Cowbellion explores the origins of America's Mardi Gras traditions, beginning with the Cowbellion de Rakin society, the first mystic parading organization. Following the lives of Michael Krafft, the "First Cowbellion," and his family., Cowbellion tells the story of the world around them in antebellum Mobile, New Orleans and the ports of the northeast. Masked balls, Slaves, Creoles, and Yellow Fever., this was all new to the Krafft family and thousands of others who came toDeep South in the 1820's and 1830's, to be at thecenter of the booming international cotton trade.Out of their experiences, a new tradition of festivity was born."