https://www.heraldguide.com/news/research-shows-slaves-remained-on-killona-plantation-until-1970s/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/437573/blacks-were-enslaved-well-into-the-1960s

This is how the town's museum narrates what happened. https://scphistory.org/killona-town-history/

"Life on the Waterford Plantation sugar operation in the 1940s remains a vivid memory for many area residents, such as Leona Picard of Luling. Picard, known to Waterford workers as “Miss Dickie,” was married to the late William Richard “Dick” Picard, the company bookkeeper. “We loved living on the plantation.” she recalled. There were more than 20 small houses for employees, many built by Wilson Brady, and those live-on employees received free rent, water, electricity and a stipend for use of an automobile. “We were well taken care of.”"