The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971 Page: 462

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

bered the closing years of the Spanish domination." In Alabama Colo-
nel Albert J. Pickett did much the same thing in writing on that
state and its contiguous neighbors." He was followed by another ex-
cellent historian who showed more objectivity than most when dealing
with the Spanish domination of Mississippi, Colonel John Francis
Hamtramck Claiborne, a descendant of prominent colonial families
who had preserved their important papers for posterity.' In the mid-
nineteenth century, the outstanding Louisiana historian, Charles
Etienne Arthur Gayarrb, also a descendant of prominent creole set-
tlers, utilized both original and translated Spanish documents to
tell the story of Spanish Louisiana in a sympathetic manner. Most
historians agree that his volume on this era was the best of the many
works he published."
When Judge Francois Xavier Martin came from North Carolina to
Louisiana, he wrote a two-volume study of his adopted state which
he later revised, and which went through several editions. He uses no
bibliography and his style is a year-by-year chronicle of events with
no critical evaluation. Yet his account is an important source, con-
taining as it does numerous facts not readily available elsewhere.'
Peter J. Hamilton of Mobile tried in vain to discover original Span-
'Wailes, Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi[,] Embracing a Sketch
of the Social and Natural History of the State (Philadelphia, 1854). On Wailes' impor-
tance, see Robert V. Haynes, "Historians and the Mississippi Territory," Journal of
Mississippi History, XXIX (November, 1967), 412-413.
'Pickett, History of Alabama and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the
Earliest Period (2 vols.; Charleston, S.C., 1851). There is a one-volume edition published
in Tuscaloosa, Ala., 196a. On Pickett, see the excellent article by Frank L. Owsley, Jr.,
"Albert J. Pickett: Planter-Historian of the Old South," Louisiana Studies, VIII (Sum-
mer, 1969), 158-184. See also, Lang, "Nineteenth Century Historians of the Gulf States,"
1-31.
'Claiborne, Mississippi as a Province, Territory and State (Jackson, 188o). This work
was reprinted with an index, in Baton Rouge, 1964. On Claiborne as historian, see
references and comment in Haynes, "Historians and the Mississippi Territory," 413-418;
Lang, "Nineteenth Century Historians of the Gulf States," 32-log.
'Gayarr6, History of Louisiana: The Spanish Domination (New Orleans, 1854). This
work was Volume III of Gayarrd's History of Louisiana (4 vols.; New Orleans, 1854-1866).
These four volumes were reprinted in a number of new "editions," which were made
from the same plates. The author used a 190o3 reprint, which was labeled "4th edition."
On Gayarr6, see Lang, "Nineteenth Century Historians of the Gulf States," 162-255-
eMartin, The History of Louisiana, from the Earliest Period (rev. ed., New Orleans,
1882; reprinted, New Orleans, 1963). Martin's study was first published in two volumes
in 1827, probably in New Orleans. On Martin, see Lang, "Nineteenth Century Historians
of the Gulf States," 168-170, 178.

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