Guide to the History of the Supreme Court

Introduction

This is a guide to writings on the history of the Court. It refers to finding aids, archives, books, articles, and to libraries across Louisiana that hold pertinent collections. Although the guide is extensive, it is not meant to be exhaustive, and it will be updated from time to time.

ARCHIVES

• Historical Archives of the Supreme Court of Louisiana

Housed in the Department of Louisiana and Special Collections, Earl K. Long Library at UNO. The records have been digitized.

• Louisiana State Archives

Historical archives of the state housed in the archives building in Baton Rouge.

• Research libraries also hold archival collections that are linked on their webpages.

LIBRARIES

In New Orleans

• Law Library of Louisiana
• Dillard University
• The Historic New Orleans Collection
• New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division/City Archives
• Loyola University of the South
• Tulane University
• University of New Orleans

FINDING AIDS

Aids listed here with an email address can be consulted from a home laptop, desktop computer, digital phone, or tablet.

• Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com/)

A basic database for genealogical and family history.

• Findagrave (https://www.findagrave.com)

This is the largest grave site collection anywhere

• The Online Books Page (https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/search.html)

A starting point for locating digital versions of out of print books and serial publications. Items in its holdings are linked to other databases.

• HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb)

HathiTrust aggregates several digital versions of millions of out of print books, pamphlets, serials, legislative journals, much else. The user guide has navigational helps.

• Louisiana Digital Library (https://ingest.louisianadigitallibrary.org)

A searchable omnium gatherum of portraits, photographs, newspapers, books, serials, documents, letters that relate to the history and culture from the colonial era to the present.

• Google Books (https://books.google.com)

Google Books has scanned and made searchable collections from several major research libraries that includes books, newspapers, scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers.

• Hein Online

A source for traditional legal materials—statutes, constitutions, law journals, and such—that includes above 192 million pages of items in an online, fully searchable, image-based format. Available in research libraries that subscribe to it.

• JSTOR

JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Available in research libraries that subscribe to it. Members of the Society who belong to the Louisiana Historical Association have free online access.

• Morris L. Cohen, Bibliography of Early America Law, 6 vols., plus supplement, (Buffalo, NY, 1998, 2003)

HISTORY JOURNALS

These are peer-vetted scholarly journals that publish articles, book reviews, and commentaries about aspects of Louisiana history from 1699 to the present. They are available in subscriber libraries JSTOR, and personal subscriptions. A generous sample of titles from the past fifty years is enumerated under “Articles.”

• American Journal of Legal History

Publishes in all aspects of the state’s legal history, as well as book reviews, book notes, and historiographical essays.

• American Historical Review.

Mainly book reviews, book notes, and historiographical essays covering all periods.

• Journal of the Early Republic

Mainly book reviews, book notes, and historiographical essays covering the period 1789–1830.

• Journal of Southern History

Occasional articles, but mainly book reviews, book notes, and historiographical essays covering all periods.

• Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association

Covers all areas of state history. This is the publication to begin one’s research.

• Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South

Articles cover all areas of state history.

• Unbound A Review of Legal History & Rare Books

An e-journal that solicits and publishes a wide variety of legal history essays.

ENCYCLOPEDIAS

• American National Biography Online

Contains sketches of notable Louisianans and other Americans. Available in subscribing libraries.

• Dictionary of Louisiana Biography Online (https://www.lahistory.org)

Contains sketches of many judges, lawyers, and public officials that were written by historians and other scholars.

• 64 Parishes Encyclopedia Online (https://64parishes.org/entry/)

Contains entries about a wide variety of historical and cultural data from all periods. Also profusely illustrated.

BOOKS

Part I: Books by contemporary historians of Louisiana law

Available in the libraries listed above.

