The largest pre-Civil War mansion in all of the American South burned to the ground as a devastating fire ripped through the historic wooden structure built nearly 200 years ago.

Nottoway Plantation burned to the ground this week after a fire broke out Thursday, authorities say. Why it matters: The plantation was the largest antebellum mansion remaining in the South, making it an important but complicated connection to the nation's history of enslavement.

A massive fire destroyed Louisiana’s Nottoway Resort, a former plantation turned wedding venue A massive fire has destroyed Nottoway Resort in White Castle, Louisiana Officials are still investigating the cause of the fire that reduced the 64-room Antebellum mansion to rubble The landmark,