St. John The Baptist Parish, Louisiana - History

History

St. John the Baptist Parish was the second permanent settlement in Louisiana and considered part of the German Coast http://www.gachgs.com/. The parish was established in the early 1720s by a group of German colonists. Many families established towns around the Mississippi River in the areas now known as Lucy, Garyville, and Reserve. The area was under the French regime until 1768, when France ceded Louisiana to the Spanish after the Seven Years' War.

Around this time period, many Acadians, people of French descent, began arriving in south Louisiana due to being expelled by the British from what is now Nova Scotia, when the British were victorious in the Seven Years' War and took over French territory in Canada. The first Acadian village was established in what is now Wallace. The German and French cultures thrived alongside one another, but French came to be the dominant language. They developed a culture known as Creole.

The early settlers in the area received land grants from the Spanish or French governments, depending upon which country owned the territory at the time of application. These grants generally included some narrow frontage on the river for access to transportation of goods to and from New Orleans and world markets. The remaining property extended away from the river deeply into the wetlands. This was a French style of property allotment.

Most transportation was done by boat, mainly on the bayous and lakes, but the Mississippi River as well, for decades into the 19th century. St. John, with its fertile land being nine feet above sea level, proved to be an excellent settlement for farming and agriculture. In the late 18th century, planters began to invest more in labor-intensive sugar cane cultivation and processing, increasing their demand for slave labor. Sugar production meant prosperity for the planters and New Orleans.

With the sugar wealth, some wealthy planters built elaborate houses and outbuildings. Three survive in St. John parish; each is recognized for its national architectural and historic significance. On the west bank are the major complex of house and outbuildings designated Whitney Plantation Historic District and the National Historic Landmark (NHL) of Evergreen Plantation. San Francisco Plantation House, also a designated NHL, is on the east bank. San Francisco and Evergreen plantations are open to the public for tours. The Whitney plantation house is planned for renovation. Whitney and Evergreen plantations are both included among the first 26 sites on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.

In January 1811, the German Coast Uprising started in this parish. It was the largest slave insurrection in US history, but it was short-lived. The slaves killed two whites, but suffered 96 deaths among their forces at the hands of the militia and quick trials afterward. They attacked five plantations and burned three houses to the ground. Charles Deslondes, a mulatto slave from Haiti, was one of the leaders of the insurrection. He and his followers were influenced by the ideals and promises of the French and Haitian revolutions. He gathered more than 200 slaves from plantations along the way, marching into St. Charles Parish toward New Orleans before meeting much resistance. Unable to get the arms they had planned on, the slaves were defeated by well-armed informal and territorial militias. During these confrontations and executions after brief trials, Deslondes and ninety-five slaves were killed. Decades before the American Civil War and emancipation, their actions expressed the people's deep desire for freedom.

As the families of the settlement grew, their need for education for their children grew also. Before the Civil War, typically planters would hire tutors, often college graduates from the North, who would live with the family for an extended period of time, typically two years. The tutor would teach all of the planter's children, and sometimes the family would arrange for neighborhood children to join the classes as well. In 1869, following the Civil War, families wanting French instruction founded private schools to continue their culture. This was when the Reconstruction legislature established public schools for the first time in the state. The first high schools at Edgard and Reserve were built in 1909. Children traveled to the schools by horse-drawn buses or by train.