How Louisiana teaches students about the Civil War

[Damocles]

This oversimplified and racialized view of Louisiana in the Civil War also ignores the truth of its complicated legacy. It’s important to note that prior to the civil war, New Orleans was a very wealthy city, with strong export markets for its goods, a thriving if nascent skilled professional class, and control over the extensive Mississippi River basin.

Louisiana, like many other confederate states, was not uniformly in favor of slavery, or of secession. There was furious debate, even among the creoles, whether it was healthy for the state’s economy to be dependent on exporting slave agricultural products, or whether tying the state’s wealth up in plantation slavery was a good idea.

Louisiana at that time was much unlike other southern states in that it was also home to a small, but thriving mixed race community, owing to the legacy of plaçage from French colonialism. There simply weren’t enough marriageable women from France who could bear children, so the next best option was mixed-race marriages between French men and Black women.

Funnily enough, it would be these mixed-race men and women from Louisiana who would go on to form the core of the Black middle class in the twentieth century, and provide the intellectual and political leadership to resist and ultimately overcome racial segregation.

[Damocles]

The South should have remained occupied until black equality was assured. Furthermore, every slave owner and Confederate military or government leader should have been executed for high treason. Had this been done, Jim Crow never would have happened and the Deep South wouldn't be the cesspool it is today.

“The picture painted of your involvement in this illegal rebellion against the United States is a depressing one. No other person has ever led such a concerted effort to compromise the territorial integrity of the United States, attack its institutions, and undermine the rule of law. This court has heard all about how you sought diplomatic recognition for your treason, and it is a well-known fact that your movement attempted to solicit financial, economic, political, and military support from the European great powers. Your name besmirches the very founding ideals of this country and rejects the Enlightenment, in favor of an economy predicated on subjugating free men, who are endowed by their creator with personality and consciousness.

Mister Jefferson Davis, before this court renders its verdict regarding your treason, are there any final remarks you wish to say?”