Melrose Plantation by Stephen-KarenConn
Melrose Plantation, built beginning in 1841, is the most completely preserved plantation we saw on our visit to Natchez. It was one of five plantations once owned by a wealthy attorney and cotton planter, John T. McMurran. Today the house, outbuildings and 80 surrounding acres are owned and operated by the National Park Service as a part of the Natchez National Historic Park.The grounds still have two original slave houses and other domestic outbuildings such as a well house, privy, barn and carriage house. A very interesting part of the story we heard on our tour at Melrose is that the original owners only lived here during the cooler half of the year, and spent their summers in such places as Newport, Rhode Island; Greenbrier, West Virginia or touring Europe. During their extended absences they left their slaves to take care of the place. Some of the slaves at Melrose were so devoted that even after Emancipation they stayed at Melrose voluntarily as servants.
After the death of Melrose's owner in 1883, the house was left in the care of former slaves, Jane Johnson and Alice Sims. These two women lived in and maintained the house for about 30 years. They protected the property, resisting repeated attempts from would-be looters to remove fine furnishings. Both Sims and Johnson played vital roles in the restoration of the property by new owners George M.D. and Ethel Moore Kelly who bought the house in the early 20th century. Former slave Alice Sims died at age 96, in the 1930's and Jane Johnson at the age of 103, in the 1940s.
Guided tours of the home, offered daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas, give visitors a glimpse into the lifestyle of the antebellum American South and help them understand the roles that slaves played in an estate setting.