• Thomas Aiello, Jim Crow’s Last Stand: Nonunanimous Criminal Jury Verdicts In Louisiana (Baton Rouge, 2015).
• Hugh Amory, David D. Hall et al., eds. A History of the Book in America, paperback edition., 5 vols. (Chapel Hill, 2007–2014).
• Warren M. Billings, A Bayou Bar The Louisiana State Bar Association, 1804–1941 (New Orleans, 2024).
• Warren M. Billings, The Supreme Court of Louisiana: A Bicentennial Sketch, 2d ed. (New Orleans, 2024).
• Warren M. Billings, The Supreme Court of Louisiana: A Bicentennial Sketch (New Orleans, 2013)
• Warren M. Billings, ed., A Treatise on Obligations Considered from a Moral and Legal View by Robert Joseph Pothier, translated and published by François-Xavier Martin [Newbern, N.C, 1802] (Facsimile reprint Union, N.J, 1999.)
• Warren M. Billings and Mark F. Fernandez, eds/, A Law Unto Itself? Essays in the New Louisiana Legal History (Baton Rouge, 2001).
• Warren M. Billings and Edward F. Haas, eds., In Search of Fundamental Law: Louisiana’s Constitutions, 1812–1974 (Lafayette, La, 1993).
• Warren M. Billings, ed., Historic Rules of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1813–1879 (Lafayette, La., 1985).
• George Dargo, Jefferson’s Louisiana: Politics and the Class of Legal Cultures
• Mark F. Fernandez, From Chaos to Continuity The Evolution of Louisiana’s Judicial System, 1712–1862 (Baton Rouge, 2001).
• W. Lee Hargrave, The Louisiana State Law School From 1906 to 1987 (Baton Rouge, 2004).
• Michael H. Hoeflich. Legal Publishing in Antebellum American, 1780–1870 (Cambridge, 2010).
• Richard Holcombe Kilbourne, Jr., A History of The Louisiana Civil Code (Baton Rouge, 1986).
• Richard Holcombe Kilbourne, Jr., Debt, Investment, Slaves: Credit Relations in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, 1825-1885 (Tuscaloosa, 2014).
• Florence M. Jumonville, Bibliography of New Orleans Imprints, 1764–1864 (New Orleans, 1989).
• Marina Isabel Medina, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law A History (Baton Rouge, 2016).
• Vernon Valentine Palmer, Through the Codes Darkly Slave Law and Civil Law in Louisiana (Clark, N.J., 2012).
• Judith Kelleher Schafer, Brothels, Depravity and Abandoned Women Illegal Sex in Antebellum New Orleans (Baton Rouge, 2009).
• Judith Kelleher Schafer, Becoming Free, Remaining Free Manumission and Enslavement in New Orleans, 1846–1862 (Baton Rouge, 2003).
• Judith Kelleher Schafer, Slavery the Civil Law and the Supreme Court of Louisiana (Baton Rouge, 1994).
• Charles Vincent, Black Legislators in Louisiana During Reconstruction (Baton Rouge, 1976).
• Evelyn Wilson. The Justices of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1865-1880. Lake Mary, Fla., 2017).

Part II: Books that shaped Louisiana law to 1877

These titles influenced the development of Louisiana law through Reconstruction. Brief annotations explain the significance of each volume. †Indicates books on the syllabus of 1840. *Indicates the 1869 additions to the original syllabus; ‡indicates books dropped from the 1869 version of the original syllabus; # indicates copies in the Law Library of Louisiana rare collection. The inclusion of more than one title on a given subject was a convenience to would-be lawyers in that it allowed them to whichever title was conveniently to hand. Dates of publication here are for first editions or first issue only.

• #Lewis Kerr, An Exposition of the Criminal Laws of the Territory of Orleans: The Practice if the Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction, the Duties of their Officers, with a Collection of Forms for the Use of Magistrates and Others (New Orleans, 1805). The Exposition was printed in English and French on facing pages. It consists of three parts—one that explains the nature of the offenses listed in the statute; a second that describes criminal procedure; and an appendix filled with sample writs, warrants, bonds, and numerous other instruments that Kerr referred to throughout the preceding parts. Kerr’s commentary on criminal procedure is among the most informative discussions of how Americans understood the subject in the early nineteenth century. The volume is also noteworthy because it is one of the first works ever produced by an American legal author for an American audience.

• #David Hoffman. A Course of Legal Studies, Addressed to Students and the Profession Generally, 2 vols. (Baltimore, 1817). Hoffman (1785–1854) was the first professor of law at the University of Maryland. His training in both civil and common law influenced his writings, which is quite apparent in the Course of Legal Studies the Court adopted its syllabus of required readings in 1840. In his words he intended the latter “to produce a learned and accomplished lawyer; and, perhaps, we may say to aid the researches of the Counsellor, The Judge, and the Statesman.” The book gained wide currency in legal circles across America, and it went through several editions. The Law Library of Louisiana holds a copy of the second edition that provided the model for the syllabus of 1840.

