Quarter Miles Travel – Louisiana Purchase

Quarter Miles Travel features the Louisiana Purchase during Episode 6.  Louisiana’s state quarter features three significant symbols – wildlife, music and the Louisiana Purchase. With so much great history and information to cover, we are diving into this quarter in several episodes.  In our first Louisiana episode, we will focus on the representation of “the greatest real estate deal in history.” In 1803, Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte. This acquisition doubled the country’s size and made it one of the biggest nations in the world. But this wasn’t the beginning of Louisiana’s story.  The sugarcane industry fueled the wealth and value of the region along the Mississippi River; a large population of sugar plantations dotted the river banks, making the region one of extreme value, wealth and one of the most desirable places for financial growth and acquisition.  

With the rise of French and Spanish colonies starting in 1699, both free and enslaved West Africans along with Native American were used for many years to increase the wealth and value of the land in the region that would be part of the Louisiana purchase.

By the time of the Louisiana Purchase, those who identified as Creole had been living in Louisiana for generations. They had their own way of life entirely separate from that of the United States. Unified primarily by their use of the French language and practice of Roman Catholic faith, Creoles saw Americans as foreigners and the culture clash became increasingly evident as more Americans occupied Louisiana.

Listen to the podcast which describes the complexities of one family who symbolizes the era of sugar plantations, Creole culture and the struggles to maintain the family business from generation to generation.

Laura plantation home built in French style by enslaved persons from West African.

The Mississippi River was the main route for moving sugar to markets around the world..

An example of the acreage of sugarcane grown in the region.

For more information about the New Orleans Plantation Country visit their website:  www.neworelanscountry