Louisiana

Template:US state

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge. The largest city and metropolitan area is New Orleans.

Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, strongly influenced by an admixture of eighteenth-century French, Spanish, and African cultures. Before the American influx and statehood at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the territory of current Louisiana State had been either a Spanish or French colony. In addition, the pattern of development included importing numerous Africans in the eighteenth century, with many from the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture. Also, thousands of refugees arrived from Saint-Domingue in the early 1800s, many bringing slaves with them, adding a strong new African influence on the culture, especially in and near New Orleans.

Geography

Map of Louisiana

Louisiana is bordered to the west by the state of Texas; to the north by Arkansas; to the east by Mississippi; and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico.

A large part of Louisiana is the creation and product of the Mississippi River. It was originally covered by an arm of the sea, and has been built up by the silt carried down the valley by the great river.

Due both to extensive flood control measures along the Mississippi River and natural subsidence, Louisiana is now suffering the loss of coastal land area. State and federal government efforts to halt or reverse this phenomenon are underway. There is one bright spot, however; the Atchafalaya River is creating new delta land in the south-central portion of the state. This activity indicates that the Mississippi is seeking a new path to the Gulf. Much engineering effort is devoted to keeping the river near its traditional route, as the state's economy and shipping depend on it.

Topography

The surface of the state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands and the alluvial. The alluvial regions, including the low swamps and coast lands lie principally along the Mississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about 600 miles (1,000 km) and empties into the Gulf of Mexico; the Red River; the Ouachita River and its branches; and other minor streams (some of which are called bayous). The Mississippi River flows along a ridge formed by its own deposits (known as a levee), from which the lands decline toward the low swamps beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile (3 m/km).

Louisiana regions

The higher lands and contiguous hill lands of the north and northwestern parts of the state consist of prairie and woodlands.

The elevations above sea level range from 10 feet (3 m) at the coast and swamp lands to 50 and 60 feet (15–18 m) at the prairie and alluvial lands. Driskill Mountain, the highest point in the state, is only 535 feet (163 m) above sea level; only two other states, Florida and Delaware, are geographically lower than Louisiana.

The state's rivers and smaller streams constitute a natural system of navigable waterways, aggregating over 4,000 miles (6,400 km) in length. These waterways are unequaled in any other state. The state also has 1,060 square miles (2,745 km²) of land-locked bays; 1,700 square miles (4,400 km²) of inland lakes; and a river surface of over 500 square miles (1,300 km²).

Climate

Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate, perhaps the most "classic" example of a humid subtropical climate of all the Southeastern states, with long, hot, humid summers and short, mild winters. The subtropical characteristics of the state are due in large part to the influence of the Gulf of Mexico, which even at its farthest point is no more than 200 miles (320 km) away. Precipitation is frequent throughout the year, although the summer is slightly wetter than the rest of the year. Southern Louisiana receives far more copious rainfall, especially during the winter months.

Louisiana is often affected by tropical cyclones and is very vulnerable to strikes by major hurricanes, particularly the lowlands around and in the New Orleans area. The unique geography of the region with its many bayous, marshes, and inlets can make major hurricanes especially destructive. The area is also prone to frequent thunderstorms, especially in the summer. The entire state averages over 60 days of thunderstorms a year, more than any other state except Florida. Louisiana averages 27 tornadoes annually. The entire state is vulnerable to a tornado strike, with the extreme southern portion of the state slightly less so than the rest of the state.

Geographic and statistical areas

Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes in the same way that most of the other U.S. states are divided into counties. Louisiana is the only state that uses the term "parish" instead of "county." The largest parish by population is Jefferson Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish.

