Twice a year, Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens presents renowned scholars who speak about interesting and important aspects of American decorative and fine arts.
Historian and author Frances Kolb Turnbell presents a lecture on the Spanish colonial period of Louisiana history. Spanning the years 1763 to 1803, this era was one of great transition for the colony. Issues like the size and composition of its population, slavery, Indian relations, the local economy, and its place in Atlantic trade networks were all in flux. Because of Louisiana’s place in the Spanish Empire as a strategic North American border colony, the American Revolution offers a helpful vantage point from which to consider the changes that transformed the region from a fledgling colony to one on the forefront of the cotton and sugar boom of the early American period. The Revolution also offers an opportunity to understand both Louisiana’s contributions to the war and Spanish involvement in the global conflict.
A book signing takes place after the talk. Copies of Turbell's latest book, Spanish Colonial Louisiana, are available to purchase on site.
Plan Your Visit
- Admission is free.
- The lecture takes place in the Kilroy Visitor and Education Center at Bayou Bend.
- To take part in the virtual simulcast, register via the Zoom link.
- For more information, or to reserve a seat, email [email protected] or call 713.639.7762.
About the Speaker
Frances Kolb Turnbell is a historian of Early America with a specialization in the 18th century Lower Mississippi Valley. She earned her BA in history at Texas A&M University and her MA and PhD at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Spanish Louisiana: Contest for Borderlands, 1763–1803. She has also contributed to The American Revolutionary War in the West and Atlantic Environments and the American South. She is the editor of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly and teaches at the University of North Alabama.
