DOCUMENT RESUME ED 260 005 SO 016 730 AUTHOR Allain, Mather Comp.; TITLE Brasseaux, Carl A.,Comp. A Franco-American Overview.Volume 6. Louisiana. INSTITUTION National Assessmentand DisseminationCenter for Bilingual Education,Cambridge, Ma.s.; National Materials DevelopmentCenter for French and Portuguese, Bedford, N.H. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education,Washington, DC. REPORT NO ISBN-0-89857-220-7 PUB DATE Mar 81 NOTE 226p.; For the otherrelated volumes in this see SO 016 725-729. series, PUB TYPE Historical Materials (060)-- Viewpoints (120) Collected Works- General (020)
EDRS PRICE MF01/PC10 PlusPostage. DESCRIPTORS Biculturalism; Black History;Blacks; Civil War (United States);Colonial History (UnitedStates); *Cultural Influences;Cultural Pluralism;Culture; Education; Ethnic Groups;Immigrants; Land Settlement; Peace; Politics;Slavery; Social History; Social Studies; Subcultures; IDENTIFIERS United States History Acadians; *Franco Americans;Freedom; French Creole; French Culture; *Louisiana;Louisiana (New Orleans); United States (South) ABSTRACT Intended to help readersdevelop an appreciationof the contributions ofFranco-Americans to the United States, this cultural heritage of the book, the sixth of sixvolumes, presents 26 chapters representing many perspectives--from thehistorical to the sociological--illustrating thethinking and feelings forefront of Franco-American of those in the studies. This volumefocuses on Franco-Americans in Louisiana.The following readingsare presented: "From Subjects to Citizens"(George. W. Cable); "Ball (William C. C. Claiborne); Room Brawls" "Peace and Harmony?"(William C. C. Claiborne); "NewOrleans in 1838" (HarrietMartineau); "French Immigration and theBattle of New Orleans"(George W. Cable); "Political Reinforcementsof Ethnic Dominance inLouisiana, 1812-1845" (Joseph C.Tregle, Jr.); "The RuralFrench: Acadians, Creole, and Blacks" (W. H. Sparks); "Whoare the Creoles?" (GeorgeW. Cable); "Alexis deTocqueville in New Orleans W. Pierson); "A Louisiana January 1-3, 1832" (G. Sugar Plantation" (CharlesGayarre); "Madame Lalaurie: AContemporary French Account" State of Slavery" (Major (L. Souvestre); "The Amos Stoddard); "TheFree Men of Color of Louisiana" (P. F. de Gournay);"The Free People of and St. Domingue: Color in Louisiana A Comparative Portraitof Two Three-CasteSlave Societies" (Laura Foner);"The Free Negro inthe New Orleans Economy, 1850-1860" (Robert C. Reinders);"The Free Negro inAnte-Bellum Louisiana" (Annie Lee West Stahl); "Free Blacks,New Orleans, and P. L. Desdunes" (CharlesE. O'Neil); "Some Effectsof Acadian Settlement on the Pattern of Land Occupancein Lafayette Parish" Williams); "The Forbidding (Lyle Givens Atchafalaya Basin" (LouiseCallan); "The Battle of Bayou Queue-Tortue"(Alexandre Barde); Cause" and "Secession "Rebels withouta from the Confederacy?" (twocontemporary news items); "Ozeme Carriereand the St. Landry (Carl A. Brasseaux); Jayhawkers,'1863-1865" "Prince Camille de Polignacand the American Civil War. 1863-1865" (Roy0. Hatton); "The Battleof Bull Run" (P. G. T. Beauregard); and"The Battle of Pleasant Dorsey). (LH) Hill" (Sarah A.
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BEST COPY AVAILABLE "A; 'IV 4414511,1'511:Etit.4444140 Volgm, A FRANCO-AMERICAN OVERVIEW Volume 6
LOUISIANA
Compiled by Mathi Allah! and Carl A. Brasseaux
Staff Consilltant: Renaud S. Albert
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3 Published by Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, ESEA Title VII Lesley College, 49 Washington Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140 Developed by National Materials Development Center for French 168 South River Road, Bedford, New Hampshire 03102 International Standard Book Number 0-89857-220-7 Published March 1981 Printed in the United States of America The actft ity which is the subject of this publication was supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Department of Education However, the opinions eaprsed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Education, and no officialndorsement by the Department of Education should be inferred The Evaluation. Dissemination and Asses ent Censer for Bilingual Education is a special ESEA. Title Vil project funded by the U S Department of Ecation through Lesley College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. and the Fall River Public School System-- This publication was developed and printed tth funds provided by Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amende4 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
Introduction vii
I From Subjects to Citizens George W. Cable 1
II Ball Room Brawls William C.C. Claiborne 9
III Peace and Harmony? William C.C. Claiborne 11
IV New Orleans in 1838 Harriet Martineau 13
V French Immigration and the Battle of New Orleans George W. Cable 15
VI Political Reinforcement of Ethnic Dominance in Louisiana, 1812-1845 Joseph G. Tregle, Jr. 29
VII The Rural French: Acadians, Creoles, and Blacks W.H. Sparks 37
VIII Who are the Creoles? George W. Cable 51
IX Alexis de Tocqueville in New Orleans January 1-3, 1832 G.W. Pierson 55
X A Louisiana Sugar Plantation Charles Gayarre 69
XI Madame Lalaurie: A Contemporary French Account L. Souvestre 87
XII The State of Slavery Major Amos Stoddard 97
XIII The Free Men of Color of Louisiana P.F. de Gournay '05
XIV The Free People of Color in Louisiana and St. Domingue: A Comparative Portrait of Two Three-Caste Slave Societies Laura Foner 113
XV The Free Negro in the New Orleans Economy, 1850-1860 Robert C. Reinders 135
XVI The Free Negro in Ante-Bellum Louisiana Annie Lee West Stahl 147 vi
XVIIFree Blacks, New Orleans, and R.L. Desdunes Charles E. O'Neil, S.J. 159
XVIII Some Effects of Acadian Settlement on the Pattern of Land Occupance in Lafayette Parish Lyle Givens Williams 167
XIX The Forbidding Atchafalaya Basin Louise Callan 173
XX The Battle of Bayou Queue-Tortue Alexandre Barde 175
XXI Rebels Without a Cause 189
XXIISecession from the Confederacy? 191
XXIII Ozeine Carriere and the St. Landry Jayhawkers, 1863-1865 Carl A. Brasseaux 193
XXIV Prince Camille de Polignac and the American Civil War, 1863-1865 Roy 0. Hatton 201
XXV The Battle of Bull Run P.G.T. Beauregard 215
XXVI The Battle of Pleasant Hill Sarah A. Dorsey 227
6 INTRODUCTION
FRENCH LOUISIANA: THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD
The antebellum period is an important Despite significant cultural differences, transitional stage in the history of French however, French Louisianians closed ranks Louisiana. Although subjected to the pres- against the incoming Americans and against sures of large-scale Anglo-American immigra- the foreign domination which the newcomers tion, new political structures, a developing represented. In his essay, «From Subjects to plantation economy, .and improved transpor- Citizens» George W. Cable examines the re- tation, Louisiana's French community main- action of the Creoles to the establishment of tained its cultural identity. Its resistance to American rule. As he notes, the confronta- the Americanization of society was bolstered tions which had marred the festivities sur- by the influx of French immigrants and Santo rounding the cession did not abate when the Domingo exiles. French Louisianians, never- French representative left. W.C.C. Claiborne, theless, generally shared the developing South- the first American territorial governor, be- ern mores and adopted prevailing regional wailed the French. officers' «disorderly dis- attitudes toward slavery, though they tem- position» which led to the ballroom brawls pered them with the casual acceptance of mis- he describes in a letter. He pointed out the cegenation which led to the emergence of an political implication of these clashes, which important French-speaking group, the Free were apparently quite frequent during the People of Color. The Louisiana French com- early years of American rule, though by the munity,therefore,was never monolithic, end of 1804 the harrassed governor affirmed composed as it was, not only of urban and the existence of a «friendly understanding ruralCreoles,whoseinterests frequently between the Modern and Ancient Louisia- diverged,and of French-speaking blacks, nians.» Claiborne's optimism notwithstand- whose position was ambiguous, to say the ing, the rift between French Louisianians and least, but also of rural Acadiaas whose rapidly Anglo-Americans persisted through the ante- expanding population was also divided into bellum period, as Harriet Martineau records social and economic subgroups. The divisions in «New Orleans in 1838.» which had appeared by the 'nd of the Spanish regime persistedthroughthe antebellum Despite the influx of Anglo-Americans in period and surfaced forcefully during the Civil the early nineteenth century, the French com- War which found Creoles, Acadian, and munity resisted absorption into American so- French-speaking blacks on both sides of the ciety, in part because its ranks were swollen conflict. by a steady French immigration which contin-
vii viii
ued throughout the century. Pierre and Jean Orleans, as well as along the Mississippi River, Lafitte, whose piracy has been endowed with and in the Southern parishes. Although guar- a romantic aura by novelists and film makers, anteed certain fundamental protections un- were two of those French immigrants who der existing slave codes, they were in reality sought their fortune on the Gulf Coast. The entirely at the mercy of their masters. Some impact of French immigration on Louisiana as historianshave argued that the Catholic well as on the War of 1812 is discussed by Church had a tempering influence on the in- George W. Cable in «French Immigration and stitution of slavery in French and Spanish col- the Battle of New Orleans.» onies, but the accounts indicate that treat- ment of slaves varied considerably from plan- fhe growth of that Francophone com- tation to plantation according to the attitudes munity had political ramifications because of the slave owner. The prejudices of the the new immigrants, the so-called «foreign observers also colored the reports. For ex- French,» soon identified with the facienne ample, Charles E. Gayarre, the Creole histo- population to resist Americanization. The rian and sugar planter, gives a nostalgic, overtones of this fusion are treated by Joseph apologetic view of slavery when he describes G. Tregle, Jr., in ((Political Reinforcement of «A Louisiana Sugar Plantation» which he Ethnic Dominance in Louisiana, 1812-1845.» remembered from childhood days. Not all antebellum accounts of slaverywere so Political alliances, however, belied the idyllic, however, as is demonstrated in L. cultural and social diversity within the Fran- Souvestre's «Madame Lalaurie: A Contem- cophone population. Writing in 1882 abor. t porary Account,» which relates the gracious Louisiana as he knew it fifty years earlier, lady's notorious cruelty to her black chat- W.H. Sparks discusses, in « The Rural French: tels. The condition of most slaves, in French Acadians, Creoles, and Blacks,» the co-exist- Louisiana as in the rest of the South, lay ence of distinct groups in the rural parishes. somewhere between these extremes as Amos The urban community, on the other hand, is Stoddard recognized even when engaging in examined by George W. Cable in ir Who are diatribes against the South's «peculiar insti- the Creoles?». Alexandre de Tocqueville, the tution». His essay, «The State of Slavery,» astute commentator on Jacksonian America, tries to offer a balanced view of what slavery offers a first hand account of Creole life, was like in French Louisiana. which is as presented by G.W. Pierson in «Alexis de Tocqueville in New Orleans, Jan- Subject to white supervision on planta- uary 1-3, 1832.), tions, blacks adopted Creole, a French-based dialect incorporating some African speech Although Creoles, particularly the New patterns, in order to communicate with their Orleans and plantation aristocracies, were by masters. Creole was also spoken by large num- far the most visible segment of the Franco- bers of the Free People of Color whose com- phone community, numerically they constitu- munity played an important role in the eco- ted but a small portion which would eventual- nomic and cultural life of antebellum Louisi- ly be outnumbered by French-speaking blacks ana. Although denied access to the political and, to a greater extent, by the Acadians.In process and entry into white society, many the anteoellum period, French-speaking black French-speaking free blacks attained posi- slaves were found in large numbers in New tions of eminence. The 8ens de couleur fibres ix
were studied by P.F. de Gournay whose nine Lure are examined by Charles Edwards O'Neill teenth-century essay, l( The Free Man of Color in «Free Blacks; New Orleans, and R.L. Des- of Louisiana,» describes the ambiguous posi- dunes.» tion of free blacks. The origins and evolution of this social group are examined by Laura Though numerous, the French-speaking Foner in KThe Free People of Color in Loui- blacks were clearly outnumbered by the Aca- siana and St. Domingue: A comparative Por- dians.During the antebellum period, the trait of Two Three-Caste Societies.» As sug- Acadian population grew from 5,002 in 1810 gested by Ms. Foner, the broad spectrum of to 16,342 in 1860. A rural people, they were legal privileges enjoyed by free blacks during generally small farmers and ranchers, although the colonial period,particularly property between 1830 and 1860 a few became sugar rights, persisted in the antebellum period, des- and cotton planters. The early economic pur- pite frequent attacks by some segments of suits of the Acadian small farmer and their white society. Thus free to engage in business, consequences for landholding patterns and many free blacks rose to economic A, .4 pro- architecture are examined by Lyle Givens .fessional prominence. In the large free black Williams in «Some Effects of the Acadian communities of Natchitoches and St. Landry Settlement on the Pattern of Land Occupa- parishes, for example, black Creoles, such as tion in Lafayette Parish.» Acadian settlement Martin Donato and Francois Gassion Metoyer, and economic development centered in the became wealthy planters and large slave- natural levees bordering the navigable water- owners. Lev Bens libres de couleurs, however, ways in present-day West Baton Rouge, Iber- were more visible in New Orleans where they ville, Ascension, St. James, Assumption, La- were artisans, businessmen, and profession- fourche, Terrebonne, Iberia, St. Martin, La- als. The Crescent City's prosperous free-black fayette, Vermilion and St. Landry parishes. community is examined by Robert C Reinders Except for the headlands, nnar the streams, in ((The Free Negro in the New Orleans Econ- much of the area was inaccessible, as Philip- omy, 1850-1860.» pine Duchesne, the Sacred Heart nun who founded the Grand Coteau Academy, relates Business, however, was not the only in ((The Forbidding Atchafalaya Basin.» Thus realm in which the free man of color excelled. protected by this massive natural barrier, the Whether fathered by white planters or by free Acadians, particularly Cajuns residing west of black parents, the free man of color often the Atchafalaya River, maintained their cul- received the best possible education, and tural and ethnic identity into the twentieth many were sent to boarding schools in Paris. century. The pars -legal means by which Creoles main- tained their quadroon mistresses and provided The Louisiana frontier left an indelible for their children are discussed by Annie Lee mark on Acadian society. The hostile environ- West Stahl in eThe Free Negro in Antebellum ment reinforced group ties and when con- Louisiana.»Well educated and prosperous, fronted by cattle rustlers in the late 1850s, these free blacks were among antebellum Acadian farmers and ranchers banded with Louisiana's most notable writers. The career a few Creoles as vigilantes to protect their of their earliest historian, Rodolphe Desdunes, interests.Vigilante raids prompted the for- himself a cultivated free man of color, and mation of anti-vigilante groups, manned and the impact of the group on Louisiana cut led by alleged criminals. and the inevitable result was an armed confrontation. The cele- Brasseaux recounts one such popular uprising brated Battle of Bayou Queue de Tortue in «Ozetne Carriere and the St. Landry Jay- is recounted by Alexandre Barde, the vigilante hawkers,1863-1865.» propagandist,in the essay by that name. Not all French Louisianians, however, re- The Acadian individualism manifested sisted the Confederacy. On the contrary, in the vigilante movement also characterized scions of Acadian and Creole planter families the Cajun response to the Civil War. Many rallied around the Stars and Bars shortly after Acadian farmers and ranchers, particularly secession. In fact, the first Confederate ac- those residing west of Bayou Teche, were not tions of the war, the siege of Fort Sumter and slaveholders. They could not identify with the the First Battle of Manassas, were directed by Southern rebellion whose goal was the estab- Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, a New lishment of a slave republic. Nevertheless, Orleans Creole who recalls the first major Confederate conscription units, manned prin- Confederate victory inThe Battle of Bull cipally by unsympathetic Texans, impressed Run.» The Creole general also aided the large numbers of Cajuns into the army, fre- Southern cause by recruiting Prince Camille quently delivering them in chains to training de Polignac, a French nobleman, who had a centers. Acadian feelings toward the Confed- brilliant career as a Rebel general, the only erated cause thus quickly shifted from indif- foreigner, in fact, to hold flag rank in the Civil ference to hostility, and Acadian conscripts War. His career is detailed by Roy 0. Hatton refused to fight, as related by the (Franklin) in «Prince Camille de Polignac and the Ameri- Attakapas Register in «Rebels Without a canCivilWar, 1863-1865.» Polignac and Cause.» Moreover, when Lewisiana units re- Acadian-planter-turned-Confederate-General treated through the bayou country during the Alfred Mouton led Confederate units at the TeE campaigns of 1863, Acadian conscripts Battle of Pleasant Hill (1864), the most sig- deserted in large numbers. In fact, most pre- nificant Rebel victory in Louisiana. Mouton's dominantly Acadian units experienced deser- heroics, however, cost him his life, a Confed- tion rates over 80 percent. Acadian hostility erate tragedy recalled by Sarah Ann Dorsey to the Confederacy is reflected in a contem- inThe Battle of Pleasant porary newspaper account entitled «Secession from the Confederacy?». However gallant the Confederate fighting at Mansfield, it could not stem the tide of mil- In present-day Evangeline Parish, Creole itary defeat. Most of French Louisiana re- ranchers suffered the same trauma and like mained in Federal hands until the Confeder- their Acadian neighbors to the South, deser- ite collapse in May 1865. Appomatox sig- ted in large numbers during the Teche cam- nalled both the end of what had been an era paigns. Unlike the Cajuns, however, the prai- of opulence for a few, and of struggle for sur- rie Creoles and, later, free blacks impressed vival for many, and the beginning of a period into Confederate work details organized anti- in which accelerated social changes would Confederate units called Jayhawkers to rid transform the culture of French Louisiana their homeland of conscription units. Carl A. Creole, Acadian and black.
Mathe Atkin Carl A. Brasseaux
10 FROM SUBJECTS TO CITIZENS
By George W. Cable
New Orleans had been under the actual the town, between the upper limits and the sway of the Spaniard thirty-four years. Place d'Armes, lay the shipping twenty or Ten thousand inhabitants were gathered in more vessels of from 100 to 200 tons burden, and about its walls. Most of the whites were hauled close against the bank. Still farther on, Creoles. Even in the province at large these beyond the Government warehouses, was the were three in every fouv. Immigrants from mooring-place of the vessels of war. Looking Malaga, the Canaries,. and Nova Scotia had down into the streetsToulouse, St. Peter, Con- passed on through the town and into the rural ti, St. Louis, Royale, Chartres one caught districts. Of the thousands of Americans, only the brisk movements of a commercial port. a few scores of mercantile pioneers came as They were straight, and fairly spacious, for the far as the town sometimes with families, times; but unpaved, ill-drained, filthy, poorly but generally without. Free trade with France lighted, and often impassable for the mire. had brought some French merchants and the Reign of Terror had driven here a few royal- The town was fast becoming one of the ists. The town had filled and overflowed its chief sea -ports of America. Already, in 1802, original boundaries. From the mast-head of a 158 American merchantmen, 104 Spanish, ship in the harbor one looked down upon a and 3 French, registering 31,241 tons, had gathering of from twelve hundred to fourteen sailed from her harbor, loaded. The incoming hundred dwellings and stores, or say four tonnage for 1803 promised an increase of thousand roofs to such an extent did slav- over 37 per cent. It exported of the products ery multiply outhouses. They were of many of the province alone over $2,000,000 value. kinds, covered with half-cylindrical or with Its imports reached $2,500,000. Thirty-four flat tiles, with shingles, or with slates, and thousand bales of cotton; 4500 hogsheads of showed an endless variety in height and in sugar; 800 casksequivalent to 2,000 barrels bright confusion of color and form veran- of molasses; rice, peltries, indigo, lumber, das and balconies, dormer windows, lattices and sundries, to the value of $500,000; 50,000 and belvederes. Under the river bank, owithin barrels of flour; 3000 barrels of beef and pork; ten steps of Tchoupitoulas street,» where land 2000 hogsheads of tobacco; and smaller quan- has since formed and been covered with brick tities of corn, butter, hams, meal, lard, beans, stores for several squares, the fleets of barges hides, staves, and cordage, had passed in 1302 and flat-boats from the West moored and un- across its famous levee. 'oat-4.d, or retailed their contents at the water's edge. Farther down, immediately abreast of Everywhere the restless American was
I 11 2
conspicuous, and, with the Englishman and neglected, yet busy canal. the Irishman, composed the majority of the commercial class. The French, except a few, Outwardly the Creoles of the Delta had had subsided into the retail trade or the me- become a graceful, well-knit race, in full keep- chanical callings. The Spaniards not in mili- ing with the freedom of their surroundings. tary or civil service were generally humble Their complexion lacked color, but it was free Catalans, keepers of shops, and of the low from the sallowness of the Indies. There was a cabarets that occupied almost every street much tirger proportion of blondes among corner. The Creole was on every side,hand- them than is commonly supposed. Generally some, proud, illiterate, elegant in manner, their hair was of a chestnut, or but little deep- slow, a seeker of office and military commis- er tint, except that in the city a Spanish tinc- sion, ruling society with fierce exclusiveness, ture now and then asserted itself in black hair looking upon toil as the slave's proper badge, and eyes. The women were fair, symmetrical, lending money now at twelve and now at with pleasing features, lively, expressive eyes, twenty-four per cent., and taking but a sec- well-rounded throats, and superb hair; viva- ondary and unsympathetic part in the com- cious, decorous, exceedingly tasteful in dress, mercial life from which was springing the fu- adorning themselves with superior effect in ture greatness of his town. What could he do? draperies of muslin enriched with embroi- The American filled the upper Mississippi val- deries and much garniture of lace, but with a ley. England and the Atlantic Sates, no long. more moderate display of jewels, which indi- er France and Spain, took its prcducts and cated a community of limited wealth. They supplied its wants. The Anglo-Saxon and the were much superior to the men in quickness Irishman held every advantage; and, ill-equip- of wit, and excelled them in amiability and in ped and uncommercial, the Creole was fortu- many other good qualities. The more pro- nate to secure even a third or fourth mercan- nounced faults of the men were generally tile rank in the city of his birth. But he had those moral provincialisms which travelers re- one stronghold. He owned the urban and sub- count with undue impatience. They are said urban real estate, and presently took high to have been coarse, boastful, vain; and they rank as the seller of lots and as a rentier. The were, also, deficient in energy and application. confiscated plantations of the Jesuits had without well-directed ambition, unskillful in been, or were being. gradually laid out in handicraft doubtless through negligence on- streets. From 1801, when Faubourg St. Mary ly and totally wanting in that community contained only five houses, it had grown with feeling which begets the study of reciprocal great rapidity. rights and obligations, and reveals the individ- ual's advantage in the promotion of the com- Other faubourgs were about springing mon interest. Hence, the Creoles were fonder up. The high roofs of the aristocratic suburb of pleasant fictions regarding the salubrity, St. Jean could be seen stretching away among beauty, good order, and advantages of their their groves of evergreen along the Bayou town, than of measures to justify their as- road, and clustering presently into a village sumptions. With Afri,.an slavery they were, of near where a 12 3 and preserved their self-respect and a proud partiality for Americans in court, the personal belief in their moral excellence. Easily inflamed, character of officials, the formation of Amen-. they,` were as easily discouraged, thrown into can militia companie,s and their parades in the confusion, and overpowered, and they ex- streets *-- all alike fed the flames of the Creoles' pended the best of their energies in trivial vehement indignation. pleasures,especiallythe masque and the dance; yet they were kind parents,r'affection- In March, 1804, Congress passed an act ate wives, tractable children, and enthusiastic dividing the province .into two parts on the patriots. present northern, boundary of Louisiana, giv- ing each a disti ct government, and to the Little wonder that it is said the Creoles lower the' titof the territory of Orleans. wept as they stood on the Place d'Armes and This act, w ch was to take effect the follow- saw the standard of a people, whose national ing October, intrdicted the slave-trade. Then, existence was a mere twenty-years!, experi- indeed, anger burred. Insurrectionary senti- ment, taking the place of that tricolor on ments were placarded on the street corners, which perched the glory of a regenerated crowds copied them, and public officers at- France. On that very spot some of them had tempting to remove them were driven away. taken part in the armed repudiation of the But that- ,all. Claiborne - young, like first cession. The twc. attitudes and the two Bienvillea. like- Galvez, but behevolent, events differed alike. The earlier transfer had wise, and p-at - soon saw it was not the come loaded with drawbacks' and tyrannous Government, but only some of its measures, exactions; the latter came freighted with long- that caused so much heat. The merchants, coveted benefits and wiih some of the dearest who in 1768 had incited revolt against legal- rights of man. This second, therefore, might ized ruin, saw, now, on the Other hand, that bring tears of tender regret; it might force American rule had lifted them out of com- the Creole into civil and political fellowship mercial serfdom, and that, as a port of the with the detested Americain; but it could United States, and only as such, their crescent' not rouse the sense of outrage produced city could enter upon the great future which by the cession to Spain. O'Reilly, the Spanish was hers by her geographical position. But we Captain-General, had established a govern- have seen that the merchants were not prin- ment whose only excellence lay in its strength; cipally Creoles. Claiborne came to set up a pqwer whose only strength lay in its excellence. His task was dif- AlthoughtheCreoleslooked for a ficult mainly because tit was to be done among French or Spanish re-cession, yet both inter- a people distempered by the earlier rule, and est and probability were so plainly against it diligey wrought upon by intriguing French- that they were presently demanding impatient- men an parish officials. His wisest measures, ly, if not imperiously, the rights of American equally thhisbroadest mistakes, were citizens as pledged to them in the treaty. wordily re ted. His ignorance of the French They made no appeal to that France which language, his ge official powers, Wilkinson's had a second time cast them off; but at three bad habits, a scarcity of money, the introduc- public meetings, in June and July, petitioned tion of the English tongue, and of a just pro- Congress not to rescind the cession but to Aportion of American appointees into the new---sleave Louisiana undivided, and so hasten their courts and public offices, the use of bayonets admission into the Union. This appeal was to suppress disorder at public balls, a supposed fruitless, and the territorial government went 13 4 into operation, Claiborne being retained as Creoles would or should stand, party strife governor. The partition, the presidential ap- among the Americans in New Orleans, and a pointment of a legislative council instead of fierce quarrelin the Church between the its election by the people, the nullification of vicar-general and the famed Pere Antoine, pas- certain Spanish land-grants, and an official re- tor of the cathedral, kept the public mind in inspection of all titles, were accepted, if not a perpetual ferment. Still, in all these things with patience, at least with that grace which there was only restiveness and discord, not the Creole assumes before the inevitable. But revolution. The Creoles had at length under- his respect was not always forthcoming to- gone their last transplanting, and taken root ward laws that could be opposed or evaded. in American privileges and principles. From «This city,» wrote Claiborne, 4ifequires a the guilt of the plot whose events were now strict police: the inhabitants are of various impending the Creole's hand is clean. We have descriptions; many highly respectable, and Claiborne's testimony: some of them very degenerate.» A sheriff and posse attempted to arrest a Spanish officer. «Were it not for the calumnies of Two hundred men interfered; swords were some Frenchmen who are among drawn, and resistance ceased only when a de- us, and the intrigues of a few ambi- tachment of United States troops were seen tious, unprincipled men whose na- hurrying to the rescue. Above all, the slave- tive language is English, I do believe trade «all-important to the existence of the that the Louisianians would be very country» was diligently plied through the soon the most zealous and faithful lakes and the inlets of Barataria. members of our republic.» The winter of 1804-05 was freer from On the 4th of November, 1811, acon- bickerings than the last had been. The intrigues vention elected by the people of Orleans Ter- of Spanish officials who lingered in the district ritory met in New Orleans, and on the 28th of were ui:available, and the Governor reported the following January adopted a State consti- a gratifying state of order. On the 2d of tution; and on the 30th of April, 1812, Loui- March, with many unwelcome safeguards and siana entered the Union. limitations, the right was accorded the people to elect a House of Representatives, and «to On one of those summer evenings when form for themselves a constitution and State the Creoles, in the early years of the century, government so soon as the free population of were wont to seek the river air in domestic the territory should reach sixty thousand and social groups under the willow and china souls, in order to be admitted into the Union.» trees of their levee, there glided around the last bend of the Mississippi above New Or- For a time follo)ving there was feverish- leans «an elegant barge,» equipped with sails ness rather than events. Great Britain and and colors, and impelled by the stroke of ten Spain were at war; Havana was open to neutral picked oarsmen. It came down the harbor, vessels; the commerce of New Orleans was drew in to the bank, and presently set ashore stimulated. But the pertinacious lingering of a small, slender, extremely handsome man, its Casa-Calvo, Morales, and others, whom only passenger. He bore letters from General Claiborne at last had to force away in Febru- Wilkinson, introducing him in New Orleans, ary, 1806, the rumors they kept alive, the and one, especially, to' Daniel Clark, Wilkin- fear of war with Spain, doubts as to how the son's agent, stating that «this great and honor- 14 5 able man would communicate to him many now in correspondence with him. things improper to letter, and which he would not say to any other.» Claiborne, the young The Governor who had feasted him Virginian whom President Jefferson had made moved much in the gay society of the Creoles. Governor of Louisiana, wrote to Secretary It was not giddiness, but anxious thought and Madison, «Colonel Burr arrived in this city care that pushed him into such scenes. Trou- on this evening.» bles and afflictions marked his footsteps; his wife and child stricken down by yellow fever, The date was June 26, 1805. The dis- her young brother-in-law rashly championing tinguished visitor, a day or two later,sat him against the sneers of his enemies, fallen in down to a banquet given to him by the unsus- a duel but it was necessary to avoid the er- pecting Governor. He was now in full down- ror Ulloa's earlier error of self - isolation. ward carter. Only a few years before, he had He wisely studied the social side of the people, failed of the presidency by but one electoral and so viewed public questions from behind. vote. Only a few months had passed "since, on completing his term, he had vacated the vice- The question ever before him which presidency. In the last year of that term Alex- he was incessantly asking himself, and which Linder Hamilton had fallen by his hand. Friends he showed an almost morbid wish to be al- and power, both, were lost. But he yet had ways answering to the heads of departments strength in the West. Its people were still wild, at Washington was whether the Creoles restless, and eager for adventure. The con- over whom he was set to rule were loyal to quest of «Orleans» was a traditional idea. Its the government of the nation. It was a vital banks were full of specie. Clouds of revolu- cuestion. The bonds of the Union, even out- tion were gathering all around the Gulf. The side of Louisiana, were as yet slender and frail. regions beyond the Red and Sabine rivers in- The whole Mississippi valley was full of de- vited conquest. The earlier schemes of Adams signing adventurers, suspected and unsuspect- and Hamilton, to seize Orleans Island and the ed, 'ready to reap any advantage whatever of Floridas for the United States; that of Miran- any disaffection of the people. He knew there da, to expel the Spanish poWer from the far- were such in New Orleans. ther shores of the Gulf; the plottings of Wil- kinson, to surrender the West into the hands The difficulty of answering this question of Spain all these' abandoned projects seem lay in one single, broad difference between to have cast their shadows on the mind of Claiborne himself and the civilization which Burr and colored his designs. he had been sent to reconstruct into harmony with North American thought and action. The stern patriotism of the older States With him loyalty to the state meant obedi- had weighed him in its balances and rejected ence to its laws. The Creole had never been him. He had turned with a vagueness of plan taught that there was any necessary connec- that waited for clearer definition on the tion between the two. The Governor's young chances of the future, and, pledged to no Virginian spirit assumed it as self-evident that principle, had set out in quest of aggrandize- a man would either keep the laws or overturn ment and empire, either on the Mississippi or them. It was a strange state of society to him, among the civilizations that encircle the Gulf where one could be a patriot and yet ignore, of Mexico, as the turn of events might decree. evade, and override the laws. «Occasionally, In the West he had met Willa:non, and was in conversation with ladies,»so he writes 15 6 ol have denounced smuggling as dis- During the winter the question of bound- honest, and very generally a reply, aries threatened war with Spain, and the anger in substance as follows, would be of Spain rose high when, in February, 1806, returned: 'That is impossible, for Claiborne expelled Casa Calvo and Morales, my grandfather, or my father, or her agents, from, the territory. Her governor my husband was, under the Spanish stopped the transmission of the United States Government, a great smuggler, and mails through Florida. Ouside, the Spaniards he was always esteemed an honest threatened; inside, certain Americans of influ- man.'» ence did hardly less. The Creoles were again supine. Pere Antoine, the beloved pastor of They might have added, «and loyal to the the cathedral, was suspected unjustly of king.» sedition; Wilkinson with his forces was unac- countably idle. «All is not right,» wrote Ch* With some men Claiborne had had no borne; «I know not whom to censure; but it trouble.' «A beginning must be made,» said seems to me that there is wrong somewhere.» Poydras, a wealthy and benevolent French- man; «we must be initiated into the sacred The strange character of the Creole peo- duties of freemen and the practices of liberty.» ple perplexed and wearied Claiborne. Unstable But the mass, both high and low, saw in the and whimsical, public-spirited and sordid by abandonment of smuggling or of the slave- turns, a display of their patriotism caused a trade only a surrender of existence an exis- certain day to be «among the happiest of his tence to which their own consciences and the life»; and when autumn passed and toward its ladies at the ball gave them a clean patent. close their enthusiasm disappeared in the pas- These, by their angry obduracy, harassed their sion for money-getting, he «began to despair.» governor with ungrounded fears of sedition. But, alike unknown in the Creole town to money-getterS and to patriots the only real In fact, the issue before governor and danger had passed. Wilkinson had decided to people was one to which the question of feal- betray Burr. ty to government was quite subordinate. It was the struggle of a North American against Late in September the General had ar- a Spanish American civilization. Burr must rived at Natchitoches, and had taken chief have seen this; and probably a' this date there command of the troops confronting the Span- was nothing clearly and absolutely fixed in his ish forces. On the 8th of October, one Samuel mind but this, that the former civilization had Swartwout brought him a confidential letter cast him off, and that he was about to offer from Colonel Burr. He was received by Wil- himself to the latter. Now events were to an- kinson with much attention, stayed eight swer the Governor's haunting question, and to days, and then left for New Orleans. On the give a new phase to the struggle between these 21st, Wilkinson determined to expose the two civilizations in the Mississippivalley. plot. He dispatched a messenger to the Presi- dent of the United States, bearing a letter Colonel Burr remained in New Orleans which apprised him of Colonel Burr's contem- ten or twelve days, receiving much social at- plated descent of the Mississippi with an arm- tention, and then left for St. Louis, saying he ed force.' Eight day s,later, the General arranged would return in October. But he did not ap- with the Spaniards for the troops under each pear. flag to withdraw from the contested bound- 7 ary, leaving its location to be settled by the better than Catiline. Consider him a two governments, and hastened toward New traitor and act as if certain thereof. Orleans, hurrying on in advance of him a You may save yourself by it.» force of artificers and a company of soldiers. On Sunday, the 14th of December, a Dr. Presently the people of New Orleans Erick Bollman was arrested by Wilkinson's or- were startled from apathetic tranquillity into der. Swartwout and one Ogden had already a state of panic. All unexplained, these troops been apprehended at Fort Adams, and were had arrived, others had renforced them; then confined on one of the bomb-ketches in there was hurried repair and preparation; and the harbor. On the 16th, a court-officer, arm- the air was agitated with rumors. To Claiborne, ed with writs of habeas corpus, sought in vain the revelation had at length come from vari- to hire a boat to carry him off to the bomb- ous directions that Aaron Burr was plotting ketch, and on the next day, when one could treason. Thousands were said to be involved be procured, only Ogden could be found. with him; the first outbreak was expected to be in New Orleans. He was liberated, but only to be re-ar- rested with one Alexander, and held in the Wilkinson had arrived in the town. In the face of the habeas corpus. The court issued an bombastic style of one who plays a part, he attachment against Wilkinson. It was power- demanded of Claiborne the proclamation of less. The Judge Workman appealed to martial law. Claiborne kindly, and with ex- Claiborne to sustain it with force. The Gover- pressions of confidence in the General, re- nor promptly declined, theJudge resigned, fused; but the two met the city's chamber of and Wilkinson ruled. commerce, laid the plot before it, and ex- plained the needs of defense. Several thou- One of Burr's intimates was General sand dollars were at once subscribed, and a Adair. On the 14th of January, 1807, he ap- transient embargo of the port recommended, peared in New Orleans unannounced. Colonel for the purpose of procuring sailors for the Burr, he said, with only a servant, would ar- four gun-boats and two bon')-ketches lying in rive in a few days. As he was sitting at dinner, the harbor. his hotel was surrounded by regulars, an aide of Wilkinson appeared and arrested him; he There were others in whose confidence was confined, and presently was sent away. Wilkinson held no place. The acting-governor The troops beatto arms, regulars and militia of Mississippi wrote to Claiborne: paraded through the terrified city, and Judge Workman, with two others, were thrown into «Should he [Colonel Burr] pass us, confinement. They werereleasedwithin your fate will depend on the Gener- twenty-four hours; but to intensify the gen- al, not on the Colonel. If I stop eral alarm, four hundred Spaniards from Pen- Burr, this may hold the General in sacola arrived at the mouth of Bayou St. John, his allegiance to the United States. a few miles from the city, on their way toBa- But if Burr passes the territory with ton Rouge, and their commander asked of Clai- two thousand men. I have no doubt borne that he and his staff might pass through but the General will be your worst New Orleans. He was refused the liberty. enemy. Be on your guard against the wily General. He is not much All this time the Creoles had been silent. 17 8 Now, however, through their legislature, they the Territorial Court. .