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  Alexandria

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  Baton Rouge

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  Bossier City

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  Lafayette

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  Lake Charles

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  New Orleans

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  Shreveport

• Monroe.gif

  Monroe

Intracoastal waterway in Louisiana near New Orleans

History

Early settlement

Louisiana was inhabited by Native Americans when European explorers arrived in the seventeenth century. Many place names in the state are transliterations of those used in Native American dialects. Tribes that inhabited what is now Louisiana included the Atakapa, the Opelousa, the Acolapissa, the Tangipahoa, and the Chitimacha in the southeast of the state; the Washa, the Chawasha, the Yagenechito, the Bayougoula and the Houma (part of the Choctaw nation), the Quinipissa, the Okelousa, the Avoyel, the Taensa (part of the Natchez nation), the Tunica, and the Koroa. Central and northwest Louisiana was home to a substantial portion of the Caddo nation and the Natchitoches confederacy, consisting of the Natchitoches, the Yatasi, the Nakasa, the Doustioni, the Quachita, and the Adai.

Exploration and colonization by Europeans

The first European explorers to visit Louisiana came in 1528, when a Spanish expedition located the mouth of the Mississippi River. In 1541, Hernando de Soto's expedition crossed the region. Then Spanish interest in Louisiana lay dormant.

In the late seventeenth century, French expeditions established a foothold on the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. In 1682, the French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle named the region Louisiana to honor France's King Louis XIV. The French colony of Louisiana originally claimed all the land on both sides of the Mississippi River and north to French territory in Canada. The following present states were once part of Louisiana: Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

The settlement of Natchitoches (along the Red River in present-day northwest Louisiana) was established in 1714, making it the oldest permanent European settlement in the Louisiana Purchase territory. The settlement had the dual goals of establishing trade with the Spanish in Texas and deterring Spanish advances into Louisiana. Also, the northern terminus of the Old San Antonio Road (sometimes called El Camino Real, or Kings Highway) was at Natchitoches. The settlement soon became a flourishing river port and crossroads, giving rise to vast cotton kingdoms along the river. Louisiana's French settlements contributed to further exploration and outposts, concentrated along the banks of the Mississippi and its major tributaries.

Recognizing the importance of the Mississippi River to trade and military interests, France made New Orleans the seat of civilian and military authority in 1722. From then until the United States acquired the territory in 1803, France and Spain traded control of the region's colonial empire.

France ceded most of its territory to the east of the Mississippi to Great Britain in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War or French and Indian War, as it was known in North America. It retained the area around New Orleans and the parishes around Lake Pontchartrain. The rest of Louisiana became a colony of Spain after the Seven Years' War by the Treaty of Paris of 1763.

During the period of Spanish rule, several thousand French-speaking refugees from the region of Acadia (now Nova Scotia, Canada) made their way to Louisiana following their expulsion by Britain after the Seven Years' War. They settled chiefly in southwestern Louisiana. The Spanish, eager to gain more Catholic settlers, welcomed the refugees, whose descendants are known as Cajuns.

In 1800, France's Napoleon Bonaparte acquired Louisiana from Spain in the Treaty of San Ildefonso, an arrangement kept secret for two years.

Purchase by the United States

Napoleon's ambitions in Louisiana involved the creation of a new empire centered on the Caribbean sugar trade. In October 1801 he sent a large military force to retake the important island of Santo Domingo, lost in a slave revolt in the 1790s. Defeated by Haitian revolutionaries, Napoleon decided to sell Louisiana.

File:Louisiana.JPG

Louisiana state welcome sign

In the meantime, Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, was disturbed by Napoleon's plans to re-establish French colonies in America. By possessing New Orleans, Napoleon could close the Mississippi River to U.S. commerce at any time. Jefferson appointed James Monroe special envoy to Napoleon, to assist in obtaining New Orleans for the United States.

On April 11, 1803, Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, asked U.S. envoy Robert Livingston how much the United States was prepared to pay for all of Louisiana. He and Monroe closed a deal for the purchase of the entire 828,000 square miles (2,145,000 km²) Louisiana territory for approximately $15 million. Part of this sum was used to forgive debts owed by France to the United States.

Jefferson had authorized the expenditure of $10 million for a port city and instead received treaties committing the government to spend $15 million on a land package that would double the size of the country.

