Point Coupee is the name of an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

located in Pointe Coupée Parish,

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, United States. It is the home of St. Francis Chapel and is located along Louisiana Highway 420, north of

New Roads New Roads (historically french: Poste-de-Pointe-Coupée) is a city in and the parish seat of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, United States. The center of population of Louisiana was located in New Roads in 2000. The population was 4,831 at the ...

History

The community was founded in the 1720s by French colonists. It is one of the oldest European/western communities in the

Mississippi River Valley The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the fluvial sediments of the Mississippi River Delta to its conflue ...

. Originally, it was called ''Le Poste de Pointe Coupée'' (the Pointe Coupée Post or Cut Point Post). About 1776, a ''chemin neuf'' (new road) was built to connect the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

with False River. The area has since been known as New Roads and is the basis for naming the town of New Roads. The Saint Francis Chapel at the Point Coupée settlement was originally completed in 1728. A new church building was constructed in 1760, but built too close to the Mississippi River. Flooding unearthed graves and the church was taken down, and a smaller version was erected using materials from the previous church. This newer structure was dedicated in 1895. The church is known as the fourth-oldest continuously operating

Catholic church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in Louisiana. St. Francis Chapel is now a mission church of St. Mary's of False River. The town of St. Francisville, on the opposite (east) side of the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, is named for the St. Francis Chapel. In 1792, when this area was part of New Spain, the Spanish suppressed the

Mina Conspiracy Mina may refer to: Places Iran * Minaq, East Azerbaijan * Mina, Fars * Mineh, Lorestan Province * Mina, Razavi Khorasan * Mehneh, Razavi Khorasan Province United States * Mina, California * Mina, Nevada * Mina, New York * Mina, Ohio * M ...

near

and four years later, during the Easter holiday, they suppressed a

slave insurrection A slave rebellion is an armed uprising by enslaved people, as a way of fighting for their freedom. Rebellions of enslaved people have occurred in nearly all societies that practice slavery or have practiced slavery in the past. A desire for freedo ...

near Point Coupée, which became known as the Pointe Coupée Conspiracy That led to 23 heads of decapitated rebels being displayed on the road to New Orleans, and 31 additional slaves were flogged and sent to serve hard labor in other Spanish outposts.

References

, is the parish seat. Unincorporated communities in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana Baton Rouge metropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Louisiana {{Louisiana-geo-stub

History

See also

References