• #John Bouvier. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; with References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1839).Bouvier (1787–1851) compiled this first ever law dictionary based on American usages. It went through fifteen editions and remained the standard for much of the nineteenth century.

• Louisiana Acts, 1805–1877.

• †Sir John Bayley (Summary of the Law of Bills of Exchange, Cash Bills and Promissory Notes London, 1789). Bailey (1763–1841) was a judge of the Court of Kings Bench and a legal author. His treatise on the laws of bills of exchange was the first systematic treatment of the subject. The volume went through five English and at least two American editions.

• †‡Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4vols., (Oxford, 1765–1769). Widely read before and after Independence. Jurist and law professor at the College of William & Mary, St. George Tucker, published Blackstone’s Commentaries: with Notes of Reference to the Constitution and Laws, of the Federal Government of the United States and of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 4 vols. in 5 vol. set, (Philadelphia,1803). Tucker’s Blackstone, as it soon came to be called, circulated widely across the nation, but particularly in the South. Arguably, it was the most influential law book in the region prior to the Civil War.

• Erastus Cornelius Benedict., The American Admiralty, Its Jurisdiction and Practice, With Practical Forms and Directions (New York, 1850.

• A New York lawyer Benedict (1800–1880) learned the subject while serving as a deputy clerk for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. His relations published later editions.

• Joseph Chitty, A Practical Treatise on Bills of Exchange, Checks on Banks, Promissory Notes, Bankers Cash Notes and Bank Notes (London, 1799). Chitty (1775–1841) was an English barrister and a prolific writer of more than twenty law books that became standards on both sides of the Atlantic.

• #†Civil Code of the State of Louisiana (New Orleans, 1825). Copy in the Law Library of Louisiana.

• †Code of Practice for the State of Louisiana (New Orleans, 1825). Copy in the Law Library of Louisiana.

• Alfred Conkling. The Jurisdiction, Law and Practice of the Courts of the United States in Admiralty and Maritime Causes (Boston, Mass., 1848).

Conkling (1789–1874) was a long-time judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, a diplomat, and a writer of fiction.

• †Thomas Cooper, The Institutes of Justinian, (Philadelphia, 1812).

To borrow an eighteenth-century phrase, Cooper (1759–1839) was a man of parts—chemist, philosopher, essayist, lawyer, medical doctor, and legal writer. originally from London he removed to Philadelphia before settling in South Carolina. His rendition of Justinian derived from an English translation done by George Harris in 1756 to which he appended copious annotations based upon American usages.

• Edmund Robert Daniell, A Treatise on the Practice of the High Court of Chancery, with Some Practical Observations on the Pleadings in that Court, 2 vols. (London, 1837-41). Daniell (d. 1845) also was a reporter of decisions of the High Court of Chancery. His treatise was regarded as highly useful to American lawyers because of its thoroughness and the close similarities between english and American equity practices.

• John Forest Dillon, Treatise on the Law of Municipal Corporations (Chicago, 1872).

An Iowan, Dillon (1831–1914) was a self-taught lawyer. He served on the Supreme Court of Iowa and the United States Circuit Court before becoming a law professor at Columbia University. Considered one of the foremost legal thinkers of his time, his treatise laid foundations for the doctrine of laissez-faire constitutionalism as a bulwark against government regulation of individuals and corporations.

• #†Jean Domat. The Civil Law in its Natural Order: Together with the Publick Law, 2 vols. (London, 1722). After a career as a lawyer and a public prosecutor, Domat (1625–1696) retired to a life of scholarship. He published Lois civile dans leur ordre naturel between 1689and 1694, which combined materials from Roman and French law into a single system founded on ethical principles. It became one of the main sources of the Napoleonic Code. The English translation, by the London printer William Strahan, became the basis of subsequent editions on both sides of the Atlantic. It was well known and widely used in the English colonies and the early republic. Strahan’s annotations also made it a useful study of comparative law. Chief Justice George Eustis owned an 1850 American edition that is in the Law Library of Louisiana.

• *Simon Greenleaf, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, 3 vols. (Boston, Mass.,1842-53).

Greenleaf (1786–1853) was a New England lawyer who taught at Harvard and wrote or edited numerous treatises as well as an early biography of Joseph Story. His treatise on evidence was the first American treatment of the subject. It went through sixteen editions before falling out of print.

