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vi--- Preface
The material for this book was gathered by members of the Louisana Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration. The idea was suggested by Henry G. Alsberg in 1936; he was then the National Director of the Federal Writers' Program. We in Louisiana were pleased with the idea, and at every possible opportunity assigned workers to the task of collecting the folklore of the State.
The Louisiana Library Commission, of which Essae M. Culver is Executive Secretary, has sponsored this book, as well as the earlier publication, the Louisiana State Guide. The city of New Orleans sponsored our first publication, The New Orleans City Guide.
It may be well to remember that Louisiana was first a French colony, then Spanish, and that the territory was nearly a century old before becoming a part of the United States. It was an agricultural territory and many thousands of Negro salves were imported. In the plantation sections the Negroes outnumbered the Whites five to one; consequently their contribution to the folklore of the State has been large.
The Creoles, those founders of the French colony, contribured their elegance, their customs, and cuisine. They influenced their slaves and, in a sense, their slaves influenced them.
In Southwest Louisiana lived the Acadians -- or Cajuns, as they are affectionately called -- those sturdy farming folk who, driven from their homes in Nova Scotia at the end of eighteenth century, populated that area.
It would seem that the whole of Louisiana was a peculiarly fecund part of the Americas; the forests were filled with birds and animals, the bayous and lakes were teeming with fish, and the Creole mansions and the Cajun cottages were full of children.