Motorcycle Mojo – July 2019

(avery) #1
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

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