The tour is via audio devices and numbered sign posts to select and hear the information at each stop. The tour of the inside of the home is given by docents in period costume who lead you through and explain the history of each room.
We started in the Visitor Center that was decked out in a fall harvest theme.
The approach to the home is lined with trees.
This would have been planted in cotton as that was the main crop of this plantation. Also present were livestock and food grown for all the people on the plantation. Jefferson's orchard was somewhere near the home but it hasn't been determined exactly where. If and when they determine where it was located they intend to plant an orchard similar to what he may have had.
The garden area and tomb where Andrew and Rachel Jackson are buried.
In the distance we could see some small and normal sized cows. The small ones had a white band around their bodies. They are Belted Galloway cattle originally from Ireland. They are a hearty breed that thrive about anywhere but were not a breed that were originally kept on Jackson's plantation. I think they are here as they are very easy to handle and take very little care.
The home is painted in front to resemble stone but is red brick. This is the third iteration of the home. It was remodeled to add the wings when Jackson became President but later burned and was rebuilt as it is today.
A view of the garden.
Waiting for our turn to tour the home.
Linda and Marge are having a good time together!
The rear of the home with the kitchen on the right rear where it was placed outside after the fire and the house was rebuilt. To the far right is the smokehouse.
The cabin on the left was originally a two story log cabin that Andrew and Rachel lived in for 18 years. Its interior was decked out in the finest of everything. When the large home was built the lower story of the original home was removed leaving the upper part of the house attached to the foundation. It then became a slave cabin along with the cabin on the right. Jackson owned about 150 slaves and a number of the cabins and slave quarters which no longer exist.
The cabin on the left is Alfred's cabin, a slave who was born on the plantation around 1812. He became a free man but remained in this home until his death at age 100. He became the first tour guide on the plantation when the place was converted to a museum. He was the only one with first hand knowledge of the home and it's inhabitants.
Entering Rachel's garden.
Most of the flowers were spent but from the labels of all the plants it must be beautiful in the spring and summer.
Don, Marge and Linda
Andrew and Rachel Jackson's Tomb.
A great tour covering another period in American History.
Tonight we will attend the Ryman Theatre in Nashville, site of the original Grand Ole Opry, for a Country Classic show. We will be posting something about it in the next day or so.
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