LAPLACE — Without sprawling sugarcane fields or a steady stream of tourists entering the grounds, it’s easy to mistake the historic Woodland Plantation house for an ordinary, aging structure.

Few recognize it as the starting site of the 1811 German Coast Uprising, known by scholars as the largest slave revolt in United States history.

Television crews visited the plantation, located near the Cardinal Street intersection of East Fifth Street in LaPlace, in hopes of finding present-day links to the site’s devastating history.

St. John the Baptist Parish was spotlighted on a recent episode of Haunted Towns on the Travel Channel, as the traveling Tennessee Wraith Chasers tried to make contact with enslaved spirits they believe still inhabit the site.

I had a chance to watch the episode on my Roku, and while I thought some of the findings were a little too convenient — single-word conversations with spirits provided an easy segue for the team to visit a voodoo specialist and the reportedly haunted Manchac swamps — it was certainly exciting to see LaPlace on TV.

The local lore added an eerie layer to a local history more complex than I imagined.

Manuel Andry built the Woodland Plantation, referred to as the Andry House in the episode, in 1793.

Enslaved people of the River Parishes were mistreated in the early 19^th Century, often whipped and sometimes branded like cattle, according to Dudley Stadler III of LaPlace.

Stadler has a longstanding interest with history, fueled by family members who made trips to museums an integral part of his childhood. He worked at San Francisco Plantation for many years and now guides tours at Destrehan Plantation.

He’s familiar with the history of Woodland, and he was one of the local faces featured on the recent Travel Channel episode. I had a chance to meet Stadler in person to learn more about the German Coast Uprising.

According to Stadler, Charles Deslondes decided to lead a slave revolution and establish a headquarters in New Orleans after learning of a successful slave revolt in Haiti.

The uprising started Jan. 8, 1811 when a group of enslaved people at Woodland struck Andry with an axe and killed his son, Gilbert. The march began toward New Orleans, growing in size rapidly until militia suppressed the effort two days later.

“There were 60 or 70 people at the beginning. Toward the end, it went up to 500 people,” Stadler said, adding the suppression that followed brought about a gruesome ending.

“Over 60 people had their heads severed and put on poles lining the Mississippi River,” Stadler said.

Woodland Plantation is unique because of its heavy turnover of owners, according to Stadler. The reason behind the turnover is unknown, though Stadler mused that it could be connected to paranormal activity.

In the Travel Channel show, neighbor Joey Mason told the Tennessee Wraith Chasers that he avoids the house and can’t shake the feeling that something’s not right about it.

There still seems to be a lot of secrets surrounding the plantation, which sat abandoned and dilapidated for years. Locals can learn more and see their town on TV by watching the “Voodoo on the Bayou” episode of Haunted Towns, next airing at 3 p.m. July 19 and noon July 20 on the Travel Channel.

Brooke Robichaux is news editor at L’OBSERVATEUR. She can be reached at brooke.robichaux@lobservateur.com .