 |
| 1703 UNITED STATES - The map of State of Louisiana (1) |
Posted on 30.06.2015, 06.07.2015
Bordered by Arkansas to north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana is nicknamed Bayou State or Child of the Mississippi, because much of the its lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp. The surface of the state may be divided into two parts, the uplands of the north, and the alluvial along the coast. The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is from 15 to 100 km. The higher hill lands of the north consist of prairie and woodlands. The elevations above sea level range from 3m to 18m, the highest point in the state being Driskill Mountain (163m). The southern coast of Louisiana is among the fastest-disappearing areas in the world.
 |
| 1723 UNITED STATES - The map of State of Louisiana (2) |
Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate, with long, hot and humid summers and short, mild winters. Its capital city is Baton Rouge, founded in 1719 as a military post by French colonists, and the largest city is New Orleans, well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. Besides, many urban environments in Louisiana have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so strongly influenced by a mixture of 18th-century French, Spanish, Native American, and African cultures that they are considered to be exceptional in the U.S. On the other hand, it has more Native American tribes than any other southern state.
Louisiana was inhabited by Native Americans for many millennia before the arrival of Europeans. The first European explorers came in 1528 when a Spanish expedition led by Panfilo de Narváez located the mouth of the Mississippi River. After Hernando de Soto's expedition (1542-1543), Spanish interest in Louisiana faded away for a century and a half. In the late 17th century, French and French Canadian expeditions established a foothold on the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. With its first settlements, France claimed a vast region of North America and set out to establish a commercial empire from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.
In 1682, the explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle named the region Louisiana to honor France's King Louis XIV, and the first permanent settlement, Fort Maurepas (now Ocean Springs), was founded in 1699. Over time, planters developed large plantations and built fine homes in a growing town, which became a pattern repeated in New Orleans and other places. In 1763, France ceded most of its territory to the east of the Mississippi to Great Britain, and the rest of Louisiana had become a colony of Spain until 1800, when Napoleon reacquired it. In 1803 he sold Louisiana for less than 3 cents an acre to United States, which doubled its size overnight, almost effortlessly.
The area was divided into two territories: the Territory of Orleans to the south and the District of Louisiana to the north. Louisiana became the 18th U.S. State in 1812; since the Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana, the District of Louisiana was simultaneously renamed the Missouri Territory. By 1840 New Orleans had the biggest slave market in the United States, which contributed greatly to the economy. It had become one of the wealthiest cities and the third largest city in the nation. According to the 1860 census, 331,726 people were enslaved, nearly 47% of the state's total population, so during the Civil War Louisiana was part of the Confederate States of America, but was quickly defeated.
Slavery was officially abolished by the Louisiana state Constitution of 1864, but it had to pass a century until the African Americans will receive full civil rights and the white Democrats will waive the segregation. In the early decades of the 20th century, thousands of African Americans left Louisiana in the Great Migration north to industrial cities for jobs and education, and to escape Jim Crow society and lynchings. Later, mobilization for WWII created jobs in the state, and thousands of workers migrated to California for better jobs. Many African Americans left the state in the Second Great Migration, from the 1940s through the 1960s.
About the stamps
On the postcard 1703
The first two stamps, dedicated to Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) and Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), are part of the series Latin Music Legends, about which I wrote here. The last stamp is part of the series Apples, about which I wrote here.
On the postcard 1723
About the first stamp, depicting the president Abraham Lincoln, I wrote here. The second stamp ie part of the limited-edition Farmers Markets Forever stamps, about which I wrote here. The last stamp, dedicated to Janis Joplin (1943-1970), is part of the series Music Icons, about which I wrote here.
References
Louisiana - Wikipedia
Sender 1703: Denise
Sent from Greenvale (New York / United States), on 24.10.2014
Sender 1723: Denise
Sent from Greenvale (New York / United States), on 21.09.2014
No comments:
Post a Comment