Louisiana Legacies Readings in the History of the Pelican State

Showcasing the colorful, even raucous, political, social, and unique cultural qualities of Louisiana history, this new collection of essays features the finest and latest scholarship.

• Includes readings featuring  recent scholarship that expand on traditional historical accounts
• Includes material on every region of Louisiana
• Covers  a wide range of fields, including social, environmental, and economic history
• Detailed, focused material on different areas in Louisiana history, including women?s history as well as the state?s diverse ethnic populations

Editors' Preface 1

PART ONE: LOUISIANA'S COLONIAL CONTEXT 3

The Frontier Exchange Economy of the Lower Mississippi Valley before 1783
by Daniel J. Usner 5

The Moral Climate of French Colonial Louisiana, 1699–1763
by Carl A. Brasseaux 25

Oliver Pollock's Plantations: An Early Anglo Landowner on the Lower Mississippi, 1769–1824
by Light T. Cummins 37

PART TWO: WOMEN, RACE, AND CLASS IN EARLY LOUISIANA 49

Desiring Total Tranquility—and Not Getting It: Conflict Involving Free Black Women in Spanish New Orleans
by Kimberly Hanger 52

A Female Planter from West Feliciana Parish: The Letters of Rachel O'Connor
by Sara Brooks Sundberg 63

The Murder of a "Lewd and Abandoned Woman": State of Louisiana v. Abraham Parker
by Judith Kelleher Schafer 78

PART THREE: TRANSFORMATION OF THE LOUISIANA "CREOLE" 93

Early New Orleans Society: A Reappraisal
by Joseph G. Tregle, Jr. 95

In My Father's House: Relationships and Identity in an Interracial New Orleans Creole Family, 1845–1875
by Justin Nystrom 108

PART FOUR: VIOLENT LOUISIANA 127

"I Would Rather Be Among the Comanches": The Military Occupation of Southwest Louisiana, 1865
by Michael G. Wade 129

From the Barrel of a Gun: The Politics of Murder in Grant Parish
by Joel M. Sipress 142

Feuding Is Our Means of Societal Regulation: Elusive Stability in Southeastern Louisiana's Piney Woods, 1877–1910
by Samuel Hyde, Jr. 154

An Inhospitable Land: Anti-Italian Sentiment and Violence in Louisiana, 1891–1924
by Alan G. Gauthreaux 164

PART FIVE: PROGRESSIVES AND RACE 177

When Plessy Met Ferguson
by Keith Weldon Medley 180

The Rest of the Story: Kate Gordon and the Opposition to the Nineteenth Amendment in the South
by Elna C. Green 188

In Pursuit of Louisiana Progressives
by Samuel C. Shepherd 197

PART SIX: MODERN LOUISIANA POLITICS 209

"What he did and what he promised to do . . .": Huey Long and the Horizons of Louisiana Politics
by Jerry P. Sanson 212

Huey Long: A Political Contradiction
by Glen Jeansonne 220

"When I Took the Oath of Office, I Took No Vow of Poverty": Race, Corruption, and Democracy in Louisiana, 1928–2000
by Anthony J. Badger 232

The Politics of Poverty and History: Racial Inequality and the Long Prelude to Katrina
by Kent B. Germany 248

PART SEVEN: TRANSITIONS IN RACE RELATIONS 257

Racial Repression in World War Two: The New Iberia Incident
by Adam Fairclough 259

Transitional Generations: African American Workers, Industrialization, and Education in the Northern Louisiana Lumber and Paper Industries, 1930–1950
by Lesley-Anne Reed 270

PART EIGHT: CULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT IN MODERN LOUISIANA 289

Making the "Birthplace of Jazz": Tourism and Musical Heritage Marketing in New Orleans
by J. Mark Souther 291

Commercialization of Cajun Cuisine
by Marcelle Bienvenu, Carl A. Brasseaux, and Ryan A. Brasseaux 314

Who Destroyed the Marsh?: Oil Field Canals, Coastal Ecology, and the Debate over Louisiana’s Shrinking Wetlands
by Tyler Priest and Jason P. Theriot 331

Michael S. Martin is Associate Professor of History at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and director of its Center for Louisiana Studies. He also manages the university’s publishing concern and its Center for Cultural and Eco-Tourism. Dr. Martin is also the managing editor of the Louisiana Historical Association’s quarterly journal, Louisiana History. His publications include Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas:  A Centennial History, 1902-2002 (2002), and Historic Lafayette (2007).

Janet Allured is Professor of History at McNeese State University and coordinator of its Women’s Studies program. The co-editor of Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times (2009), she also shared the authorship of Images of America: Lake Charles (2012). She is currently working on a history of the modern feminist movement in Louisiana.