Beyond The Shadows
Exploring the Peoples, Places, & Histories that have Shaped The Shadows-on-the-Teche
Introduction
Constructed in 1834 as a blend between the Classical Revival style and the Louisiana Colonial floorplan, the Shadows-on-the-Teche was an urban plantation complex built by Africans and African Americans who were enslaved by the Weeks family. As a property and site, The Shadows deeply reflects the lives of the enslaved people who lived and labored at this site, at Grand Côte, and at Bayou Sara.
The stories of The Shadows echo the larger histories of the Teche Country as the crossroads of colonialism, chattel enslavement, diasporic migrations, and resilience that have shaped the various identities, cultures, and experiences of the peoples of this region.
The peoples, places, and histories found reflects more than three-centuries of experiences beyond The Shadows and the surrounding communities. Through the usage of books, maps, family trees, artifacts, community stories, and primary sources, the intentions of Beyond The Shadows are to expand and compliment details before, during, or after touring The Shadows-on-the-Teche.
Interim Land Acknowledgment
The land on which The Shadows-on-the-Teche sits is part of the traditional homeland of the Atakapas-Ishak as well as the Sovereign Nation of the Chitimacha. We pay respects to the ancestors of the past, communities of today, and future generations.
As a site of enslavement, we further acknowledge the peoples of West & West-Central African descent who were enslaved, lived, and labored at this site, at Grand Côte, and Bayou Sara. We pay respects to them, ancestors of the past, and their descendants of today and future.
Their stories are our stories; Their experiences are our experiences.
By offering this interim land acknowledgment, The Shadows-on-the-Teche is committed to the process of inclusive truth-telling and accountability with the descendent community. We acknowledge the work ahead in this process through pursuing representation, justice, and equity.
Explore
To explore Beyond The Shadows, it is best to use the guider as one walk through the histories beyond The Shadows either before, after, or even during a tour to understand the wider picture of The Shadows and the surrounding communities.
- Interactive Maps – Use the interactive maps to understand a sense of place and time as you reflect and learn about the several centuries of history in the region and the over 180-years of The Shadows.
- Discover Histories – Learn more about the history about the people and events at The Shadows, Grand Côte, Bayou Sara, and the wider communities.
Migration
Stretching 125 miles, the waters and floodplains of the Bayou Teche have long reflected the unique environment found in south Louisiana. More than 3,000 years ago, the Teche was a main course for the Mississippi River, and today the waters connect several historic towns creating a cultural lifeline.
Whether by canoe, steamboat, or pirogue, for around 13,500 years, the Bayou Teche has served as a natural highway connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the region’s fertile floodplains. In early 4000 BCE, Plaquemine peoples settled the area, constructed religious and cultural sites, and joined networks of trade. (Rees & Saunders, 2020)
Archaeological excavation from the 1970s at The Shadows records shards of pottery and indicates people from the early Mississippian period cultures like the Plaquemine people populated the present-day site.
By the 1700s, the upper Bayou Teche was a part of the vast lands settled by the Atakapas-Ishak. At the same time, the Chitimacha built settlements along the lower Teche towards the Atchafalaya River delta. (Bernard, 2016)
The Teche Country – Known by many names, the Teche Country reflects the diverse peoples who called this place home. The colonial and early American heritages of the Teche Country included peoples from the Indigenous nations, enslaved peoples from West and Central Africa, and colonial settlers from Europe and other parts of the Atlantic. Moving down the lower Mississippi in the late 1700s, small groups of Anglo-Americans migrated to the region, aiming to expand west.
Note: This map used locations described in Teche: A History of Louisiana's Most Famous Bayou by Shane K. Bernard.
Use the Map to Lean More about Migration.
In America,... the great houses followed the great crops. Supporting it all, a living foundation, like a great column of blood, was the labor of slaves.
(William Weeks Hall to Henry Miller, The Air Conditioned Nightmare, 1945)
Slavery & Louisiana
The practice of slavery is ancient and global, but the form of slavery that enslaved sub-Saharan Africans throughout the Atlantic World was different. Known as chattel slavery, this form of slavery is the practice, system, and condition of forcibly enslaving and transporting people and their offspring as property that could be bought or sold for forced labor. With global participants and ideologies, this form of slavery connects with the histories of colonialism, wealth, and the creation of race. According to the United Nations, this inhumane practice is considered today a crime against humanity.