-addressed thr-sOernor. They washed their hantls,offie treason which threatened the This bond Burr ignored, and left the Ter- peace Ad safety of Louisiana, but boldly ritOry. The Governor of Mississippi offered announced their intention to investigate the $2000 for his apprehension, and on the 3d of oextraordinary measures» of Wilkinson and March the welcome word came to New Or- to complain to Congress. leans that he had been detected in disguise and re-arrested at Fort Stoddart, Alabama. Burr, meanwhile, with the mere nucleus of a force, had set his expedition in motion, About the middle of May, Wilkinson and at length, after twenty years' threatening sailed from New Orleans to Virginia to testify by the Americans of the West,a fleet of boats in that noted trial which, though it did not actually bore an armed expedition down the end in the conviction of Burr, made final Ohio and out into the Mississippi, benton wreck of his designs, restored public tranquil- conquest. lity, and assured the country of the loyalty not only of the West, but also of the Creoles But disaster lay in wait for it. It failed to of Louisiana. The struggle between the two gather weight as it came, andon the 28th of civilizations withdrew finally into the narrow- January the news reached New Orleans that est limits of the Delta, and Spanish American Burr, having arrived ata point near Natchez thought found its next and last exponent in with fourteen boats and abouta hundred an individual without the ambition of empire, men, had been met by Mississippi militia, a man polished, brave, and chivalrous; a arrested, taken to Natchez, and releasedon patriot, and yet a contrabandist; an outlaw, bond to appear for trial at the next term of and in the end a pirate. 18 BALL ROOM BRAWLS W.C.C. CLAIBORNE TO JAMES MADISON Jan. 31,1804 I am sorry to inform you that a few of pany is generally composed of a very hetero- the French Officers and Citizens who are genous Mass. To keep order at these Balls here, continue to evidence a disorderly dispo- (under the Spanish Government) a Strong sition; they are mortified at the loss of this guard was Stationed at the Ball room, and on delightful Country and seem to foster great the first appearance of disorder the persons hatred to theAmericanswho are here; concerned were committed. Amongthese(the Americans) there are also some warm and imprudent young Men, and On my arrival at New Orleans, I found I can assure your Sir, that it requires much the people very Solicitous to maintain their address and prudence to preserve the Har- Public Ball establishment, and to convince mony of the City. them that the American Government felt no disposition to break in upon their amuse- SomeunpleasantDiplomaticLetters ments (as had been reported by some mis- 4 have passed between M. Laussat and the chievouspersons) General Wilkinson and American Commissioners, upon the disorderly myself occasionally attended these assemblies. conduct of some of the French Officers which he denies, and charges it to the Americans. Under theSpanish Government, the Copies of these Letters will be transmitted to Governor General was the Regulator of the you. I have reason however, to hope that no Balls, but this Gallant duty I have cheerfully further disturbances will ensue. Every thing is surrendered to. the Municipality of the City. at present tranquil, and the most perfect good I fear you will suppose that I am wanting in understanding apparently exists between the respect in calling your attention to the Balls Natives of the United States, and those of of New Orleans, but I do assure you, Sir, Louisiana. that they occupy much of the Public mind, and from them have proceeded the greatest The Public Ball room has been the The- embarrassments which have heretofore at- atre of all this Disorder. During the Winter tended my administration.1 Season, there has for many years been a Ball twice a week. Every white Male Visits it who Accept assurances of my great respect will pay at the door SO cents, and the Ladies and high consideration. of every Rank attend these assemblies in great numbers. The Consequence is that the com- (Signed) Wm. C.C. Claiborne 919 10 NOTE 1. These balls were an important part of the social ana. New Orleans of to-day is famous for its life of the French and Spanish rule in Louisi beautiful, enjoyable balls. 20 4 PEACE AND HARMONY? By W. C. C. Claiborne New Orleans December 31st 1804 a friendly understanding between the Modern and the Ancient Louisianians. The Winter Sir, amusements have commenced forseveral I have never witnessed more good order Weeks; the two description of Citizens meet than at present pervades this City; and as far frequently at the Theatre, Balls, and other as I can learn the whole Territory. I dis- places of Amusement, and pass their time in cover also with great ple:..are the existence of perfect harmony. NEW ORLEANS IN 1838 By Harriel Martineau The gay visiting season at New Orleans the only place in the United States wiiere I was over before we ant. ed, but we were in am aware of having seen a particle of rouge. severalparties. The division between the American and French factions is visible even Large parties are much alike everywhere, in the drawing-room. The French complain and they leave no very distinct impression. that the Americans will not speak French; will Except for the mixture of languages, and the not meet their ncighbours even half way in ample provision of ices, fans, and ventilators, accommodation of speech. The Americans the hawing -room assemblages of New Orleans ridicule the toilet practices of the French bear a strong resemblance to the routs and ladies; their liberal use of rouge and pearl dinner-parties of a country town in England. powder. If the French ladies do thus beautify Our pleasantest days in the great Southern themselves, they do it with great art. I could city were those which we spent quietly in the not be quite sure of the fact in any one in- homes of intimate acquaintances. I vividly re- stance while I am disposed to believe it from member one which I was told was a true Lou- the clumsy imitation of tlse art which I saw isiana day. W. ladies carried our workbags, in the countenance of an American rival or and issued forth by eleven o'clock, calling by two. I beheld with strong disgust the efforts the way for a friend, Ailsie's mistress. The of a young lady from Fiiladelphia to make house we were to visit was a small shaded herself as French as possible by these disagree- dwelling, with glass doors opening into a pret- able means. She was under twenty, and would ty garden. In a cool parlour we sat at work, have been rather peetty if she had given her- talking of things solemn and trivial, of affairs self a fair chance; but her coarsely-painted native and foreign, till dinner, which was at eyet:ows,daubedcheeks, and powdered two. We were then joined by the gentleni'n. throat inspired a disgust which she must be We left the dinner-table early, and the gentle- singularly unwise not to have anticipated. If men trundled rocking-chairs and low stools this were a single case it would not be worth into the garden, where we sat in the shade all mentioning; but I was told by a resident that the afternoon, the ladies working, the gentle- it is a common practice for young ladies to men singing Irish nudodies, telling good native paint both white and red, under the idea of stories, and throwing us all into such a merry accommodating themselves to the French mood, that we ,Jositively refused the siesta manners of the place. They had better do it which we were urged w take, and forgot what by p,ctising the French language than by a retribution we might expect from the mos- copying the French toilet. New Orleans is chetoes for sitting so long under the trees. 1322 14 After tea we got to the piano, and werere- through the quiet streets, the summer light- minded at last by the darkness of the number ning quivering through the thick trees in sin- of hours which this delightful Louisiana visit gular contrast with the steady moonlight. had consumed. We all walked home together 23 .1 FRENCH IMMIGRATION AND THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS By George W. Cable Between 1804 and 1810, New Orleans in the island of Guadaloupe only three mar- doubled its population. The common notion riages to a thousand inhabitants. But they is that there was a large influx of Americans. came to their better cousins with the ties of a This was not the case. A careful estimate common religion, a common tongue, much shows not more than 3100 of these in the common sentiment, misfortunes that may city in 1809, yet in the following year the have had some resemblance, and with the whole population, including the suburbs, was poetry of exile. They were reenforcements, 24,552. The Americans, therefore, were nu- too, at a moment when the power of the merically feeble. The increase came from an- Americans few in number, but potent in other direction. energies and advantages was looked upon with hot jealousy. Napoleon's w. rs were convulsing Eu- rope. The navies of his enemies fell upon the The Americans clamored against them, French West Indies. In Cuba large numbers of for they came in swarms. They brought little white and mulatto refugees who, in the St. money or goods. They raised the price of Domingan insurrection, had escaped across bread and of rent. They lowered morals and to Cuba with their slaves, were now, by hos- disturbed order. Yet it was certainly true the tilities between France and Spain, forced Americans had done little to improve either again to become exiles. Within sixty days, be- of these. Some had come to stay; many more tween May and July, 1809, thirty-four vessels to make a fortune and get away; both sorts from Cuba set ashore in the streets of New were simply and only seeking wealth. Orleans nearly fifty-eight hundred persons, whites, free mulattoes, and black slaves in al- The West Indians had not come to a city most equal numbers Others came later, from whose civilization could afford to absorb Cuba, Guadaloupe, and other islands, until them. The Creole element needed a better in- they amounted to ten thousand. Nearly all fusion, and yet it was probably the best in the settled permanently in New Orleans. community. The Spaniards were few and bad, described by one as capable of the vilest dep- The Creoles of Louisiana received the redations, «a nuisance to the country,» and Creoles of the West Indies with tender wel- even by the mild Claiborne as «for the most comes. The state of society in the islands part * ** wellsuitedformischievous and from which these had come needs no descrip- wicked enterprises.» The free people of color tion. As late as 1871, '72, and '73, there were were about two thousand, unaspiring, cor- 15 24 16 rupted, and feeble. The floating population glish, Spanish, cry aloud; the laws forbid the was extremely bad. Sailors from all parts of importation of slaves; Claiborne adjures the the world took sides, according to nationality, American consuls at Havana and Santiago de in bloody street riots and night brawls; and Cuba to stop the movement; the free people bargemen, flat-boatmen, and raftsmen, from of color are ordered point-blank to leave the the wild banks of the Ohio, Tennessee, and country; the actual effort is made to put the Cumberland, abandoned themselves at the order into execution; and still all three classes end of their journey to the most shameful and continue to pour into the streets, to throw reckless excesses. The spirit of strife,ran up in- themselves upon the town's hospitality, and to the better classes. A newspaper article re- daily to increase the cost of living and the flecting upon Napoleon all but causeda riot. number of distressed poor. A public uprising was hardly prevented when three young navy officers released a slave girl They came and they staid, all too readily who was being whipped. In September, 1807, dissolving into the corresponding parts of the occurred the «batture riots.» The batture was native Creole community, and itis easier to the sandy deposits made by the Mississippi in underestimate than to exaggerate the silent re- front of the Faubourg St. Marie. The noted sults of an event that gave the French-speak- jurist, Edward Livingston, representing private ing Louisianians twice the numerical power claimants, took possession of this ground, and with which they had begun to wage their long was opposed by the public in two distinct battle against American absorption. outbreaks. In the second, the Creoles, ignor- ing the decision of the Supreme Court, rallied The whole Gulf coast of Louisiana is an to the spot by thousands, and were quieted immense, wet, level expanse, covered every- only by the patient- appeals of Claiborne, ad- where, shoulder-high, with marsh-grasses, and dressed to them on the spot, and by the re- indented by extensive bays that receive the committal of the contest to the United States rivers and larger bayous. For some sixty miles Courts, in whose annals it is so well-known a on either side of the Mississippi's mouth, it cause. Preparations for war with Spain height- breaks into a grotesquely contorted shoreline ened the general fever.Claiborne's letters and into bright archipelagoes of hundreds of dwell on the sad mixture of society.«England.» small, reedy islands, with narrow and obscure he writes, «has her partisans; Ferdinand the channels writhing hither and thither between Seventh, some faithful subjects; Bonaparte, them. These mysterious passages, hidden from his admirers; and there is a fourth description the eye that overglances the seemingly unbro- of men, commonly calledBurrites, who ken sunny leagues of surrounding distance, would join any standard which would promise are threaded only by the far-seen white or red rapine and plunder.» These last had a news- lateen-sail of the oyster-gatherer, or by the pi- paper, «La Lanterne Magique,» whose libels rogiliw of the hunter stealing upon the myriads gave the executive much anxiety. of wild fowl that in winter haunt these vast green wastes. Now, into such a city say of fourteen thousand inhabitants, at most swarm ten To such are known the courses that en- thousand white, yellow, and black West India able them to avoid the frequent culs-de-sac of islanders; some with means, others in absolute the devious shore, and that lead to the bayous destitution, and «many ** * of doubtful char- which open the way to the inhabited interior. acter and desperate fortune.» Americans, En- They lead through miles of clear, brown, si- 25 17 lent waters, between low banks fringed with In the first decade of the century the dwarf oaks, across pale distances of gquaking wars of France had filled this gulf with her prairie,» and at length, under the solemn privateers.Spain's rich commerce was the shades of cypress swamps, to the near neigh- prey around which they hovered, and Guada- borhood of the Mississippi, from whose flood loupe and Martinique theirisland haunts. the process of delta-growth has cut the bayou From these the English, operating in the West off. Across the mouths of the frequent bays Indies, drove them out, and when in Febru- that indent this marshy coast-linestretch ary, 1810, Guadaloupe completed the list of long, slender keys of dazzling, storm- heaped their conquests, the French privateers were as sand sometimes of cultivable soil. homeless as Noah's raven. About sixty miles south from the bank They were exiled on the open Gulf, with of the Mississippi, opposite New Orleans, lies the Spaniards lining its every shore, except Grande Terre, a very sr rill island of this class, one, where American neutrality motioned scarce two miles long, and a fourth as wide, them austerely away. This was Louisiana. But stretching across two-thirds of the entrance of this, of all shores, suited them best. Thou- Barataria Bay, but leaving a pass of about a sands of their brethren already filled the mile width at its western end, with a navigable streets of New Orleans, and commanded the channel. Behind this island the waters of the sympathies of the native Creoles. The tangled bay give a safe, deep harbor. At the west of water-ways of Barataria, so well known to the bay lies a multitude of small, fenny is- smugglers and slavers, and to so few beside, lands, interwoven with lakes, bays, and passes, leading by countless windings and intersec- named and unnamed, affording cunning exit tions to the markets of the thriving city, of- to the bayous La Fourche and Terre Bonne fered the rarest facilities for their purposes. and the waters still beyond. Northward the Between this 'shelter and the distant harbors bay extends some sixteen miles, and then of France there could be no question of breaks in every direction into lakes and bay- choice. ous. Through one of these the bayou Bara- taria, with various other local names a way Hither they came, fortified Grande Terre. opens irregularly northward. Now and then it built store-houses, sailed away upon the Gulf, widens into a lake, and narrows again, each and re-appeared with prizes which it seems time more than the last, until near its head a were not always Spanish. The most seductive short canal is entered on the left, and six auctions followed. All along this coast there miles farther on you are stopped abruptly by are high, probably natural, heaps of a species the levee of the Mississippi. You mount its of small clam-shell. The aborigines, mound- crown, and see opposite the low-lying city, builders, used them for temple-sites. A no- with its spires peering up from the sunken -table group of these mounds on one of the is- plain; its few wreaths of manufactory smoke, lands of Barataria became the privateers' chief and the silent stir of its winding harbor. Canal place of sale and barter. There was no scarcity street, its former upper boundary, is hidden of buyers from New Orleans and the surround- two miles and a half away down the stream. ing country. Goods were also smuggled up the '[here are other Baratarian routes, through various bayous, especially La Fourche. Then lakes Salvador or Des Allemands, and many the captured vessels were burned or refitted, obscure avenues of return toward the Gulf of sails were spread again and prows were point- Mexico or the maze of wet lands intervening. ed toward the Spanish Main. The Baratarians 26 18 had virtually revived, in miniature, the life of but slave hands swung the sledge or shaped the long-extinct buccaneers. the horseshoe. Their fame spread far and wide; and It was during the embargo, enforced by while in neighboring States the scandalous the United States Government in 1808, that openness of their traffic brought loud con- John Lafitte began to be a merchant. His demnation upon Louisiana citizens and offi- store was in Royal street, where, behind a cials alike, the merchants and planters of the show of legitimate trade, he was busy running Delta, profiting by these practices, with the the embargo with goods and Africans. He general public as well, screened the contra- wore the disguise carelessly. He was cool and bandists and defended their character. intrepid and had only the courts to evade, and his unlawful adventures did not lift his name Much ink has been spilled from that day from the published lists of managers of soci- to this to maintain that they sailed under let- ety balls or break his acquaintance with prom- ters of marque. But certainly no commission inent legislators. could be worth the unrolling when carried by men who had removed themselves beyond all In 1810 came the West Indian refugees the restraints that even seem to distinguish and the Guadalupian privateers. The struggle privateering from piracy. They were often between the North American and the West In- overstocked with vessels and booty, but they dian ideas of public order and morals took seem never to have been embarrassed with the new energy on the moment. The plans of the care of prisoners. «set of bandits who infested the coast and overran the country» were described by Gov- There lived at this time, in New Orleans, ernment as «extensive and well laid,» and the John and Pierre Lafitte. John, the younger, confession made that «so general seemed the but more conspicuous of the two, was a hand- disposition to aid in their concealment, that some man, fair, with black hair and eyes, but faint hopes were entertained of detecting wearing his beard, as the fashion was, shaven the parties and bringing them to justice.» neatly back from the front of his face. His manner was generally courteous, though he Their trade was impudently open. Mer- was irascible and in graver moments some- chants gave and took orders for their goods what harsh. He spoke fluently English, Span - in the streets of the town as frankly as for the ish,Italian, and French, using them with merchandise of Philadelphia or New York. much affability at the hotel where he resided, Frequent seizures lent zest to adventure with- and indicating,inthe peculiarities of his out greatly impairing the extravagant profits French, his nativity in the city of Bordeaux. of a commerce that paid neither duties nor first cost. The elder brother was a sea-faring man and had served in the French navy. He ap- John and Pierre Lafitte became the com- pears to have been every way less showy than mercial agents of the xprivateers.» By and by the other; but beyond doubt both men were they were their actual chiefs. They won great above the occupation with which they began prosperity for the band; prizes were rich and life in Louisiana. This was the trade of black- frequent, and slave cargoes profitable. John smith, though at their forge, on the corner of Lafitte did not at this time go to sea. He St. Philip and Bourbon streets, probably none equipped vessels, sent them on their cruises, 27 19 sold their prizes and slaves, and moved hither They reached the height of their fortune and thither throughout the Delta, administer- in 1813. Their moral condition had declined ing affairs with boldness and sagacity. The in proportion. «Among them,» says the Gov- Mississippi's «coasts* in the parishes of St. ernor, «are some St. Domingo negroes of the James and St. John the Baptist were often most desperate character, and no worse than astir with his known presence, and his smaller most of their white associates.» Their avowed vessels sometimes pierced the interior as far as purpose, he says, was to cruise on the high Lac des Allemands. He knew the value of seas and commit «depredations and piracies popular admiration, and was often at country on the vessels of nations in peace with the balls, where he enjoyed the fame of great United States.» riches and courage, and seduced many of the simple Acadian youth to sail in his cruises. One of these nations was the British. Its His two principal captains were Beluche and merchantmen were captured in the Gulf and Dominique You. «Captain Dominique» was sold behind Grande Terre. The English more small, graceful, fair, of a pleasant, even attrac- than once sought redress with their own pow- tive face, and a skillful sailor. There were also der and shot. 0.n the 23d of June, 1813, a Gambi, a handsome Italian, who died only a British sloop-of-war anchored off the outer few years ago at the old pirate village of Che- end of the channel at the mouth of La Fourche niere Caminada; and Rigoult, a dark French- and sent her boats to attack two privateers ly- man, whose ancient house stillstands on ing under the lee of Cat Island; but the pirates Grande Isle, the island next to Grande Terre on stood ground and repulsed them with consid- the west. And yet again Johnness and Johan- erable loss. not, un',ss which appears likely these were only the real names of Dominique and Spain, England, and the United States Beluche. were now their enemies; yet they grew bolder and more outrageous. Smuggling increased. Expeditions went out against these men The Government was «set at defiance in more than once; but the Government was pre- broad daylight.» «I remember,» reads a manu- occupied and embarrassed and the expedi- script kindly furnished the present writer, tions seemed feebly conceived. They only when three Spanish vessels were brought in harassed the Baratarians, drove them to the to Caillou Islands. They were laden with a cer- mouth of La Fourche in vessels too well arm- tain Spanish wine, and the citizens of Atta- ed to be attacked in transports, and did not kapas went out to see them and purchased prevent their prompt return to Grande Terre. part of the captured cargoes. There were no traces of the former crews.» The revolution for the independence of the Colombian States of SouthAmerica be- In October,1813, a revenue officer gan. Venezuela declared her independence in seized some contraband goods near New Or- July, 1811. The Baratarians procured letters leans. He was fired upon by a party under of marque from the patriots in Carth'gena, John Lafitte, one of his men wounded, and lowered the French flag, ran up the new stan- the goods taken from him. The Governor of- dard, and thus far and no farther joined the fered 5500 for Lafitte's apprehension, but precarious fortunes of the new states, while without avail. Barataria continued to be their haunt and booty their only object. The shell-mound where the Baratarians 28 20 held their sales was called «the Temple.» In the embargo. There were the warships of Eu- January, 1814, four hundred and fifteenne- rope skimming ever to and fro in the entrances groes, consigned to John and Pierre Lafitte, and exits of the Gulf; Mire ly in days of were to be auctioned at this place. 'An inspec- French or Spanish rule had this purely agri- tor of customs and twelve men were stationed cultural country and non-manufacturing town at the spot. John Lafitte attacked them, killed been so removed to the world's end as just at the inspector, wounded two men, and made this time. The Mississippi, northward, was the rest prisoners. frees but its perils had hardly lessened since the days of Spanish rule. Then it was said, in Still he was not arrested. His islandwas a curious old Western advertisement of 1797, fortified, his schooners and feluccaswere whose English is worthy of notice: swift, his men were well organized andnum- bered four hundred, the Federal Government «No danger need be apprehended was getting the worst of it in war with Great from the enemy, as every person Britain, and, above all, the prevalence of West whatever will be under cover, made Indian ideas in New Orleans was a secure proof against rifle or musket balls, shelter. He sent his spoils daily up La Fourche and convenient port-holes for firing to Donaldsonville on the Mississippi, and to out of. Each of the boats are armed other points. strong, well-armed escorts pro- with six pieces, carry a pound ball, tected them. Claibo.ne asked the legislature also a number of muskets, and am- to raise one hundred men for six months' ply supplied with plenty of ammu- service. The request was neglected. At the nition, strongly manned with choice same time a filibustering expedition against hands, and masters of approved Texas was only stopped by energetic measures. knowledge .» The Federal courts could effect nothing. An expedition captured both Lafittes, but they Scarcely any journey, now, outside of disappeared, and the writs were returned «not Asia and Africa, is more arduous than was found.» then the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans. Vagabond Indiankwhite marauders, Spanish- But now the tide turned. Society began armed extortion ad arrest, and the natural to repudiate the outlaws. In July, 1814, a perils of the stream, made the river little, if grand jury debounced them as pirates, and ex- any, less dangerous than the Gulf. Culbert and horted the people «to remove the stain that Maglibtay were the baser Lafittes of the Mis- has fallen on all classes of society in the minds sissippi, and Cottonwood Creek their Bara- of the good people of the sister States.* In- taria. dictments were found against one Johnness and one Johannot for piracies in the Gulf, and And the labors and privations were great- against Pierre Lafitte as accessory. Lafitte was er than the dangers. The conveyances were arrested, bail was refused, and he found him- keel-boats, barges, and flat-boats. The flat- self at last shut up in the calaboza. boats, at New Orleans, were broken up for lumber, their sli y gunwales forming Weighing all the facts, it is small wonder along the open gutter's dge in many of the that the Delta Creoles coquetted with the streets a narrow and treacherous substitute Baratarians. To say no more of Spanish Amer- for a pavement. The keel-boats and barges ican or French West Indian tincture, there was returned up-stream, propelled now by sweeps 29 21 and now by warping or by cordelle (hand fifty whites at Fort Mimms, and opened the tow-ropes), consuming «three or four months Creek war. Within New Orleans bands of of the most painful toil that can be imagined.» drunken Choctaws roamed the streets. The Exposure and bad diet «ordinarily destroyed Baratarians were seen daily in the public re- one-third of the crew.» sorts.Incendiaryfires became alarmingly common, and the batturetroubles again But on the 10th of January, 1812, there sprang up. Naturally, at such a junction, La- had pushed in to the landing at New Orleans fitte and his men reached the summit of a sky-blue thing with a long bowsprit, «built power. after the fashion of a ship, with port-holes in the side,» and her cabin in the hold. She was In February, 1814, four hundred coun- the precursor of the city's future greatness, try militia reported at Magazine Barracks, op- the Orleans, from Pittsburg, the first steam posite New Orleans. The Governor tried to vessel on the Mississippi. force out the city militia. He got only clam- °robs denunciation and refusal to obey. The Here was a second freedom of the great country muster offered their aid to enforce river mightier than that wrested from Spain. the order. The city companies heard of it, and Commercial grandeur seemed just at hand. All only Claiborne's discreetness averted the mor- Spanish America was asserting its indepen- tifying disaster of a battle without an enemy. dence; Whitney's genius was making cotton The country militia, already deserting, was the world's greatest staple; immigrants were disbanded. Even the legislature withheld its swarming into the West; the Mississippi valley support, and Claiborne was everywhere de- would be the provision-house of Europe, the nounced as a traitor. He had to report to the importer of untold millions of manufactures; President his complete failure. Still, he insist- New Orleans would keep the only gate. In- ed apologetically, the people were emphatical- stead of this, in June, 1812, Congress declared ly ready to «turn out in case of actual inva- war against Great Britain. Barataria seemed in- sion.» Only so patient a man could under- dispensable, and New Orleans was infested stand that the Creoles were conscientious in with dangers. their lethargy, Fortunately the invasion did not come until the Creek war had brought to In 1813, Wilkinson, still commanding in view the genius of Andrew Jackson. the West, marched to the Mobile; in April he drove the Spaniards out of Fort Charlotte and In April, Government raised the embar- raised a small fortification, Fort Bo ,to go. But the relief was tardy; the banks sus- command the entrance of Mobile B .Thus pended. Word came that Paris had fallen. Na- the Spanish, neighbors only less obje tionable poleon had abdicated. England would throw than the British, were crowded back to Pensa- new vigor into the war with America, and cola. But, this done, Wilkinson was ordered to could spare troops for the conquest of Loui- the Canadian frontier, and even took part of siana. his few regulars with him. In August the Creeks made peace. Some The English were already in the Gulf; the British officers landed at Apalachicola, Flor- Indians were growing offensive; in July seven ida,bringingartillery.Somedisaffected hundred crossed the Perdido into Mississippi: Creeks joined them and were by them armed in September massacred three hundred and and drilled. But now, at length, the Govern- 22 ment took steps to defend the South-West. nel Nicholls's appeal to the Creoles to help re- store Louisiana to Spain; to Spaniards, French, General Jackson was given the under- Italians, and Britons, to aid in abolishing taking. He wroe to Claiborne to hold his mili- American usurpation; and to Kentuckians, to tia ready to march an order very easy to exchange supplies for money, and neutrality give. In September he repaired to Mobile, for an open Mississippi. Second, his letter to which was already threatened. The British Lafitte offering a naval captain's commission Colonel Nicholls had landed at Pensacola with to him, lands to all his followers, and protec- some companies of infantry, from two sloops- tion in persons and property to all, if the pi- of-war. The officers from Apalachicola anda rates, with their fleet, would put themselves considerable body of Indians had joined him, under the British naval commander, and an- without objection from tine Spaniards. nouncing the early invasion of Louisiana with a powerful force. Third, an order from the Suddenly attention was drawn to the naval commander in Pensacola Bay, to Cap- Baratarians. On the third of Septemberan tain Lockyer, the bearer of the packet, to armed brig had appeared off Grande Terre. procure restitution at Barataria for certain She fired on an inbound vessel, forcing her to late piracies, or to «carry destruction over the run agrOund, tacked, and presently anchored whole place»; but also repeating Colonel some six miles from shore. Certain of the is- Nicholls's overtures. And .fourth, a copy of landers went off in a boat, ventured toonear, the orders under which Captain Lockyer had and, turning to retreat, were overhauled by come. He was to secure the Baratarians' co- the brig's pinnace, carrying British colors and operation in an attack on Mobile, or, at all a white flag. In the pinnace were two naval of- events, their neutrality. According to Lafitte, ficers and a captain of infantry. They asked the captain added verbally the offer of $30,000 for Mr. Lafitte, one officer speaking in French and many other showy inducements. for the other. Lafitte asked time to consider. He with- «He is ashore,» said the chief person in drew; when in a moment the three officers the island boat, and received a packet address- and their crew were seized by the pirates and ed «To Mr. Lafitte, Barataria.» The offers imprisoned. They were kept in confinement asked that it be carefully delivered to him in all night. In the morning Lafitte 'appeared, person. The receiver of it, however, induced and, with many apologies for the rudeness of them to continue on, and when they were his men, conducted the officers to their pin- plainly in his power revealed himself. nace, and the!, went off to the brig. The same day he addressed a letter to Captain Lockyer «1, myself, am Mr. Lafitte.» As they asking a fortnight to «put ills affairs in order,» drew near the shore, he counseled them to .when he would be «entirely at his disposal.» conceal their business from his men. More it is noticeable for its polished dignity and the than two hundred Baratarians lined the beach purity of its English. clamoring for the arrest of the «spies,» but Lafitte contrived to get them safely to his Was this anything more than stratagem? dwelling, quieted his men, and opened the The Spaniard and Englishman were his foe packet. and his prey. The\ Creoles were his friends. H;s own large interests were scattered all over There were four papers in it. First, Colo- Lower Louisiana. His patriotism has been over- 31 23 praised; and yet we may allow him patriotism. and those of their owners]; the above His whole war, on the main-land side, was on- reward will be paid to any person ly with a set of ideas not superficially fairer delivering the said Lafitte to the than his own. They seemed to him unsuited subscriber. to the exigencies of the times and the coun- J. H. Holland, try. Thousands of Louisianians thought as he keeper of the Prison. did. They and he to borrow from a distance the phrase of another were «polished, On the 7th, John Lafitte wrote again to agreeable, dignified, averse to baseness and Blanque, the British brig and two sloops-of- vulgarity.* They accepted friendship, honor, war still hovered in the offing, should he and party faith as sufficient springs of action, make overtures to the United States Govern- and only dispensed with the sterner question ment? Blanque's advice is not known; but on of right and wrong. True, Pierre, his brother, the 10th, Lafitte made such overtures by let- and Dominique, his most intrepid captain, lay -ter to Claiborne, inclosed in one from Pierre then in the calaboza. Yet should he, so able to Lafitte who had joined him 4o M. Blanque. take care of himself against all corners and all fates, so scornful of all subordination, for a The outlawed brothers offered themselves paltry captain's commis.iion and a doubtful and their men to defend Barataria, asking on- thirty thousand, help his life-time enemies to ly oblivion of the past. The high-spirited peri- invade the country and city of his commercial ods of John Lafitte challenge admiration, and social intimates? even while they betray tinges of sophistry that may or may not have been apparent tc He sat down and 'penned a letter to his the writer. «All the offense I have committed,» friend Blanque, of the legislature, and sent the wrote he, «I was forced to by certain vices in entire British packet, asking but one favor, our laws.» the «amelioration of the situation of his un- happy brother»; and the next morning one of The heads of the small naval and military the New Orleans papers contained the follow- force then near New Orleans were Commo- ing advertisement: dore Paterson and Colonel Ross. They had or- ganized and were hurriedly preparing a descent $1000 REWARD upon the Baratarians. A general of the Creole militia was Viltere, son of the unhappy patriot Will be paid for the apprehending of 1768. Claiborne, with these three officers, of PIERRE LAFITTE, who broke met in council, with the Lafittes' letters and and escaped last night from the the British overtures before them, and de- prison of the parish. Said Pierre La- bated the question whether the pirates' ser- fitte is about five feet ten inches vice should be accepted. Villert voted yea, height, stout made, light complex- but Ross and Paterson stoutly nay, and thus it ion, and somewhat cross-eyed, fur- was decided. Nor did the British send ashore ther description is considered unne- for Lafitte's final answer; but lingered distant- cessary, as he is very well kr )wn in ly for some days and then vanished. the city. Presently the expedition of Ross and Said Lafitte took with him three Paterson was ready. Stealing down the Mis- negroes, to wit: [giving their names sissippi, it was joined at the mouth by some 24 gun-vessels, sailed westward into the Gulf, and and three armed schooners under Cartha- headed for Barataria. There was the schooner genian colors, arrived in New Orleans har- Carolina, sixgun-vessels, a tender, and a launch. bor amid the peal of guns from the old bar- On the 16th of September they sighted Grande racks and Fort St. Charles. Terre, formed in line of battle, and stood for the entrance of the bay. But among the prisoners the command- ing countenance of John Lafitte and the Within the harbor, behind the low island, cross-eyed visage of his brother Pierre were the pirate fleet was soon descried forming in not to be seen. Both men had escaped up Bay- line. Counting all, schooners and feluccas, ou La Fourche to the «German Coast.» Oth- there were ten vessels. Two miles from shore ers who had had like fortune by and by gath- theCarolinawas stopped by shoal water, and ered on Last Island, some sixty miles west of the two heavier gun vessels grounded. But Grande Terre, and others found asylum in armed boats were launched, and the attack ive v Orleans, where they increased the fear of entered the pass and moved on into the har- internal disorder. bor. Paterson and Ross struck the Baratarians Soon two of the Baratarians' vessels were just in time. The fortnight asked of the British seen to be on fire; another, attempting to es- by Lafitte expired the next day. The British cape, grounded, and the pirates, except a few themselves were far away eastward, drawing brave leaders, were flying. One of the fired off from an engagement of the day before, vessels burned, the other was boarded and badly worsted. A force of seven,hundred Brit- saved, the one which grounded got off again ish troops, six hundred Irlians, and four ves- and escaped. All the rest were presently cap- sels of war had attacked Fort Bowyer, com- tured. At this moment, a fine, fully-armed manding the entrances of Mobile Bay and Mis- schooner appeared outside the island, was sissirpi Sound. Its small garrison had repulsed chased and taken. Scarcely was this done them and they retired again to Pensacola with when another showed herself to eastward. serious loss, including a sloop-of-war ground- TheCarolinagave chase. The stranger stood ed and burned. for Grande Terre, and ran into water where theCarolinacould not follow. Four boats Now General Jackson gathered four were launched; whereupon the chase opened thousand men on the Alabama River, regulars, fire on theCarolina,and the gun-vessels in Tenrsseeans, and Mississippi dragoons, and turn upon the chase, firing across the island early in November attacked Pensacola with from inside, and in half an hour she surren- greatspirit, took the two forts, which dered. She proved to be theGeneral Bolivar, the Spaniards had allowed the English to gar- armed with one eighteen, two twelve, and one rison, drove the English to their shipping six-pounder. and the Indians into the interior, and returned to Mobile. Here he again called on Claiborne The nest was broken up. «All their build- to muster his militia. Claiborne convened the ings and establishments at Grande Terre and legislature and laid the call before it: Grande Isle, with their telegraph and stores at Cheniere Caminada, were destroyed. On the It was easy to count up the resources of last day of September, the elated squadron, defense: Paterson's feeble navy, the weak Fort with their prizes, seven cruisers of Lafitte, St. Philip on the river, the unfinished Fort 33 25 Petites Coquilles on the Rigolets, Ross'sseven Scattered, used, and pardoned, they passed in- hundred regulars, a thousand militia,mus- to eclipse not total, but fatally visible tered at last after three imperative calls,a where they most desired to shine. The ill- wretchedly short supply of ammunition founded tradition that the Lafitteswere never nothing more. «Our situation,»says La Car-. seen after the battle of New Orleans had thus riereLatour, «seemed desperate.» Twelve a figurative reality. thousand chosen British troopswere known to have sailed for Louisiana. In Jackson's general order of January 21st, Captains Dominique and Beluche, «with Measures of defense were pushedon. part of their former crew,» were gratefully Forts and stockades were manned,new com- mentioned for their gallantry in the field, and panies and battalions were mustered,among the brothers Lafitte for «the same courage them one of Choctaw Indians and two of free and fidelity.» On these laurels Dominique men of color. Jails ,re emptied to swell the You rested and settled down to quiet life in ranks. New Orleans, enjoying the vulgar admiration which is given to the survivor of lawless ad- And now John Lafitte, encouraged by ventures. It may seem superfluous to add that Claiborne and the legislature,came forward he became a leader in ward politics. again. Jackson, in one of his proclamations, had called the Baratarians «hellish banditti,» In the spring of 1815, Jackson, for cer- whose aid he spurned. But now these two in- tain imprisonments of men who boldlyop- trepid leaders met face to face in a room that posed the severity of his prolonged dictator- may still be pointed out in the old cabildo, ship in New Orleans, was forced at length