BY Anne
T
Butler
West Feliciana Historical Society the Unique West Florida Republic Celebrates The
here’s just something different about the St. Francisville, Louisiana, area. For one thing, it’s not French or Creole or Cajun; it’s English. For another, it’s not flat and swampy like most of southeast Louisiana; it’s in the rugged Tunica Hills. But the most important difference is that it was the site of the 1810 revolt against Spanish rule that culminated in the heady days of the West Florida Republic, a brave adventure that lasted all of 74 days and set off the rolling wave of revolutions that shaped the entire country. So that’s what the West Feliciana Historical Society is celebrating the third weekend in March, and it promises to be fascinating. Centered around historic downtown St. Francisville, the events kick off Friday, March 18, with “Taste of the Republic,” opening a newly expanded museum exhibit on the rebellion complete with craft beer tasting, cracklin’s and fried oysters straight from bubbling cauldrons, live blue grass music and more. Saturday, March 19, begins with a walkabout or guided trolley tour along Royal Street to view historic structures that actually witnessed the birth of the republic: Prospect which is open for tours, Printer’s Cottage, Barrow House, Propinquity, Cabildo, Republic Park and Seabrook. After the Children’s Art Show, excitement builds as the Methodist Church bells toll for all to assemble at Republic Park; Reverend Daniel Hixon’s invocation will be followed by a featured presentation by respected scholar and republic expert Dr. Sam Hyde, and costumed re-enactors will ceremoniously raise the famous flag, blue with a lone white star, near the park’s striking obelisk crowned by a single star. In the afternoon on Saturday, visitors may drive by outlying sites where much of the planning for the rebellion took place: Rosale (Egypt), Highland and Woodland, Troy. It was in the summer of 1810 when 500 predominantly Anglo planters gathered at Egypt Plantation, marking the beginnings of the West Florida Rebellion that would belatedly wrest Louisiana’s lands east
of the Mississippi from Spanish control. Called today the eight Florida Parishes, this contested area flanking the United States’ Mississippi Territory was excluded from Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase of 1803, at least according to the French and Spanish. West Florida encompassed the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico from the Perdido River in Florida to the Mississippi River, north of Lake Pontchartrain and south of the 31st parallel. Not until 1810, some seven years after the Louisiana Purchase, would that meeting set in motion carefully conceived and executed plans to replace the Spanish regime with the free and independent Republic of West Florida. The republic lasted for all of 74 days before this contested area rejoined the rest of Louisiana to eventually become a state in 1812. Its capital was in St. Francisville and its constitution intended a more complete system of criminal and civil jurisprudence, more efficient militia, more equitable apportionment of representation, and more extensive basis for levying taxes to support the government. Diplomat Fulwar Skipwith was elected governor, and said he “knew that the sole object of those Patriots in proclaiming that Declaration was to procure to the United States an honorable pretext to receiving us into their bosom with a surrender of our Sovereign Rights.”
Page 22 { March/April 2022 { Bluffs & Bayous
ROSALE
HOME OF LYNDA AND PETER TRUITT
HIGHLAND PLANTATION HOME OF BARBARA AND DON NORWOOD
WOODLAND
PROSPECT
HOME OF RENEE AND JOHN WILSON
Funds raised support the West Feliciana Historical Society‘s preservation and tourism projects. For information and tickets, visit www.invitationtostfrancisville.org or contact the West Feliciana Historical Society at (225) 635-6330.
