{"id":3440,"slug":"magnolia-plantation-derry-louisiana","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Magnolia Plantation has a ledger. Between 1845 and 1860, the LeComte family recorded the names of the two hundred thirty-five people they enslaved — Daniel Joe, the driver; Zelina, dead of cholera in July 1851; Honoré, drowned in 1859; children listed with their mothers, ages recorded, values estimated. It is one of the most complete records of an enslaved community in the South, and it is the reason Magnolia is a National Historical Park instead of a wedding venue.","The plantation grew out of a 1753 French land grant on Cane River; by 1860 the LeComtes owned more enslaved people and produced more cotton than anyone in the parish. The enslaved lived in seventy cabins — twenty-four of them two-room brick duplexes built around 1845, a family on each side of a shared fireplace. The main house burned during the Red River Campaign in 1864; the cabins survived, and so did the community. After emancipation the freed families stayed as tenant farmers and sharecroppers — the same cabins, the same gardens, the same yards, lived in until the 1970s.","The descendants of the enslaved — the LaCours, the Metoyers, the Rachals — are still in the community, and the park interprets the plantation from both registers: the big house that burned and the quarters that didn't. Eight of the brick cabins still stand in two rows, which is the point: Magnolia preserves the architecture of slavery, not just the architecture of the enslavers."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Magnolia is the archive's ledger file — a plantation where the enslaved are documented by name and the cabins they lived in still stand, preserved because the record was too complete to romanticize.","A plantation with a ledger keeps its names — the file's suggestion being that Magnolia's power is that the enslaved were recorded as individuals, and the cabins are still there to prove it."]}],"name":"Magnolia Plantation","aliases":[],"type":"HOUSE","type_label":"House","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","PLANTATION"],"groups":["hauntings","historic-sites","legends"],"desc":"The 1835 plantation—where the brick slave cabins stand.","full_desc":"Magnolia Plantation is a house in Derry, Louisiana. The 1835 plantation—where the brick slave cabins stand. HauntHunt files it with plantation, local folklore and haunted places. Its accounts name only a collective — the enslaved. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Derry","county":null,"state":"Louisiana","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":null,"lon":null,"coord_kind":null,"status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"LA2 batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":3686,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The enslaved are reportedly seen. Magnolia Plantation in Derry, Louisiana is the kind of old house where every sound eventually gets a name. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. The report is preserved in sources like 'Magnolia Plantation'. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The enslaved","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Magnolia Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_Plantation_(Derry,_Louisiana)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3687,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported figures in the cabins. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. Witness accounts, no evidence file: the claim is anecdotal and stays that way. 'Magnolia Plantation' carries the account. Whatever walks there, it walks often enough to keep the reports coming.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Magnolia Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_Plantation_(Derry,_Louisiana)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The 1835 plantation is documented. Magnolia Plantation's history is documented rather than told — this entry is part of that spine. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'Magnolia Plantation'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1835","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Magnolia Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_Plantation_(Derry,_Louisiana)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The enslaved are reportedly seen. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. 'Magnolia Plantation' carries the account. As folklore it's unkillable: the story is too good, and the place too fitting, to let go.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Magnolia Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_Plantation_(Derry,_Louisiana)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The enslaved","claimed_identity":"The enslaved","verified":null,"summary":"The enslaved are reportedly seen. Magnolia Plantation wears the claim the way old houses do: visibly, and without comment. Sources including 'Magnolia Plantation' keep the claim in circulation. A named spirit outlasts an anonymous one; the file's name is The enslaved. The claim holds its place in the ledger.","behavior":"The enslaved are reportedly seen.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Magnolia Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_Plantation_(Derry,_Louisiana)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic house; many are private residences—verify public access before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Magnolia Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_Plantation_(Derry,_Louisiana)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Magnolia Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_Plantation","desc":"Topics referred to by the same term","extract":"Magnolia Plantation may refer to:\n\nin the United States\n(by state)\n\nMagnolia Plantation, Florida\nMagnolia Mound, St. Bernard, Louisiana, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in St. Bernard Parish\nMagnolia Mound Plantation House, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, NRHP-listed\nMagnolia Mound Plantation Dependency, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, NRHP-listed in East Baton Rouge Parish\nMagnolia Plantation (Derry, Louisiana), part of Cane River Creole National Historical Park, National Historic Landmark and NRHP-listed\nMagnolia Plantation (Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana), the home of Gen. Pierre \"G.T.\" Beauregard and his first wife\nMagnolia Plantation (Schriever, Louisiana), NRHP-listed\nMagnolia","img":null,"score":89},"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}