{"id":2367150,"date":"2026-04-10T14:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2367150"},"modified":"2026-04-10T14:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:18:06","slug":"natchez-ms-reacts-to-antebellum-home-documentary-entertainment-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/natchez-ms-reacts-to-antebellum-home-documentary-entertainment-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Natchez MS reacts to antebellum home documentary | Entertainment\/Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

NATCHEZ, Miss. \u2014 The tour began as many do in this historic river city: with shined silver, a grand chandelier and a bit about the antebellum house\u2019s original owners.<\/p>\n

But the current owner, Tammy Pack, skipped the hoop skirt.<\/p>\n

Many of the historic homeowners who partake in Natchez\u2019s annual Spring Pilgrimage don traditional hoop skirts, still, despite criticism that they romanticize a time stained by slavery. Standing before three dozen people \u2014 mostly women, mostly Boomers \u2014 in her dining room, Pack explained why she instead picked a slim, silky number. Construction on Pack\u2019s home, long christened Holly Hedges, began in the 1790s.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Why not consider dressing to the oldest period of our home?\u2019\u201d Pack said, quoting a fellow homeowner. \u201c\u2018Your house is more \u2018Bridgerton\u2019 style, really\u2019 \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I heard was I get a new dress without a hoop skirt,\u201d Pack said with a grin. \u201cOk, you sold me on it!\u201d<\/p>\n

The ladies chuckled.<\/p>\n

Each spring, Natchez gussies itself up as homeowners, many in costume, open their mansions to tourists hungry for the history \u2014 and, critics say, the myth \u2014 of the Old South.<\/p>\n

This year, the old rite has new backdrop. A documentary titled \u201cNatchez\u201d interrogates the stories some of those tours tell with their costumes, their Black figurines and their talk of \u201cservants,\u201d rather than enslaved people.<\/p>\n

\u201cNatchez\u201d tags along as Tracy Collins, a Black tour guide and Baptist pastor known as \u201cRev,\u201d tells tourists what others don\u2019t, leading them to the site of what was once the second-largest slave market in the country.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Deborah Cosey stands outside her home called Concord Quarters in Natchez, Miss., Friday, March 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The film will soon get a wider audience: After receiving strong reviews at festivals and during its limited theatrical release, \u201cNatchez\u201d is now available on streaming platforms. Next month, it will air on PBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Residents of Natchez, pop. 14,000, have been grappling with the documentary, shot mostly in 2023, and its revelations \u2014 including, at the film\u2019s climax, a white homeowner\u2019s racist rant.<\/p>\n

Some residents believe the film, which artfully stitches its narrative out of a collage of scenes and interviews, captured their community it all its complexity. \u201cIt\u2019s what the world needs to know and see about Natchez,\u201d said Deborah Cosey, who purchased Concord Quarters, a former slave quarters, restoring it and turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. \u201cIt\u2019s us. It\u2019s Natchez.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some who have seen the film say it ignores decades of efforts to tell the city\u2019s complex history, ticking off the evidence: Signs noting historical sites<\/a> of African American and Civil Rights history. Guides promoting those sites during tours. A monument, still in the works,<\/a> that will bear the names of more than 8,000 Black men who served with the U.S. Colored Troops at Fort McPherson.<\/p>\n

They argue that \u201cNatchez\u201d focused on recent transplants who don\u2019t represent the city. \u201cThe dominant characters were NOT native Natchezians,\u201d native Natchezian Mildred Amer wrote in a letter to the board of the Tribeca Film Festival, where the documentary premiered last summer. \u201cI believe they were chosen to \u2018get a rise\u2019 out of the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some don\u2019t want to talk about the documentary at all, declining interviews, ducking calls and, in one case, slamming a door. A few have refused to see it.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"NATCHEZ_Noah\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Tracy McCartney is one of the subjects featured the documentary \u201cNatchez,\u201d which is available on-demand and premieres May 11 on PBS\u2019s \u201cIndependent Lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n PHOTO COURTESY OSCILLOSCOPE<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

