Before the Civil War, Natchez (NATCH-iss, rhymes with “matches”) had the most millionaires per capita in the United States, and it shows. If luxurious antebellum houses make your heart beat faster, Natchez (which has more than 500 antebellum structures inside the city limits), with its innumerable white columns and rich smorgasbord of Italian marble, imported crystal, and sterling silver, might just put you in the local ICU. That so much antebellum finery still exists is because Natchez, unlike Vicksburg, surrendered to Grant’s army almost without a fight. Anti-Yankee sentiment may in fact run higher now than during the war, for Natchez was vehemently opposed to the Confederacy, and outspokenly against Mississippi’s secession from the Union. Since Natchez was second only to New Orleans as social and cultural capital of a region with two-thirds of the richest people in America, most of whom owed their wealth to slave-picked cotton, its support of the Union might seem a little incongruous.
Of course, such apparent contradictions should come as no surprise from a community raised with genteel cotillions and the Mississippi’s busiest red-light district side by side. (Once-disreputable Natchez Under-the-Hill, where the most famous brothel in the South was destroyed by a fire in 1992, is today but a single gentrified block of riverfront bars and restaurants lined up alongside a permanently moored riverboat casino.
As befits the place that originated the concept, the annual Natchez Pilgrimages (held in late Spring, October, and at Christmas) are twice as long as the typical 10–15 days done elsewhere. The number of antebellum mansions open to the public more than doubles, hoop skirts and brass-buttoned waistcoats abound, and musical diversions like the Confederate Pageant are held nightly. Among the most fascinating homes open year-round is the one that didn’t get finished: Longwood, on Lower Woodville Road, is the nation’s largest octagonal house, capped by a red onion dome. Its grounds are fittingly gothic, too, with moss-dripping tree limbs, sunken driveway, and the family cemetery out in the woods. Information on the “pilgrimages,” other house tours (about $8 per house), and the chance to stay in one of many historic B&Bs, all comes from the same group, Natchez Pilgrimage Tours (601/446-6631 or 800/647-6742), who also run horse-drawn carriage tours.
Southern history doesn’t merely comprise those Greek Revival heaps and their Gone With the Wind stereotypes. Natchez, for example, had a large population of free blacks, whose story is told in downtown’s Museum of Afro-American History and Culture (call for hours; 601/445-0728), in the old Post Office at 301 Main Street, where you’ll also find interesting Black Heritage walking-tour brochures. Large Jewish sections in the City Cemetery (follow signs for the National Cemetery, and the city’s is along the way) also furnish evidence of the South’s tapestried past. The marble statuary and decorative wrought iron offer a pleasant outdoor respite for weary mansion-goers, too.
One last Natchez landmark deserves special mention: Mammy’s Cupboard (601/445-8957), a roadside restaurant in the shape of a five-times-larger-than-life Southern woman, whose red skirts house the small dining room and gift shop. Having survived many incarnations and abandonments, Mammy’s is once again open for business, offering rather refined lunches (cups of tea and dainty sandwiches) from 11 am to 2 pm Monday–Saturday. She can be found along the east side of four-lane US-61, roughly five miles south of town.
