the tail
off of the head?
- [Tourist] Right, sure.
- [Rev] You cut the head off.
And so the cradle to the
prison pipeline, the injection
of drugs and, and, and poverty
and the gentrification in
communities, and the redlining,
all that stuff works just fine.
I get thousands of people,
I've done these tours in
the last eight years or so,
and I get this comment
a bit repetitively
where folks say, "Well what
Black people need to do is this"
"or this or this to
solve this problem."
But y'all understand
that Black people
didn't create the problem.
White people
created the problem.
And so if it's gonna be solved,
White folks gonna
have to solve it.
- [Tourist] Well along with
Black people - [Rev] Lemme
finish.
Let me finish.
Black people don't
have enough money
or power to solve the problem.
And so the inequities
that exist in our culture
will require something
that I think is
gonna be difficult.
And that's White folks gonna
have to give up something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Opportunity,
wealth, all those things.
And who wants to give
up anything that they
feel like they've worked for?
- [Rev] You know what I'm
saying? - [Tourist] Sure. -
[Rev] And so how you fix it,
man,
that's, that's real tough.
I welcome those conversations.
And sometimes after the
tours, I'm a little sad
because I feel like
w've made a connection
and now it has to end.
You gotta analyze as
you're talking to people.
And it's, it is almost an art
what they're able to bear.
You know, you get more
from non-verbal cues than
you do verbal cues so,
I'm really in tune
to them while I'm talking.
That's how I know
when to shut up.
Did you ever pick cotton, Rev?
- [Rev] No sir.
- [Tourist] I have.
- [Tourist] My grandmother did.
Okay. I took you to the
highest point on the bluff
and this is the lowest point.
Did you ever do Choctaw Hall?
Yeah, we did it yesterday.
Have you taken the tour?
Oh man, I've been in that
house many, many times.
Many times. I don't think
David does the same thing
with me there as
he does without me.
Cause I've had people come back
and say, you know, "He made
some blatantly racist comments."
I always picture him as
just trying to portray
what a Southern
aristocratic gentleman, how
they would talk.
As opposed to being him.
I mean he gay in America still.
Y'all will get to know
him a little bit more
and maybe you can see
if there's a real him
or if that is the real him.
Jacques Petit loved
monkeys. He owned three.
He made scent bottles
with rose oil in the
shapes of monkeys.
Look at her. She's
dressed in royal clothes.
Her top comes off.
Pour rose oil.
Look, she's got a flask in
her hand. She's smashed.
You can tell by lookin' at her.
And look how beautifully signed
she is.
Look at her face.
Isn't she hysterical?
I mean, this girl is blitz.
And what's so interesting is
it's cracked and crazed.
You can still smell rose oil.
Yes.
Isn't that great?
Don't ya love it?
I feel like I'm doing Communion.
Oh wow.
Wouldn't I have made
a good priest? I'd love it.
[laughs]
But have you been in
Choctaw too? - Yes.
- [Homeowner] Did you see David?
- [Tourist] Oh yes. Yes.
Very entertaining. The biggest
characters you'll ever meet.
- [Tourist] He's a nice guy.
- [Homeowner] Yeah, he is.
And believe it or not, he
took a bunch of stuff out.
- [Tourist] Yeah?
- [Homeowner] He did.
- [Tourist] Well he said,
- "The hoop skirt mafia made
him take a lot of things out."
-[laughs]
They got onto him all the
time about inappropriate words
that he might use.
- [Tourist] Oh. - [Homeowner]
And he didn't like that at all.
So he was reprimanded
numerous times over his tours.
- [Homeowner] But everybody
loves his tours. - [Tourist] Oh,
yeah.
He just says it like it is.
He's entertaining.
- [Homeowner] Bye-Bye. Bye.
- [Tourist] Thank you.
Y'all come back now, ya hear?
In recognition
and appreciation for their
many contributions to our city.
Don't start doing that,
you're gonna make me...
We honor Deborah Cosey
with this key to the city.
[applause]
Wow. I'm so overwhelmed.
Natchez is a place of
healing of the ugly past.
And yes, I am the first
African American woman
to be a member of the
Pilgrimage Garden Club.
And then when they're surly,
my friend here, he'll tell you,
I do this for them
and then I break 'em
down if they wanna be ugly.
Oh, freedom
Oh, freedom
Oh, freedom
Over me
And before I'd be a slave
Said I'd be
buried in my grave
and go home,
home to my Lord
and I'd be free.
[applause]
I have really bad days sometimes
When I think I'm going
to just be this little
wimpy girl, woman
or whatever, it's like I'm tired
and I can't do this
anymore and I can't go.
