Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.

You.

Hi everyone.

I'm Christina Jensen, and I'm Johnny Atkinson.

Welcome to Summer SWI.

This week we are celebrating the July 4th holiday and the 250th anniversary of America.

While America's fight While America's fight for independence largely played out in the northeast, well, we've played a key role by helping funnel supplies to American troops.

I sat down with LPB education specialist Katie Stark, who has helped create a wealth of resources to educate kids about how Louisiana helped in the fight for freedom.

Joining me now is Katy Stark, Education Specialist for LPB.

You are here to talk about America 250 and Bernardo de Galvez.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me.

We're so excited to share.

You've been researching Galvez for quite some time now.

For people out there who don't know, who was he?

So to answer that, he was a Spanish governor of Louisiana.

And he was very instrumental in helping and aiding the Americans in the American Revolution.

To go a little bit deeper into that, there's a little bit of a history and a geography lesson that has to happen there.

You have to understand that at the time of the American Revolution, Louisiana was a Spanish colony.

That's why we had a Spanish governor.

At that time, it was Bernardo de Galvez.

But right across the Mississippi River was British territory, because at that time Florida was British Florida, and the panhandle of Florida didn't stop where it does today.

It come.

It came all the way to the Mississippi River.

So literally where we're sitting right now.

This was part of British territory.

And there were British forts in this area.

So there was a British fort in Baton Rouge.

There was one Manchac.

Mobile was also in British territory.

There was a British fort there and Pensacola and Galvez before, he directly fault in the American Revolution by fighting battles and all of these forts that I mentioned.

He was secretly aiding the American patriots with supplies, ammunition, that sort of stuff.

Once Spain openly got involved in the war and he could go into the battle, he, gathered troops from around Louisiana and even recruited troops from the Spanish Canary Islands.

And from his hometown in the Malaga region of Spain, to fight in these battles.

They marched out of New Orleans.

They marched towards Manchac.

They won that battle.

They won the Battle of Baton Rouge.

Later on, they went to Mobile, won that battle, and they won Pensacola as well.

So basically, he was successful in every battle that he went into, during the American Revolution and captured all of these key British forts.

As you're researching him, did you come across any facts that you found surprising, interesting?

So, yes, I learned a lot of really interesting things.

I think people would be interested to know some specifics about the battle of Baton Rouge.

He sent he he was a great military strategist.

He sent a detachment of men to make a bunch of noise north of the British for at Baton Rouge, to make the British think that he was going to attack from that direction.

Meanwhile, he was really prepping his cannons and his forces from the opposite direction.

So in the morning that he attacked, the British had turned all of their cannons the wrong direction, and it was too late.

Once Bernardo de Galvez and the Louisiana troops started attacking the British fort, they couldn't turn their cannons around and they had no option but to surrender.

So, that was that was kind of a neat discovery when I was researching the battles.

And then I was really surprised by how much he was really recognized and honored and has been kind of throughout history by the United States.

A lot of people don't know that, Washington George Washington's inauguration, he had Galvez as the Galveston fire cannon salutes as part of his inauguration in 1789.

Yeah.

And then much later, in 2014, President Obama signed legislation to make him an honorary citizen.

You know, remembering his role in the American Revolution.

I I want to talk about, as we approach America's 250th anniversary, why is it so important to tell his story right now?

So I think it's important because a lot of people, when they think about the American Revolution, we think of the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre and all of the battles and events that happened in the original 13 Colonies.

People think of Boston.

They think of Philadelphia, but they don't think of battles happening right down here in Louisiana.

What is Louisiana today and in the Gulf South?

And so it's important for people, especially Louisianans, to realize this isn't a story that happened somewhere else.

We had battles that happened right here in our area.

So it's our story.

It's not, you know, it's not just the nation's story.

Now, you've compiled a list of educational resources for teachers, parents and students about this portion of history.

What can people expect?

So we created a project called Louisiana's Hidden History Spanish Louisiana in the American Revolution, that has four videos as part of this package.

The first video is called Who Was Bernardo de Galvez?

So it kind of builds up and tells you a little bit how did we become Spanish and how did we get a Spanish governor and tell us a little bit about his background?

The second video is about his mission to control the Mississippi River, so that focuses on the Battle of Manchac and the Battle of Baton Rouge.

The third video is about his mission to control the Gulf of Mexico that focuses on the Battle of Mobile and Pensacola, and then finally his legacy, which talks about some of those things that I just mentioned with, him being recognized during Washington's inauguration.

And then much later in 2014 with his portrait and being an honorary citizen.

Well, let's go ahead and take a look at one of those videos.

In June of 1779, after forming an alliance with France, Spain declared war on Great Britain.

Spain was no longer supplying secret aid to the Americans.

They were going into battle, and Galvez would be leading the action.