A century after introducing chattel slavery in the British Atlantic, the first ship carrying enslaved West Africans to French Louisiana arrived in 1719. Trying to replicate the forced-labor-based economies of the Caribbean, the French wanted to develop forced-labor-complexes to change the tide on the unprofitable colony known as La Louisiane. This connection linked profit to enslaved labor, stolen land, and capital and the need to supply commercial & domestic demands through the expansion of the system. To regulate both slavery and race relations, the French established a version of the Caribbean Code Noir to Louisiana in 1724. (Rodrigue, 2020)
While they were reduced to work and property by traffickers and enslavers, the people who were held in bondage retained in their lives and identities the technologies, histories, kinship, values, and traditions rooted in the various regions and ethnic groups of West and West-Central Africa.
Movable Property
On tightly-packed ships from the West African coast and ports from the Atlantic or by being trudged down the Mississippi River Valley in chained groups, the fate of Africans and African Americans forcibly arriving in Louisiana was met through the experience of the markets, auctions, and holding pens of the state’s trafficking industry. At the core was the city of New Orleans, the nation’s largest hub for the industrialized scale of trafficking human lives.
By 1808, the Congress of the United States prohibited importing enslaved people from West, West-Central, Southeast Africa into the Republic. This action was due to fear of African-led insurrection, the end of British involvement, and the rise of a “self-sustaining” population of enslaved chattel. It also marked the mass-industrialization of the second middle passage through the trafficking of enslaved men, women, and children from the Upper South down to the Lower South to sustain the production and processing of commodities that flowed to northern industries and create wealth and buy power. (Kaye, 2009)
Enslaved people from New Orleans and other centers were purchased as movable property and transferred to urban areas and mainly to rural forced-labor complexes or plantations. Those held in bondage were reduced to labor and property to use their knowledge as field workers, craftspersons, nurses, midwives, ranchers, laborers, cooks, and caretakers.
Slavery in Louisiana underwent many lives as a Spanish colony, as an American territory, to become a slave state. In this context and economy, a brutal system of enslavement developed and lasted until 1865 being similarly replaced during Reconstruction.
I present you six of 14 bales of cotton received from Bayou Sara[h] and Sold for your account...
(J. Linton to David Weeks, 1834)
Bayou Sara (c.1790s) – The cotton that passed through the looms of textile mills to become high fashion, become one of the most exported commodities, and for the United States led to new global influences, was planted, picked, and processed by enslaved workers in the American South.
The growing of cotton was a labor-intensive process. Enslaved men, women, and children plowed fields, sown seeds, picked pounds of cotton from the fields, and separated seeds from the cotton fiber to produce a bale. After the invention of the cotton gin, King Cotton required more land and enslaved labor, becoming a lucrative empire of capital and expansion through stolen lands.
The map shows the junction of the Bayou Sara and Jones Branch. The area in blue shows the possible location for the cotton plantations on the Bayou's banks. This map was created using the Pintado Papers, Mss. 890, 1223 (LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, La.)
At Bayou Sara (near present-day St. Francisville) in Spanish Louisiana, Anglo-American migrants William and Rachael Weeks funded forced-labor complexes or plantations to grow cotton through chattel slavery. By 1819, over 3,000 arpents (2,534 acres) of land were used to support the plantation complex at Bayou Sara. The generational wealth at Bayou Sara built by enslaved workers afforded the enslaving family to purchase 2,000 acres in south Louisiana and fund Grand Côte in the 1820s.
I think I stated to you in the note by Henry that there were 404 hogsheds (25,000 gal)... I have delivered to Mr. Thruston 9,883 gallons molasses for the amount to his bill $1,591.06
(T. Haley to Mary C. Weeks, 1841)
Grand Côte (c.1814) – Known as “white gold,” the luxury commodity of sugar that changed the world, demanded more land, capital, and enslaved labor. The same cane that circulated the globe as molasses, sugar, and rum made European empires wealthy by developing a brutal form of chattel slavery to produce and extract the lucrative crop.
At Grand Côte or Weeks Island, David (son of William and Rachel Weeks) and his wife Mary Conrad funded a remote plantation complex enslaving over 160 men, women, and children to cultivate sugarcane and produce raw sugar and molasses.
In southern Louisiana, the subtropical climate and weather like large rain events, freezes, and pests created an ever-dangerous environment even more difficult. The growing of sugarcane and the production of raw cane sugar was an intensive, brutal, time-consuming, and often deadly environment with a typical 16-hour workday.
