According to legend, Baton Rouge’s name came from a notation on a map used by French explorer Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, and his brother, Jean Baptiste le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, who led an expedition up the Mississippi River in 1699. Iberville spotted a tall cypress pole smeared with animals’ blood, which apparently marked the dividing line between the hunting grounds of the Bayou Goula and Houmas Native American tribes who shared this area. When Iberville jotted “le baton rouge” (French for “red stick”) on his map, little did he know that he had named what would become Louisiana’s capital City.
The Negro slaves of the Creoles had their difficulties with French much as they did with English, and the dialect their misunderstanding made of French is called “Gumbo.”
In contrast to other Negro folk music, the “Gumbo” songs show a noticeable lack of
religious themes, preferring instead such worldly and sophisticated topics as the
amorous adventures of well-
(Excerpt from the Louisiana State Guide dated 1941, a WPA project)