Great content.

Where can people access those?

So you can access everything.

Of course you can go to lpb.org.

And we've got links there.

But the website that all of the materials are on is PBS Learning Media.

It is a totally accessible to everyone at no cost website, so that's where you can access the materials.

They're all in a collection called Louisiana Hidden History.

One thing that we're really excited about, we want to make sure that we get this into the hands of as many educators around the state of Louisiana as possible.

These videos were created with sixth graders in mind because that's where they learn about Galvez.

That's where it falls in their curriculum.

But really, learners of all ages can learn from the videos and learn from the lesson activities that we have in their, in the collection.

We're having teacher learning events to make sure teachers know how to do them, and the materials have been very well received.

Teachers are so excited they've left these learning events.

Just really excited to implement these in their classrooms next year.

Well, thank you for all of your hard work.

The content materials look great.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thank you.

The revolution was also a turning point in the treatment of enslaved people in Louisiana.

Revolutionary leaders promised slaves freedom if they agreed to join the battle.

I sat down with LSU professor Doctor Andrew Sluyteir to explain.

Doctor Sluyter thank you so much for joining us.

It's a pleasure.

So I want to talk about Louisiana's role in the American Revolution.

Our nation soon going to celebrate 250 years of independence.

Louisiana sometimes gets overlooked.

How did we contribute to the war?

Well, yes.

That's exciting.

And, we do get overlooked in the national picture, that's for sure.

We were a British colony.

At least part of us Florida parishes were part of British West Florida, just like, the original 13 colonies were British colonies.

We had patriots here.

There's some very well known patriots.

All over Pollock who helped to supply George Washington's army.

Robert Morris, a founding father, owned a plantation in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Pollock owned the plantation that's now Magnolia mount plantation.

James Willing, who conducted a raid down the Mississippi River from Pittsburgh on a boat called the Rattle Trap.

He owned a plantation in the area which is now College Drive.

So we had patriots here.

We became an important supply.

Wrote the Atlantic ports were blockaded by the Royal Navy of Britain.

So New Orleans as a neutral port.

Spain didn't enter the war until June 1779.

Became an important supply route.

Oliver Pollock could live in New Orleans and finance and purchase guns and gunpowder and ship them up the Mississippi River to the Ohio River to Fort Pitt, to supply Washington.

At Fort Valley Forge.

We were in a strategic location.

Oh, very, very.

Yes.

All because Spain was neutral at that point.

Spain was no friend of the British.

They were helping us largely, probably because they hated the British.

So, the British had had, built forts in East Baton Rouge Parish.

They had Fort New Richmond and Baton Rouge.

They had Fort Bute just downstream from Baton Rouge and another fort at Natchez, I want to talk about.

When Spain entered the war, they were helping the Americans from Louisiana.

How did that work?

the Spanish governors in New Orleans, they turned a blind eye to, Pollock's operations.

He was, raising money, buying supplies, shipping them up the up the Mississippi in the Ohio to Fort Pitt.

And they condoned that.

Then when Spain entered the war in June of 1779, Galvez thought he had better attack the British before they attacked him.

So first he marches army, which included a lot of Louisiana militia, up the Mississippi River, took Fort Butte and by a letter to, Fort New Richmond at Baton Rouge, and demanded the surrender of fort were at Natchez at well as well, after that he assembled an even bigger army.

The next year, 1780, and took mobile.

And then the next year he took Pensacola.

I want to talk about his army and his diverse army.

How was it so diverse?

What did he do so differently?

He had I think it was 520 Spanish troops, 140 militiamen from New Orleans, 80 of whom were free black militiamen.

And then he had about a couple of dozen enslaved Louisianans who were throwing his cannons, his his his cannonballs, his gunpowder up the Mississippi River to East Baton Rouge Parish, along the way, during the march, I think took something like 11 days to get from New Orleans to five man shack.

He picked up all kinds of militia band along the way.

People of German descent, Spanish, French descent, indigenous allies.

And so over time, he got to Fort Beauty at something like, 1500 men, And he was quite pivotal in the war, and so were the free black militias.

Can you talk more about the important role that they played?

Yes, certainly.

Well, after the Battle of Baton Rouge, when he takes Fort Richmond, he actually, Awards.

Them bonuses on top of their militia pay, the free black militia, and he awards medals to Simon Calvert, their captain, and all of his, lieutenants.

So they must have played a pivotal role in that, in that battle.

The reason there were so many free black militia was because you're Spanish times.

The number of free blacks in Louisiana and Louisiana grew very quickly.

Spanish law was much more, favorable towards freeing enslaved people than either French or British law.

So by 1777 or something like, you remember these, 18,000 people living in Louisiana, Spanish Louisiana, half of them are enslaved and there's about 500 leave says the free blacks were called the next year.

