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Native Americans and French Louisiana
As a French colony, Louisiana faced struggles with numerous Native American nations. One of which was the Natchez in Southern Mississippi. In the 1720s trouble developed between the French and the Natchez Indians that would be called the Natchez War or Natchez Revolt. 230 colonists were killed and the fort and homes were burned to the ground. The conflict between the two parties was a direct result of Lieutenant D’Echepare (more commonly known as Sieur de Chépart), the commandant at the settlement near the Natchez, decided in 1729 that the Natchez Indians should surrender both their cultivated crop lands and their town of White Apple to the French. The Natchez pretended to surrender and actually worked for the French in the hunting game, but as soon as they were weaponized, they struck back and killed several men. Resulting in the colonist fleeing upriver to New Orleans. The fleeing colonist sought protection from what they feared might be a colony-wide Indian uprising. The Natchez, however, did not to press on after their surprise attack, leaving them vulnerable enough for King Louis XV’s appointed governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to reclaim the settlement.

Relations with Louisiana’s Indians, a problem inherited from Bienville, remained a concern for the next governor, Marquis de Vaudreui l. In the early 1740s traders from the British colonies of the Atlantic coast crossed into the Appalachian Mountains. The Native nations in between the French colonials and British colonials would now operate dependent on which of the two colonies would most benefit them. Several of these tribes and especially the Chicksaw and Choctaw would trade goods and gifts for their loyalty.

The economic problems under Vaudreuil would not allow the French to outcompete the British and resulted in many of Louisiana’s Native American revolts. In 1747 and 1748 the Chicksaw would raid along the east bank of the Mississippi all the way south to Baton Rouge. These actions supported by the British colonials would force residents of French Louisiana to take refuge in New Orleans.

Slavery in French Louisiana
Inability to find labor was the most pressing issue in the early French colony. Colonist turned to African slavery to make their investments in Louisiana profitable. In the late 1710s the international slave trade imported enslaved Africans. Leading to the biggest shipment in 1716 where several trading ships appeared with slaves as cargo to local residents in a one-year span.

By 1724, the large number of blacks in Louisiana prompted the institutionalizing of laws governing slavery within the colony. These laws included slaves needed to be baptized in the Roman Catholic faith, slaves must be married in the Church, and slaves had no legal rights. The slave law formed in the 1720s is known as the Code Noir, which would bleed into the antebellum period of the American South as well. Louisiana slave culture had its own distinct Afro-Creole society that called on past cultures and the situation for slaves in the New World. Afro-Creole was present in religious beliefs and the Louisiana Creole dialect. The religion most associated with this period for slaves started in New Orleans called Voodoo.

Religion and Architecture from Across the World
In the city of New Orleans an inspiring mixture of foreign influences created a melting pot of culture that is still celebrated today. By the end of French colonization in Louisiana, New Orleans was recognized commercially in the Atlantic world. Its inhabitants traded across the French commercial system. New Orleans was this hub for trade both physically and culturally because it served as the exit point to the rest of the globe for the interior of the North American continent.

In one instance the French government established a chapter house of sisters in New Orleans. The Ursuline sisters after being sponsored by the Company of the Indies, founded a covenant in the city in 1727. At the end of the colonial era, the Ursuline Academy maintained a house of seventy boarding and one hundred day students. Today numerous schools in New Orleans can trace their lineage from this academy.

Another is the architecture still distinguishing New Orleans. French Louisiana had early architects in the province who were trained as military engineers and were now assigned to design government buildings. Pierre Le Blond de Tour and Adrien de Pauger, for example, planned many early fortifications, along with the street plan for the city of New Orleans. After them in the 1740s, Ignace François Broutin, as engineer-in-chief of Louisiana, reworked the architecture of New Orleans with an extensive public works program.

French policy-makers in Paris attempted to set political and economic norms for the New Orleans, it acted autonomously in much of its cultural and physical aspects, but also stayed centralized to the foreign trends as well.

Post-Treaty of Paris
After the French relinquished West Louisiana to the Spanish, New Orleans merchants attempted to ignore Spanish rule and even re-institute French control on the colony. The citizens of New Orleans held a series of public meetings during 1765 to keep the populace in opposition of the establishment of Spanish rule. Anti-Spanish passions in New Orleans, reached its highest level after two years of Spanish administration in Louisiana. On October 27, 1768, a mob of local residents, spiked the guns guarding New Orleans and took control of the city from the Spanish. The rebellion organized a group to sail for Paris, where it met with officials of the French government. This group brought with them a long memorial to summarize the abuses the colony had endured from the Spanish. King Louis XV and his ministers reaffirmed Spain’s sovereignty over Louisiana.

Voodoo
Reliable documentation of Voodoo does not exist because of the definitive claim that it is secretive. Voodoo existed in New Orleans-in some of its facets it probably still exists in the modern-day. The likelihood that the slave-developed religion possessed many white followers alongside its black participants is high. Voodoo as described by the distinguished novelist George Washington Cable is “the name of an imaginary being of vast supernatural powers residing in the form of a harmless snake”. Followers to these powers are known as the voodoos.

History and Origins
Multiple origins come from around the world and converge in pre-antebellum and antebellum New Orleans. Vodu as used by the Ewes of West Africa means fear of the gods. Vodun in Dahomy, West Africa, is a name for all deities. In French Vaudis referred to a witch. Throughout it's history in New Orleans, Voodoo and Southern Negro shared folklore, superstitions, language and customs, and had their counterparts in West Africa.

Scholars have the noted the use of Roman Catholic saints and liturgies in voodoo worship including black cats, serpents and the color red. These European and African motifs signify evil, the devil, blood, sin, sacrifice, harlotry. After existing in New Orleans for decades, in 1800 when Haitian and West Indian blacks were forced to Louisiana the hexes and secret revenges were incorporated into the system of slavery.

White southerners thought Voodoo to be primarily African in origin, and they fitted the practice of it into their beliefs that black men were primitive and inferior. In reality the Voodoo religion/culture is a mixture of African, Caribbean, and European influences.

For further information St. John's Eve has had an important relationship to Voodoo in its openness during celebrations.