The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1880-10-30
Written for the Leader:l
SELF-EDUCATION
OF the Slaves of Louisiana.
In Three Parts-By Paul CASTOR, A. NJ.
PART /: INTRODUCTION.

sODer IediltieSf OF IIutn NlCn LDe cnlVdlrlC
ages. The chivalry of France, Spain, and
Portugal watched over the birth of this
serene tropical province with unfeigned so.
licitude Kings and Statesmen fostered its
infantile growth and the treasures!of "Louis
lie Grand" we've lavishly expended to secure
its successful development. Every effort
which wealth. power, or personal influence
could exert, was indefatigably employed to
render this fertile colony one of the most
favored in the western empire.
Three hundred years and over have
elapsed since its mighty forests, its endless
swamps and its majestic rivers were crossed
by De Soto, and his little band of heroic ad-
venturers, who, returning after fruitless
search for gold, worn out by toll, disappoint-
ment and chagrin, found last resting place
beneath the tumultuous waves of the "Fath-
er of Waters" which they were the first to
discover.
A century and half later, other adven-
turous spirits attempted the exploration and
settlement Cf the Province The Jesuits of
France had already penetrated to Lake
Superior, whence, descending Southwark,
they made the voyage of the mighty river,
and mapped out the country from the falls
of St. Anthony to the Mexican Gulf.
Nearly two hundred years ago, Pere Mar
quette and, his inseparable companion, Pere
Joliet became the first thorough explorers of
the Mississippi. Seven years later Robert
Chevaher de La Sale and the brave Chev-
alier de Tonti descended to its mouth; re-
turned TO France and related its grandeur
and fertility to their magnanimous sover.
eign, Louis NV.
Following these heralds of distant and
almost limited empire, came the ven.urous
Iberville, the warlike Bienville, and the holy
father Anastasse, who became the pioneers
of the first settlement in the colony, and the
last spring of the seventeenth century be-
held their first rude hamlet on the shores of
Biloxi Bay"
Prosperity, however, refused to smile upon
this enterprise. The settlers, accustomed to
the bracing air of Canada and the milder
breezes of France were unequal to the effects
of the scorchlng sun and contagious diseases
of this semi-tropcal cline. Sickness aEd
death invaded their ranks, and consigned
| many of their comrades to premature graves;
| and only few years after these events
| l170S) the colonists, in consequence of the
inability of Europeans to endure the eli
mate, began to discuss the feasibility of in
Producing slave labor to develop the vast
resources of the colony. The curse had al
ready been introduced and found profitable
in the West Indies. and was, therefore, re-
garded as essential to the prosperity and
perpetuity of the province.
Indians we're at first seized and compelled
to undergo the unremunerated toll, but the
| difficulty Of domesticating and combining
| ho 81 IL
| time and inc'irred so great ali expense, that
the planters abandoned the enterprise and
turned their eyes to the swarming shores of
| Africa, as the nursery which was in the
| future, to stock their priEcely domains.
For century and half since that event
| ful period, an "irrepressible conflict" has
been waged between freedom and slavery,
| and until the rebelliOus bombardmeut OF
| ''Sumpter," slavery seemed the victorl
Ii many of the English settlements on
| the Atlantic coast, even as late as the Amer
lean Revolution, loud and repeated remon-
strances were made to the mother country
against the introdution of African slavery
into the colonial population. But in the
early history of Louisiana, we find no seri-
Gus opposition was ever made to the employ
ment of slaves, or any apprehension in
dulged of future evils resulting from their
presence.
The early Governors welcomed slavery
as the only means of producing permanent
prosperity. The monarchs of France and
Spain regarded ii as proper element of in
dustry and legitimate source of revenue, and
hence the slave-trade with its hideous moral
deformities, became, In their estimation, al
once humane, beneicient ndcivilizing in
stitution, and because they thus regarded it
should be perpetuated to the latest posterity
not, of course, for the aggrandisement oftht
colonists, but for the enlig gntment Of" africa.
heathen sons"
In pursuance of this benefcent idea, wher
the entire control of the Colony of Louis
lana was, in l7l2, entrusted to Antoine
Crozat, slavery had already been introduced
and he was, by royal decree, authorized tt
perpetuate it, by sending ship, once every
year, to Africa for slaves to supply the plan
tations, and from that period to the promul
cation of the edict of emancipation in 1856;
-one hundred and fifty years-slave labo
had been fostered by Legislative enactment
and Judicial decisions, and as a consequence
stuck it's envenomed roots firmly and deel
into the social system.
1t should not, therefore, seem strange t.
the reflective mind that its eradication
even at this late day, appears so extremel,
difficult.
From Crozat the Colony passed into tn
hands of the "India Company" whose &C
of incorporation required that the demant
for labor should be supplied by the importa
ton of three thousand slaves, annually, from
Africa.
The "Black Code" or "Code Noir," frs
established by Bienville. has ever been tn
"model' for all subsequent legislation on tn
subject of slavery in Louisiana. When tn
Colony was first taken possession of by Spain
in 1859, the laws of the "Code Noir" wer
retained with such notifications as al
Siete Partidas" deemed best for the consoli
dation of its pet institution.
4 This system of laws, first enacted in A. L
1868, has ever since been the Blackstone
of Spain, in all her Colonies and prevaile
in Cuba until the late notifications of tn
of slavery. Although founded on the Roma
= civil law, it Is acknowledged to be the bes
digested system of laws on the continent o
Europe, and is still the authority in Ameri
can Colonies, settled by Spaniards. In thi
system the subject of slavery is minutel
defined, and is evidently based on the "Cod
Justinian."
The early settlers of the Colony of Louis
ana, were mostly descendants of the "Lati
, races" A few Germans inhabited the pal
, ishes of st. Jean Baptiste, st. James an
Lafourche, but these have lost all trace {
their former language and nationality. U
to the beginning of the 18th century, tn
Colony, with this exception, was people
| CHIEFLY from the shores of the Mediterranea