{"id":263,"date":"2023-04-16T18:44:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T23:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/?p=263"},"modified":"2023-04-16T18:44:48","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T23:44:48","slug":"wrbp-community-radio-season-8-episode-9-louisiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/?p=263","title":{"rendered":"WRBP | Community Radio \u2013 Season 8, Episode 9: Louisiana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Season 8, Episode <\/strong>9
April 30, 2023
Theme: <\/strong>Louisiana
Playlist<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Louisiana Purchase<\/a> is often framed as a moral quandary for President Thomas Jefferson. He considered himself a strict constructionist, meaning that one must consider only the text itself when interpreting the Constitution. This had led him to oppose a national bank in the 1790s<\/a>. Yet, as President, he rationalized the Purchase as an effort to protect the citizens of the United States, since it would expand the young country\u2019s borders and ensure access to the Mississippi River and New Orleans. Farmers could settle the land and the port could be used for trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may be helpful to have some context for the negotiations of the Louisiana Purchase<\/a>. Jefferson had sent officials to France with the goal of securing New Orleans for $10 million. Napoleon entered negotiations frustrated by the loss of sugar plantations in his colonial territories, anticipating war with Britain, and looking for money. Thus, he chose to sell much more than New Orleans. The offer: $15 million for the entire territory, stretching up to modern-day Minnesota and west to land we now know as Montana and New Mexico. Representatives didn\u2019t want to miss out on the deal. So, without waiting for approval from Jefferson \u2013 a process that would have taken months in the early 19th century \u2013 representatives for the United States signed the treaty on April 30, 1803.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the territory wasn\u2019t fully France\u2019s property, nor did it become the United States\u2019 right away. The treaty first had to be ratified by the United States Congress. And then \u2013 more importantly \u2013 the United States had to secure treaties with indigenous people or take it by force. They did both. Beginning with Jefferson and continuing through President Andrew Jackson and the 1830 Indian Removal Act, the federal government\u2019s policy could be summarized by Jefferson\u2019s comments in an 1803 letter: \u201cShould any tribe be foolhardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation.\u201d While this forced displacement continued, the federal government began administering the land and people within its borders. The land south of the 33rd parallel became the Territory of Orleans<\/a>. Then 9 years to the day of the treaty\u2019s signing, the territory of Orleans \u2013 renamed Louisiana \u2013 became the 18th state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spoke earlier of the supposed moral quandary for Jefferson. I guess it is important to recognize what those in power wrestle with, and how their opinions shape their actions. But I am more concerned with the repercussions of those actions, and the state of Louisiana is emblematic of the duality of this country. We have the aforementioned evils of Indian Removal and the ever-present but not yet acknowledged scourge of slavery. There is the suffering caused by an indifferent federal government after Hurricane Katrina; the dictatorial control of Governor Huey Long eighty years prior. But there is also a history of resilience, resistance and community. The Pelican State is home to the descendants of refugees from Saint Domingue<\/a> (Dominican Creoles) and the Great Expulsion<\/a> of the mid-1700s (Acadians). From these groups intermingling with others, we have the Creole and Cajun cultures, providing the state \u2013 and, by extension, the country and world \u2013 with zydeco music, the trinity (green bell pepper, onion, celery) and The Awakening<\/a>. And jazz was born in the city of New Orleans, becoming a defining genre for this country \u2013 recognized by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on International Jazz Day<\/a>. Its date? April 30th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our theme for episode 9 of Community Radio, season 8 is Louisiana<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To participate in Community Radio, check out this post<\/a> for details.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I guess it is important to recognize what those in power wrestle with, and how their opinions shape their actions. But I am more concerned with the repercussions of those actions, and the state of Louisiana is emblematic of the duality of this country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}