I think of them.
The enslaved people here.
Flora Upshaw.
Hester Williams.
George and Charity Martin.
I give honor to them.
I say their names.
I ask for their guidance.
[little cry chuckle]
You know...
These were handmade.
They made these
bricks. You know?
[rope swing creaking and birds]
[ethereal music]
One day I was out here
as I am every morning
and a van drove up.
I introduced myself and as
it turns out, I'm Tracy.
He's Tracy. So we chatted
for a little while
and you know, I had wanted
to do his tour since then.
I love learning about all
of the beautiful architecture
that's here and the
culture of our city.
Well, y'all know my,
my name is Tracy Collins
and I'm a local pastor here
and a bit of a historian.
The fastest growing cash
crop in the state is the
Southern Pine.
My very first job was
in the pulp woods.
Shut up. You ain't
been in no woods, girl
Before.
You a Beverly Hillbilly.
My dad loaded the truck
and then my mom drove
the truck to the,
to the mill the next
morning and unloaded it.
Look, I hauled wood for one day.
The next day I went
and got in college.
Right. [laughs]
By the time slavery
moves from the east
to the south, the chains
aren't on their arms anymore,
the chains are on their minds.
[captivating music]
You been in Melrose?
I have not.
It's so sad that people can
be so, you know, so cruel.
He said some things that made
me think about it a little
differently than
what I had before.
You know, I just can't
imagine the slaves.
I mean, how do you
walk 900 miles?
I don't think I
could have. I mean,
I just feel sure I would've died
And no one would've cared.
No. And I would've
been glad of it.
I mean, I would've
rather died than I'm...
Sure some of 'em felt that way.
Slaves couldn't read and write.
So where'd education come from?
Well, some of them are
the bastard children
of the aristocracy.
See the rich, White
male planter get
to have sex with
whoever he wanted to.
And these men are raping
women like 55 going south.
You understand? Your husband
gonna come tell you at
9 o'clock, "Baby, I'm going
to check the chickens."
He ain't going to
check no chickens.
He going down to
the slave quarter
and he gonna do
that every night.
And the only time he even come
to your bed is to make an heir.
And, and the same women that
he having sex with - raping,
put it way it is.
They washing your clothes,
cooking, cleaning,
helping you put your clothes,
she pouring your coffee in the
morning and he got that
"I'm going to have sex with you
look tonight" in his eyes.
But he ain't looking at
you. He looking at her.
And guess what you get
to say about it?
Nothing.
You can't say a word.
Now, do you think you
can't say anything
because you won't say anything
or you can't say anything?
What you think?
I mean if you're the wife?
If you're the wife, why
can't you say anything?
You ain't gonna be
wrong. I promise you.
Where do you go?
Where would you live?
- [Rev] Right.
- [Tracy] What would you do?
- [Tracy's sister] And because
they're supporting your
lifestyle. [-Rev] Right.
[metal grinding]
Jim Crow was constitutional
law in the whole deep South.
Now get this.
From 1890 to 1965.
I was born in 1964. - Me too.
We the same age?
Same name, same age.
You my sister,
now you my sister.
Yeah, you gotta come
to church with me.
That was a drastic turn.
[laughs]
I'm hip, right?
Hey Doc!
Ah man. And you the worst
doggone muffler
man in Mississippi.
Get a job!
Asshole.
The muffler guy?
Oh, that Black boy's lying.
[chuckle]
One of his little
friends was over there.
And every time it is three
or more of them together,
their ignorance just boils over.
I get 'em straight in
the morning though.
[somber music ]
[somber music continues]
[probing and slowly
building music]
Father, I stretch
my hand to thee
He...
The only help I know.
If thy withdraw
thyself from me
Where
shall
I go
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Ready or not, here I come.
Jesus, my God.
I know his name.
The only help I know
If thy withdraw
thyself from thee
Where shall I go?
[reflective music]
This is my youngest son.
- [Rev] Yeah Bobby.
- [Bobby] This the boy you
be talking about?
- [Rev] Yeah.
- [Rev] He's the director of
interpretations for this place.
- [Brenda] Okay.
[solemn building music ]
Melrose here today
commemorates over 700 slaves
that John McMurran owned over
a 33 year period.
Paying homage to the enslaved
people that were
considered less than human
but yet built a country.
This is the history
of Americans.
Are we really not going
to tell that story?
My barber says this place
is never gonna change.
What's going on there, friend?
- [Rev] Yep. Tracy, how you
been? - [Tracy] A couple of
Tracys.
I know, I know.
When I believe that then I'll
sell everything and move.
This is home.
[music fades and cicadas sing]
[cicadas continue]