The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond

Louisiana ; Louisiana Creole: Léta de la Lwizyàn is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the... only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish. Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so strongly influenced by an admixture of 18th century French, Spanish, Native American and African cultures that they are considered to be somewhat exceptional in the U.S. Before the American influx and statehood at the beginning of the 19th century, the territory of current Louisiana State had been a Spanish and French colony.
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Nottoway Plantation, also known as Nottoway Plantation House is located in White Castle, Louisiana. This home was completed in 1859 for the John Hampden Randolph family. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. John was born in Virginia on March 24, 1813, and married his... wife Emily Jane Liddell on December 14, 1837. They had eleven children, including Cornelia who would later become famous for writing her diary “The White Castle of Louisiana”. Women were not allowed to publish books during this time so Cornelia used M.R. Ailenroc as her publishing name. Mr. Randolph devoted most of his time to the plantation and managing the slaves. The historic plantation home survived the American Civil War with only a single grapeshot to the far left column. Nottoway originally sat on 400 acres of highland, and 620 acres of swamp. Nottoway was completely surrounded by sugarcane fields, and oak trees. Randolph also began to compile the materials for his castle in 1855. Cypress grown at Forest Home was cut and cured under water for four years.
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Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes.... Its neighboring city is Pineville. In 2010, the population was 47,723, an increase of 3 percent from the 2000 census. Located along the Red River, the city of Alexandria was originally home to a community which supported activities of the adjacent Spanish outpost of Post du Rapides. The area developed as an assemblage of traders and merchants in the agricultural lands bordering the mostly unsettled areas to the north and providing a link from the south to the El Camino Real and then larger settlement of Natchitoches, the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. Alexander Fulton, a businessman from Washington County, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received a land grant from Spain in 1785, and the first organized settlement was made at some point in the 1790s.
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