Descendants Of The Enslaved Sheltered From Ida In A Historic Plantation's Big House

'When the Banner family sought shelter from Hurricane Ida that was roaring across the Gulf, they looked for the sturdiest building in the tiny community of Wallace, La, where they live. So they decided to ride out the storm in the Big House on the Whitney Plantation. The Banners are Black. They've lived for generations on this rich, alluvial soil beside the Mississippi River, about 50 miles upriver from New Orleans. And they tell Weekend Edition Sunday that their enslaved ancestors helped to construct this Creole plantation house 230 years ago for a German planter and slave owner named Jean Jacques Haydel.'