Table of Contents
Editors' Preface 1
PART ONE: LOUISIANA'S COLONIAL CONTEXT 3
The Frontier Exchange Economy of the Lower Mississippi Valley before 1783by Daniel J. Usner 5
The Moral Climate of French Colonial Louisiana, 1699–1763by Carl A. Brasseaux 25
Oliver Pollock's Plantations: An Early Anglo Landowner on the Lower Mississippi, 1769–1824by 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 Orleansby Kimberly Hanger 52
A Female Planter from West Feliciana Parish: The Letters of Rachel O'Connorby Sara Brooks Sundberg 63
The Murder of a "Lewd and Abandoned Woman": State of Louisiana v. Abraham Parkerby Judith Kelleher Schafer 78
PART THREE: TRANSFORMATION OF THE LOUISIANA "CREOLE" 93
Early New Orleans Society: A Reappraisalby Joseph G. Tregle, Jr. 95
In My Father's House: Relationships and Identity in an Interracial New Orleans Creole Family, 1845–1875by Justin Nystrom 108
PART FOUR: VIOLENT LOUISIANA 127
"I Would Rather Be Among the Comanches": The Military Occupation of Southwest Louisiana, 1865by Michael G. Wade 129
From the Barrel of a Gun: The Politics of Murder in Grant Parishby Joel M. Sipress 142
Feuding Is Our Means of Societal Regulation: Elusive Stability in Southeastern Louisiana's Piney Woods, 1877–1910by Samuel Hyde, Jr. 154
An Inhospitable Land: Anti-Italian Sentiment and Violence in Louisiana, 1891–1924by Alan G. Gauthreaux 164
PART FIVE: PROGRESSIVES AND RACE 177
When Plessy Met Fergusonby Keith Weldon Medley 180
The Rest of the Story: Kate Gordon and the Opposition to the Nineteenth Amendment in the Southby Elna C. Green 188
In Pursuit of Louisiana Progressivesby 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 Politicsby Jerry P. Sanson 212
Huey Long: A Political Contradictionby Glen Jeansonne 220
"When I Took the Oath of Office, I Took No Vow of Poverty": Race, Corruption, and Democracy in Louisiana, 1928–2000by Anthony J. Badger 232
The Politics of Poverty and History: Racial Inequality and the Long Prelude to Katrinaby Kent B. Germany 248
PART SEVEN: TRANSITIONS IN RACE RELATIONS 257
Racial Repression in World War Two: The New Iberia Incidentby Adam Fairclough 259
Transitional Generations: African American Workers, Industrialization, and Education in the Northern Louisiana Lumber and Paper Industries, 1930–1950by 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 Orleansby J. Mark Souther 291
Commercialization of Cajun Cuisineby 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 Wetlandsby Tyler Priest and Jason P. Theriot 331