Sugarcane plantations were year-round processes as fields were prepared and planted beginning in January. By the Spring, enslaved workers moved to digging and repairing ditches, hoeing fields, and planting crops like peas or potatoes. Summer centered on preparing the complex for the fall harvest and processing.
Because of the intense environment needed to produce both the crop and raw sugar, sugar plantation complexes were notorious for low life expectancy, disease, and malnutrition among the enslaved community. Post-Civil War image depicting freedpeople on Weeks Island. Credit: Cultural Resources at The Shadows
Once harvested, enslaved people moved the sugarcane to the Island’s sugar mill to produce raw sugar and molasses. Sugar mills were a hazardous and exhaustive environment that operated 24-hours. Labor at the sugar mill involved the chopping of wood to fuel the mill’s fires, the extraction of the juices of the stalk through steam-powered machines, and the boiling of the juices in open kettles over large fires.
Grand Côte/Weeks Island
Known today as Weeks Island, Grand Côte as a sugar plantation looked very different from the salt mine that now operates.
The Sugar Mill
at Grand Côte
The Quarters
at Grand Côte
The House
at Grand Côte
The map shows both the original 1825 landholdings and the additional landholdings purchased. The red rectangle shows the possible area where several wooden cabins once stood. The white square along the Bayou Teche is the 2 1/2 acres of land The Shadows sits on today. This map was created using documentation from The Shadows-on-the-Teche.
The Shadows
154-Acres-on-the-Teche – Similar to Bayou Sara’s wealth originating from the enslaved labor of men, women, and children, Grand Côte’s wealth afforded the Weeks the ability to purchase 154 acres on the Bayou Teche to build the "New Town house" near the town of New Iberia. Construction of The Shadows began in 1831 and lasted until 1834. Dying in 1834, David Weeks left both the properties to be ran by Mary Conrad Weeks.
As an urban plantation complex, enslaved workers at The Shadows grew and harvested sweet potatoes, cabbage, turnips, and corn to support both plantations. They managed the house, gardens, and fields through varying roles and tasks. Due to their nearness to the enslaving family, the over 24 people enslaved at The Shadows, including Louisa and her children, Charity and her daughters, and Amos & Patty, and their children lived under a "culture of surveillance."
Image of the brick cabins and other outbuildings on the property. Credit: Cultural Resources at The Shadows
The two plantation complexes were closely tied as the work and labor at The Shadows followed the annual cycle of growing, harvesting, and producing sugar at Grand Côte. For various reasons due to seasonal needs, the enslaved people were moved throughout the sites.
Both plantations are but two examples of the countless other sites of enslavement known and forgotten along the Bayou Teche and nearby waterways. Please note that this is an unfinished map.
My pa named Dennis Joe and ma named Sabry Joe, and they were born and raised on Weeks Island, in Louisiana. After they old massa die, they [di]'vided up and falls to Massa Charlie Weeks, and that where I born, in Iberia on Bayou Teche.
(Susan Smith, Texas Ex-Slave Narrative)
The Enslaved Community
Community & Culture – Against their lives being viewed as chattel, Africans and African Americans' inner lives and experiences enslaved at the Shadows, Grand Côte, and other sites of enslavement reflect strong bonds of community and family. The use of “kinship” or “family” recognizes and expands to include a shared lineage of closeness, relationship, and experience through an array of defining relations. These family structures vary and are based on these experiences of people living in the system of enslavement where “family” can denote kinship, safety, love, violence, longing, remembrance, compulsory, and/or difference.
The Africans and African Americans at these sites shared a variety of backgrounds and reflected a diverse community. Their experiences, memories, and cultures reflect the intertwining of the various ethnicities from West & West-Central Africa that was violently born through the "Middle Passage." Many were from the Upper South and spoke English, while others were from different parts of southern Louisiana and might have spoken or understood an Afro-Latin or "creole" language.
Religiously, their experiences speak of the rich religious traditions of West & West-Central Africa that crossed the Atlantic. From practicing Black forms of Christianity and continuing the religious traditions of West & West-Central Africa like Voudou, Islam, and other faiths, the spirituality of those enslaved reflects their own and ancestral beliefs and experiences.
The countless letters, inventories, and other documents from The Shadow’s archive include details about the enslaved people at the two complexes. Details like kinship, age, classification, and names provide one with minimal but incredibly significant details about the lives of the enslaved people. Yet, remain silent on lives of the enslaved people outside of their labor. One of these details found in these records is knowing the names of enslaved people.
Knowing the names of the people enslaved by the Weeks reminds one to not view them as property, but as people that were enslaved. The following names speak of the countless others known and unknown, traceable and untraceable, honored and at times forgotten.
