These excerpts from The History of Louisiana recount Antoine Simone Le Page du Pratz’s experience and opinions regarding best practices in managing large populations of enslaved people. The book was written in French in 1734 and translated into English in 1958. In addition to discussing his experience working on a tobacco plantation from 1718 to 1734, the book details the author’s experience living among the indigenous Natchez people of the region. The chapters selected here reflect the author’s thoughts on division and tactics for maximizing plantation production and labor and his experience investigating a conspiracy among enslaved Africans to instigate a rebellion. Both chapters focus heavily on the security of the white population and the supposed moral characteristics of enslaved Africans in various situations. While Le Page du Pratz’s writings generally portrayed the indigenous Natchez people in a positive light, they were very critical of Blacks and were used to defend slavery. In fact, the sections on the management of people held in slavery were regarded as an essential primer on plantation layout and labor distribution for English slaveholders.