But most folks in town are watching to see how \u201cNatchez\u201d the film affects Natchez the city \u2014 especially its tourism, especially during Spring Pilgrimage, a century-old tradition widely credited with rescuing the city from destitution.<\/p>\n

Will tourists still come?<\/p>\n

\u2018Buried with my hoops on\u2019<\/h3>\n

If a spring extravaganza helmed by once-dueling garden clubs sounds silly, some Natchezians would agree with you. They are well acquainted with how it all looks, and not immune to self-satire and critiques.<\/p>\n

During pilgrimage season, which runs through mid-April, local actors are once again staging \u201cSouthern Exposure,\u201d a farce from 1950 about a fading dame named Penelope who opens up her once-grand mansion, Mayweather Hall, to wide-eyed, sticky-fingered visitors, who may be under the impression they’re on a regular guided tour.<\/p>\n

Not so, Penelope declares with swelled pride, to great laughter from the sold-out audience at this year’s opening night performance: This, she says, is “a PILGRIMAGE!”<\/p>\n

Later, on the brink of foreclosure, Penelope takes in a renter who is actually a writer from up North, eager to exploit her and the cliches of an old Southern town.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"NO.natchez.adv.01.JPG\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

A sign advertises Living History Natchez tickets at the Depot in Natchez, Miss., Friday, March 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Natchez is used to reporters, filmmakers and authors dropping by, spending time, gathering material. Stories have been written, books published. Years ago, even Borat dropped by.<\/p>\n

The popular mockumentary character, an inept Kazakhstan TV journalist created and portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen, arrived for dinner at Lansdowne, still owned by descendants of the people who had the home built in 1853. \u201cHe wanted to have dinner with an old-fashioned southern family,\u201d said Marsha Colson,<\/strong> past president of the Pilgrimage Garden Club. \u201cIt was clear what they thought they were going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mint juleps were served, but Colson\u2019s family didn\u2019t take the bait \u2014 perhaps because they surprised Baron Cohen, she said, by being \u201copen-minded, liberal Democrats.\u201d They didn\u2019t make it into the Borat movie.<\/p>\n

But Colson is featured in \u201cNatchez,\u201d which she\u2019s seen two times. \u201cI will probably always be uncomfortable with it,\u201d she said. After a screening in Natchez, folks asked director Suzanne Herbert whether the film would be bad for tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe thought it would help us move forward on racial issues \u2026\u201d Colson said. \u201cWell, we\u2019ve been working hard on that for many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colson, who is in her 70s, knows that for some, the skirts are a loaded symbol.<\/p>\n

But when she tells the story of her house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, she\u2019s also telling the story of her family. \u201cWhen I wear that dress, I\u2019m representing my great aunt or my great-great grandmother.\u201d<\/p>\n

The garden club gave up the confederate uniforms. They retired the pageant. But they\u2019re holding on to the hoop skirts, Colson said. \u201cI\u2019ll be buried with my hoops on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s going to bring them in\u2019<\/h3>\n

A little after 9 a.m., outside a restored train depot perched on the bluff, Collins pulled up in a white van, lettering on its side: \u201cSee the REAL Mississippi.\u201d<\/p>\n

A man wearing a black cowboy hat climbed inside. Collins asked where he\u2019s from.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York,\u201d said Jeremy Dyckman, 40, settling into the first row. \u201cI\u2019m trying to run a marathon in every state. There\u2019s one in Jackson tomorrow, so I\u2019m in town for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I saw the movie that you did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collins grinned, eyeing the cowboy hat. \u201cWelcome to Natchez, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"NO.natchez.adv.14.JPG\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Jeremy Dyckman rides along with tour guide Tracy \u201cRev\u201d Collins in Natchez, Miss., Friday, March 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Then he introduced himself, following a similar script Dyckman had heard in the theater. \u201cI’m Tracy. I\u2019m a local pastor \u2014 I\u2019ve been at the same church for about 20 years \u2014 and a former county supervisor. I got elected and realized I didn\u2019t know anything about what I represented. So I started this little pilgrimage to learn the history.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd guys, I thought it was going to be a couple of weeks and a couple of books. That was in 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the film follows the paths of several people, a few of them intersecting, Collins is its star, its heart, its conscience.<\/p>\n

