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)
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