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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Iberia Parish, Louisiana.
Official Website
Iberia Parish was created in 1868.
This territory was part of the sugar parishes, where sugar cane plantations were developed along the waterways before and after the Civil War. Sugar cane was a lucrative commodity crop for planters. Relations between whites and blacks were troubled after the Civil War, as whites sought to dominate freedmen, by violence and intimidation if necessary.
There was intense political factionalism in Louisiana. Iberia Parish had factions split among conservatives and those who were more moderate about the status of Negros. Moderates sometimes allied with the republican creoles and whites in the parish. But in 1884 white Democrats murdered 28 blacks, in a kind of political lynching, and arrested white Republicans to regain power in Iberia Parish. In contrast to northern Louisiana, residents otherwise seemed to rely more on the formal legal system, with fewer mob lynchings.
In the late 19th century, there was often a labor shortage on the sugar plantations. Planters recruited thousands of Italian immigrants as temporary laborers, many Sicilians who had first settled in New Orleans. They were needed during the fall harvest and processing season, which extended from October to January. The Italians became part of the volatility of social relations, struggling to make their way between planters and Negros workers, and competing with other workers for jobs.
The parish economy changed markedly in the 20th century after the discovery of oil. The Port of Iberia was developed into an industrial center.
Adjacent Parishes
- Assumption Parish
- Iberville Parish
- St. Mary Parish
- St. Martin Parish
- Lafayette Parish
- Vermilion Parish
Cities, Towns, Villages & Communities
- Avery Island
- Bob Acres
- Delcambre (part)
- Emma
- Jeanerette
- Loreauville
- Lydia
- New Iberia (Parish Seat)
- Olivier
- Rynella
Cemeteries
Links
National Register of Historic Places
Shell Keys National Wildlife Refuge
UL Center for Louisiana Studies
