Louisiana, one of the Gulf states of the American Union, extends about 200 miles from north to south and 290 from east to west. Copyright 1890 in U.S. Its land area, including the marshes by J. B. Lippincott Company. bordering on the Gulf, is 40,790 sq. m.; its inland waters cover 2328 sq. m.; total area, 43,118 sq. m. This area is divided nearly equally between alluvial lands and uplands. The mean elevation of the state above sea-level is 75 feet, its highest point 484 feet. For 25 miles inland from the Gulf, marshes subject to tidal flow cover one-eighth of the state's entire surface; low, sandy pine flats and prairie lands occupy about one-eighteenth each, arable lands one-eighth, the flood-plains near the rivers one-tenth, and bluff lands, pine hills, and uplands more than one-fifth each. Most of the large rivers flow above the level of the surrounding country on ridges formed by their own deposits, and the plains around, protected by dykes (called levees), slope away into dense, wooded swamps. The bottom-lands of the Mississippi are from 20 to 70 miles in breadth, those of the Red, Ouachita, and other streams range from 6 to 20 miles. But although the flood-plains lie below, there is a large area above the rivers' high-water mark. The uplands embrace all the northern and north-eastern parts of the state, inclining gently towards the south, and crossing these are bluff lands, extending through the alluvial lands to the Gulf, and forming wonderful 'islands' covered with vegetation. Nor is the immense plain surrounding these bluffs ever inundated, but elevated and fertile, traversed by deep bayous (as minor and tributary streams are called here). Even in the coast marshes occasionally an island-hill rises, with soil firm and fertile; and at other points cattle graze, whilst thousands of acres yearly are being drained and reclaimed and planted with rice. Besides the Mississippi the chief rivers are the Red, Sabine, Ouachita, and Pearl; the entire river navigation of the state reaches nearly 3800 miles, and there are also several considerable lakes.
The mean temperature of Louisiana is from 60° to 75° F., the climate being softened by the waters within and around the state, the profuse rainfall (47 to 73 in.), and the breezes from the Gulf. The vegetation in most parts is luxuriant. The forests are dense with trees—pine, cypress, oaks, cottonwood, magnolia, poplar, beech, &c. Fruits are abundant, oranges and figs the most important. The staple crops are cotton, sugar, rice, and maize. The Louisiana cotton crop is about a tenth of the whole crop of the Union; its rice crop is a half of the total produce of the States; and in some years the sugar crop of the state makes 95 per cent. of the produce of the Union. Wine is also made.
The principal manufactures are shingles and tanks, cotton-seed oil, machinery, tobacco, and clothing and boots and shoes (by machinery), besides the cleaning and polishing of rice and the refining of sugar and molasses. The only mineral of importance is rock-salt, which is found in inexhaustible quantity at Petit Anse on Avery's Island; but hematite iron ore and sulphur have also been discovered, besides lignite of little, if any, value.
Louisiana is divided, not into counties, but parishes to the number of 59. The other officials are elected in the usual manner, but the judges of the supreme court are appointed by the governor for a term of twelve years. Those of the courts of appeal are elected by the General Assembly for eight years, and in the country districts and in New Orleans the judges of the district courts are appointed by the governor, being elsewhere elected for four years. The civil law prevails in Louisiana, a code based on the Code Napoléon having been adopted in 1825. The state returns six members to congress. Education is fairly well provided for, and increased attention is being devoted to the free schools. The State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College is at Baton Rouge, the State Normal School at Natchitoches; the Southern University, at New Orleans, is endowed by the state, and in the same city is the Tulane University, with departments for ladies and for training in the manual arts. See NEW ORLEANS.
The state forms part of the province of Louisiana, purchased from France in 1803, which occupied an enormously larger area than the state—namely, the whole western basin of the Mississippi from Mexico to the Canadian lakes. (See UNITED STATES, and the map there at p. 388.) In 1682 La Salle (q.v.) sailed down the river and claimed the country for France, naming it Louisiana in honour of Louis XIV., and planting a colony at a point 38 miles below the present site of New Orleans. After an unsuccessful attempt at colonisation by Iberville, the territory was handed over to the Mississippi Company, under John Law. (see MISSISSIPPI SCHEME), and New Orleans was founded. The company collapsed in 1720, and Louisiana reverted to the crown in 1732. It was ceded to Spain in 1762, retroceded to France in 1800, and sold to the United States by Napoleon, for 60,000,000 francs, three years later, being admitted as a state in 1812, although the portion between the Mississippi and Pearl rivers was not actually acquired until the Florida purchase of 1819. The battle of New Orleans (8th January 1815) and several changes in the constitution are the only noteworthy events in its history until the civil war. Louisiana seceded in January 1861, and New Orleans was captured on 24th April 1862. More than a hundred battles were fought within the limits of the state, leaving ruin behind, whose effects are felt to this day. Prosperity, however, is returning, and is established on a basis more sound and satisfactory than of old. The finances of the state are in a healthy condition, her bonds nearly at par. Since 1877 political disturbances and outbreaks which had followed the period of reconstruction have ceased, railways have been extended, and the assessed valuation of property enormously increased; and Louisiana's chief troubles have been from the bursting of the levees, although none have proved so disastrous as the terrible flood of 1874, when one-sixth of the state was inundated. See C. Gayarré, History of Louisiana (3d ed. 4 vols. New Orleans, 1885).
Population.—The principal cities are New Orleans, Shreveport, Baton Rouge (the capital), and Monroe, all the subject of separate articles. The population is very mixed. The negroes in the country districts are somewhat in excess of the whites, of whom about one-sixth each are of French (some Acadian), German, or Irish descent. Those of French descent are called Creoles—a term which in Louisiana does not imply any admixture of African or Indian blood. There are also a number of Spanish and Italian descent. In most of the southern parishes French is habitually spoken by the people; and Spanish also is still retained. Pop. (1820) 153,407; (1860) 708,002, including 326,726 slaves and 18,527 free coloured people; (1880) 939,946; (1890) 1,118,587.