Breda Town
This African American community in Natchitoches began as the plantation of Jean Philippe Breda and his wife, Marie Dranguet, in 1840. The plantation later dissolved and many African Americans who had once worked on the plantation stayed on the land and made their homes there. This practice reflects a post-Reconstruction settlement pattern seen in the more rural areas of Natchitoches Parish in which former slaves remained in the vicinity of the plantations they had served in bondage. The area encompassed by the former Breda Plantation was known locally as Breda Town. It was a primarily Black section of town, historically and through the years. Breda Town was later incorporated into the city limits of Natchitoches.
I remember being over [at] the little playground they gave us out in Breda Town on Dixie Street. . . . And we had a little ball team, but we was on our side over there with our own little group. But it was nice. And we got along in those days because everybody was concerned about everybody.
Breda Plantation, Photographed by Arthur Babb, ca. 1926. Arthur Babb Sketchbook, Melrose Collection, CHRC; Dirt street in Breda Town, Guillet Collection, #5773, CHRC