He knows he needs to assemble an even bigger army to take mobile in Pensacola.

That's where the British are really dug in with all the troops and naval support.

And, he, he knows he needs to recruit more enslaved Louisianans to participate in the fighting.

So he starts offering, freedom.

If they fight, they will get their freedom.

After the battles, those those promises were largely read, thank God.

Unfortunate.

Why do you think this part of history is so often overlooked?

I think it's just simply a more complicated, part of the war than what happened along the Atlantic coast?

Possibly.

So do you have any closing thoughts on this subject?

Well, I think, nationally, we should celebrate Louisiana's roll more, we were partially a British colony as well.

We fought, a diverse Louisiana and fought for freedom.

And I guess if I think anything about it, it's that diversity and freedom go together.

One requires the other.

And Louisiana is who fought in the revolution for all kinds of motives.

Probably.

We're a diverse bunch.

And what a great time to highlight Louisiana as our nation is about to celebrate 250 years of independence.

Yes.

For sure.

Well, thank you so much for joining us, Many members of Galvez militia included Louisiana Creoles, as well as native Louisiana, who hoped to secure their place in the new nation.

I visited the Creole Heritage Center at Northwestern State University to learn more.

Louisiana's Creole identity is built on a lot of different roots, going back to 1714, and a combination of French, Spanish, West African and Native American.

And now our Creole customs and traditions are being honored as the Northwestern State University's Creole Heritage Center.

Well, the Creole Heritage Center is located in Northwestern State University, and, we're a component where we're helping people, you know, identify their Creole roots.

Kelly Jackson represents the center at major cultural events to promote their public programing and all of their educational opportunities.

We would like to preserve the past so that the future can know what, what was and what would can be in the future.

Doctor Pete Gregory is a renowned professor of anthropology and a historian whose research helped establish the center in 1998.

So back in 1776, Louisiana played a big part in the Revolution.

A big part.

Mainly because Spain, closed down the British forts on the Mississippi.

That's where they cut off the basic support system for much of the American Revolution.

So although Louisiana was not one of the original 13 Colonies, Louisiana played a significant role in the American Revolution by cutting off access to the Mississippi River.

And so Louisiana at that time belonged to Spain and had belonged to France before that.

And so Louisiana comes into it kind of from a foreign perspective.

Today, the deep history of the origin of Louisiana is being kept alive at the Creole Heritage Center.

We have a lot of information that's been given to us by individuals who have done, research on their families.

So sometimes we're able to get some clues from those documents as well.

Acting like a time machine and preserving Louisiana Creole history.

They offer specialized hands on resources specifically designed to help individuals research and document their personal family history.

One of the big functions is a massive database to help people track down their roots.

We have a research library.

So when people come here, they can look up whoever their family names are.

So you can actually document someone's heritage in Louisiana.

Can you do me?

We can do you and I have found some things on your family.

And my grandfather was Floyd Meaux Well, let's try and put Floyd here.

Oh, and his wife was Ruth, so that Alright, will let█s go over here Floyd Sanford Yeah.

These are all my aunts and uncles, my mom.

But Mary Brenda's.

Yeah.

By documenting personal roots to preserve the family history.

The Creole Heritage Center protects cultural traditions and gives future generations a strong sense of identity and belonging.

When you're on FamilySearch, you can put in your name.

Right here is the first name and the last name, the birthplace.

And the year from our to the death.

And so that's the basic information that you used to start trying to trace your family roots.

People from around the world can contact the Creole Heritage Center and uncover their Cajun roots, tracing historic family names back to historic Creole colonies and their long lost Louisiana cousins.

Another famous place is the Saint Augustine Catholic Church, founded in 1829 by Augustine Metoyer, a prominent free man of color.

It's actually the first, Catholic church built for and by, people of color in Louisiana.

It█s absolutely an important part of, Louisiana history and Creole, history.

The Natchitoches area combines a heritage of French, Spanish, African, and Native American cultures, all blended to create the unique cane River Creole heritage Natchitoches is one of the is the oldest permanent settlement.

It's not the first settlement, but it's the first permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase.

There are recordings of Grandma█s and Grandpa's telling old school stories, so they will never be lost or forgotten.

The stories I got were from my grandmother and my great uncles and aunts.

Lots of memories are being kept alive at the Heritage Center.

Like the original forms of cotton.

So why was cotton so common in Louisiana?

Mainly the climate.

The land was good and the cotton brought a great price.

And the product and the cotton was shipped first back to Europe, and then it was shipped to the northeast, turned into cloth.

The Heritage Center celebrates the mix of our Creole culture coming from many different parts of the world.

So what's the difference between a Cajun and a Creole?

Creole has been here longer.