to and the services of Lafitte and his skilled ar- regard the decrees of court. It was then that tillerists were offered and accepted for the de- his «hellish banditti,* turned «Jacksonites,» fense of the city. All proceedings against them did their last swaggering in the famous Ex- were suspended; some were sent to man the change Coffee-house, at the corner of St. Louis siege-guns of Forts Petites Coquilles, St. John, and Chartres streets, and when he was fined and St. Philip, and others were enrolled ina $1000 for contempt of court, aided in draw- body of artillery under «Captains» Beluche ing his carriage by hand through the streets. and Dominique. One of the general's laterre- ports alludes to the Baratarians as «these Of Beluche or of Pierre Lafitte littleor gentlemen.» The battle was fought on the 8th nothing more is known. But John Lafitte con- of January. tinued to have a record. After the city's deliv- erance a ball was given to officers of the army. New Orleans emerged from the smoke of General Coffee was present. So, too, was La- General Jackson's great victory comparatively fitte. On their being brought together and in- Americanized. Peace followed, or rather the troduced, the General showed some hesitation tardy news of peace, which had been sealed at of manner, whereupon the touchy Baratarian 4 Ghent more than a fortnight before the bat- advanced haughtily and said, with emphasis, tle. With peace came open ports. The high- «Lafitte, the pirate.» Thus, unconsciously, it ways of commercial greatness crossed each may be, he foretold that part of his life which other in the custom-house, not behind it,as in still lay intthe future. Spanish or embargo days, and the Baratarians were no longer esteemed a public necessity. That future belongs properly to the his- 26 tory of Texas. Galveston Island had early the open gulf disclosed to his followers that been one of Lafitte's stations, and now be- his Colombian commission had expired. came his permanent depot, whence he carried on extensive operations, contraband and pi- Forty-one men insisted on leaving him. ratical. His principal cruiser wasthe Jupiter. He removed the guns of theGeneral Victoria, She sailed under a Texas commission. Under crippled her rigging, and gave her into their the filibuster Long, who ruled at Nacogdoches, hands. They sailed for the Mississippi, and af- Lafitte became governor of Galveston. ter three weeks arrived there and surrendered to the officers of the customs. The Spanish An American ship was robbed of a quan- Consul claimed the vessel, but she was de- tity of specie on the high seas. Shortly after- cided to belong to the men who had fitted her ward theJupiter cameinto Galveston with a out. similar quantity on board. A United States cruiser accordingly was sent to lay off the Lafitte seems now to have become an coast, and watch her maneuvers. Lafitte took open pirate. Ville* Governor of Louisiana af- offense at this, and sent to the American com- ter Claiborne, and the same who had coun- mander to demand explanation. His letter, seled the acceptance of Lafitte's first over- marked with more haughtiness, as well as with tures in 1819, spoke in no measured terms of more ill-concealed cunning than his miler gthose men who lately, under the false pre- correspondence with the British and Ameri- text of serving the cause of the ananish pa- cans, was not answered. triots, scoured the Gulf of Mexic aking its' waves groan,* etc. It seems many of them had In 1818 a storm destroyed four of his found homes in New Orleans, making it gthe fleet. He sent one Lafa to New Orleans, seat of disorders and crimes which he would who brought out thenca new schooner of not attempt to describe.» two guns, manned by fi ty men. He presently took a prize; but had ha dly done so, when he The end of this uncommon man is lost ii was met by the revencutterAlabama,an- a confusion 'of improbable traditions. As late swered her challenwith a broadside, en- as 1822 his name, if not his person, wasthe gaged her in a hard battle, and only surren- terror of the Gulf and the Straits of Florida. dered after heavy loss. The schooner and prize But in that year the United States navy swept were carried into Bayou St. John, the crew those waters with vigor, and presently reduced taken to New Orleans, tried in the United the perils of the Gulffor the first time in its States Court, condemned and executed. history to the hazard of wind and wave. Once more Lafitte took the disguise of a A few steps down the central walk of the Colombian commission and fitted out three middle cemetery of those that ,lie along Clai- vessels. The name of one is not known. An- borne street, from Custom-house down to other was theGeneral Victoria,and a third Conti, on the right-hand side, stands the low, the schoonerBlank or, we may venture to stuccoed tomb of Dominique You. The tablet spellitBlanque.He coasted westward and bears his name surmounted by the emblem of southward as far as Sisal, Yucatan, taking sev- Free Masonry. Some one takes good care of eral small prizes, and one that was very valu- it. An epitaph below proclaims him, in French able, a schooner that had been a slaver. Thence verse, the intrepid hero of a hundred battles he turned toward Cape Antonio, Cuba, and in on land and sea; who, without fear andwith- 35 27 out reproach, will on day view, unmoved, the Louisiana Legion (city militia), and laid to destruction of the world. To this spot, in rest with military honors, at the expense of 1830, he was followed on his way by the the town council. .5. POLITICAL REINFORCEMENT OF ETHNIC DOMINANCE IN LOUISIANA, 1812-i 845 By Joseph G. Tregle, Jr. Mathematicians, we are told, lookon lican or democratic politicalway of life. The beauty bare, but it is not given to historians more numerous of these two Gallic groups to enjoy any comparable immediacy in the wasthe ancienne population,comprised of perception of truth. Time itself infuses shift- those members of the free white community ing meaning into the very words whichare who tracedtheir lineage back to colonial our links with the past. Today's symbols of Louisiana.1Theirallies were the so-called the attractive and desirablemay well have «Foreign French, some of whomwere refu- been freighted with other significance forgen- gees from a continental homeland wracked erations gone by. by revolution, the crushing demands of Napo- le'onic ambition, and the restoration ofvenge- This Conference properly celebrates the ful Bourbons; while others were exiles from Americanization of the Gulf region, withat West Indian islands bloodied, like Santo Do- least implicit acceptance that the process was mingo, in slave insurrection. the natural fulfillment ofu better destiny, the realization of a welcome «now to which all Of none of them had the United States else was but prelude. Yet to many of those asked consent when Louisiana passed to who lived in early nineteenth century Louisi- American dominion in 1803. The unionwas ana, that same process was feared, condemned, not, however, unattractive in their eyes, for and resisted as death itself. Recognition of even then the clear advantages of fellowship its force and appreciation of its potential in- in the dynamic young republicwere manifest satiability were in truth the mainsprings of to all but the most dense.2 But to welcome the state's early political history, as theyare acceptance into the American nation was not indeed the basL components of thispaper. to acquiesce in the surrender of their person- ality or the annihilation of their wholesense Two majorsegments ofLouisiana's of identity. Who of theancienne population population in the beginning years of the could be insensitive to the reality that Louisi- I800's aligned themselves desperately against ana washisnative land, where French cus- the Americanization of their society. Both toms and language had prevailed as long as were Gallic in language and culture, Roman the community itself? And who among the Catholic by at least tradition, and relatively «Foreign French* did not conceive of the innocent of any experience in those tech- Gallic character of his new home as a precious niques and adjustments known as the repub- inheritance not to be twice lost? 29 30 The fears of these two French groups for Gallic supremacy. It was for them a bitter their future had been born with the very arriv- choice as the «Foreign French» had long al of the Americans in their midst. The gover- antagonized native Louisianians by their air nor placed over them spoke no French; worse, of sophisticated superiority and amused dis- he was to rule as arbitrarily as any' colonial dain of local crudities. But, it was this or officer before him, in that Territory of Or- inevitable submission to the even more hate- leans to which they were now to be confined, ful Anglo-Saxon ways.4 Some additional sup- cut away from the va,st remainder of what had port was found, strangely enough, from such been French and Sganish Louisiana. Solemn Americans as Edward Livingston, whose own pledges of the Purchase Treaty were broken peculiar alienation from the older section of by United States fiat, threats were heard to the nation turned him naturally toward the make English the legal language, and suddenly French element in his new home. Marriage to there was the danger that cherished property a Santo Domingan widow and a typically rights might be lost in the baffling insubstan- self-centered appreciation of the power to tialities of something called the common law. be won by filling at least part of the French Their faith was adjudged superstition and leadership vacuum led him firmly into the their innocent enjoyments of the Sabbath Gallic camp.5 labeled sinful. In their own Louisiana these French residents were displaced by newcom- The years of territorial existence from ers who looked upon all political appoint- 1803 to 1812 did nothing to minimize the ments and positions of authority as perquis- sharpness of ethnic rivalry. If anything, old ites of their status as purchasers of the terri- hostilities deepened, when each day brought tory and who may or may not have jested in increasing evidence of the slow erosion of their claim to have paid fifty cents a head for Gallic numerical superiority. No reversal of the original.inhabilants.3 this tendency could be reasonably expected. French Louisianians readily understood that Against these dangers the French commu- if they we to preserve the Gallic nature of nity (-fluid pit only limited resources. The their society they had to fix the political ancienne population,despitetheirmany power which protected their way of life in winning and appealing qualities, were in- such rigid and unchangeable form as to with- escapablythevictimsof generationsof stand whatever buffeting the years ahead French and Spanish colonialism: most of might bring. The vehicle chosen for this pur- them were illiterate; they counted in their pose was the Constitution of 1812. ranks no doctors, no editors, no bankers or commercial princes, and but few lawyers of This first organic law was drafted for a any note; and none of them had theslightest Louisiana clearly divided into three distinct experience in political combat. Their one safe- geographic areas reflecting the ethnographic guard was in numbers, for, at least in the diversity of the community. French power beginning, they were the clear majority in the centered in the southwest, along the rich community. Recognizing their cultural affin- MississippiRiver coast, Bayou Lafourche, ity to the «Foreign French,» they ;hus reluc- and in the prairie lands of Attakapas and tantly turned to that group for political tute- Opelousas. The heart of the Anglo-Saxon, lage and leadership, aware that in such collab- Protestant population was the piney woods oration was the only hope for survival of uplands region beyond Red River, together 38 31 withthelush Ouachita-Concordia cotton ber by those districts along the Mississippi lands of north Louisiana and the Florida River coast and the southern interior where parishes' mixture of fertile alluvia! bluffs and Gallic influence was clearly destined to re- interior timberland. Finally there was the main paramount. With their great superiority metropolitan commercial center of New Or- of population and voters, Florida and New leans, a jumble of French and Anglo-Saxon, Orleans had to be content with no greater Irish and German, Indian and free men of senatorial voice than that accorded the com- color. In 1812 the free white Gallic popula- bined forces of the four least developed tion of the southwest exceeded that of non- districts of the state. The single vote of the Gallic north Louisiana and Florida, but did great metropolis was balanced by that of not constitute a majority of the potential Pointe Coupee, with only a fraction of the voter strength of the state. Additional sup- capital's population and voting strength.6 port sufficient to assure Gallic political domi- nance was readily available at that time from The lower chamber, too, though to a the ponderable French segment of New Or- lesser degree, was designed for the preserva- leans. But was this combination of Latin in- tion of the status quo. Representation was terests from the rural southwest and the city apportioned among thirteen counties, sub-,. likely to prevail for long over the steadily ris- divided into the unique parish units peculiar ing numbers of non-French migrants flood- to Louisiana, «to be forever regulated and ing into the metropolis and the American ascertained by the number of qualified elec- north? The answer was a convincing if painful tors therein,* as determined by regular four- «no.* The need existed to freeze the distribu- year census counts. Total membership of the tion of political power according to its 1812 House could never exceed fifty, thus placing pattern; hence the explanation emerges for a limit on the possibility of any significant those arrangements of thefirstLouisiana shift of power through rapid growth of any constitution which were to shape the state's one area.? politiial life until 1845. Buttressing this already sturdy design Gallic leadership, brilliantly marshalled were qualifications for suffrage and office- by such «Foreign French* as Etienne Mazu- holdingclearlyformulatedtofavor the reau and Louis Moreau Lis let, concentrated original inhabitants and exclude the new- on five principal areas of constitutional crafts- comers. These recent arrivals, aside from manship to assure their purpose: representa- being non-Gallic, were not likely to possess tion in the legislature; suffrage and office real property, slaves, cattle, horses, corpora- holding requirements; mechanics of choosing tion stock, mercantile emporiums, taverns, or a governor; definition of the governor's pre- billiard tables, which almost alone in that rogative; and procedures by which the consti- splendid age were subject to taxation. Sen- tution might be amended. The state was ators were required to be twenty-seven years dividedinto seventeen senatorialdistricts, of age, resident four years in the state and to be forever indivisible. These districts were one year in their district, and possessed of structured in such a way that New Orleans landed property in that area to the sum of and the sections above the Red River where one thousand dollars. Representatives were American strength might grow were certain to be at least twenty-one, with residence of always to be outweighed in the upper cham- two years in the state and one in their county, 3J 32 and with a landed property holding of at by the constitution without specific selection leastfour hundred dollars.Suffrage was being otherwise provided." State legislation limited to adult American citizens who had eventually gave the executives additional right resided at least one year in their county and to name district attorneys for the state's judi- whose names had been enrolled on the state cial districts, surveyors, notaries, auctioneers, tax list during the six-month period immedi- various state bank directors, coroners, regents ately preceding an election.8 Little room exis- for the central and primary schools of New ted in such a system for young Yankee stock- Orleans, port wardens, and harbor-masters." boys and clerks newly come to New Orleans, For those exhausting labors, Louisiana gover- for Irish draymen or German butchers, or nors were rewarded with a salary of $7500 a yeoman squatters in the northern hills. year, higher by $2500 than the closest similar stipend paid in 1821 by a sister state.12 The governor was, to be elected by joint ballot of the two houses of the legislature Having thus built to their pleasure, the with the choice being limited to one of the Gallic architects of this awesome governmen- two candidates who had received the highest tal structure proceeded to make it almost im- popular vote in a general state election. This pervious to change. Amendmtat required a provision was in the nature of a general back- process so awkward and baffling as to frus- stop should the carefully drafted suffrage re- trate any attempt at reform. If the legislature quirements fail in some way to produce the during thefirst twenty days of a regular expected Gallic electoral majority. In such an sessionpassedameasure listingspecific untoward circumstance the hapless French changes to be made in the constitution, the candidate for governor, skirelyat least in proposal was referred to popular vote at the second place on the popular poll, might be next election of representatives. Popular re- snatched to office by a legislature almost jection killed the proposal, but a favorable certain to be controlled by the Gallic interest expression required the next legislature to because of its constitutionally ordained struc- consider the proposition for a second time. ture. Further security was found in the quali- Renewed passage by the legislature sent the fications required for the governorship: no measure back. for yet another popular vote one was eligible except free white citizens the following yeer. Successful passage through above the age of thirty-five, who had been both plebiscites bound the legislature at its resident six years in the state, and who were next meeting to call for a constitutional con- holders of landed property valued at five vention to readopt, amend, or recast the thousand dollars or more.9 fundamental law. Not surpisingly, the con- stitution remained completely unaltered from With such good prospects for monopoly 1812 to 1845.13 of the governorship, the French forces were determined to push its powers to the fullest. How well this Constitution of 1812 ful- Aside from the usual executive prerogatives, filled its objectives of continued Gallic dom- Louisiana governors were granted wide ap- inance in the state is a question which has pointive rights, with power to name the secre- received little attention from historians foi. tary of state, all judges, the attorney-general, the simple reason that few of them have all sheriffs, all justices of the peace, and all understood that such was indeed its purpose. other officers whose places were established This lack of knowledge is largely attributable 40 33 to the frequent but regrettable assumption with 59 percent of the white adult males of that past societies must have been concerned the section possessing the ballot. Surely a one about issues that we today feel they should percent difference in voter eligibility between have been concerned about. And our own theso-called blackbelt and the yeoman recent generations have been thus misled into farmer area is nc, the disparity implicit in the viewing everything in the antebellum South Shugg statistic. But much falls into place in terms of economic class struggle or the sla- when we turn to the figures for the metropol- very issue. itan area. With 34.5 percent of the adult white male population, Orleans and Jefferson The most familiar of the interpretations parishes possessed but 17 percent of the elec- of the Constitution of 1812 maintains that torate, with only 23 percent of adult white the authors of the constitution aimed primari- males holding the ballot. In the urban com- ly at fixing power in the ;lands of the south- munity thestrictures of the constitution ern slave-holdingparishes,with attendant bound 'most tightly, because here the Ameri- exclusion of a major part of the white male can menace was strongest, not that of anti- population from the rights of suffrage. Roger slavery. Shugg, for example, states flatly that the con- stitution «never admitted to the polls more There can be no question that tax re- than a third of the adult freemen,» and quirements affett*' Louisiana suffrage to a ((favored planters in the black belt at the ex- considerable degree in the early nineteenth cen- pense of white people in New Orleans and on tu .Equally clear, the dominantly French the frontier.»14 lackbelt» was by no means able tc keep merican strength in. Florida and Red River Much of this claim is true, but to stress parishes,suppressed even by this clever device, this condition as pivotal to the contemporary for the latter section offset much of the purposes of the society is seriously to distort advantage of the Gallic rural area by greater the reality of early Louisiana history. Shugg's exploitation of its own numbers. In New Or- figures, aside from being incorrect, fail to leans and Jefferson, however, the odds moun- give a focused picture of the state. Despite ted against the Anglo-Saxon influence as the their low incidence of slaveholding, for ex- French here could more effectively keep the ample, the Florida parishes and those north suffrage severely limited by property qual- of Red River 1 g20 possess 4 38.5 percent cations which worked to the advantage bf the of the qualified voters of the state, a consid- older population with its Itmg established erable margin over their 30.5 percent share realty holdings. All was safe so long as the of the white male Louisianians over twenty country parishes balanced with that slight but in that same year. Property qualifications and precious advantage in the Latin areas. Despite all Other difficulties encountered under the the gross inequity inflicted on the metropolis, 1812 organic law did not keep the voting eli- Louisiana offered the ballot to 45+ percent gibility of this area below 58 percent of the of all white adult males in 1821, and as many adult male group. In the French, black belt as 34 percent of the state's white males over region south of Red River and excluding Or- twenty actually voted in the gubernatorial leans and Jefferson parishes, 34.9 percent of campaign of 1830.15 the state's white adult population in 1820 controlled 44.4 percent of the electorate, As noted earlier, however, suffrage re- 34 quirements were not the whole story. Gallic 1826 to 1841.17 Many of the Orleans dele- strength also rested upon the almost impreg- gates obviouslypreferred maintenance .of nable position enjoyed by the French section French strength in Louisiana to any change Inthe legislature. The permanent division which, even though offering greater voice to of thestate into unchangeable senatorial the city, might work primarily to the advan- districts,for example, gave to the Latin tage of the Anglo-American forcer; as a whole. country parishes 47 percent of the member- Low indelegate strength, the metropolis ship of the Louisiana Senate. Against the 41 nonetheless was the critical weight which percent strength of the Florida and northern could throw the majority to one side or the parishes, the French element could also count other. New Orleans,saidthe sharp-eyed upon sufficient support within the 11.7 per- Henry Clay in his 1830 visit there, «is the cent controlled by Orleans and Jefferson pivot»around which Louisiana lelislative parishes to secure an almost constant majority control revolved.1 8 in the upper chamber. Mu'h the same pattern prevailed in the lower house, where ;tom This situation made for constant politi- 1820 to 1841 the relative strength remained cal unrest and underlayall state pettics, fixed at 46 percent for the parishes south of even through the broader-based disputes of Red River, 38 percent for Florida and the the Jacksonian era. Despite an overt advan- northern parishes, and 16 percent for Orleans tage in the constitutional structure of the and Jefferson.1 6 state, the French could never relax, for the Americans were conscious not only 'of their The Anglo-Americans repeatedly tried to handicaps but also of their ever increasing breach this wall by proposals to amend the numbers. Growing migration into the north- constitution or at least to adopt more equita- ern parishes and the constant flood of Ameri- ble apportionment but, just as regularly the cans, Irish, and Germans into New Orleans forces of French influence in the south and gave vigor to their determination to topple New O. jeans combined to beat back the the Constitution of 1812. attack. Despite direct constitutional mandate directing reapport'onment every four years In a sense it was a battle for the soul of on the basis of qualified electors, supporters Louisiana. Americanization, we know, would of the status quo managed to thwart any new eventually winbut that is another story. apportionment act of whatever sort from 42 3S Notes 1. The ethnic terminologies of early Louisiana are rigny, Memoir... Addressed toHis Fellow confusing and have been accordingly widely Citizens of New Orleans (New Orleans, 1853), misunderstood. "Creole" had but one meaning 36ff.; IsaacL.Baker to Josiah Stoddard in the early 1800's: native born. The term was Johnston, October 5, 1826, in Jos;ah Stoddard applied to anyone native to the state or the Johnston Papers, Historical Society of Penn- earlier colony, be he free or slave; white, black, sylvania,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania(herein- or colored;Gallic, Anglo-Saxon, Irish, or Ger- after cited as Johnston Papers);- Everett S. manic byculturalidentity.The ancienne Brown, ed.,"Letters from Louisiana, 1813- popu la iion were those free white creoles whose 1814," MississippiValley Historical, Review ancestry extended into colonial Louisiana, and 11(1924), 570-579; New Orleans L'Ami des who were almost all Gallic in speech and cul- Lois, January 10, June 18, October 10, 1822; ture, though some few among them had des- New Orleans Louisiana Gazette, August 24, cended from those small numbers of Spanish 1822; August 1, October 1, 2, 1823; April 5, settlers introduced into the colony prior to 1825; NewOrleansLouisianaAdvertiser, 1803. These last residents were essentially sub- November 27, 28, December 1, 2, 1823; New merged in the vastly superior ranks of their Ories..)sArgus, July 7, 1828. French-speaking compatriots. For an extended treatment of this topic, see Joseph G. Tregle, Jr., 4. Tregle,"Early New Orleans Society," 31; "Early New Orleans Society: A Reappraisal," G.W. Pierson, "Alexis de Tocqueville in New Journal of Southern History 18 (1952), 20-36 Orleans," Fianco-American Review 1(1936), (hereinafter cited as Tregle, "Early New Orleans 34; New Orleans Louisiana Gazette, April 14, Society"). 1824; October 3, 1825. 2. Despite George Washington Cable's familiar 5. New Orleans L'Ami des Lois, October 12, story of creoles weeping as the tricolor was 1822; New Orleans Argus, June 21, 1826; lowered in the Place d'Armes in New Orleans New Orleans Louisiana Advertiser, November in 1803, there is no evidence that their tears 17, 1823. bespoke more than a sentimental farewell to a no longer profitable relationship. Sable's obser- 6. Benjamin W. Dart, ed., Constitutions of the vations are in George E. Waring and George W. State of Louisiana and Selected Federal Laws Cable, The History and Present Conditions of (Indianapolis,1932), 500 (hereinaftercited New Orleans (Washington, 1881), 32. as Dart, ed., Constitutions); Henry A. Bullard and Thomas Curry, eds., A New Digest of the 3. For some insight into these tensions, which State Laws of the State of Louisiana (New continued well into the period of statehood, see Orleans,1842),544(hereinaftercited as J.Rodriguez, Ddfense Fulminante Contre la Bullard and Curry,eds., Digest);Louisiana Violation des Droits du Peuple (New Orleans, House Journal, 5 Leg. 2 Sess., 26. 182 -'r, 35ff.; Bernard Marigny, "Reflections on the Campaign of General Andrew Jackson in 7. Dart, ed., Constitutions, 500. Louisiana in 1814 and '15," Louisiana Histori- cal Quarterly 6 (1923), 61-85; Bernard Ma- 8. Ibid., 501. 43 36 9. Ibid. anal; the census of eligible electors in the state taken in 1821 (Louisiana House Journal, 5 Leg, 10. Ibid., 502. 2 Sess., 26); an "state elections returns for 1830 (Louisiana House Journal, 10 Leg. 1 Sess., 11. Bullard and Curry, eds., Digest, 26, 30, 36, 37, 7). 374, 464, 537, 796. 16. For thepertinent apportionment laws, see 12. New Orleans Louisiana Gazette, June 14, 1821. Louisiana Acts, 5 Leg. 2 Sess., March 22, 1822; 7 Leg. 2 Sess., April 7, 1826. 13. Dart, ed., Constitutions, 506-507. 17. Louisiana House Journal, 9 Leg. 2 Sess., 22; 14, Roger W. Shugg, "Suffrage and Representation 11Leg. 2 Sess., 69;12 Leg. 1 Sess., 34; in Ante-bellum Louisiana," Louisiana Historical Louisiana Senate Journal, 9 Leg. 2 Sess., 62; Quarterly 19 (1936), 390-1. 11Leg. 1 Sess., 11; Baton Rouge Gazette, August 11, 1827; June 16, 1832; New Orleans 15. These computations are based on the unpub- Louisiana Advertiser, January 11, 1832; New lished federal census returns for Louisiana in Orleans Bee, March 10, 1834, 1820 and 1830 (microfilm copies of originals in National Archives, Louisiana State University 18. HenryClaytoJosiah Stoddard Johnston, in New Orleans Library, New Orleans, Louisi- March 11, 1830, in Johnston Papers. Reprinted by permission ofthe Historic Pensacola Preservation BOard. 44 THE RURAL FRENCH: ACADIANS, CREOLES,ANDBLACKS By W. H. Sparks Forty years ago, there was quite an ex- Spain of Louisiana by France, these, with citement' among the cotton-planters, in the many others of a population similar to these, neighborhood of Natchez, upon the subject of from the different arrondissements of France, sugar-planting in the southern portion of Lou- were sent to Louisiana, and were located in isiana. At that time it wo = thought the duty Opelousas, Attakapas, La Fourche, and in the ( two and a half cents per pound) on imported parishes of St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, sugars would be continued as a revenue tax, and St. James (parishes constituting the Aca- .and that it would afford sufficient protection dian coast on the Mississippi). On the La to make the business of sugar-planting much Fourche they constituted, forty years ago, al- more profitable than that of cotton. The sec- most the entire population. They were illiter- tion of country attracting the largest share of ate and poor. Possessing the richest lands on attentioki for this purpose was the Teche, or earth, which they had reclaimed from the an- Attakapas country, the' Bayous La Fourche, nual inundations of the Mississippi River by Terre Bonne, and Black. The Teche and La- levees constructed along the margins of the Fourche had long been settled by a popula- streamwith a climate congenial and health- tion, known inLouisiana as the Acadian ful, and with every facility afforded by the French. These people, thus named, had once navigation of the bayou and the Mississippi resided in Nova Scotia and Lower Canada, or for reaching the best market for all they could Canada East as now known. When peopled by produce yet, with all these natural advan- the French, Nova Scotia was called Acadia. tages, promising to labor and enterprise the Upon the conquest by the English, these most ample rewards, they could not be stimu- people were expelled from the 'country, and latedto industry or made to understand in a most inhuman and unchristian manner. them. They were permitted to choose the countries to which they would go, and were there sent They had established their homes on the by the British Government. Many went to margin of the stream, and cleared a few acres Canada, some to Vincennes in Indiana, some of land donated by the Government, upon to St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Viedepouche, which to grow a little corn and a few vegeta- andKaskaskiainMississippi, and many bles.With a limited amount of 'stock, which returned to France. found subsistence upon the cane and grass of the woods, and with the assistance of a shot- Upon the cession, or rather donation to gun, they managed to subsistas Peake's 3-74 y 38 mother served the Lordafter a fashion. calves. A sallow-faced,slatternly woman, bareheaded, with uncared-for hair, long, tan- Their houses were unique: a slender gled, and black, with her dress tucked up to frame, often of poles cut from the forest, and her knees, bare-footed and bare-legged, is wa- rudely squared, served the purpose. Into the ding through the mud from the bayou, with a studding were placed pins, extending from dirty pail full of muddy Mississippi water. one to the other, horizontally, and about ten inches apart. The long gray moss of the coun- A diminutive specimen of a man, clad in try was then gathered and thrown by layers blue cottonade pants and hickory shirt, bare- into a pit dug for the purpose, with the soil, footed, with a palm-leaf hat upon his head, until the pit was full, when water was added and an old rusty shot-gun in his hands, stands insufficientquantitiestowetthe mass upon the levee, casting an inquiring look, first through; this done, all who are assisting in the up and then down the bayou, deeply desiring construction of the housemen, women, and most ardently expecting a wandering boys, and girlsjump in upon it, and con- duck or crane, as they fly along the course of tinue to tramp until mud and moss are com- the bayou. If unfortunately they come with- pletely intermingled and made of proper con- in reach of his fusee, he almost invariably sistence, when it is gathered up and made into brings them down. Then there is a shout from rolls about two feet long. These rolls are laid the children, a yelp from the dogs, and all run over the pins, commencing at the bottom or to secure the game; for too often, No duck, sill of the building, when each roll is bent no dinner.» Such a home and such inhabitants down at the ends, covering the intervals be- were to be seen on Bayou La Fourche forty tween the pins, pressed hardly together, and years ago, and even now specimens of the gen- smoothed with the hands, inside and out, uine breed may there be found, as primitive as foiming a wall some five inches in thickness, were their anpestors who first ventured a with a perfectly smooth surface. The roof is home in the Mississippi swamps. first put on, and the floors laid. When this mud dries thoroughly it is white-washed; the The stream known as tiayou La Fourche, house is then complete, and presents quite a or The Fork, is a large stream, some one hun- neat appearance. It will continue to do so if dred yards wide, leaving the Mississippi at the the white-washing is annually continued. If, town of Donaldsonville, eighty miles above however, this is neglected, the lime falls off thecity of New Orleans, running south- in spots, and the primitive mud comes out to southeast, emptying into the Gulf, through view: then the appearance is anything but Timbalier Bay, and may properly be termed pleasant. No pains are taken to ornament one of the mouths of the Mississippi. Its cur- their yards, or gather about them comforts. rent movement does not in high water exceed There is a pig or two in a pen in the corner three miles an hour, and when the Mississippi of the yard, a hen-roost immediately at the is at low water, itis almost imperceptible. house, a calf or two at large, and numerous Large steamers, brigs, and schooners come half - starved, mangy dogsand innumerable into it when the river is at flood, and carry ragged, half-naked children, with little, black, out three or four hundred tons of freight each piercing eyes, and dishevelled, uncombed hair at a time. falling about sallow, gaunt faces, are com- mingling in the yard with chickens, dogs, and The lands upon the banks of this stream 46 39 are remarkably fertile, entirely alluvialand ton regions. decline from the bank to the swi:mp, general- ly some one or two miles distant. This Aca- There was one man of high intelligence dian population was sent here during the and long experience who denied thisStephen Spanish domination, and with a view to open- Duncan, of Natchezand the subsequent ex- ing up to cultivation this important tract of perience of many brought bitter regret that country. It was supposed they would become they had not yielded to the counsels of Dr. under the favorable auspices of their emigra- Duncan. tion to the country, and with such facilities for accumulating moneya wealthy and intel- The great flood of 1828 had not touched ligent population. This calculation was sadly the La Fourche or Teche, while the entire al- disappointed. The mildness of the climate and luvial plain above had been covered many the fruitfulness of the soil combined to ener- feet, and for many months. This was the most vate, instead of stimulating them to active in- terrible inundation, perhaps, ever experienced dustry, without which there can be no pros- in that region; and every one appeared to be perity for any country. A few acres, though now satisfied that to continue to cultivate half cultivated, were found sufficient to yield lands already reduced to man's dominion, or an ample support, and the mildness of the to open and prepare any more, subject to this climate required but little provision for cloth- scourge, was madness. Hence the emigration ing. Here, in this Eden upon earth, these peo- from this chosen section to the new El Dorado. ple continued to live in a simplicity of primi- Lands rose rapidly in South Louisiana as an ti4,e ignorance and indolence scarcely to be effect of this, while above, in the flooded dis- believed by any but an actual observer. Their trict, they were to be bought for almost a implements of agriculture were those of two nominal price. Those who ventured to pur- centuries before. More than half the popula- chase these and reduce them to cultivation tion wore wooden shoes, when they wore any realized fortunes rapidly; for there was not a at all. Their wants were few, and were all sup- sufficient flood to reach them again for ten plied at home. Save a little flour, powder, years. The levees by this time had become so and shot, they purchased nothing. These were extended as to afford almost entire immunity paid for by the sale of the produce of the against the floods of annual occurrence. The poultry -yardthe prudent savings from the culture of sugar received a new impetus and labor of the womento the market-boats began rapidly to increase, and capital came from the city. flowing in. Population pf an industrious and hardy character was filling up the West, and There were, at the period of which I the demand from that quarter alone was equal write, but half a dozen Americans upon the to the production, and both were increasing bayou. These had found the country illy so rapidly as to induce the belief that it would adapted to the growth of cotton, and some of be as much as all the sugar lands in the State them had commenced the planting of sugar- could accomplishto supply this demand. cane. The results from this were very satisfac- Steam power for crushing the cane was intro- tory. and consequently stimulating to the en- ducedan economy of labor which enhanced terprise of men of means, who felt they could the profits of the productionand a new and be more profitably employed in this new cul- national interest was developed, rendering ture than in cotton, even in. the very best cot- more and more independent of foreign sup- 40 ply, at least that pintion of-the Unionmost not stimulate to emulation the action of these difficult of access to foreign commercethe people. They were content and unenvious, great and growing West. and when kindly received and .yespectfully treated, were social and generous in their in- The Americans,or those Americans tercoursewith their American neighbors. speaking English alone, immigrating intothese They were confiding and trustful; butonce sections of Louisiana, so faras the language, deceived, they were not to be won back, but manners, and customs of the people were con- only manifested their resentment by with-- cerned, were going intoa foreign land. The drawing from communicating with the de- language of the entire populationwas F rench, ceiver, and ever after distrusting, and refu4iag--- or a patois, as the European French term ita him their confidence. Theywere universally provincialism which a Parisian finds it diffi- Catholic;consequently,sectariandisputes cult to understand. The ignorance and squalid were unknown. They practised eminently the poverty of these people put their societyen- Christian virtues, andwere constant in their tirely out of the question,even if their lan- 'attendance at mass. The priestwas the univer- guage had been comprehensible. They were sal arbiter in all disputes, and his decision amiable,kind,law-abiding,virtuous, and most implicitly acquiesced in. They had a hor- honest, beyond any population of similar ror of debt, and lawsui':s, and would sacrifice character to be found in any country. Out of any property they might have, to meet punc- some fifty thousand people, extending over tually an obligation. Fond of amusements, five or six parishes, such a thingas a suit for their social meetings, though of most primi- slander, or an indictment for malicious mis- tivecharacter, were frequent and cordial. chief, or a case of bastardywas not known or They observed strictly the exactions of the heard of once in ten years. This willseem Church, especially Lent; but indulged the strange when we reflect that at this time Carnival to its wilz!nt extent. Out of Lent schools were unknown, and notone out of they met to dance ..