The Louisiana Territory, purchased for less than 3 cents an acre, doubled the size of the United States overnight, without a war or the loss of a single American life, and set a precedent for the purchase of territory. It opened the way for the eventual expansion of the United States across the continent to the Pacific, and its consequent rise to the status of world power.

Demographics

Louisiana population density map.

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1810	76,556		–
1820	153,407		100.4%
1830	215,739		40.6%
1840	352,411		63.4%
1850	517,762		46.9%
1860	708,002		36.7%
1870	726,915		2.7%
1880	939,946		29.3%
1890	1,118,588		19.0%
1900	1,381,625		23.5%
1910	1,656,388		19.9%
1920	1,798,509		8.6%
1930	2,101,593		16.9%
1940	2,363,516		12.5%
1950	2,683,516		13.5%
1960	3,257,022		21.4%
1970	3,641,306		11.8%
1980	4,205,900		15.5%
1990	4,219,973		0.3%
2000	4,468,976		5.9%
Est. 2006	4,287,768		-4.1%

As of July 2005 (prior to the landfall of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita), Louisiana had an estimated population of 4,523,628, which is an increase of 16,943, or 0.4%, from the prior year and an increase of 54,670, or 1.2%, since 2000. The population density of the state is 102.6 people per square mile.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 4.7 percent of the population aged 5 and over speak French or Cajun French at home, while 2.5 percent speak Spanish [7].

Demographics of Louisiana (csv)
By race	White	Black	AIAN	Asian	NHPI
AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native   -   NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
2000 (total population)	65.39%	32.94%	0.96%	1.45%	0.07%
2000 (Hispanic only)	2.09%	0.28%	0.06%	0.03%	0.01%
2005 (total population)	64.77%	33.47%	0.97%	1.60%	0.07%
2005 (Hispanic only)	2.52%	0.27%	0.06%	0.03%	0.01%
Growth 2000-2005 (total population)	0.26%	2.86%	2.26%	11.98%	2.25%
Growth 2000-2005 (non-Hispanic only)	-0.47%	2.89%	2.47%	12.11%	3.93%
Growth 2000-2005 (Hispanic only)	22.23%	-1.03%	-0.78%	6.41%	-5.82%

Nine Main Ancestries in Louisiana
French
Spanish
22px Acadian
Haitian
British
German
Irish
Italian
African

Cajun and Creole population

Cajuns and Creoles of French ancestry are dominant in much of the southern part of the state. The Creole people of Louisiana are split into two racial divisions, White French Creoles and Black Creoles, originating from Haiti. White French Creoles generally have French, Spanish, Italian, Irish, or German ancestors who fled Haiti during the slave revolts. Black Creoles, or Creoles of Color, are generally a mix of African, French, Spanish, and Native American heritage.

African American and Franco-African population

Louisiana's population has the second largest proportion of black Americans (32.5 percent) in the United States, behind neighboring Mississippi (36.3 percent). Official census statistics do not distinguish between those of English-speaking heritage and those of French-speaking heritage.

Southern White population

Whites of Southern U.S. background predominate in northern Louisiana. These people are predominantly of English, Welsh, and Scots Irish backgrounds, and share a common, mostly Protestant culture with Americans of neighboring states.

Other Europeans

Before the Louisiana Purchase, some German families had settled in a rural area along the lower Mississippi valley, then known as the German Coast. They assimilated into Cajun and Creole communities. In 1840 New Orleans was the third largest and most wealthy city in the nation and the largest city in the South. Its bustling port and trade economy attracted numerous Irish, Italian, German and Portuguese immigrants, of which the first two groups were totally Catholic, and some Portuguese and Germans were, adding to Catholic culture in southern Louisiana. New Orleans is also home to sizable Dutch, Greek and Polish coimmunities, and Jewish populations of various nationalities.

Hispanic Americans

In 2006, an estimated 10 percent of the state's population are of Hispanic origin, although the 2000 census reported the figure was 8 percent. The state has attracted an influx of immigrants from various countries of Latin America, such as Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. New Orleans is said to have the largest Honduran-American community, from several decades of Hondurans settling down for economic opportunities. Older Cuban-American and Dominican communities are present in the New Orleans area, sometimes dating back to the 1920s and even as early as the 1880s. But the majority of New Orleans' Hispanic population came in the 1990s and during the post-Katrina peak (2005), when 100,000 Mexicans and other Latin Americans moved there to work in home construction, remodeling, and wreckage removal.

Asian Americans

In 2006 it was estimated that 50,209 people of Asian descent live in Louisiana, including the descendants of Chinese workers who arrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, often from the Caribbean. Another wave of Chinese immigration, this time from Southeast Asia, occurred in the late twentieth century.

In the 1970s and 1980s, numerous Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian refugees came to the Gulf Coast to work in the fishing and shrimping industries. About 95 percent of Louisiana's Asian population resides in New Orleans, also home to well-established East Indian and Korean communities.

Perhaps the largest out of the state's Asian American groups are Filipinos, with the earliest arrivals working on Spanish ships arriving from the Philippines.

Economy

The total gross state product in 2005 for Louisiana was US168 billion, placing it 24th in the nation. Its per capita personal income is US$30,952, ranking 41st in the United States.

The state's principal agricultural products include seafood (it is the biggest producer of crawfish in the world, supplying approximately 90 percent), cotton, soybeans, cattle, sugarcane, poultry and eggs, dairy products, and rice. Industry generates chemical products, petroleum and coal products, food processing and transportation equipment, and paper products. Tourism is an important element in the economy.

The Port of South Louisiana, located on the Mississippi between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is the largest volume shipping port in the Western Hemisphere and 4th largest in the world. It is the largest bulk cargo port in the world.

New Orleans and Shreveport are also home to a thriving film industry. State financial incentives and aggressive promotion have put the local film industry on a fast track. In late 2007 and early 2008, a 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m²) film studio will open in Treme, with state-of-the-art production facilities, and a film training institute. Tabasco sauce, which is marketed by one of the United States' biggest producers of hot sauce, the McIlhenny Company, originated on Avery Island.

Tourism and culture are major players in Louisiana's economy, earning an estimated $5.2 billion dollars per year. Louisiana also hosts many important cultural events, such as the World Cultural Economic Forum, which is held annually in the fall at the New Orleans Convention Center.

Energy

Louisiana is rich in crude oil and natural gas. Oil and gas deposits are found in abundance both onshore and offshore in state-owned waters. In addition, vast crude oil and natural gas reserves are found offshore in the federally administered Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the Energy Information Administration, the Gulf of Mexico OCS is the largest U.S. oil-producing region. Excluding the Gulf of Mexico OCS, Louisiana ranks fourth in crude oil production and is home to about 2 percent of total U.S. oil reserves. Louisiana’s natural gas reserves account for about 5 percent of the U.S. total.

The oil and gas industry, as well as its subsidiary industries such as transport and refining, have dominated Louisiana's economy since the 1940s. Beginning in 1950, Louisiana was sued several times by the U.S. Interior Department, in efforts by the federal government to strip Louisiana of its submerged land property rights. These control vast stores of reservoirs of oil and natural gas.

Law and government

Louisiana State Capitol

Louisiana Governor's Mansion

In 1849, the state moved the capital from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.

The current Louisiana governor is Bobby Jindal, the first Indian American to be elected governor. The current U.S. senators are Mary Landrieu (Democrat) and David Vitter (Republican). Louisiana has seven congressional districts and is represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by four Republicans and three Democrats. Louisiana has nine votes in the Electoral College.

Civil law

The Louisiana political and legal structure has maintained several elements from the time of French governance. One is the use of the term "parish" (from the French: paroisse) in place of "county" for administrative subdivision. Another is the legal system of civil law based on French, German, and Spanish legal codes and ultimately Roman law—as opposed to English common law. Common law is "judge-made" law based on precedent, and is the basis of statutes in all other U.S. states.

