ABSTRACT
Carroll Greene referred to New Orleans as the sole cosmopolitan center in the Old South. This seems a fair observation, based upon the checkered history of that city and of Louisiana. According to Lilian Crete, the religious Jewish community of New Orleans was so small it did not have a formal organization until 1828. That achievement may in large measure be credited to Judah Touro. The Secret Relationship devotes two pages to Judah P. Benjamin, master of 140 slaves at Bellachasse plantation, secretary of war for the Confederacy, hailed by Max Kohler as "the most distinguished statesman, orator, and lawyer that American Jewry has ever produced. The first blacks were transported to Louisiana from the coast of Guinea and Angola in July 1718 aboard vessels commanded by Captain Herpin, Sieur de Laudouine and Sieur du Colombier.
