Louisiana's Florida Parishes
Those portions of Southeast Louisiana north of the Bayou Manchac-Amite River-Lake Maurepas-Pontchartrain and -Borgne confluences, south of the Thirty-first degree North latitude, east of the Mississippi and west of the Pearl River are popularly styled the Florida Parishes. Owing their curious communal name to the British, Spanish and American military occupation of 1764, 1779 and 1810 respectively, the eight modern parishes of East Baton Rouge, West Feliciana, East Feliciana, St. Helena, Livingston, Tangipahoa, Washington and St. Tammany maintain a distinct regional identity linked by geography and a peculiar common history
Only the Florida Parishes
· boasts association with every major colonial power occupying Louisiana.
· remained separate and distinct from the original Louisiana Purchase.
· shaped its own destiny through an armed insurrection successfully overthrowing the existing government and leading to the establishment of an independent nation, the original "Lone Star Republic" of West Florida.
· witnessed fierce feud-related violence earning the ominous distinction as home to some of the highest rural homicide rates ever recorded in American history.
The following are some of the flags have flown over the Florida Parishes:
Royal Spanish flag of Castile and Leon
French Fleur de lis Royal Flag
Spanish national Flag
U.S. flag (1795-1818)
Flag of the West Florida Republic, 1810
Louisiana Secession flag, 1861
First Confederate national flag
Louisiana state flag