Marriage

In 1997, Louisiana became the first state to offer the option of a traditional marriage or a covenant marriage [8]. In a covenant marriage, the couple waives their right to a "no-fault" divorce after six months of separation, which is available in a traditional marriage. To divorce under a covenant marriage, a couple must demonstrate cause. Same-sex marriages are prohibited..

Elections

From 1898-1965, after Louisiana had effectively disfranchised African Americans and poor whites by provisions of a new constitution, it essentially was a one-party state dominated by elite white Democrats. The franchise for whites was expanded somewhat during the decades, but blacks remained essentially disfranchised until the Civil Rights Movement, culminating in passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In multiple acts of resistance, blacks left the segregation, violence and oppression of the state to seek better opportunities in northern and western industrial cities during the Great Migrations of 1910-1970, markedly reducing their proportion of population in Louisiana. Since the 1960s, when civil rights legislation was passed under President Lyndon Johnson to protect voting and civil rights, most African Americans in the state have affiliated with the Democratic Party. In the same years, many white conservatives have moved to support Republican Party candidates in national and gubernatorial elections. David Vitter is the first Republican in Louisiana to be popularly elected as a U.S. Senator. The previous Republican Senator, John S. Harris, who took office in 1868, was chosen by the state legislature.

Louisiana was unique among U.S. states in using a system for state and local elections similar to that of modern France. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, ran in a nonpartisan blanket primary (or "jungle primary") on Election Day. If no candidate had more than 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the highest vote total competed in a runoff election approximately one month later. This run-off did not take into account party identification; therefore, it was not uncommon for a Democrat to be in a runoff with a fellow Democrat or a Republican to be in a runoff with a fellow Republican. Congressional races have also been held under the jungle primary system. All other states use single-party primaries followed by a general election between party candidates, each conducted by either a plurality voting system or runoff voting, to elect Senators, Representatives, and statewide officials. Since 2008, elections have been run under a closed primary system — limited to registered party members.

Louisiana has seven seats in to the U.S. House of Representatives, which are currently held by four are Republicans and three Democrats. Louisiana is not classified as a "swing state" for future presidential elections.

Culture

Dishes typical of Louisiana Creole cuisine.

Louisiana is home to many, especially notable are the distinct culture of the Creoles and Cajuns.

Creole culture is a cultural amalgamation that takes a little from each of the French, Spanish, Italian, German, Irish, African, and Native American cultures. The Creole culture is part of White Creoles' and Black Creoles' culture. Originally Créoles referred to native-born whites of French-Spanish descent. Later the term also referred to descendants of the white men's relationships with African or African-American women, many of whom were educated free people of color. Many of the wealthy white men had quasi-permanent relationships with women of color outside their marriages, and supported them as "placées." If a woman was enslaved at the beginning of the relationship, the man usually arranged for her manumission, as well as that of any of her children.

Creoles became associated with the New Orleans area, where the elaborated arrangements flourished. Most wealthy planters had houses in town as well as at their plantations. Popular belief that a Creole is a mixed Black/French person came from the "Haitian" connotation of an African French person. There were many immigrants from Haiti to New Orleans after the Revolution. Although a Black Creole is one type of Creole, it is not the only type, nor the original meaning of Creole. All of the respective cultures of the groups that settled in southern Louisiana have been combined to make one "New Orleans" culture. The creative combination of cultures from these groups, along with Native American culture, was called "Creole" Culture. It has continued as one of the dominant social, economic and political cultures of Louisiana, along with Cajun culture, well into the 20th century. Some Template:Ww believe it has finally been overtaken by the American mainstream. ^{[citation needed]}

