Be it on a road trip or simply looking to tick some national parks off your list, the southern states offer plenty of history-packed cities and breathtaking natural landscapes – well worth your visit!
Middleton Place, designated a National Historic Landmark by UNESCO, was home to Thomas Jefferson’s family plantation and can be visited via tours of its house museum and gardens.
Middleton Place
Middleton Place is a National Historic Landmark that attracts both tourists and locals. Open to the public, Middleton Place features an amazing museum and beautifully maintained gardens – an excellent way to learn more about American history!
The garden features parterres, allees and bowling greens surrounded by parterres, allees and allees surrounded by parterres containing parterres, allees and bowling greens surrounded by sculpture, canals, reflecting pools as well as native woods and agricultural fields as a buffer zone. At its heart is two symmetrical lakes shaped like butterfly wings which serve as centerpieces.
Middleton Place and its gardens were made possible due to enslaved people whose names and stories have now come to light, thanks to a 10-year research project at this property. Visitors can now discover their lives, faiths, leisure activities and significant contributions made towards American history by these individuals.
Carnton Plantation
Carnton Plantation, built by Nashville Mayor Randal McGavock in 1826 and known by its red brick Federal style 11-room design. Cedar trees lining its property give an authentic Antebellum ambience to this home that hosted President Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk as friends and political guests alike.
In November 1864, this home became the hub of the bloody Battle of Franklin. Serving as the largest field hospital, its residents, the McGavocks treated hundreds of wounded soldiers – 150 died the first night alone! Blood still stained its floors afterward while four Confederate generals lay out on its back porch as visitors can take guided tours through both home and grounds.
Fort Moultrie
Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island represents two centuries of seacoast defense through a comprehensive plan for its restoration, featuring five separate sections and outlying areas that each showcase one period in the fort’s history.
Fort Moultrie was constructed out of Palmetto logs to protect Charleston Harbor against British forces in 1776. It was named for Colonel William Moultrie who led this attack against them.
Fort Sumter was rebuilt several times to address new threats such as submarine and aircraft attacks, with a Harbor Entrance Control Post built within in 1944 and then decommissioned and transferred to the National Park Service; today it forms part of Fort Sumter National Monument.
National Civil Rights Museum
The National Civil Rights Museum stands as one of America’s most comprehensive civil rights museums. Visitors learn about Black America through two galleries — A Culture of Resistance and Slavery in America 1619-1861– that tell the global story. Other exhibits cover shorter timeframes like Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus in 1955 that led to Montgomery Bus Boycotts and student sit-ins.
Your ticket to the museum also grants access to the Legacy Building, the former boarding house from which James Earl Ray fired the fatal shot on Dr. King. You’ll learn about his assassination investigation and trial case here as well as explore modern day racism through an exhibition featuring 800 jars filled with soil from lynching sites across America.
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Civil Rights Movement was brief, yet its legacy endures to this day. Atlanta hosts several key sites from this era such as Martin Luther King Jr’s birthplace and Ebenezer Baptist Church where he preached. Start at Atlanta Parks visitor center to arrange a tour of his birth home 501 Auburn Avenue which can be reached first come, first serve.
Also stop by Ebenezer Baptist Church to hear Martin Luther King Jr’s sermons and speeches; this church served as his spiritual home throughout his life according to the U.S. National Park Service. A 450-foot-long Inscription Wall features 14 quotes from King’s writings and speeches and sits next to Lincoln and Jefferson memorials – tours of this site are free.
