Part 12/15:
Post-war, the family struggled to maintain the plantation. Freed from slavery, the Marmillion family faced declining income and increasing debt. Efforts to restore the farm’s profitability by rehiring laborers were hampered by health issues—both brothers contracted tuberculosis—and years of financial strain. The once-glorious mansion and plantation gradually fell into neglect, turning into a symbolic mausoleum of ambition and loss.