1860- 1920
Section 1
BOURBON DEMOCRATS
 In 1877, after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the U.S. Army departed Louisiana and




the president and Congress no longer interfered with Louisiana’s government. (Ulysses
S. Grant ended his presidency in 1877 and Rutherford B. Hayes began his.)
This caused the Democrats to take over the government since the Republicans no
longer had Washington’s support.
Redeemer Democrats saw themselves as southern gentlemen while others called them
Bourbons which is a name meant to refer to Louis XIV, the most powerful Bourbon king
who said “I am the state.”
Louisiana Bourbons felt their background, education, and success meant they should
lead the government. There was no acceptance for change which included superiority
to the former slaves. They looked at the past but didn’t learn from it.
There were two types of Bourbons: those that believed those with wealth and power
should help those that don’t and others who wanted to keep their wealth with no
concern for the needy, AKA reactionary (strongly opposed progress). Reactionary
Bourbons did not want to pay taxes that would improve schools or other programs that
might improve the quality of life for other citizens.
DEMOCRATS IN POWER
 Since the Louisiana Bourbons simply built their power
within the already existing Democratic Party, the
Democratic Party became the party of whites in the
South.
 Blacks were threatened economically and physically so
their votes could be controlled. Sometimes votes were
actually ignored so Democrats would win elections.
When the Republicans lost power, the Returning Board
was no longer around to check the votes.
 Shown left, Francis T. Nicholls was the first Democratic
governor elected after Reconstruction in 1877. He was
a former Confederate officer and believed those in
power should work for the good of all and this caused
others to think he was too generous to the blacks. He
challenged the Bourbons for not paying taxes and
believed the corrupt Louisiana Lottery Company
should be shut down, but it was too powerful.
LOUISIANA LOTTERY
 In 1868, the state granted a 25-year charter (permission to operate) to the Louisiana Lottery Company.
 Private company set up to make money for the company instead of the state which only received a small
payment of about $40,000 (less than 1% of the company’s income) a year for the charity hospitals. (It
usually brought in more than $20 million a year and kept at least half as profit. At that period, the
average worker made $2 a day.)
 Two old Confederate generals supervised the drawings; however, advertisements announced that
honest “orphan boys” drew the winners.
 During Reconstruction, the company became very powerful and gained political influence over the
Republicans and later the Democrats by contributing large sums of money to elected officials. Others
called this money “bribes” rather than campaign contributions.
 The political control of the company became so powerful that a top lottery official, E. A. Burke, became
the state treasurer. He claimed to have been a former Confederate army major; however, critics claim he
was a Yankee spy, and he was sometimes called the “ultimate carpetbagger.” Burke used his political
position to further influence the state as the editor of the New Orleans Times which later merged with
another paper, increasing its political strength. He was later accused of stealing state funds and fled.
 Despite the company’s efforts to continue operating after the scandal, Governor Nicholls (who had
returned as governor in 1888), refused to budge on his negative feelings towards the company. The 1892
campaign for governor centered around the lottery and oppose Murphy J. Foster was elected.
 In 1893, the Louisiana Lottery ceased its operations in the state.
THE POPULISTS
 With changes in the economy, the farmers’ place in the
economy also changed. Rather than independent, selfsufficient farms that had always been, cotton became
the farmers’ main crop, and their economic future
depended on the crop lien system. The farmers would
borrow against next year’s crop to pay this year’s
expenses and this resulted in the farmers getting
caught in a credit cycle.
 In 1867, an organization called the National Grange
was founded to help farmers. (See the poster, “Gift for
the Grangers,” on the right depicting the contributions
farmers made to the nation’s welfare.) This organization
was never really strong in Louisiana, but other farm
organizations soon developed. The Farmer’s Alliances,
which started in Texas in 1876, gained members in
Louisiana. The Farmers’ Union was then set up in 1888.
In Caddo Parish alone, there were six chapters of the
Farmers’ Union.
THE POPULISTS (CONT’D)
 In 1891, a new political party formed as a result of the organizations of American
farmers. This was known as the People’s Party, whose members were called
Populists.
 “We believe that the powers of government should be expanded…to the end that
oppression, in justice, and poverty shall eventually cease in the land.” ---People’s
Party statement of beliefs
 Believed middlemen and manufacturers were taking too much of the farmers’ profit
 Wanted government to help the small farmers
 Promoted government ownership of the railroads so that transporting goods to
market would not be so expensive
 Wanted changes in money and banking
POLITICAL CARTOONS
FUSION
 With the formation of the Populists, political strength in




the state shifted.
Since President Cleveland (Democrat, shown right) did
not support a protective tariff on sugar, Populists began
supporting the Republicans.
John Pharr, a wealthy, Republican sugar planter, was
supported in the 1896 election for governor.
Republicans and Populists realized that they would
become stronger than Democratic Party if they joined
together (fusionists). This was called the fusion
movement. The goal was to end Democratic control in the
state.
The Democrats wants to re-elect Murphy J. Foster. Threats
and violence ensued throughout the campaign and
accusations of fraud followed the Democratic victory.
