Last updated: September 9, 2024
Place
Cotton Ginning Time
Christy Hoover
Quick Facts
Location:
Natchez, LA
The cotton gin included the ginning machine, press, and buildings that housed the machinery and cotton. High cotton prices in the 1850s led Phanor Prud'homme to expand his enslaved workforce. Enslaced worker Raymond was trained to run the gin in 1854. Another gin, located south of Overseer's House, was under construction by 1859.
The Civil War made it impossible to send cotton to market, so it was stored at a gin. The 1864 Red River Campaign brought the war and its destruction to the plantation. Confederate triips burned gins and cotton in late March to keep the valuable crop out of the hands of United States troops. In April, retreating U.S. soldiers burned buildings and crops. By the time U.S. forces left the area, the Prud'homme gin and cotton had been burned.
The end of the war brought few changes. Cotton remained an important cash crop. Many formerly enslaved workers continued picking, ginning, and pressing cotton at Oaklad as sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and day laborers.
"I had almost 900 bales of cotton, a fortune at this moment, but all that was destroyed by the flames of Yankees and the Confederates." Phanor Prud'homme Letter, July 22, 1865
The cabin of Gabe Nargot, who was the cotton gin engineer from the 1920s to the early 1940s. Although the cabin no longer stands, the brick piers marking its size and location remain. Barbe, Gabe Nargot's grandmother, was kidnapped from Africa and enslaved at Oakland by 1809.
The Civil War made it impossible to send cotton to market, so it was stored at a gin. The 1864 Red River Campaign brought the war and its destruction to the plantation. Confederate triips burned gins and cotton in late March to keep the valuable crop out of the hands of United States troops. In April, retreating U.S. soldiers burned buildings and crops. By the time U.S. forces left the area, the Prud'homme gin and cotton had been burned.
The end of the war brought few changes. Cotton remained an important cash crop. Many formerly enslaved workers continued picking, ginning, and pressing cotton at Oaklad as sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and day laborers.
"I had almost 900 bales of cotton, a fortune at this moment, but all that was destroyed by the flames of Yankees and the Confederates." Phanor Prud'homme Letter, July 22, 1865
The cabin of Gabe Nargot, who was the cotton gin engineer from the 1920s to the early 1940s. Although the cabin no longer stands, the brick piers marking its size and location remain. Barbe, Gabe Nargot's grandmother, was kidnapped from Africa and enslaved at Oakland by 1809.