Enslaved Workers Quarters

In 1983, Magnolia Mound reproduced a double slave cabin using timbers from three dismantled cabins donated from Pointe Coupee Parish. The structure gives visitors a tangible connection to the lives of the enslaved people who once lived and labored here.

While each plantation was different, conditions in the slave quarters across Louisiana were marked by hardship, overcrowding, and resilience.

Daily Life in the Cabins

“Usually one room meant one family, occasionally two. Crowding was not always the fault of the master, for the slaves took in orphans, old people, or single friends rather than see them confined to a barrackslike atmosphere. Usually there were no partitions, but certain spaces were clearly designated for sleeping or eating.”

Furnishings were sparse. A few cabins might hold a cast-off chair or table, but most relied on rough benches, stools, or the floor. Hollowed gourds served as bowls, pegs in the wall held clothing, and a single iron pot or skillet might serve for cooking. Light often came only from the fire, carefully tended because relighting it was time-consuming.

The Built Environment

According to the French traveler C.C. Robin in 1803:

“Those who are employed in agriculture on the plantations are housed not far from the master’s house in a little house or cabin perhaps a dozen feet square… These houses are constructed of squared posts… the intervals between these posts being filled with Spanish moss. These cabins are covered with long slabs of cypress called pieux. In a few days these simple buildings are complete. On most plantations… all the cabins are aligned and spaced regularly. It looks like a little village and is usually called a camp.”

Some cabins were sturdier, others crude. Mud or moss filled gaps between logs, though rain and wind often penetrated freely. Floors were commonly dirt, and animals could wander in. Planters sometimes insisted on whitewashing cabins—not to improve health, but for appearances.

Hardship and Survival

Solomon Northup, who was enslaved in Louisiana for twelve years, described his cabin on Bayou Boeuf:

“The softest couches in the world are not to be found in the log mansion of the slave… The bedding was a coarse blanket, and not a rag or shred beside… The cabin is constructed of logs, without floor or window… In stormy weather the rain drives through them, rendering it comfortless and extremely disagreeable.”

Despite the hardships, enslaved people built community. They shared food, built lean-tos or lofts for privacy, gathered in brush arbors for prayer, and sometimes earned “Sunday money” to purchase basic utensils or clothing.

Sources

Kay Harrison & Wanda Barber, Beyond the Big House, A Magnolia Mound Tour Exploring Colonial Slavery in Louisiana 1800-1830”
Bennet H. Barrow, Rules for Highland Plantation (St. Francisville, 1838)
C.C. Robin, Voyage to Louisiana, 1803–1805, trans. Stuart O. Landry Jr.
Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave (1853)