 Feeling threatened, the Bourbon Democrats wrote another new constitution to use
to maintain their control of the state, without bringing down federal disapproval.
 Though the new constitution was much like the previous one, the major addition
was the requirement that voters own property, be literate (able to read and write),
and pay a poll tax. These restrictions disfranchised (took the right to vote away
from) the freedmen.
 With these new restrictions, the Democrats didn’t want to lose white voters, so they
included a special section called the grandfather clause which stated, “No male
person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any date prior thereto entitled to
vote…shall be denied the right to register and vote in this state by reason of his
failing to possess the educational or property qualification prescribed by this
constitution.” (White males wouldn’t have to pass a literacy test or own property.)
 Freedmen didn’t receive the right to vote until 1868. There were over 130,000
African Americans registered to vote in LA in 1896, but by 1900, that number
decreased to 5,300. In 1904, there were only 1,300 registered black voters in the
state.
Section 2
SEGREGATION
 Segregation – public and social separation of whites and blacks
 Even after taking away blacks’ right to vote, Bourbon Democrats continued to strip away their
personal freedom
 Jim Crow laws – laws that restricted the personal freedom of blacks and demanded segregation:
separate restrooms, water fountains, railroad cars, waiting rooms, dining areas, and schools.
 Jim Crow laws found in every southern state and many other parts of the U.S.
 Facilities for blacks were separate by rarely equal to those for whites. Life remained this way until
the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
 Comite des Citoyens (French for “Committee of Citizens”) – Educated French Creole civil rights
organization – Member Homer Plessy challenged the law requiring blacks to ride in a separate
car on trains because he was arrested for riding in a white car (he was so light-skinned, the
conductor was none the wiser until Plessy told him)- Plessy sued as a result of violation of his 13th
and 14th Amendment rights – U.S. Supreme Court reviewed case and in 1896, favored LA law
(Plessy vs. Ferguson) – established the separate-but-equal concept in the U.S. from 1896-1954
VIOLENCE
 The attitude that created Jim Crow laws also generated violence.
 Vigilante – member of a self-appointed group that takes the law into their own
hands
 Lynching – mob murder, usually by hanging; lynch mob
 Elections brought violence
 Communities began to think they had the right to carry out their own justice
 Plans for some lynchings were reported in newspapers in advance
 White violence on blacks
 Black violence on whites
 Black violence on blacks
 Black and white violence on immigrants
CONVICT LEASE SYSTEM
 A state would lease (rent) convicts
from the state penitentiary for work
outside the prison
 Convicts were doing the dirtiest,
most dangerous work in the state –
building levees, roads, and railroads.
 Working and living conditions were
brutal for them. For example, a man
sentenced to life in prison was
usually dead within 7 years.
LABOR PROBLEMS
 Though slaves were freed after the war, once the army left, they were no longer protected.
 By 1879, thousands of black farm workers, called Exodusters, took part in an exodus to Kansas based on rumors that a
black man could start his own farm there.
 Planters were upset about losing their workers and threatened or even stopped the workers at the steamboat landings
to keep them from leaving.
 Kansas was not what those that made it imagined. Some even came back with the planters paying the return fare.
 Knights of Labor – early labor union – black sugar plantation workers joined
 Planters wanted to control workers and make more money, so they proposed lowering wages for the 1887 season after
a poor crop in 1886. Workers threatened to strike (refuse to work). This threat could’ve been bad since sugar cane crop
must be harvested in a timely manner or it would be lost.
 Many workers left for Thibodaux and when planters tried to bring them back, a riot started – shooting killed more than
30 workers and others wounded. The workers forced to return.
 Organizations were created to try to control workers (Lousiana Sugar Planter’s Alliance (1870s)/The Southern Lumber
Operators’ Association (1906))
 Worker organizations were formed also. For the timber workers, The Brotherhood of Timber Workers was formed in LA
in 1910. Two years later, it merged with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members were known as
“wobblies.”
 Two violent labor conflicts took place in 1911 and 1912 in the lumber towns of Graybow and Merryville in Beauregard
Parish. Workers were arrested and charged with conspiracy, but they were acquitted (found not guilty).
Section 3
AGRICULTURE
 Because of the many resources Louisiana had to offer, industry made its way to the
state.
 After the railroad was built, southwest Louisiana became the rice center of the state.
 Millions of acres of land were purchased by land companies such as the Watkins
Syndicate in Midwest. The company hired the head of Iowa’s Agricultural College
to bring farmers to Louisiana’s prairies. They were experienced wheat farmers and
applied those skills to growing rice. New scientific farming methods and new
machinery helped establish profitable farms.
 Economic growth led to 1884 Cotton Centennial in N.O. – exhibits from all over the
world came to Audubon Park
 Louisiana attempted to become part of the “New South” in its progress
LUMBER
 With its huge forests, LA attracted outside investors – RR ensured easier transport of lumber
 Lumber industry grew rapidly, especially between 1880 and 1920
 Yellow pine and cypress (cypress lumbermen called “swampers”) were harvested
 Some pine logs were 7 feet in diameter and some cypress were larger
 One of 1st major sawmills – Pharr and William’s Sawmill at Patterson in St. Mary Parish
 Great Southern Lumber Company (one of the largest mills in the world) was established around
Bogalusa in Washington Parish
 Wood used for RR ties and telephone poles
 Lumber workers made anywhere from $2.50 to $10.00 per week and were paid in scrip which were
paper certificates that were used in place of money and usually only good at the commissary store run
by the company.
