New Stories at the Shadows
Reinterpretation initiatives culminate in a new tour at New Iberia’s crown jewel, the Shadows-on-the-Teche
Over the past two years Kenetha Harrington, a doctoral student in LSU’s Department of Anthropology and Geography, has been digging into the Shadows.
New Iberia’s crown jewel, the Shadows-on-the-Teche, has drawn tens of thousands of visitors annually to its Greek Revival grandeur and verdant gardens for over fifty years now. Owned by The National Trust for Historic Preservation since 1958, the 1831 property has long been presented and interpreted through the lenses of its owners, the Weeks family, who owned four sugar cane plantations in the area during the mid-nineteenth century, up until the Civil War.
In early 2020, however, the Shadows was ready to embark on a concentrated effort to expand that narrative. Through a reinterpretation initiative conceived to shed light on the stories of the African American men and women enslaved on the property, Shadows on the Teche joins a host of other historic destinations in pulling back the velvet curtains to reveal unabashedly the dark realities of Antebellum life.
“The purpose of the reinterpretation initiative is to expand our narrative, to make it more inclusive and reflective of all the people who lived and worked here [at the Shadows], including more of the Black perspective, and discussing more about slavery and those intricacies,” explained Jayd Buteaux, the Shadows’ marketing and programs manager.
The Shadows’ initiative was—like much else—stalled by the onslaught of the pandemic, which forced the estate to close the house for tours until October 2021. In the meantime, though, the staff started developing aspects of the project that they could. This included the installation of six interpretive signs on the grounds and a major website overhaul, featuring a more comprehensive outline of the property’s history beginning with Native American settlements along the Bayou Teche three thousand years ago, taking the reader through the site’s history during the Antebellum era, Civil War, and Reconstruction, all the way to the present day.
It was at this point, also, that Harrington came into the picture. Through a deep dive into the Weeks’ family papers—which include personal and business documents from the Weeks family, many related to the sugar and cotton business in South Louisiana at the time—as well as other historical documents surrounding the property and the people associated with it, Harrington was able to deliver a contextually richer story for the Shadows-on-the-Teche.
“What she found helped us to better understand what this place meant from a regional level, national level, and international, too,” said Buteaux.
Harrington went even further, though—spending time with people in the community, gathering oral histories from the descendants of people who were enslaved by the Weeks family; as well as local court records and genealogy research. “All of that information was then turned into a living history document, which we will use moving forward as we craft tours and programs,” said Buteaux.
The Shadows-on-the-Teche’s newest tour comes directly from Harrington’s discoveries, focusing on the lives of two women integral to the history of the property: Mary Conrad Weeks Moore and Louisa Bryant, the enslaved housekeeper. “You explore both of their lives as you walk through the house,” said Buteaux. “Mary’s husband died shortly after the house was built, so suddenly she was taking over operations of this plantation. What does this mean for her? She’s gone from being a planter’s wife to a planter herself, and also a slaveholder. Louisa Bryant is living at the Shadows in a cabin behind the house. What does her life look like? How are these women interacting with one another? How are their children interacting with one another?”
With new funding from the National Endowment for Humanities grant and input from an advisory board made up of local teachers, professors from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and members of the Iberia African American Historical Society—the Shadows has big plans for 2022. As reinterpretation efforts continue to unfold and expand, the Shadows plans to host a new orientation exhibit in its visitors’ center, a host of African American genealogy workshops, and an original theatrical production produced by local creatives—plus, plenty more.