(Flags of secession 1861)
Despite the idealistic principles of Freedom, Liberty, and Justice for
all--and the equality of all men as espoused by the framers of the
Declaration of Independence: the political considerations, personal
prejudices, racism, power plays, and the economic realities of the
existing structure of slavery in several states remained a blot on the
American experiment.
The dispute over slave vs. free states started as early as the 1800s, and intensified in the 1820s, 30s and 40s. During the 1850s the controversy over slavery raged even hotter despite several attempts at compromise. Tempers in Congress and in conversation flared to the breaking point. With the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860, the legislatures of several Southern states voted to secede and become free and independent states, sovereign in their own right. The Federal government declared them in rebellion and mounted armies to invade the South to force them back into the Union.
By a vote of 113 to 17 in special convention, Louisiana seceded from the Union in March, 1861. Reflecting the Unionist sympathies of St. Tammany Parish, convention representatives of St. Tammany voted against secession.
Louisiana adopted its own flag of six white, four blue, and three red stripes with a yellow star on a red field before joining with her sister states in the Confederate State of America.
States Rights,
Civil Rights,
Governors:
Huey P. Long,
Earl Long,
Dick Lesch,
Edwin Edwards vs. David Duke.
(The links on this page are not yet operative, but are being researched and assembled and added as information is available. Thanks for your patience.)
The dispute over slave vs. free states started as early as the 1800s, and intensified in the 1820s, 30s and 40s. During the 1850s the controversy over slavery raged even hotter despite several attempts at compromise. Tempers in Congress and in conversation flared to the breaking point. With the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860, the legislatures of several Southern states voted to secede and become free and independent states, sovereign in their own right. The Federal government declared them in rebellion and mounted armies to invade the South to force them back into the Union.
By a vote of 113 to 17 in special convention, Louisiana seceded from the Union in March, 1861. Reflecting the Unionist sympathies of St. Tammany Parish, convention representatives of St. Tammany voted against secession.
Louisiana adopted its own flag of six white, four blue, and three red stripes with a yellow star on a red field before joining with her sister states in the Confederate State of America.
The War.
The Union, recognizing that the key to its Anaconda
plan was the capture of the City of New Orleans, and thus control of the entire
Mississippi River, sent a fleet under Admiral David Farragut who
captured the city in May, 1862. This doomed the Confederacy, although bloody battles raged
for another three years before the final capitulation of the
last Confederate forces. This war accounted for 630,000 American lives lost.
Reconstruction
Its economy devastated, its legislature in
the hands of radical Republicans, its spirit broken and humiliated, under Federal military occupation
for sixteen years; the area was slow to recover. Much of the
sectional and racial animosity persisted for generations. Secret insurgent organizations
like the KKK terrorized the hapless former slaves, while the Freedman's Bureau did their best to help them.
Segregation, political manipulation, and corruption became the norm in
Louisiana through much of the 20th century. States Rights,
Civil Rights,
Governors:
Huey P. Long,
Earl Long,
Dick Lesch,
Edwin Edwards vs. David Duke.
(The links on this page are not yet operative, but are being researched and assembled and added as information is available. Thanks for your patience.)
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