Their memories and stories are integral to understanding beyond The Shadows.
Bayou Sara
Catherine • Matte • Henry • Sam Boy • Caesar • Hector • Dick • Leah Savage • Hana • Mahalia • James • Bristo • Rachal • Southey • Jim • Harry • Ebben/Ehilm • Congo Cate • Milly • Orante • Cudge • Aimy • Ann Marie Curtis • Edward Wilson • Mary Ann • William • Wellington
Grand Côte & The Shadows
Peter Congo • Casey • George Mulatto • Jenny • Amanda • George • Abraham • Lewis • Martin • Isaac • Nancy • Bridget • Suddy • Nelly • Martha • Rose • Sally • Moses • Abraham • Viney • Henry • Katy • Amalo • Hamilton • Lucy • Susan • Daniel • Sally Ward Levi • Rachel • Dennis • George • Somersett • Peggy • Minerva • Spencer • Minty • Eliza • Ian • Child of Peggy • Jake Highland • Nancy • Child of Nancy • Sissy • Phillis • Littleton • Mathilda • Anna • Edmund • Priscilla • Miah • Mary • David • Peggy • Esther • Aaron • Letty • Hannah • Mahala • Theorick • Maria • Charity • Leven • Judy • Carter • Rachel • Grace • Pamela • Leah • Israel • Shepherd • Rebecca • Stephen • Sarah • Sterling • Sam • Charlotte • Bob • Hannah • Old Stephen • Milly • Mathilda • Cintia • Violet • Milly • Stephen • Orange • Hetty • Jenny Bang • Henry • Alleck • Selina • John • Washington • William • Clara • Johnson • Child of Clara • John Little • Ephraim • Phibi • Sangry • Amy • Abraham • Little Seven • Sam Rock • Bristoe • Lotty • Sidney • Joshua • Fanny • Little Sam • George Martha • John Paine • Little Isaac • Betsy • Little Aimy • Dick Towles • Dick Crocker • Tamer • Lizy • Cyrus • David Blue • Sampson • Candis • Jim • John O’Conner • Harry • Hector • Elija • Dick Kelly • Frederick • Linzy • Sarah • Margaret • Alfred • Netty • Elsy • Arnold • Frank • Martha • Manuel • Sarah • Charlotte • Thereza • David • Isaac • Louisa • Caroline • Perry • Nathan • Little Issac • Riley • Granville • Ann • Child of Louisa • Patty • Amos • Philippe • Henry • Caleb • Susan • Dennis • Israel • Zederick • Spencer • Levi • Caleb • Henry • Arnold • Aaron • Bob • Daniel Blue • George Sally • Jake • Dave • Denard • Joshua • Virgil • Miah • Aimy • William • Nilly • Harry • Mihaly • Sissy • Zebedy • Tamen • Pamelia • Hanna • Nimrod • Sarah • Margaret • Helen • Caroline • Jane • Rose • Nathan • Lidy • William • Vina • Caroline • John • Rilda • Alfred • Anna • Baker • Milly • Hetty • Martha • Betty • Sally • Amanda • Sylvia • Mary Ann • Sina • Prissy • Silly • Edward • Shanton • Tally • Kay • Preson • Brigit • Nancy • Isaac • Patsy • Louisa • Sophia • Mary • Phoebe • Willis • Elsy • Serena • Ketty • Katy • Charlotte • Henry • Isiah • Ritty • Henny • Jenny Bang • Welington • Maria • Peter • Ketty • Netty • Abram • Letty • Lotty • Elgy • Lotty • Peggy • Creasy • Mary • Leah • Angela • Peggy • Creasy • Mathilda • Peggy • Eliza • Minthy • Mathilda • Dianah • Rachel • Cinithia • Rebecca • Lucy • Celina • Ann • Jane • Peggy • Clara • Susane • Vera • Shedrick • Kerry • Child of Betsey • Sally • Child of Sally • Preston • Child of Ester • Marcellus • Maria • Isabel • Daniel • Milton • Charles • Sidney • Matilda • Grace • Pamela • Lucinda • Harry • John O’Connor
These names listed above reflect the lives of those enslaved at these plantation complexes and offer a glimpse of their identity and kinship. It speaks of the many experiences and realities of the people who were enslaved.
