|
Donaldsonville (historically (フランス語:Lafourche-des-Chitimachas)〔(Cajun and Cajuns: Genealogy site for Cajun, Acadian and Louisiana genealogy, history and culture )〕) is a city in and the parish seat of Ascension Parish in south Louisiana, United States,〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 located along the River Road of the west bank of the Mississippi River. The population was 7,436 at the 2010 census, a decrease of more than 150 from the 7,605 tabulation in 2000. Donaldsonville is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its Historic District has what has been described as the finest collection of buildings from the antebellum era to 1933, of any of the Louisiana river towns above New Orleans.〔>("10 Best Free Things to Do in Ascension Parish" )〕 Union forces attacked the city, occupying it and several of the river parishes beginning in 1862. It built Fort Butler on the west bank of the Mississippi River. They successfully defended it on June 28, 1863, against a Confederate attack. This was one of the first occasions where free blacks and fugitive slaves fought as soldiers on behalf of the Union. The fort is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After the war, in 1868 Donaldsonville residents elected as mayor Pierre Caliste Landry, an attorney and Methodist minister; he was the first African American to be elected as mayor in the United States. ==History== Various cultures of indigenous peoples lived here along the Mississippi River for thousands of years prior to European colonization. The Houma and Chitimacha peoples lived in the area. During the early years of colonization, they suffered high rates of fatalities due to infectious diseases and resulting social disruption. Descendants of both tribes were federally recognized as organized groups in the 20th century and they each have reservations in Louisiana. The French were the first Europeans to colonize the area. They named the site ''Lafourche-des-Chitimachas,'' after the regional indigenous people and the local bayou, which they gave the same name.〔(Old and New Names )〕 They developed agriculture in the parish, mainly as sugar cane plantations worked by African slave labor. Acadians, expelled by the British from Acadia in 1755, began to settle in the area from 1756 to 1785, where they developed small subsistence farms. Spanish Isleños also settled here. In 1772 when the territory was under Spanish rule, the militia constructed ''La Iglesia de la Ascensión de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo de Lafourche de los Chetimaches'' (the Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church of Lafourche of the Chitimaches) to serve the area. The region returned later to French control for a time.〔〔(www.ascensioncatholic.com "About Us" )〕 This area was included in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and became part of the United States.〔(【引用サイトリンク】author=Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism )〕 Americans began to move into the area. Landowner and planter William Donaldson in 1806 commissioned the architect and planner, Barthelemy Lafon, to plan a new town at this site. It was renamed Donaldsonville after him. Donaldsonville was designated as the Louisiana capital (1829–1831),〔(City's website, history of Donaldsonville )〕 as the result of conflict between the increasing number of Anglo-Americans, who deemed New Orleans "too noisy" and wanted to move the capital closer to their centers of population farther north in the state, and French Creoles, who wanted to keep the capital in a historically-French area. As a result of the wealth planters gained from sugar and cotton commodity crops, they built fine mansions and other buildings in town during the antebellum years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Donaldsonville, Louisiana」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|