Herbert, the filmmaker, met<\/span> him the same way many tourists do: He \u201crecruited me into his van,\u201d she said in an interview. The Memphis native had been spending time in Natchez without a camera, attending parties, dinners and tours. \u201cI was blown away by the tour and the history he was giving.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Herbert and her team structured the film the same way Collins structures his tours, she continued, to \u201cbring people into the fantasy and then slowly peel back the layers \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The owners of Natchez\u2019s historic homes \u201care doing what they’ve been doing for three, four generations,\u201d said the film\u2019s producer Darcy McKinnon, of New Orleans. \u201cWhat they were taught to do and taught to say. They’re very protective of that, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

But by protecting a narrative that\u2019s \u201cnot rooted in the facts of history,\u201d she continued, those homeowners are shutting people out.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"NATCHEZ_Noah\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Tracy \u201cRev\u201d Collins shares the history of Natchez, Miss., in this scene from the documentary \u201cNatchez,\u201d which is available on-demand and premieres May 11 on PBS.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n PHOTO COURTESY OSCILLOSCOPE<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Cities that have embraced authentic and expansive versions of history, such as Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala., have thrived, McKinnon said. \u201cTalking about hard history does not drive people away \u2014 and in fact, the younger generations, it’s going to bring them in.\u201d<\/p>\n

On its website, the film offers up its own visitors\u2019 guide<\/a> to Natchez, highlighting Melrose, preserved by the National Park Service, and the Museum of African American History and Culture, Rev\u2019s tours and Cosey\u2019s B&B.<\/p>\n

But it leaves off several antebellum mansions shown in the film. It leaves off Choctaw Hall.<\/p>\n

\u2018Threats on our lives\u2019<\/h3>\n

Until the rant, \u201cNatchez\u201d offers a nuanced portrait of Choctaw Hall\u2019s owner, David Garner.<\/p>\n

Garner, who is white, charms tourists, champions LGBTQ causes and takes medication for Parkinson’s disease, which is robbing him of his voice. In 2014, Garner and his husband Lee Glover bought the home, built circa 1836, and furnished it with seven generations\u2019 worth of antiques, according to a story in the Natchez Democrat newspaper.<\/p>\n

Near the film\u2019s end, though, Garner lets loose with several comments against Black people, repeating a slur. The film then shows him making racist jokes with visitors, some of whom laugh along.<\/p>\n

By phone, Glover said he couldn\u2019t say too much about Garner\u2019s remarks, because of \u201cpossible legal things that we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Garner takes a medication that can make him \u201cunfiltered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten threats on our lives,\u201d Glover said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten threats about burning our house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"NO.natchez.adv.30.JPG\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

The Natchez Garden Club Spring Pilgrimage sign photographed outside Choctaw Hall in Natchez, Miss., on March 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Choctaw Hall is still part of the Natchez Garden Club\u2019s spring tours. More than three years ago, after complaints and \u201cwell before the documentary,\u201d the Pilgrimage Garden Club, which owns a tour agency, stopped representing Choctaw, Colson said.<\/p>\n

Garner and Glover put their mansion on the market for $1.9 million in September, and it remains for sale.<\/span> The film had \u201cnothing to do with the decision,\u201d they told the local newspaper.<\/p>\n

