St. John the Baptist Parish was established in 1807 as one of the original 19 parishes of the
Territory of Orleans, which became the state of Louisiana. St. John the Baptist Parish is part of the
New Orleans–
Metairie metropolitan statistical area. The parish was considered part of the
German Coast in the 18th and 19th centuries, named for numerous German immigrants who settled along the
Mississippi River here in the 1720s. On January 8, 1811, the largest
slave insurrection in US history, known as the
German Coast Uprising, started here. It was short-lived, but more than 200
slaves gathered from
plantations along the river and marched through
St. Charles Parish toward New Orleans. This is part of the Sugarland or sugar parishes, which were devoted to sugar cane cultivation. Planters held large numbers of enslaved African Americans as workers before the Civil War. Many
freedmen stayed in the area after emancipation because of their ties to family and associates. They worked as tenant farmers, and numerous
freedmen stayed in the area to work on these plantations afterward. The parish includes three nationally significant examples of 19th-century plantation architecture:
Evergreen Plantation, the
Whitney Plantation Historic District, and
San Francisco Plantation House. Present-day St. John the Baptist Parish includes the third permanent settlement in what is now the state of Louisiana, after Natchitoches (1714) and New Orleans (1718). It was considered part of the
German Coast. The area was settled in the early 1720s by a group of
German Catholic
colonists. Many families established settlements close to the
Mississippi River in the areas now known as Lucy, Garyville, and Reserve. The area was under the French regime until 1763, when France ceded Louisiana to Spain after losing the
Seven Years' War to Great Britain (this was known as the
French and Indian War on the North American front). At the beginning of the Spanish colonial period, many Acadians, people of French descent, began arriving in south Louisiana due to being expelled by the
British from what is now
Nova Scotia and eastern Canada. The British took over French territory in
Canada and in North America east of the Mississippi River. The first Acadian village in Louisiana was established in what is now
Wallace. The German and French cultures thrived alongside one another, but
French came to be the dominant language. They developed a culture known as
Cajun. In 1769, Acadians who settled in the area began a search for land to build a church. The governing Spanish authority at the time approved the request, and the land was expropriated on February 21, 1770. The first church stood in the same location as the modern St. John the Baptist Church. The new church carried the same name as the original chapel of the German Coast settlement. The first pastor was Spanish Capuchin Father Bernardo de Limpach. The first church records note a marriage between Antoine Manz and Sibylla Bischof in 1772. The first church survived until being swept away by floodwaters in 1821. The early settlers in the area received land grants from the Spanish or French royal governments, depending upon which country ruled the territory at the time of application. The French style of property allotments was made up of narrow frontage on the river so that each plantation had access for transportation of goods to and from New Orleans and world markets. The main house and supporting outbuildings were constructed near the river. The remaining property extended away from the river deeply into the wetlands, where land was cleared for cultivation of sugar cane. For decades into the 19th century, most transportation was done by boat, mainly on the bayous and lakes of the area, but via the Mississippi River as well. St. John, with its fertile land being nine feet above sea level, proved to be an excellent settlement for farming and agriculture. In the late 18th century,
planters began to invest more in labor-intensive
sugar cane cultivation and processing, increasing their demand for slave labor. Sugar production meant prosperity for the planters and New Orleans. Planters held large numbers of enslaved African Americans. The sugar and cotton parishes all had Black majorities of population before the Civil War. With the sugar wealth, some wealthy planters built elaborate houses and outbuildings. Three survive in St. John parish; each is recognized for its national architectural and historic significance. On the west bank are the major complex of house and outbuildings designated as the
Whitney Plantation Historic District and the
National Historic Landmark (NHL) of
Evergreen Plantation.
San Francisco Plantation House, also a designated NHL, is on the east bank. San Francisco and Evergreen plantations are open to the public for tours. The Whitney plantation house is planned for renovation. Whitney and Evergreen plantations are both included among the first 26 sites on the
Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. In January 1811, the
German Coast Uprising started in this parish. It was the largest slave insurrection in US history, but it was short-lived. The slaves killed two whites, but suffered 96 deaths among their forces at the hands of the militia and in executions after quick trials afterward. They attacked five plantations and burned three houses to the ground. A major leader was
Charles Deslondes, a
mulatto (
mixed-race) slave brought by a planter from
Saint-Domingue in the late 18th century. He and his followers were influenced by the ideals and promises of the
French and
Haitian revolutions. France ended slavery on Saint-Domingue after its own
Revolution, but tried to reimpose it. Slaves and free people of color rebelled, gaining independence after huge losses among French regular forces sent by
Napoleon to retake the island. As the number of white families in the settlement increased, they wanted education for their children. Before the
Civil War, typically planters would hire tutors, often college graduates from
the North, who would live with the family for an extended period of time, typically two years. The tutor would teach all of the planter's children, and sometimes the family would arrange for other neighborhood children to join the classes as well. There was no public education. In 1869, following the Civil War, families wanting
French instruction founded private schools to continue their culture. The Anglo-Americans had imposed English as the official language. The
Reconstruction legislature, with both African American and white representatives, established the first public schools in the state during this period. It took time for the state to arrange adequate funding for public education. In the segregated system, education for Black children was less well funded and lagged behind that for whites. The first high schools at Edgard and Reserve were not built until 1909. Students traveled to the schools by horse-drawn buses or by train. ==Geography==