*,nd enjoy themselves, fifty of the people could reador write, and weekly, first at one, and then at another when it was common for the judge of the neighbor's house; and with the natural taste District Court to ask, when a grandjury was of their race, they would appear neatly and impanelled, if there was a man upon it who cleanly dressed in the attire fabricated by could write, that he might make him fore- their own hands in the loom and with the man. And not unfrequently was he compelled needle. call from the court-room one who could, and trump him on the jury for a foreman,as The method of invitation to these re- the action was termed. There was not upor unions was simple and speedy. A youth on his the La Fourche, which comprised three large pony would take a small wand, and de to its parishes, but one pleasure carriage, and not top end a red or white flag, and ride up and half a dozen ladies' bonnets. The females down the bayou, from the house where the wore a colored handkerchief tastily tied about ball was intended, for two or three miles; re- their heads, when visitingor at church; and turning, tie the wand and flag tc flaunt above when not, not anything lAt bit),vn,un- the gate, informing all %,(This is the pktce.» combed hair. All were welcome who came, and everything was conducted with strict regard to decent The enterprise of the new-comers did ?ropriety. Nothing boisterous was ever known 4' 41 no disputing or angry wrangling, for there Louisiana than in any other State of the was no cause given; harmony and happiness Union. This, however, can hardly be said of pervaded all, and at proper time and in a her native population: emigrants from high proper manner all returned to their homes. latitudes, who come after maturity, once acclimated, seem to endure the effects of Marriages, almost universally, were cele- climate here with more impunity than those brated at the church, as in all Catholic coun- native to the soil. tries. The parsonage is at the church, and the priest always on hand, at the altar or the The Bayou Plaquemine formerly dis- grave; and almost daily, in this dense popula- charged an immense amount of water into the tion, a marriage or funeral was seen at the lakes intervening between the La Fourche and church. It was the custom for the bride and the Teche. These lakes have but a narrow strip groom, with a party of friends, all on horse- of cultivable land. Along the right margin of back,to repair without ceremony to the the La Fourche, and the left of the Teche, church, where they were united in matrimony they serve as a receptacle for the waters by the good priest, who kissed the bride, a thrown from the plantations and those dis- privilege he never failed to put into execution, charged by the Atchafalayah and the Pla- when he blessed the couple, received his fee, quemine, which ultimately find their way to and sent them away rejoiellitg. This ceremony the Gulf through Berwick's Bay. They are was short, and without ostentation; and then interspersed with small islands: these have the happy and expectant pair, often on the narrow strips of tillable land, but are generally same horse, would return with the party as too low for cultivation; and when the Mis- they had come, with two or three musicians sissippi is at flood, they are all under water, playing the violin in merry tunes on horse- and most of them many feet. The La Fourche back, as they joyfully galloped home, where goes immediately to the Gulf, between Lake a ball awaited them at night, and all went Barataria and these lakei, affording land high merry with the married belle. enough, when protected as they now are, for settlement, and cultivation to a very great ex- These people are Iberian in race, are tent. Its length is some one hundred miles, small in stature, of dark complexion, with and the settlements extend along it for eighty black eyes, and lank black hair; their hands miles. These are continuous, and nowhere and feet are small, and beautifully formed, does the forest intervene. and.their features regular and handsome; many of their females are extremely beauti- At irregular distances between these Aca- ful. These attain maturity ierrearly, and are dian settlements, large sugar plantations are frequently married at thirteen years of age. found. These have been extending for years, In more than one in! Lance, I have known a and increasing, absorbing the habitats of these grandmother at thirty. As in all warm coun- primitive and innocent people, who retire to tries,this precocious maturityis followed some little ridge of land deeper in the swamp, with rapid decay. Here, persons at forty wear a few inches higher than the plane of the the appearance of those in colder climates of swamp, where they surround their little mud- sixty yens. Notwithstanding this apparert houses with an acre or so of open land, from earlyloss of vigor, the instances of great the products of which, and the trophies of the longevityareperhaps morefrequent. in gun and fishing-line and hook, and_an occa- 42 sional frog, and the abundance of crawfish, tations enables the families of planters to ex- they contrive to eke out. a miserable liveli- change formal morning and evening calls, but hood, and afford the fullest illustration of the most generally the distance to be overgone is adage, «Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to too great for this. Then the visiting is done by be wise.» families, and extends to days, and sometimes weeks. Provisions are so abundant that the ex- The contrast between these princely tra consumption is never missed, and the estates, and the palatial mansions which adorn residences are always of such dimensions that them, and make a home of luxuriant beauty, the visitors seem scarcelyto increase the and the little log huts, their immediate neigh- family never to be in the way; and the suits bors, tells at once that the population is either of apartments occupied by them were built very rich or very poor, and that under such and furnished for- the purpose to which they circumstances the communication must be are then devoted. The visitor is at home. The extremely lintiVtlaor the ignorance of the character of the hospitality he is enjoying poor unfits them for social and intelligent permits him to breakfast from seven till ten, intercourse with their more wealthy and mores alone, or in company with the family if he cultivated neighbors. This is true whether the chooses. Horses, dogs, and guns for the gentle- planter is French or American. The remark- menbilliards, the carriage, music, or prom- able salubrity of the climate; combined with enading, with cards, chess, backgammon, or the comforts and luxuries of home, causes dominos for the ladies, to pass away the day the planter to spend most of his time there, until dinner. At this meal the household and where he can give his attention to his busi- guests unite, and the rich viands, wines, and ness and mingle with his brother planters in coffee make a feast for the body and sharpen a style and manner peculiar to Louisiana and the wit to a feast of the soul. This society is the tastes of her people. Intercommunication the freest and most refined to be found in the is facilitated by steamboat travel, and as every country. plantation is located upyra navigable stream, the planter and family can at any time suiting Upon the coast of the Mississippi, from his business go with little trouble to visit his Baton Rouge to many miles below the city, friends, though they may be hundreds of the proximity of the large plantations pre- miles apart. Similarity of pursuit and interest sents an opportunity of close and constant draw these together. There is no rivalry, and intercourse. A very large majority of these consequently no jealousy between them. are the property and habitations of the culti- All their relations are harmonious, and their vated and intelligent Creoles of the State. intercourse during the summer is continuous, And here let me explain the term Creole, for at that season the business of the planta- which has ledto so many ludicrous, and tion may be safely trusted to a manager, one sometimes to painful mistakes. It is an arbi- of whom is found on everyplantation. trary term, and imported from the West Indies into Louisiana. Its original meaning was This social intercourse is highly promo- a native born of foreign parents; but universal tive of a general amity, as it cultivates an use has made it to mean, in Louisiana, noth- intimacy which at once familiarizes every one ing more than simply «native;o and itis with the feelings, situation, and intentions of applied indiscriminately to everything native the other. Sometimes the contiguity of plan- to the Stateas creole cane, creole horse, '41 43 creole negro, or creole cow. Many confound this colony. These sires laid the foundation of its meaning with that of quadroon, and sup- this wealth, in securing for their posterity the pose it implies one of mixed blood, or one broad acres of this fat land where now they with whose blood mingles that of the African are to be found. None have emigrated: con- than which no -Taning is more foreign to scious of possessing the noblest heritage upon the word. earth, they have remained to eliminate from this soil the wealth which in such abundance The Creole planters, or what are termed they possess. As they were reared, they have French Creoles, are descended from a very reared their sons; the lessons of truth, virtue, different race from the Acadian Creole, or honor have borne good fruit. None can say Iberian. The first colonists who came to they ever knew a French Creole a confirmed Louisiana were men of the first blood and drunkard or a professional gambler. None ever rank in France. The Ibervilles, the Bienvilles, knew an aberration of virtue in a daughter of St. Denises, and many others, were of noble one descent; and the proud prestige of their names and glorious deeds still clings around their The high-bred Creole lady is a model of descendants now peopling the lands they refinementmodest, yet free in her manners; conquered from the desert, the savage, and chaste in her thoughts and deportment; gen- the flood. These daring men brought with erous in her opinions, and full of charity; them the chivalrous spirit which descended to highly cultivated intellectually and by associa- their sonsthe open, gallant bearing; the tion; familiar from travel with the society of generous hospitality; the noble humanity; the Europe; mistress of two, and frequently of honor which prefers death to a stain, and the half a dozen languages, versed in the literature soul which never stoops to a lie, a fraud, or a of all. Accustomed from infancy to deport meanness degrading to a geritleman. They themselves as ladies, with a model.before have been born upon the banks of the great them in their mothers, they grow up with an river of the world; they have seen all the elevation of sentiment and .a propriety of de- developments of talent, time, and enterprise portment which distinguishes them as ll# which have made their country great as the most refined and polished ladies in the whoTe river through which it flows. Accustomed country. There is with these a softness of de- from infancy to look upon this scene and portment and delicacy of expression, an ab- these developments, their souls with their stinence from all violent and boisterous ex- ideas have been sublimated, and they are a pressions of their feelings and sentiments, population unsurpassedinthehigher at- and above all, the entire freedom from petty tributes of humanity, and the nobler sym- scandal, which makes them lovely, and to be pathies of man, by any on the face of the loved by every honorable and high-bred gen- earthsurrounded by wealth, tangible and tleman who may chance to know them and substantial, descending from generation to cultivate their association. Indeed, this is a generation, affording to each all the bles- characteristic of the gentlemen as well as the sings wealth can give. ladies. The spirit of hospitality and indepen- These people may have afeud, and dence has ennobled the sons. as hereditary sometimes they do; but this rarely remains wealth and privilege had the sires who planted long unsettled. No one will ever hear it public- 44 ly alluded to, and assuredly they will never without being seen. hear it uttered in slanderous vituperation of the absent party. I may be permitted here to The fringe of green foliage which is pre- narrate an incident illustrative of this pecu- sented by the trees and shrubs adorning each liarity. homestead, follows in such rapid succession as to give it a continuous line, in appearance, A gentleman, knowing of a dissension to the passers-by on the steamer. These, de- between two parties, was dining with one of nuded of timber to the last tree, the immense them, in company with several others. This fields; only separated by a ditch, or fence, guest spoke to the hostess disparagingly of the which spread along the river all greened with enemy of her husband, who, hearing the re- the luxuriant sugar-cane, and other crops, mark, rebuked his officious guest by remark- growing so vigorously as at once to satisfy ing to him: cDoctor, my lady and myself the mind that the richness of the soilis would prefer to find out the foibles and sins supremeand this scene extending for one of our neighbors ourselves.* The rebuke was hundred and fifty miles, makes it unapproach- effectual, and informed the doctor, who was able by any other cultivated region on the new in the country, of an honorable feeling face of the globe. Along the Ganges and the in the refined population of the land of his Nile, the plain is extensive. The,desolate ap adoption alien to that of his birth, and which pearance it presentsthe miserable homes of he felt made these people the superior of all the population, devoid of every ornament, he had ever known. without comfort or plenty in their appearance the stinted and sparse crops, the intervening No one has ever travelled upon one of deserts of sand, the waste of desolation, those palatial steamers abounding on the Mis- spreading away far as the eye can reach :the sissippi, in the spring season Of the year, when streams contemptible in comparison, and the the waters swell to the tops of the levees, lift- squalid, degraded, thriftless people along their ing the steamer above the level of the great banks, make it painful to the beholder, who is fields of sugar-cane stretching away for miles borne on his way in some dirty little craft, to the forest on either bank of that mighty contrasting so strangely with the Mississippi river, who has not been delighted with the steamer.Yet,inadmirable keeping with lovely homes, surrounded with grounds highly everything else, all these present a grand con- cultivated and most beautifully ornamented trastto the valley of the Mississippi, and with trees, shrubs, and flowers, which come only prove the latter has no equal in all that upon the view in constant and quick succes- pertains to grandeur, beauty, and abundance, sion, as he is borne onward rapidly along the on the globe. To appreciate all these, you accumulated waters of the great river. This must know and mingle with the population scene extends one hundred and fifty miles up who have thus ornamented, with labor and the river, and is one not equalled in the world. taste, the margin of this stream of streams, The plain is continuous and unbroken; nor hill nor stream intersects it but at two points, As this great expanse of beauty is a fairy- where the Plaquemine and La Fourche leave land to the eye, so is the hospitality of its it to find a nearer way to the sea; and these homes a delight to the soul. In this popula- are so diminutive, in comparison with all tion, if nowhere else in America, is seen a con- around. that they are passed almost always tented and happy people a people whose 52 45 pursuitis happiness, and not the almighty felt the tear of the wi'ow or the orphan dollar. Unambitious of that distinction which mingled with it, and a thousand times would only wealth bestows, they are content with an prefer to be cheated than to cheat; despising abundance for all their comforts, and for the the vicious, and cultivating only the nobler comfort of those who, as friends or neighbors, attributesf the soul. come to share it with them. Unambitious of politicaldistinction,despisingthenoisy Such is the character of the educated tumult of the excited populace, they love Frei CreoleplantersofLouisianaa their homes, and cultivate the ease of quiet in people freer from the vices of the age, and these delicious retreats, enjoying life asit fuller of the °virtues which ennoble man, than passes, in social and elegant intercourse with anyjt has fallen to my lot to find in the pere- each other, nor envying those who rush into grinations of threescore years and ten. The the busy world and hunt gain or distinction Creoles, and especially the Creole planters, from the masses, through the shrewdness of have had little communication with any save a wit cultivated and debased by trade, or a their own people. The chivalry of character, fawning, insincere sycophancy toviard the in them so distinguising a ,trait, they have dirty multitude they despise. By such, these preserved as a heritage from their ancestors, people are considered anomalous, devoid of whose history reads more like a romance - energy orenterprise, contented with .what than the lives and adventures of men, whose they have, nor ambitious for more which, to nobility of soul and mind was theirs from a an American, with whom, if the earth is ob- long line of ancestors, and brought with them tained, the moon must be striven for,is to be planted on the Mississippi in the charac- stranger than allelseliving indolently at ter of their posterity. their ease, regardless of ephemeral worldly distinctions, but happy in the comforts of Is it the blo?d, the rearing, or the reli- home, and striving only to make this a place gion of these peoOle which make them what for the enjoyment of themselves and those they are? They are full of passion; yet they about them. are gentle and forbearing toward every one whom they suppose does not desire to wrong To the stranger they are open and kind, or offend them; they are generous and unex- universally hospitable, never scrutinizing his acting, abounding in the charity of the heart, whole man to learn from his manner or dress philanthropic, and seemingly from instinct whether he comes as a gentleman or a sharper, practising toward all the world all the Chris- or whether he promises from appearance to tian virtues. They are brave, and quick to be. of value to them pecuniarily in a trade. resent insult or wrong, and prefer death to There is nothing of the huckster in their na- dishonor; scrupulously just in all transactions tures. They despise trade, because it degrades; with their fellow-men, forbearing toward the they have only their crops for sale, and this foibles of others, without envy, and without they trust to their factors; they never scheme malice. In their family intercourse they are to build up chartered companies for gain, by respectful and kind, and particularly to their preying upon the public; never seek to over- children: they are cautious never to oppress reach a neighbor or a stranger, that they may or mortify a childdirecting the parental increase their means by decreasing his; would authority first to the teaching of the heart, scorn the libation of generous wine, if they then to the mind instilling what are duties 53 46 with a tenderness and gentleness which win tionate intercourse between these and their the affections of the child to pert orm these parents, and toward each othernever an through love only: Propriety of deportment improper word; never an improper action; toward their seniors and toward each other is never riotous; never disobedient. They ap- instilled from infancy and observed through proach you with confidence, yet with'modes- life. All these lessons are stamped upon the ty, and are respectful even in the mirth of heart, not only by the precepts of parents and childish play. Around the mansions of these all aboUt them, but by their example. people universally are pleasure-grounds, per- meated with delightful promenades through The negro servants constitute a part oi parterresof flowers and lawns of grass, every household, and are identified with the covered with the delicious shade thrown from family as part of it. To these they are very the extended limbs and dense foliage of the kind and forebearing, as also tct their children, great trees. These children, when wandering to whom they uniformly speak and act gent- here, never trespass upon a parterre or pluck ly. A reproof is never given in anger to either, unbidden a flower, being restrained only by nor in public, for the purpose of mortifying, a sense of propriety and decency inculcated but always in private, and gentlyin sorrow from the cradle, and which grows with their rather than in anger; and where punishment growth, and at maturity is part of their na- must be resorted to,it is done where only ture. Could children of Anglo-Norman blood the parent or master, and the child or ser- be so restrained? Would the wild energies of vant, can see or know it. This is the example these bow to such control, or yield such obe- of thg Church. The confessional opens up to dience from restraint or love? Certainly in the pliest the errors of the penitent, and they their deportment they are very different, and are rebuked and forgiven in secret, or pun- seem only to yield to authority from fear of ished by the imposition of penalties known punishment, and dash away into every kind only to the priest and his repentant parish- of mischief the moment this is removed. Nor ioner. Is it this which make:; such models of is this fear and certainty of infliction of pun- children and Christians in the educated Creole ishment in most cases found to be of suf- population of Louisiana? or is it the instinct ficient force to restrain these inherent pro- of race, the consequence of a purer and more clivities. sublimated nature from the blue blood of the exalted upon earth? The symmetry of form, Too frequently with such as thethe the delicacy of feature in the males, their heart-trainingin childhoc..is neglected or manliness of bearing, and the high chivalrous forgotten, and they learn to do nothing from spirit, as well as the exquisite beauty and love as a duty to God and their fellow-beings. grace of their women, with the chaste purity The good priest comes not as a minister of of their natures, would seem to indicate this peace and love into the family; but is too as the true reason. 'frequently held up by the thoughtless parent as a terror, not as a good and loving man, to All who have ever entered a French be loved, honored, and revered, and these are C:zole family- have observed the gentle and toofrequently the raw-head and bloody- respectful bearing of the children, their strict bones painted to the childish imagination by yet unconstrained observance of all the pro- those parents who regard the rod as the only prieties of their position, and also the affec- reformer of childish errorswho forget the 47 humanities in inspiring the brutalities of pa- This demoralizes: the expedient for the just rental discipline, as well as the pastoral duties that which will do, not that which should do, of their vocation. They persuade not into if success requires, must be resorted to. This fruit the blossoms of the heart, but crush out idea,likethepestilence which rides the the delicate sensibilities from the child's soul breeze, reaches every heart, and man's actions by coarse reproofs and brutal bearing toward are governed only by the lawnot by a high them. The causes of difference I cannot de- moral sense of right. Providence, itis sup- vine, but I know That the facts exist, and I posed, prepares for all exigencies in the opera- know the difference extends to the adults of tions of nature. If this be true, it may be that the two races. the peculiarities of blood, and the conse- quence to human character, may, in the The Anglo-Americank; said to be more Anglo-American, be specially designed for his , enterprising, more eiterietic and progressive mission on this continent; for assuredly he is seeks dangers to overcome them, and subdues the eminently successful man inall enter- the world to his will. The Gallic or French- prises which are essential in subduing the .American is less enterprising, yet sufficiently earth, and aiding in the spreading of his race so for the necessary uses of life. He is.more over this continent. Every opposition to his honest and less speculative; more honorable progress fails, and the enemies of this prog- and less litigious; more sincere with less pre- ress fall before him, and success is the result 'tension; superior to trickery or low intrigue; of his every effort. That the French Creoles more open and less designing; of nobler mo- retain the chivalry and noble principles of tives and less hypocrisy; more refined and their ancestry is certainly true; but that they less presumptuous, and altogether a man of have failed to preserve the persevering enter- more chivalrous spirit and .purer aspirations. prise of their ancestors is equally'true. The Anglo-American commences .to succeed, and will not scruple at the means: he uses any Emigration from France, to any consid- and all within his power, secures success, and erable extent, was stayed after the cessation this is called enterprise combined with energy. of Louisiana to the Ur*ted States, and the Moral considerations are a slightL.obstacle. French settlements ceased to expand. The They may cause him to hesitate, but never country along and north of Red River, on the restrain his action. The maxim is ever present Upper Mississippi and the Washita, was rapid- to his mind: itis honorable and respectable ly filled up with a bold, hardy American pop- to succeed.dishonorable and disreputable to ulation, between whom and the French sparse- fail; it is only folly to yield a bold enterprise ly peopling the country about Natchitoches to nice considerations of moral right. If -he on the Red, and Monroe on the Washita can avoi 1the penalties of the civil law, suc- River, there was little or no sympathy; and cess obviates those of the moral law. Success the consequence was that many of those do- is the balm for every wrongthe passport to miciled already in these sections left, and re- every honor. turned to the I.Ower Mississippi, or went back to France. His race may be a line of thieves, His acts may strike the soul with horror; There had been, anterior to this cession, Yet infamy no soiling leaves. two large grants of land made to the Baron de The rogue today's the prince tomorrow.» Bastrop and the Baron de Maison Rouge, 48 upon the Washita and Bartholomew, including a very great extent a distinct people. Even in almost the entire extent of what is now two New Orleans they have the French part and parishes. These grants were made by the Euro- the American part of the city, and do not, to pean Government upon condition of settle- any very great degree, extend their union by ment within a certain period. The Revolution living among each other. Kind feelings exist in France was expelling many of her noblest between the populations, and the prejudices people, and the Marquis de Breard, withmany which have so effectually kept them apart followers, was one of these: he came, andwas for so long a time are giving way rapidly now, the pioneer to these lands. A nucleus formed, since most of the younger portion of the and accessions were being made, but thegov- Creole-French population are educated in the ernment being transferred and the country be- United States, and away from New Orleans; coming Americanized, this tide of immigra- consequently they speak the English language tion was changed from French to American, andform Americanassociations,imbibe and the requisite number of settlers to com- American ideas, and essay to rival American plete the grants was not reached within the enterprise. Still there is a distinct difference in stipulated period, and they were, after more appearance. Perhaps the difference in bearing, than half a century, set aside, and the lands and in other characteristics, may be attributa- disposed of as public lands by the United ble to early education, but the first and most States Government. Had the government radical is surely that of blood. continued in the hands of France, it is more than probable that the titles to these tracts The settlements upon the Red and Washita wouldneverhave beencontested,even Rivers did not augment the French popula- though the requisite number of settlers had tion in the country; it, has declined, but more not been upon the lands to complete the signally upon the latter than the former river. grants at the specified period; and it is also There remain but few families there of the probable there would have been, in proper ancient population, and these are now so time, the required number. But this transfer completely Americanized as scarcely to be of dominion was exceedingly distasteful to distinguishable. The descendants of the Mar- the French population. quis de Breard, in one or two families, are there, but all who located on the Bayou The antagonism of races itself is a great Des Arc (and here was the principal settle- difficulty in the way of amalgamation, even ment), With perhaps one family only, are though both may belong to the same great gone, and the stranger is intheir homes. division of the human family; but added to this the difference of language, laws, habits, The French character seems to want that and religion, it would almost seem impos- fixity of purpose, that self-denial, and steady sible. In the instance of Louisiana it has, so perseverance, which is so necessary to those far, proved impossible. Although the French who would colonize and subdue a new and have been American subjects for more than inhospitable country. The elevated civilization sixty years, and there now remain in life very of the French has long accustomed them to few who witnessed the change, and not- the refinements and luxuries of life; it has en- withstanding this population has, so far as tered into and become a part of their natures, the government is concerned, become thor- and they cannot do violence to this in a suf- oughly Americanized, still they remain to ficient degree to encounter the wilderness 56 49 and all its privations, or to create from this him a home, which, at least, promises all the wilderness those luxuries, and be content in comforts of wealth and independence to his their enjoyment for all the hardships endured posterity. He rather prefers to take care that in procuring them: they shrinkaway from he enjoys as he desires the present, and leaves these, and prefer the inconveniences and pri- posterity to do as they prefer. Yet there are vations of a crowded community with its en- many instances of great daring and high en- joyments, even in poverty, to the rough and terprise in the French Creole: these are the trying troltbles which surround and distress exceptions, not the rule. the pioneer, who pierces the forest and makes WHOARE THE CREOLES? By George W. Cable What is a Creole? Even in Louisiana the viceable definition of the Creoles of Louisiana question would be variously answered. The than this: that they are the French.Speaking, title did not, here, first belong to the descen- native, ruling class. dants of Spanish, but of French settlers. But such a meaning implied a certain excellence of There is no need to distinguish between origin, and so came early to include any na- the higher and humbler grades of those from tive, of French or Spanish descent by either whom they sprang. A few settlers, only, were parents, whose non-alliance with the slave persons of rank and station. Many were the race entitled him to social rank. Later, the children of the casket-girls, and many were of term was adopted bynot tothe such stock as society pronounces less than natives of mixed blood, andand is still so used nothing; yet, in view of that state of society among themselves. At length the spirit of which the French revolution later overturned, commerce saw the money-value of so hon- any present overplus of honor may as well fall ored a title, add broadened its meaning to to the children of those who filled the prisons take :r .1.. mature or thing of variety of before, as of those who filled them during maim, le peculiar to Louisiana that might that bloody convulsion. becomeA object of sale: as Creole ponies, chickens cows, shoes, eggs, wagons, baskets, In the days of De Vaudreuil, the dwell- cabbages, negroes, etc. Yet the Creoles proper ings of the better class that had stood at first will not share their distinction with the wor- on the immediate front of the town, or on the thy «Acadian.» He is a Creole only by cour- first street behind, seem to have drawn back tesy, and in the second person singular. Be- a square or two. They were also spreading sides French and Spanish, there are even, for toward and out through a gate in the palisade the convenience of speech, «colored» Creoles; wall near its north corner. Bayou Road, now but there are no Italian, or Sicilian, nor any a street of the city, issued from this gate English, Scotch, Irish, or «Yankee» Creoles, northward to the village. and bayou rf St. unless of parentage married into, and them- John. Along this suburban way, surrounded selvesthoroughly proselyted in, Creole so- ,by broad grounds, deeply shaded with live- ciety. Neither Spanish nor American domina- oaks, magnolias, and other evergreen forest tion has taken from the Creoles their French trees, and often having behind them planta- vernacular. This, also, is part of their title; tions of indigo or myrtle, rose the wide, red- and. in fine. there seems to be no more ser- roofed, but severely plain frame dwellings of 51 58 52 the rich, generally of one or one and a half France to abandon the maintenance and sov- stories, but raised on pillars often fifteen feet ereignty of the colony she had misgoverned from the ground, and surrounded by wide for sixty-three years. verandas. Meanwhile, public morals were debased; In the lofty halls and spacious drawing- idleness and intemperance were general; spec- rooms of these homesfrequently, too, in ulation in the depreciated paper money which the heart of the town, in the houses of the flooded the colony became the principal busi- humblestexterior,theirlow,single-story ness, and insolvency the common condition. wooden or brick walls rising from a ground but partly drained even of its storm water, Religion and education made poor head- infested with reptile life and frequently over- way. Almost the only item in their history is flowed was beginning to be shown a splen- a «war of the Jesuits and Capuchins.» Its dor of dress and personal adornment hardly in «acrimonious writings, squibs, and pasquin- harmony with the rude simplicity of apart- ades* made much heat for years. Its satirical ments and furniture and scarcely to be ex- songs were heard, it appears, in the drawing- pected in a town of unpaved, unlighted, and rooms as well as in the street; for the fair sex oftenimpassablestreets,surrounded by took sides in it with lively zeal. In July, 1763, swamps and morasses on one of the wildest the Capuchins were left masters of the field. American frontiers. The decree of the French parliament had the year before ordered the Jesuits' expulsion Slavesnot always or generally the dull, from the realm; their wide plantations just ill-featured Congo orfierce Banbara, im- beyond the town walls being desirable, the ported for the plantations, but comely Jalaff Creole «Superior Council* became bold, and and Mandingo boys and girls, the shapelier the lands already described as the site of the fortheirscanty dress waited on every richest district in the present New Orleans caprice, whether good or ill. New Orleans had were confiscated and sold for 180,000 dollars. been the one colonized spot in the delta where slaves were few, but now they rapidly In this same year, a flag, not seen there became numerous, and black domestic service before, began to appear in the yellow harbor made it easy for the Creoles to emulate the of New Orleans. In February, a treaty be- ostentatious living of the colonial officials. tween England, France, and Spain, gave Great Britain all that immense part of the Mississip- To their bad example in living, these pi Valley east of the river and north of Orleans dignitaries, almost without exception, added Island. The Delta remained to France and to that of corruption in office. Governors, royal her still vast province of Louisiana. The navi- commissaries, post-commandants, the Mar- gation of the Mississippi was made free to the chioness de Vaudreuil conspicuously, and subjects of both empires alike. Trade with many lesser ones, stood boldly accusing and British vessels was forbidden the French col- accused of the grossest and the pettiest mis- onies; yet a lively commerce soon sprang up demeanors.Doubtless the corruption was with them at a point just above the planta- exaggerated; yet the testimony isofficial, tions of the dispossessed Jesuits, afterward abundant, and corroborative, and is verified the river front of the city of Lafayette, and in the ruinous expenses which at length drove now of the Fourth District of New Orleans. 59 53 Here numerous trading vessels, sailing under design to alter their political condition. By the British flag, ascending the river and pass- and by, rumor of what had secretly been ing the town on the pretext of visiting the transacted began to reach their ears in the new British posts of Manchac and Baton most offensive shape. Yet, for a time, M. Rouge, landed and carried on a commerce d'Abbadie himself remained officially as un- with the merchants of the post they had just informed as they; and it was only in October, passed by. 1764, twenty-three months after the signing of a secret act at Fontainebleau, that the au- The corrupt authorities winked at a prac- thoritative announcement reached New Or- tice that brought wealth to all, and the getting leans of her cession, with all of French Louisi- of honest rights by disingenuous and dishon- ana, to the king of Spain. est courses became the justified habit of the highest classes and the leading minds. The Such is the origin, lurrounding influ- slave trade, too, received an unfortunate stim- ences, and resulting charapter and life of the ulus: a large business' was done at this so- earliest Creoles of Louisiana. With many in- called «Little Manchac,* in Guinea negroes, fluences against them, they rose from a chao- whom the colonist bought of the English. tic condition below the plane of social order to the station of a proud, freedom-loving, The governor of Louisiana at this time agricultural and commercial people, who, was Kerlerec, a distinguished captain in the shortly after the date with which iiese chap- French navy. He had succeeded the Marquis ters close, struck the first armed blow ever in 1753, and han now governed the province aimed by Americans against a royal decree. for ten years. But he had lately received or- ders to return to France and render account Their descendants would be a commu- of his conduct in office: A work of retrench- nity still more unique than they are, had they ment was begun. The troops were reduced not the world-wide trait of a pride of ances- to three hundred. In June, a M. d'Abbadie try. But they might as easily be excused for landed in New Orleans, commissioned to suc- boasting of other things which they have over- ceed the governor under the shorn honors looked. A pride of ascent would be as well and semi-commercial title of director-general. grounded; and it will be pleasant if we are per- Kerlerec, sailing to France, was cast into the mitted to show in later papers that the deca- Bastille and «died of .grief shortly after his dence imputed to them, sometimes even by release.» themselves, has no foundation in fact, but that their course, instead, has been, in the The Creoles noted, with much agitation, main, upward from first to last, and so con- these and other symptoms of some unrevealed tinues to-day. ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE IN NEW ORLEANS January 1-3,1832 By G. W. Pierson The discovery and translation ofmore 1831-32, together witha friend and fellow than forty original letters, fourteen small magistrate Gustave de Beaumont, he had been pocket diaries, and a mass of subsidiarymanu- sent to the United States by the government script in the hand of the great Frenchcom- of Louis Philippe to investigateour celebrated mentator Alexis de Tocqueville (all of these new penitentiary reforms. And the two Com- documents penned in America, andsome missioners of France had stayed nine months. three years before the appearance of his But if they travelled, and perhaps studied famous De la Democratic en Amerique)now other things than prisons during their obscure for the first time makes possible the approach sojourn, the details had never come to light. to an interesting story. Where did they go? What did they do? Whom did they see? Tocqueville's book did notsay. Americans just this past year have been It discussed institutions and political theory, celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of not personal contacts and adventures. How Tocqueville's classic treatise (Paris, January, had they come to know the America of 1835). The last few months have likewise Andrew Jackson's day s- intimately that they seen the rebirth of the ancient interest and could even prophesy its future? The storyex- faith in what Alexis de Tocquevilleonce said isted,it was recorded in their ownmanu- about American democracy. Thoughtful and scripts, even, but somehow that storywas troubled students of government todayseem never told. to be turning for guidance in increasing num- bers back to the past, and more especially Herewith, then, is published a small frag- hack to Tocqueville's own prophetic pages. ment from an extraordinary experience and Yet what were the origins of this great French- adventure. Only an episode, and that not the man's thought? Must notsome strange, in- most important, has been selected. Yet it may tense experiences have preceded the writing serve to illustrate. In this instance the original of an American commentary that would at documents relate the viait of Tocqueville and once become the authority in its field and Beaumont to the still almost foreign city of wouldafterwards carry persuasion across New Orleans, midway through the bitter win- one hundred years? ter of 1831-32. In late November the two youthfullfriends,their prison studies in Students have long known, rather vague- Philadelphia completed, had set on a tour of ly, that Tocqueville once came to America: In investigation down the Ohio and Mississippi 55 61 56 valleys. As students wandering in the northern light that ever lit up the solitary banks of the states cince May, they had already made up Mississippi, our boat suridenly touched bot- their minds about a great number of things; tom and, after tottering a while like a drunk- brit about New Orleans and Louisiana they en man, established herself tranquilly on the knew almost nothing. Unfortunately an ice- bar. To describe our despair at this affair filled river at Memphis, following on a run of would intruth be a difficult matter: we unforeseen accidents, so delayed them that prayed to the heavens whi-it said not a word, the time set aside for their southern tour was then to the captain who sent us to the pilot: almost gone. Furthermore, they had the bad As to the latter, he received us like a poten- luck to step ashore at New Orleans on the one tate. After having blown a cloud of smoke almost inviolable day of the year: on New in our faces, he observed peacefully that the Year's day! One sees them, therefore, half sands of the Mississippi were like the French humorously and mocking their own inno and could not stay a year in the same place. cence, half in deadly earnest as became two The comparison, you will admit, was inso- philosophers who would fathom and absorb lent enough to be chastised, but he was on his all America, engaging desperately in the pre- own ground and we were on a ladder; we posterous attempt to understand New Orleans therefore cattle down to await the efforts in a single day. *which the crew were going to make to get us out of the desperate condition in which we «24 Heures a la Nouvelle Orleans»2 found ourselves. We stayed there two days. At the end of that time they finally succeeded «You know, my dear friend,» Tocque- in tearing us loose from the sand and the first ville began the story of his latest adventures of January, 1832, the sun rising in a brilliant very solemnly, «You know, my dear friend, tropical sky revealed to us New Orleans across that our intention was, on leaving Philadel- the masts of a thousand ships. phia, to go to New Orleans and pass two weeks there but, shipwrecked at Wheeling, «We disembarked hastily, as you will stopped, by the ice at Louisville, held back ten readily conceive. There was no time to lose: days in Memphis, we were a hundred times on to make the acquaintance of all those to the point of giving up the trip that we had un- whom we had been recommended, to enjoy dertaken. We were going to turn back on our the pleasures, so celebrated, of New Orleans, steps when the twenty-fifth of December to study the laws, learn the usages, enter into ( note well the dates, they are precious) a the mceurs, to know the statistics and historyQ, steamboat took us on board and offered to of the country. Only 24 hours remained to us: carry us down to Louisiana. I defy you to add a single minute, but don't go and judge us too harshly. Know that 24 «After all our calculations were made hours usefully employed teach many things. there remained of out two weeks not more have this maxim from a young attaché of than three days to pass in New Orleans. What the French embassy with whom I talked the was there to do, however? We had to submit. other day. He appeared to speak very per- tinently of England. An Englishman present de set out then: but you see the im- insisted thatit was very impertinent but 1, placability of fortune.In the night of the who saw that he was cutting into the quick 26-27 December, in the most beautiful moon- at every stroke and that he had already made 57 up his mind about everything in that country; You see that I possess indeed the style of the 1 hegan to be seized with admiration and I procEs-verbal: asked him that minute how long he hadpas- sed among our neighbors. One week, here- «We resolved to consecrate two hours plied.3 I appeared surprised,I had not then to an examination of the city, to knowing my present experience. Seeing my astonish- the external appearance, to seeing the charac- ment he added with that air at thesame time ter of its population, to studyingthe most mysterious and engaging, deep and light apparent aspects of its morals and its customs. with a diplomatic air4 ina word: one week, when one knows how to observe, is sufficient «A short visit to our consul would bring for many things. There's myexcuse. If one us to three o'clock. There would then remain week is indeed sufficient fora superior man for us four hours of daylight during whichwe to have an opinion upon the British Empire would visit all the celebrated men, legislators, and all her colonies, it is clear thata man of publicists, lawyers, poets and orators of New an inferior capacity can still hope to learn Orleans. Between these calls we would insert something of New Orleans in 24 hours. visits to the most beautiful women solely for the purpose of resting ourselves, Iswear. «Besides, we had no choice. Afterwe had laid out our best clothes, therefore,we «At 7 o'clock we tvoulu go to the play. tried to introduce into our dressas much as After the play would come the bal. At mid- possible a happy mixture of the Philosopher night we would go back to our lodgings to and the man of the world. We were under the organize our notes. Has this plan your appro., necessity, without being able to return toour bation? It received ours and ',ve set out.» quarters during the whole course of a long day, of being alternately very deep andvery «Coup d'ceil de la Nouvelle Orleans.. .» amiable. We put on a black tie for themem- bers of the legislature, a white vest (glkt) for The «blow of an eye» at New Orleans the women, we took in our hand a littleswag- Tocqueville never described. Apparently he ger stick to raise us into intimacy with the was interrupted at this point in his writing fashionable world, and, very contented with and, when next he had an opportunity,re- ourselves, we descended the stairs. There the sumed with a later part of their twenty -f;, difficulty of putting order into our activities hours. In the end he never returned to the presented itself for the first time to our mind: middle portion of his sketch. It is wanting entirely. «We established ourselveson a curbstone as a deliberating assembly and after a discus- What he and Beaumont sz ,,, therefore, sion which lasted an hour we adopted the fol- and particularly what they thought during lowing plan. We made an infinite number of the course of their hasty midday promenade classifications. We created principles of obser- through the streets of New Orleans, can only vation, then we made deductions fromour be surmised from two doe"ments of anen- principles, then deductions from our deduc- tirely different nature. first is a sort of tions: we discussed, classified, and unclassified stenographic note on diet, whole day, evident- for an hour and noon was smiling uponus ly taken to recallthe chief sights and their when we finally adopted the following plan: personal impressions: the second a comment 58 buried in their prison notes. knocked. The negro who opened the door seemed completely surprised that we should (Fine houses, huts; streets muddy and wish to visit his master but what importance unpaved. Spinish architecture, flat Egg lish is it what goes on in a negro's head? We went roofs. Bricks, small French doorways, missive in. M. Guillemain appeared in his turn sur- portes-cochereso, Tocqueville was to jot down prised to see us enter his office, but he got at the end of a diary.5 possession of himself immediately and re- ceived us inthe most polite manner. He «Population similarly mixed, faces of all wished first to speak with us about France, shades of color. Language French, English, about our friends, our relativesCetait blen Spanish, creole. General appearance French; de vela en verite qu'il s'agissait: he believed air!, yet signs, commercial posters usually in that we had come to make a visit and that English. Industrial and trading world, Ameri- informal inquiries were in order. We, there- can. . .» fore, turned the conversation as decently as we could and by an adroit and well managed That was all. Except that in their peni- circuit we led him back to N.O. Finally he tentiary report Tocqueville and Beaumont began to speak of it and to speak very di- would one day write:6 rectly. He made us feel how important it was to France for French mceurs, customs and We would be unable to paint the dolor- habits to continue their sway in Louisiana. ousi ssion that we received when, on This has happened up to the present, he exan prison of New Orleans, we added, to such an extent that the other day saw t men thrown in pell-mell with swine, the people, learning what had happened in in the mt st of excrement and filth. In lock- the Church of St. Germain I'Auxerrois in ing up criminals, no thoughtisgiven to Paris, remembered that a cure of the city had making them better but simply to taming refused to bury a man who had committed their wickedness; they are chained like wild suicide, and they ran to break his windows.8 beasts; they are not refined but brutalized.» The consul then spoke to us of the prosperous state in which Louisiana found herself. In the And in a footnote the two commission- 15 years I have been here, he said, the pros- ers would insist: «The place containing con- perity of this region has increased an hundred- demned criminals in New Orleans could not fold. I have seen the quartlers rear themselves by any stretch of the imagination be called in the midst of infested swamps, palacei re- a prison: it's a frightful cesspool into which place cabins, the city increase in population they are dumped and which is suitable only in spite of the yellow fever. The same impulse for those unclean animals one finds there with is imprinted upon all the districts of the state. them. It is noteworthy that all those detained All are prospering, all are growing visibly, the there are not slaves: it's the prison of free future of Louisiana is wonderful. Ten states, men. . .» in which will soon be found the strength and population of the Union, have as their only «The course of our observations,» Toc- outletthe Mississip[p]i, and we hold the queville resumed his interrupted narrative, key to it. N.O. is the natural entrepOt. «had led us to the door of our consul whose name I am able to say: M.Guillemain.7 We «Thus spake Mr. Guillemain, and we 64 59 kept very quiet, the reason being that we were is the work of our legislators. The spirit not occupied in registering in our mind every one of party but of coterie absolutely directs the of his words. M. Guillemain, moreover, had state. They suppress a position to ruin a man one of those egotistical intelligences which or create another to give a living to an honest speaks but does not converse and which finds friend persecuted by fortune. These, gentle- pleasure in the sight of its own thoughts. men, are the republican institutions which have made and still create every day the pros- «Meanwhile, the hour was passing, the perity of Louisiana. But I am mistaken, this time of the inquest was about over. I thought government has one merit that one must not that we should in departing leave one of those deny it. Without force as it is without skill; outstanding and deep thoughts which remain without plans as it is without energy, inca- 4" in the mind of the listener and show him that pable of harm asitis incapable of good, every man who keeps quietjs not necessarily powerless and passive, it lets society marcher a fool. route seule without trying to direct it. Well, in the present state of affairs America, in oI slid in, then, cleverly between two of order to prosper, does not need either able his ideas and I said: the extreme prosperity of leadership or deep-laid plans or great efforts, this region, of which you more than any one but liberty and still more'liberty. The reason else have been the witness, Monsieur, com- for that is that no one has yet any interest in menced with the union of Louisiana with the abusing that liberty. United States. Such a coincidence tells more than all the theories in favor of republican in- «I pray you to believe, my dear friend, stitutions.Imagine my surprise when Mr. that this tirade against republics had not in Guil leriain, interrupting me, cried: ah Mon- the least downed me, and I was going to reply sieur, one must live 15 years as I have done in vigorously; but at the moment that I opened the bosom of a small democratic republic my mouth the clock struck four. such as this one to lose such ideas. Do you wish to have an idea of the public administra- house of a M. Mazureaul 0 who had been thing to this painting for fear of moving you pointed out to us as the eagle of the New too much. Know at least that at this sight Orleans bar; futhermore as speaking French, there is not an 18th century Philosopher H '10 an advantage which we had learned to appre- would not have wept with sensibility and ciate in,our travels. We had much trouble and tenderness. lost much precious time in finding his home. The houses of N.O. have no nun bers or the «As foru_, we remained as though numbers do not run in sequence at all. Num- struck with stupor at this spectacle: a ray of ber 2 precedes 1, and 30 follows 70. It is an light finally managed to penetrate our intel- arithmetic peculiar to the corporation of N.O. ligence. We understood now the embarrass- with which we were not yet acquainted. This, ment of the consul, the astonishment of the du reste, ended by giving us a real considera- negroes, of the good negroes we had treated tion for our consul. How indeed can one im- as Butors. To set out with a letter of intro- agine a good government in a city were duction on New Year's day! What a mon- strangers cannot find the way! strous incongruity! Alas! Where is the happy time when I would rather have forgotten my «We arrivedatlast: the negro who name than the arrival of the first of January? opened the door for us, and of whom we At the sight of the two unwelcome visitors made our request to see M. Mazureau, at first M. Mazureau rose brusquely and advanced regarded us fixedly without having the air of toward the door enveloping in the folds of understanding us. He said to us finally: 'how, his dressing gowns two small children who, Massa,to-day?' 'And Yes without doubt lost in the midst of this obscure labyrinth, let Butor (Butler?) why not?' out sharp cries. We on our part werehastening to go towards him, but our precipitation was «There was some energy in our reply but fatal to several play-things which we crushed of argument not a word. The slave, however, pitilessly in our course. We at last met our had the air of recognizing himself vanquished host in the middle of the salon and were we and, bowing his head with a submissive air, he reciprocally assured each other of allthe opened the door of the salon. pleasure we had in meeting.» ' 6 61 «Before passing under American rule, death, is obliged to labor in a 'fashion so did you possess some of the forms of a free restrained that he can scarcely gain his live- government?» was the first question he was lihood. We have an exdmple of this in Ar- asked.1 1 kansas. Some time ago (lad's) Spain trans- ported to this part cif Louisianksome peasants The answer.seemed simple. «No,» said from the Azores, who settled and remained M. Mazureau. there without slaves. These men farm the land, but so little, that they are the most «Q. Was the passage from complete sub- miserable men of Louisiana.» jection to entire liberty hard?» «Q.But couldn't their poverty be at- Again the reply had to be in the nega- tributed to want of industry rather than tive. «No,» he said, «Congress was careful to to climate?» Tocqueville was obviously reluc- conduct us by degrees to independence. At tant to have one of his Tennessee theories so firstit governed us in almost as absolute a lightly upset. But M. Mazureau was adamant. way as our formergovernors.'Then it gave us the government of a territory. Finally it put experience has taught me that of ten foreign- bazaar. The women vowed as it were by law ers who live wisely and allow themselves no to concubinage. Incredible laxity of morals. excesses of any sort, but two die..I am speak- Mothers, young girls, children at the dance; ing of people who do not have to work their still another harmful consequence of slavery. hands in order to live. Of the same number Multitude of colored people at New Orleans. belonging to the working classes and passing Small number in the North. Why? Why, of the day in the open air, perhaps seven or eight all the European races, is the English race the succumb. Besides, you know that the yellow one that has best preserved its purity of blood fever is-Cdpfined to New Orleans. Two miles and mingled least with the natives?» above or below, no one ever has it. In thexcitement of this intellectual «Q. What is the lot of negroes in Louisi- puzzle, Tocqueville had begun to put in his ana?» verbs again, and was actually writing in com- plete sentenc s. And he thought he had a «A. Mild enough. Harshness toward ne- grtrp on the r. «Besides the powerful groes is exceptional. The condition of negroes reasons arisingi national character,» he has altered singularly in the last twenty years. argued, «there exists one particular cause of Before, they lived in miserable huts which did difference. Spanish America was peopled by not, so to speak, protect them from the adventurers drawn by the thirst for gold, who weather at all; their clothing consisted of a planted alone the other side of the Atlantic, blanket, and for nourishment they were given found themselves in some sort forced to con- a barrel of corn a month (about two bushels). tract unions with the women of the country Now they are in general sufficiently fed, com- they lived in. The English colonies were set- pletely clothed, and healthily lodged.» tled by then fleeing their country for reasons of religious passion or whose object in com- «Q. Does the law protect their life?» ing to live in the new world was to cultivate the land. They came with women and chit . «A.Yes, I recall when I was Attorney dren and were able to form a complet: so- General having a master condemned to death ciety on the spot.» because he had killed his slave.» The Second and Third Days «tvening at the theatre...» Tocqueville's skeleton notes for the day wound up.12 Their (e24heuresowere over. When a «Strange spectacle offered by the chamber. man knew how to observe, Tocqueville had First stalls (loge) white, second grey, colored been told, even the shortest time was suf- women, very pretty, white ones among them, ficient to teach him many things. but a remainder of African blood. Third stalls black. Audience, we think ourselves in France, But, after all! When they had spent two noisy, uproarious, turbulent, talkative, a thou- days on a sandbar in the Mississippi and a sand leagues away from the United States. We whole week in the deserted little village of leave at ten. Quadroon ball. Strange sight: all Memphis! It was too much to ask. They had th:. men white, all the women colored, or at caught glimpses of too many shadows in Lou- least of African blood. Single tie created by isiana life. They had begun to sense fascinat- immorality between the two races. A sort of ing aspects that even their vigilant curiosity 68 63 11. had not divined. Naturally no single day, how- the Catholic church, who on their part never ever industriously spent, could possibly satis- concern themselves with [other] affairs...» fy. them. On another occasion the acute M. Guil- So Tocqueville and Beaumont changed lemain had remarked that he had «never been their plans once more,.and stayed, finally, not able to understand bow one could draw gen- one day but three. eral deductions from American institutions, the poshL3n of America is so special.» But One gathers that they saw the consul of )now, in the matter of Church and State, he France again, for further elucidation, in their tseemed to think an exception might be made. own tongue, of the mysteries of kouisiana culture. Was there no bitterness arising out ,of . «... From what I see here and in the the rivalries of the French populationd the other American states,» he said with empha- newly-arriving Americans from the-Nortfor sis, gi sam profoundly convinced that in the instance? interests of Religion one should n,t4e an ab- solute separation between the clergy and the «They criticize each other mutually,» state, and abandon Religion to the influence Guillemain admitted,13they see very lie that it can generate for itself.. .» of each other, but at bottom there is no veri- table enmity. The French are not, as in Cana- Once again M. Guillemain was announcing da, a vanquished people. On the contrary, an opinion of which Tocqueville had already they live on the footing of the most real and been persuaded.15 The young investigator complete equality. Mart ages are constantly passed on, therefore, to an institution that beingcontracted betw&n them and the had considerably exercised his indignation at Americans; finally the country is enjoying an the quadroon ball. ..immense prosperity, a prosperity that in- creases daily. ..» «They say that morals, particularly in ti the colored population, are .very bad?» he Again Tocqueville .mentioned a remark ventured. that he had heard. AI am told that religion has little hold over souls here?» He could «There exists, as a mutter ofact, a hardly have chosen a topic more in the line great deal of immorality among the colored of the consul's special knowledge, for only _people. But how couldit be otherwise?» a month or so before Guillemain had drawn said M. Guillemain. «The law destines, as it up for his home government a long report on were, colored women to debauchery. You've -church affairs) 4 no doubt noticed, in the places reserved for mulattoesinthetheatre and elsewhere, «Religion hasn't much hold,» he answer- women as white as the Most beautiful Euro-, ed. « but I think that results partly from the pearls. Eh hien! For all that they belong to had priests sent us from Europe. We are in- the proscribed race, because tradition makes undated by Italians who have nothing in com- it known that there is African blood in their mon with the population and whose morals veins. Yet these women, and many others are detestable. However, there is no political who, without being as white, possess yet animosity of any kind against the minister.; of almost the tint and the graces of Europeans P/ 64 and have often received an excellent educa- that climate has no influence on the character tion, are forbidden by law to marry into the of peoples,» Tocqueville was soon writing to ruling and rich race of whites. If they wish Chabro1,1 6 assure them that they are mis- to contract a legitimate union, they have to taken. We have seen the French of Canada: marry with the men of their caste, and par- they are a tranquil, moral,religious people. We take their humiliation. For the men of color are leaving in Louisiana other Frenchmen: don't evenenjoythe shameful privilege restless, dissolute, lax in all things. Between accorded their women. Even did neither their them are fifteen degrees of latitude, which are color or education betray them, and that's truly the best reason that can be given for the often the case, they would not be the less difference. condemned to pernetual indignities. Not a [illegible] white builas the right to maltreat «What morals, my dear friend, are those the unhappy person in his way and to thrust of a region of the South into which slavery him into the muck crying: 'Get out of the has been brought! The tableau confounds the way, mulatto!' At the head of legal documents imagination.» the law makes him write: homme de couleur. Free, they can hope for nothing. Yet among On the second of January Tocqueville them 1 know men of virtue and of means. It's and Beaumont had a conversation with a law- in isolating itself thus obstinately from all the yer (whose name they soon forgot). It re- rest that the aristocracy of the whites (like volved about the subject of the jury in civil all aristocracies in general) exposes itself to cases. Their informant described the efforts danger on the American continent and to that had been made by the Americans to in- almost certain destruction in the Antilles. If, troduce the system into Louisiana law, and without giving the negro rights, it had at least the conflicts with French law that had resul- taken in those of the colored men whose birth ted. Not yet had [trial by] jury entered into and education most nearly approximated its popular usage, apparently. People disliked own, the latter would infalliuly have been being jurors. Lawsuits were held up, as a con- attached to its cause, for they are in reality sequence. Cases were badly judged. In short, much closer to the whites than to the blacks. the jury system was not a great success in Only brute force would have remained for the Louisiana. At least so they were told) 7 negroes. By repelling the mulattoes, however, the white aristocracy gives the slaves, on the But Tocqueville was not to be argued so contrary,the onl} weapon they need to lightly out of what had come to be one of become free: intelligence and leadership.» his firmest political convictions. After a day's reflection he had the following comment to The whole problem fascinated and re- make in his diary: pelled the French visitors. What to do with the negro? They could see no satisfactory «When an entire populeion proclaims an solution. Yet with some justice they now felt institution good; when all parties recognize that they were at least fairly well acquainted its usefulness, and that not in one time or with the subject and could talk with an air of place but over a long series of centuries and authority about its inescapable features. in all parts of the world whither the fragments of this people go, and whatever the polit- 0When you meet people who tell you ical laws they adopt; [when that happens] it 70 65 is hard to admit that this institutioncan be «another example of the same kind given by vicious. That's what has happened in regard the consul. Three years ago the legislature, to the use of the jury for civil trials.» the last day of the session, passed, in such a way that it was not noticed and in an act Here, definitely, was a case where Toc- having nothing to do with this object, a law queville was ready to label his informant (and decreeing that henceforth the tenth part of the majority of Louisianians) mistaken. But the goods belonging to foreigners dying in with the opinion of another lawyer,«a very Louisiana should belong to the State. It was celebrated lawyer of New Orleans,* whom nothing less than the right of escheat. I made they had seen their first afternoon and whose representations, said the consul; many of the name Tocqueville had likewise forgotten, they members seemed to me themselves surprised were thoroughly prepared to agree. at what they had done. The act was repealed the following session.* The eminent attorney had been elabo- rating M. Guillemain's remarks about the leg- Apparently it would be possible to go on islature. «When the legislature is in session, with such instances ad infinitum. There was, it can be said that the whole body of legisla- fairness forced the young Frenchman to note, tion is jeopardized,» he had affirmed.18 «Our one counterbalancing bit of evidence: «The houses are composed in large part of young present governor of Louisiana is a man of lawyers,ignorantand fondofintrigue. talent and character. The two senators from (Everyone here thinks he can be a member of Louisiana, Mr. Johnson and Edward Living- the legislature.) They make, unmake, slice and ston, are two of the leading men of the cut up at random. 4Iere's an instance: Since Union. Yet they are elected.»1 9 the cession to Spain, many points in our civil law have been regulated according to Spanish The rule was not invariable, then. Yet law. At the end of 1828, at the end of the clearly some tentative conclusions might al- session, a bill was passed unperceived which ready be stated. Tocqueville's first decision abrogated all the [these?] laws, in a body, was interesting. without putting anything in their place. The next day, on waking up, the bar and bench «Effect of elections, direct and indirect, learned with q!!refa:.:tion the performance of in America,» he jotted in his diary the last the day before. But oke deed had been done. day 2° [the latter] good; [the former] bad.. .» In other words, Senators who were chosen by o(). But why don't noteworthy men legislatures might prove able men. But the reach the legislature?» legislators themselves, being chosen directly by the people, were lilt* to be worse than «A.I doubt whether the people would mediocre. name them. Besides, little store isset by public office and the outstanding men don't Tocqueville's second decision was this: solicit it. (This is at the same time what makes ba6 choices in small republics result in the state operate so badly and what prevents part from the fact that distinguished men do revolutions. )» not solicit the honors or enter politics. This inconvenience appears to me more than com- And Tocqueville had been reminded of pensated by the absence of a great irritant or 71 66 of revolutions born of ambition for power.» «The Greatest merit of American govern- In two sentences, suddenly, he had summed ment is to bepowerlessandpassive.In the up the lessons of a whole month: from the present state of things America needs, in teachings of Timothy Walker of Cincinnati to order to prosper, neither skillful leadership the opinion of the celebrated lawyer of New nor profound plans, nor great efforts, but Orleans. And now he came to his third con- liberty and still more liberty. What a point clusion, which turned out to be merely a re- of comparison between such a state of affairs phrasing of something Consul Guillemain and our own!» had said. As Tocqueville put it: 67 Notes 1. Extraordinary though it may seem, Beaumont 8. Cahier non-alphabetique III, no. 13, under date was but 29 and Alexis de Tocqueville, the phi- of 1 January 1832, records their conversation losopher of democracy, but 261 as follows: «M. Guillemain is certainly a man of esprit and, I belleivemf means. The whole by 2. Translation of «24 Heuress and *Suite* by the exception, for Incacity seems to be the late Paul Lambert White. who discovered the right among French agents abroad. He has documents. been living in New Orleans for the last fifteen or seventeen years. 3. Marginal note: «Monsieur a sans doute habits «This country, he said to us, is still essentially longtemps chez nos voisins7it me t... atre- French, in ideas, morals, opinions, customs and pondit: huit jours.* Tocqueville's diary records fashions. France is openly taken for a model. of his interviews with interesting acquaintances Ihave often been struck by the echo that our in America were not exact reproductions of the political paiiions found here and by the analogy conversations, as he was often unable to make that still exists in this regard between the popu- any note of them on paper until evening, or lations of Louisiana and of Fratice.It has often many hours after. Yet so accurate and faithful happened to me to predict from the Impression was his memory that not only was he able to that an event made here what it would produce preserve the sense of what was said, but often in France, and I have always guessed right also the very words in which a given opinion was expressed. 9. More probably: 021* (as in Cahier portatif IV, p. 15). 4. Marginal note: «qui distinguent tous les horn- mes dune grande capacite et tous les diplomats.* 10. Etienne Mazureau (1777-1849) had come from Tocqueville must have been thinking of some France to America on the seizure of power by of his acquaintances in high politics at home Napoleon. After some fifteen months in New possibly even of his lordly cousin Chateau York and New Jersey, he had finally, in March briand, though the allusion is not clear. 1804, made his way to New Orleans. Established them in law, his knowledge of French and 5. Cahier portatif III, no. 26. Spanish had proven invaluable, he had become the partner of Edward Livincron, and was now 6. Du Systeme Penitentiaire aux Etats-Unis (1835), known forhis encyclopedic learning, and a p. 27. legal income equalled only by his generosity and extravagance. Of a short and stout physique, 7. In his reports to home government (Minis. his head appeared much too large for his body. tire des Affaires E.lgeres), the consul signed himself: «Guillernain.*Afterbeingbriefly Cahier non-alphabetique III, no. 12: «1 Janu- identified with the consular service at Savannah ary 1832, Conversation with Mr. Mazureau, one and Ba!timore, M. Guillemain had come to New of the foremost lawyers of Louisiana.* Orleans, Sept. 23, 1816, on ad interim appoint- ment. 12. Cahier portatif III, no. 26. 68 13. Cahier non-alphabetique III, no. 13. 18. Cahier non-al phabetique III, no. 14. 14. In the Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres there 19. Andre Bienvenu Roman (1795. 1866), Governor still exists a fong report on the state of the 1831-1835 and 1839-1849, is remembered as Catholic church in Louisiana, signed by Guille- one of Louisiana's ablest executives. Senator main, and dated: 3 Sept. 1831. JosiahStoddard Johnston(1784-1833), of distinguished Connecticutfamily, served in 15. On landing in America the one subject on the Senate from 1823 until his death ten years which Tocqueville and Beaumont had found A.. later.In 1831 he had been re-elected by a New Yorkers and New Englanders unanimously legislature opposed to him in political opinion. agreed (whether they were great men or ob- As to the abilities of Edward Livingston who scure, Protestants or Catholics) was the wisdom had resigned his Senate seat to become Jack- and the absolute necessity of separating Church son's Secretary of State the preceding Novem- from State. The result had been a swift conver- ber, no testimony is necessary. His successor, sion of the two young students. GeorgeAugustus Wagga mann(1782. 1843), J seems to.have been less distinguished. 16. Letter dated iChesapeak Bay, 16 janvier 1832.* 20. Cahier portatif Ill, no. 28, 4 January. 17. Cahier portatif III, no. 28. 74 A LOUISIANA SUGAR PLANTATION By Charles Gayarre The Bore plantation was situated on the dren of the defunct, and has since become the left bank of the Mississippi, about six miles town of Carrollton. The youngest and last above New Orleans, taking as a point of de- daughter of Bore married Don Carlos Gayarre, parture the Catheeral, then the centre of the the grandson of the real contador, or royal city, and following the public road that ran contador, Don Estevan Gayarre, whose mis- along the river in all its windings. The ncxt lio.t was to take possession of Louisiana with one above was the plantation of Pierre Fou- Governor .1.11loa. This third son-ir-law resided cher, the son-in-law of Bore, and a portion of on the plantation of Bore; so that all those it is now the City Park, on which the «World's families were grouped in a tribe-like fashion Exposition» lately took pkce, succenied by around a central point the head and patri- the present «American Exposition.» It is a arch of he family and its branches. spot round which cluster more liistoeical sou- venirs than about any other in Louisiana. The Indigo had been the principal staple of plantation above Foucher's, and on which has the colony, but at last a worm which attacked since sprung up the town of CarroUt.n,ie- the plant and destroyed it, through consecu- longed to Lafrenre. Attorney-General under tive years, was reducing to poverty and to the the French government, who MS th? princi- utmost despair the whole population. Jean pal leader in the revolution that drove away, Etienne de Bore determined to make a bold in 1768, the first Spanish Governor, Don An- experiment to save himself and his fellow-citi- tonio de Ulloa, who had come to take posses- zens, and convert his indigo plantation into sion of Louisiana, transferred by France to one of sugar-cane. Spain. lafemiere had two sons-in-lawNoyan, nephewexecuted by Governor In thesecritical circumstances he re- O'Reillyfor rebellion against the King of solved to renew the attempt which had been Spain. and Leketon, who had been a mous- made to manufacture sugar. He immediately quetaire. or guardsman, in the King's house- prepared to go into all the expenses and incur hold troops. He became proprietor of the all the obligations consequent on so costly an plantation after him rather-in-law had been undertaking. His wife warned him that her shot by the same autlittrity. The scn of this father had in former years vainly made a simi- Lebreton married a daughter of Bore. On his lar attempt; she represented that he was haz- being assassinated by a petted and pampered arding on the cast oflie all that remained of slave, the plantation passed into the hands of their means of existence; that if he failed, as Macarty. who had been the tutor of the chil- was so probable, he would reduce his family 69 70 I- to hopeless poverty; that he was of an age echoes were telling it toone another. Each being over fifty years oldwhen fate was not one of the by-standers pressed forward to as- to be tempted by doubtful experiments, as he certain the fact on the evidence of his own could not reasonabiy entertain the hope of a senses, and when it could no longer be doubt- sufficiently long life to rebuild his fortune if ed, there came a shout of joy, and all flocked once completely shattered; and that he would around Etienne de Bore, overwhelming him not only expose himself to ruin, but also t& with congratulations, and almost hugging the risk much more to be dreaded that of fall- man whom they calledtheir savior the ing into the grasp of creditors. Friends and savior of Louisiana. Ninety years have elapsed relatives joined their remonstrances to hers, since, and an event which produced so much bvt could not shake the strong resolve of his excitement at the time is very nearly obliter- energetic mind. He had fully matured his ated from ,the memory of the present genera- plan, and was determined to sink or swim tion. with it. In 1796 a stirring eventccurred at the Purchasing a quantity of canes from two plantation of Etienne de B re. The French individuals named Mendez and Solis, who cul- General Collot, on his way to New Orleans tivated them only for sale as a dainty in the from the Western States anTerritories, had New Orleans market, and to make coarse syr- stopped to visit that geatleman. As soon as up. he began to plant in 1794, and to make all this was known in the city, the Governor, the other necessary preparation, and in 1795 Baron de Carondelet, who had received from he made a crop of sugar which sold for twelve Philadelphia a confidential communication in- thousand dollars a large sum at that time. forming him that General Collot was intrusted Bore's attempt had excited the keenest inter- by the French government with a secret mis- est; many had frequently visited him during sion, against which ti,e Spanish authorities the year to witness his preparations; gloomy were to be on their guard, sent up an armed predictions had been set afloat, and on the boat by the river and fifty dragoons by land day when the grinding of the cane was to be- to arrest him. The General was put in the boat gin, a large number'of the most respectable in- and taken down to New Orleans, where he habitants had gathered in and ati-.t the sugar- was imprisoned in Fort St. Charles, situated house to be present at the failu'e or success of about the spot where now stands the United the experiment. Would the syrup granulate? States Mint. On the next day he was called would it be converted into sugar? The crowd upon by the Spanish Governor, who proposed waited with eager impatience for the moment to him a house in town which he might occu- when the man who watches the coction of the py on parole, and with a soldier at his door. juice of the cane determines whether itis Having accepted the proposition, he left the ready to granulate. When that moment arrived fort in the Governor's carriage. Shortly after, the stillness of death came among them, each on the 1st of November, the General, from one holding his breath, and feeling that it was whom some of his maps, drawings, and writ- a matter of ruin or prosperity for them all. ings had been taken away, was conveyed on Suddenly the sugar-maker cried out with exul- board of one of the King's galleys, and accom- ti,lion, « It ganulates!» Inside and outside of panied by a captain of the regiment of Louisi- the building one could have heard the won- ana, who was not to lose sight of him, was derful tidings flying from mouth to mouth transported to the Balize, where he was de- and dying in the distance, as if a hundred glad tained a prisoner in the house of the chief 76 717".111 pilot, Juan Ronquillo, «situated,» he said, cin The gardens o\;cupied a large area, and atonce the midst of a vast swamp, and from which astonished the eye by the magnificence of there was no egress except ina t oat.» He re- their shady avenues of orange-trees. Unbroken mained at that dismal spot until the 22d of retreats of myrtle and laurel defied the rays of Decem .er, when he embarkedon board of the sun. Flowers of every description perfumed the brig Iphigenia for Philadelphia. the air. Extensive orchards producedevery fruit of which the climate was susceptible. By Etienne de Bori was extremely indignant judicious culture there had been obtainedre- at the arbitrary arrest of General Co llot, who markable success in producing an abundance was his guest at the time. He considered itan of juicy grapes, every bunch of which, how- insult to himself, and he expressed his feelings ever, when they began to ripen, was enveloped loudly and without restraint. Hewas known in a sack of wire to protect them against the for his intense attachment to French interests, depredations of birds. The fieldswere culti- and it is said that the Baron seriously thought vated with such a careful observance of the of having him arrested and transported to Ha- variable exigencies of every successiveseason vana, but that he was deterred by the fear of that there was no such thing knownas a short producing a commotion by inflictingso harsh or half crop, or no crop at all. This was re- a treatment on so distinguished a citizen, served for much later days. But under the ad- who, by his personal character, his rank, his ministration of Etienne de Bore, during a pe- family connections, and the benefit he had riod of about twenty-five years, from the first lately conferred on his country by the intro- ebullition of a sugar kettle in 1795 to the duction of a new branch of industry,com- time of his death in 1820, every crop was manded universal sympathies and exercised regularly the same within a few hogsheads. the widest influence. When, however, he ceased to exist, this seat of order and prosperity becamea chaos of disor- In the beginning of 1798, when Gayoso der and ruin, and the estate finally passed de Lemos was Governor of Louisiana, the Bo- away from the family into the hands of re plantation was visited by three illustrious strangers. strangers, the Duke of Orleans and his two brothers, the Count of Beaujolais and the It was a self-sufficient little domain, ex- Duke of Montpensier, of the royal house of porting a good deal, and importing butmea- France, who, driven into exile after the death grely, so that the balance was very much in its of their father on the scaffold,were striking favor. It was largely supplied with sheep and examples of those remarkable vicissitudes of their wool, with geese, ducks, turkeys, guinea- fortune with which the annals of historyare fowls, and every variety of poultry without so replete. When a mousquetaire, or guards- stint. Eggs were gathered by the bushel. Pi- man, in the household troops of Louis XV., geons clouded the sun, and when the small and watching over the safety of the Majesty black cherries (called menses in French) were of France, little did de Bore dream that the ripe, those feathered epicures ate them vora day would come when three princes of the ciously, got royally drunk, and falling from blood would be his guestson the bank of the the treestrewed the ground beneath. A Mississippi. numerous herd of cattle, under the inspec- tion of old Pompey and a black youngster This plantation was sagaciously and taste- called Souris (in English mouse), on account fully laid out for beauty and productiveness. of his diminutive figure, pastured luxuriously 77 72 and grew fat. What a quantity of fresh butter, of the family, who stood up with head uncov- rich cheese, milk, cream, and clabber! Vast ered. The same ceremony, was performed in barns gorged with corn, rice, and hay; hives the evening before they went to their supper burstingwithhoney;vegetableswithout and their rest for the night. I vividly remem- measure, and so luscious; avari4 and liberal ber how I felt when, being about eight years supply of carriages always ready for use, and old,I was for the first time called upon to horses for the saddle or for driving, all glossy preside over the prayers of the dark assemblage. and sleek; spirited mules, well fed and well curried the pride of the field hands; shrimps Those who administered the plantation and fish from the river; multitudes of crawfish under M. de Bore's vigilant eye were his two from the deep ditches; raccoons and opos- grandsons, Jean Baptiste and Deschapelles sums to gladden the heart of the most surly Lebreton, and two Frenchmen as overseers. negro. Bore had made of his estate both a, Each one of those gentlemen had his post of farm and plantation. Every day before dawn duty assigned to him, and his particular de- cart-loads departed for New Orleans with partment of supervision, for which he was re- diversified produce, most of which was hand- sponsible. Every evening those subordinates ed over, when it reached its destination, to came to the «lord and master of all that he two old women, Agathe and Marie, who were surveyed,» and, rendered him an account of the occupants and guardians of the town thelstewardship. Then they received his or- house of Bore. They admirably understood ders for the next day. the art of selling, and were well known to the whole population, whose confidence they I do not remember having seen a negro possessed. Going to market with baskets full, whipped, but I remember having been present they generally brought them back empty. when occasionally one of them, for some de- Josephine, a handsome, strong-limbed, and linquency, was put in the stocks for the night light-footed mulattress, with another female or during a whole Sunday. This is the princi- assistant of a darker color, suid the milk and pal punishment that I have known to be in- butter with wonderful rapidity, and both flicted. Bisile, the commander of the gang, were back at the plantation at half past 10 and the most boastful, the most self-impor- A. M., with the mail, the daily papers, and tant negro who ever trod the earth, although whatever else they had to bring. It was clo,;k- he was invested with but very limited power, work in everything