Louisiana Sugar Plantations During the Civil War

by Charles P. Roland

This early work by the esteemed historian Charles P. Roland draws from an abundance of primary sources to describe how the Civil War brought south Louisiana’s sugarcane industry to the brink of extinction, and disaster to the lives of civilians both black and white. A gifted raconteur, Roland sets the scene where the Louisiana cane country formed “a favored and colorful part of the Old South,” and then unfolds the series of events that changed it secession, blockade, invasion, occupation, emancipation, and defeat. Though sugarcane survived, production did not match prewar levels for twenty-five years.

Roland’s approach is both illustrative of an earlier era and remarkably seminal to current emancipation studies. He displays sympathy for plantation owners’ losses, but he considers as well the sufferings of women, slaves, and freedmen, yielding a rich study of the social, cultural, economic, and agricultural facets of Louisiana’s sugar plantations during the Civil War.

150 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

Charles Pierce Roland is an American historian and professor emeritus of the University of Kentucky who is known for his research field of the American South and the U.S. Civil War.

Reviews

[Mark Blane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - Roland takes the reader back and time to the eve of the Civil War of Louisiana through the early 20th Century through the gripping prism of the iconic Louisiana Sugar Plantation.

I counted approximately 23 Plantations that Roland mentions through the book, and he traces the boom time of the Canelands to the bust time beginning in 1863 - 1865. Since New Orleans and much of Southern Louisiana fell to federal control in the Spring of 1862, the bust time did not make it dent due to surplus success of the 1862 crop season.

There were 1,291 Sugar Cane plantations in 1862, and by 1862, there were only 200 remaining. The price of a sugarcane plantation was approximately $200k in 1862, and by the Civil War's end in late Spring of 1865, that same estate was worth 1/8 of the previous evaluation, or approximately $50k. It would take 28 years after 1865 until sugar production equaled the output of sugar pre Civil War.

The reader will learn about the politics of slavery and how it was affected by both Butler and Banks' military governorship of New Orleans, and the culture and thoughts of the plantation owners. The book is backed by primary sources and diaries throughout.

I was referred to this book while reading "The Civil War in Louisiana" by John Winters. I highly recommend this book.