Cajun Culture. The ancestors of Cajuns came from west central France to the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada, known as Acadia. When the British won the French and Indian War, the British forcibly separated families and evicted them because of their long-stated political neutrality. Most captured Acadians were placed in internment camps in England and the New England colonies for 10 to 30 years. Many of those who escaped the British remained in French Canada. Once freed by England, many scattered, some to France, Canada, Mexico, or the Falkland Islands. The majority found refuge in south Louisiana centered in the region around Lafayette and the LaFourche Bayou country. Until the 1970s, Cajuns were often considered lower-class citizens, with the term "Cajun" being derogatory. Once flush with oil and gas riches, Cajun culture, food, music and their infectious "joie de vivre" lifestyle quickly gained international acclaim.

A third distinct culture in Louisiana is that of the Isleños, who are descendants of Spanish Canary Islanders who migrated from the Canary Islands of Spain to Louisiana under the Spanish crown beginning in the mid-1770s. They settled in four main settlements, but many relocated to what is modern-day St. Bernard Parish, where the majority of the Isleño population is still concentrated. An annual festival called Fiesta celebrates the heritage of the Isleños. St Bernard Parish has an Isleños museum, cemetery and church, as well as many street names with Spanish words and Spanish surnames from this heritage. Isleño identity is an active concern in the New Orleans suburbs of St. Bernard Parish, LA. Some members of the Isleño community still speak Spanish - with their own Canary Islander accent. Numerous Isleño identity clubs and organizations, and many members of Isleños society keep contact with the Canary Islands of Spain.

Languages

Among the states, Louisiana has a unique culture, owing to its French and Spanish joint heritage, both begun long before the Louisiana Purchase and the Adams-Onís Treaty, respectively, which eventually led to the U.S.A. statehood of the territory. According to the statistics from the 2000 census for language spoken at home by persons five years old and over, 90.8% of Louisiana residents speak only English (99% total speak English) and 4.7% speak French (7% total speak French). Other minority languages are Spanish which is spoken by 2.5% of the population, Vietnamese by 0.6%, German by 0.2%, etc. Although the law recognizes the usage of English and French in certain circumstances, the Louisiana State Constitution does not declare any "de jure official language or languages". Currently, the "de facto administrative language" of the Louisiana State Government is English.

There are several unique dialects of French, Creole and English spoken in Louisiana. First, there are three unique dialects of the French language: Cajun French, Colonial French, and Napoleonic French. For the Creole language, there is Louisiana Creole French. There are also two unique dialects of the English language: Cajun English, a French-influenced variety of English, and what is informally known as Yat, which resembles the New York City dialect, particularly that of historical Brooklyn, as both accents were influenced by large communities of immigrant Irish and Italian, but the Yat dialect was also influenced by French and Spanish. The Yat dialect is the principal dialect of the Caucasians of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Blacks of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area speak with an accent that closely resembles other southern U.S. dialects of English.

Religion

The largest denominations by number of adherents in 2000 were the Roman Catholic Church with 1,382,603; Southern Baptist Convention with 768,587; and the United Methodist Church with 160,153;

Like other Southern states, the population of Louisiana is made up of numerous Protestant denominations, comprising 50 percent of those claiming a religion. They are concentrated in the northern and central parts of the state and in the northern tier of the Florida Parishes. Because of French and Spanish heritage, whose descendants are Cajun and Louisiana and French Creole, and later Irish, Italian, and German immigrants, there is also a large Roman Catholic population, particularly in the southern part of the state.

Since French Creoles were the first settlers, planters and leaders of the territory, they have traditionally been well represented in politics. For instance, most of the early governors were French Creole Catholics. Although nowadays constituting only a plurality but not a majority of Louisiana's population, Catholics have continued to be influential in state politics. As of 2008 both Senators and the Governor were Catholic. The high proportion and influence of the Catholic population makes Louisiana distinct among Southern states.

