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America's Third Coast Series
Teche: A History of Louisiana's Most Famous Bayou
Recipient of a 2017 Book of the Year Award presented by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
Shane K. Bernard's Teche examines this legendary waterway of the American Deep South. Bernard delves into the bayou's geologic formation as a vestige of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, its prehistoric Native American occupation, and its colonial settlement by French, Spanish, and, eventually, Anglo-American pioneers. He surveys the coming of indigo, cotton, and sugar; steam-powered sugar mills and riverboats; and the brutal institution of slavery. He also examines the impact of the Civil War on the Teche, depicting the running battles up and down the bayou and the sporadic gunboat duels, when ironclads clashed in the narrow confines of the dark, sluggish river.
Describing the misery of the postbellum era, Bernard reveals how epic floods, yellow fever, racial violence, and widespread poverty disrupted the lives of those who resided under the sprawling, moss-draped live oaks lining the Teche's banks. Further, he chronicles the slow decline of the bayou, as the coming of the railroad, automobiles, and highways reduced its value as a means of travel. Finally, he considers modern efforts to redesign the Teche using dams, locks, levees, and other water-control measures. He examines the recent push to clean and revitalize the bayou after years of desecration by litter, pollutants, and invasive species. Illustrated with historic images and numerous maps, this book will be required reading for anyone seeking the colorful history of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
As a bonus, the second part of the book describes Bernard's own canoe journey down the Teche's 125-mile course. This modern personal account from the field reveals the current state of the bayou and the remarkable people who still live along its banks.
Shane K. Bernard's Teche examines this legendary waterway of the American Deep South. Bernard delves into the bayou's geologic formation as a vestige of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, its prehistoric Native American occupation, and its colonial settlement by French, Spanish, and, eventually, Anglo-American pioneers. He surveys the coming of indigo, cotton, and sugar; steam-powered sugar mills and riverboats; and the brutal institution of slavery. He also examines the impact of the Civil War on the Teche, depicting the running battles up and down the bayou and the sporadic gunboat duels, when ironclads clashed in the narrow confines of the dark, sluggish river.
Describing the misery of the postbellum era, Bernard reveals how epic floods, yellow fever, racial violence, and widespread poverty disrupted the lives of those who resided under the sprawling, moss-draped live oaks lining the Teche's banks. Further, he chronicles the slow decline of the bayou, as the coming of the railroad, automobiles, and highways reduced its value as a means of travel. Finally, he considers modern efforts to redesign the Teche using dams, locks, levees, and other water-control measures. He examines the recent push to clean and revitalize the bayou after years of desecration by litter, pollutants, and invasive species. Illustrated with historic images and numerous maps, this book will be required reading for anyone seeking the colorful history of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
As a bonus, the second part of the book describes Bernard's own canoe journey down the Teche's 125-mile course. This modern personal account from the field reveals the current state of the bayou and the remarkable people who still live along its banks.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
272 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2016
About the author
Shane K. Bernard
7 books25 followersA Cajun from Lafayette, Louisiana, Shane K. Bernard holds degrees in English and History from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and a doctorate in History from Texas A&M University.
Bernard serves as historian and curator to McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand products since 1868. He has appeared on the History Channel, CNN, CNBC, the BBC, and NPR, as well as in National Geographic.
Bernard lives in New Iberia, Louisiana.
His website is www.cajunculture.com and his blog is Bayou Teche Dispatches.
Click to hear him discuss his book The Cajuns: Americanization of a People on NPR's "Morning Edition".
Click to hear him discuss the history of Tabasco brand pepper sauce on NPR's "Morning Edition".
Bernard serves as historian and curator to McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand products since 1868. He has appeared on the History Channel, CNN, CNBC, the BBC, and NPR, as well as in National Geographic.
Bernard lives in New Iberia, Louisiana.
His website is www.cajunculture.com and his blog is Bayou Teche Dispatches.
Click to hear him discuss his book The Cajuns: Americanization of a People on NPR's "Morning Edition".
Click to hear him discuss the history of Tabasco brand pepper sauce on NPR's "Morning Edition".