• †James Kent. Commentaries on American Law, 4 vols. (New York, 1826-30). Contemporaries regarded Kent (1763–1847) as the American Blackstone on whom he modeled his commentaries. His great work was widely read, and its sales made him a wealthy man. *Louisiana Reports. François-Xavier Martin began case reporting in Louisiana. He had two purposes in mind: firstly, to provide jurists and lawyers greater “order and regularity in practice, and uniformity in determinations;” secondly to create “an record that would instruct readers about the unfolding of the court’s jurisprudence”.

• #*‡L. Moreau Lislet and James Brown, A Digest of the Civil Laws Now in Force in the Territory of Orleans, With Alterations and Amendments Adapted to the Present System of Government (New Orleans, 1808). It digested and reduced to writing the bulk of the territory’s private law into an orderly compilation of customary, statutory, and judge-made law. Often called “the old civil code by contemporaries, it became the ancestor of Louisiana’s present Civil Code and a bone of contention among legal writers who debate its meaning.

• L. Moreau Lislet and Henry Carleton, The Laws of the Siete Partidas Which are Still in Force in the State of Louisiana, 2 vols. (New Orleans, 1820). This was a more extended iteration of Moreau Lislet and Carleton’s translation from 1818. The translator’s preface is a detailed discussion of the historical evolution of the Partidas, their application in Spanish Louisiana, and which of the six continued in Louisiana law after statehood.

• *Theophilus Parsons. A Treatise on the Laws of Promissory Notes and Bills of Exchange (New York, 1863). Parsons (1797–1882) edited newspapers and magazines, studied law, taught at Harvard University, and wrote extensively on contract law, commercial instruments, and maritime law.

• *Theophilus Parsons. A Treatise on Maritime Law, 2 vols.(Boston, Mass., 1859).

• *Samuel March Phillipps, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence (London, 1814). Phillipps (1780–1862) was an English civil servant and privy councillor. He never practiced law though his treatise established his reputation as an authority on the law of evidence.

• *Robert Joseph Pothier, A Treatise on Obligations Considered from a Moral and Legal View. 2 vols. (New Bern, N.C., 1802). Pothier (1699–1772) was a judge of the presidial court of Orléans and a close student of contract law. He wrote prolifically about the subject. This title, first published in Paris in 1761 as traité des obligations selon les règles tant du for de la conscience que du for extèrieur, was regarded as Pothier’s master work. François-Xavier Martin published the first English translation when he was a printer in North Carolina. a London barrister also published his own translation in 1802. that version was quickly picked up by a Philadelphia printer whose access to markets was greater than Martin’s and it received a wider American circulation.

• Merritt M. Robinson, A Digest of the Penal Law of the State of Louisiana, Alphabetically Arranged (New Orleans, 1841). A descendent of a prominent Virginia legal family, Robinson removed to New Orleans in search of opportunities he did not find in the Old Dominion. He followed Martin as reporter of decisions, and he was active in the efforts at improving criminal law in Louisiana. His digest was the first work on criminal law since Lewis Kerr’s Exposition. It proved useful when the General Assembly adopted the Crimes Acts in the mid-1850s.

• *William Oldnall Russell. A Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanors, 2 vols. (London, 1819).

Educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, and Lincoln’s Inn, Russell (ca. 1784–1833) went on to become a highly experienced criminal lawyer and a judge in India. The author of several works on criminal law, the Treatise, was his master work. Unquestionably it was the most influential and enduring general practitioner works on the criminal law to appear in the nineteenth century. It remained in print for more than a century after Russell’s death and went through twelve editions before it went out of print in 1964.

• *John William Smith, A Compendium of Mercantile Law (London, 1834).

Smith (1809–1845) was a member of the Inner Temple whose talents for legal scholarship far exceeded his skills as a barrister. The Compendium was the first book to treat its subject as a unit. Such was its usefulness that it went through thirteen editions before passing out of print in 1931.

• *Thomas Starkie, Practical Treatise on the Law of Evidence and Digest in Civil and Criminal Proceedings (London, 1814). Starkie (1782–1849) studied with Joseph Chitty before becoming a bencher at Lincoln’s Inn and a queen’s counsel. He taught law at the University of Cambridge and was a member of a royal commission to codify Great Britain’s criminal law.