on that plantation of the was armed with an enormous whip, at least old regime. Hence the farm produced at least twenty feet in length, which from time to six thousand dollars per annum, besides sup- time he cracked portentously over his head plying all the wants of those who resided on with the most terrific emphasis of sound, it. black or white, and the product of the whilst goading with threatening words some plantation was almost all profit. laggard who he thought did not wield his hoe with sufficient diligence; but I never saw that The discipline established on it [the planta- whip fall on the back of any of the hands. In tion) was a sort of military one. At dawn, when the field when at work they used to sing in it was time to go to the field and to the other la- chorus or concert, and there was in those bors of the day. tl . big bell rang. The whole songs a melody which lingers to this day in gang of negroes came to the house. in front of my heart. I now wish that I had noted down which they all kneeled. and a short prayer was the words and the music which seemed to en- said, always in the presence of a male member liven so much those sons of Africa. and which 78 73 certainly were their own composition. But the negroes did not wear shoes at that antediluvian epoch. They protected their This landlord cif the old regime never feet with what they called quantiers, made in raisedhogs.Inever saw one ranging and this way: The negro would plant his foot on grunting at liberty on any portion of his do- an ox-hide that had undergone a certain pre- mains. Hog-raising was a monopoly which he paratory process to soften it. Armed with a flat left to his negroes. Leading to the sugar-house and keen blade, another negro would cut the and its dependencies there was a long and hide ac ing to the size and shape of the fine avenue of pecan-trees. In a parallel line to aving enough margin to overlap the it there were the negro quarters, comfortable top of up to the ankle. Holes were bored in- cabins with fireplaces, and drawn in a double to it and with strips of tile same leather this row. Each negro had a hog-pen behind his rustic shoe was laced tight to the foot. It was cabin, and his small poultry-yard; each one rough and unsightly, but, wholesome, like the had also a lot of ground for raising corn, French sabot, or wooden shoe. The foot in a pumpkins, and anything else he pleased. When woollen sock, or even bare, when encased in a fat, the hogs were sold at the market price to quantier stuffed with rags or hay, was kept re- master or mistress, or to any other bidder, markably warm and dry. Twice a year there when not slaughtered by their owners for came numerous bales of merchandise blan- their own alimentation. kets and warm clothing at the beginning of winter, and lighter articles of dress at the be- The Mississippi in those days, when high, ginning of spring. The thick capot de couverte used to carry an immense quantity of drift- was universally used by the negroes, and fre- wood. On Sundays many of the negroes quently even by their masters. It was a sort of would draw ashore with ease a quantity of frock with a hood, anal made out of a blanket. logs, which they cut into cords, and sold to their master for a dollar per cord. If at any This population of black laborers was for time they were forced, for the good of the a long time composed only of natives of Loui- crop, to do more than their usual task, they siana called creole negroes, and of natives of were liberally paid for it, or the number of ex- Africa called Banbaras, or by whatever other tra hours during which they worked was re- names that designated the tribes they had be- turned to them outof their ordinary days of longed to in their country. There were dis- labor.They caughtcatfish,sheep's-head, tinct peculiarities and idiosyncrasies among shrimps, eels in abundance, raccoons, opds- them. On the Bore plantation there was one sums, etc., and in my boyhood, when ram- who pretended that he was a prince, and had bling about their quarters at the time they ruled over numerous subjects. He was so cookedtheir meals, my nostrils were fre- proud and fiery that he was named Achilles. quently regaled with a savory smell. It is cer- He lqoked upon the other negroes as his in- tain that they all looked fat and sleek, and feriors,and exacted from them allgreat none ran away. Therefore they must have demonstrations of respect. When the Ameri- been gently treated and well fed. There were can negroes, as they were called, began to be among them masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, introduced meaning those who came from cartwrights, every other mechanic that might the United States, to which Louisiana was be wanted, and even an excellent shoemaker. not yet annexed they were treated with the So we were perfectly independent of the out- utmost contempt, and even deep- rooted aver- ward world. sion, by the creole and African negroes with 74 whom they had to associate. They were look- ing the saloon, found hung up to the wall an ed upon as thieves, and capable of every sort oil portrait of Bore in a gilt frame that had of villainous tricks. Whenever any theft was just been brought home from the city. The perpetrated or any other delinquency com- African pointed to it with intense satisfaction mitted, it was immediately alleged that,it was in proof of his having told the truth. «A la li,» the Merkain coquin (the American rogue) he said; «here he is.» who had done it. So they had at first a hard time of ir. On the other hand, the Mericain It was a living likeness and a fine speci- coquin, being generally more intelligent titan men of art, executed by a most skilful painter the creole and the imported African, was dis- named Mouchette, who was on his travels, posed to treat them as fools, and openly as- and merely passing through Louisiana. Big serted his own superiority. Thus those black Congo was comically bewildered when as- immigrants, when they first came to a Louisi- sured that no flesh and blood stood before ana plantation, rather put things out of joint, him. from a want of affinity with the sable com- pany into which they were introduced. I have already intimated that the former mousquetaire; or member of the royal body- On a certain occasion one of those Afri- guard, and ex-captain of cavalry in the French cans, named Big Congo, a field hand, ,was the army, kept up a complete military discipline hero of an amusing anecdote. The overseer on hjs plantation. It is true to the very letter. had sent him to M. de Bore with a message to Every evening after supper sentinels were sta- which an answer was desired. The barbarian tioned at every point where depredations returned after a while and informed the over- might be committed. They were two by two, seer that he had found master in the parlor, armed with stout clubs never a sentinel that he had delivered the message, that the alone. At midnight they were relieved and re- old man had looked at him straight in the placed by others, and so on in turn, going face, but had not answered anything. through the whole gang successively, a new set every night. Thus every trespass, every vio- «Brute! what story is this?» exclaimed lation of law or order, was well guarded against. the overseer, getting angry. One day, however, the habitually quiet «It is true,» insisted the negro, in his denizens of the Bore plantation were thrown peculiar lingo, which I translate into English. into commotion. Bore had bought a magni- «Master was in a gold window. He looked at ficent pair of carriage-horses. They had not me good, but would not talk.» been one week at home when they disappear- ed at night. The stables were found locked. «What! what! are you drunk?» said the All the gates of the yard in which stood the overseer, who was fast losing his temper. stables looked as if their padlocks and bars had dot been tampered with. There was not But the negro stuck to it. «Pray come the slightest sign of effraction anywhere. The with me,» he said, imploringly. «Don't get walls could not have been overleaped. The angry. I will show you master in thq gold sentinels had seen and heard nothing, and window.» their fidelity was not doubted. The whole af- fair ias extremely mysterious and puzzling. The overseer went with him, and enter- One thing, however, was certain. The thief, Go 75 who evidently wasa most expert one, had only over head on the greensward, I shrieked with the choice between two roads in his flight delight. There was not a drop of rain; it was down to the city or up along the bank of the allblow. When night came, the battering river. On close inspection, tracks were discov- blows of the giant became more terrific. The ered on the way up, and the pursuit began. house shook to its very foundations, and in But the thief had the advantage of several every point of its structure. It seemed to be hours in his favor. The stolen horses were assailed by an infuriated multitude of winds fleet, and the thief managed to keep ahead that rushed from every quarter of the horizon in the race. He had been seen by many, but to engage in a demoniacal conflict on our not suspected. The pursuit ceased at Baton premises. Notwithstanding this war of the ele- Rouge without success. Unfortunately there ments, I had fallen asleep, when my father were no telegraphs in those days. Our be- waked me up suddenly, and apparenti)in wildered negroes, unable to account for this great alarm carried me in his arms to what was bold and extraordinary deed, which appeared probably thought a safer portion of the build- marvelous to their superstitious imagination, ing. attributed, itto Zombi or Bouki, who rank among the mischievous spirits is which they My family was at the Bore plantation believe. when, in the afternoon of the 23d of Decem- ber, 1814, General Jackson was informed that Amongthesensationaloccurrences the British had landed in Louisiana, and that a which I remember whilst a boy, and enjoying portion of their troops had been seen on the the sweet spring life of youth on the. Bore Villere plantation below the city. I was then plantation, was the shock of an earthquake, at the College of Orleans, corner of St. Claude which was distinctly felt in lower Louisiana and Bayou Road, alias Hospital Street, when, the same which so terrified New Madrid, fur- at 3 o'clock P. M., a great commotion was ob- ther up on the Mississippi. Next came the tre- served within its learned precincts. All studies mendous hurricane which did so much dam- were suspended; the class-rooms shut up; the age rbelow the city, in the parish of Plaque- pupils hurrying to and fro in evident alarm; mines, by causing the river to overflow, and parents pouring in and taking their children by precipitating the waters of the Gulf upon away. My cousin, Frederic Foucher, the son the low lands, whereby many families were of Pierre Foucher, and myself were beginning drowned This hurricane wasi fine specimen to fear our being forgotten and left to shift of the kind, and raged on our plantation with for ourselves, instead of being as well cared fearful sublimity. It began early in the morn- for as most of our companions both our ing. A dense pell-mell mass of white and dark families being six miles above the city, and ig- clouds, strangely mixed, under the whip and norant of the exciting news when there spur of a furious wind, was driven in a helter- came a messenger from Madame Porde, the skelter race so close to the earth that a tall sister of Pierre Foucher, and the aunt of Fre- man might have fancied that he could touch it deric, to tender us the shelter of her house at with his hand. I remember to have repeatedly the corner of Dumaine and Royal streets, and gleefully jumped up as if'to accomplish it which is still in existence, with the same anti- myself. although a little boy, and whenever quated front painted yellow, and with the the irresistible grasp of the hurricane, lifting same balcony on which the two boys s ;ood me above the ground, carried me onward ten and saw Major Platrches battalion of uni- or twelve feet, and tumbled me down heels formed, well-equipped, and well-drilled militia s 76 pass underit.That corps was composed Early the next morning the two boys de- of the elite of the young men of the city parted to meet their respective families, one Ia ieunesse doree and it seems to me on the Foucher plantation and the other on that 1see now as vividly as I saw then the the adjacent plantation of Bore. The 9th of the handsome Edmond Foucher conspicuous January was to be the tenth anniversary of in the ranks of those who were thus marching my coming into this world. In the morning of rapidly to meet the enemy. Looking up to the the preceding day the famous battle of the balcony, he salutedhis old aunt with a 8th was fought on the plains of Chalmette, cheerful smile and a wave of the hand that four miles below the city. In a bee-line the seemed intended to comfort her and dispel distance must have been very short between her alarms. the field of action and the Bore plantation, six miles above New Orleans by the windings At seven o'clock the battle began, and of the river, for the furious cannonading and the roar of the artillery, with the discharges of the discharges of musketry were prodigiously musketry, was almost as distinctly heard as if distinct. The ladies of the family, pale with in our immediate neighborhood. There was the natural emotions of fear produced by the not the slightest noise in the apparently dead dangers of the situation, were grouped on the city.It held its breath in awful suspense. broad gallery in front of the house. No man There was not a human being to be seen mov- was visible, for the only one who had remain- ing in the streets. We, the two boys-and the ed at home (on account of his age) had, when ladies of the household, petrified into abso- the battle began, ascended with slow but firm lute silence by the apprehensions of the mo- steps a flight of stairs which led to the top of ment, stood on the balcony until half past the portico. At every volley of artillery or nine, when the firing gradually ceased. But musketry I flung myself on the floor, exclaim- still we continued to remain on the same spot; ing, «Ten Englishmen killed!» «Twenty En- for what was to happen? Were our defenders glishmen flat on the ground!» and so on. I retreating, pursued by the enemy? These were continued rejoicing in the fancied destr,vtion hours of anxiety never to be forgotten. About of our invaders, not%i hstanding the remon- eleven o'clock the oppressive silence in the strances of my poor mother, in whose alarm I city was broken by the furiously rapid gallop very little participated. The battle had not yet of a horseman shouting as loud as he could, ended when my grandfather Bore came down Victory! victory!» He turned from Chartres from his post of observation with the same Street into Dumaine and from Dumaine into measured step and the same self-possession Royal,still shouting «Victory!» The voice with which he had ascended, and said to his had become hoarse, and yet no human voice daughters, who anxiously interrogatedhis that I ever afterward heard was fraught with looks, «Dismiss your fears; the Americans are more sweet music. That night we went to bed victorious.» with thankful hearts. The two boys soon slept soundly, as toys sleep, with that blissful un- aut, father, how do you know it?» in- concern which appertains to their age. But I quired my mother. doubt if our kind hostess and her daughters closedtheir eyes, for they had husbands, «You forget, my dear child,» replied M. brothers, sons, on the battlefield, and they de Bore, with a calm smile, «that I have some did not know at what cost to them the vic- military experience. My practised ear has not tory had been achieved. been deceived, I am sure. The American guns 82 77 have silenced the English guns. The enemy is had faced danger, and that he was not as cow- defeated.» ardly as supposed. In making this exhibition he had approached close to the piazza and held his These words had hardly been spoken hat aloft. The old gentleman retreated a few when, in the long avenue of pecan-trees that steps; then rushing back to the balustrade of led to the river, there appeared a troop of the piazza, on which he leaned forward, and about a hundred men rushing toward the looking down upon ike suppliant below, house. «The English! here come the English!» shouted: «In thy hat! in thy hat!» striking Was the simultaneous cry of the women. M. his breast violently «there is where the ball de Bore stretched himself up to his full height, should :,ave been received, and not through shaded his eyes with his hand, and after hav- thy hat, wh'n mobably thy back was turned ing looked steadily at the advancing crowd, tothe ,ay. No! no food for cowards. said. contemptuously, «These men the En- There is food in the British camp; go and get glish! bah!» it.» They came rapidly to the piazza, about He was super .) that moment, and turn- six feet high, on which we stood, and along ing his back upo.he pitiful-looking postu- which ran a ,wooden balustrade. M. de Bore lants, he kept up pacing the piazza like a did not understand one word of the language chafed lion in .a cage. My mother followed spoken by these unexpected visitors, whose him a few feet behind, as he walked to and ragamuffin appearance was no recommenda- fro with a hurried step, and thus expostulated ii,.n. But if they were bandits, it was com- all the while: fortable to cee that they all were unarmed. «Father, they look so miserable.» «Who are tLey, and what do they want?» Inquired M. de Bore, surveying them evidently «No! no food for cowards. ; hzve said it.» with no friendly eye. He was informed by one of his family that they were fugitives who re- «They seem to be so jaded and hungry.» ported that the Americans had been comp:ete- ly routed, that they themselves were a portion «No! I say no!» of the defeated, and that they begged for food. The blood ran to the cheeks of the old soldier, «Father, they are so wet, and shivering his eyes flashed, and he shouted in French to with cold.» the men: «You the Americans are victorious. You have run ..way; you are cowards. Never «No! no food for fugitives from the field shall it be said that I rave a hospitable welcome of honor.» to dastardly fugitives from the battle - field. Hence, all of you, or I will call my negroes to «Rut. rather, continued my mother, in drive you away.» His words were not compre- a piteou. tone, «they may not have fled, after hended, but his indignant wrath was visible, arid all. Perhaps they only retreated.» his pantomime was expressive. One of the beg- garly ..-ew seemed to apprehend his meaning, Grandfather,wheeling round, with a for he took off his hat and pointed with his in- smile an his lips, and with the usual expres- dex finger to a hole which looked as if made by a sion of benevolence on 'ais face, said: «Daugh- ball. He no doubt intended to intimate that he ter.I am inflexible. No food shall I give :o 78 those wretches. But I am going away, and in casion, when he, jestingly no doubt, proposed my absence you may deal as you please with to my mother to take me with him to Tennes- those heroes of retreat» (avec ces heros de la see. On that day. I felt strongly inclined to be- retraite). True to his word, he disappeared, gin hostilities against the hero. and was not seen for the remainder of the day. As a social ittdent, I may be at liberty Meanwhile the little boy, iho has grown to mention that at dinner-, the dessert being up to be the octogenarian who writes these over and coffee served, M. de Bore would rise lines, had a grand time of it, for big fires were and retire with the kdies, after having with a lighted over the vast court-yard, calves and bow taken leave of his military guests, whom sheep were killed and roasted, huge pots of he left 'co thenjoyment of their bottles of hominy and of rice were prepared; and hey'wine placed on the «bare mahogany,» after keenly enjoyed the barbecue, if he may be the American fashion. The same formality permittedto usethis-. well-known modern was observed every day. This convivial privi- expression, that was given to 'those men, who lege seemed to be relished by those officers, were a detachment of the ,Kentuckians that who frequently would linger an hour round had fled from Colonel Thointon's attack up-._ the board, conversing freely together in a lan- on General Morgan's command on the right guage entirely unknown to the family of whose bank of the river, as related An history. hospitality they partook. They were courteous and tolerably well-bred, gentlemanly in many When the war was over, theTennesseeans; respects, but some of them had peculiar hab- before they were permitted to go home, en- ,its, among which the most eccentric was for camped for some time on the plantation ad- one o /hem to throw himself back in his jacent to the lower line of the Bore planta- chair and elevate his feet to the level of the tion. That *plahtation, then belonged, or had table, on which these extremities of the hu- belonged, to the Micros family, and subse- man body were made to repose in appar.Att quently became the property of Captain Beale, comfort. If anybody happened to indulge in a who 1t the head of the Orleans Riflemen had sneering remark on the subject, M. de Bore distinguished himself under 'General Jackson would deprecatingly say, with a gentle smile: in the defence of our city. Beale had married oEh bleu! Que voulez-vous? Its n'en savent a daughter' of the -Spanish. Gwernor, Don pus davantage. C'eft la coutume de leur pays.0 Carlos de Grandpre. As to General *Jaclsort, he was conspicuous , for his courtly manners. It was due to instinct Generali Coffee and Carroll, who -com- or inspiration. He.was nature's nobleman. manded the division of the Tennessee troops, together with their military suite, were ten- Breakfast was at eight in the morning, dered by M. de Bore the hospitality of his dinner at two P. M., and supper at seven in house, where they were luxe riously entertain- the evening. It was seldom that there was not ed for several months. General Jackson was a some guest or guests at every one of those frequent visitor, and the writer of these lines, meals, either from the immediate neighbor- although more than once kindly patted on the hood or from distant parts. In those days head by the hero, remembers that he stood travelling between New Orleans and Baton mu:h in awe of the 1VP Cior who wamported Rouge, now the capital of the State, and both to have killed so nidny men. I remember even situated on the left oank of the Mississippi, to have been considerably excited on one oc- was generally on horseback, or in a land vehicle 8 4 79 of some sort; rarely by water. Some of the morning. It was a rule not to be infringed, and planters who lived at a distance of thirty or it had the good effect of preventing quarrels forty miles from New Orleans drove to it with from being of long duration, for a reconcilia- four in hand, and it was not merely for show, tion not merely apparent, but real, no doubt, considering that the road was occasionally in would soon have been a forced conclusion. a very poor condition. All of them knew very As to myself, boy that I was, in return for a well that they would offend if they passed by kiss on my forehead I imprinted my lips on the Bore plantation without stopping to rest his 'caressing and paternal hand morning and for the night, or at least to take refreshments. t.veninf, ac if he had been a monarch to whom Peddlers going up or down what was then I paid a willing; homage. I never heard him use called the «Coast,» carrying their wares on a harsh word. His blue eye was calm and be- their backs or in carts, and in boats pulled up nevolent; but although I was inclined to have against the current a la cordelle that is to too strong a will of my own, yet such was the say, by a rope thrown over the shoulders of loving awe with which I regarded him that I men who footed it on the levee frequently would have preferred facing an infuriated bull halted at Bore's gates with full reliance on the than incur his displeasure, and I am conscious hospitality of the old mousquetaire. They al- that the same feeling of veneration was shared ways found a comfortable room at their ser7 by all those who approached him and fell vice, and were kint'r admitted to the family within the reach of his moral influence. table. They belonged by virtue of their white skin to the aristocratic class, and it was the He occupied at the table of refection a prevailing feeling not to degrade the poorest seat larger than any other, and appropriated and humblest of the Caucasian race by lower- to his own special use. It was placed at the ing him to the level of the servile blacks. In centre of the long table, my mother sitting in this matter there was no difference of treat- front. When the bell rang, he was very punc- ment in the homes of our wealthiest planters. tual. His habit was to stand up a minute or This democratic hospitality was universal. Was two, until everybody was at his respective it because thewas no democracy, and be- post. Then he waved his hand as an imitation cause social position was unquestionably bet- to sit, and all sat down. After this had been ter defined than at present? Certain it is that done, any vacant seat remained unoccupied, those wh'., at a more recent epoch were quali- because the slothful delinquent shrank from fie'i with the appellation of «white trash» encountering a cold rebuke. never or seldom suffered in the old regime from the insolence of birth rank, or wealth. It was a fundamental rule that the Police Almost all of those peddlers were foreigners, Jury of the parish should meet at the sugar- and it has been more than once my pleasant house of M. de B re, and after adjourning, re- luck, in the course of years, to meet them or pair to his mansion for dinner. Whilst waiting their descendants in palatial mansions both in for the convivial hour, the guests either re- New York and in Paris, or to hail their eleva- mained gossiping on the broad piazza -- I will tion to high official station in Louisiana. not say smoking, for I never saw on such oc- casions the indulgence of so rare a habit at Before retiring for the night all the mem- that epoch or entertained themselves in the bers of the family respectfully saluted M. de billiard-room. For any One of them to have re- Bore, and affectionately greeted one another. tired before having staid to dinner would have The same ceremony was repeated inthe been an infraction of decorous regard not to 80 he thought of for one instant. Once, however, old coat of arms, in which figured the crown- after the sitting of the Police Jury was over, ed head of Sultan Abderahman, defeated in and most of its members had assembled on the valley of Roncal, in Navarre, when attempt- the piazza, waiting for the grateful sound of ing to cross the Pyrenees and penetrate into the dinner-bell, one of that body, who had France, about the year 800 of our Lord. lingered at the sugar-house, was seen approach- When Napoleon pushed his legions into Spain, ing on horseback, ana wheeling into the pecan Don Carlos Gayarre suppressed his feelings in avenue which led to the public road, instead the presence of his father-in-law, and out of of corning to the house, where was the rest of respect for him. But at the announcement of the company. any French triumph in the land of his ances- tors he would retire moodily to the privacy of «Who is he that is going away without his bedchamber; then the angry tones of a taking leave of us?» asked M. de Bore, shading guitar were heard, and a manky iioice sang all his eyes v hand, the better to see. those patriotic hymns which responded to the popular cry of «Death to the foe! war to the (4t is Mr. Avart,» answered somebody. knife, and the knife to the hilt!» Thus the san° family presented a rather strange com- «Well,» exclaimed the old gentleman, «I pcund. M. de Bore, the noble of the old re- will favor him with a lesson that will, I hope. gime and mousquetaire inthe household turn to his profit.» He jumped on a chair, on troops of a Bourbon king, carried away by which he stood as erect and conspicuous as military enthusiasm, had become an imperial- possible, and shouted to the 1'orseman whc ist and Bonapartist; Pierre Foucher, one of his was slov !ytrotting away, «Mr. Avart! Mr. sons-in-law, was a red republican, who had no Avart!» The person thus addressed stopped liking for kings and priests; the other son, my and turned round as if to respond to the call. father, was an intense royalist. And yet they «No, no!» continued M. de Bore; «don't all lived in perfect harmony, which shows that come back! don't wine oack! I hailed you they possessed at least a lane fund of goc41- merely to request you to carry my respects to breeding and forbearance. your family» with still grzater. emphasis «my respects to your family! Tha. 3 all. Now There bubbles up in my me:nory at the you may go.» preseut moment the recollection in anec- dote concerning thismousquetairerandfa- M. de Bore, although of the old regime, ther of mine. There was in France, der the was an enthusiastic admirer of Napoleon. lie reign of Louis XV., a bright-complexioned had in his parlor a fine engraving of Vie battle and educated mulatto from San Domingo or of Austerlitz at the moment when General some other French West Indian island. He Rapp, on horseback and bareheaded, rushes was named St. George, and is mentioned in with fiery haste into the presence of the same of the memoirs of the epoch as the most Emperor, shouting,«Victory! victory!the wonderful fencer that had ever appeared since enemy is annihilated!» To which Napoleon the famous Creighton. Like this prototype, so replies, «I never saw thee, Rapp, looking so far as manly exercises went, he was as skilful a handsome.* My father, born inLouisiana, shot as a swordsman. At twenty paces he was of Spanish origin, and loyal to his race to never failed to hit a small nail on the head. He the very core of his heart. At the head of his swam like a fish; and as to his feats of horsel bed there was hung up inwooden frame his manship. they were prodigious. One night, at 8 81 a theatre in Paris, M. de Bore having the bad a happy voyage and a speedy return luck of displeasing a gentleman who occupied to us, after having arranged your af- the next seat to his, they went out and cross- fairs in that country sufficiently to ed swords in the street by the light of the your satisfaction. Ifit should be lamp-post. This was the way at that epoch to possible for you to send me a hun- settle the slightest unpleasantness of this kind. dred feathers like those with which M. de Bore was soon run through the body you had the kindness to favor me, and stretched on his back. He was, however my obligation to you would be very consoled by the information that if vanquisu great. The trimming of my dress is ed. it had been by the invulnerable St. George. finished; it is superb; and as I am This colored duelist, who acquired qu'tea afraid of losing some of the feathers, reputation for his exploits, as such, neverwas I should be happy to be able to re- even scratched in his innumerable encounters. place them. I beg to be excused for But it is reported that, on his having succeed- thus taitig oo much your gallantry ed in obtaining a commission in the French and genc..,3ity, for you have given army, he showed the white feather in the first me such a large quantity of those general engagement with the enemy. On that feathers that it looks as if I needed occasion he felt, no doubt, that the marvel- no more. I return to you my thanks lcus skill on which he had hitherto so success- in advance, and I entreat you to be fully relied could be of no avail to parry death. convinced of the very great sincerity of the sentiments with which I have M. de Bore was about thirty-two years the honor to be, sir, your very old when !le obtained permission to pay a sec- humble and veryobedientser- ond visit to Louisiana, where he was destined vant. to settle at last and end his career. He was «Rochechouart de Montboissier. ready to ehibark.ovhen he received the hi- oP. S. M. de Montboissier re- lowing note front the Comte de Roche- quests me to address to you a thou- chouart Montboissier, the wit' the Minister sand compliments on his behalf.» of War. addressed to him ,Vousquetaire .\mr, a la Rochelle. Hotel du Lien Nourri (ho- Now thatitisthe raging fashion for tel of the well fed). These guardsmen were women to adorn themselves so much with called black on account of the color or the feathers of all sorts, it would probably inter- horses they mounted. est our LouL..ianians of the fair sex to know, if possible, what were those colonial feathers Paris,91h Januau 1772 which so vividly excited the gratitude of Com- a It is with great pleasure, sir, that tesie. Rochechouart de Montboissier, and no Ihave unu -rtaken to inform you doubt the admiration of the court of Versailles thatthe commission of Captain in the days of Louis X /., one hundred and which you seemed so much to de- fourteen years ago. sire has been granted t,) you par le Bernier travail de M. de Monthois- On the Bore plantation, midway be- vier. When the brevet I.; ready, he tween the riser bank and the cypress swamp. will forward it to you. He is very there was a depression in the land, where, in gladto have been able to render consequence of it, a large pond of standing you this sersice. We i-oth wish you water had been formed. 87 82 This pond, known far and wide, was youthful portion of the population, white and called LaMare a Bore(the Bore pond). In any black. It was when drove of wild horses other countrythis sporting ground would came from Texas or somr. other Mexican terri- have been jealously guarded, but in Louisiana tory. Those animals looked so fiery and un- this would have been looked upon with ex- governable that they seemed to have the devil treme disfavor. Hence this pond, or Marea himself in their bodies, and the men who led Bore,was treated as public propert1, without and owned them were evidently the denizens any interference from the owner. On Satur- of some weird wilderness. They wore the chys in particular, late in the afternoon, there broad Spanishsombrero,or hat; their faces used to come quite a battalion from New Or- were bronzed, and their eyes dark and piercing. leans, mostly composed of theeliteof the They wore soft leather gaiters up to the knee, population of that city lawyers, physicians, and that part of their breeches which was des- commission merchants, brokers, bankers,e tined to an inevitable friction when they rode tuft! quanti.Among the members of the bar, was lined also with leather. Stout and rough- Mazureau and John R. Grymes, who were looking brogans enveloped the foot up to the celebrities, and Morel, also distinguished, may ankle, and their heels were armed with spurs be cited as the most prominent. On such occa- six inches long, calledrakachias.At their sight sioas we could hear from our dwelling-house the joyous exclamation was heard, «Here are a lively rattle of gun-firing, as if a skirmish theouachinangs!»All the juvenility of the was going on. Some even camped there, to be locality and its neighborhood clapped their ready for the sport early on the next morning. palms and shouted in anticipation of fun. Fires were lighted, tents erected, and the com- These horses were for sale, and driven from forts and wants of the human body attended plantation to plantation, where a market for to with proper care. Sober and grave heads of some of them was always found. families of high social standing, when in their huntingdress,notunfrequentlythought It is remarkable how trifling events, ap- themselves free to assume the liberties of a parently not worth remembering for more somewhat rakish crew; jokes were cracked, than a day, remain fresh in one's memory dur- tales related by the blazing piles, pranks pe: ing a long life! Who knows what subtle influ- petrated, and to weak the unpleasant truth, ence for good or for evil such things may there ensued, although rarely, quarrels that have? May not what appeared to the youthful led to duels. Page after page 'could be written mind but an unmeaning incident yet contrib- about the mans occurrences which in those ute by an unfelt process to the formation of days contributed to the fame ofLa Mare a character, and to habits of deportment in Bore. Thenegroes themselves had all sorts of after-years? One day as our family, seated on tales to relate about it. Their superstitious the front piazza, was enjoying the balmy at- imagination, which is always at work, con- mosphere of a bright May morning, there nected that spot with hobgoblins and appari- came on a visit from New Orleans M. de Bo- tions, among others the ghost of a colossal re's favorite nephew, whose name was Ber- raccoon that seems to have claimed special nard de Marigny. He was one of the most bril- jurisdiction over LaMare a Bore. liant and wealthiest young men of the epoch. He drove in a dashing way to the house in an Once or twice a year there was on the elegant equipage drawn t two fiery horses. plantation an occurrence which excited the Full of the buoyancy of till, he jumped most intense interest, particularly among the out of his carriage and ran up the broad steps s 83 of the brickperronthat ascended to the pi- man, he considerately took two of my best azza. As he reached the top of it he said, with mules, one for himself and one for a compan- a sort of careless and joyous familiarity,«Bon- ion whom he invited to join him, for he al- jour, mon oncle, bonjour,»and bowed slight- ways was very fond of society. After having ly round to the family without removing his disposed of the mules in a way of which I hat. «Chapeaubas, monsieur!»responded a know nothing, he carried the rest of his plun- calm voice of command. «Thu /ourschapeau der to New York, where he completed his has devant une femme, et ityen a plus d'une education, and then returned to New Orleans. id.»(Hat off, sir! Always hat off before a He now flourishes here like a green bay-tree, woman, and there are more than one here.) and is constantly employed as an indispens- A fitting apology was instantly made by the able attendant at balls and dinner parties youthful delinquent. Was the oldmousque- given in the fashionable world. Considering take,or guardsman, influenced on that occa- his incontestable abilities, the seduction of his sion, unknowingly to himself, by the remem- winning manners, and his everlasting smile, bered example of Louis XIV., the gorgeous which would have secured him much profit- «rofsoleil,»who never :ailed to bow to any able success in a ceitair, line of business, I woman, whatever her condition, whom he feel uader no small degree of obligation to chanced to meet? him for not having turned politician, and plundered the State with as much dexterity As to Madame de Bore, I was so young and impunity as he plundered me. It shows when she died that I have no distinct recol- great modera`ien on his part, for which he is lection of her. There remains in my mind but to be commended. a sort of dim vision of a lady seated near a small round table with a white marble top en- But to return to Madame de Bo.4, whu circled by a diminutive copper railing of half had been educated at Versailles in the St.-Cyr an inch in height. On that table there used to Institution, founded by Madame de Mainte- be a work-basket, and also a beautiful gold non. She must have been a prodigy of fasc:na- snuff-box in what is called the style Louis tion, if I am to believe the old men who so Quinze. I long preserved that snuff-box with frequently described her to me. One -if them infinite care; but during the war of secession ince exclaimed in a fit of enthusiasm, inter- a light-colored slave of the name of Wilson, rupted ay an octogenarian cough, «Celaeut whom I had dialed to be as accomplished a valu la peine de faire cinquante lieues seule- servant as could be found in any luxurious ment pour voir Madame de Bore prendre lime, logically came to the i.onclusion that une prise de tabac»(it would have been worth I was getting too poor to need his talents any while to travel fifty leagues merely to see more, a.id to satisfy his own epicurean tastes Madame de Bore taxe a pinch of snuff). by high living. He had taught himself to read and write, and having by this means risen Another admirer related to me the fol- above the prejudices of his former ignorance, lowing anecdote as a specimen of her tact and he dt .ermined to secede from me, and with dignity. In those days, which we may call re- much prudential foresight he suddenly and mote, because between that past and the pres- clandestinely departed, with my grandmother's ent there seems to be a lapse of five hundred smug f -box. together with an additional supply years, it was the invariable custom at a set of diamonds and other trinkets. Being tender- dinner to have the dessert enlivened by songs footed and accustomed to ride like a gentl from the male guests. Once it happened that 84 one of them hazarded a song which would not necessary aids; one was a negro, and the other have been objectionable toa generation famil- of a lighter color. The negroes are born cooks, iar with La Belle Hekne and La le de as other less favored beings are born poets. Madame Angot. It seemed indelicateto Ma- The African brute, guided by the superior in- dame de Bore. She hastenedto interrupt the telligence of his Caucasian master, in the days singer with these Words: «Sir, Iam so charm- of slavery in Louisiana, gradually evolved into ed with your song that I cannot resistthe im- an artist of the highest degree of excellence, pulse to toast you atonce. Ladies and gentle- and had from natural impulses and affinities, men, fill your glasses, and let us drink to the without any conscious analysis of principles, singer's health.» Itwas difficult to convey re- created an art of cooking for which he should proof more gracefully. deserve to be immortalized. And how isit possible to convey to this dyspeptic posterity Years had elapsed.I was in Paris, and of our ancestors, to a thin-blooded popula- visiting an aged relative of mine,a Louisian- tion whose stomach has been ruined by kitch- ian, in her palatial mansion, Avenue deMa- en charlatans, sauce and gravy pretenders, ket- rigny. I was alone with her in the reception tle and pot druggists, any idea of the miracles saloon. In front ofus, in a smaller saloon, in of the old creole cooking transmitted from sight but not within hearing, therewere two colonial days, and growing fainter and fainter of her married daughters with the Comtede in dim traditions which have no meaning and Talvande and the old Prince de Bethune he no sense for this cc:woe-feeding generation? whose red tomato face, strikinglyframed with It had nothing in common with the much- a profusion of snow-white beard and hair, was vaunted culinary science of France. It was sui so exquisitely and amusingly reproduced in gencds; it was not imitative; there was no tra- terra-cotta by Cham, the artist, and exposed ditionary lore about its origin; it had no an- in so many of the glass windows of Parisian cestry; it sprang from itself. Pierre or Valen- shops. ! noticed .natmy relative would now tin, the colored cook, had not been taught by and then cast an uneasy glance at thegroup, any missionary from foreign climes; he had who were talking and laughinga little romp- not studied the records of roasting, baking, ishly. At last she said tome: «I am thinking of and boiling from the age of Abraham to the Aunt Bore. What would she have thought of days of Master Jean or Mistress Jeanne on II° such manners? One daya gentleman offered banks of the Mississippi. He could ne ter me a bouquet in her presence. She intercepted read nr,r write, and therefore he could Tot it before I could take it, and F71.