Louisiana Purchase

[FrodeauxB at aol.com]

First of all, if you want to cry for a minority who may have been adversely 
effected by the expansion of the US into the Louisiana Territory, do it for 
the native, truly only the first human, inhabitants of the area. Only 
Louisiana, Missouri and Arkansas were slave states. Remember bloody Kansas? 
White folks fighting each other over slave or free. As for the slaves in 
Louisiana under the French and Spanish codes, those laws remained on the 
books. Frank Tannenbaum in Slave and Citizen discusses the basic differences 
between the Latin (French & Spanish) and common law (English) slave codes. In 
the former, the slave was treated fundamentally as a human temporarily at a 
corporeal disadvantage. In God's eyes, he was equal to the master. In common 
law, the slave was a chattel, a piece of property, not human in any respect. 
After Louisiana entered the Union in 1812, the common law gradually intruded 
into the Civil Code, initially in the slave code. By the time of the War 
Between the States, the law was slave code was almost all common law.
In The Peculiar Institution, Kenneth Stampp points out that the harshest work 
done by slaves was on the sugar cane plantations of south Louisiana, if for 
no other reason than the oppressive heat and humility. He also notes that the 
greatest literacy rate and the most manumissions (the legal process by which 
slaves were freed) were in Louisiana because the Code Noir allowed owners to 
educate their slaves and made manumission easier, unlike the common law which 
had evolved in the United States so as to outlaw education for slaves and 
made manumission difficult and eventually impossible.
As for the free Negroes and mixed race peoples in Louisiana, mainly New 
Orleans, they were two distinct communities. The Negroes were freed slaves 
for the most part, although there were Africans and mixed race peoples from 
outside of the US who had never been slaves who migrated to NO because of its 
pivotal geographic/economic position as a gateway to the world and especially 
South America by virtue of its location at the lower end of the Mississippi, 
the real reason Jefferson wanted the territory to begin with. He wanted only 
NO, but Napoleon said all or nothing. 
The mixed race people, well, read Absalom, Absalom. They still survive and 
thrive today, calling them selves Creoles-French for native made; i.e., only 
in Louisiana. They do not consider themselves either black or white, and have 
maintained their separate racial status by their choice. I was born and 
reared in the City of New Orleans. I went to segregated Roman Catholic 
schools with Creoles. I assure you, they are their own people, proud of their 
unique culture, product of French and Spanish settlers and their former 
slaves, born free for the most part. They are business people, professionals, 
artists, authors, bankers, community leaders and the last three mayors of New 
Orleans. They are rightfully proud of what they have built and maintained. 
You should meet these good folk, as much a treasure of our culture as the 
Cajuns. 
Anyway, this is way off on a digression. Sure, there were bad things that 
happened when the West was settled. I don't believe one should dwell on the 
past. Recognize the wrongs and work to correct them. Also, recognize the 
rights and celebrate them. We spend too much time and resources fixing the 
blame instead of fixing the problem. Hey, TRP, if you're listening, how 'bout 
the next one being Lewis-Clark. But, I digress...
frodeauxb, still trying to figure out who knows what evil or good lurks in 
the hearts of these higher primates of all colors