After touring Wakefield, we visited Rosedown Plantation, built by Sarah Turnbull Stirling’s brother, Daniel Turnbull, and his wife, Martha Barrow Turnbull. (The Barrows purchased my Jesuit-enslaved ancestors.) Known for its gardens, Rosedown is one of the most documented and well-preserved plantations. The Louisiana Office of State Parks bought it in 2000, and it is now open to the public.
Rosedown was beautifully decorated, and for the second time, I saw a large fringed fabric rectangle hanging from the ceiling above the dining room table. It was a punkah, I was told, also called a shoo-fly. Imagine little Black boys or grown men pulling strings to generate a breeze that kept diners cool and insects away. There were benefits to the work; fanners could eavesdrop on conversations, hearing who might be auctioned next and learning about the slaves who revolted or escaped. The Wakefield Plantation had two punkahs, but pictures were not allowed.
The day after I visited Wakefield Plantation, I went to St. Mary’s Church and Burial Ground with my cousin Sam Johnson. The plantation was on Highway 61, with Mulberry Hill Road running along its north side. It was visible from the highway and Mulberry Hill Road! Still, I never saw it during my childhood visits to my father’s brother, Sullivan Johnson, his wife Anna, and their children, who lived up Mulberry Hill Road in Wakefield.
The last time I saw St. Mary’s Church was at Grandma Carrie Bayonne’s funeral in October 1959. We drove up Mulberry Hill Road for about a block, then turned right onto St. Mary’s Road and reached the church. At the end of the road, there was a small, charming white church in the woods, built in 1880. In 1966, the church was rebuilt as a simple brick structure. I was very disappointed and forgot to ask Sam what happened to the original St. Mary’s. The original foundation remains on the property next to the brick building. Many family members are buried in an unfenced area across from the church – Grandma Carrie and one of her sisters, her son Sullivan Johnson, his wife Anna, her parents, and numerous relatives with the surnames Sterling, Morgan, Taylor, Johnson, and Dunbar.
Wakefield is a small, rural, unincorporated community in West Feliciana Parish. We called it the “country” because it lacked many amenities of a big city like New Orleans – no paved roads, no gas, electricity, or plumbing, no toilets, and so on. When I started this series on Wakefield Plantation, I had an epiphany: Wakefield, where my Grandma Carrie, other ancestors, and collateral relatives were born, was part of the Wakefield Plantation! My family was enslaved and lived on the Wakefield for about a hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation!
Sixty-three thousand acres. Decades of slavery. Hundreds of enslaved people. Yet, on that day, the guides and the owner of Wakefield Plantation knew nothing about the people who built its wealth. I went home and immediately reached out to Joli. My question for her was, “Are there slave burial grounds on the Wakefield property?” Joli responded:
My husband, Dr. Eugene Berry, and I bought the Wakefield Plantation in 1988 and are the first owners who are not Stirling descendants. We lack firsthand knowledge of important historical details.
We purchased only 50 acres, the rest of the original 63,000 acres after many divisions and losses over the years.
No slave quarters, production buildings (such as a sugar mill, cotton gin, grist mill, or granary), or original kitchen have survived to the present day.
St. Mary’s Church and Burial Ground was a gift from a Stirling descendant in 1880. (I didn’t know this when I visited the Wakefield Plantation)
When Lewis and Sarah Turnbull Stirling purchased the Wakefield Plantation, it covered 62, 000 acres. It is not only possible but likely that slaves who died were buried somewhere on that large estate.
I walked across the land where my ancestors lived, worked, and were buried. Despite my fears, I was warmly welcomed and invited to become a guide and share the story of my ancestors at the Wakefield during the next Audubon Pilgrimage. I wish I had accepted the invitation.
UPDATE: Johanna “Joli” Wamble Berry died on April 14, 2019.
In spring 2024, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Berkeley, California, changed its name to Golden Gate Bird Alliance because John James Audubon enslaved people, was a racist, and snatched bodies from native burial sites. This is so Berkeley!