Scott’s Comments (group member since Apr 25, 2015)

Scott’s comments from the Saints Report History Chat group.

Two other books that flank this one perfectly in time periods are:
The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era
and
Huey Long Invades New Orleans: The Siege of a City, 1934-36

The Huey Long book is as much about "The Old Regulars" or "the Ring" and how they controlled all voting activity in the city, as it is about Huey Long. Martin Berhman who is Mayor through most of the Empire of Sin gave way to mayor Walmsley and the old regulars went to war with Huey Long over the voters registration books. Almost literal war. The old regulars would bully people and actually go into voting booths with people and they also doctored the voters registration books with voting dead people. So Huey had the National Guard come in before one of the elections and take over the voters registrars office and the books. This building is right next door to Gallier Hall which was then city hall. The mayors office was in Gallier Hall and the Guard set up a machine gun in the window trained on the mayors office the entire time of the occupation. In this link the Registrars office is the red building on the left as you face Gallier Hall. It is now the Bar Association Offices.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...

I will be reviewing The Great New Orleans Kidnapping when I finish it. Obviously these two books are about smaller time periods but in setting up the atmosphere of the city you get a picture of what things were like during Reconstruction and then after Empire of Sin in the era of Huey Long.

I have some comments on Robert Charles when my fingers recuperate lol.

one of the authors I read recently (either Lawrence Powell or Ned Sublette) hypothesized that the abolitionist movement may have taken place sooner were it not for the fear generated by one of the revolts. I want to say the Point Coupe revolt but it seems more likely the one in Haiti. At any rate, you are right, the sentiment was already established and Europe was probably at least 50 years ahead of us on that. Maybe you can shed more light on that since this book deals more directly with it.

I was kind of surprised this gets mixed reviews on Amazon. I thought it was fantastic. Perhaps it is the fact that the author tries to tie so many topics together into as he calls it "civil war" in modern New Orleans. I don't think he was trying to do anything more than give the period a loose theme. It covers so much ground: The murder of chief Henessey(my link) , The Black hand (loosely organized mafia), Storyville, Jazz, the Axe Man murders, Jim Crow laws, Robert Charles, etc...

it is a hard sell that for anyone to claim that all those things are connected but they are all things that New Orleans was dealing with around the turn of the 20th century. I thought this was a fantastic book on New Orleans from the end of Reconstruction to just before the reign of Huey Long. Great Read

that is very interesting. I have read several books that dealt heavily in the subject of slavery but they were all aimed more at the colonial era of New Orleans. The 3/5 was document was clearly a compromise. I can't even wrap my head around the irony that slave owners were arguing that slaves counted toward getting them more representation in congress so that they could protect the laws that allowed them to deny the rights of those same people. Makes my head spin. I know that local slaves were better off when the Spanish were in charge of Louisiana. Our founding fathers had a pretty limited view on "land of the free". Jefferson even wanted to support Napoleon in restoring slavery on St Dominque until he found out he also had eyes on Louisiana.

I am currently reading The Great New Orleans Kidnapping case about the Digby kidnapping case but more generally just about the Reconstruction Era. The home where the kidnapping took place on Howard Street in a segment on the modern day property of our beloved Superdome.

thanks again for setting it up, Theodis

for all those that join, Scott is Zack Lee

my contributions to begin will be heavily on NOLA history by necessity. I have only read a few WW2 books but I also plan on reading some civil war books.