by Cheryl H. White (Author), Peter Bolton Mangum (Author), William Ryan Smith (Author)
Experience the brilliant mind of a man who sacrificed his life for the people of Shreveport. From 1854 to 1873, Servant of God Father Louis Gergaud, native of Heric, France, served as a dedicated missionary priest in northeast Louisiana. These years, often fraught with hardships, culminated in his decision to offer his own life for the people of Shreveport during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1873. The narrative of his life during these years, drawn from his own letters and papers, provide insightful commentary on issues as diverse as Catholic-Protestant relations in the nineteenth century South, the economics of commerce in an expanding nation, and the social impacts of the Civil War. Most importantly, these papers provide context to understand the character of a man whose heroic virtue led him to the sacrifice of his own life for strangers.