"Toward the end of the 19th century, journalist Field traveled by boat and buggy around Louisiana, writing columns under the name of Catharine Cole for the New Orleans Daily Picayune. Her work spread to other papers, and she was read widely throughout the South. This collection details her journeys around the state in the 1890s. With evocative and adjective-filled prose, she describes the beauty as well as the practical aspects of Louisiana life, including shrimp drying, levee building, and the cost of land. Field conjures up vivid images of the places she visits, such as the town that "lifts its comb of roof and gray gable and soft-colored adobe chimneys from out the clumps and clouds of the chinaberry tree." The editors, both retired professors of English at Clemson University, add brief introductions to each piece. Although Field's travel adventures depict a time without modern convenience, when women were not expected to journey alone, her enjoyment of travel for its own sake resonates with readers today. Recommended for Louisiana libraries and for academic libraries with a Southern history collection.-Janet Clapp, Athens-Clarke Cty. Lib., Athens, GA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information." --Library Jour.

Louisiana, a state in the southern part of the United States, is a place full of cultural, historical, and natural treasures. With its famous cities such as New Orleans and Baton Rouge, its pristine natural areas and its rich musical tradition, Louisiana is a unique destination. Facts and figures: Louisiana has an area of about 135,659 square kilometers and a population of around 4.6 million people. Most of Louisiana is made up of swampy landscapes, including the world-famous Mississippi Delta and the Atchafalaya Swamps. The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge, but the most famous city is undoubtedly New Orleans. Louisiana was ruled by the Spanish, French, and Americans, so it has a rich and diverse history and culture. Louisiana residents often speak a unique dialect based on a mix of French, Spanish, and English, known as "Creole." Known for its unique blend of Creole and Cajunian influences, Louisiana cuisine includes dishes such as gumbo, jambalaya, and po' boys. Louisiana is famous for its musical traditions, especially jazz, blues, zydeco, and Cajun. Louisiana is a place full of history, music, and culinary delights. The many cultural influences that have come together here over the centuries have created a unique culture and identity that attracts visitors from all over the world. Louisiana's landscape is just as impressive as its culture. The vast swamps and rivers that crisscross the state are home to an incredible variety of animal and plant species, including alligators, pelicans, heron, and many others. The Atchafalaya Basin, the largest wetland in the U.S., is a popular destination for nature lovers and provides a stunning backdrop for boating, fishing, and bird watching. Louisiana is also known for its many festivals and celebrations. Mardi Gras, the annual carnival festival in New Orleans, is world-famous and attracts millions of visitors every year. But there are also many other events throughout the state, including the French Quarter Festival, the Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Zydeco Festival. In summary, Louisiana is a unique destination with a fascinating culture, rich history, pristine natural areas, and delicious cuisine. Whether you want to immerse yourself in the swamps, visit historic sites, or just enjoy the music and food, Louisiana has something for everyone.

Winner • Pulitzer Prize for History Winner • Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction Finalist • National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction) A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post, NPR, Library Journal, and gCaptain Booklist Editors’ Choice (History) Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence In this “cri de coeur about the Gulf’s environmental ruin” (New York Times), “Davis has written a beautiful homage to a neglected sea” (front page, New York Times Book Review). Hailed as a “nonfiction epic . . . in the tradition of Jared Diamond’s best-seller Collapse, and Simon Winchester’s Atlantic” (Dallas Morning News), Jack E. Davis’s The Gulf is “by turns informative, lyrical, inspiring and chilling for anyone who cares about the future of ‘America’s Sea’ ” (Wall Street Journal). Illuminating America’s political and economic relationship with the environment from the age of the conquistadors to the present, Davis demonstrates how the Gulf’s fruitful ecosystems and exceptional beauty empowered a growing nation. Filled with vivid, untold stories from the sportfish that launched Gulfside vacationing to Hollywood’s role in the country’s first offshore oil wells, this “vast and welltold story shows how we made the Gulf . . . [into] a ‘national sacrifice zone’ ” (Bill McKibben). The first and only study of its kind, The Gulf offers “a unique and illuminating history of the American Southern coast and sea as it should be written” (Edward O. Wilson).

French colonial Louisiana has failed to occupy a place in the historic consciousness of the United States, perhaps owing to its short duration (1699--1762) and its standing outside the dominant narrative of the British colonies in North America. This anthology seeks to locate early Louisiana in its proper place, bringing together a broad range of scholarship that depicts a complex and vibrant sphere. Colonial Louisiana comprised the vast center of what would become the United States. It lay between Spanish, British, and French colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and between woodland and eastern plains Indians. As such, it provided a meeting place for Europeans, Africans, and native Americans, functioning as a crossroads between the New World and other worlds. While acknowledging colonial Louisiana's peripheral position in U.S. and Atlantic World history, this volume demonstrates that the colony stands at the thematic center of the shared narratives and historiographies of diverse places. Through its twelve essays, French Colonial Louisiana and the Atlantic World tells a whole story, the story of a place that belongs to the historic narrative of the Atlantic World.

An analysis of the French colonies in North America that is central to the historical study of the United States.

Although a number of important studies of American slavery have explored the formation of slave cultures in the English colonies, no book until now has undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the development of the distinctive Afro-Creole culture of colonial Louisiana. This culture, based upon a separate language community with its own folkloric, musical, religious, and historical traditions, was created by slaves brought directly from Africa to Louisiana before 1731. It still survives as the acknowledged cultural heritage of tens of thousands of people of all races in the southern part of the state. In this pathbreaking work, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall studies Louisiana's creole slave community during the eighteenth century, focusing on the slaves' African origins, the evolution of their own language and culture, and the role they played in the formation of the broader society, economy, and culture of the region. Hall bases her study on research in a wide range of archival sources in Louisiana, France, and Spain and employs several disciplines--history, anthropology, linguistics, and folklore--in her analysis. Among the topics she considers are the French slave trade from Africa to Louisiana, the ethnic origins of the slaves, and relations between African slaves and native Indians. She gives special consideration to race mixture between Africans, Indians, and whites; to the role of slaves in the Natchez Uprising of 1729; to slave unrest and conspiracies, including the Pointe Coupee conspiracies of 1791 and 1795; and to the development of communities of runaway slaves in the cypress swamps around New Orleans.