Allendale Plantation | LA ESTATES! | West Baton Rouge Parish

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]Kyle Crosby back again with Louisiana Estates and we are on the site of the former Allenale plantation in Port Allen, Louisiana. Once spanning over 2,000 acres, Allenale's legacy reflects the complex and often turbulent shifts in southern agriculture, politics, and race relations from the antibbellum era through the 20th century. The land that will become Allenale was originally inhabited by Homa, Bayugula, and a Cola Pisa tribes. From the 1700s to the early 1800s, these three tribes suffered significant losses from war and disease, which forced them to move their settlements west. Eventually, this would be the Westover plantation, which was jointly purchased in February 1852 by Henry Watkins Allen and William Nolan.

[00:00:45]Allen, a Confederate general and 17th governor of Louisiana. Now, in 1855, the two men divided the property. Nolan retained the Westover name, while Allen named his portion Allenale. Under Allen's ownership, Allenale grew into a major sugar producing estate. By the early 1860s, the plantation encompassed 2,27 acres with 627 acres actively under cultivation. Allen owned at least 125 enslaved Africans who worked the land and supported the operation of a sugar mill and associated facilities. These people were responsible for Allen's vast wealth. Two Briggs, the Orleans and the Phoenix, arrived in New Orleans in 1844 carrying these enslaved people from Petersburg, Virginia. Luckily, the West Baton Rouge Museum has the names of these people in one of their exhibits.

[00:01:35]The slave quarter location is still marked by a street sign, and they were typically made with local Cyprus. This would include two rooms with one family per room, no matter the size of the family.

[00:01:47]Steven Jackson along with his two relatives Harriet and Maria lived at Allenale from 1842 to '61. Maria was a field slave cultivating and harvesting the sugarcane. Harriet was a cook who prepared meals for the big house and her family once her work was done. And Steven was a slave driver. He managed field slaves and laborers, instructing them in the cultivation of sugar and cotton and general plantation and levy maintenance. He would also likely have been in charge of carrying out punishment. A man named Valyri Tran was purchased shortly before the Civil War and became the personal slave of Henry Watkins Allen. Valeri acted as a valet, polishing shoes, delivering messages, carrying luggage, amongst other things.

[00:02:31]He even followed Allen into war and was emancipated once Allen became governor, becoming a paid employee of the state.

[00:02:39]His descendants still live in West Baton Rouge Parish today. To enhance the efficiency of sugar transport and trade, Allen even had his own railroad constructed, which had its headquarters in what is now the town of Port Allen.

[00:02:52]But like many plantations, Allenale did not escape the devastation of the Civil War. During the conflict, parts of the property, including the Allenale Mill, were burned by the Union. With the collapse of the Confederacy in 1865, Allen fled to Mexico and eventually died the following year. Valeri Traant would return to his wife Levvenia at Allenale Plantation. Henry Watkins Allen's death marked the end of Allenale's first era, and the plantation entered a long period of fragmented ownership and economic uncertainty during reconstruction.

[00:03:24]Forgive me for butchering this name, but a new chapter began in 1882 when two brothers from Kansas, John and Martin James Cah, purchased the plantation. The cahals aggressively acquired smaller adjoining parcels to expand the estate and resume largecale sugar production.

[00:03:41]Their ownership, however, reflected the broader inequalities of post-emancipation southern agriculture.

[00:03:47]Even into the 20th century, plantation records show that many of the workers were still being paid in tokens and merchandise credits rather than cash. a practice in violation of federal labor laws at the time, keep in mind, and a stark reminder of the lingering exploitation in the sharecropping era.

[00:04:05]Despite the labor issues, the Cahal family operated a functioning sugar mill on the site until the 1930s, making Allenale one of the last examples of a complete working plantation complex in southern Louisiana. A particular note were the labor cabins built between 1870 and 1900, which housed the plantation sharecropping families. These structures typically included four rooms per unit with each occupied by a single family.

[00:04:31]Due to frequent flooding, many of the buildings were moved over time to protect them from destruction. In 1976, one of the slave cabins, originally built before 1865 under Henry Watkins Allen, was relocated to the West Baton Rouge Museum where it sits today. Today, the plantation's main house and sugar mill no longer stand, but the street names persist with Allenale Road and Old Quarter still visible. I passed by just now and I couldn't see much except some dilapidated cabins with overgrown grass and vines. It's a real deoui. Now, thank you for helping us preserve and share Louisiana history, culture, and folklore. I'm Kyle Crosby, and this has been Louisiana Estates, powered by Louisiana Dread.