Louisiana: A History

Covering the lively history of Louisiana, from before First Contact to the present, Louisiana: A History provides an overview of the colorful history of this unique state. Now in its sixth edition, the classic text has been updated and revised to include the very latest scholarship in the field, as well as coverage of recent events, including the 2010 BP oil spill and its ensuing economic and environmental effects. Incorporating the latest historical literature, the text focuses not only on political but also social, economic, cultural, intellectual, and artistic history within the Pelican State. Organized in four parts, Louisiana: A History explores how events outside the colony, territory, and ultimately state of Louisiana shaped not only Louisiana’s destiny, but that of the American South and the United States itself.

Map 1 Louisiana viii Map 2 The United States, with Louisiana highlighted ix Introduction by John C. Rodrigue 1 PART ONE 7 by Light Townsend Cummins 1 Native Peoples and European Contact 9 2 The Founding of French Louisiana 32 3 Louisiana as a French Colony 52 4 Spanish Louisiana 68 5 The Final Years of Colonial Louisiana 85 Suggested Readings 101 PART TWO 105 by Judith Kelleher Schafer 6 The Territorial Period 107 7 The Political Development of Antebellum Louisiana 127 8 Life and Labor in Antebellum Louisiana 156 9 Civil War and Reconstruction in Louisiana 197 Suggested Readings 227 PART THREE 233 by Edward F. Haas 10 Uneasy Interlude, 1877–1892 235 11 Bourbonism, Populism, and a Little Progressivism, 1892–1924 256 12 The Time of the Kingfish, 1924–1935 280 13 The Struggle to Catch Up, 1877–1935 301 Suggested Readings 322 PART FOUR 325 by Michael L. Kurtz 14 Corruption, Reform, and Reaction, 1936–1950 327 15 Reform and Race, 1950–1960 351 16 The Decline of Racism, 1960–1972 376 17 The Era of Edwin Edwards, 1972–1987 393 18 Louisiana at the End of the Century, 1987–2000 418 19 Louisiana in the New Millennium 454 Suggested Readings 478 Appendix I 481 European Rulers with Relation to Louisiana during the Colonial and Territorial Periods 481 Military Commandants and Governors of Louisiana 482 Appendix II 486 A Selective Chronology of Louisiana History 486 Index 493

Editors: Bennett H. Wall (deceased) was Professor of History, University of Georgia, and instrumental in the founding and operation of the Louisiana Historical Association (LHA) and the Southern Historical Association (SHA). He was a renowned scholar in southern and U.S. business history. John C. Rodrigue is Lawrence and Theresa Salameno Professor of History at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachusetts. He previously taught Louisiana History and other courses at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He is the author of several books and scholarly articles on nineteenth–century U.S. and Southern history. Authors: Light Townsend Cummins is the Bryan Professor of History at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and is a foremost expert on the history of the Spanish Borderlands. In 2009 he was appointed as the official State Historian of Texas. Judith Kelleher Schafer teaches American legal history at Tulane University and has published two prize–winning books: Slavery, the Civil Law, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana (1997) and Brothels, Depravity and Abandoned Women (2011), as well as Becoming Free, Remaining Free (2003). Edward F. Haas is professor of history at Wright State University in Dayton Ohio. He was named a Fellow of the Louisiana Historical Association and in 1999 he received the Garnie McGinty Lifetime Meritorious Service Award from the LHA. He has published numerous works in Louisiana and New Orleans history and has twice won the L. Kemper Williams Prize for excellence in Louisiana scholarship. Michael L. Kurtz is a professor emeritus of American History at Southeastern Louisiana University. His publications include Earl K. Long: The Saga of Uncle Earl and Louisiana Politics (1990), Crime of the Century: The Kennedy Assassination from a Historian’s Perspective (1993), Louisiana Since the Longs (1998), and The JFK Assassination Debates (2006).