by Carl A. Brasseaux and Alana A. Carmon

Assumption Parish was one of the original Louisiana parishes created in 1807. Acadian exiles and Isleños occupied the parish in the late eighteenth-century. Most of the Isleños were established in the portion of the parish known as the Valenzuela District. Orginally dominated by small farms, Assumption Parish was transformed into a plantation area following the introduction of sugarcane in the early nineteenth-century.

During the parish's metamorphosis, affluent Anglo Americans and large numbers of African American slaves entered the area. The Anglos purchased small landholdings and consolidated them into large plantations. Many prosperous Acadian and Isleño families eventually entered the planter class alongside their Anglo neighbors.

Assumption Parish remains an agricultural region dominated by the sugar industry. The parish's picturesque small towns and plantation homes. Madewood Plantation and Christ Episcopal Church at Napoleonville are two of Louisiana's architectural gems.