Motorcycle Mojo – July 2019

46 MOTORCYCLE MOJO JULY 2019

my education. At Natchez National

Historical Park, I was introduced to the

new Enslavement Markets Exhibition

detailing the largely untold story of

America’s internal chattel trade. It

was both shocking and heartbreaking.

Congress had enacted legislation in

1808 making it illegal to bring captives

directly from Africa, so “slaves” were

imported from northern states. Stolen

men, women and children were

marched sometimes from as far away

as Maryland and Virginia to be sold in

the markets at Natchez, a centre of the

domestic slave trade until the Civil War.

Natchez Trace, the trail they

followed, had been an old Native

American trading route. Later used

to deliver the U.S. mail, it also served

as a military road for moving troops

during the War of 1812. For many years,

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downriver to markets in New Orleans,

then had to walk the Trace up to 800 km

to return home. It was a dangerous

journey, braving heat, mosquitoes,

poor food and sucking swamps. Not to

mention thieves who were well aware

that these travellers carried their entire

year’s earnings with them.

Today, the National Park Service

administers the Natchez Trace Parkway,

which approximates the path of the

original Trace through a protected

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not carried maps, I would have been

unaware of civilization nearby. The

road is a narrow two-laner with no

India House is a quirky hostel just blocks from

the French Quarter. (left)

At Oak Alley Plantation, this row of 28 live oaks

leads directly to the Mississippi. (above)

TRAVEL NEW ORLEANS TO NASHVILLE