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 4, 2017
Bernard examines this famous waterway of the Bayou country. The author delves into the geological formation of the bayou as well as the Mississippi and Red Rivers. Bernard also exams the prehistoric Native American occupation and that of the French, Spanish, and Anglo-American pioneers. The economy of the area is reviewed from sugar, including sugar mills, and riverboats. The author reviewed how the Civil War effected the area as well as the postbellum era of misery. The author covers the environmental problems of the Bayou with pollutants, garbage and invasive species.
In the second part of the book, Bernard describes his canoe journey down the 125-mile course of the Teche. The book is well written and meticulously researched. The author successfully covers a broad range of topics from the history, inhabitants, geology, agriculture, transportation and environment. I learned a great deal from this book in a most enjoyable fashion. The book makes me want to take my own canoe trip of the Teche.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is six and a half hours long. Toby Sheets does a good job narrating the book. Sheets is a voice-over artist. This is the first time I have heard him narrate a book.
In the second part of the book, Bernard describes his canoe journey down the 125-mile course of the Teche. The book is well written and meticulously researched. The author successfully covers a broad range of topics from the history, inhabitants, geology, agriculture, transportation and environment. I learned a great deal from this book in a most enjoyable fashion. The book makes me want to take my own canoe trip of the Teche.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is six and a half hours long. Toby Sheets does a good job narrating the book. Sheets is a voice-over artist. This is the first time I have heard him narrate a book.
January 25, 2022
This book is divided into two different parts: Part 1, the history of the Teche (p. 1-137), and Part 2 (p. 138-198), the author's adventure down the 125 mile Teche in a canoe with three others, a 2 day journey (47.5 hours), taken over a period of about 1-1/2 years.
I am not personally familiar with this particular area, and so find this a little dry reading, but very informative. This historian likes stats and numbers, not so exciting to read, but makes for an accurate read. He has 37 pages of notes, an impressive list of references for further research and/or reading. It's interesting to see how different historians pick up different tidbits of history that they themselves find interesting. Here's what I found interesting:
Chapter 4, The Teche During Wartime, was very interesting writing on Civil War battles that took place on the Teche between 1863 and 1865: the Battle of Fort Bisland (April 12-12, 1863), the Battle of Irish Bend (April 14, 1863)...near Franlkin, and the Skirmish at Nelson's Canal...just below, between New Iberia and Jeanerette. Looks like that's as far as the Union made it up the bayou by boat. This was focused writing that you will not see in any other history book on the Civil War because it was considered such a small battle in the whole scheme of the war. Of course, the Unions marched on through New Iberia, and through Vermillionville (now Lafayette), through Breaux Bridge to Arnaudeville where they saw where the Rebels had burned the four steamboats they had been seeking. They burned them because that was as far up the bayou they could go. It was too shallow. The rebels actually took over the southern part of the Teche again, but this time Union soldiers came back with a sense of lawlessness, burning everything in sight, stealing valuables from the women, ravishing the colored women in front of the white women and children, taking every cow, chicken pig, every ounce of food, destroying their fields of sugarcane, and all their now freed colored people. The line of goods taken was said to be over 8 miles long.
Chapter 5, Hard Times on the Bayou, provides the years of yellow fever epidemics in the Teche Country after the Civil War: 1867, 1878, 1897, 1898, and last was in 1905, but no personal accounts of what it was like. (p. 101) Maybe I can place some of my ancestors in these eras and do a little more research.
Then there were also the floods: 1867, 1874, and the worst local disaster...the flood of 1882. Forty houses in Loreauville floated away. There was no land visible from the Teche to Grand Lake, all from Midwest rains that spilled into the Mississippi that spilled over into Teche Country. But, then came the Flood of 1927 that would prove most destructive. Nearly the whole Teche Country was underwater....90,000 displaced citizens seeking temporary refuge. Refuge camps sprang up, but being new and inexperienced, typhoid also sprang up (p. 102-107). Very interesting! Which of my ancestors would have lived there in 1927?
