The story
Spring Pilgrimage in Natchez
Spring Pilgrimage is a multi-week tour of Natchez, Mississippi's antebellum mansions, organized by Natchez Pilgrimage Tours, an arm of the Pilgrimage Garden Club. Running from mid-March into April, it opens historic private and museum homes to visitors, often with costumed hosts and guides sharing family history tied to each property.
Natchez, Mississippi, was one of the wealthiest cities in antebellum America relative to its size, its fortune built on cotton plantations worked by enslaved people along the Mississippi River, and that wealth produced a concentration of grand mansions that, unlike many comparable Southern towns, largely survived the Civil War intact because Natchez surrendered without a fight.