Stately Oaks Plantation will be draped in black as the mourning
period begins.
Each August for the past eight years, mourning tours have served
as a reminder of lost lives during the 1800s due to war and disease.
The fascinating tours allow the public to experience the many
rituals associated with death in the 19th century. Draped mirrors,
dark clothing, mourning jewelry, and home viewings of the deceased
are only part of the complexities of mourning in Victorian times.
Stately Oaks Staff Docent Brenda Jenkins has researched mourning
traditions for more than 10 years.
“The mourning tours tell about the civilian side of this
time period,” says Jenkins. “It’s about home life Ð a
different aspect of life, beyond the war. It’s about families
and how typhoid fever brought a lot of death in the mid 1800s,
especially for younger and older citizens.”
A decade of research has led Jenkins to write a book about Victorian
mourning rituals. She plans to make her self-published book, “Mourning
on the Plantation,” available later this year. A visit in
the 1990s to a plantation in Tennessee that offered mourning
items, but not a mourning tour, sparked her interest in what
some may consider macabre.
“It’s a fascinating area of plantation life,” explains
Jenkins. “We always have a large turnout for these tours.
People are fascinated by the customs.”
Jenkins thought mourning would be an interesting subject for
Stately Oaks to add to its list of annual events. Every year
she increases the collection of mourning items used during the
19th century and word has spread of Stately Oaks’ unique
tours. Last year, the British Broadcast Company featured the
mourning tour as part of a film about “Gone with the Wind.” At
the end of taping, the film crew donated a set of black drapes
to Stately Oaks that the BBC had purchased to use during in the
video.
Jenkins and other docents also share their knowledge with other
historical organizations and sites. Bulloch Hall and Smith Plantation
in Roswell, Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, and the Root House Museum
in Marietta have all benefited from the research of Stately Oaks’ docents.
The Stately Oaks mourning tour, sponsored by Historical Jonesboro,
focuses on the death of a child. A small coffin and other funerary
items are borrowed from the collection of Abb Dickson owner of
Pope Dickson & Son Funeral Home each year to add to the authenticity
of the tour. Because home viewing was normal in the 1800s, coffins
were placed in an ice filled basket to keep the body cool. Other
important aspects of proper arrangements and customs include
how long a person was expected to mourn the loss of a loved one,
how a widow was required to dress, and when a widower could remarry.
Mourning tours are scheduled Monday through Saturday, August
2 Ð 31, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. During the Battle of Jonesboro, August
28 and 29, guests may tour on the hour. For more information,
call 770-473-0197 or visit www.historicaljonesboro.org.
