In this state is really, really complex.

Prior to the War for Southern Independence we had free people of color who owned plantations and slaves. Some of them formed recognized military units in the War of Northern Aggression. After the Civil War, the free people of color lost more property and wealth to carpetbaggers and corrupt federal military administrations than did their white contemporaries.

Before Louisiana could enter the United States the other slaves states forced Louisiana to abandon its fluid law surrounding slavery, in which slaves could own property and marry. In which there was a graduated layering of rights based on racial mixing, somewhat like South Africa's apartheid laws. The other slave owning states lived in great fear of slave uprisings so they had a terribly oppressive system of laws to maintain a strict slave institution. Not so in Louisiana.

During Jim Crow Louisiana's non-French white majority bought into the whole southern segregation paradigm until Huey P. Long came to power. Long campaigned for black votes and relaxation of Jim Crow. Yes, Louisiana had lynchings. Mostly black men but also a white one every so often. The judicial system was so corrupt that law enforcement became a casual affair for the local population.

It's an interesting history. For insight into rural life (usually overlooked in favor of New Orleans) I suggest some stuff my friend Susan Dollar has researched and published over the years. The Spirit of a Culture: Cane River Creoles | LPB