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Front of Cherie Quarters Cabin, a rare existing slave cabin
Courtesy of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation
Side view of
one of the cabins
Courtesy of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation |
The two single-story slave dwellings,
which remain on the historic Riverlake Plantation,
are known as the Cherie Quarters Cabins. These buildings are significant
because they are rare surviving examples of a once common antebellum building
type which has all but disappeared from the state. Standing roughly 400
feet apart, the twin cabins are all that remain of the slave quarters
for Riverlake Plantation. The number of cabins on the site during the
antebellum period remains unclear but former residents of a thriving African-American
community who called the quarters home in the 1930s assert that about
30 cabins existed at that time. Rectangular in plan, each of the two remaining
cabins is raised approximately two feet above grade on large brick piers.
Each cabin is two rooms wide with a gallery on its façade. The gallery
is open to the tin roof, which is pitched from front to back, has gable
ends, and is pierced by a central chimney. Both rooms possess front and
rear doors, as well as a window on one side. In the antebellum era, each
room housed a separate African-American family.
Cherie Quarters was the birthplace and childhood home of African-American
author Ernest J. Gaines, writer of noted works including The Autobiography
of Miss Jane Pittman (1970), A Gathering of Old Men (1983),
and A Lesson Before Dying (1994). Despite their recent use, the
age and authenticity of the quarters are uncontested as the timber frame
constructions are held together with nails produced between 1830 and
1880. The census schedules of 1860 reveal that there were approximately
1,640 holdings of 50 or more African-American slaves in Louisiana on
the eve of the Civil War. This information, along with various other
sources, indicates that at one time there must easily have been thousands
of slave cabins across the state. Although no comprehensive survey of
slave quarters has been undertaken in Louisiana, it is probable that
only about 40-50 survive.
The Cherie Quarters Cabins are located half a mile from the intersection
of State Hwy. 1 and Major Ln. in Oscar. They are privately owned and
not open to the public.
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