Isn't that the Creole families are descended from colonial families that were here before the Cajuns got here.

What's the difference between Creole and Cajun is very complicated.

And if you ask ten different people, you're probably going to get ten different answers.

The Creole Heritage Center is a unique celebration of the unique people and the culture, and the music that makes Louisiana special.

Our mission is to advocate, educate, and preserve the value of Louisiana Creoles so that everyone, in the United States and across the world can see who we are.

Even some of Louisiana's biggest Mardi Gras crews got into the patriotic spirit earlier this year.

The crew of Bacchus blended the traditional purple, green and gold with the red, white and blue and honor of America's 250.

I got to tour the Bacchus den to see some of the incredible floats ahead of their Mardi Gras debut.

The Krewe of Bacchus has long been known for its extravagant super floats, but this year they are unveiling a very special theme commemorating the country's 250th anniversary.

This is where the floats are put together for the Krewe of Bacchus Mardi Gras parade.

Let's go take a look.

These floats show a lot of history.

Yes.

So tell me some of the history here.

We have American sports over here.

This float over here, we have Henry Ford and the automobile.

The next float is.

Give me your tired, your poor poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty.

We have prohibition.

And this float over here.

The float back there with Sandra Day O'Connor is pioneering women there.

Floats also marked times in history like integration in New Orleans.

Ruby bridges going to school and manifest Destiny America from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.

Over here we've got various inventions.

The light bulb, the telephone, the movies.

We've got the space race over here.

And of course, we've got pockets on the landing shuttle right there.

Then we've got, American, aviation.

Everything from the Wright brothers on back to the space shuttle in the rear there.

We've got the robber barons over here.

Carnegie, Rockefeller and so forth like that.

We've got the transcontinental railroad, which tied the East and West coast together.

These elaborate floats are not simple.

Sculpting of the massive props is done with styrofoam sheets from 4 to 6in thick.

And the sculpted foam is then covered in a paper maché for extra strength.

Floats are then painted fresh to ensure the colors are vibrant.

Now, this is the new, invitation for this year.

We're celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States.

So I have the years there.

You open it on up, and then we have an Uncle Sam, which has got a very Bacchus looking face in here.

And it says, I want you and you open it up further to have a great time.

And here it's I want you to attend Bacchus.

So, we've got, of course, the liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the American Eagle, the Declaration of Independence.

And it's all red, white and blue with the stars all around it and so forth like that.

And every year we do a separate one for the theme.

It's not just the floats that will be honoring America.

The riders on board will be throwing out more than just traditional Mardi Gras beads.

They'll also toss out red, white and blue themed throws, many of them designed to be more environmentally friendly.

So it's not just beads anymore.

You got a lot of other stuff.

Beads are a very, very small component of what we do, but ten years ago we really decided to go sustainable.

We wanted people to take it home because what was happening is in New Orleans, as you well know, the beads, the junk was going into the drains, sticking in a tree, staying in trees, clogging up all the city sewers.

And we said, this is not what we're supposed to be doing.

And so this year we've got over 250 sustainable throws, which these are these are things that if a kid catches us, he's taking it home.

He's not leaving it.

The Krewe of Bacchus parades will be throwing all kinds of things out of these floats, including 250,000 pairs of socks.

I really like these.

These are Mardi Gras special socks.

Tell me about these.

So this is one of the 47 different pairs of socks.

And the only float you're going to catch from is the King's float right behind us.

No other float will have these.

And of course, they're all thrown as pairs.

Yeah.

So you don't get the whole pack.

You get a pair of them.

And in the official Mardi Gras color.

That's right.

This is the scrubbers to clean your pots and pans and plates in your kitchen.

And these are purple, green and gold tongs again to use in your kitchen.

And of course we also have your grocery bags that you use in the grocery store.

Everybody wants to go into the grocery store with their own bags.

We're throwing those as well.

Yeah.

And they also they need bags.

Since they're catching all these.

That█s right.

The Bacchus parade dates back more than 50 years, and it's one of the most popular parades during the biggest weekend of Mardi Gras.

Bacchus started in 1968.

Carnival had taken a real nosedive.

The hotels were empty.

The hippies had taken over the French Quarter.

People did not want to come to New Orleans.

Robby Cangelosi has been working with Bacchus for decades, watching them grow to now crowds in the hundreds of thousands.

Carnival is the greatest free show on Earth.

It's not free at all.

It's very expensive to produce.

It's the riders of the crew of Bacchus that pays to make this happen.

The Mardi Gras parade floats will be some of the most beautiful in history.

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country.

That's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything LPB anytime, wherever you are with our LPB app, and you can catch LPB news and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs that you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook, X and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Christina Jensen and I'm Johnny Atkinson.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend.

Till next time.

That's the state we're in.

Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and by Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.

Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.