Educating the Sons of Sugar: Jefferson College and the Creole Planter Class of South Louisiana by R. Eric Platt (review)

In Educating the Sons of Sugar: Jefferson College and the Creole Planter Class of South Louisiana, R. Eric Platt examines the history of Jefferson College, a nineteenth-century institute of higher education in southern Louisiana. According to Platt, Jefferson College was established by wealthy French Creole sugar planters with two aims explicitly in mind: "to educate and preserve the plantation elite" and "to oppose Anglo-Americans and their College of Louisiana" (pp. 8, 40). Thus, while this book is predominantly an institutional history of the only college ever built to serve members of the sugar elite, it also provides important insights into nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century French Creole culture.

From the outset, the author's passion and enthusiasm for the history of Louisiana are strikingly evident. Drawing on an impressive array of primary and secondary source material, including firsthand accounts from several of the college's presidents, Platt traces the history of Jefferson College from its establishment in 1831 until its eventual demise in 1927. Following a chronological approach, the book begins by describing the social, cultural, and political climate of antebellum Louisiana, which serves to contextualize the establishment of Jefferson College. In particular, chapter 1 explores the cultural rivalry that existed between French Creoles and their Anglo-American neighbors and how this clash of cultures ultimately precipitated the establishment of the Creole institution.

Chapter 2 takes a closer look at life in Jefferson College during the early nineteenth century, particularly in terms of the curriculum and pedagogy. True to wealthy Creole culture, education at Jefferson College was not, as Platt writes, "meant to create mechanics or engineers, but lordly, cultured gentlemen able to converse in various tongues" (p. 49). Although this chapter makes good use of earlier studies of Jefferson College, the voices of former students are absent, and such an inclusion, if available, would certainly have enriched the author's narrative.

Subsequent chapters document the closing and reopening of Jefferson College under the varying administrations of Louis Dufau, a French immigrant; Valcour Aime, "one of the wealthiest French Creole sugar barons in south Louisiana"; and finally the Society of Mary, a Catholic order (p. 94). Although each of these three chapters discusses life in Jefferson College under the respective administrations, special attention is also paid to the social and cultural climates that shaped educational changes and developments at the institution. Chapter 4, in particular, provides a compelling description of how Reconstruction policies and the preceding Civil War forever altered the lives of French Creole planters and the college. Indeed, it was during this period that Jefferson College was transferred to the Society of Mary, a move that concomitantly contributed to the decline of French Creole culture on and the Americanization of the campus.

In the end, decreased enrollment and financial instability resulted in the final closing of Jefferson College in 1927. Although the college campus was purchased four years later by the Society of Jesus and subsequently used as a silent religious retreat for clergy and laymen, its days of educating the sugar elite were over.

Not only does this book provide a detailed history of the rise and fall of Jefferson College, but it also offers a window into the lives of French Creole planters and their views regarding education, religion, race, slavery, and politics. While the author's somewhat lengthy descriptions of the facade of Manresa House of Retreats (which the Society of Jesus established when it purchased the campus in 1931) will not be to everyone's taste, this book is a welcome contribution to the study of Jefferson College in particular and to the history of French Creole culture more generally.