Lost Plantations of the South (review)

July 2011 237 Some readers may be bothered by nonstandard grammar in the text. While Windham could have made corrections, he was wise not to do so as changes in Lucas’s speech patterns would lessen the authenticity and power of his story. To this reader, the artist’s imaginative figures of speech and telling details outweigh grammatical irregularities. Tin Man contains more than 150 stunning color photos taken by Chip Cooper, Artist-in-Residence in the Honors College at the University of Alabama. Readers of the Alabama Review and Alabama Heritage will be familiar with his outstanding work. This is not a typical coffee table art book or catalogue. It does not give us the expected details about the size of the pieces, the materials used in their creation, or their present owners. Many are not titled, and it is difficult to know if a piece discussed in the text actually appears anywhere in the book. It is, however, a highly readable and gloriously beautiful book that provides the next best experience to seeing the works at Lucas’s home in Pink Lily. Tin Man will be treasured by fans of folk art, but anyone with an interest in Alabama culture and the social and economic conditions that have produced numerous nationally known self-taught artists will find it rewarding. Joyce Cauthen Birmingham Lost Plantations of the South. By Marc R. Matrana. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009. xv, 320 pp. $40.00. ISBN 978-1-57806-942-2. Contrary to popular myth, William Tecumseh Sherman’s fiery path of destruction is not what destroyed the Old South; rather, it was a sad mixture of tragedy and “progress.” After the Civil War plantations, farmhouses , churches, and even entire towns lay in ruin from pillage and neglect and were often forgotten. This is why Marc R. Matrana’s book, Lost Plantations of the South, is both impressive and laudable. In this book he has produced both an extensive survey of the impressive plantations that once graced the American South and also a narrative describing how the South lost these important artifacts. Lost Plantations focuses solely on the plantation complexes, from Virginia to Texas, which came to define the agrarian economy of the American South. Amply footnoted, indexed, and illustrated, and utilizing the treasure trove that is the collection of the Historic American Buildings Survey the alabama review 238 (HABS), this book is organized by regions of the South—the Upper South (Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia), the Upper Southwest (Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee), and the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. In each chapter the author introduces the region with a brief overview of its history and then follows with the featured plantations. Within the narrative of each plantation, the author provides its extensive history, often describing how it evolved from the late seventeenth century to the advent of the Civil War, into the twentieth century, and finally its destruction. Through these narratives, Matrana tells a familiar tale, beginning with the family settlement and the rise to fortune that allowed them to build impressive manor houses; later, he summarizes the family’s fall, usually facilitated by changes brought about by the Civil War, and later the final ruin and ultimate loss of the plantation. Most of the plantations are lost through fire from lightning, natural causes, or arson, but others have fallen victim to decay and development. Matrana not only concentrates on the manor house and the family who occupied it, he explores the entire complex including outbuildings, barns, slave cabins, and the dynamics of slavery and plantation. Of all the plantations featured in this book, two, both from Mississippi, left memorable impressions. The first is Brierfield, the home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Matrana describes it as particularly plain, absent of the rich ornamentation often found in Greek Revival architecture. After the Civil War, Brierfield would be severed from Davis both figuratively and literally. After the Union Army captured Davis’s home, his former slaves moved into the plantation and became its masters for a short while. Much later, the Mississippi River changed its course, turning Davis Bend into Davis Island and literally surrounding Brierfield. The...