 Dangerous work – missing fingers, arms, or feet – death by tree fall or slip of axe
 At the beginning of the lumber boom, 75% of LA was forrested; by the 1920s, much of those forests were
no more than stumps and the sawmill towns became ghost towns as workers moved on
 In 1901, the first successful oil well in the state was
drilled in Acadia Parish, and the first offshore oil
well was drilled in Caddo Lake in 1911.
 Boomtowns – Oil City – filled with oil workers –
reputed to be rough and wild – Oil City Hotel was
a tent but had good meals – general store served
as post office, billiard parlor, and meeting place –
RR and telegraph offices operated from freight
cars
 Land owners made money off the oil and others
sold supplies to companies
 1910 – Standard Oil Corporation completed (8-
inch) pipeline to Baton Rouge carried crude oil
from northwest to the refinery which produced
more than 7,000 barrels of oil a day
 Natural gas was found while drilling for oil and
after its worth was discovered, they began
sending it through pipelines to use as fuel for
lighting – one of largest natural gas fields near
Monroe in 1916
 Sulphur deposits – mineral mined
before oil – 1st sulphur deposits found
in 1869 in Calcasieu Parish but
commercial mining didn’t begin until a
technique to mine the sulphur was
developed (see image)
 By 1914, Calcasieu was providing 75%
of nation’s sulphur – town of Sulphur
grew around this mine but was
exhausted by 1920
 Salt had been discovered and used
before Civil War but commercial
mining at Avery Island in Iberia Parish
didn’t begin until 1879. By early 20th
century, LA produced much of the salt
used in the U.S.
TRANSPORTATION
 Roads were difficult to navigate at times which would effect the agricultural and industrial progress
 Shed Road – a covered road built from Bossier Parish to Webster Parish – less than 10 miles long – built
of heart pine planks – 18 ft wide and high enough for a wagon with three bales of cotton to pass under –
was profitable (by charging toll) until RR came through
 RR construction in LA took place between 1880 and 1910 (Kansas City Southern RR – 1890s) Other RR
were constructed all over the state.
 1873 – engineer James Eads created a system of jetties to deepen the mouth of the Mississippi River
 N.O. showcased the automobile – there was a race in 1909 and world record of 60 mph was set – By 1916,
more than 9,000 automobiles were in LA thanks to Henry Ford’s mass production that reduced the price
of cars (Model T - $300-$500) Many people used a new credit method which included making monthly
payments (installment plan)
 N.O. had horse-drawn street cars at the beginning of this era; Shreveport had electric streetcars (trolley
cars) by 1889
 By 1893, the N.O. and Carrollton RR operated electric streetcars which later became St. Charles Streetcar
and is still operating today.
 Growth in industry means growth in towns (lumber towns) Fisher in DeSoto Parish
is preserved like a museum while others disappeared completely
 RR expansion also brought new towns (Ruston)
 If RR bypassed a town, the town did not typically live much longer
 1880s – 1st telephones to LA – one resident though they were a fad that would die out yet
in 20 years, there were “talking telegraphs” (telephones) throughout the state
 It was in N.O. that kerosene lamps were replaced by gaslights. Kerosene burned with a
smoky light and had to be cleaned regularly whereas gaslights were clean and bright.
Electric lights came to N.O. in 1887 and by 1900 the entire city was lighted by
electricity. By 1916, electric lights had replaced gaslights in the state’s cities and towns.
In small towns, electricity was only turned on at night. Rural LA didn’t receive electricity
until the late 1930s.
 RR made mail service more dependable. Special delivery was added in 1885. Mail was
delivered to homes on the rural free delivery (RFD) routes rather than rural residents
having to go to town to get their mail. The first mail delivery vehicles were horses and
wagons. The Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogs were important deliveries since
they offered almost any needed item at a price working people could afford.
Section 4
The goal of improving the quality of life for all Americans was part of this movement.
Progressive thinkers had faith in the idea of progress, the belief that humans keep improving their society to make it
better and better.
3 ways to reform society: 1) wanted government to fight poverty and improve living conditions of its citizens, 2) break up
large corporations and regulate business, and 3) wanted voters to have more influence in government
1886- laws were passed regulating the hours that women and children could work and more child labor laws were passed
as concern increased.
W.W. Heard, the first governor of the new century, ended the convict lease system. And the next governor, Newton
Blanchard, separated juvenile lawbreakers from adult criminals by building a reform school in Monroe.
Blanchard also supported a new law allowing local school boards to borrow money by selling investment bonds. This
allowed over 200 new schools to be built. The number of high schools increased from 26 to 53. He improved the overall
quality of education.
When Luther Hall was governor, the state started a worker’s compensation program (a government insurance program for
those killed or injured on the job).