And thanks for introducing me to Canebreak. Sounds like a wonderful historic place, and as you say, very evocative of “the other side of the story.”

The house is not ostentatious compared to Brandon Hall; its value lies in the fact that it is a complete antebellum plantation complex. The overseer’s house (there has never been a large plantation house on the property, the overseer’s house is the “big house”) dates from circa 1840; Gerard Brandon remodeled the house during the 1850s. The Meserve family did some alterations during the 1910s; yet, since the 1910s the house has had no remodels. The remainder of the plantation complex dates to the 1840s-1860 and contains six slave cabins, a barn, and a chicken house (there is also a twentieth century garage). Canebrake is the last surviving antebellum farm complex in Concordia Parish; the last link to how the wealth of Natchez was created.

Another Natchez link is that Canebrake was originally owned by Tobias Gibson and William Harris. The firm of Neibert and Gemmell constructed Ravenna, another Natchez mansion, for William Harris in 1835. Ravenna and Brandon Hall are the only houses in the Natchez area with double-tiered galleries that have Doric and Ionic columns. The use of the two orders is different; Brandon Hall has Ionic on the first story, Doric on the second. Ravenna has Doric on the first story, Ionic on the second. However, this unique connection could mean that Neibert and Gemmell also constructed Brandon Hall.