• *Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 4 vols. (Boston, 1831-45).

Story (1779–1845) taught law at Harvard University, sat on the Supreme Court of the United States, and wrote prolifically. The Commentaries on the Constitution was his magnum opus and it remains one of the great works inAmerican constitutional history.

• *Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Law of Promissory Notes, and Guarantees of Notes and Checks on Banks and Bankers (Boston, Mass, 1845).

• *Joseph Story. Commentaries on Equity Jurisdiction, as Administered in England and America, 2 vols. (Boston, Mass., 1835-36.

• *Emmerich Vattel, The Law of Nations; or The Principles of the Law of Nations, Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns, 1st English ed. (London, 1760). A Swiss diplomat, legal scholar, and philosopher Vattel (1714–1767) developed theories that set the foundations of modern internal law.

• #Albert Voorhies, A Treatise on the Criminal Jurisprudence of Louisiana, From the Year1805 to1858, 2 vols. in 1, (New Orleans, 1860). Voorhies (1829–1913) was a notable figure before, during, and after Reconstruction. He was a jurist, politician, legal author, slaveholder, white supremacist, and a fierce whites-only Democrat. Criminal Jurisprudence is about the criminal justice system at work in the years just prior to the Civil War. A copy is in the Law Library of Louisiana.

• *Francis Wharton, A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws, or Private International Law, Including a Comparative View of Anglo-American, Roman, German, and French Jurisprudence (Philadelphia, 1872). Educated at Yale University and admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, Wharton (1820–1889) had a varied career as an Episcopal priest, an editor, a professor of history and English, and a law professor. He published in a variety fields of law. His background in civil and canon law equipped him to write about comparative law and the conflict of laws.

• *Henry Wheaton (Elements of International Law (London, 1836).

Wheaton was the third reporter of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and the first to be appointed to the post by the court. Joseph Story and he roomed together in Washington, D.C. He became an authority in international law, which led to his writing the Elements, but unable to engage an American publisher he hired an English one who produced the first edition.

