In Building  the Devil's Empire, Shannon Dowdy refers to colonial Louisiana as a "rogue colony." In the context of this specific historical work, a colony is said to be "rogue" when tensions arise between the colonizer and the colonized. The colony of Louisiana and its people began to turn their backs on their "crown and country" in favor  of their own individual needs. Because the colony no longer represented the ideas and interests of France, it became "rogue." Throughout Building  the Devil's Empire, Dowdy gives the reader multiple historical characters whose ideas and experiences serve to back up the concept of Louisiana the "rogue colony,'' including not only Elizabeth Real, a New Orleans businesswoman involved in smuggling, and Nicholas Lafreniere, the Attorney General of Louisiana during the Spanish rule, but also Governor Bienville, the "Father of Louisiana."

Louisiana's status as a "rogue colony" can be traced back to its beginnings. In fact, the colony's very existence "owes more to self interested entrepreneurs such as LaSalle, Cadillac, Law, and the LeMoyne brothers than to initiatives conceived" (233) in France. When France adapted a policy of mercantilism in the colonies, making it illegal for Louisiana to trade with anyone except for France and the "Company", many of the people of Louisiana turned to smuggling. One such example would be Madam Real, a New Orleans businesswoman who had come to Louisiana from France in the 1720s

during her teenage years. Madam Real, with her second husband, built a fortune on smuggling goods into the colonies. Smuggling by individual colonists, such as Madam Real, "soon outstripped state- controlled smuggling..." (116). This caused the King and his advisors to worry about the "disorders" of the colonies, seeing as, from their perspective, smuggling was bordering on treason. Even those in power in the colonies, including many members of the Superior Council, were involved with smuggling. "By 1706, Bienville and his brother Iberville themselves had gained a reputation for smuggling and profiteering."  (115) It was obvious the colonists had become disenfranchised with the mercantilist policies of the monarchy and had turned their backs on their Atlantic home-land.

It wasn't long before the colony began operating under local interests before the interests of France. Even though the king "had never granted the Superior Council legislative powers" (196), the Council began issuing its own ordinances in the colony during the mid 1730s. When Louisiana switched into Spanish hands, the colony "launched the ultimate disorder by revolting against the new Spanish governor." (31).

Nicolas Chauvin de Lafreniere, the son of a Canadian voyageur, had inherited his father's place on the Superior Council at the age of 21in 1749, and in 1763 he reached the powerful position of Attorney General for Louisiana. When the colony was under the rule of the Spanish Governor Ulloa, Lafreniere helped incite a rebellious spirit in the colonists through anonymous petitions and manifestos, and in 1768, Ulloa was expelled from the colony. This was a complete disregard for the "powers that be" and is an extreme

example of the rogue nature of Louisiana.