Louisiana celebrates 200 years of statehood today

When officials from the United States arrived in newly acquired Louisiana in 1804 to consider the area for statehood, they found a bewildering landscape vastly different from the New England countryside that gave birth to the nation just a few decades earlier. The federal group found a population made up almost entirely of French speakers, a third of whom were free people of color. The delegation was perplexed, said Connie Zeanah Atkinson, professor of U.S. history at the University of New Orleans. “There was a feeling that citizens must speak English,” Atkinson says. “And they did not know what to do with such a large population of free people of color.” In 1804, the area had only 35,932 known residents. Statehood required 60,000. Eight years later, on the eve of the War of 1812, the population had grown and Louisiana became a state. It celebrates its bicentennial today. The 200th anniversary of statehood will be celebrated with a series of events around the state, including concerts, music festivals and fireworks. On Monday, a joint session of the state Legislature will mark the anniversary with music from Cajun and New Orleans musicians: Zachary Richard, Deacon John, Jay Chevalier and Irma Thomas, among other artists from the state. Under the Louisiana Purchase, negotiated with the French Emperor Napoleon in 1803, all citizens of France in the territory were to retain the rights and privileges they enjoyed before the purchase. For the free area’s blacks, who had migrated in large numbers from the Caribbean, that agreement meant they had equal rights with whites. In the other 17 U.S. states, free blacks often didn’t enjoy such equality with whites. The Associated Press has the full story here.