Discover Baton Rouge's bygone days of booming growth and the influence of its renowned residents. For nearly two centuries, Baton Rouge remained a sleepy little river town. Situated on the first bluffs of the Mississippi River north of the Gulf of Mexico, it was prime real estate for habitation. Images of America: Forgotten Baton Rouge collects a plethora of lost images of this city's greatest period of expansion: from the 1890s to the 1930s. This era began when Louisiana State University moved to the grounds of the old US Army arsenal, followed by a corporate decision from John D. Rockefeller to build a Standard Oil Company refinery at Baton Rouge. These historic decisions, coupled with the forward-thinking actions of bold businessmen and politicians like Robert A. Hart and Huey P. Long, changed the face of the city forever.

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Out of colonial Natchitoches, in northwestern Louisiana, emerged a sophisticated and affluent community founded by a family of freed slaves. Their plantations eventually encompassed 18,000 fertile acres, which they tilled alongside hundreds of their own bondsmen. Furnishings of quality and taste graced their homes, and private tutors educated their children. Cultured, deeply religious, and highly capable, Cane River's Creoles of color enjoyed economic privileges but led politically constricted lives. Like their white neighbors, they publicly supported the Confederacy and suffered the same depredations of war and political and social uncertainties of Reconstruction. Unlike white Creoles, however, they did not recover amid cycles of Redeemer and Jim Crow politics. First published in 1977, The Forgotten People offers a socioeconomic history of this widely publicized but also highly romanticized community -- a minority group that fit no stereotypes, refused all outside labels, and still struggles to explain its identity in a world mystified by Creolism. Now revised and significantly expanded, this time-honored work revisits Cane River's "forgotten people" and incorporates new findings and insight gleaned across thirty-five years of further research. This new edition provides a nuanced portrayal of the lives of Creole slaves and the roles allowed to freed people of color, tackling issues of race, gender, and slave holding by former slaves. The Forgotten People corrects misassumptions about the origin of key properties in the Cane River National Heritage Area and demonstrates how historians reconstruct the lives of the enslaved, the impoverished, and the disenfranchised.

From Aansel to Zwolle, with Mamou in between, researcher Clare D'Artois Leeper offers an alphabet of Louisiana place names, both past and present. Leeper includes 893 entries that reveal a distinct view of the state's history. Her unique blend of documented fact and traditional wisdom results in an entertaining guide to Louisiana's place name lore. Leeper considers the origins of each place as well as each name, drawing attention to the individuals who transformed Louisiana from an uninhabited wilderness into a populated state. Not surprising for a region that has existed under ten flags, Louisiana's place names reflect a mixture of several languages and point to other locales across the country and around the world. Even the state's name, Leeper points out, combines the French Louis and the Spanish iana, meaning "belonging to" Louis XIV. Name origins trace back to geography, flora, fauna, religion, weather, people, and occasionally, a flood, a favorite book, or a popular local dish. Leeper conducted numerous interviews, visited courthouses, museums, and libraries, and more recently made use of the Geographic Names Information System to create this fascinating collection of Louisiana history and folklore.

"In 1699, on a high bluff along the Mississippi River, explorer Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, found the fabled "Red Stick," a post that marked the line between two Native American nations and gave Baton Rouge, Louisiana, its name. This book chronicles 150 years of the daily activities of Baton Rouge's residents through images of the city's growth and development; life during the Civil War, floods, hurricanes, and economic depressions; and people working, playing, and celebrating"--Back cover.

When Louisiana seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861, no one doubted that a battle to control the Mississippi River was imminent. Throughout the war, the Federals pushed their way up the river. Every port and city seemed to fall against the force of the Union navy. The capital was forced to retreat from Baton Rouge to Shreveport. Many of the smaller towns, like Bayou Sara and Donaldsonville, were nearly shelled completely off the map. It was not until the Union reached Port Hudson that the Confederates had a fighting chance to keep control of the mighty Mississippi. They fought long and hard, undersupplied and undermanned, but ultimately the Union prevailed. With interest in the Civil War at an all-time high, please consider a review or a feature story with Dennis J. Dufrene.

Few thoroughfares offer as rich a history as Louisiana's River Road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In this third edition of her extremely popular guide, Along the River Road, Mary Ann Sternberg provides a revised introduction, new images, and updated information on sites and attractions as well as tales and local lore about favorite and overlooked destinations. Featuring background information about the area and a detailed guided tour -- upriver on the east bank and downriver along the west -- the book gives an overview of the River Road, serving as an accessible and definitive companion to exploring the corridor. Sternberg's abiding appreciation of the area's allure, garnered over twenty years, produces a must-have travel companion to a place that far exceeds its common reputation as only a parade of elegant antebellum mansions. In this new edition, she again encourages travelers to experience the many treasures of this wondrous byway for themselves, so they too can see how much it has changed over the past decade.

Baton Rouge is known for its rich history, food, politics, music and universities. Perhaps overlooked are the stories of how this large port city's close-knit neighborhoods have adapted to changes over the years. Annabelle Armstrong deftly navigates the evolution of these historic communities, showcasing southern charm and romanticism through firsthand accounts of people who call these places home. Journey back to the beginnings of Hundred Oaks, Capital Heights, University Acres, Wimbledon, Tara, Inniswold, Glenwood, Walnut Hills, Stratford, Steele Place, Broussard, Southdowns and many more popular places to settle down.

Days before the tumultuous presidential election of 1868, St. Bernard Parish descended into chaos. As African American men gained the right to vote, white Democrats of the parish feared losing their majority. Armed groups mobilized to suppress these recently emancipated voters in the hopes of regaining a way of life turned upside down by the Civil War and Reconstruction. Freedpeople were dragged from their homes and murdered in cold blood. Many fled to the cane fields to hide from their attackers. The reported number of those killed varies from 35 to 135. The tragedy was hidden, but implications reverberated throughout the South and lingered for generations. Author and historian Chris Dier reveals the horrifying true story behind the St. Bernard Parish Massacre.