Descendants Of Slaves Found Shelter From Ida In A Historic Plantation's Big House
Joy Banner's family took shelter in a house on a plantation their ancestors helped build. "They were not able to have this kind of house for their own protection when a hurricane hit them," she says.
When the Banner family sought shelter from Hurricane Ida that was roaring across the Gulf, they looked for the sturdiest building in the tiny community of Wallace, La, where they live. So they decided to ride out the storm in the Big House on the Whitney Plantation.
The Banners are Black. They've lived for generations on this rich, alluvial soil beside the Mississippi River, about 50 miles upriver from New Orleans. And they say their enslaved ancestors helped to construct this Creole plantation house 230 years ago for
