Louisiana becomes American 1785-1825, Genration II-III 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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As the Creole families were gaining an upper hand their settlements against 
the elements, more people were finding out about the area. Because of the 
River, New Orleans had grown to become a major seaport. Plaquemines being 
the gateway to New Orleans, and much of the more than one hundred miles many
ships used to arrive here by the River, soon had a pilot station, and was 
the home of many pilots. Several newer families of the late 1700's were 
pilots and the Balize became a prosperous community by standards of that 
time. Pilots and maintenance of the passes will eventually become an 
important industry in Plaquemines as New Orleans grows and demands of the 
"Gates."


The Creole planters were faced with a different prospect. While the docks 
of New Orleans were deing jammed with Ohio River products, something was 
needed for export from the Colony is Spain were to feel satisfied. Rice was 
all that was tried in the Lower End, even after several farmers beegan to 
afford slaves, but the larger, landowners, who then had twenty or more 
slaves and servants, grew sugar cane, especially after de BORE succeeded in 
sugar crystallization around 1795. Sugar mills soon dotted the river, as 
nearly every plantation of twenty arpents frontage had one, well into the 
1900's. Both crops were somewhat labor-intensive, and slave labor helped. 
Rice was only seasonal, and the summer and winter were times when the land 
just asked for food gathering.


The rice attracted geese and other waterfowl, although the Delta was one of 
their favorite wintering grounds anyway. Enough small game was here to make 
a nice living from fur slaves, and the seafood was all year, with only a 
little variance in the types available. Before refrigeration, methods of 
preserving relied primarily on salted, dried food, or on pickling and 
"par-boilig" methods. As certain seafoods were not good candidates for such 
methods of preserving, they were only eaten fresh, by the locals, and were 
not destined for seafood restaurants right away.


plaquemines fell in the midst of the area where England sought to capture 
New orleans {asit lay downriver} during the War of 1812 {late 1814, January
1815, here though} Fort St. Phillip was bombarded for three days in December
1814, before the british realized their only 'Safe' invasion route lay 
through the marshes and swamps of St. Bernard up the bayous that fed into 
Lake Borgne. Several of the men in these families volunteered into service 
because of the local militia, and most were listed in the Third Regiment of
the First Division of the Louisiana Militia, under the command of De la 
RONDE. Some thirty or more were from Plaquemines in that one regiment. Many 
were probably teenagers, 16 to 20, while the few were about forty or older.