158 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 

 Agricultural Tour South and West. — No. 5. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 8:143-44; May, 1849] 



[Covering December 15-19, 1848] 



Visit to the Plantations of Louisiana. — Directly after 

 leaving Baton Rouge, down the Mississippi, we pass a 

 long reach of uncultivated wooded tract, belonging to Mr. 

 John McDonough/ of New Orleans, who, like many other 

 land misers in this country, appears to buy to keep — not 

 to cultivate. Then comes the plantation of the lamented 

 Mr. Chambers,^ who was recently crushed to death in his 

 sugar mill, in consequence of entangling his coat in one 

 of the ponderous iron wheels. To-day, (December 15th,) 

 I noticed a gang of negroes gathering cane from the wind- 

 rows, and carting it to the mill. No cane is to be seen 

 standing here, having all been cut for fear of frost. 



The next plantations we meet with, are those of Col. 

 S. Henderson,^ Madame Williams,* and of Col. Philip 



' John McDonogh, merchant and philanthropist, born December 

 29, 1779, at Baltimore, Maryland; died October 26, 1850. Went to 

 New Orleans as agent for a Baltimore merchant. After 1803 put 

 all his capital into West Florida and Louisiana lands. Retired 

 from mercantile business in 1806 to attend to his pi'operties, which 

 grew to be enormous. Director of the Louisiana State Bank. Took 

 part in Jackson's defense of New Orleans. About 1817 removed 

 from New Orleans to one of his plantations across the river. Sent 

 about eighty slaves to Liberia in 1842, but purchased more when 

 these departed. Left his fortune for the education of the youth of 

 New Orleans and Baltimore. Dictionary of American Biography, 

 12:19. 



^ David Chambers, Iberville, Louisiana. Received second pre- 

 mium for sugar at the fair of Louisiana Agricultural and Me- 

 chanics' Association in 1844. Nashville Agriculturist, 5:20 (1844). 



' Colonel Stephen Henderson, Union Parish, Louisiana. Sugar 

 planter. Treasurer and chairman of the Executive Committee of 

 the Louisiana Agricultural and Mechanics' Association for 1847. 

 Nashville Agricxdturist, 5:17 (1844); De Bow's Review, 4:424 

 (December, 1847); Monthly Journal of Agriculture, 3:148 (Octo- 

 ber, 1847). For a description of his method of working slaves, 

 and food allowance for slaves, see Moody, V. Alton, Slavery on 

 Louisiana Sugar Plantations, 20, 60, 77 (reprinted from Louisiana 

 Historical Quarterly, 7:191-301, April, 1924). 



* Madame Williams, widow of Dr. J. C. Williams, for many years 



