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117 Originally known as Constancia, Uncle Sam Plantation was located near Donaldsonville in St. James Parish. It was built between 1841 and 1843 for Piérre Auguste Samuel Fagot (ca. 1797–1860) and his wife, Emilie Jourdan (b. ca. 1800–ca. 1875). After being damaged by a fire, Constancia was rebuilt in 1849. The main house was constructed of brick fired on site and covered with stucco. The shutters were painted an oxide green. Constancia featured twenty-eight Doric columns with a plain entablature and wide enclosed galleries. Two garçonnières and two smaller cottages, each with Doric columns, two octagonal pigeonniers, and forty slave cabins were adjacent to the main house. The Fagots’ youngest daughter, Felicie (1823–1886), and her husband , Lucien Malus (b. ca. 1825–ca. 1880), inherited the plantation. It descended to their two daughters, Emilie (b. 1852) and Felicie (b. ca. 1848), who married brothers Jules (b. ca. 1845) and Camille (b. ca. 1845) Jacob. The Jacob brothers operated the plantation and the store jointly, though Jules Jacob eventually assumed principal ownership. In 1915, he sold Uncle Sam to Hymel Stebbins (n.d.), a New Orleans commission merchant. Stebbins did not occupy the house but continued to operate the sugar plantation. Uncle Sam was torn down in 1940 because the changing course of the Mississippi River threatened the property. The plantation reportedly received a last-minute reprieve from the National Park Service, but the telegram arrived too late to stop the bulldozers. Legend suggests that locals called Fagot “Oncle Sam,” eventually applying the name to the plantation. Alternately, the name may have derived from the letters “U.S.” stamped on hogsheads of sugar that came from the plantation’s sugar mill. Both stories have the air of apocrypha that is so often associated with plantation houses in Louisiana. One of Tebbs’s photographs of Uncle Sam shows two people sitting on the steps—one of the few instances in which figures appear in his images. UNCLE SAM PLANTATION 1841–1843/1849 Uncle Sam Plantation (rear elevation from a distance), vintage silver gelatin print, Louisiana State Museum, 1956.087.254b 118 Belle Alliance Plantation (three-quarter view from a distance), vintage gelatin silver print, Louisiana State Museum, 1956.087.182b ...

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