The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1873-04-02

. the Attakapas section contain a
population Of 47,188 inhabitants,
as follows:
st. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Io,SoV
Xxx
= st. Martin. ~"
NCrlnlllOn. 80
Lafayette L''"N
Total .........a........'''' 4.,IH9
st. Landry >'''4o
inhabitants, making a total off,. 1874
people in the Attakapas and Ope-
Iousas section, which is the very
garden spot of the world. or this
number, 35,872 are whites, and
3G,8G2 are blacks, divided as fol-
lows: st. Mary, 1902 whites, 9,C55
blacks Iberia, 1880 whites, 4,5l2
blacks: st. Martin, 4,2S2 whites,
J,088 blacks; VermiIion, $3.50
whites, 1913 blacks; Lafayette,
1929 whites, 1850 blacks; st. Ian
dry, 1910 whites, 12,7G7 blacks.
Thus it will be seen that only III St.
Mary parish is there a majority Of
colored people.
THE FIRST SETTLERS.
This country was first settled by
Spaniards, when Louisiana was a
Spanish colony, and the population
was largely added to-, subsequent
ly, by the immigration here of
Frenchmen, and their descendants,
from Acadia, or New Brunswick,
while Louisiana Was under the do
mini0n OF France.
INDUSTRIAL HABITS.
Many of these people were eI-
ceedIngIy thrifty, and large for
tunes were accumulated .by some
of the most prudent but nature
was so b~ountiful tnat it obviated
the necessity OF great exertion to
make a livelihood, and the chill
dren of these hardy and e~nterpris-
ing pioneers did not equal their
fathers in either thrift or industry,
and hence the country has not i'm
proved as rapidly as it would have
done under less favorable circum
stances, in a more severe climate.
PREPoNDERANCE OF CREoLEs.
Fully t~hree-fourths of the white
population of the Attakapas and
OpeIousas country, to-day, are de-
.scended directly from these origin
al Spanish and French pioneers.
Notwithstanding the fact that our
section has always received a fair
proportion of the immigration to
Louisiana of people from other
States and nationalities, yet the
rapid natural increase of the Creole :
population has always kept them /
in the ascendancy, numerically. =
NoT RESPECTED.
During the period when slave J
labor was principally employed
throughout the State, free labor
was not properly respected and as 7
the large bulk Of the Creole popu- F
lation we're unable to purchase {
they depended more upon J
stock-raising for a support than up -
on their own labor, which too many :
did not consider becoming a white v
man. p
A WONDERFUL CHANGE. r
Since the war, q wonderful E
has taken place, in that re- J.
3pect. White men who labor in D D
he field being everywhere respect Z
ID, the Creole population have =,
shown themselves possessed of an j
Energy which few believed them 81
possessed of, and without any con L,
siderable immigration to Il sec Fl
ion, the country is being rapidly Jo
developed and brought under cul- Be-
walton by them. In our cotton Ell
districts, the colored people also M n
york we'll, and produce a large A.
mount of that staple. Pi
THE WEALTH OF THE LAND.
In other States, when young
1en reach majority, they seek new
ONES in other lands. In Louisi- ,
ma it is not SO. The Creole sci
Dung men generally choose wives all
'om those of their class, purchase Eat
piece of land in the neighborhood A
r improve portions of the old ing
omesteads which have been given mil
lem by their fathers, and in that 2 $
the population of our country MOI
rapidly increasing. Thus are of !
tanned the young men, the real dry
ealth of the land. ess
RAPID GROWTH. of
To illustrate the rapidity of the qua
'owth of our section, from this ,ba
ltural increase, we will mention of S
at when, seven years ago, we hall 69
st visited the portion of our par pro.
I known as the Cote Gel6e prai-
:, the population were few and I
r between: but to-day it is thick vas.
dotted with the residences of T.
rifty farmers, whose homes are tioi,
lde happy by the smiles of frugal with
d industrious wives and the that
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