Dondi D.
Yelp
I just took a tour of this plantation with my family. Now that we have done it, I am bit surprised that there are so many good reviews about St. Joseph.
On the Old River Road I visited Laura, St. Joseph, Evergreen and Oak Valley Plantations. I would say this about St. Joseph: I wanted a place that would bring history to life. This wasn't it. I know the name of our tour guide but I don't want to publicly call her out on the Internet because maybe, just maybe she was having a really bad day. But, even on my very worst day - the worst day of my whole life - I wouldn't say the following, but she did. Hold onto your hats. She regaled us with comments like: "Slave owners wanted their slaves to be happy and healthy. They didn't hurt the slaves. Why would they want to hurt their slaves? That is a bunch of Hollywood stuff." She wanted us to know that the people who lived at St. Joseph felt responsible to the "workers" just as she and her husband would feel responsible to their workers today. She also told us that the "workers" were sold as slaves to America by the Africans and were being sold by the Africans as slaves to other countries long before America bought them. She continued to tell us that the "workers" were an asset until the war and then they became a drain. (For 99% of the tour this woman referred to the slaves as "workers." I reminded her that they were "slaves" and she didn't seem too pleased.) At one point my mom and I were too shocked to respond to her unbelievable statements, so we simply drifted into another room in the house. I didn't know whether to be enraged and yell at her, go in a corner and cry, or leave the tour early. It was so surreal.
I had read previous reviews about St. Joseph and a couple of people did say (in their own words) that at St. Joseph there seemed to be some denial about slave life. But, I thought to myself, "Those people must have misunderstood or they are being a little harsh. Who could be in denial about slave life?" It seemed preposterous. Plus, there are so many great, praiseful and detailed reviews about St. Joseph on the Internet. So, from everything I read before the tour, I concluded that the tour would probably be historically accurate and well worth our time. Not only was it NOT worth our time (and money) but I have never left a tour feeling a little sick to my stomach. My whole family left in a funk. Not to mention that part of the tour was us wasting 13 minutes on a film about modern day sugar production. The film might be interesting in another setting, but it had little to do with history or the plantation so it felt out of place and odd. After the film we told our guide we wanted to know about how the sugar was harvested 150 years ago, but she couldn't address anything about sugar 150 years ago, nor answer our questions. In fact, she ignored or talked around just about every question we had about St. Joseph and plantations in the 1800s.
Like other plantations, at this one there was no offer of taking us to the numerous slave cabins or even walking around the property outside. This tour consisted of the bland film about sugar and then walking through parts of the house.
I have heard great things about San Francisco Plantation and Houmas House. I would spend my time at those plantations if I had to do it again. You might want to drive by Felicite (next door to St. Joseph) so you can see where "Twelve Years a Slave" was filmed and then move on. Especially if you believe that slavery was not only wrong but horrific, or you are interested in the incredibly rich history of life on the plantations.