The government would try to prevent such future flooding by changing the course of the Teche by first cleaning out the Civil War relics sunk in the bayou (16 wrecks, 82 bridge pilings, 21 "dangerous snags", 38 over-hanging trees, 106 limbs, and a raft of 191 sunken large live oak logs...p. 113), then building 2 locks and damns above St. Martinville and 1 below, making it part of the commercial traffic to New Orleans. At that time, there was not even enough water in the Upper Teche for a pirogue to travel through.
Morgan's Railroad and Texas Railroad reached New Iberia by 1879. What ancestors would have lived there at this time? The railroad transport took over within six years even at higher prices. The railroad could travel 87 miles on tracks from Pattersonville to New Orleans in under 5 hours, when it took steamboats over 5 days to manuever through 300 miles of sometimes treacherous waterways. (p. 115)
--------------------
ANCESTRAL CONNECTIONS TO BAYOU TECHE:
Just learned and realized that Leo Adam's ancestor, Bernard de Galvez, governor over then Spanish Louisiana territory in 1783, awarded land to my Acadian ancestors. Previous governor was Luis de Unzaga. So, need to refresh my memory of when exactly my Broussard ancestor was awarded land along the Bayou Teche. (p. 35)
Also, learned that my Acadian ancestors broke Dauterive's contract to raise their cattle for them and to settle on their land in return. They soon split and took their gifts of cattle with them and claimed their own pieces of land lower down on the Bayou Teche near Fausse Point, which was probably the reason Galvez determined the need to award more land to the Acadians which would help in defending the Teche Country from the encroaching British.
P. 160: Fausse Pointe, properly pronounced - FAWS PWANT
I am not personally familiar with this particular area, and so find this a little dry reading, but very informative. This historian likes stats and numbers, not so exciting to read, but makes for an accurate read. He has 37 pages of notes, an impressive list of references for further research and/or reading. It's interesting to see how different historians pick up different tidbits of history that they themselves find interesting. Here's what I found interesting:
Chapter 4, The Teche During Wartime, was very interesting writing on Civil War battles that took place on the Teche between 1863 and 1865: the Battle of Fort Bisland (April 12-12, 1863), the Battle of Irish Bend (April 14, 1863)...near Franlkin, and the Skirmish at Nelson's Canal...just below, between New Iberia and Jeanerette. Looks like that's as far as the Union made it up the bayou by boat. This was focused writing that you will not see in any other history book on the Civil War because it was considered such a small battle in the whole scheme of the war. Of course, the Unions marched on through New Iberia, and through Vermillionville (now Lafayette), through Breaux Bridge to Arnaudeville where they saw where the Rebels had burned the four steamboats they had been seeking. They burned them because that was as far up the bayou they could go. It was too shallow. The rebels actually took over the southern part of the Teche again, but this time Union soldiers came back with a sense of lawlessness, burning everything in sight, stealing valuables from the women, ravishing the colored women in front of the white women and children, taking every cow, chicken pig, every ounce of food, destroying their fields of sugarcane, and all their now freed colored people. The line of goods taken was said to be over 8 miles long.
Chapter 5, Hard Times on the Bayou, provides the years of yellow fever epidemics in the Teche Country after the Civil War: 1867, 1878, 1897, 1898, and last was in 1905, but no personal accounts of what it was like. (p. 101) Maybe I can place some of my ancestors in these eras and do a little more research.
Then there were also the floods: 1867, 1874, and the worst local disaster...the flood of 1882. Forty houses in Loreauville floated away. There was no land visible from the Teche to Grand Lake, all from Midwest rains that spilled into the Mississippi that spilled over into Teche Country. But, then came the Flood of 1927 that would prove most destructive. Nearly the whole Teche Country was underwater....90,000 displaced citizens seeking temporary refuge. Refuge camps sprang up, but being new and inexperienced, typhoid also sprang up (p. 102-107). Very interesting! Which of my ancestors would have lived there in 1927?
The government would try to prevent such future flooding by changing the course of the Teche by first cleaning out the Civil War relics sunk in the bayou (16 wrecks, 82 bridge pilings, 21 "dangerous snags", 38 over-hanging trees, 106 limbs, and a raft of 191 sunken large live oak logs...p. 113), then building 2 locks and damns above St. Martinville and 1 below, making it part of the commercial traffic to New Orleans. At that time, there was not even enough water in the Upper Teche for a pirogue to travel through.
