The Opelousas Courier (Opelousas, La.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
3,995 issues from 1852 to 1910, published in Opelousas, Louisiana, digitised for Chronicling America.
Founded in 1852, the Opelousas Courier/Le Courrier des Opelousas was published in a small but historically significant town on the so-called “Cajun Prairie” of south-central Louisiana. Established in 1720 as a French trading post, Opelousas developed into a regional cattle and farming center. In 1862, during the Civil War, it served briefly as Louisiana’s capital after the state legislature abandoned Baton Rouge. In April 1863, occupying Union forces took over the Courier and edited it for a week. A shortage of newsprint resulted in it suspending publication for short periods during the war; some issues were printed on wallpaper. The 1870s and 1880s in Opelousas were marked by reactionary racial politics and a stagnating economy (according to one editorial in the St. Landry Clarion in 1908, “For a number of years Opelousas was known to the surrounding new towns, that rose like mushrooms on every side, as the ‘peaceful slumber’”). However, largely owing to railroads, the town’s population slowly grew and by 1910 had reached 4,000.
Throughout its existence, the Courier was associated with the Sandoz family. Joel Henri Sandoz (ca. 1817-1878), a native of Switzerland and formerly coeditor of the Opelousas Gazette, founded the paper with André (or Andrew) Meynier, the town mayor, and edited it for many years. He was succeeded by his son Leonce Sandoz (1844-1909). Although originally neutral in politics, in the presidential election of 1860 the Courier endorsed secessionist…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Opelousas, Louisiana, United States
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress