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  #  Entered Union  Year Settled 18th      April 3, 1812     1699  Nickname Pelican State  Rank     Population 25th      4,410,796  Rank     Square Miles 31st       51,840  State Bird  State Flower Louisiana Iris (state wildflower)  State Tree  State Motto Union, justice, and confidence Deo gratiam habeamus Let us be grateful to God  Situated in the Deep South, Louisiana, the "Pelican State," has a colorful history and was named in honor of King Louis XIV. A strong French influence is still evident throughout the state--its capital city is named Baton Rouge, French for "red stick," because the French-Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville visited the area in 1699 and observed a red cypress post. Today the city of New Orleans is known for its Mardi Gras and jazz festivals.  In an effort to respond to the demands of diversity as well as to the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Louisianans revised and passed new constitutions 10 times between 1812 and 1921. On December 8, 1879, Louisiana ratified a new state constitution, and at the same time, moved the state capitol from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.  Louisiana has a rich history with many different cultures playing a part. Do you know who some of those people were?  Before Europeans settled in Louisiana, Native Americans had lived there for 16,000 years. Although the Spanish were the first Europeans to discover Louisiana, the French were the first to colonize the territory. French Canadians from the colony of Acadia sought refuge in Louisiana during the 1750s and 1760s after being driven out of Canada by the British.  The Acadians' descendants, the "Cajuns," culturally dominate much of southern Louisiana. Today, New Orleans is a "melting pot" of French, Spanish, and African cultures, and hosts the colorful Mardi Gras festival each year.  In the 1800s, in the United States, pioneers and homesteaders eagerly moved west to start a new life in the plains, hills and mountains west of the Mississippi River. This movement could not have happened without the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, approved by the Senate on October 20, 1803, by a vote of 24-to-7. The agreement, which provided for the purchase of the western half of the Mississippi River basin from France at a price of less than 3 cents per acre, doubled the size of the country.  The United States started negotiating the purchase with France in 1802. President Thomas Jefferson feared that Spain, which had controlled the strategic port of New Orleans since 1762, might give it back to France.  Were New Orleans under the control of military dictator Napoleon Bonaparte, Jefferson feared that American settlers living in the Mississippi valley would lose free access to the port. After months of inaction, Napoleon offered to sell the territory to the U.S. in 1803; he needed the money.  Faced with a shortage of cash, a recent military defeat, and the threat of a war with Great Britain and the United States over the territory in question, Napoleon decided to cut his losses. U.S. minister to France Robert Livingston, and James Monroe made the arrangements for the purchase. The land stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.  Twelve days after the signing of the treaty, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out to explore and map the new area. Settlers, who had had been pushing westward since the United States' victory in the Revolutionary War, would now have a vast new expanse of land to homestead.  War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans Andrew Jackson is the only president who served in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The War of 1812 gave him the national recognition he would later need to win the presidency.  After winning a major battle in this war, Jackson was promoted to major general in the U.S. Army, with command of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The British were headed toward Louisiana in late 1814, and Jackson was anxious to avenge his Revolutionary War experience. What do you think he did?  In the late summer of 1814, Jackson moved his army south and attacked the British in Mobile, Alabama. He then set his sights on the British at the Spanish post of Pensacola, Florida. In November, he won that battle too. The British sailed on to New Orleans. In December, the persistent Jackson followed, leading a small advance party of his troops to New Orleans. What made Jackson's army so unusual?  Jackson's army was mostly a bunch of inexperienced volunteers. They were free blacks, Tennessee and Kentucky riflemen and Louisiana militia. He even recruited some pirates! Despite the fact that Jackson's volunteer troops were outnumbered two to one by the British professionals, they prevailed. How do you think they won the very important Battle of New Orleans?  For several days, Jackson's men held their ground in a long earthen barrier they had made. On January 8, 1815, the British rushed the Americans and were cut down in great numbers by rifle and cannon fire. The Americans suffered only a handful of deaths. Overnight, Jackson was transformed into a national icon and hero, which would later help him win the presidency.  Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River, New Orleans, often referred to as the Creole city, has been a center for American creativity. The birthplace of jazz, New Orleans has produced famed musical artists, including Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Mahalia Jackson.  The New Orleans Jazz Festival is an annual event, drawing musicians and tourists from all over the world. Writer Truman Capote was born in New Orleans, and the city is also the setting for Tennessee Williams's famous play, A Streetcar Named Desire.  Mardi Gras Season in New Orleans Do you celebrate Fat Tuesday? If you live in New Orleans, Louisiana, or any place else along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, you probably do.  Every year, the people of New Orleans celebrate Mardi Gras, which is French for "Fat Tuesday." This holiday is the day before Ash Wednesday, and it begins a season of fasting, called Lent, for many Christians leading up to Easter Sunday. It's called Fat Tuesday because it's the last day that many people eat meat and fatty foods before Lent begins.  Today, Mardi Gras season in New Orleans is a time of merry-making and festivity. Many clubs in the city, called krewes (pronounced "crews"), sponsor extravagant parades and masked balls in the weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday. It's a lot of fun to try to catch the trinkets that are thrown to the crowds from the parade floats. Every krewe has a king and queen, whose identities are kept secret until the night of the ball. It's all part of the fun and mystery of Mardi Gras  Indians in Louisiana: The Poverty Point Site Why would anyone build mounds of earth 7 miles long?  In the case of Poverty Point, in northeastern Louisiana, no one knows for sure. In some states, like Ohio, Native American people built mounds as burial places. Archaeologists suspect that the mounds at Poverty Point served as sites for dwellings, but they are not certain. Native American culture in the Poverty Point area began almost 4,000 years ago, and the mounds were built between 1350 and 1800 B.C.  The mounds are six giant half-circles in the shape of a bull's-eye, almost three-fourths of a mile wide. If you straightened out the six mounds and laid them out end-to-end, they would stretch for 7 miles. Archaeologists believe the 37-acre central plaza formed by the mounds may have been used for religious and other public ceremonies.  Although archaeologists have not found any articles of clothing from these ancient people, they have found jewelry. The great variety of this jewelry, from simple to elaborate, indicates that social status was important in the Poverty Point community. Overall, Poverty Point presents evidence that ancient Americans lived in sophisticated communities. Even so, this does not help to solve the mystery of exactly what these mounds were. Do you have any other ideas?  |
