The African American Experience in Louisiana, Part A, from Africa to the Civil War, Vol.

11
in the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series in Louisiana History by Charles Vincent
Review by: Loren Schweninger
Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Spring,
2001), pp. 251-252
Published by: Louisiana Historical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4233755 .
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 BOOK REVIEWS 251

THE AFRICANAMERICANEXPERIENCEIN LOUISIANA,Part

A, From Africa to the Civil War, Vol. 11 in The Louisiana
Purchase Bicentennial Series in Louisiana History, edited by
Charles Vincent (Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Studies,
1999. xii, 741 pp. Editor's dedication, about the editor,
acknowledgments, about the series, introduction to Part A, a
selective list for further reading, index. Cloth $45.00, ISBN 1-
887366-29-6).

This handsome anthology contains a wealth of information

concerning Louisiana blacks from the earliest years of settlement
(1719) to the Civil War. Written by some of the most
distinguished scholars in the field-Gwendolyn Midlow Hall,
Roger A. Fischer, Judith Kelleher Schafer, Ann Patton Malone,
Joe Gray Taylor, among others-the articles examine the Afiican
roots of the slave population, the ethnic makeup of Louisiana's
slave communities, the abortive slave revolt at Pointe Coupee in
1795, free blacks and the avenues of freedom in New Orleans,
and the French and Spanish influences during the colonial and
territorial periods. The articles also examine African American
art, literature, religion, social customs, as well as slave life in
various settings-on sugar plantations, in New Orleans, Baton
Rouge, and Natchitoches Parish. The volume includes
investigations of the unique status of free people of color, who
entered a middle ground between the slave and white
populations, and shows how a few free blacks acquired slaves
and substantial wealth. The most recent scholarship, including
fine studies by Thomas Ingersoll on black ethnic groups in New
Orleans, by Paul F. LaChance on the "Limits of Privilege" among
free persons of color, and by Kimberly S. Hanger on Spanish New
Orleans, is combined with a few articles that are not readily
available, including James H. Dormon, Jr.'s fascinating "Aspects
of Slave Management and Maintenance on a Louisiana Sugar
Plantation: Petite Anse, 1849-1860," which appeared in the
Attakapas Gazette. The volume serves as a reminder of the rich
contributions that blacks have made to the state's history and
culture as well as the many obstacles they confronted as slaves
and free people of color. It also stands as a symbol of the
remarkable legacy of Louisiana History in promoting a wide range
of scholarly research, as many of the articles first appeared in
this fine state journal.

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252 LOUISIANAHISTORY

One might think that the thirty-eight articles, conveniently

organized by editor Charles Vincent into four sections, might close
the door to future study. Indeed, just the opposite is true. By
perusing the various themes it is clear that there are many topics
that deserve further attention, including, among others, free
blacks and the courts, miscegenation, black women during the
antebellum period, interracial mixing, and types of slave
resistance. Even so, the volume will stand as an exciting
resource for those interested in the black presence in pre-Civil
War Louisiana for many years to come.

University of North Carolina at Greensboro Loren Schweninger

ADA AND THE DOC: An Account of the Ada LeBoeuf-Thomas

DreherMurderCase. By Charles M. Hargroder. (Lafayette, La.:
Center for Louisiana Studies, 2000. viii, 116 pp. Foreword,
photo essay, epilogue, index. Paper $7.50, ISBN 1-887366-35-
0).

Ada and the Doc, by Charles M. Hargroder, is subtitled An

Account of the Ada LeBoeuf-ThomasDreher Murder Case. This
short book recounts the history of one of Louisiana's most
notorious (though now mostly forgotten) murder cases, the July 1,
1927, killing of James LeBoeuf in St. Mary Parish, a crime which
culminated in the hanging of Ada Bonner LeBoeuf, the victim's
wife, and Dr. Thomas E. Dreher, his former close friend, in
Franklin on February 1, 1929. Ada and the Doc is a
chronologicalnarrative of the events from the discovery of Jim
LeBoeufs body through the double execution nineteen months
later, with most of the book devoted to the day-by-day record of
the two-week trial of Ada and the Doc, which began on July 25,
1927, barely three weeks after the discovery of the body.
In the history of the death penalty, the execution of a woman
has long been a rare event, the execution of a middle-class
woman for murder an event rarest of all. Kay Gillespie's book on
the crimes and executions of America's condemned women is
titled Dancehall Ladies, and for most of these women-members
of the underworld involved in vice, prostitution, and other crimes
(and often the consorts of criminal men as well)-the title is
appropriate.

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