The True Democrat (Bayou Sara [La.])
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
792 issues from 1896 to 1919, published in Bayou Sara, Louisiana, digitised for Chronicling America.
In 1925, the Woodville (MS) Republican hailed the True Democrat of St. Francisville, Louisiana, as one of the state’s “most ably edited and most influential newspapers as well as…one of the cleanest–mechanically and otherwise.” Founded in 1892, the paper was originally published in Bayou Sara, a busy port located on the Mississippi River between Natchez and New Orleans and, at that time, the commercial hub of rural West Feliciana Parish. Settled in the late eighteenth century as part of the colony of British West Florida and governed by Spain from 1783 to 1810, West Feliciana Parish in the early nineteenth century attracted predominantly Anglo-American settlers and was one of the few areas in south Louisiana where French culture never took root.
The True Democrat’s founder, William Walter Leake, Jr. (1865-1901), co-edited the paper with his wife, May Edna Leake (1864-1925). Its initial purpose was to “make war” on the Louisiana Lottery, a private corporation that provided revenue for Louisiana but was widely regarded as a corrupting influence on state government. When the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the Lottery in 1893, the True Democrat turned its attention to promoting the agricultural and industrial interests of West Feliciana Parish. Accordingly, in 1895, it moved its office from Bayou Sara to the adjacent town of St. Francisville, a railroad-shipping center that was rapidly surpassing Bayou Sara as a place of business on account of declining river traffic.
The True…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Bayou Sara, Louisiana, United States
- Language
- English
- 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