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Chronicling America
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Newspaper Le Louisianais (Convent, La.) 1865-1883 Louisianian

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About Le Louisianais (Convent, La.) 1865-1883

Le Louisianais was published from 1865 to 1883 in Convent, a small community in St. James Parish, Louisiana, located about halfway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In the 19th century, this area was known for its large, affluent sugar plantations.

Jean Sylvain Gentil (1829-1911) founded Le Louisianais. Born near Blois, France, Gentil was imprisoned and exiled in 1850 by Emperor Napoleon III for writing incendiary articles in the republican journal Le Courrier de Loir-et-Cher. He lived briefly in London before immigrating to the United States in 1852, eventually settling in Convent, where he taught French, Spanish, Latin, and Greek at Jefferson College, a small Catholic school. At the end of the Civil War, Gentil began publishing Le Louisianais in partnership with Armand Victor Romain (1835-1872), a math professor at Jefferson College. The first issue appeared on August 12, 1865. By November of that year, it was the official journal of St. James Parish.

Le Louisianais was initially published weekly on a single double-sided sheet; in 1877 it expanded to four pages. Primarily in French, it had varying amounts of English-language content. Each issue typically carried miscellaneous news from around the world; political commentary, with an emphasis on race relations, suffrage, and the post-Civil War recovery of the South; advertisements and announcements; essays on science, history, art, and literature; and an assortment of poetry and fiction. A unique aspect of the paper were its regular “feuilletons,” serialized stories by Gentil that were often autobiographical in nature and covered topics ranging from “Les Gaulois en Amérique” (French Americans) and thoughts on freemasonry (controversial in Catholic Louisiana), to personal stories about Gentil’s imprisonment, a youthful love affair, and his favorite hobby, gardening.

A critic of the Catholic Church, Gentil used Le Louisianais to antagonize the local clergy. In 1880, Father Onézime Renaudier organized another newspaper, Le Foyer creole, partly to counteract Gentil’s influence. Gentil also caused controversy in race relations. Though he supported black education and acknowledged the need for racial cooperation, in November 1869, he criticized the election of an African American, Oscar Dunn, to the post of Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. Le Louisianais consequently lost its official printing contract.

In 1881, Gentil sold Le Louisianais to André Roman and Paul Grima. It was published until 1883. After leaving the paper, Gentil owned La Démocratie française of New Orleans and wrote articles for various other publications in his spare time, including his old enemy, Le Foyer creole, as a charity to its publisher, Estelle Jourdan Dicharry, widow of former publisher Florian B. Dicharry.
 

Provided By: Louisiana State University; Baton Rouge, LA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Le Louisianais (Convent, La.) 1865-1883

Other Title

  • Louisianian

Dates of Publication

  • 1865-1883

Created / Published

  • Convent, La. : J. Gentil & A.V. Romain, 1865-

Headings

  • -  Convent (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Saint James Parish (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Ascension Parish (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Louisiana--Ascension Parish
  • -  Louisiana--Convent
  • -  Louisiana--Saint James Parish
  • -  United States--Louisiana--Saint James--Convent

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (12 août 1865)-
  • -  Ceased in 1883.
  • -  Subtitles: Journal officiel de la paroisse Saint-Jacques, 1865-; Journal de Gentilly en Saint-Jacques, -; Journal officiel de la paroisse Saint Jacques, -Mar. 29, 1873; Journal franco-louisianais et campagnard, Apr. 5,1873-; Journal de St. Jacques, -Nov. 21, 1874; Journal de St. Jacques-Louisiane, Nov. 28-Dec. 26, 1874; Journal des paroisses St. Jacques et Ascension, Le., Jan. 2, 1875-Mar. 3, 1877; Journal politique, littéraire et campagnard, Mar. 10, 1877-.
  • -  Publisher: J. Gentil, 1866-<1881>.
  • -  Suspended Dec. 1873-Oct. 1874.
  • -  Also issued on microfilm from the New York Public Library.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  In French and English.
  • -  Rappel louisianais

Medium

  • volumes ; 59 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn82015038

OCLC Number

  • 8801060

ISSN Number

  • 2377-8059

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Le Louisianais Convent, La. -1883. (Convent, LA), Jan. 1 1865. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn82015038/.

APA citation style:

(1865, January 1) Le Louisianais Convent, La. -1883. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn82015038/.

MLA citation style:

Le Louisianais Convent, La. -1883. (Convent, LA) 1 Jan. 1865. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn82015038/.