New Roads

History

Le Poste de Pointe Coupée ("the Pointe Coupée Post" or Cut Point Post) is one of the oldest communities in the Mississippi River Valley established by European colonists. The trading post was founded in 1719 by settlers from France. It was located upstream from the point crossed by explorers, immediately above but not circled by False River. The name referred to the area along the Mississippi River northeast of what is now New Roads. The post was initially settled by native French, as well as French-speaking Creoles born in the colony. Additional ethnically French settlers migrated down the Mississippi River from Fort de Chartres, Upper Louisiana. The colonists imported numerous African slaves from the French West Indies (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Domingue), and many directly from Africa, as workers for the plantations. Historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall discovered extensive French and Spanish documentation of the early slave trade, which provided more information than is usually available as to the ethnicity and names of individual slaves, all in the court house at New Roads. Using this and other research, she has produced "The Louisiana Slave Database and the Louisiana Free Database: 1719–1820," which is searchable online. *1729: Chevalier Henri du Loubois *1731: Jean Baptiste François Tisserand de Moncharvaux *1734–38: Claude Joseph de Favrot *1738–1742: Jean Louis Richard de la Houssaye *1742–1744: Claude Joseph de Favrot *1744–1753: Jean Joseph Delfau de Pontalba, Lt. Col.; father-in-law and attempted murderer of Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, New Orleans native who built the Pontalba Buildings and redesigned Jackson Square. *1753: Chevalier Morlière *1753–1756: Francois Artaud *1756–1759: Pierre Benoist, Sieur Payen de Noyan de Chavoy *1759–1762:…

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Rougon Elementary School
  Elementary · Rougon · 516 students · 19.1:1 ratio
• Rosenwald Elementary School
  Elementary · New Roads · 389 students · 12.5:1 ratio