Shadows-on-the-Teche Plantation, Iberia Parish, Louisiana

Date: 1831 [unknown]
Location: New Iberia, Iberia, Louisiana, United States
Surnames/tags: Weeks Slavery

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Introduction

Shadows-on-the-Teche is a 3,750 square foot plantation, historic house, garden, and cemetery. It was built on a tract of 158 acres on the edge of one of the other Weeks' plantations in the parish seat of Iberia Parish. It was a working sugar cane plantation with 164 enslaved labor located in New Iberia, Louisiana, United States. The house was built in 1834 by David Weeks (1786–1834) and his wife Mary Conrad Weeks (1797–1863).^[1] David Weeks, became chronically ill while Shadows-on-the-Teche was being built, and died in August 1834 while traveling to seek medical attention in Connecticut. The Weeks family owned the property from 1834 to 1958.

His wife, Mary Weeks, remarried lawyer John Moore but kept her children's property separate from that of her second husband, as she was allowed to do under Louisiana law. This property included the 164 slaves, bequeathed to their children under the terms of David Week's will.

Until her sons came of age, Mary became a property owner and oversaw the operations at the family sugar plantations and at the Shadows. This also meant that Mary would assume the role of a slave owner in the Antebellum South. Documentation from the Shadows, including “Inventories” of “moveable property” from 1835 and 1846 offers insight into the lives and families of the 164 enslaved men, women, and children who produced the wealth of the Weeks family. While the majority of the enslaved population resided at the sugar plantations—planting, harvesting, and processing the sugar—24 men, women, and children operated the Shadows, growing and harvesting the food that fed the family and the enslaved population as well as managing the house.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Shadows-on-the-Teche," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shadows-on-the-Teche&oldid=1086261630 (accessed January 6, 2023).