Riverlake Plantation and the Roots of Author Ernest Gaines
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Description
This tour of Riverlake Plantation includes the slave quarters that shaped author Ernest J. Gaines and influenced his award-wining novels.
1. Mount Zion Riverlake Cemetery at Cherie Quarters
Located on the grounds of the privately owned Riverlake Plantation, the Mount Zion Cemetery in the Cherie Quarters is the site of a number of graves belonging to the slaves and descendants of slaves of the Riverlake Plantation. The site is currently upkept by an advisory board formerly led by Mr. Ernest Gaines who is now buried there in honor of his ancestors. Each year the public is invited to visit the site for beautification and to honor those who passed unnamed and unknown due to their enslavement. While the oldest marked grave is dated 1924, it is suspected that the unmarked graves are older and likely contain the remains of those enslaved on the plantation.
2. Mount Zion Riverlake Church Cherie Quarters
Mount Zion Riverlake Church in Cherie Quarters is located on the grounds of the Riverlake Plantation in Oscar Louisiana. The Church is one of a few still standing structures in the historical Cherie Quarters. The Church was and is used for multiple purposes. It served as a meeting location, center of worship, and a schoolhouse, most famously for author Ernest J. Gaines. The Church is adjacent to the Mount Zion Riverlake Cemetery in Cherie Quarters which is named for the church. Mount Zion Riverlake Church in Cherie Quarters was built in the 1930s and has been preserved for about 90 years.
3. Cherie Quarters at Riverlake Plantation
Originally constructed in 1820, this well-preserved example of Creole architecture is now part of a privately-owned plantation. This plantation and the area known as “Cherie Quarters” which are behind the plantation were featured as settings in Ernest Gaines's novels "Catherine Carmier' and "A Gathering of Old Men." Gaines is an African American author, and his work Catherine Carmier tells the story of love between a light-skinned woman of mixed racial ancestry and a dark-skinned African American man. Although little is known of the enslaved people who constructed and worked at this plantation, Carmier's work shares some of the experiences of the diverse sharecroppers that followed and the often complex nature of race relations in this part of Louisiana.
4. Riverlake Plantation
Originally constructed in 1820, this well-preserved example of Creole architecture is now part of a privately-owned plantation. This plantation and the area known as “Cherie Quarters” which are behind the plantation were featured as settings in Ernest Gaines's novels "Catherine Carmier' and "A Gathering of Old Men." Gaines is an African American author, and his work Catherine Carmier tells the story of love between a light-skinned woman of mixed racial ancestry and a dark-skinned African American man. Although little is known of the enslaved people who constructed and worked at this plantation, Carmier's work shares some of the experiences of the diverse sharecroppers that followed and the often complex nature of race relations in this part of Louisiana.
