Happy Birthday America!

Did you know Louisiana had a role in the American Revolution?

When the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago this July 4, Louisiana Spanish Gov. Bernardo de Gálvez was ready for action. France had transferred the colony to Spain after its defeat to the British in the Seven Years’ War so Louisiana was under Spanish rule.

Gálvez arrived in New Orleans in 1777 and got to work.

The English occupied Florida all the way to the Mississippi River, the land on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, so Gálvez quietly aided American colonists fighting the British—including George Rogers Clark and Oliver Pollock, agent to the Continental Congress—by supplying them with arms shipped up the Mississippi River. Gálvez created militias with immigrants from the Canary Islands and Acadians fresh from exile by the British (you can learn more about their stories in my Cajun Series).

With the help of Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette, France formerly joined the colonists against Britain and Spain followed suit. On May 8, 1779, Gálvez made a formal declaration of war against Britain and conquered the British forts at Baton Rouge and Manchac in Louisiana, then later captured Mobile in 1780 and Pensacola in 1781, just before the American colonists took Yorktown and the British surrendered.

There are two Louisiana Revolutionary battles, plus one in Alabama and one in Florida, all fought by Cajuns, Creoles, Free People of Color, and enslaved under the flag of Spain but with most soldiers speaking French. How American is that?

Get in a Patriortic mood!

The fourth book in my Cajun Series, Delphine takes place as Louisiana enters the American Revolution and the colony enlists her privateer father and sexy rogue partner Philibert Bertrand to fight off the British.

 “Author Cherie Claire masterfully blends the challenges of history, love and loyalty in Delphine. From the grand mansions of the aristocrats of France to the marauding dangers of the high seas, this rich plot combines intrigue, treachery, and traitorous love in a riveting novel readers will not be able to put down….Delphine comes highly recommended.” —Cindy Penn, Word Wrap