New Orleans' nation-shaping role as a major American port of immigration.

Over the past five centuries, more than fifty million persons have traveled to the present United States, a human migration of unprecedented scale. The Statue of Liberty in New York harbor has served to focus national attention upon New York's role as North America's leading port of entry for immigrants seeking a better life in this country. While New York's image as the "golden door" is amply justified, it has served to obscure the role of other United States ports in attracting "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." This is particularly true of New Orleans, which has traditionally been been one of America's leading ports of entry.

New Orleans was not always a beacon to the modern world's migrating masses; for decades following its establishment in 1718, the Crescent City's unenviable reputation for its insalubrious climate and living conditions. By 1812, New Orleans had become the economic gateway to the Mississippi Valley, and the city's new identity as a commercial center soon overshadowed its former negative identity. New Orleans's role as a beacon of hope to immigrants rose and fell with its economic fortunes, and, for much of the antebellum period, the booming Crescent City was the nation's second-leading port of entry. Though the volume of immigrants entering declined after the onset of the Civil War, New Orleans remained a major American port of entry.

Between 1718 and 1996, successive waves of French, African, German, Acadian, Spanish, Anglo-American, West Indian, African American, Irish, Chinese, Italian, Sicilian, Jewish, Lebanese, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian immigrants have entered the Mississippi Valley by way of the Crescent City. While being transformed in Louisiana's distinctive melting pot, each of these cultural and racial groups has contributed significantly to Louisiana's intricate multicultural mosaic. The mechanics of assimilation, described in the work's concluding essay, have long been at work in the Pelican State, producing, in the process, the nation's most diverse rural population.

The Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series in Louisiana History, Volume X.

CONTENTS

PART I: IMMIGRATION UNDER THE FRENCH REGIME, 1699-1763

La Délaissée: Louisiana During the Reign of Louis XIV, 1699-1715
by Carl A. Brasseaux

Emigration and Colonial Society
by Marcel Giraud

The Germans in Louisiana in the Eighteenth Century
by René Le Conte

Senegambia During the French Slave Trade
by Gwendolyn Midio Hall

Completing the Triangle
by Robert Louis Stein

Death and Revolt
by Gwendolyn Midio Hall

Opelousas and the Alabama Immigrants
by Carl A. Brasseaux

PART II: SPANISH IMMIGRATION, 1763-1803

Acadia From 1604 to 1763: An Historical Synthesis
by Jean Daigle

The Acadian Migrations
by Robert G. LeBlanc

Allons À La Louisiane: Acadian Immigration, 1765-1769
by Carl A. Brasseaux

The Britain Incident, 1769-1770
by Carl A. Brasseaux and Richard E. Chandler

The St. Gabriel Acadians: The First Five Months
by Richard E. Chandler

England and France
by Carl A. Brasseaux

The Seven Acadian Expeditions to Louisiana
by Oscar W. Winzerling

Spain's Immigration Policy and Efforts in Louisiana
During the American Revolution
by Gilbert C. Din

Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Bouligny and the Malagueno Settlement
at New Iberia, 1779
by Gilbert C. Din

The Canary Islander Settlements of Spanish Louisiana: An Overview
by Gilbert C. Din

Friend or Foe? Religious Exiles at the Opelousas Post in the American Revolution
by Glenn R. Conrad

Some Observations on Anglo-Saxon Settlers in Colonial Attakapas
by Glenn R. Conrad

An Enduring Community: Anglo-American Settlers at Colonial Natchez and in the Felicianas, 1774-1810
by Light Townsend Cummins

PART III: LOUISIANA'S GOLDEN AGE OF IMMIGRATION, 1803-1861

The People of New Orleans
by Charles L. Dufour

The 1809 Immigration of Saint-Domingue Refugees to New Orleans:
Reception, Integration and Impact
by Paul F. Lachance

The Impact of the Immigrants on New Orleans
by Fredrick Mar Spletstoser

French Immigration, 1820-1839
by Carl A. Brasseaux

The Enduring French Contribution to Louisiana Culture
by Richard Bienvenu

The Old Irish, 1803-1830
by Earl F. Niehaus

The New Irish, 1830-1862
by Earl F. Niehaus

The German People of New Orleans, 1850-1900
by John F. Nau

Jewish Life in New Orleans, 1718-1860
by Samuel Proctor

New Orleans Uptown Jewish Immigrants: The Community of Congregation Gates of Prayer, 1850-1860
by Bobbie Malone

The Northern-born Community of New Orleans in the 1850
by William W. Chenault and Robert C. Reinders

The Dalmation Yugoslavs in Louisiana
by Frank M. Lovrich

Anglo-Americans in Antebellum Attakapas and Opelousas
by Dolores Egger Labbé

The Origin of the Pioneer Population of North Central Louisiana Hill Count
by Robert 0. Trout

The Slave Trade in Louisiana
by Joe Gray Taylor

PART IV: LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY IMMIGRATION, 1866-1900

Louisiana's Public and Private Immigration Endeavors, 1866-1893
by E. Russ Williams, Jr.

The Louisiana Immigration Movement, 1891-1907: An Analysis of Efforts, Attitudes, and Opportunities
by Charles Shanabruch

Importation of Chinese and European Laborers, 1869-1874
by J. Carlyle Sitterson

Entry of Chinese to the Lower South From 1865 to 1870: Policy Dilemmas
by Luch M. Cohen

'A Most Favorable Location': Northern Migration and Settlement in Southwest Louisiana, 1880-1900
by Rocky Sexton

The Germans of Acadia Parish by Reinhart Kondert

Louisiana's Italian Immigrants Prior to 1870
by Russell M. Magnaghi

Sicilian Immigration into Louisiana
by Ethelyn Orso

Community Life in the Italian Colonies of
Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, 1890-1950
by John V. Baiamonte, Jr.

PART V: IMMIGRATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Roots of the Cedar: The Lebanese Heritage in Louisiana
by Yvonne Nassar Saloom and I. Bruce Turner

Arpadhon: Hungarian Immigration and Settlement
by Victoria Ann Mocsary

Versailles: A Vietnamese Enclave in New Orleans, Louisiana
by Christopher A. Airriess and David L. Clawson

Southeast Asians in Louisiana
by Carl L. Bankston III

Race, Religion, and Nationality in American Society: A Model of
Ethnicity�From Contact to Assimilation
by Elliott R. Barkan

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