Current religious affiliations of the people of Louisiana:

• Christian: 80%
  • Protestant: 50%
    • Baptist (all "Baptist" groups): 38%
    • Methodist: 4%
    • Pentecostal: 2%
    • Other Protestant: 16%
  • Roman Catholic: 30%
  • Other Christian: 1%
• Other Religions: 10%
  • Islam: 1%
  • Judaism: 0.5%
• Non-religious: 10%

According to www.Adherents.com, a leading and respected worldwide web authority on religious affiliation, Roman Catholicism remains the largest single faith affiliation in Louisiana.

Major cities in Louisiana are also home to Jewish American communities, notably Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The most significant of these is the Jewish community of the New Orleans area, with a pre-Katrina population of about 12,000. The presence of a significant Jewish community well established by the early 20th century also made Louisiana unusual among Southern states, although South Carolina and Virginia also had influential populations in some of their major cities from the 18th and 19th centuries. Prominent Jews in Louisiana's political leadership have included Whig (later Democrat) Judah P. Benjamin (1811-1884), who represented Louisiana in the U.S. Senate prior to the American Civil War and then became the Confederate Secretary of State; Democrat Adolph Meyer (1842-1908), Confederate Army officer who represented the state in the U.S. House from 1891 until his death in 1908; and Republican Secretary of State Jay Dardenne (1954-).

Bibliography

• Yiannopoulos, A.N., The Civil Codes of Louisiana (reprinted from Civil Law System: Louisiana and Comparative law, A Coursebook: Texts, Cases and Materials, 3d Edition; similar to version in preface to Louisiana Civil Code, ed. by Yiannopoulos)
• Rodolfo Batiza, The Louisiana Civil Code of 1808: Its Actual Sources and Present Relevance, 46 TUL. L. REV. 4 (1971); Rodolfo Batiza, Sources of the Civil Code of 1808, Facts and Speculation: A Rejoinder, 46 TUL. L. REV. 628 (1972); Robert A. Pascal, Sources of the Digest of 1808: A Reply to Professor Batiza, 46 TUL. L. REV. 603 (1972); Joseph M. Sweeney, Tournament of Scholars Over the Sources of the Civil Code of 1808,46 TUL. L. REV. 585 (1972).
• The standard history of the state, though only through the Civil War, is Charles Gayarré's History of Louisiana (various editions, culminating in 1866, 4 vols., with a posthumous and further expanded edition in 1885).
• A number of accounts by 17th and 18th century French explorers, among whom the following at least should be cited: Jean-Bernard Bossu, François-Marie Perrin du Lac, Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix, Dumont (as published by Fr. Mascrier), Fr. Louis Hennepin, Lahontan, Louis Narcisse Baudry des Lozières, Jean-Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe, and Laval. In this group, the explorer Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz may be considered the first historian of Louisiana with his Histoire de la Louisiane (3 vols., Paris, 1758; 2 vols., London, 1763)
• François Xavier Martin's History of Louisiana (2 vols., New Orleans, 1827–1829, later ed. by J. F. Condon, continued to 1861, New Orleans, 1882) is the first scholarly treatment of the subject, along with François Barbé-Marbois' Histoire de la Louisiane et de la cession de colonie par la France aux Etats-Unis (Paris, 1829; in English, Philadelphia, 1830).
• Alcée Fortier's A History of Louisiana (N.Y., 4 vols., 1904) is the most recent of the large-scale scholarly histories of the state.
• The official works of Albert Phelps and Grace King should also be mentioned among the more important, as well as the publications of the Louisiana Historical Society and several works on the history of New Orleans (q.v.), among them those by Henry Rightor and John Smith Kendall.

External links

State Government

• Official State of Louisiana website
• Louisiana State Databases - Annotated list of searchable databases produced by Louisiana state agencies and compiled by the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association.
• Census Statistics on Louisiana

U.S. Government

• Energy Profile for Louisiana
• USDA Louisiana Statistical Facts
• USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Louisiana

News media

• The Times-Picayune major Louisiana newspaper
• WWL-TV Louisiana television station

Other

• Louisiana Geographic Information Center
• Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities

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