Photos of Natchez and Rodney

Natchez was founded on the Mississippi River in the early 18th century, and was famous in the antebellum era for both its rowdy nightlife and the mansions built by planter famiies. Rodney is - or rather, was - about 30 miles upriver from Natchez, and was a prosperous river town during the antebellum era; it became a ghost town soon after the Mississippi River changed its course about 1870, cutting Rodney off from its connection with the rest of the world. Laurel Hill plantation was built in the 1830s, during the town's heyday.