The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Sugar Industry in the Lafourche Country

The Lafourche Country\u27s narrow highways, characteristic swamplands, and ever present tidal pools convey to the unfamiliar visitor the feeling of being in a strange and rather mysterious land far removed from modern technology and culture. Yet, this land\u27s navigable waterways, favorable climate, and rich soil has long favored a productive sugar cane industry that has been neglected by scholars. A careful examination of the past reveals that the Lafourche Country sugar industry ranked as an equal in terms of innovation and productivity to that of the well-studied plantations along the Mississippi River and Bayou Teche. Indeed, both in the past and in the present, local developments reflected the dynamic technological and organizational changes associated with the international sugar trade. Centered along the banks of the 110 mile-long Bayou Lafourche and the bayous of Terrebonne Parish-Terrebonne, Black, Blue, du Large, Calliou, and Grand Calliou-this important sector of the Louisiana Sugar industry has its historical significance not only statistically in terms of the amount of sugar produced but also because of its leaders who did much to promote and direct the industry during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries