A WALK IN THE PAST- OAKLEY 1795-1821

A WALK IN THE PAST, OAKLEY, 1795-1821?THE EARLY YEARS OF A FELICIANA PLANTATION
Here we focus on the origins of Oakley Plantation, beginning with the arrival in the parish of Ruffin and Lucretia Gray, and their twenty enslaved workers. This is the story of the free and enslaved people of an early Oakley Plantation and how they wrested and developed lands from the wild to create one of the largest and wealthiest plantations in Louisiana.

Our stops will include a visit to the site of the original 1795 house. There we will speak on the arrival of Ruffin and Lucretia Gray on the tract, and their settlement on the land. Being the location where the Grays? settlement house was sited, the labor and the challenges of establishing a plantation in 1795 in what essentially was a Spanish Colonial frontier wilderness will be our focus.

Next we move to Oakley House where we will discuss the challenges confronting Lucretia Gray after the death of her husband, and her determination to move forward with the development of the plantation. Her marriage to James Pirrie and the construction of Oakley House will be described as the plantation moved from a Spanish Colony, to it?s own independent Republic, and lastly to an early United States.

Lastly we will then tour Oakley House and focus on the business of operating a plantation.  We will discuss the planter-factor relationship, the role and nature of debt within the plantation economy, and the use of the enslaved as security for bills, notes, and mortgages. We will look Lucretia's role as a plantation manager when her husband was ?indisposed?, and her husband James role as Sheriff in the new State of Louisiana.