The former church that’s home to the exhibit was sold several years ago after it was decommissioned by the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana due to lack of members. It also got a grant from the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park of the National Park Service. The project is funded by a grant from American Slavery’s Legacy Across Space and Time, a project of the nonprofit Social Science Research Council. “I thought, ‘We’re going to make an exhibit’” she said. Hambrick said the Georgetown archives include plenty of information about the 272 enslaved people, but local residents wouldn’t necessarily know where to find it. In the future, the exhibit will be available to see by appointment, by calling the River Road African American Museum at 22.
Viewing of the exhibit, which includes permanent panels of information and virtual links to information from the Georgetown Slavery Archives, followed a program that included a reception. It’s that connection that inspired Hambrick to choose the church as the site of the exhibit.Ī formal opening was held Saturday. Johnson co-founded the Episcopal Church of Ascension in Donaldsonville and donated the property where the church was built. One of the planters was Henry Johnson, who was Louisiana governor from 1824 to 1828.
The Jesuit order formally apologized in 2017 to the descendants of the enslaved. The largest city in Ascension Parish, Gonzales, is celebrated as the "Jambalaya Capital of the World".The name of the exhibit is “GU272 and Ascension Parish: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.” That references 272 enslaved people who Georgetown University’s Jesuit founders sold to two Louisiana sugarcane planters in 1838 to pay off the university’s debts. This is exhibited by the prevalence of the French or Cajun French language heard throughout the parish, as well as the many festivals celebrated by its residents, including the Boucherie Festival, Lagniappe Music and Seafood Festival, Crawfish Festival, and the world-famous Jambalaya Festival. Trump.Ascension Parish is one of the 22 parishes that make up Acadiana, the heartland of the Cajun people and their culture. Amant by then-presidential candidate, Donald J. 15,000 homes and businesses took on water, mostly in the Galvez-St. Winters in his The Civil War in Louisiana (1963).During the historic 2016 Louisiana Floods, around one-third of all homes in Ascension Parish were flooded. to whatever could be found," explains the historian John D. Union soldiers were accused of "wandering about at will, and helping themselves. Hodges requested soldiers to protect the planted fields from such attacks. Tammany, and Ascension parishes.Planters in Ascension Parish later complained of raids by guerrillas.
There were some 1,200 deserters in Livingston, St. Henry Watkins Allen, before he was governor, reported more than eight thousand deserters and draft-dodgers about Bayou Teche. They settled among the Houma Indians who lived in the area.Īmong the projects and plans carried out by Luis de Unzaga 'le Conciliateur' while he was governor of Louisiana between 17 was the promotion of new settlements by Europeans, among them were French Acadians and Malaga in the fertile Mississippi region and more specifically in the Unzaga Post or 'Puesto de Unzaga' that he created in 1771 in Pointe Coupee, the parish of Saint Gabriel in 1773 and Fort Manchac in 1776 the Ascension people occupied land at the confluence of the aforementioned European settlements.During the American Civil War, desertions had been of major concern to the Confederate States Army. It is one of the fastest-growing parishes in the state.Įarly European settlers of the area that was developed as Ascension and Gonzales were, for the most part, of French and Spanish ancestry. The parish was created in 1807.Ascension Parish is part of the Baton Rouge, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 107,215. Some of the cities, towns, and places in Ascension Parish are Aben, Acy, Barmen, Barton, Belle Helene, Bowden, Brignac, Brittany, Brusly McCall, Bullion, Burnside, Cofield, Cornerview, Darrow, Donaldsonville, Duckroost, Duplessis, Dutchtown, Galvez, Geismar, Gonzales, Hillaryville, Hobart, Hohen Solms, Hope Villa, Lake, Lemannville, Little Prairie, Marchand, McElroy, Miles, Modeste, Mount Houmas, Noel, Oak Grove, Palo Alto, Philadelphia Point, Prairieville, Saint Amant, Saint Elmo, Smoke Bend, Sorrento, Southwood, Weber CityĪscension Parish (French: Paroisse de l'Ascension, Spanish: Parroquia de Ascensión) is a parish located in the U.S.