The Favrot family is among the most venerable in Louisiana, with a continuous presence there dating to 1728. From the French colonial period, through four decades of Spanish colonial rule, followed by U.S. statehood, secession, and the Civil War, and ultimately into the modern era, the Favrots have remained influential. The family's story offers a lens through which to view the complex and often-turbulent history of Louisiana. This book traces the story of eight generations of the Favrot family, with a focus on the direct line from Joseph-Claude to Henri Mortimer, Jr. The narrative is based in large parts on material from the Favrot Family Papers, which are housed at Tulane University's Howard-Tilton Memorial Library. From that foundation, the book places the family's personal experiences and observations into the broader context of Louisiana history.

This Volume VII of The Favrot Family Papers constitutes the continuation of a project that began in 1936. At that time, the Historical Records Survey of the Works Projects Administration began transcribing for publication, in chronological order, the over 2000 documents in French, Spanish and English comprising the Favrot Papers Collection, and in 1940 published the first volume of Transcriptions of Manuscript Collections of Louisiana: The Favrot Papers. Tulane University then took over that project, which was completed in 1984 with the publication of Volume XVII of the Transcriptions. After the completion of the "transcription" phase of the publication project, the next phase involved publishing modern English translations of the Favrot Papers. Volumes I through III of The Favrot Family Papers were published in 1988 and spanned the years 1695-1802. Volume IV followed in 1997, Volume V in 2001 and Volume VI in 2012; those volumes collectively spanned the years 1803-1839. Together those volumes thus document the history of the Favrot family in France and Louisiana over nearly a century and a half. Volume VII spans the years 1839-1860, from the height of the antebellum period in Louisiana to the brink of the American Civil War, concluding at the end of 1860, when the "cauldron of disunion [was] boiling" in the southern states. The editor of this volume, T. Semmes Favrot, is the first Favrot family member to serve in that capacity. In addition to documents from the existing Favrot Papers Collection housed at Tulane University, this volume is supplemented by numerous additional documents compiled by the editor from his own collection and from various other collections and archives. Future volumes will take the Favrot family story through the Civil War and Reconstruction periods to the turn of the twentieth century.