History

 

 

“My interest in The Shadows as a national monument is purely that of a private individual-yet it would seem that only infrequently can an antebellum mansion be found that is preserved and documented in such minute detail…Material of this type is the essence of history.”

-Vernon Tate, Chief, Photographic Research, The National Archives, to Ronald Lee, Supervisor of Historic Sites for the National Park Service, Dec. 15, 1941

A white-columned brick building constructed between 1831 and 1834, the Shadows is both a survivor and a reminder of another time. The Shadows serves as a solid reminder of the many layers of history associated with the site, each succeeding generation building on the one before to become an integral part of the property’s history. Fortunately, we not only have the house and the historic site, but we also have the Weeks Family Papers, a collection of over 17,000 invoices, receipts, business, legal, and personal letters that testify to the joys, sorrows, fears, sickness, celebrations, pain, prosperity and poverty, all the emotions and situations of life. The site has been the stage for business entrepreneurs, politicians, soldiers, a backdrop for the Civil War, and a comfortable, familiar setting for childhood and old age, witnessing birth, sickness, and death, all of which are documented in the Weeks Family Papers.

Learn More

I. Family

• David & Mary Weeks
• Mary Conrad Weeks & John Moore
• William F. Weeks
• Lily Weeks Hall & Harriet Weeks Torian
• William Weeks Hall

II. Slavery

• “More than Movable Property”: Slavery in the Shadows

 III. Women

• 1830 – 1860
• 1860 – 1880
• 1880 – 1920

IV. Sugarcane

• Making Beautiful Sugar
• Sugarcane Day
• Sugarcane Year

V. The Civil War

• War in Sugar Country
• Before the Civil War
• After the Civil War

VI. Architecture & Floorplan

V. Preservation

• Preservation Overview
• Garden Preservation
• Architectural Preservation

VI. The Gardens

•  Garden Overview
• Gardens…Then
• Gardens…Now