From Louisa, a mother to twelve children and the life partner of Isaac, pondering the lives of her children at Grand Côte. To Frederick and Peter Congo, who tirelessly worked in the sugar mill as sugar boilers and engineers. From Amos, who after his life partner’s, Patty, death became their three surviving children sole parent. To Thereze, whose heritage reflected being both Black and Native. From those who worried about the lives of their children and their safety working in the fields. To Aimey, keeping and practicing her Islamic faith and elders like Frank and Martha, who spent their entire lives living under a system yet managed to find each other.
The enslaved people were life partners, parents and grandparents, children and parents, and siblings and extended families. In their cabins, they lived, raised families and communities, and shared meals, played games, told stories, and shared dreams with one another.
The over 200 names are ancestors looking for their descendants & The Shadows is committed to preserving these stories and African American genealogy. If you or someone you know is connected to a name or any of these sites as a descendant, please contact The Shadows at Shadows@ShadowsOnTheTeche.org.
Linzy has taken to the woods with his wife and child. He is well armed. He has the little double barreled gun and his butcher's knife. So much for letting the most trusty have fire arms...
(John Merriman to F. D. Richardson, 1840)
Resistance
Like other sites of enslavement, resistance at the two plantation complexes took many forms. From the preservation of family-bonds and community to the retention of traditions to living, the resistance of Africans and people of African descent who were enslaved across the Atlantic world shows their own realities and experiences.
The remote environment and dense swamps of Grand Côte gave additional cover for some to try to become free on their own terms. In the 1835 inventory, among the names of the 200 enslaved people at both Grand Côte and the Shadows: Elija (age 30), Dick Kelly (age 28), and Frederick (age 16) were described as being “runaways” or have been self-emancipated. Other freedom seekers like Charlotte or Linzy & Sarah, and their daughter Margaret, also self-emancipated themselves by possibly fleeing the plantation complex to maroon communities in Cypremort.
Resistance could also be seen in Hector, described as being with a “disagreeable attitude,” hiding weapons and plotting to self-emancipate himself and possibly Viney, his sister, from the Island.
Conspiracies in the Teche Country – During the time the Shadows and Grand Côte operated as plantation complexes, there were two documented plots of enslaved people planning to uprise in the area. The first occurred in Lafayette Parish in 1840 and a second plot was planned in 1861 St. Martin Parish. Use the map to learn more about the Conspiracies.
Other forms of resistance could be seen at the urban plantation complex. when making clothes for the enslaved people, Charity, a seamstress and gardener, chose not to use a pattern and relied on her skills. In a letter, William F. Weeks wrote that one of the vest did not fit the individual and called the material “wasted.”
Made a pretty mess of [her work], cutting the jackets without a pattern.
(William F Weeks, 1855)
Still resistance could take the form of being absent from work due to illness. At The Shadows, records indicate that disease was prevalent, especially during the harvesting of sugarcane. If enslaved people were sick or ill or claim illness, they could be removed from intensive labor in the fields or the sugar mill. In this, enslaved people who were sick could temporarily "rest" and briefly separate themselves from the unforgiving labor.
I scarcely know what to say about my sick ones. The majority of them are well and gone to work—Vina is better, and I think convalescent—but Moses, Sissy and Abe are still pretty sick,
(William F. Weeks to Mary C. Weeks Moore)
The resistance at the two plantation complexes understood that punishment would be their price for resisting if caught. This “price” ranged from being denied rest or travel, sold away, or sent to the “ball & chain” in New Orleans, public beatings, and death. Hector was sent away. Charity was punished for “wasting material.” Linzy was seized and “returned” to work at Grand Côte.
A newspaper article documents the self-emancipation of Lucinda, an woman enslaved by Alfred C. Weeks (David & Mary's son). Image: Louisiana Runaway Slave Advertisements, 1836-1865, Louisiana Digital Library, Baton Rouge, La.
I begin to feel sorry for Lid. The iron is rather tight on her neck...I should be glad if you let the iron be taken off Lid's neck...She was a good girl before that villain came here...
(Rachel O'Connor to David Weeks, 1834)
The Enslaving Family
Louisiana contained both urban slave societies and rural plantation complexes. From the enslaver and trafficker to the banker who financed to the shopkeeper that sold dry goods and the small farmers producing supplies, participation occurred on many levels. In contrast to Catholic enslavers in the Teche Region, who were primarily white creoles (French, Spanish, and/or Acadian), the Weeks were part of the Anglo-Protestant enslavers who began migrating to the region in the late 1700s.
