The Enslaved. Beneath this alley of oaks were 20 double cabins that housed enslaved families from 1829 to 1862. They were the workforce for Marigny’s Fontainebleau Plantation and included skilled steam engineers who managed the power source for the sugar presses and lumber mill. Brickmaking was the site’s most profitable endeavor, but capable blacksmiths, schooner crews, masons, sawyers, and ox drivers were also part of the enslaved labor. A shoemaker, seamstress, and field hands were also noted in papers of the time. Children, with their small hands, fed sugar cane into steam operated presses during harvest. Sugar refining was hazardous work, and a small hospital was kept onsite. Tending sheep, cattle, horses, mules and oxen was a daily affair. In 1840, 153 enslaved individuals were documented here including 57 children under the age of 10. The economic panic of 1837, crop failure, and fallen sugar prices led to the 1852 sale of Fontainebleau, further impacting enslaved families. The women, Violette and Bonnine were babies when Fontainebleau was built in 1829, and 23 years later were sold with their own children to the plantation’s new owner, Pierre Poutz. 2019 Eagle Scout Project - Jackson Cantrell

Fontainebleau State Park, Mandeville, LA, United States

Native Peoples Native tribes have lived in this area for over 2,500 years. The oldest evidence dates to 500 BCE from footed pottery shards belonging to people of the Tchefuncte Culture. Hunter-gatherers who enjoyed a diet of fish, clams, and alligator, were known as shell mound builders. The Acolapissa arrived here in about 1705 and were easily identified by their tattooed bodies and faces. Their name translates as those who listen and see. With the encroachment of European settlers and slave-raiders, the tribe moved west in 1721. Having no immunity against old world diseases, smallpox reduced their numbers by more than half. In 1739, they merged with the Houma. Choctaws resided near the park from the 1700s to today, although in 1902 many were forced west to Oklahoma. Those that remained traded with settlers but kept true to old customs. They are renowned for elaborate basket weaving and the use of blow guns for hunting. The Choctaw language is part of the Muskogean linguistic family. Castembayuk was their name for the local bayou whose banks were riddled with fleas. Settlers kept the name, Castine Bayou, unaware of its meaning. 2019 Eagle Scout Project - Jackson Cantrell

Fontainebleau State Park, Mandeville, LA, United States