Morgan's Railroad and Texas Railroad reached New Iberia by 1879. What ancestors would have lived there at this time? The railroad transport took over within six years even at higher prices. The railroad could travel 87 miles on tracks from Pattersonville to New Orleans in under 5 hours, when it took steamboats over 5 days to manuever through 300 miles of sometimes treacherous waterways. (p. 115)
--------------------
ANCESTRAL CONNECTIONS TO BAYOU TECHE:
Just learned and realized that Leo Adam's ancestor, Bernard de Galvez, governor over then Spanish Louisiana territory in 1783, awarded land to my Acadian ancestors. Previous governor was Luis de Unzaga. So, need to refresh my memory of when exactly my Broussard ancestor was awarded land along the Bayou Teche. (p. 35)
Also, learned that my Acadian ancestors broke Dauterive's contract to raise their cattle for them and to settle on their land in return. They soon split and took their gifts of cattle with them and claimed their own pieces of land lower down on the Bayou Teche near Fausse Point, which was probably the reason Galvez determined the need to award more land to the Acadians which would help in defending the Teche Country from the encroaching British.
P. 160: Fausse Pointe, properly pronounced - FAWS PWANT
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 14, 2020
On our journey we learned that the Teche is underutilized--perhaps a blessing, particularly for those who already use the bayou for boating, fishing, and other forms of recreation despite its "impaired" status. We also learned that, even with zealous clean-up campaigns, litter still taints the banks and blots the country lanes along the waterway. More positively, however, we discovered some stretches of the Teche to be pristine, or nearly so. Additionally, we realized that the Teche is one enormous ecosystem: that life begins, thrives, and dies in its waters and in the very ooze along its banks, from microscopic organisms to fish, turtles, and alligators.
Shane K. Bernard's examination of the Teche is rooted in his love for his roots. At times, he believes the study of the history surrounding this 125 mile Louisiana bayou is important because it provides the opportunities to talk about ancestors and relatives. He draws heavily from existent historical works (The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905, Acadiana: Louisiana's Historic Cajun Country, and Thunder Across the Swamp: The Fight for the Lower Mississippi, February-May 1863) while digging through primary documents and letters. The thought of scrolling through 19th century government reports on microfiche to verify an assumption or document an assertion gives me a headache just imagining it. Bernard worked tirelessly to produce this thin book--his passion shows.
Like Louisiana Hwy. 1, Bernard has a tendency to view the antebellum system nostalgically, referring to freed slaves as a source for "imposed major--some would say severe--changes on the Teche." Bernard even quotes several times in the course of his work an article published in the March 1886 issue of the Confederate veteran magazine Southern Bivouac, "The Teche Country Fifty Years Ago." The author, F.D. Richardson, offers this nostalgic look at the past:
There were pleasures for the Negroes about a sugarhouse unknown to cotton plantations. There is sugar cane, to begin with, and no shifty darky would be without a stalk to his mouth pretty much all the time he had to spare...
Really? Bernard notes the author "romanticized the slaves' grueling work" but never properly delineates the condition of slaves working the sugar plantations. We did not need to hear from Richardson at all, unless the goal was to show how little empathy plantation owners had for the plight of their "property." When describing his personal trek down the Teche in the second part of the book, Bernard even notes the celebratory occasion of gliding his canoe past Richard's antebellum plantation home. Bernard references the growth of white supremacist groups like the Knights of the White Camellia and quotes a lengthy harrowing inquiry into racial violence along the bayou communities, but the text presents these issues between descriptions of economic and health factors as contributing to, as the chapter notes, "Hard Times on the Bayou." Rather than taking a good long look at ourselves, Bernard argues Reconstruction policies are entirely to blame rather than ignorance and greed.
I would prefer history a little less sentimental and a lot more empathetic regarding race relations. Bernard does not white-wash his narrative, but like Anne Butler's history of Highway 1, a certain nostalgia for the "good old days" tends to result in passages which are not entirely accurate. It's difficult, but sensitivity to racial attitudes goes a long way towards providing a more grounded historical trek.