Long before The Shadows, several Anglo-American families led by Richard and Rev. Samuel Swayze migrated to present-day Adams County, Mississippi, in the 1770s. Called the “Jersey settlers,” these colonial settlers moved into the region after the French & Indian War opened the lower Mississippi to English-speaking Protestants. Among these colonial settlers was English-born William Weeks, who once settled married the widow Rachel Swayze (ne Hopkins). Together they had three children: Caleb, Pamela, and David.
Living in Natchez, William Weeks "purchased" an enslaved woman named Catherine and her child. Catherine and her child were the earliest known persons enslaved by the Weeks, eventually leading to the cotton complex on the banks of the Bayou Sara.
By an enslaved woman named Ann Marie Curtis, William Weeks had four children: Edward Wilson, Mary Ann, William, and Wellington. The relationship between Ann Maria Curtis and her enslaver William Weeks reveals the dynamic of power found at sites of enslavement and the realities of countless enslaved African American women who were regarding as objects of possession & could not legally refuses unwanted advances.
After purchasing 2,000 acres at Grand Côte, Williams Weeks transferred ownership to his son David in 1814. In 1817, David purchased from his father 50 enslaved people to begin clearing and planting at Grand Côte. David died in 1834 before The Shadows was completed leaving both plantation complexes to be run by his wife, Mary Conrad Weeks until their sons came of age.
As enslavers, the Weeks held power to recognize and separate families, traffic and buy, deny rest and ration, punish and use, commodify and exploit, and control labor and lives. They employed overseers, who by extension held similar power. By the start of the Civil War, the Weeks family lived among a Black majority by enslaving over 200 men, women, and children through the use of violence and force.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
(13th Amendment, Section 1|The Constitution of the United States)
The Legacy of Slavery
With the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865 after the Civil War, the practice of chattel slavery was abolished in the United States. Yet, the decades after 1865 display the different meanings of “emancipation” as centuries-old systems continued. Freedom for African Americans living in emancipation meant living under racial segregation and violence as second-class citizens with rights and opportunities varying between states and localities.
After the Civil War, the immediate legacy of slavery can be seen in the creation of laws that regulated Black emancipation & participation and through practices like sharecropping, low-wage-labor contracts, and convict leasing. It can also be seen in the allowing of racial violence against African Americans and entire Black communities, and the wealth & power built over decades stemming from participating in this system.
From municipal zoning to public memory to disparities, over a century after the passage of the 13th Amendment, slavery’s legacy in the United States remains a lingering presence in institutions, policies, standards, and practices.
Iberia Emancipation Trail
Emancipation as an action describes the liberation of African Americans through slavery's abolishment. As an era, the term connects and spans the different lives and experiences of the freedpeople and their descendants through the extensive histories of Reconstruction, Reconstruction's Aftermath, 20th Century, and into today's time and world. In this understanding, emancipation is not a singular experience and covers Black life and history circa 1865.
From the early one-room schoolhouse to the story of Dr. Emma Wakefield-Paillet to the freetowns established after the Civil War, the lives of African Americans in Iberia Parish during emancipation speak of defining freedom, identity, & community and those attempts to control or deny these meanings.
Use the Iberia Emancipation Trail to learn more about the descendant community and African Americans in Iberia Parish from the Civil War to the 1960s. Please also note, the Iberia Emancipation Trail provides an overview of historical context and does not exclusively include exact locations.
The Iberia Emancipation Trail was composed of primary and secondary sources that discussed life in New Iberia and Iberia Parish for African Americans after the Civil War. These sources are the use of newspaper articles published in the Daily [& Weekly] Iberian (New Iberia, LA), The Louisiana Sugar-Bowl (New Iberia, LA), The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, LA), The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), and other 19th century newspapers through Newspaper.com and Chronicling America. The Iberia Emancipation Trail also used locations described in 20th Century Sanborn Fire Insurance maps accessed through the Library of Congress.
The community stories and essays shared through the Journal of the Iberia African American Historical Society, the Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, New Iberia: Essays on the Town and Its People, Sherry T. Broussard's African Americans in Lafayette and Southwest Louisiana, and those shared over decades in news outlets of KATC and KLFY.
Credit & (Re)Sources
Thank you to decades of research and cultural resources at The Shadows-on-the-Teche, Special Collections at Louisiana State University, and Louisiana Digital Library for documenting the various stories and experiences at the site. Special thanks to Pat Kahle, Kenetha Harrington, Phebe A. Hayes & the Iberia African American Historical Society, Jayd Buteaux, and Elon Cook Lee for their work, research, and advice.
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