ARTICLES

• Eva Semien Baham, “A Genealogist and a Historian Walk into the Archives,” Louisiana History, 63 (2022): 389-412.
• Warren M. Billings, “Albert Voorhies: Jurist, Politician, and Author.” Unbound: A Review of Legal History & Rare Books, 14, No. 1 & 2 (2023): 39-63.
• Warren M Billings, “Constitutions of Louisiana.” 64 Parishes Encyclopedia Online (Dec.2022).
• Warren M. Billings, “James Morgan Bradford and Print Culture in Early Louisiana. Unbound: A Review of Legal History & Rare Books, 13, No. 1 (2022): 5-25.
• Warren M. Billings, “Gustavus Schmidt and The Louisiana Law Journal.” Unbound: A Review of Legal History & Rare Books, 12, No. 2 (2021): 6-19.
• Warren M. Billings, “Scandal in the Court: The Rise and Fall of Judge Rice Garland.” Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South, 24 (2017): 1-27.
• Warren M. Billings, “The Supreme Court of Louisiana at 200.” Louisiana Bar Journal, 60 (2013): 462-68.
• Warren M. Billings, “Mixed Jurisdictions and Convergence: The Louisiana Example.” International Journal of Legal Information, 29 (2001): 272-309.
• Warren M. Billings, “A Bar for Louisiana: Origins of the Louisiana State Bar Association.” Louisiana History, 51 (2000): 389-402.
• Warren M. Billings, “The Supreme Court of Louisiana and Its Chief Justices.” Law Library Journal, 89 (1997): 449-462. (Reprinted in Richard E. Baudoin et al., eds., Guide to the Louisiana Judiciary. Lafayette, La., 2000.)
• Warren M. Billings, “A Neglected Treatise: Lewis Kerr’s Exposition and the Making of Criminal Law in Louisiana.” Louisiana History, 36 (1997): 452-472.
• Warren M. Billings, “The Supreme Court of Louisiana and the Administration of Justice, 1813-1995.” Louisiana History, 35 (1996): 389–405.
• Warren M. Billings, “Confessions of a Court Historian.” Louisiana History. 35 (1994): 261-270.
• Warren M. Billings, “Edward Douglass White: Louisiana’s Chief Justice and the American Judicial Tradition,” Louisiana Bar Journal, 39 (1991): 276-80.
• Warren M. Billings, “The Origins of Criminal Law in Louisiana,” Louisiana History, 33 (1991): 63-77.
• Warren M. Billings, “The Supreme Court and the Education of Louisiana Lawyers,” Louisiana Bar Journal, 33 (1985): 74-80.
• Warren M. Billings, “A Judiciary Legacy: The Last Will and Testament of François-Xavier Martin,” Louisiana History, 25 (1984): 277-289.
• Warren M. Billings, “Louisiana Legal History and Its Sources: Needs Opportunities, and Approaches” in Edward F. Haas, ed., Louisiana’s Legal Heritage (Pensacola, Fla., 1983), 189-203.
• H. Sophie E. Burton and F. Todd Smith, “Slavery in the Colonial Louisiana Backcountry: Natchitoches, 1714-1803,” Louisiana History, 52 (2011), pp. 133-18.
• Ronald A. Fonseca, “The Supreme Court of Louisiana’s 1840 “Course of Studies for Lawyers”: Was it a Reflection of Common Law Influence on Louisiana’s Civilian Legal System?,” Louisiana History, 53 (2012): 183-226.
• Nathan Cardon, ‘“Less Than Mayhem”: Louisiana’s Convict Lease, 1865-1900, Louisiana History, 58 (2017): 417-41.
• Mark F. Fernandez, “The Rules of the Courts of the Territory of Orleans,” Louisiana History, 38 (1997): 63-86.
• Mark F. Fernandez, “State v. Mclean et al. Louisiana’s First History of Criminal Law,” Louisiana History, 36 (1995): 313-324.
• Mark F. Fernandez, “New Orleans, A Tale of Two Cities: The Legal System That Wasn’t,” Louisiana History, 51 (2010): 389-403.
• Kathy Dugas, “An Immigrant’s Journey to Wealth and Power: The Story of François-Xavier Martin,” Louisiana History, 50 (2009): 321-40.
• Elizabeth Gaspard, “The Rise of the Louisiana Bar: The Early Period, 1813-1839,” Louisiana History, 28 (1987): 183-97.
• James D. Hardy, Jr. and Robert B. Robinson, “Freedom and Domicile Jurisprudence in Louisiana: Lunsford v. Coquillon,” Louisiana History, 39 (1998): 293-317.
• Florence M. Jumonville, “‘Formerly the Property of a Lawyer’—Books That Shaped Louisiana Law.” Tulane European & Civil Law Forum 24 (2009): 161–90.
• C. Russell Reynolds, “Alfonso el Sabio’s Laws Survive in the Civil Code of Louisiana,” Louisiana History, 12 (1971): 137-47.
• Grant Lyons, “Louisiana and the Livingston Criminal Codes,” Louisiana History,15 (1974): 243-72.
• Samuel J. Marino, “Early French-Language Newspapers in New Orleans,” Louisiana History, 7 (1966): 309-21.
• Richard S. Maxwell, “Louisiana and Its History: A Discussion of Sources in the National Archives,” Louisiana History, (1972): 169-80.
• Michael J. Pfeifer, The Origins of Postbellum Lynching: Collective Violence in Reconstruction Louisiana,” Louisiana History, 50 (2009): 189-201.
• Bambra (Barb) Pitman, “Morality, Miscegenation, and Limitations on Marital Status: The 1907 Louisiana Supreme Court Case Succession of Gabisso,”
  Louisiana History, 57 (2016): 133-83.
• Judith Kelleher Schafer, ‘“Voleur de Nègres”: The Strange Career of Jean Charles David, Attorney at Law,” Louisiana History, 44 (2003): 261-73.
• Jason P. Theriot, “Oilfield Battleground: Louisiana’s Legacy Lawsuits in Historical Perspective,” Louisiana History, 57(2016): 403-46.
• Daniel H. Usner, Jr., “From African Captivity to American Slavery: The Introduction of Black Laborers to Colonial Louisiana,” Louisiana History, 20 (1979): 25-48.
• Gilles Vandal, “The Origins of the New Orleans Riot of 1866, Revisited” Louisiana History, 22 (1981): 135-65.
• Charles Vincent, “Negro Leadership and Programs in the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1868,” Louisiana History,10 (1969): 339-35.
• Carol Wilson, “Sally Muller, the White Slave,” Louisiana History, 40 (1999): 133-53.