This week's header photograph was taken on the grounds of an antebellum plantation house in Mississippi. the house is on the historic register, and there are signs that it's been occupied in modern times (electric ceiling fans on the outside terrace). There were still floor-to-ceiling drapes in some of the windows. A few feet out from the foundation, all around the house, were beautiful brick walkways that led into wider terraces. The bricks were softened by moss and algae, and dead leaves had blown across the terrace. In the early morning light, the colors were beautiful.
By one account, Mount Holly was built in 1859, just two years before the first southern states voted to secede from the Union, and the beginning of the Civil War in April 1861.
If houses could talk... imagine the tales this one could tell of the days leading up to war.
More information on Mount Holly can be found here and additional photographs here.
Two books I have enjoyed very much lately were written about the pre-Civil War slave experience - The Healing and The House Girl. Both were written from the perspective of the slave rather than the slave owners, and beautifully done. Laurie
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