\u2018This is the South\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

For decades, two garden clubs helmed the tours. But now, with an Instagram campaign and Facebook ads, a third organization called Living History Natchez<\/a> has entered the chat.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not a legacy garden club,\u201d its website makes clear, promising \u201cstories long left out.\u201d Pack, who dressed for \u201cBridgerton,\u201d rather than \u201cGone with the Wind,\u201d is part of that group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe garden clubs, they saved this town,\u201d Pack said, and they continue to do important work. \u201cWhoever tasked them with needing to somehow also be digital marketers \u2014 that’s asking a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pack and her husband are the 15th owners of Holly Hedges, so they\u2019ve had to research the home\u2019s history, with help from the Historic Natchez Foundation, compiling a Google document that\u2019s now 70 pages long. Pack had some names of enslaved people who lived there but no photos. So she had those names carved in wood, displaying them on an upstairs wall.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"NO.natchez.adv.23.JPG\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Visitors gather in the parlor of Wes and Tammy Pack’s historic home, called Holly Hedges, in Natchez, Miss.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Enslaved people, she repeated, not slaves.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know where I learned that little piece of dignity?\u201d she said. \u201cIn Natchez, Mississippi.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a whim, she and her husband flew to New York to see the film\u2019s premiere at Tribeca, where it went on to win best documentary. \u201cI\u2019m not going to lie: I was white knuckling it \u2026\u201d she said. \u201cNot about anything we said \u2026 but because we’re all worried: How is this sweet town going to look?\u201d<\/p>\n

But she found it to be a beautifully filmed ode to an imperfect city and a chance to have a deeper conversation.<\/p>\n

Collins, meanwhile, doesn\u2019t expect the documentary to change this town.<\/p>\n

But the 61-year-old hopes it will boost business. His old van, dubbed \u201cPrecious,\u201d has 260,000 miles on its engine and little cushion left in its seats. Most of the people who fill those seats are Baby Boomers, in town for mansion tours, and there are fewer of them these days, he said.<\/p>\n

Lately, though, he\u2019s been adjusting his spiel for the younger adults who are finding him.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"NO.natchez.adv.10.JPG\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Tracy \u201cRev\u201d Collins, of Revs Country Tours in Natchez, Miss., seen here in his van stops along the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

God gifted him with a \u201cspirit of discernment,\u201d so he reads people\u2019s clothing and body language. The questions behind the questions they ask.<\/p>\n

After the cemetery and before the bluffs, Collins paused at a cluster of shotgun houses, where maids and cooks and butlers once lived. But he didn\u2019t have the group exit the van until the tour\u2019s end, at Forks in Road, a patch of land between bustling roads.<\/p>\n

From the 1830s to the 1860s, this land was the country\u2019s second largest slave market, a key piece of the domestic slave trade that made millionaires out of many Natchez residents. Once forgotten, it\u2019s now a National Park Service site.<\/p>\n

Collins\u2019 shadow loomed over a small square of shackles and chains as he told the story of the 1.5 million enslaved people who walked some 800 miles to this site. \u201cThat iron,\u201d he said, \u201cis seasoned with flesh and blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dyckman, the visiting marathon runner from New York, tugged on the brim of his cowboy hat.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"NO.natchez.adv.15.JPG\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Tracy \u201cRev\u201d Collins describes the remnants of the Forks of the Road Slave Market, part of the Natchez National Historical Park, during a tour in Natchez, Miss.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

He had been moved by \u201cNatchez,\u201d the movie, buying a book the theater had recommended: \u201cHow the Word is Passed,\u201d by New Orleans native Clint Smith. Later, when he realized the marathon would bring him within a day\u2019s drive of Natchez, he decided to sign up for Rev\u2019s tour.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t stay long in Natchez, didn\u2019t tour any antebellum houses.<\/p>\n

But before driving back to Jackson, he returned to Forks in the Road. He read the exhibits. He stared at those shackles. He considered the marathon he was about to run \u201cjust for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the next day, as he ran those 26.2 miles, he thought about freedom.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NATCHEZ, Miss. \u2014 The tour began as many do in this historic river city: with shined silver, a grand chandelier and a bit about the antebellum house\u2019s original owners. But the current owner, Tammy Pack, skipped the hoop skirt. Many of the historic homeowners who partake in Natchez\u2019s annual Spring Pilgrimage don traditional hoop skirts, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2367151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[128321],"class_list":["post-2367150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-hardwall"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Natchez-MS-reacts-to-antebellum-home-documentary-EntertainmentLife.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2367150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2367152,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367150\/revisions\/2367152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2367151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2367150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2367150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2367150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}