The Bringiers were among Louisiana's most prominent families during most of the 19th century. Though bits and pieces about the family and their many plantations frequently appear in studies on antebellum Louisiana and the Old South, Creole Genesis: The Bringier Family and Antebellum Plantation Life in Louisiana tells--for the first time--the story of three generations of the Bringiers, from their rise to prominence during Spanish regime until their fall after the Civil War.

The history of Louisiana is replete with many prominent personalities who were instrumental in guiding the social and political direction of the state through the portentous decades of the nineteenth century. This book undertakes an examination of a major contributor to events in Louisiana and in the South during the last century who has been largely overlooked by historians. Though some attention has been given to Duncan Farrar Kenner's Civil War exploit of undertaking a hazardous diplomatic mission to Europe during the war's final days in a last desperate attempt by the South to stave...