Pistols and Politics: The Dilemma of Democracy in Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1810–1901

Preface

PREFACE My active interest in the turbulent history of Louisiana's Florida parishes began during my undergraduate years at Tulane University. In the course of my studies there, it became apparent that the level of violence that convulsed eastern Louisiana in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was truly peculiar. When I began this project six years ago, I intended merely to write a history of the violence, but in the course of my research 1discovered that the incredible level of brutality involved much more than merely aseries of personal difficulties and an ineffective legal system. Indeed, the violence proved merely a product of much larger circumstances—circumstances that remained central to the development of the region from the colonial period to the close of the nineteenth century. Not surprisingly, the centrality of racism to the violence was readily apparent , though it took a somewhat unusual form. Like the South as a whole, the Florida parishes witnessed abundant white-on-black brutality during the nineteenth century, yet the violence that destabilized the region remained overwhelmingly white-on-white. Of the two primary white factions that emerged in the late nineteenth century, one sought to exploit African Americans for its own self-serving interests, while the other sought rigidly to exclude them from politics and sources of economic development. The dilemma of which course racism would take, and hence an important component of the violence, centered on the conflict between the so-called cooperationists and those committed to the absolute exclusion of blacks. The intricacies of the racial dilemma revealed an even larger basis for the violence, one that proved to be the very determinant of social stability. The direction provided by powerful river-parish planters delivered the territory from a condition of near chaos, promoting economic prosperity and political stability. However, planter leadership frequently stifled the ambitions of the plain folk, and in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction the common folk xiv • PREFACE rejected the dominance of the planter class. Lacking firm leadership, the region deteriorated into anarchy. My book exemplifies elements of both continuity and change. The heavyhanded direction of the slaveholding elite produced stability in a chaotic territory emerging from an armed insurrection and maintained it through the close of the antebellum period. The planter leaders emerged from the destruction of the war and, with the enthusiastic support of the common folk, directed the resistance to federal Reconstruction efforts. Change came in the immediate aftermath of Reconstruction, when the plain folk rejected the governance of their former leaders and turned to new men schooled in the effectiveness and finality of violence. The result was a return to the near anarchy of the colonial period amid an astonishing level of human cruelty. In short, the chaotic circumstances characterizing development in the Florida parishes demonstrated that democracy in eastern Louisiana worked best under oligarchic supervision and that even then, if it was dominated by a selfserving elite, the subsequent failings of democracy could be dramatically amplified . Many individuals and institutions have provided valuable assistance during the course of my research and writing.The T. Harry Williams Fellowship, awarded by the History Department at Louisiana State University, and a Newberry Library Fellowship provided crucial funding in the early stages of my research, as did a series of travel grants from Louisiana State University and Southeastern LouisianaUniversity. The staff at Louisiana State University Press proved exceptionally helpful through the course of the publication process. Among others, Margaret Dalrymple , John Easterly,Catherine Landry, and Leslie Phillabaum gave freely of their time and consideration to expedite the completion of this project. Christine Cowan proved an excellent copy editor. I am indeed grateful for their assistance. It is always a pleasure to locate a library or archival collection maintained by a helpful and friendly staff, and in this regard I was particularly fortunate. The staffs at the Newberry Library, the Mississippi State Archives, the Middleton Library at Louisiana State University, and the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books at Tulane University proved particularly helpful . To the staff of the Louisiana and Lower MississippiValley Collections at Louisiana State University, I owe a particular word of thanks, for their professionalism , courteous attentiveness, and exceptional resourcefulness. Their patience and help as I implored them to open early every morning month after month, dominated their time during operating hours, and begged to see PREFACE • xv "just one more item" as the clock ticked past closing...