The Road to Louisiana: The Saint-Domigue Refugees, 1792-1809

The Road to Louisiana: The Saint-Domigue Refugees, 1792-1809 Edited and annotated by Carl A. Brasseaux and Glenn R. Conrad with translations by David Cheramie This anthology constitutes the first attempt to fill comprehensively one of the most enduring lacunae in Louisiana historiography—the French-Antillian migration to the lower Mississippi Valley. Generations of Louisiana historians have neglected this influx, involving more than 10,000 Saint-Domingue refugees between 1792 and 1810. These newcomers were subsequently joined by far smaller numbers of French citizens from Guadeloupe and Martinique. Not only were these immigrants largely responsible for the establishment and success of the state's sugar industry, but they also gave New Orleans many of its most notable early institutions—the French opera, newspapers, schools, and colleges—and ultimately its antebellum French flavor. The refugees also contributed Creole cuisine, Creole language, okra, and voodoo to their adopted homeland.