The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana: Dunboyne Plantation in the 1800s
In 1833, Edward G. W. and Frances Parke Butler moved to their newly constructed plantation house, Dunboyne, on the banks of the Mississippi River near the village of Bayou Goula. Their experiences at Dunboyne over the next forty years demonstrated the transformations that many land—owning southerners faced in the nineteenth century, from the evolution of agricultural practices and commerce, to the destruction wrought by the Civil War and the transition from slave to free labor, and finally to the social, political, and economic upheavals of Reconstruction. In this comprehensive biography of the Butlers, David D. Plater explores the remarkable lives of a Louisiana family during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history.
Born in Tennessee to a celebrated veteran of the American Revolution, Edward Butler pursued a military career under the mentorship of his guardian, Andrew Jackson, and, during a posting in Washington, D.C., met and married a grand—niece of George Washington, Frances Parke Lewis. In 1831, he resigned his commission and relocated Frances and their young son to Iberville Parish, where the couple began a sugar cane plantation. As their land holdings grew, they amassed more enslaved laborers and improved their social prominence in Louisiana's antebellum society. A staunch opponent of abolition, Butler voted in favor of Louisiana's withdrawal from the Union at the state's Secession Convention. But his actions proved costly when the war cut off agricultural markets and all but destroyed the state's plantation economy, leaving the Butlers in financial ruin. In 1870, with their plantation and finances in disarray, the Butlers sold Dunboyne and resettled in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where they resided in a rental cottage with the financial support of Edward J. Gay, a wealthy Iberville planter and their daughter—in—law's father. After Frances died in 1875, Edward Butler moved in with his son's family in St. Louis, where he remained until his death in 1888. Based on voluminous primary source material, The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana offers an intimate picture of a wealthy nineteenth—century family and the turmoil they faced as a system based on the enslavement of others unraveled.

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The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana: Dunboyne Plantation in the 1800s
In 1833, Edward G. W. and Frances Parke Butler moved to their newly constructed plantation house, Dunboyne, on the banks of the Mississippi River near the village of Bayou Goula. Their experiences at Dunboyne over the next forty years demonstrated the transformations that many land—owning southerners faced in the nineteenth century, from the evolution of agricultural practices and commerce, to the destruction wrought by the Civil War and the transition from slave to free labor, and finally to the social, political, and economic upheavals of Reconstruction. In this comprehensive biography of the Butlers, David D. Plater explores the remarkable lives of a Louisiana family during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history.
Born in Tennessee to a celebrated veteran of the American Revolution, Edward Butler pursued a military career under the mentorship of his guardian, Andrew Jackson, and, during a posting in Washington, D.C., met and married a grand—niece of George Washington, Frances Parke Lewis. In 1831, he resigned his commission and relocated Frances and their young son to Iberville Parish, where the couple began a sugar cane plantation. As their land holdings grew, they amassed more enslaved laborers and improved their social prominence in Louisiana's antebellum society. A staunch opponent of abolition, Butler voted in favor of Louisiana's withdrawal from the Union at the state's Secession Convention. But his actions proved costly when the war cut off agricultural markets and all but destroyed the state's plantation economy, leaving the Butlers in financial ruin. In 1870, with their plantation and finances in disarray, the Butlers sold Dunboyne and resettled in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where they resided in a rental cottage with the financial support of Edward J. Gay, a wealthy Iberville planter and their daughter—in—law's father. After Frances died in 1875, Edward Butler moved in with his son's family in St. Louis, where he remained until his death in 1888. Based on voluminous primary source material, The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana offers an intimate picture of a wealthy nineteenth—century family and the turmoil they faced as a system based on the enslavement of others unraveled.

49.95 In Stock
The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana: Dunboyne Plantation in the 1800s

The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana: Dunboyne Plantation in the 1800s

by David D. Plater
The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana: Dunboyne Plantation in the 1800s

The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana: Dunboyne Plantation in the 1800s

by David D. Plater

Hardcover

$49.95 
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Overview

In 1833, Edward G. W. and Frances Parke Butler moved to their newly constructed plantation house, Dunboyne, on the banks of the Mississippi River near the village of Bayou Goula. Their experiences at Dunboyne over the next forty years demonstrated the transformations that many land—owning southerners faced in the nineteenth century, from the evolution of agricultural practices and commerce, to the destruction wrought by the Civil War and the transition from slave to free labor, and finally to the social, political, and economic upheavals of Reconstruction. In this comprehensive biography of the Butlers, David D. Plater explores the remarkable lives of a Louisiana family during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history.
Born in Tennessee to a celebrated veteran of the American Revolution, Edward Butler pursued a military career under the mentorship of his guardian, Andrew Jackson, and, during a posting in Washington, D.C., met and married a grand—niece of George Washington, Frances Parke Lewis. In 1831, he resigned his commission and relocated Frances and their young son to Iberville Parish, where the couple began a sugar cane plantation. As their land holdings grew, they amassed more enslaved laborers and improved their social prominence in Louisiana's antebellum society. A staunch opponent of abolition, Butler voted in favor of Louisiana's withdrawal from the Union at the state's Secession Convention. But his actions proved costly when the war cut off agricultural markets and all but destroyed the state's plantation economy, leaving the Butlers in financial ruin. In 1870, with their plantation and finances in disarray, the Butlers sold Dunboyne and resettled in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where they resided in a rental cottage with the financial support of Edward J. Gay, a wealthy Iberville planter and their daughter—in—law's father. After Frances died in 1875, Edward Butler moved in with his son's family in St. Louis, where he remained until his death in 1888. Based on voluminous primary source material, The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana offers an intimate picture of a wealthy nineteenth—century family and the turmoil they faced as a system based on the enslavement of others unraveled.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780807161289
Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
Publication date: 11/18/2015
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

David D. Plater is a retired maritime lawyer and history teacher, and the former manager of Acadia Plantation in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

What People are Saying About This

Mary Thompson

"David D. Plater's The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana tells the story of Edward George Washington Butler, a member of a prominent American military family and ward of Andrew Jackson, and his wife, Frances Parke Lewis, who was Martha Washington's great-granddaughter. Taught to venerate their heritage and aspire to a life of public service, wealth, and upper-class respectability, the couple lived through an eventful period, which took them from army posts on the frontier to a sugar plantation in Louisiana, through two wars -- one with Mexico, the other with the United States -- and an endless cycle of disillusionment, hope, debt, recovery, birth, and death. The author, who is a Butler descendant, has done a splendid job of mining archives throughout the country to piece together the story of two people whose lives exemplified the difficulties of following their Revolutionary forebears in a very different place and time." -- Mary V. Thompson, Research Historian, George Washington's Mount Vernon

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