Shane K. Bernard's examination of the Teche is rooted in his love for his roots. At times, he believes the study of the history surrounding this 125 mile Louisiana bayou is important because it provides the opportunities to talk about ancestors and relatives. He draws heavily from existent historical works (The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905, Acadiana: Louisiana's Historic Cajun Country, and Thunder Across the Swamp: The Fight for the Lower Mississippi, February-May 1863) while digging through primary documents and letters. The thought of scrolling through 19th century government reports on microfiche to verify an assumption or document an assertion gives me a headache just imagining it. Bernard worked tirelessly to produce this thin book--his passion shows.
Like Louisiana Hwy. 1, Bernard has a tendency to view the antebellum system nostalgically, referring to freed slaves as a source for "imposed major--some would say severe--changes on the Teche." Bernard even quotes several times in the course of his work an article published in the March 1886 issue of the Confederate veteran magazine Southern Bivouac, "The Teche Country Fifty Years Ago." The author, F.D. Richardson, offers this nostalgic look at the past:
There were pleasures for the Negroes about a sugarhouse unknown to cotton plantations. There is sugar cane, to begin with, and no shifty darky would be without a stalk to his mouth pretty much all the time he had to spare...
Really? Bernard notes the author "romanticized the slaves' grueling work" but never properly delineates the condition of slaves working the sugar plantations. We did not need to hear from Richardson at all, unless the goal was to show how little empathy plantation owners had for the plight of their "property." When describing his personal trek down the Teche in the second part of the book, Bernard even notes the celebratory occasion of gliding his canoe past Richard's antebellum plantation home. Bernard references the growth of white supremacist groups like the Knights of the White Camellia and quotes a lengthy harrowing inquiry into racial violence along the bayou communities, but the text presents these issues between descriptions of economic and health factors as contributing to, as the chapter notes, "Hard Times on the Bayou." Rather than taking a good long look at ourselves, Bernard argues Reconstruction policies are entirely to blame rather than ignorance and greed.
I would prefer history a little less sentimental and a lot more empathetic regarding race relations. Bernard does not white-wash his narrative, but like Anne Butler's history of Highway 1, a certain nostalgia for the "good old days" tends to result in passages which are not entirely accurate. It's difficult, but sensitivity to racial attitudes goes a long way towards providing a more grounded historical trek.
July 23, 2019
Great book
This book contains a great deal of information, both historical and current, about Bayou Teche. I live in the area and have seen and crossed the Teche many times, but had no idea of its history. My only complaint is I wish the author had included more photos. That being said, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Acadiana.
This book contains a great deal of information, both historical and current, about Bayou Teche. I live in the area and have seen and crossed the Teche many times, but had no idea of its history. My only complaint is I wish the author had included more photos. That being said, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Acadiana.
February 17, 2023
Read this book for my Louisiana book club and loved it! I am recommending it to everyone who lives, or lived, in the four parishes along the banks of Bayou Teche. My father would have enjoyed it so much, and many of the people mentioned in the later chapters were friends and acquaintances of his and my grandfather’s.
December 31, 2023
Interesting book on the history of Bayou Teche - Bernard paints a picture of the Bayou that leaves you looking at it in much different light. He weaves Civil War, and Louisiana history around it with touches of Hollywood history with movies such as "The Drowning Pool" and "Easy Rider." Since I grew up in Northern Louisiana, I found it enlightening.
February 25, 2021
Great book on the history of the Teche River and people living and working on it. Starts with indigenous Louisiana cultures, Colonial age, much Civil War history in Louisiana's southern central area that I did not know, to modern times on the Teche Bayou. Great Louisiana history book.
June 29, 2021
The first two chapters are fact-filled and move at a slow pace since they discuss the earliest settlements of lower Louisiana and which European countries laid claim the territory. Once, you get past those chapters, the book is actually a nice, brisk read.
October 18, 2016
“Teche” reads like a 101 history of the bayou, yet informative. A great read for high school students—short & to the point with an adventuress ride down the "Snake Bayou".
good luck
**ARC/publisher/NetGalley
good luck
**ARC/publisher/NetGalley
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews