Table of Contents:
UNINVITED GUESTS.
THEY COME BY LAND AND SEA.
DOUBLE YOUR FUN DOUBLE YOUR SIZE.
UGLY TIMES
UGLIER PEOPLE.
LOUISIANIANS.
LOUISIANA TODAY.
I love Louisiana. And not only for New Orleans. The state offers so many other things that many people do not realize.
Louisiana has a French influence. In many polls, it ranks high among the best places to live in the United States. Similarly, France ranks high among the best places to live in Europe. Coincidence?
It has Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. They have very little in common.
It has its own cuisine, its own culture, and even a different name for its counties.
They call them Parishes. This is the only U.S. state with these political subdivisions.
Ancient Louisiana history.
From American history class, many believe Louisiana’s history only goes back to 1803 and the Louisiana Purchase. But it goes back just a few years before that.
Artifacts show us that the Paleo-Indian (Stone Age) Era probably dates back to around 10,000 B.C. These early human inhabitants of America were living in caves and hunting the Great Mammoth and bison for food.
Excavations find signs of these plainsmen living in the Mississippi River area by 1000 B.C. They are the last of the mound-building cultures in North America.
By 100 B.C., these natives are growing crops such as squash, beans, sunflowers, and corn (maize).
Numerous native tribes live in the Louisiana area. Some include the Alabama, Apalachee, Muskogee Creek, Choctaw, Houma, Atakapa, Natchez, Quapaw, and Yatasi.
There is evidence of close to 30 tribes in the area.
Company
Saling from Santiago (today’s Jamaica) in 1519, Alvarez de Pineda maps out the Gulf of Mexico. He sails along the coast. It is another 20 years until another outsider ventures near Louisiana.
By 1542, Hernando de Soto had crossed the Mississippi on his land exploration for gold. Although the documentation of his journey is contradictory, it is clear he did not get along with the locals.
René-Robert Cavelier sets off from Fort Crevecoeur (near Peoria) in 1682. With his small group, they canoe to the mouth of the Mississippi. Upon arrival, he names the Mississippi Basin in honor of King Louis XIV. And he claims it for France.
The area includes everything from the Great Lakes south to the Gulf of Mexico. And from east to west, everything between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rockies.
The French Move-In.
The French began settlements in New France, starting with one near Biloxi in 1699. Then Mobile (1702), Natchitoches (1714), and New Orleans by 1718.
The French colonists begin raiding the Native Indian settlements, killing thousands and making the surviving women and children slaves. This act would spread to the other native tribes as the needs of the French grew.
The Native American people are also fighting amongst themselves and taking each other as slaves. Many times, they eventually adopted these Indian slaves into their tribes.
By 1710, the French could not capture enough local natives, so they began importing slaves from the African nations.
French and Indian War
By 1754, hostilities between the French and British colonies reached war level. Fighting took place along the Ohio River, with most of the native tribes supporting the French.
Also, within two years, England and France declare war against each other.
Fighting lines stretch to Nova Scotia, and Spain supports the French.
Eventually, fighting will also occur in S. America, Africa, and Asia over the colonies.
Back in Europe, France gave Louisiana to Spain with the Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1762. They do not announce it.
By 1763, with more British wins, the Spanish and French conceded with the Treaty of Paris.
England gets Florida from Spain and everything east of the Mississippi from France. (they think.)
Spain does not contest it as they have everything west of the river as far as the Rockies.
New Landlords
Creoles, those born in the colony, are not happy to find themselves under Spanish rule. They quickly expelled the first Spanish governor.
Alejandro O’Reilly arrives with 3000 troops from Havanna and re-establishes Spanish rule in 1768.
He also issues a decree banning the trade of Native American slaves. However, there is no mention of prohibiting the African slave trade.
The British colonies begin seeing that their king does not represent them, just ravaging them for his profit.
By the end of 1773, skirmishes against England were increasing, and the Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor.
Two years later, the colonies declared their independence. They are at war with England.
The French and Spanish are quick to support the Americans and declare war on England as well. Not because they believe in the colonies but because they want revenge and more land.
It Was a Lot Bigger Than Most People Know.
Most of the early fighting will take place in the east. The new Spanish colony of Louisiana supports the colonies by keeping British armies and supplies out of the Mississippi River. Also supplying money, supplies, and boats.
When the war reached Louisiana, the colonists easily defeated the British at the Battle of Lake Pontchartrain, thanks to Spanish ships.
By 1779, there is a rumor the British plan to attack New Orleans. Louisiana governor Bernardo de Gálvez wastes no time enlarging his troops. He recruits Creoles, Cajuns, free-blacks, Isleños, immigrants from the German settlements, and other Louisianans to join.
They take out British regiments at Fort Bute, Baton Rouge, and Natchez, shutting down river use to the British.
He next sets his sites on Mobile, where he manages to dislodge the British.
With supplies from New Orleans and reinforcements from Havana, Galvez led the most prolonged siege throughout the American Revolution. It is the nine-month siege of Pensacola. At its conclusion, the British no longer had any control in the Gulf of Mexico.
Paper Rich, Cash Poor.
By 1800, Spain was rolling in war debts. They could not prevent the spread of people from the American colonies moving westward. France needed the raw materials of New France for its colonies in the Caribbean. Spain turned over Louisiana to France.
Within two years, France and Britain are at war again.
Napoleon sells it to the U.S. for $15 million to ensure Britain does not control the Louisiana territory.
America Doubles in Size.
Hostilities will continue between Britain and the United States. The British blocked U.S. ships trying to trade with France. They also supply American natives with guns to stall the westward expansion. By 1812, the Americans decide to go to war.
The same year, Louisiana became the 18th state.
The war began along the border between British North America (Canada) and the U.S. Neither side had essential victories.
Also, the British navy is attacking US ports along the Atlantic coast with some degrees of success. One 1814 attack ends in the burning of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
In January, the British advanced on New Orleans. Andrew Jackson leads his troops, along with Cajuns, Creoles, People of Color, and local native people, against the British.
Through several bad choices by the British and a few miracles, the U.S. forces overcame the British.
It did not end the war. The war was already over, but the peace agreement’s word was slow, reaching the Gulf area from Europe.
Thanks For Your Help.
In 1830, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act as a repayment for their support in his victories during the War of 1812.
This law gave him the right to kick them off their native land. And assign them to federal territory west of the Mississippi River. Many native Americans die in this move.
In Louisiana, the smaller tribes can move to less desirable areas. Unfortunately, the larger tribes, including the Caddo and Choctaw, don’t get a choice.
Around 1853, New Orleans had its first major Yellow Fever outbreak.
Mosquitos, originally from Africa, breed in the Caribbean, especially around rum plantations, where standing water is always present.
The bugs or their eggs make it to U.S. ports from the Caribbean. The outbreak claims over 7,800 people. (This outbreak is the one in the film Jezebel, starring Bette Davis.)
Each summer after this, southern Louisiana would have cases of Yellow Fever. No one correlates standing water and mosquitos.
Drums Along the Mississippi.
1860, and the clouds of war were forming again. In January of 1861, Louisiana Governor Thomas Moore orders the Louisiana militia to seize the arsenal in Baton Rouge.
Next, he has them occupy Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, guarding New Orleans.
He holds a mockery of a convention and declares Louisiana has withdrawn from the Union.
U.S. Army forces take control of the city by April of the following year. The U.S. government designated the areas of Louisiana, then under U.S. control, as a state within the Union. They appointed elected representatives to the U.S. Congress. Louisiana had a Union and a Confederate governor for the second half of the war.
During the four years of the Civil War, Louisiana will see 26 battles and sieges. These are in addition to the capture of New Orleans.
1865, and the war is over.
Louisiana will take three years to accept ratifying amendments to the constitution, including abolishing slavery. This agreement allows the state representatives back into Congress and restores the state into the United States.
Moving Towards a Better Country
At the beginning of the war, the US Government passed the Homestead Act of 1862. This act allows any adult to apply for free land, with one stipulation: they must never have taken up arms against the Federal government of the United States.
This land was west of the Mississippi in hopes of generating westward expansion.
After the war, the Homestead Act of 1866 included black Americans and encouraged them to participate. Despite rampant discrimination and bureaucratic red tape, by 1900, 25% of blacks own their land.
In 1867, there was another Yellow Fever outbreak in Louisiana and Texas. This outbreak does not compare with the 1878 epidemic. It will spread along the Mississippi Valley from New Orleans to St Louis. More than 20,000 people perish, 5000 from Louisiana.
And Many Big Steps Backwards.
Many liberals are not willing to accept the outcome of the war. They begin White insurgent groups to enforce white supremacy.
One of the first is the Ku Klux Klan chapters. They carry out militant acts of violence while wearing hoods when they don’t get their way. The first groups formed in the southern states soon after the American Civil War. They will die out by the early 1870s due to federal law enforcement.
