Creole

The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color

Sybil Kein

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Year: 2000
• eBook ISBN: 9780807142431
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The word Creole evokes a richness rivaled only by the term's widespread misunderstanding. Now both aspects of this unique people and culture are given thorough, illuminating scrutiny in Creole, a comprehensive, multidisciplinary history of Louisiana's Creole population. Written by scholars, many of Creole descent, the volume wrangles with the stuff of legend and conjecture while fostering an appreciation for the Creole contribution to the American mosaic.
The collection opens with a historically relevant perspective found in Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson's 1916 piece "People of Color of Louisiana" and continues with contemporary writings: Joan M. Martin on the history of quadroon balls; Michel Fabre and Creole expatriates in France; Barbara Rosendale Duggal with a debiased view of Marie Laveau; Fehintola Mosadomi and the downtrodden roots of Creole grammar; Anthony G. Barthelemy on skin color and racism as an American legacy; Caroline Senter on Reconstruction poets of political vision; and much more. Violet Harrington Bryan, Lester Sullivan, Jennifer DeVere Brody, Sybil Kein, Mary Gehman, Arthi A. Anthony, and Mary L. Morton offer excellent commentary on topics that range from the lifestyles of free women of color in the nineteenth century to the Afro-Caribbean links to Creole cooking.
By exploring the vibrant yet marginalized culture of the Creole people across time, Creole goes far in diminishing past and present stereotypes of this exuberant segment of our society. A study that necessarily embraces issues of gender, race and color, class, and nationalism, it speaks to the tensions of an increasingly ethnically mixed mainstream America.

Index

Abeilard, Joseph and Jules, 220

Abolitionism, 19, 54

Acadians. See Cajuns and Cajun language

Adam, L., 224

Adams, Reginald, 280

Adams v. Routh, 49

Africa, xxi, 118, 121, 174–5, 226–42, 244–51

Afro-Caribbean links with food, xxi, 244–51

Afro-French. See Creole women of color; Creoles of color

Alard, Jean-Delphin, 76, 78, 188

L’Album Littéraire, 130

Alces, Georges, 217

Allain, Helen d’Aquin, 135

Allain, T. T., 40, 40n 106

Allen, William Francis, 138

Alliot, Paul, 21

Alpuente, François Ruiz, 220

Amistad Research Center, 150, 152, 246

Antoine, C. C., 38, 39, 127–8

Antoine, Joseph, 218

Apprenticeships, 211, 212, 298

Armande, Désirée, 190

Artists, 220–1

Atkins (Adkins), Thomas, 218

Aubry, Azelie, 221

Augier, Emile, 186

Aymard, Judith Wolf, 312–3, 312n34

Azereto family, 217

Baird, General, 276

Ballowe, Hewitt L., 144, 145–6

Banks, Nathaniel, 35, 293–4n21

Baptiste, Jean and Henri, 218

Barbers, 203, 205, 206, 306

Barès, Basile, xviii, 74, 85–8, 89, 91–2, 96–8, 198

Barès, Jean, 85–6

Barrett, Sweet Emma, 124

Barrière, Théodore, 187

Bartholemew, Dave, 124

Baser, F. C., 53

Baudin, Alphée, 218

Bauver, J., 217

Bayou John. See Doctor John

Bayou Talk, xvi

Bazanac, Joseph, 76, 80

Beaumont, Joe, 125–6, 130, 139, 140

Beauregard, P. G. T., 36n97

Beber-Gisler, Dany, 224

Bedou, Arthur P., 205

Beignets, 250

Bell, Caryn Cossé, 277, 280, 293n21

Belleville, Joseph, 218

Bellonard, Jean, 218

Beluche, René, 84

Beman, Dominick, 218

Bergel, Manuel, 218

Bernard, Raphael, 46

Bienville, Jean Baptiste, 4, 6, 12, 47, 229

Black Code, xvii, 6–7, 12, 28, 59

Black Indians, 124

Black Republican, 294n21

Blackmar, A. E., 79

Blacks. See Creole women of color; Creoles of color; Slavery

Blaine, James Gillespie, 35–6

Blassingame, John, 252, 256, 257, 257n9

Blondeau, Marie Rose, 221

Boisdoré and Goulé (free persons of color) v. Bank, 52

Bond, Horace Mann, 44

Bonseinneur, J. B. D., 219

Bontemps, Arna, 43, 44

Borders, Florence, 152, 246

Boré, Etienne de, 16

Boucicault, Dion, xviii–xix, 101–16, 104n7, 201

Bowman, Albert, 220

Bradford, John, 220

Brady, Andrew, 219

Braud, Alfred, 219

Brésil, Jules, 186

Briggs, Moses, 218

Broussard, James F., 232–3, 240

Brown, John, 278

Brown, Karen McCarthy, 165–6, 170

Brown, Sterling, 43

Brown, Wm. G., 38

Brunetti, Francis, 219

Bulkley, William L., 302, 313

Businesses, professions, and trades, xx, 53, 203, 205, 206, 208–22, 297, 303–13, 315

