The Sick House at the Rural Life Museum is a former slave cabin from Welham Plantation that was converted into a hospital to tend to the sick slaves. The cabin, originally constructed around 1840, was used as a residence until the early 1960s before it was moved to the museum. The sick house typically consisted of at least two rooms, one for examination and another for confinement or "lying in." Plantation owners would arrange for a doctor to tend to the sick on a regular basis as well as in emergencies. The sick house at the museum is now furnished to depict a typical Louisiana plantation hospital, and it serves as a reminder of the harsh realities of slavery and the lack of adequate medical care for enslaved people.