Rachel of Old Louisiana

by Avery Odelle Craven

Rachel O’Connor was an extraordinary woman. For nearly fifty years (from 1797 to 1846), she lived on a plantation near Bayou Sara in Louisiana’s West Feliciana Parish. And for twenty-five of those years, after the death of her husband, she managed the plantation alone. Although they had, as she said, “begun poor,” at the time of her death she owned about a thousand acres and seventy-five slaves.

Not a biography in the conventional sense, Avery O. Craven’s charming little book is rather the story of Rachel and the Louisiana in which she lived. Based largely on several hundred of her letters, it tells of her day-to-day activities, her relationships with slaves and overseers, her successes and failures with crops, as well as her health and legal problems.

By focusing on the life of one woman, Craven brings to light the thoughts, emotions, and attitudes of Louisianians (and other southerners) during this period. Rachel of Old Louisiana is a significant addition to the literature on the Old South.

140 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1975

About the author

Avery O. Craven earned his B.A. from Simpson College in 1908, his M.A. from Harvard University in 1914, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1923. Craven taught at Simpson College, Michigan State University, and the University of Illinois before joining the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1927. He served as president of the Organization of Southern Historians in 1952, as president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Society and of the Organization of American Historians in 1963–1964.

Reviews

[Jaime Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because my great grandparents were born in Louisiana and I imagine Rachel was very much like their mothers. It was such a hard life for women to endure and she mad a success of her plantation and took loving care of her slaves.

[Bobbie Monroe Boyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. I am so glad I got to know Rachel. She was very industrious and accomplished running a large plantation profitably and alone for 50 years in St. Francisville, La. It was even more interesting because we are from the same area and I recognize landmarks and other neighboring plantation’s mentioned.

[Kitty Tomlinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tells the true story of Rachel O'Connor, who after being widowed twice runs a plantation in West Feliciana Parish, LA, for nearly 50 years.