Emergence of the Crealoe Ethicity 1740 to 1790 in Plaquemines Parish
Written by: William Richard Stringfield
Submitted by: Darnell Marie Brunner Beck

Copyrighted material from Mr Stringfiled's book "Le Pays des Fluers Oranges"

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The later years of the French Colony saw quite a few soldier retire 
here with wives. THe colony also began to feel the effects of wars 
that the European powers contunied to urge. The Seven Years War 
{1756-1763} at Europeans called it was the French and Indian War 
to the American Colonists. The end results were as followed: Acadia 
was depopulated of the Franch Catholic citizens. Many were scattered 
amoung the American English Colonies before resettling them in France 
between 1766 and 1770. By 1780 many were emigrating from France to 
Louisiana, now a Spanish colony, although still French speaking at 
heart. In 1785 almost all who desired to return to America were on 
ships bound for the new Acadian homelands in Louisiana. The late 1770's 
also brought a surge of Spaniards, as the new rulers desired to have 
some of their own settlers, so eventually the language might prevail. 
In St. Bernard they were Isleno or Canary Islander. Some marry by the 
late 1800's also, and on or two earlier.


British Colonists not satisfied with the new arrangments they helped  
create, wanted another shift of power in the 1770's. A funnny situation 
occured. Spain was fighting the British in Baton Rouge by the 1780's and 
eventually won the settled lands back which were once lost by Francein 
Louisiana to England. In the meantime, several english families moved 
there, hoping to escape the self-rule of the former British colonies.


Once spain became the dominant force in Louisiana, the colony began to 
prosper. the Lower Coast was the source of myrtle was and indigo, with 
a few rice farmers from the early years, along witha thriving timber 
trade. By the later Spanish period, sugar began to be the major crop 
from about Pointe a la Hache upwards. Rice was the major crop below, 
and in all areas, some orcharding was begun, although no single fruit 
crop was established yet.


Fishing and hunting were the major sources of food other than what was 
able to be grown in vegatable plots. While no major commercial fisheries 
were yet tpped from the waters of Plaquemines, the lower coasts were 
beginning to boast of bountifull harvests of fish and game in their proper
seassons, well before the spanish period. One item of note: a British 
Journal was published in 1762, before Louisiana was lost ot anyone and a 
had few Acadians, spoke of crawfish ponds of a few hundred to about a 
thousand square feet near every well established family, in the country
side of Louisiana.