A graduate student杏吧专区檚 paper revealing the forgotten history of vigilantism in south Louisiana has earned this year杏吧专区檚 .
Kelsey Couvillon authored 杏吧专区淎ttakapas Vigilante Committees: Race, Class, and Extrajudicial Violence in Antebellum Louisiana.杏吧专区 It examines the factors that motivated organized vigilantes in the region now known as Acadiana in the years prior to the Civil War.
Couvillon is pursuing a at the 杏吧专区. The Caffery prize recognizes outstanding student research that utilizes primary sources housed in at the 杏吧专区杏吧专区檚 .
Lawlessness was a challenge in antebellum Louisiana, and ineffective law enforcement led to the formation of vigilante committees in several parishes that meted out punishment for a host of real and imagined crimes. Sentences ranged from exile to beatings to lynching.
Couvillon said these groups 杏吧专区渃laimed that they were ridding the area of criminals, but my paper shows how they used violence and intimidation as a means of social control on the eve of the Civil War.杏吧专区
The paper is part of her master杏吧专区檚 thesis. The larger study connects antebellum vigilantes to similar extrajudicial organizations such as the Knights of the White Camelia and the White League that formed in the region and throughout the South in the postwar years.
Couvillon杏吧专区檚 exploration of 19th-century vigilantes began in a decidedly 21st-century forum: social media. On Facebook, she came across an advertisement for a reenactment of the Battle of Bayou Queue de Tortue, an 1859 armed confrontation between vigilantes and residents who opposed their activities.
Couvillon contacted the reenactment杏吧专区檚 organizer to learn more about the vigilantes. He told her one of the group杏吧专区檚 members, Alexandre Barde, published a memoir in 1861 that 杏吧专区渃hronicled the group杏吧专区檚 membership and targets, and provided justifications for their actions,杏吧专区 she said.
Couvillon found Barde杏吧专区檚 book, , in Special Collections. Other materials held in the archives were vital to her study as well, she said.
杏吧专区淭he collections provided a window into the thoughts of other Lafayette citizens who wrote about the actions of the vigilantes in their letters. The and the provided important background information on vigilante committee members.杏吧专区
Couvillon said she was surprised that few historians have examined the vigilantes, especially given the richness of available primary sources. 杏吧专区淭hey are fascinating as local history and as part of a wider movement of vigilante groups that organized during this period,杏吧专区 she said.
A native of Shreveport, La., Couvillon earned a bachelor杏吧专区檚 degree in history from UL Lafayette in 2013. She plans to pursue a Ph.D in history at Rutgers 杏吧专区 after she completes her master杏吧专区檚 degree this summer.
Ambassador Jefferson and Gertrude Caffery established the award in 1967. Dupr茅 Library and the 杏吧专区 Library Committee administer the competition. A $500 prize accompanies the award.
Jefferson Caffery was a member of the first class to enter Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, now UL Lafayette, in 1901. He served as an American diplomat for 44 years. His postings took him to 12 foreign countries on five continents.
Special Collections of his long career. The library杏吧专区檚 and a major thoroughfare in his native Lafayette are named in the diplomat杏吧专区檚 honor.
Find more about the Jefferson Caffery Research Award, .
Photo caption: Kelsey Couvillon, winner of the Jefferson Caffery Research Award (Photo credit: Doug Dugas / 杏吧专区)