NATCHEZ, Miss. – Noted author and biographer Peter M. Wolf will talk about Leon Godchaux, the “Sugar King of Louisiana,” at the Tuesday, Nov. 28. meeting of the Natchez Historical Society.
The program is free to the public and will be held at the Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St. It will begin with a social at 5:30 p.m. and the presentation at 6 p.m. Members and non-members alike are invited to attend.
Wolf is the author of “The Sugar King: Leon Godchaux: A New Orleans Legend, His Creole Slave, and His Jewish Roots” (Xlibris, 2022). He is the great-great-grandson of Godchaux.
Wolf’s book tells the story of Godchaux, who arrived in New Orleans in 1837 as a “penniless, illiterate, Jewish 13-year-old from France.” Although he had hopes and dreams, he never learned to read or write in English or French. However, by the end of his life, Godchaux became the owner of 14 plantations and the largest sugar producer in the region, as well as the top taxpayer in the state, which earned him the name, “Sugar King of Louisiana,” according to Wolf’s website. Wolf noted, however, that Godchaux refused to enter the sugar business until the end of slavery.
“Although the arc of Godchaux’s life is located largely in New Orleans and the wider Louisiana, its themes, challenges, and issues will resonate with the Natchez experience of the 19th Century,” said Alan Wolf (no relation to Peter), a director of the society and its program chair. Additionally, Alan Wolf noted, two African Americans — Joachim Tassen and Norbert Rillieux — played important roles in Godchaux’s success. Tassen was enslaved and Rillieux was a free man of color and inventor.
Peter Wolf is a fifth generation native of New Orleans. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, a Master of Arts from Tulane University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from New York University.
Peter M. Wolf is author of “The Sugar King: Leon Godchaux: A New Orleans Legend, His Creole Slave, and His Jewish Roots.”
Peter Wolf’s online biography notes his research has taken him to Paris as a Fulbright scholar and to Rome as a visiting artist and scholar at the American Academy in Rome. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Tulane University School of Architecture, and as a trustee of the Louisiana Landmarks Society.
Peter Wolf is the author of many books. His titles include “My New Orleans, Gone Away, A Memoir of Loss and Renewal” (Delphinium Books Inc., 2013); “Land Use and Abuse in America: A Call to Action” (Xlibris, 2010); “Hot Towns: The Future of the Fastest Growing Communities in America” (Rutgers University Press, 1999); and “Land In America: Its Value, Use and Control” (Pantheon Books, 1981).
Peter Wolf’s biography of Godchaux, “The Sugar King,” has been widely acclaimed. Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., wrote, “Peter Wolf’s The Sugar King is an absorbing ancestral journey.” Walter Isaacson, praised the book as “a story of ambition and humility, otherness and assimilation, and the wondrous complexities of the South and America.” Lawrence N. Powell noted “There are eye-openers in nearly every chapter.”
This Nov. 28 program held by the historical society is funded in part by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information, visit natchezhistoricalsociety.org or call 601-492-3004. Emails may be sent to info@natchezhistoricalsociety.org
Comments