-11 to him, 'I learn from books. He was simply inspired; 1.1e thank you oil behalf ofmy niece; but it god of the spit and the sat' epan had breathed would have been better to have presented the into hitn; that was enough. Good heavens! bouquet to me with a request to hand itotter with what supreme, indescribable contempt to he'0 I have mentioned these anecdotesas would Aunt henriette or Uncle Frontin hate illustrative of an epoch which has passedaway looked down upon the best French cordon forever. I close what I have tosay about this bleu that had presumed to teach her or him! lady of the old regime by mentioning thatmy Sufficient to say that Marc Antony, if he had mother assured e of her never having been known a creole cook of the old regime, would able to di...over the smallest speck ofa cloud have given him two or three of his best Asiatic in the conjugal sky of her parents. pro% laces is a reward for feasting Cleopatra. M. de Bore had two male cooks with the Gambo file! Gumbo fevis! Gombo aux 0 85 herhes! -Gomho chevrettes, ou aux huitres! ern times. It was in the style of simplicity What do these things mean at present but which prevailed in the dwellings of the wealth- vapidity of taste, instead of the licking of iest planters; but the table and the wines were one's lips? And the soups? the soups! not a superb. Every Sunday there were regularly, ghost of them lingering on earth. Who knows without any special invitation, a dozen or two how to roast? Who knows how to seasonjuste of guests, who generally came from New Or- a point?And.the flavor? the flavor! whither leans. Among them the most assiduous were has it evaporated? How many delicious dishes some Knights of St. Louis, who on such occa- have vanished forever of which the best cooks sions never failed to carry their decoration dan- of France have never dreamed! To invent gling from the button-hole, such, for instance, them it had required the constantly improving as the Hazures, two brothers who dwelt, I be- genius of several generations of apron-girt lieve, near Bayou St. John, on the Gentilly Sambas. Where is the last of them? What of a road. There was something in all those waifs turkey fattened, stuffed, and roasted by him? of another age in their appearance, in their Who but Sambo knew how to bake rice in an dress, in their physiognomy, in their manners, iron pot? I sayiron,because it must be noth- in their peculiarities of conversation and lan- ing else, and that rice must come out solid, re- guage, in their bows and greetings, in their ac- taining the exact shape of the pot, with a cent and modulations of voice something golden crust round its top and sides. You which produced on me the most vivid impres- think this easy, presumptuous mortal. Well, sions. They were monuments of the past, pyr- try it, and let us see if your farinaceous pro - amids not in stones and.zment, but in flesh ductio' will have its required shape and color, and bones. There was in them what might and its precise proportion of salt and lard. I have been called a loftyje ne sais quoi,to use give it to you in a thousand. Who but Sambo a French locution. These men of the aidre- evermade grillades de sang de dinde,looking gimeseemed to entertain more esteem and re- and tasting like truffles? What a sauce! Where spect for one another than we do now for our did he get that sublime composition?.But contemporaries. They evidently loved more to time and space do not permit me to continue look up than to look down. They were not a description which, after all, is inadequately prodigal of their demonstrations of regard, descriptive. I will content myself with saying but when expressed, it could be relied on as that black Pierrot or yellow Charlotte, as a sincere, for they never hesitated to manifest cook in the days of the Egyptian fleshpots in their feeling of antipathy, reprobation, or op- Louisiana, is not within the comprehension of position when necessary. As I grew in years I any one born since the firing of the first gun became more deeply struck with the faith against Fort Sumter. The effort must be given which the men of that epoch reposed in one up. It would be attempting to grasp the infi- another, the more so because of the universal nite 'pace. The last Brutus, alas! perished with distrust of man's honor and integrity which I the liberties of Rome, and what is perhaps have observed spreading in later times over more deplorable, the last creole clol: could the whole surface of our community, like a not survive the acquisition of his own liberty stain of oil over a piece of carpeting. Well do in Louisiana. I recollect when, in my youth, I delighted to listen to the conversation of those old men The furniture of M. de Boie, although who still lingered on the stage after the days abundant and comfortable, was very plain for acting were past. When they engaged in when compared with the exige.icies of mod- discussions on some point or other,I have 86 sometimes seen the controversy settled at instructions and recommendations with a firm once by one of them observing, «I remember voice,a serene brow, a clear limpid eye, M. de Bore having saidso and so on this mat- through which his soul eloquently spoke. I ter.» «Ah, indeed! did he say so?» «Certain- will repeat only his very last words: «Let no ly.» «Well, then, of course » And therewas temptation ever betray you out of the path of no more questioning of this and that. honor and virtue. Keep your conscience al- ways free from self-reproach, so that your «A change has come over the spirit of death may be as calm as mine. Trusting in the my dream.» The scenes I have witnessed, the mercy of God, I fear not to appeal before his thingsI have seen, have vanished forever. tribunal, where I hope not to grieve for you, There is not a vestige, not a wreck's fragment, when in due time we are to meet again, and left of the Bore plantation, save myself, stand- when you shall render your accounts to Him. ing alone in the arid and parched wilderness Farewell! Let your motto in this world ever of the past, forgotten, but trying in vain to be,'Sans peur et sans reproche.'» forget and to close my eyes to the shapeless shadows that beckon me away. But enough. M. de Bore ordered that his funeral and M. de Bore died seventy-eight years old. When his tomb be as plain as could decently be, but on his death-bed, at his very last moments, he that a thousand dollars, which might be spent summoned me, boy thatIstill was, to his in these vanities, be saved for a better use, and presence. Putting his hands on his grandson's given to the Charity Hospital of New Orleans. head, he blessed him, aad gave him his parting It was done according to his request. MADAME LALAURIE: A CONTEMPORARY FRENCH ACCOUNT By L. Souvestre Translated by Harriet Molenaer The hideous story of Mme. Del- other contemporary account was phine La Laurie'scrueltyto her discovered (Vol. XV, No. 81 [De- slaves in New Orleans in the 1830's cember 8,1838], pp. 493-495.) is well known. The tale has lost Since it affords what purports to be nothing in the retelling through the an eye-witness account of the dis- years by various writers, who have covery of the mistreated slaves and not always agreed about the details. also throws additional light on the The early accounts range from the career of the infamous Mme. Lalau- rather factual one which appeared rie after her flight from New Or- inNiles Registeron May 3, 1834, leans, it is here given in full in En- to the emotion-charged literary pro- glish translation. duction of Harriet Martineau in her Retrospect of Western Travel,pub- It has not been possible to identi- lished in 1838. George W. Cable's fy the author of this French account. `The Haunted House' inRoyal The articleis signed simply A-. Street,» and Henry C. Castellanos' Souvestre.» An E. Souvestre, pos- 0A Tale of Slavery Times,» E. Gun- sibly Emile Souvestre (1806-1854), ner's gMadame Lalaurie,» and Lyle published a series entitled oLe Fort Saxon's «The Haunted House» af- du Cedre» inLe Courrier des Etats- ford the reader the most complete Unisin 1844. A Mme. Lesbazeilles- accounts of Mme. Lalaurie's atroci- Souvestre, who is remembered chief- ties. It would seem that no new ma- lyfor her French translation of terial on the affair would be likely Charlotte Bronte'sJane Eyre,was to be added at this point. alsowriting duringthisperiod. Neither can be shown to have writ- But in the course of examining a ten this article. file of the French language newspa- per,Le Courrier des Etats-Unis, Furthermore, the narrator in this now known asFrance-Amerique, account, a Methodist minister, Dr. which the Louisiana Room of the Miller, has not been identified. The Russell Library, Northwestern State literary quality of the account with College, received from the Cloutier its effective use of suspense and the family of Natchitoches in 1958, an- skillfully contrived introduction of 87 88 the bouquet of heliotrope as a de- At that moment, the sound of fresh and vice to identify Mme. Lalaurie sug- laughing voices rose to us. I leaned over and gest that this may have been an ar- saw in the meadow the young women with tistic elaboration of Harriet Marti- whom we had just passed the day. The Ameri- neau's story rather than a piece of can suddenly became thoughtful. factual reporting. Katherine Bridges «What do you call that woman dressed in white whom M. Henri Varin is escorting?» Dinner was over, and everyone had gone he asked me. into the park. I had stopped near a summer- house from which the eye took in, at a glance, «Madame de Larcy.» the wooded areas of Saint-Cloud and the ca- pricious windings of the Seine, when I saw, at «Has she been in France long?» the foot of the path, Doctor Miller coming to join me. He was a Methodist minister who had ar- «You know her?» rived from America a few months before and who had been presented only that morning to «As one knows someone in society; I Henri Varin at whose home we were. Up to this meet her at Varin's every time I'm here.» time l-had had one long conversation with him which had shown him to be a manof singular «Indeed,» the doctor responded, throw- distinction. I had, moreover, been struck by the ing me a thoughtful glance, «it seemed to me mixture of seriousness and audacity, of inflex- that she was much at home here.» ibility nd gentleness, which was revealed in all his thoughts and all his decisions. It was the I could not repress a smile; he shook his first time I had found myself in contact with head. one of these round-hatted missionaries, preach- ing without embarrassment in the midst of men «How could M. Varin so quickly forsake of the world, passionately condemning evil, his young wife?» he continued; «does he not speaking of religion and virtue in the simple see that she has divined everything and is ly- tone of a familiar conversation, and daring to ing of jealousy?» attempt goodness without seeming to force it upon others. Doctor Miller, in short, had seem- I shrugged my shoulders sadly. ed to me the model of those Quakers of whom I had read so many stories in books, but for «And how has Madame de Larcy been whom t had until then searched in vain in life. able to gain such power over your friend?» It was, therefore, with a friendly gesture «Haven't you seen how beautiful the and a pleasant smile that I welcomed him to woman is, monsieur? When she was presented the entrance of the kiosk where I had stopped. to you, you yourself seemed surprised and I pointed out the marvellous countryside moved by that beauty, for you started.» which spread at our feet and before which he remained for some time in silent contempla- The doctor did not answer but appeared tion. to reflect deeply. 9'4 89 «And has no one attempted to recall M. formed and enunciated. Varin to his duty?» he finally responded. Madame de Larcy did not at first notice «It would have been in vain.» that sechins but she finally observed it and med to be made uneasy by it. She «Is there no means of separating him turd in order to escape it and suddenly from that woman?» stopped speaking. «Which one?» In every group, there is someone who rules and dominates leader by good fortune, Miller becamz. silent and remained so a beauty, or intelligence. It is to him conversa- long time. tion is addressed. If he is silent, the talk stops likea watch whom, mainspring is broken. I began to fear that the doctor was either Such a one was Madame de Larcy: since she planning a sermon, for which I knew Varin had become silent; the sound of voices lan- was ill prepared, or would expose us to some guished, then died, little by little. embarrassing scene. I had always considered reformers so awkwardly indiscreetthatI Varin, made uneasy by this caprice, tried would even dissociate myself from this one. I in vain to revive the conversation. After several ventured, in consequence, some o'Jservations useless efforts, he proposed setting up several on the uselessness of any attempt at reform in tables of whist; but he met with general op- the case of our host. M. Miller undoubtedly position. To play cards in the country! Bore- realized my intention, for he said to me: dom was a thousand times the better part! Some talked of reading, but without being «Never fear, monsieur; I respect morality able to decide on which book to choose. too much to expose it to a bad reception.» «If we only had Larcy here!» cried Varin, Darkness approached and several strol- disappointed. «He would tell us more of his trav- lers joined us. We returned together to the sa- els in Africa and his adventures in the Atlas.» lon. The ladies were already there, : nd the conversation became general. As for travels and adventures,» I said, in my turn, «I suggest Doctor Miller.» Do:tor Miller had seated himself to one side. near a window, and hit, eyes never lei, 00f course, Doctor, you tell us some7 Madame de Larcy. It would have been diffi- thing thend> said Varin. Miller bowed and cultto say just what sentiment dominated tried to excuse himself. that attentive examination. The doctor's fea- tures lighted up at one instant as if all his We will accept no excuses,» Icried. doubts had been dissipated; then uncer ainty 0You interested me too keenly this morning again cast a cloud over them. Sometim s he for me to let you off this evening. Come, sir. bowed his head. listened to Madame de 1..t -cy another of those stories you tell so well.» speaking without looking at her, and see, .d to question her accent. Another time, fol- The doctor smiled. lowed the movement of her lips with .t.s eyes and thus. so to speak. watched her wo*:1N I FLO. Fin searching in %inn among in) 4, 90 memories,» he said. sparkled without her, no merry-making was complete. I had met her one time at the home Then, catching himself up as though a of a French merchant whose house was open shaft of light had struck him: to me. Her countenance had produced in me an almost sorrowful sensation. This woman «I am wrong; there is one that I would was beautiful, but with a strange beauty, al- like to tell you. The event occurred before my most an evil beauty. I know not what terrible eyes, and I can vouch for all the details.» force she hid under the softness of her form. Her clear blue eyes had a keen fixity which Everyone gathered inquisitively around forced one to lower his own; the smile on her the doctor, who began thus: rosy lips, rather than exciting confidence, in- spired a sort of reserve. Everyone around her «It was about six years ago that I arrived seemed under the sway of this instinctive fear. in New Orleans, where my 'work called me. It Her daughters, pale sad children whom some was thefirst ne I had left the northern unknown evil tormented, never lifted their states, and I had been 'struck by the strange eyes in her presence. If she extended her hand appearance that the French city presented. to caress their curly heads, those heads were The women walked about the streets with lowered with a Lightened shudder. I had seen heads covered by Spanish veils or bare; the other children invite them in vain to join in graceful quadroons visited on the doorsteps, their races and their songs; the children of Ma- secretly challenging the passers-by with their dame Lalorie did not know how to play. They soft glances. A huge population of negroes usually kept to one side, pressed against one *---.Ktisse,d about in every direction, speaking a another as if for protection, mute and casting strange French that I had ;lever heard before. about them unquiet glances. Foreigners, wearing all sorts of costumes, fill- ed the public places. There was, moreover, a «This silent fright was shared by all who noisy confusion, a freedom of habits and of approached Madame Lalorie. Nothing seemed demeanor of which I have never seen the like. to justify it: she showed herself on every occa- sion tender toward her children, benevolent «Surprised and alarmed by these new im- with her slaves, and she never add>,sed to pressions, I resolved to combat them with re- them a word except in a gentle voice and the flection and solitude. I had letters to the prin- most amiable tone. Ole never heard a repri- cipal inhabitants; I didn't present a one. And I mand leave her lips. She smiled at everyone, busied myself exclusively withthe affairs never using any but familiar names and caress- which had brought me. ing terms. I had dined with her that one time at the home of the French shipowner. I had «I lived on the bank of $.1e river, a little noticed that, after having moistened her lips below the corner where the railroad to Lake with the wine that was served us, she passed Pontchartrain had been constructed, a little the glass t. ier her shoulder to her slave with a distance from an elegant dwelling occupied by smile full of good will. a creole widow. Madame Lalorie had been married three times; and her husbands, each «Yet everyone commented on the gaunt- of whom had died after a brief union, had left ness and dejection of her numerous slaves. To her a considerable fortune. She was noted for see them, with their somber and suffering air her charm, her elegance, her wit: no gathering around their gracious mistress, one might say f3 6 0 )91 that the condemned served an angel, Only «One evening, though, I rk :nained on the one, the coachman, glowed with good health balcony later than usual. The air was scorch- in the midst of that emaciated and sullen ing, and I avidly breathed in the breezes that crowd. One asked oneself in vain the cause of rose from the river. All the stars were spar- that difference: his prosperity was a mystery kling. In the midst of the calm of the night, as well as was the decay of his companions in the least sound traveled directly to me. slavery. All these circvmstances which I no- ticedsuccessively,unintentionally, excited d was leaning on the balustrade of the my curiosity in the highest degree. Madame balcony, sunk deep in my thoughts, when a Lalorie had, from first sight, made a profound piercing cry made me start. I lifted my head. impression on me. I did not doubt that the Two more cries rang out, one at ter the other. life of that woman hid some strange secret. At the same instant, I saw in Madame Lalorie's garden what seemed like two shadows which «On the house where I lived there was a passed rapidly. One of them; svelte and dress- balcony where I went every evening, and from ed in white, held in its hand a weapon which I which the view spread across her domain. couldn't identify and seemed to pursue the Often my gaze was turned toward it, seeking a other, who fled. I saw the two of them dash sign which could help me divine that which toward the house, whose lighted windows she hid, but all was calm and silent in the shone out in the darkness, and ascend the dwelling of the young widow. One time only I stairs. They passed thus from floor to floor. had seen Madame Lalorie enter an outbuilding Suddenly the black shadow appeared on the located at the bottom of the garden, and I roof, still pursued. I saw it bend over the bal- had thoughtI heard stifled groans. Soon, ustrade; I heard a cry, then a dull muffled though, the young woman had reappeared, sound like that of a body which is dashed to tranquil and smiling. She had gone along the pieces. Then everything returned to silence! walks among the flower beds, lifting up the ...The white shadow stood near the railing blossoms bruised by rain; then she had turned and looked down tranquilly. back, dreamily and slowly, tearing apart a magnolia blossom. «Soon, though, I saw it go down again. There was a movement in the house for some «Chance had acquainted me with an old minutes; lights hurried from room to room. negress of Madame Lalorie's tailed Rachel, Finally, four slaves came slowly out, lanterns whose grandson sometimes came to see me. in hand. They lifted from the terrace some- He was a child of uncommon beauty and rare thing shapeless that they carried silently to intelligence, and I was striving to instruct him the bottom of the garden. A grave was dug. inthe truths of our religion. Mingo liked At last the excavation was filled in, the slaves me andIwas deeply interestedin him. retreated, and everything became silent again. Two or three times, seeing him downcast, I ventured some questions about his mis- «I had followed this scene with horror tress, bet the child kept silent. Rachel, whom mixed with fright. I spent the night in a kind I questionedindirectly,equally could or of delirium! When I went out the next day, would tell me nothing.I began to believe Rachel was seated at the door of the house, that my imagination had deceived me, and her hands folded and her head hidden in her I ceased my surveillance of the French dwell- lap. I spoke to her twice without her hearing ing. me; finally she lifted her head and herlook 92 her slaves frightened me. the beautiful widow's cruelty toward was stilled. Thus,sought after as always, her «Are you ill, Rachel?' I cried. salon was open to all the aristocracyof New Orleans; her house was pointed out forits ele- «The elderly negress shook her head. gance and opulenthospitality. Admirers con-, tinued to surround her; and, if anyonedared «Then what has happened to you?' venture to recall the past, doubtswere raised they objected because of 'the knowngentle- «She didn't answer. I looked about me. ness of the youngwidow; they boasted of her affecting graces; and they ended bytreatiag as «'Where is Mingo?' I demanded. calumnies the whispered accusations towhich she had been exposed. «At that name, Rachel uttered a cry. She leaped up and siriking the earth with her foot «Matters were at this starAi. when one with a terrible gesture: day the alarm was heard fire was just taking hold at Madame Lalorie's! Immediately every- eThere! there!' she cried; Iny child, his one hurried towardher house at the corner of eyes closed!' Quartier and Royal streets. Shehad sold her place to a company which hadestablished «And, covering her face with her hands, vast cotton compresses. Arousedby the noise, she turned back into the house. I followed the crowd. Thefire was appearing in the outbuildings where thekitchens were. «Now 1 understood everything. I went to At the moment we arrived, theflames spurted the house of an American planter who was out across the roofs, wherethey scattered in my relative, and I told him whatI had seen. sparks. On the property there was no means He took me to the magistrates, towhom I of arresting the progress of thefire; everyone made my deposition. An inquiry was begun was awaiting thefire engines, which had not the same day; but I do not know what it re- yet arrived. vealed, for the :French party succeeded in hushing up the affair. One knew only that the «All eyes were turned toward that part fact of illegal cruelty had been proven in the of the building which was burning,when sud- midst of case of nine of MadameLalorie's slaves, who denly a loud scream rose from the were consequently confiscated andsold for the flames, a window opened, and a woman the benefit of the state. I had not been called appeared there: it was Rachel, whoshook her as a witness, and my namehad not appeared arms with menacing rage. in this affair. Madame Lalorie, who had seen me without noticing meand who did not «A frightened exclamation rose ather know me, was not aware of the part I had appearance, and with aninvoluntary move- taken.I carefully avoided meeting her: the ment the crowd drew nearthe building. But sight of that woman made me ill. I imagined I the flames repulsed all approach.However, still saw her pursuing Mingo and gazing coldly Rachel leaned out of the windowand point- at his corpse at the foot of the terrace. ing to the fire which was spreadingtoward the house: The months passed. however, and the gossip which had spread for a moment about o'Burn, mistress!Burn, mistress!' she 95 93 p cried, beating her hands together with an in- repeated. sanelaugh.'Avenge Mingo! Avenge me! Avenge all the blacks!' el don't have them: o «And she fell back exhausted. During «Then let the doors be forced!' this time, a ladder had been brought. Itwas placed atthe window and a young man «The doors yielded. There was a move- mounted. Arriving near the old negress, he ment, then a long murmur began ... But Ma- tried to lift her, but couldn't. dame Lalorie had retired precipitately. I had entered among the first; and, if I lived a thou- o'She is chained!' he cried suddenly. sand years, I should never forget the sight which struck my eyes. Nine posts had been «Nes, yes, this poor black, chained in set up in a circle in a low, dark room. At the the entry for six months', babbled Rachel. two first hung corpses that were already skele- 'Mistress want poor Rachel to cook good din- tons. To the other seven were chained slaves: ners for her . ..But Rachel have too much some had their hands fastened above their trouble. Rachel think about Mingo. Rachel heads; others were twisted on themselves start the fire to die.' without being able to straighten out; still oth- ers, necks encircled by heavy collars, were fix- «At that moment, the flames reached ed to the stake in eternal immobility. No ap- the window, and the young man was forced pearance of humanity remained to them. to descend. We saw the old negress lift herself There was a something impossible to name up with a woeful cry, twist about for an in- and that one sensed only as a doleful shudder- stant in the midst of the fire, and then fall ing and a dull groaning. Their bodies were back and disappear. formed of one immense sore on which the whips had left deep grooves. In the midst of «A long sigh of horror had stirred the the circle formed by the posts a platform crowd. Oaths were beginning to rise when the rose, skillfully situated so that the blows could firemen arrived. The fire, which they were not be better placed; and it was still damp with able to stop, reached the neighboring win- reddish filth. The whip, stiff with blood, hung dows, which were carefully closed. The crowd there! was going to that side, when Madame Lalorie herself appeared at a window. She was pale; «After the first shock, people hurried to her hand trembled slightly as she pressed it break the chains of the seven slaves who still againstthe railing. A murmur arose; then lived and to carry them into the open air. there was silence. Two died in our hands on seeing the sun. The others, stronger, were able to respond to the «Already threats were becoming more Everyone had listened to the doctor's direct, more immediate, for, in America, pub- story with growing attention. When he was lic opinion passes swiftly from words to deeds. done, they cried out: «What became of that The habit of wielding power gives the people horrible woman?» confidence in their strength; and when the cry of all is raised, execution follows on the heels «I did not know yesterday,» the doctor of judgment. Madame Lalorie was not un- answered. aware of this and she knew, too, whatthe provocation of the crowd was. The throng «And today?» grew by the moment. «Today...I have seen herb> «Cries of 'Death!' had already been ut- tered. The more eager were seeking to find a oWhat do you mean?>> passage to the house, determined toenter by force, when suddenly Madame's carriage ap- oShe is here!>> peared, the coachman in his place. The door of the entry opened; the creole, richly dressed, Exclamations were heard on all sides; face calm and lips smiling, entered noncha- everyone got up. 100 95 Darkness had come during the Ameri- As his only reply, the doctor pointed to can's story, and the gloom was profound. the place of Madame de Larcy, which was There was a moment of terror. empty. At that moment, the sound of a car- riage was heard: everyone hurried to the win- A footman entered with lights; all eyes dow... acaleche, driven by a negro, appear- were turning from side to side with a kind of ed and passed rapidly under the balcony. Ma- doubt and frightened curiosity. dame de L,arcy was seated there, calm and proud, holding in her hand a bouquet of «Monsieur!»criedVann, bewildered, heliotrope. starting toward Miller, «in heaven's name! finish. .» Reprinted by permission of the Northwestern State University of Louisiana. THE STATE OF SLAVERY By Major Amos Stoddard Experience has long since convinced the lishment of the colony. They were at first too more intelligent planters, that the profits they poor to supply their slaves with clothing and derive from the labor of their slavesare in food. Add to this, their families stood in need proportion to the good or bad treatment of of the avails of their labor; and every expense them. But those planters of an opposite char- incurred on account of their comfort and sup- acter are much the most numerous, perhaps port was viewed as a serious evil. Hence this they form nine tenths of the whole, especially original defect in the system has been consid- among the Fren..h and Spanish settlers in ered as a precedent by subsequent generations, Lower Louisiana. In no part of the world are not because they view the examples of their slaves better treated than in the Mississippi ancestors with reverence, but because they Territory, where the planters generally allow conceive it redounds to their interest. These them sated meat, as much corn meal as they planters are extremely ignorant of agricultural can consume, cows to furnish milk for their pursuits, and of the quantum of labor in the families. land for gardens, and the privilege of power of a slave to pa.rform in a given time. raising fowls. They also allow them one suit Few of thelli allow any clothing to their slaves, of clothes for summer, and another for winter. or any kind of food, except a small quantity Their slaves are active and robust, and enabled of corn; and even this they are obliged to to perform their allotted portions of work pound, or grind, while they ought to be at with ease. Such treatment renders them con- rest. The consequence is, that the slaves are tented and honest, and punishments are rare extremely debilitated, and incapable of much among them. Each good slave, well clothed labor. One well fed negro is nearly equal to and fed, will yield a yearly clear profit of two three of them. Their masters and ovt'rseers af- hundred and fifty or three hundred dollars. fect to believe, that their want of industry No small degree of satisfaction is derived from arises from laziness, and a perverse disposi- the performance of good actions; and happy tion. Hence cruel and even unusual punish- is he, who is not accused by his conscience of ments are daily inflicted on these wretched aggravated wrongs done to the human species. creatures, enfeebled, oppressed with hunger, labor, and the lash. The scenes of misery and When we pass into Louisiana, we behold distress constantly witnessed along the coast a different and more disgusting picture. The of the Delta, the wounds and lacerations oc- French and Spanish planters, in particular, casioned by demoralized maters and over- treat their slaves with great rigor; and this has seers, most of whom exhibit a strange com- been uniformly the case from the first estab- pound of ignorance and depravity, torture the 97 102 98 feelings of the passing stranger, and wring slave, at one barrel. It was recommended to blood from his heart. Good God! why sleeps masters to assign waste lands to their slaves thy vengeance! why permit those, who call for the purpose of enabling them to raise the themselves christians, to trample on all the necessaries of !ife; and if this allowance was rights of humanity, to enslave and to degrade, denied them, they were obliged to furnish the sons and daughters of Africa! each of them with a linen shirt and trowsers for summer, and a wo .ien great coat and The evils of the slave system in Louisiana trowsers for winter. Labor was to commence may, in a great measure, be attributed either at the break of day, and to cease at the ap- to the want of energy or intelligence among proach of night. Half an hour was allowed for the governors of that province. As their ap- breakfast, and two hours for dinner. Slaves pointments were limited to short periods, sel- were allowed on Sundays to rest, or to work dom extending beyond five years, the accu- for themselves, except in time of harvest, mulation of wealth was the predominant mo- when their masters were authorised to employ tive of their actions, and some of them did them, paying them about thirty cents each not hesitate at the means. They neglected the per diem.Punishments at one time, under a great concerns of the province; no attempts penalty of fifty dollad, were not to exceed were made to populate it till since theAmeri- thirty lashes; but the stripes were allowed to can revolution; no encouragement wasafford- be repeated after the interval of a day. It was ed to agriculture and commerce, nor to manu- permitted to fire on armed negroes, who had facture and the arts. An exception, however, deserted their masters; also on those unarmed, must be made in favor of the Baron Caronde- if they refused to submit when required, or let, to whom the province is more indebted presumed to defend themselves against their than to all his predecessors. He saw and la- masters or overseers; and likewise on those mented the deranged state of this portion of who entered a plantation with an intent to the dominions of Spain; and while he was de- steal. Those who killed or wounded. a negro, vising and carrying into effect some salutary except in the above cases, were threatened regulations for the improvement of the coun- with the severest penalties of the law. The try, he was removed to another government. amusements among slaves were restricted to Yet, during his administration, he repaired the Sundays; and the plat.ters were forbidden, un- fortifications at New Orleans, improved the der a penalty of ten dollars, to suffer any commerce of the province, and greatlyin- strange negroes to visit their plantations after creased the population of Upper Louisiana. dark; and they were also forbidden, under a The wretched condition of the slaves, over like penalty, to permit any intrigues or plots whom their masters exercised an almost des- of escape to be formed on their plantations potic power, did not escape his attention. But by negroes belonging to others. No slave' was such were the inveterate prejudices and habits, permitted to leave the plantation of his mas- and even customs, which he had to encounter, ter without a written permission, under a that he despaired of a complete renovation, penalty of twenty lashes; and if any slave was and therefore aimed only to mitigate the found riding the horse of his master without wounds he was unable to heal. the like permission, he was liable to receive thirty lashes.Fire arms, powder, and lead, In 1795 he published an ordinance on found in the possession of slaves, were liable the subject, by which he established the to confiscation; and such slaves were adjudged monthly allowance of corn in the ear, to each to receive thirty lashes. No planter was allowed 1G3 e to employ more than two slaves to hunt for to seek new masters for themselves. 11th,.. him at the same time; and on their return are refused this privilege, the magistrate of the from the Phase they were obliged to deliver place examines into the nature of the com- up their arms. No slave was allowed to sell plaints, and, if well founded, grants the per- any thing, not even the productions of his mission required, or disposes of the injured own labor, without the permission of his mas- slaves at public vendue. Instances of the latter ter. kind often occurred in Louisiana. This picture, however dark and deform- It is a stain on the character of civilized ed it may appear, exhibits many favorable nations,thatslaverywas ever authorised traits, when compared with the slave system among them; and how a Christian people can in operation before the administration of the reconcile it to their consciences, no one can Baron: yet a man of reflection, unacquainted determine, except it be on account of interest. with slave policy, would be apt to consider Here then we find a motive for all our actions, even this as the production of some Goth or much more powerful than the dictates of Vandal, designed to disfigure and to brutalize morality and religion. While we keep so many the image of the Creator. The labor imposed of our fellow creatures in bondage, let us on slaves is equal to the powers of the most cease to talk about liberty and the rightsof robust men; and yet for their subsistence they man; let us not claim for ourselves what we are tantalized with a small pittance of corn," deny to others. The slavery occasionally im- which they are obliged to grind or pound for posed on some of our citizens by the Barbary themselves, and also with the hard choice of a powers, has more than once excited the sym- little waste land, which they have not time to pathy and indignation of the United States. cultivate, or a few rigs to hide their naked- Those the most clamorous for revenge, wheth- ness, or to guard them against the severity of er indViduals or organized bodies, and the the weather. Hunger and labor render them most forward to condemn the practice of feeble, and the calves of their legs are as flab - those powers, seem not aware, that they stand by as the dulap of a cow. Those who have the self-convicted of the same offence; the cen- greatest number of slaves, treat them the sures they bestow on the pirates of theMedi- worst; avarice is the hydra of their cruelty. terranean, dire so many libels on their own conduct. Modesty dictates, that we be more Authors have remarked, that the bitter- reserved on the subject of personal liberty, at ness of slavery is more severe in free thanin least till we emancipate those whom we retain arbitrary governments. According to this sen- in bondage. With what justice can we demand timent the slaves in the United States were al- the enjoyment of a right, when at the same ways worse treated than those in Louisiana; time we prohibit it to others? but this was not the case, though the senti- ment holds good with respect to the Spanish We all know, that slavery is coeval with provinces, where, in consequence of a late history, perhaps with the world. The sources revolution in their slave system, slaves are of this system among the ancients were vari- treated with kindness, and even live as well as ous; particularly the absolute power exercised their masters. If they acquire sufficient mon- by parents over their children, either to kill, ey to purchase their time, the lawdirects their or to sell them; and likewise thatof disposing ransom. Those treated improperly have a right of their criminals and insolvent debtors, as to demand letters of sale, and are authorised well as their prisoners taken in time of war. 100 To the disgrace of America, and of human it is by virtue of particular statutes,added to nature, negro slavery has its origin onofir con- the mutual concessions inserted in thefederal tinent. The benevolent father De lasCasas, constitution. the advocate of oppressed humanity in the new world, exclaimedagainst the slavery of- Slave-holders pretend to justify negro the Indians; and, finding his efforts of noavail, slavery on two grounds. The firstis, that proposed to Charles V, in 1517, the slaveryof other nations still continue thepractice; and the Africans as a substitute. This proposalhad thereforeto abandon it themselveswould the effect of lightening the chains of the na- have no sensible effect on the general system. tives, and of forging new ones for the inhabi- The second is, that the slaves theypurchase tants of another hemisphere. TheSpaniards, were reduced tothis condition in their own however, from some religious scruples, re- country; and therefore they are nowin as eli- fused at first to engage in the importationof gible a situation as if they had nevercrossed slaves from Africa; though they easedtheir the ocean. consciences by opening their ports to their ad- mission, and by employing other nations to This reasoning has no betterfoundation traffic for them. The Abbe Raynal says,that than avarice; and to this singlequality of the about nine millions of negroes were land.I in mind must be attributed all themiseries of the Spanish colonies, and that lessthan fif- the many millions of human beingsin bond- teen hundred thousand existedin his time. age. Can thewickedness of other nations be Such an amazing diminution of theAfricans justly adduced as an apology for ourown? If must be attributed tobarbarous cruelty. The precedent be allowed tosanctify crimes, why example of the Spaniards was soonfollowed are robbers andmurderers exposed to the by other European nations. vengeance of thelaws? If other nations have done wrong, it becomes us toavoid the perni- The most substantial argument infavor cious example. Were we toadopt some plan of slavery,is derived from the right of the for the gradual abolition ofslavery, it might strongest. The origin of thisright may be possibly have some effect onthe policy of traced to the dark ages of barbarism.Modern others. We have prohibited theimportation civilized nations do not sell their children, nor of slaves; Great Britain hasdone the same; enslave their insolvent debtors, nor eventheir and some other nations appearinclined to prisoners of war, to whose servicesthey have abandon the traffic. Theseprohibitions will some shadow of claim;but they depredate on induce slave-holders either to treattheir slaves the harmless and inoffensive Africans,merely with more kindness, and bythis means enable to gratifytheir avarice, without the least them to preserve their numberby propagation; provocation, and without anyapprehended or they willgradually waste away under the danger of their power. The laws of mostEu- rigors of their fate, and eventuallybecome ex- ropean nationsdisclaim the right of slavery; tinct. However, none of the consequencesof and the great oracle ofEnglish jurisprudence either case strike at the root of theevil. declared some years ago from the bench,that, by the laws of that kingdom, aright of prop- To purchase Africans, who werereduced erty could not exist in thehuman species. The to bondage in their own country,is as crimi- common law of theUnited States recognizes nal as to purchase those of adifferent descrip- the same doctrine. If slavery bemaintained in tion. The wars among thetribes of Africa are some of theindividual states and territories, mostly fomented by slavemerchants, and 'U5 101 these merchants secure millions of prisoners ciple is much more just than the other, though Merely for the purposes of traffic. Is it no it is attended with one difficulty not easily re- crime to teal men from their countries, fami- moved; the father cannot be so readily ascer- lies, and friends? The Africans are not desti- tained as the mother. At any rate, this kind of tute of sensibility, and they frequently mani- right, from the very nature of things, is limit- festitin a manner, which does honor to ed to actual slaves; it does not attach till they human nature. The indignity and cruelty with are in existence; it is not present and absolute, which they are treated, often induce them to but contingent and future. If this position be put a period to their existence, even in the correct, and itis supported by some good presence of their masters and overseers; and authorities,eit seems to follow, that the legis- shall we conclude, that this is the effect of in- lature may provide for the emancipation of sanity rather than of a greatness of soul! the children of slaves, at any age it pleases, When the whites cease to purchase slaves, born at some stipulated future period. Were wars in a great measure will cease among the such a measure adopted, it is easy to see, that Africans, and their numerous tribes enjoy as a gradual abolition of slavery would take much peace and harmony as other nations in place among us. Perhaps this plan is less objec- the same circumstances. There are physical tionable than some others, which have been evils enough in the world without the addi- frequently suggested; and it may be so modi- tion of artificial ones; and it becomes us as fied and extended as to embrace a provision men and as christians to provide against the for the benefit of the objects of it. asperities of the former, and to prohibit the creation of the latter. The advocates of slavery not only con- tend, that the child ought to follow the condi- Notwithstanding the guards placed on tion of the female parent, but that the right the slave system by the constitution and laws, of the masts extends to the possible issue of and by the treaty of cession, which secures to the mother ad infinitum. The consequence of the Louisianians the enjoyment and perpetu- this doctrine is that slavery must continue as ity of their rights, perhaps away may be de- long as female slaves propagate their species; vised to remove this badge of our disgrace, and that, to provide for the emancipation of without an infringement of either. It midst be future generations, would be illegal and un- admitted, that the right of property in slaves constitutional. This doctrine obtains in many cannot be invaded; yet doubts may arise as to parts of the United States, particularly in the the extent of this right, and it will be neces- Indians Territory; in which gslavery and in- sary to ascertain it with precision. The laws of voluntary servitude» are expressly prohibited some nations impose on the child the condi- by the ordinance of 1787. The obvious con- tion of the mother; the consequence is, that struction of this prohibition is, that the slaves the children of freemen are often born slaves, at that period in existence were entitled to and many of them drag out their existence in their freedom; or at least, that the children of servitude under their own fathers. Louisiana female slaves, born after the adoption of the presents at least one instance of melancholy ordinance, were born free. If therefore the depravity ; the father disposed of several of his doctrine already mentioned be correct, they children as slaves, together with their mother. can claim no legal exemption from slavery, Among some nations the contrary principle and of course the prohibition is a nullity. The obtains; the child born of a female slave fol- practice in that territory seems to correspond lows the condition of the father. This prin- with this strained and pernicious construction 3. LIn6 102 of the ordinance. Slave property, while it tion of wealth enabled them topurchase exists, ought not to be infringed; and if no slaves: after which; like their neighbors, they legal means can be devised to abolish it, let it contracted habits of indulgence. The heats, be perpetual. therefore, furnish no material obstruction to manual labor; and the effects of them in the It is difficult, even for men of moderate southern states and territories are more than tempers, to suppress their indignation at one counterbalanced by the exuberant nature, of the pretexts adduced in support of slavery, and the valuable productions, of their that the whites are unable to labor in some Much indeed is due to the people of slave climates on account of the excessive heats! If states, to whom slavery has become familiar we be allowed to consult our convenience from long habit, and, perhaps, in their view, without regard to the means; if each white is necessary to their prosperity, if not totheir at liberty to make fifty or a hundred blacks existence. Their feelings, and even prejudices, wretched and miserable to promote his inter- are entitled to respect; and a systemof eman- est, and to gratify his avarice; then let us cipation cannot be contrived with too much abandon our modal and political creeds, and caution. study only to render our consciences inacces- sible to remorse. The God of nature never in- The fact is, that the people of the east- tended, that one part of the human race ernstates experience more inconvenience should 'be govern' d by the whims and caprices from the rigors of the seasons than those of of the other; nor that artificial evil should be- the south. In New England the mercury some- come a substitute for attainablegood. The times rises to one hundred degrees, and as pretext is futile in every point of view. Nature often falls twenty degrees below zero. The ex- has fitted men for labor in the climate where tremes of heat are greater in New England; they are born and educated. A citizen of but they are not of so long continuance, nor Georgia is as well qualified to labor in that is the air so humid and unelastic as in the state as a Yankee in New England; theeffects southern parts of the union, which are doubt- of heat and cold are about the same on both. less more or less prejudicial to health. Still Add to this, it so happens, that in the warm these traits are more tolerable than the oppo- latitudes the lands are much more prolific, site extreme in New England, where the coun- and much more easily cultivated, than in cold.