in a great yard in the midst of numerous orange trees, pecan trees and yellow locusts. Erected before 1825, it maintained the simplicity of the plantation houses of those days, and though it did not compare in size or stateliness to houses built in the forties and fifties, nevertheless it was a most comfortable establishment. Elevated about eight feet from the ground with large brick columns there was a gallery that ran three-fourths of the way around the house. Eight negro servants were required in the establishment; six women and two men. The women, Maria, Sillat, Nellie Paine and Ellen, were garbed in French madras and Merrimac calico. Patsy held sway in the kitchen, Little John was the butler, while William Wirt and Lucy, both children, were generally assigned the task of operating the large fan or attending to small errands.

The furniture, for a great part, had been brought originally from Maryland, and was used at the earlier plantation, "Magnolia Grove" just six miles from New Orleans, and the residence of the Wederstrandt family before they removed to Harlem. There were frequent visitors from New Orleans: Mr. George Lee, the Wilkinsons, Mr. Hurling, the Whartons, the Misses Nicholsons, Morgans, and Benjamins, and Mr. and Mrs. Kruttnits, were among the guests from time to time. It was not unusual for from twelve to eighteen people to sit down to dinner, and often in the afternoon or evening a crew of three or four slaves would row the guests and members of the family up or across the Mississippi River to neighboring plantations. A popular visit was to "Belle Chase", the home of Judge Benjamin, A "fourth of July" dinner was duly celebrated with a number of ladies and gentlemen; a large company assembled at dinner and remained, most of them, all night; great illumination and much dancing to a very late hour; music said to be excellent. Some of the company retired next day, and some remained longer." At least a week was a usual visit. Perhaps the most notable guest was General Cadwalader, and his military staff, who visited here in the latter part of April on his way back from the Mexican War. The large wine cellar with Madeira, champagne and claret (twenty-five cases ordered at a time), was always kept well stocked. Margaretta and Isaac E. shared the ownership of this plantation with her sisters and brother. One of her sisters, the wife of Dr. Pierre Caveily Boyer resided in New Orleans but frequently visited the plantation. Another sister spent most of her time on her estate on Long Island; another, the wife of John Weatherburn Smith usually stayed in New Orleans where, her husband, it was said, knew "almost everyone" in the Crescent City, and was not infrequently called upon to act as master of ceremonies at

large official receptions, one of which was that given in honor of Henry Clay at the St. Charles Hotel on the occasion of the latter's visit to that city.

Margaretta's only brother, Dr. John C. P. Wederstrandt, was seldom on the plantation. He had spent many years in Paris and London and for a number of years was the resident surgeon at the Charity Hospital, and Professor of Anatomy at the University. Nevertheless they all met at the plantation on many occasions at which time the dwelling was often taxed for space. Although the usual method of traveling was by boat, often they would drive up to the city, along the levee road, past the plantations of the Toutant-Beauregards, the Villeres, and the LaCostes. Not infrequently they would break their journey by visits for tea or dinner at the Lestrappes' or at the magnificient estate called "La Ronde", the home of the Janin family.

The educational facilities of a plantation were always difficult to maintain. M. Debouchel was tutor to many children in that neighborhood, but when Margaretta became old enough she had attended the academy of Madame Moissille Valtaubert in New Orleans. "Harlem" as a sugar plantation ultimately of over 1400 acres, yielded a crop often as high as $24,000. There were, however, in Louisiana, much more extensive and productive sugar plantations, and the Grevemberg plantation "Albania" in the Attakapas, and "Belle Grove", the Andrews' estate, often had annual sugar crops of over $90,000.00 each.

Chapter VII. PORTER AND THE BIRTH OF A NATION

What then remains?

The strength that Fate itself distains:

The soul to Fortune's worst resigned;
Th' unconquered heart, and equal mind."

- De Vere,; from Horace.

Porter, christened Alexander Porter Morse -- in that ancient Roman Catholic Church in St. Martinsville, -- was the eighth generation in America, and in 1855 was thirteen years of age; at the time a student with his two older brothers, Nathan and Malcolm, at St. Mary's College in Emittsburg, Maryland; and the author of the following letter to his father in New Orleans: "I now take the pen in my hands to inform you how unjustly I have been punished. Last night being Good Friday, we had to go up to the Church, at about nine o'clock, and coming down the hill, being very dark, some few boys threw stones at the Prefect, and today the Prefect punished about sixty boys, and I am among the punished.... I did not throw a single stone the whole time.... I would not tell a lie for these old prefects up here, for they are not worth telling lies for. Anyhow this college is the meanest one in the world for unjust punishment. You know very well yourself how an unjust punishment will sting a boy. Please see into this matter is my earnest request. If I had done it....I would go and tell....as I have often done. I hope you intend to this affair punctually....Malcolm and Nathan unite with me in love to you all."

Following the footsteps of their parent, the three sons, after early schooling in Louisiana, had been sent for their education where they might partake of that intangible something, so valuable in after life, that the rugged mountains seem to impart to those who live in their midst. And Emmittsburg, Maryland, was not far from the old "Cumberland" road, part of the river route of his parents on their journeys to and from the North.

Porter, through his mother, was descended from many of the early Maryland families, such as the Darnalls, Brookes, Blakes, and Captain James Neale of Woolston Manor -- whose Catholicity had prevailed in so many of their offspring, against the then less dominant protestantism of the Lloyds, and Orricks and others of the same province not to mention the Morse background of Puritanism. (See Appendix 115).