The Klan will surface two more times in American history. Each time more violent. Let’s hope that part of history never repeats.
Paramilitary groups such as the White League come next. They use violence and assassination to get Republicans out of office.
They intimidate African Americans by controlling their work and limiting their movement between towns to manage them.
The League is responsible for the Coushatta massacre, where they killed six Republican officeholders and some of their families. They also kill twenty freedmen after making them watch the killing of the Republicans.
Their numbers grow to 5,000 White Leaguers, and they battle the Metropolitan Police and state militia in New Orleans. Using threats and fear, in 1876, they regained control of Louisiana.
For Some of the People, By Some of the People.
They immediately make voter registration for blacks and poor whites more complicated. This move reduces the black (Republican) voting block dramatically.
Blacks that do manage to register begin receiving threats. Voter intimidation and violence against black Republicans continue to grow. The rate of lynchings of blacks increases every year.
In areas where they could freely vote, Blacks rocked the 1896 elections. They support a Republican-Populist ticket that has the possibility of overturning the conservative Democrats.
Racial tensions and violence soar, with more than 20 lynchings of blacks in Louisiana in the period before the election. Returns from Democratic-controlled parishes come in with more votes than voters. The Democrats hold on to the legislature and refuse to investigate the election.
They immediately add stricter provisions for voter registration, including poll taxes and literacy tests.
In the 1896 election, there were 130,334 black voters on the rolls. By the coming election, that number was down to 5,320.
By 1910, that number will drop to 730 black voters, less than 5% of eligible African-American men.
The White Democrats’ one-party rule continued until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act began enforcing the constitutional right to vote.
Lest We Forget Our Red Brothers
Congress was back in 1887 with a new plan to separate the Indians from their land. It will also try to eliminate their tribes, customs, and communities. The Dawes General Allotment Act breaks up the large Indian Reservations.
The United States will survey the Native American tribal land. They divide it into allotments for individual Native Americans, selling the excess to white settlers.
Also, they further amended it to include the abolition of the local native governments and tribal courts.
Finally, the native Americans got a small break when, in 1969, the U.S. declared them citizens.
After stomping on and making their beliefs and traditions illegal, the US government tries to resuscitate them. They pass the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
It protects Native Americans’ rights to exercise their traditional religions, worshiping through ceremonials and traditional rites.
Today, Louisiana has eighteen Native American tribes. That’s more than any of the other southern states.
Who are the Louisianians?
Talk about a melting pot. You have the Native Americans, the French, and the Spanish before the colonists push west.
Into this, you add Caribbean, Haitian, and African cultures to make one heck of a stew.
And another thing, what is all this Creole and Cajun stuff?
Cajuns began as French colonists in the Canadian maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The name for the region was “Acadia,” and the people were Acadians.
In 1713, the British took over Canada. They expected everyone to adapt to their religion and ways. The Acadians did not, and the British began expelling them.
Some end in the French West Indies (Caribbean), while others head to the French and Catholic Louisiana territories.
The Acadian’s name will eventually morph into “Cajun.” They settle into the state’s swamps and southwest corner, developing their distinct lifestyle and cooking.
Louisiana Creole people are descendants of the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana during both French and Spanish rule. They are persons born in Louisiana, not in the mother country or elsewhere. Also, it applies to African-descended slaves and Native Americans born in Louisiana.
Both have a joie de vivre, a joy of living.
Louisiana Today.
The rest of the state plays little brother to New Orleans, the big brother in the South. It’s not even the capital; Baton Rouge holds that title.
Avery Island is the birthplace of Tabasco and a great intro to the Delta. It also has a bird sanctuary. Nearby, the Breton National Wildlife Refuge of the Chandeleur Islands is also a great nature spot.
The Atchafalaya Basin, or Swamp, is the largest wetland in the United States.
Melrose Plantation is one of the most extensive free-black plantations in the U.S. Also, there are the plantation homes of Saint James Parish. Oak Alley is not the only one.
Breaux Bridge, not too far from Lafayette, is the Crawfish Capital of the World. Visit here for some real Louisiana crawfish and zydeco music. The festival is in May.
Visit the Acadian Cultural Center in Lafayette for a great look into the Cajun culture.
What about the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point? Have you been there?
Also, for lovers of the “Steel Magnolias” story, it is set in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Filming took place here in 1989.
Louisiana Destinations.
NORTH
CENTRAL.
SOUTH.