Butler, Benjamin, 31n80, 32–3

Cable, George Washington, xiii, 27, 61, 125, 128, 131–3, 148, 261–2

Cadot, Paulin, 46

Caillioux, André, 33n85

Cajuns and Cajun language, 12, 146, 150, 223, 225

Calas chaud, 246, 250, 309

Cam, Joseph M., 220

Campanel, Barthelemy, 214–5

Canon, Katie G., 64

Canonge family, 186, 214

Carlon, Francis, 219

Carondelet, François-Louis Hector, 215

Carriere, Noel and Joseph, 214–5

Casenave, Pierre A. D., 53, 216

Casket girls, 61

Cassagne, Verna, 266–7, 268

Castra, Hippolyte, 130

Catholicism, xxii, 7, 166–8, 293n21, 298, 305n24, 306, 315, 321–2

Catlett, Elizabeth, 44

Les Cenelles, xxiii, 131, 145, 150–1, 184, 280

Center for Black Music Research, 77, 80

Chambille, Catherine, 189

Charbonnet, Louis, 220–1

Chastang, Jean and Louison, 49

Chaudenson, Robert, 241, 242

Chaumette, John, 220

Chenaux, Beatrix, 220

Chester, T. Morris, 38

Chevalier, Everette and Alice Simon, 306–10, 306–09nn 25–28, 315–6, 316n40

Chevalle, Murville, 220

Chicory, 152

Children: of slaves, 6, 211

of plaçage unions, 68, 212–3, 256

of slave women and white men, 110, 260

and right to knowledge of paternal descent, 260, 263

and white fathers’ acknowledgment of, 260–1

Chopin, Kate, 134–5, 139

Choppin, Jules, 130

Chretien, Frank D., 9–10n23

Christ, Carol P., 157–8, 174

Christian, Marcus, xviii, 42–56, 53n26, 72, 74, 76, 83, 85, 120, 211, 220

Cigar making, 217, 303–5, 303n 20, 304n 22, 308

Civil War, 31–4, 33–34nn 84–5, 221, 301, 315

Claiborne, W. C. C, 18–23, 19n 45, 168n 14, 211, 281

Clifton-Hils, Deborah, 148–9, 151, 152

Code Noir. See Black Code

Colonial French language, 223

Colonial Louisiana. See French Louisiana; Spanish Louisiana

Colvis (Clovis) family, 213–4

Comité des Citoyens, 56, 289

Concubinage. See Plaçage

Congo Square, 26, 125, 175, 210

Constitutional Conventions, 35–6, 37, 37n 98

Cook, John F., 29–30

Cordeviola, Estevan, 213

Cordeviolle, Etienne, 213, 218

Courcelle, Achille Barthelemy, 217

Courcelle, Anna Louise, 215

Courcelle, Myrtil, 217

Coustillon, Jacques, 180n 1

Craft, William and Ellen, 300n 14, 314n 37

Creole: definitions of, xiii–xv, 7–9, 9n 23, 58–9, 73, 113, 131, 132–3, 139–40, 144–5, 147, 223–4, 256–7, 256n 8, 281. See also Creole women of color

Creoles of color

C.R.E.O.L.E. Inc., xvi

Creole Association of America, xvi

Creole Culture, xvi

Creole language: in literature, xix, 117–54, 317–24

definition of, xx, 223–6

origin of, xxi, 117–8, 223–43

African influences on, 118, 230–42

French influences on, 118, 230–3

in songs, 118–27, 138, 143–4, 145, 146–7, 148, 151, 152

earliest known written sample of, 119

of Black Indians, 124

of folklore, 126–30, 144, 145–6, 151, 152

white authors’ use of, 126–35, 144–7, 151–2

negative associations with, 127–8, 131, 136–7, 147–8, 153–4

in proverbs, 129, 133, 145, 238–9

AfroFrench authors’ use of, 130–2, 135–6, 148–51

dictionary of, 150

current rebirth of, 153–4

and linguistic diversity of slaves from Africa, 226–30

statistics on speakers of, 230

danger of disappearance of, 242, 243

future research needs on, 242–3

Creole Preservation Society of America, xvi

Creole women of color: and interracial sexual relationshi...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• I HISTORY
• II LEGACY
• Contributors
• Index