Django Unchained

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

In centuries past these slave quarters were home to men and women who worked in horrific conditions for six days a week in searing heat and humidity on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Now the 22 original slave cabins of the Evergreen Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana, have been used by Quentin Tarantino as a set for his new Hollywood film Django Unchained, which is out next week.
The site, located halfway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is now a privately-owned working sugar cane plantation but has an extraordinary 250-year history dating back to the slave trade.

Astonishingly preserved: These are the 22 original slave cabins of the Evergreen Plantation in Louisiana

Masters' home: The Deep South site was declared a national historic landmark in 1992 thanks to its agricultural estate, while the 'Big House' was first built in 1790 and remodelled to its present form in 1832

Beautiful: The plantation, where people still live and work, is open for public tours from Monday to Saturday but in its early days had a reliance on slave labour - and later the work of freed African-Americans

Original features of the slave quarters remain including chimneys, shutters and doors, as well as their original appearance and layout - although some changes have been made in the last 150 years.
A man named Lezin Becnel was listed in an 1860 census as the plantation owner along with his brother, and the official count of slaves at that point was 103 living in 48 dwellings.

 The plantation, where people continue to live and work, is open for public tours but in its early days had relied on slave labour - and later the work of freed African-Americans.

The Deep South site was declared a national historic landmark in 1992 thanks to its agricultural heritage, and the ‘Big House’ was first built in 1790 and remodelled to its present form in 1832.

Days gone by: The area has 100 live oak trees dating back two centuries and 37 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. Most buildings are from the Antebellum era of slavery in the late 18th century

 

Still standing: Original features of the slave quarters remain such as the chimneys, shutters and doors, as well as their original appearance and layout - although changes have been made over the past 150 years

Huge site: The plantation also features two French structures for housing pigeons known as pigeonniers, two dwellings for young boys known as garconieries, a privy, kitchen, guesthouse and overseer's house

The original house was French Creole - a style developed in the 18th century in the Mississippi Valley area, which features wide porches, a timber frame and living quarters above ground level.
The expansion added Doric columns extending from the ground to the roof and two huge doorways at the top and bottom of the winding double stairway to the galleries.
The plantation also features two French structures for housing pigeons known as pigeonniers, two dwellings for young boys known as garconieries, a privy, kitchen, guesthouse and overseer’s house.
‘Surrounded by cane fields, the restored Evergreen remains a compelling image of the South's plantation landscape,’ a Statement of Significance by the National Park Service said in 1992.

 

New film: Django Unchained is a western set two years before the Civil War, featuring Jamie Foxx as Django (left) and Kerry Washington as Broomhilda (right). The 'Big House' can be seen in the background

 

 

The area has 100 live oak trees dating two centuries and 37 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. Most buildings are from the Antebellum era of slavery in the late 18th century.
Similar houses once lined the famed Great Mississippi River Road - which is a 70-mile corridor on each side of the river - but now only eight major Greek Revival style plantation houses remain.
‘Evergreen is unique. It is one of only a handful of plantations that evoke what major plantations resembled in the antebellum period of America's history,’ the National Park Service website said.
Django Unchained is a western set two years before the Civil War, and the story revolves around a slave-turned-bounty hunter who is on a quest to rescue his wife from a vicious plantation owner.
The film, set for release on Christmas Day, stars Jamie Foxx, Don Johnson and Leonardo DiCaprio