# try is covered with snow, and bound inicy er ones; of course less labor is required togain chains for nearly six months in the year. Both subsistence. The native inhabitants of Lower men and beasts suffer fromthe rigors of win- Louisiana experience no inconvenience from ter; and the necessary subsistence forthem, is the heats; and those employed in navigating obtained at a prodigious expense and labor. In the rivers are exposed to more fatigue than is Lower Louisiana the whites may labor nine common to any other class of ourcitizens. months in the year, without experiencing any Besides, in that country, and in the Mississippi inconvenience fromtheheats; and three territory, hundreds of families from the mid- months labor in that quarter is productiveof dle and eastern states, have planted them- more real value than twelvemonths in New selves. For several years after their arrival, England. Add to this, cattle and swine need their characteristic industry was evident; and no other food than whatthe earth spontane- they experienced no dangerous effects from ously yields; and every planter has it inhis the climate, except a troublesome laisitude power to supply himself withalmost any for the two or three first years. The accumula- number he pleases. In whatever light, there- 0 7 103 fore, we view the subject, the greatest advan- great state of Virginia; yet her white popula- tages are attached to the southern states and tionis comparatively small. Kentucky is a territories. slave state; and if her population be consider- able,it must be attributedto accinental The pernicious system of slavery deserves causes, which are not difficult to explain. reprehension from another motive. No coun- The state of Ohio is now in its infancy: slav- try can become populous where it prevails; ery is excluded from her bosom; and this and this truth is attested by numerous exam- very circumstance will induce a rapid popula- ples. We need cast our eyes only on the West- tion, augment her strength and resources, and India Islands, and on the southern 'states of soon enable her to rise superior toher neigh- the union. No part of the country possesses a bor. more happy climate, or a better soil, than the THE FREE MEN OF COLOR OF LOUISIANA .By P.F. de Gournay The initials F.M.C. have no longer any drawnfar more distinctly than any that meaning, and may even puzzle some of the existed among the whites. Degrees of color younger generation. They were once attached had nothingto do Niththesedivisions. as an indelible stigma to the names of people, Lowest in grade the ex-slaves who had otherwise respectable, whose parentage was been manumitted I. kind master or had not immaculately white. Wherever one of purchased their ficeNu. Ignorant, and with these names had to be writtenin a deed of no very high aspirations, they followed the conveyance, a marriage-license, a certificate humbler callings and petty trades, content of birth or death, even in a newspaper report with earning their living, and looking up to the fatal F.M.C. must be appended, putting their former masters for advice and guidance. the fact on record that the bearer of that name was a «free man of color.» Many a high- Owing to the loose ethics which toler- toned, educated man has winced under this ated amalgamation, the daughters of this class unavoidable affront. There was no remedy: furnished the numerous hetafres who graced it was the law,dura lex, sed lex. The status the farfamed «quadroon balls»of olden of the colored man must be clearly defined; timesone of the curious sights of New a freeman, he had certain rights which must Orleans which no stranger failed to see be protected; yet it would not do to leave a and made possible those irregular ménages flaw through which he or his children might the like of which could not be found in any afterwards claim equality with his betters. other American community. Men of good social standing kept a mulatto mistress, the The peculiar position of the F.M.C.'s of daughter of an ex-slave. Nor should it be Louisiana presents a chapter of history which understood :hat the practice was confined to is of curious interest to the student. In the the Creoles: foreigners and men from other ante-bellum days there were, no doubt, free States succumbed just as easily to the tempta- people of color in all parts of the Union; but tion. Ignorance, the attraction possessed by in no other slave-holding State were they ever a superior race, the warm African '-food that so numerous as in Louisiana,particularly in flowed in their veins, all combined to ruin the city of New Orleans, nor did they occu- these women; just as poverty, ignorance, py the same peculiar status in the social body. andthetemptations of luxury combine The colored people in New Orleans were di- in European countries to ruin the daughters vided into classes between which the line was of the people. These women were to New 105 106 Orleans what the grisettes and lorettes are to Some were quite wealthy. A few years before Paris,with this difference, however, that the the war, it was shown that one-fifth of the white man, while devoted to his colored taxable property in New Orleans was held by mistress and rearing a family of quadroon free people of color. children by her, never dared to defy public opinion by walking the streets with them or Yet they had no share in the manage- taking them to a public place of resort. This ment of municipal affairs. An effort was made concession made, his offence was condoned: once to remedy this state of thingg. The ques- allthat society asked was thatthepro-, tion of free suffrage was being agitated, and prieties skald be respected. If the practice thecolored property-holders appealedto was tolerated, it was far from being generally some friendly politicians to take up their followed, however; nor was laxity of morals case. «Is it not strange,» they said, «that the general among this lower and uneducated foreigner, simply because he is white, should, class of colored people. No picture can be after a short probation, be invested with all true in which the shadows are left out, and the rights and privileges of a citizen, though the conscientious writer who deals with facts he may not contribute one dollar to the is bound neither to conceal nor to disguise. public treasury and may not care a straw for your institutions, which he is often too igno- Far above this degraded class was what rant to understand, and that men born on may be justly called the «colt red aristoc- the soil, who love their country dearly and racy,»those who could boast of several know and respect its laws, should be denied generationsoffreedomandlegitimacy. a small share of these privileges, for no other Some of the members of this class were reason than that they are not of pure Cauca- pure blacks, but the greater number were of sian blood? We accept the position of social various degrees of mixed blood,-,-some even inferiority resulting from our color. We do -so white that only the experienced eye of a not claim the political franchise in its full Southerner could detect the faint taint. They sense. But we have large interests at stake in were, for the greater part, descendants of the the city, and it were but just that we, as tax- old French colonists, and had inherited the epayers, should have some thing to do with name and much of the property of their selecting the men who assess our property. ancestors. «To the manner born,» they were Let them be white men, but grant us the as proud as, their white cousins of the name privilege to vote for such of you as possess «Creole,» and thought themselves superior to our fullest confidence.» all other colored people. The law prohibiting free negroes from other States or countries The justice of this claim was generally from taking up their abode inLouisiana admitted, and some of the most liberal- tended to strengthen this feeling of superi- minded advocates of free suffrage were in ority. These people, in general, had received favor of extending the franchise, under cer- as good a common-school education as the tain restrictions, to .this class of tax-payers. average citizen. They were engaged in various But the question presented many difficulties, branches of business, as grocers, dry-goods and, to some minds, appeared fraught with merchants, manufacturers, exchange brokers, danger. An invidious distinction would have and real estate agents. They were as honorable to be made between the tax-paying F.M.C.'s intheir dealings as their white neighbors. and those who did not own property: this 107 might lead to jealousies and strife; it would LouisExchange,theremight have been be, moreover, against the very spirit of the noticed many well-dressed, dark-visaged men, doctrine of free suffrage. Then such a law as bidding spiritedly on some valuable piece of was contemplated, while it would make the property and exchanging a pleasant remark or tax-paying colored men municipal electors, a courteous bow with some well-known citi- must declare them to be ineligible.. Besides zen. The sale over, the thirsty buyers would these objections, the timid thought such an direct their steps towards the elegant bar in innovation might be but an entering wedge,. the adjoining room, but these dark-hued men opening the way to further oncessions. Like would pass straight out without even casting so many other social problems which baffle a look on the tempting array of refreshments. the economist and the legislator, the question And if a stranger had inquired, «Are all these of a «limited extension of the right of suf- temperance men?» he would have been an- frage» was given up as insoluble. Few, at this swered, «Why, no; they are colored men; day, remember that it was ever agitated. they can't drink here.» In the theatres the upper tier, or gallery, was allotted to the The law protected the colored man's colored people. As it was generally crowded person and property: beyond that Were the with. slaves and low blacks, the respectable social question which no legislation can set- colored men abstained from going to the play, tle. These presented singular contradictions. although the passion for shows of all kinds is In their business intercourse with the whites strong in the whole race, whether pure black the F.M.C.'s were treated with the courtesy or adulterated. After the New Opera House due to equals. No respectable white man was built, the manager of the old Orleans would have insulted or ill-treated a colored Theatre, finding his place deserted by many man, unless under extraordinary provocation. of his former patrons, bethought himself of In a community where the duello was counte- an expedient to replenish his empty coffers. nanced, it would have been deemed disgrace- He made it known that a whole tier of boxes ful and cowardly to insult one who could not would be reserved for the use of colored fam- demand satisfaction. A gentleman did not ilies. There were indignant protests from cer- think he demeaned himself by shaking hands tain habitues, but those boxes were filled with a colored man, inviting him to sit down every night during the season, and the man- in his office, and chatting pleasantly with him ager was saved from ruin. about business and the news. He might find his conversation interesting and take pleasure This social ostracism, while it must have in meeting him often, but there ended their awakened bitter feelings of humiliation' in social intercourse; he could not eat or drink many a heart, had on the whole one beneficial with him. As to inviting him to his house, he effect.Debarrred from sharing the social would not dream of committing such a breach pleasures of the whites, yet unwillingto of the proprieties. On the other hand, the mingle with the disreputable and vulgar class doors of the colored man's house were jeal- of their own race, the respectable colored ously closed against his white neighbor. His people were drawn more closely together. home was his sanctuary, his world, where he They formed a distinct community, a society acknowledged no superior. In the crowd of as exclusive as any, and remarkable above buyers who attended the public sales of all for its morality. They intermarried in their real estate held in the rotunda of the Saint- own set, and their homes were happy. A scan- 108 dal was of rare occurence among them. Their once. The parties concerned were two broth- children were well brought up. Their daugh- ers of the name of Thomas:their history ters were taught the accomplishments which savors so much of romance that, were not help to make home pleasant: many were ex- many still living who knew the circumstances, cellent musicians. The curse of drunkenness we should hesitate to tell it. They were twin seldom blighted the lives of their young men, brothers, past middle age, and both were en- and statistics showed that no class figured so gaged in the brokerage business. They had re- insignificantly on the records of crime. This ceived a common-school education, they pos- is no highly-colored fancy sketch, but a mere sessed moderate means, and were generally statement of curious facts. It is the history of respected for their honesty. To one of these a socialproblet$without precedent or paral- brothers, especially, an intelligent alld very lel. Given a superior race holding an inferior sensitive man, the opprobrious «F.M.C.» was one in bondage, and, between the two, a galling in the extreme. «Everybody knows I class deriving its origin from both, yet hated am a colored man,» George Thomas would and envied by the one and scorned though say: «why should the fact be proclaimed kindly treated by the other to whose level it every time my name has to appear in a legal vainlyaspires,this class of social pariahs document?» One day, meeting a gentleman seems predestined to fall into evil ways from with whom he had a friendly acquaintance, sheer despair. In this case, education, while it George Thomas ran up to him with out- made .the free colored people feel more acute stretched hands, crying, «Congratulate me! ly, perhaps, their humiliation, proved to be No more shame for me. I am a white man!» their salvation. It taught them self-respect The poor fellow's mother had died quite and a dignity in misfortune which is worthy recently, and the first thought of the gentle- of all praise. Accepting frankly a condition man thus addressed was that grief had upset of things to which they saw no issue, they George's mind; butthelatterproceeded were neither despondent nor cringing, but volubly to tell his strange story, which turned conducted themselves so as to secure the good out to be quite true. It was, in substance, this. will of their neighbors and their own happi- Among the defenders of Cap Francais who ness. They never were conspirators or agita- lost their lives when that town was attacked tors. Could they have foreseen that through by the blacks in the San Domingo insurrec- a bloody war, in which they took no part, tion was a planter of the name of Thomas. His those political and civil rights would come grief-stricken widow, accompanied by a faith- which seemed so far beyond their reach, it is ful mulatto woman, the nurse of her little a question whether they would have been George,tried, like many of the terrified fam- satisfied; for emancipation would sweep away ilies, toseek refuge on one of the vessels in the line so long maintained between them the harbor. She was drowned in making the and the most ignorant and debased of their attempt. The nurse, with her nursling and her race, but it could not obliterate the color-line. own babe, reached the vessel, however, and No laws could make them white, and thus was carried to New Orleans. In the confusion remove the only real obstacle that ever stood in which prevailed on board the overcrowded their way while they were known as F.M.C.'s. brig, no one had paid attention to the poor woman or asked her any questions. She was A singular case of the sudden transforma- ignorant, a stranger, not knowing to whom tion of a F.M.C. into a white man did occur she should apply for help or advice. She 109 took counsel from her own heart. Her dear manifests itself in his clinging love for the «missis» was dead; there was no one to care place-of his birth. He is seldom happy away for the little orphan; she would be a mother from home. The characteristic restlessness to him. Alone and unaided, the good woman which leads the citizens of other States to entered upon her self-imposed task, and by carry their household goods from one end of dint of untiring industry succeeded in bring- the Union to the other is unknown to the ing up her two boys. She sent them to school Louisianian. This love of home, praiseworthy as soon as they were old enough, and even but not the less remarkable under the circum- managed to save a little capital to set them up stances, was strongly developed in the free in business. A socret instinct told her that she colored people of New Orleans. Some there should endeavor to fit George for the station were, true gentlemen in their manners and to which his birth entitled him; yet a stronger principles, who had received a first-class col- feeling made her conceal his true origin from lege education in Europe and were wealthy him. He had taken his first nourishment at enough to have continued to live abroad: her breast; she had lavished as much care and yetthey returned voluntarilytooccupy love on him as on her own little Pierre, and the humiliating position of F.M.C.'s in their had been repaid by his filial love: why should nativecity.4,2ue voulez-vous? C'est mon she tell him he was white? If he knew this, payshthey would say, with the character- perhaps he would go away, leave her, despise istic French shrug, but also with a sigh that her! No, she must not tell him! The boys grew told more than words could express. Nor to be gray-headed men, she, a decrepit old should we think that the more intelligent woman, and still she kept her secret. But on class of citizens did not feel sympathy for her death-bed she felt a strange misgiving. these men; but que voulez-vous? SOme time What if through her great love for him she before the war, the Hay tian government in- had done George a grievous wrong? She sent vited the emigration of colored people from for the two men and told them the truth; she the United States. The people of Hayti, out- gave George the proofs she had jealously con- side of the principal towns, were fast relaps- cealed through these many years,the port- ing into the savage state, and it was hoped folio containing her dead mistress s papers, that the introduction, in large numbers, of to wit, her marriage certificate, the certificate American colored men brought up in habits of birth and baptism of little George, and of order and industry would have a civilizing sundry other family papers. The dying woman influence on the Haytians. Emigration from craved the forgiveness of the foster-son she Louisiana via particularly desired, on account had loved too well. It was freely granted, and of the similarity of language, the Creole patois no word of reproach embittered her last hours. being very much like that of Hayti. The Hay- «1 have suffered humiliation for fifty years,* tian agent for Louisiana was a young negro, said Thomas, in conclusion, Kbut poor wom- born and raised in New Orleans and favorably an, she was a mother to me, and she did it all known to some members of the press. His for the best.* The nurse's dying declaration heart was set on the success of his mission, had been taken by a notary public, and and he wished it to be well understood by George Thomas had the satisfaction of seeing the public at large as well as by the colored his name stricken from the list of F.M.C.'s. people. The New Orleans Picayune discussed the question forcibly in a series of articles. The French origin of the Louisianian It held that the departure, in any large num- 113 110 ber, of such industrious, law-abiding citizens townsmen by serving honorably the common as the class to which this appeal was made cause, their mortification at being so sum- would, no doubt, prove a serious loss to the marily rejected must have been bitter, and city of New Orleans, yet common justice de- the policy of the Confederate government was manded that no obstacle should be thrown in questionable. the way of these men, whose position in the community was an anomaly with no hope or The war levelled the old barriers, and prospect of a change. If they chose to ex- this interesting class of the F.M.C.'s lost their change a condition of painful inferiority in individuality. They were merged into the their native land for one in which they would great mass of 4 colored citizens.* How did enjoy all the privileges of equality while help- these men accept the stupendous change, and ing in a work of civilization which had for its what part did they play in the work of recon- object the elevation of their own race, they struction? Did the sense of the long humilia- should be encouraged, and every just-minded tion they had borne so patiently make them man should bid them God-speed with genuine turn suddenly against their white neighbors? sympathy. A curious fact in connection with Or, satisfied with the advantages gained, did these articles is that they were from the pen they feel that community of interests is a of a descendant of San Domingo planters, bond that even the remembrance of past whoseancestors were massacred by the grievances cannot weaken? They did not turn blacks. After considerable delay, the agent demagogues and seek to control the ignorant succeeded in recruiting some thirty emigrants, mass. of freedmen for their own selfishends, mostly of the poorer and less desirable class. for their familiar names do not appear in the Before another year had elapsed, the few who list of would-be politicians and partisan lead- had started with means returned, impover- ers of the reconstruction era. It issaid that ished; they had given up everything in order many of them emigrated to Europe years to get back to the land of their birth. ago, forsaking their beloved city, singularly enough, at the:very time a power was placed At the outbreak of our civil war the in their hands which might have been used wealthy colored men of New Orleans organ- for the greater good of all. And yet their ized two battalions of five hundred men, education, morality, and law-abiding habits splendidly armed and equipped on the model fitted these men eminently to be the guides of the French Chasseurs d'Afrique. They of their race in Louisiana through the dif- chosetwowhitecommanders,Colonels ficult passage from abject slavery to unlimited Labatut and Ogden, one of French and the freedom. other of Anglo-Saxon descent, both sons of distinguished veterans of the war of 1814-15. What might have been their influence on The governor accepted their services; but, the the race at large is more difficult to say. The Confederacy having been organized in the same peculiarities of language, creed, man- mean time, the State could not have troops ners, and customs which combine to make of her own, and the Confederate government the Louisiana Creole different from other objected to enrolling colored soldiers. Wheth- Americans distinguished them from the other er these men were mined by a purelypatri- colored peOple of the United States. But to otic impulse, or hoped to raise themselves speculate on past possibilities were idle: the nearer to the level of their whitefellow- F.M.C.'s are a lost race whose history is not 111 written. That history scarcely presents events make him grow thoughtful as he grappled with stirring enough to tempt the historian or at- one of the most curious unsolved problems of tract the reader, yet it affords a study which a peculiar phase of modern civilization. might interest the philosopher and would THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN LOUISIANA AND ST. DOM1NGUE: A COMPARATIVE PORTRAIT OF TWO THREE-CASTE SLAVE SOCIETIES By Laura Foner Recently historians of slaveryin the Although In all these societies the en- Americas have been engaged in a heated de- slavement of an easily distinguishable racial bate over the widely differing racial patterns grouping produced certain racial distinctions that emerged in the slave societies of this between white and colored free men, in the hemisphere. Despite their often bitter disagree- United States these distinctions took on a ments over the origins of these patterns, most form unique in the hemisphere. There all Ne- agree that it was the treatment and position groesfree and sl ,ve were cut off from the of the exslave in these societies which dis- rest of society and confined to a distirictly tinguished one racial pattern from another. separate and lower caste. This was accom- plished both by increasingrestrictions on In Portuguese and Spanish America the manumission, which confined the Negro as racial and social pattern allowed the exslave much as possible to a slave status, and by a to gain acceptance in free society and even to whole series of legal and social restrictions move from a lower to a higher social level which rigidly excluded the free Negro from through economic advancement. Such a change white society. Almost everywhere in the Unit- in social status was possible even in a system ed States even the smallest amount of Negro of racial ranking that placed whites on top blood was enough to make a man a Negro and ana blacks on the bottom, because of the ab- therefore a member of a subordinate caste. sence of a strict color line. Not only did these slave societies have many racial categories be- Unsuspecting travelers in the antebellum tween black and white, but also a man's status South were therefore startled to find that the in society was not as much defined by mem- deep South state of Louisiana had a large and bership in one of these racial groups as by his privileged free colored community, not unlike economic success. the free colored communities of many West Indian islands. Louisiana's free colored com- In the British and French West Indies the munity was not tnly the biggest in the deep racial lines were more sharply defined, and South,1 but its members had a social, econo- the same kind of racial mobility did not exist. mic, and legal position far superior to that of Yet there the exslave could fit into a three- free Negroes in most other areas of the South. castepattern which allowed a substantial even those in which the free Negro population group of free mixed bloods with mare privi- was substantial.2 Travelers were struck by the leges to exist as an intermediate caste between unusual degree of wealth, education, and so- whites and blacks. cial standing of the Louisiana free Negro. 113 6 114 They noted «Negroes in purple and fine linen,» had been free for generations.5 But almost all «pretty and accomplished young women,» had their origins in some extramarital union and «opulent, intelligent colored planters.»3 (by this time perhaps quite far removed) be- It was not only this elegant elite which dis- tween a white man and a black woman. The tinguished the free colored population, as beginnings of this 10.1g-established practice only a minority belonged to it, for although dated back to the early eighteenth century they did not live in luxury the typical mem- when Louisiana was first being settled by the bers of the free colored community neverthe- French. The small group of early settlers con- less generally found employment at some sisted mostly of those «in the pay of .. . the skilled occupation. In 1860 only one-tenth of King» and especially garrison soldiers? Among the free colored population of New Orleans the hardships faced by these men in their pio- were classified as common laborers. In fact neering work of founding a colony was a the free Negroes had a near monopoly of cer- scarcity of women. They solved the problem, tain trades, including those of mechanic, car- according to the French Governor Bienville, penter, shoemaker, barber, and tailor.4 by running «in the woods after Indian girls.»10 Although other Southern cities had their An early census of the population shows free colored mechanics and skilled craftsmen, that in 1722 the scarcity of women persisted, as Phillips says, «wherever they dwelt, they but the complexion of the Louisiana colony lived somewhat precariously upon the suffer- had changfd. The need for a labor force, it ance of the whites, and in snore or less palpable was soon found, could not besatisfactorily danger of losing their liberty.»5 By contrast met by enslaving the Indians and soon a de- in Louisiana the freedom ant; privileges of the mand was raised for Negrs slaves." As early free colored population were not only accept- as 1706 Bienville had been proposing an ex- ed but also protected. change of three Indians from Louisiana for every two Negroes from the West1ndies.12 Although the difference has been noted By 1722 the number of Negro slaves was al- by almost all historians of American slavery most as large as the total number ofwhites.13 and the South,6 there have been few attempts to explain why Louisiana's social and racial As the Negro population grew, it olso be- pattern was a three-caste system or to define gan to lighten in color. An explanatioifor the role of the free colored population within this growth of a mulatto population may be that system. This article analyzes how a three- found not only in the high ratio of men to caste slave society developed and operated in women, which had sent the French chasing antebellum Louisiana; it compares the three- off into the woods, but also in the type of caste system which existed within the context frontier society which was «sans religion, sans of North American slavery both with the rest justice, sans ordre, et sans police.»14 Tne in- of the United States South and with the three- habitants consisted largely of soldiers, trap- caste system in the French colony of St. Do- pers, prostitutes, convicts, Indians,Negroes, m ingue. and a few French officials. The last French governor of the colony, D'Abbadie,describes In 1850 the mulattoes and others of the conduct of this varied group as «a chaos mixed blood formed about eighty percent of of iniquity and discord.»15 Louisiana'stotalfree Negro populstion.7 Some of them came from stable families which In this society «illicit» relationships be- 115 tween the races were no disgrace.In fact they their freedom. By far the most important of became an accepted social practice.Court rec- these was self-purchase. A slave was allowed ords show that men often provided an account to buy his own freedom, usually with money of where they had been at a giventime by earned by extra work for his master or some- stating that they had been «sleeping with a one else. If the master was unwilling to set a negress.»16 The children of these unions were price or if the price was thought to be unfair, frequently recognized by the naturalfather, the slave could petition the Court to appoint who cared for their upbringing andeducation. adisinterested party to determine afair Very often they freed their mulatto children value.22 The free Negro population grew as well as the mother.Vincent le Porche freed from 165 in 1769 to 1,175 by 1785.23 his daughter Louise, declaring in his statement to the Superior Councilthat she was «not a Miscegenation also continued unabated. slave but should enjoy completeliberty, being Travelers in the colony frequently remarked the daughter of aFrenchman.»1 7 on the amount of interracial cohabitation existing on a!! levels of society. Available There were few legal obstacle'to such white women were still scarce, and they aie manumissions. The Louisiana CodeNoir18 described by one observer as «impenetrably permitted any master over twenty-five years dull.» On the other hand this same traveler fs age to manumit his slaves either bylast will found the free colored women very well bred, and testament or by deed while alive,subject not wanting in «discernment, penetration and to official approval by the SuperiorCouncil) 9 finesse, and.. superior to many white girls The Code also provided for themanumission, of the lower classes of society.»24 The Creole of a child born of a free Negrofather and planters too had the «colonial foible: their slave mother, if the father marriedthe mother, offspring, whom their color betrays, are all and of slaves who had performed somespecial around them.»26 One colonial bishop com- service for the colony. It also providedfor the plains that Spanish military officers «and a automatic emancipation of a slave serving as a good many inhabi.ants live almost publicly tutor to his master'schildren.2° Except for with colored concubines,» and they did not prohibitions on harboring fugitive slavesand even «blush» when they carriedtheir illegiti- receiving donations from whites, ttefreed- mate children «to be recorded in theregistries man or woman wasguaranteed the same rights as their naturalchildren.»26 These children as whitepeople.21 With law and social cus- often took their father's name27 and were tom offering no real barriers afree colored sometimes left large fortunes.28 population made its appearance inthe colony and continued to grow. Althoughthe Code These interracial unions became such ac- Noir prohibited concubinageof whites and cepted social practice that they developed in- slaves. enfon .ment would havebeen at best to a well-established institution called placage. difficult. (As Winthrop Jordan saysabout the Plarage was a system of extramarital unions same practice in the WestIndies, one might as (marriages between whites and Negroes was il- well have legislated against the sugarcane!) legal), sometimes lasting for life, contracted between white men and colored women. The When the Spanish took controlof the white man provided financial support for his colony in 1769, they continued aliberal poli- colored placee according to rl agreement con- cy toward manumissionand even provided a tracted with the girl's paren's. He could main- number of additional ways forslaves to gain tain his colored family oh one side of town 116 while at the same time continuing his life in Unlike Louisiana the «intimacy» between white society in every respect, including if he blacks and whites in St. Domingue was not all desired, marriage with a white woman.29 extralegal. In 1688 M. de Cussy writes that in four months there had been twenty marriages The same conditions that contributed to between whites and Negro or mulatto wom- the growth of a free colored population in en.38 De Vassiere cites two cases of white Louisiana's slave society were also present in men having made their fortunes through mar- the early slave society of French St. Domin- riages to wealthy Negresses,39 and Hilliard gue. There too frontier conditions, scarcity of d'Auberteuil names «cupidity» as the motive white women, a growing black population, prompting more than three hundred interracial and ease of manumission led to the rise of a marriages.40 large free colored community. But the creation of a free colored popu- The early white population consisted lation resulted mainly, as in Louisiana, from largely of adventurers, criminals, debtors, and the manumission of mulatto slave children. other types not particularly wanted back Early custom had held that all mulattoes were home.30 The royal officials in St. Domingue free up to the age of twenty-four.41 Later the complain: «We are sent from France only Code Noir% as part of an attempt to discourage poor ragged wretches who are killed off or in- concubinage between masters and slaves, de- capacitated by disease, or other disreputable creed that only if the master legally married characters: those ruined by age or debauchery, her could the slave mother and the colored prisoners, and children whose parents send offspring be freed. If not the slave was to be them away for fear that their evil inclinations confiscated.42 Otherwise manumissions by will eventually lead to the scaffold.»31 The all masters over twenty-one were unrestrict- women were reputed to have «bodies as cor- ed.43 upt as their manners, and serve only to infest the colony...»32 Says another royal official, All attempts torestrictconcubinage, «you can not imagine a more licentious coun- however, were doomed to failure. Miscegena- try.»33 One French commissioner puts the tion continued despite the prohibitions and so blame for this demoralization on «the too in- did the custom of freeing the 'children of timate intercourse of the whites and blacks, these unions. By 1719 not less than five per- the criminal intercourse that most of the mas- cent of the population consisted of free color- ters have with their women slaves.»34 eds." Later when frontier conditions no longer prevailed, the white planters continued This practice had been common on the their unions with slaves and colored mistresses. island from the early ses nteenth century Here as in Louisiana they formed stable extra- when the French buccaneei . had solved their marital unions of plarage. woman problem by stealing slaves from the Spanish or English.35 It spread as the number In the bulk of the United States South slaves imported to the island reached into such goings-on would have been considered the thousands every year.36 In 1725 the In- shameful and shocking, for a very different tendant warned that if they were not careful atmosphere surrounded the question of «ra- the French would soon become like their cial amalgamation.» Although early colonial Spanishneighbors of whom three-fourths America was also a front., -society,45 some Here already of mixedbli,od.37 of its earliest legislation after the firstlin- x1 9 117 portation of Afticans was specifically design- relation between these cultural backgrounds ed to prevent interracial marriages and sexual and the ease and frequency of manumission union.46 and willingness to accept Negroes as freemen and members of free society. Although his Despiteoppositiontomiscegenation comparison is drawn largely between the Por- mulatto children did appear from time to tuguese and Spanish slave systems and those time on Southern.plantations. For as Frank of the Anglo-Saxons, he points out that the Tannenbaum puts it,the process of misce- French were similar to the Iberians in their re- genation was part of the system of slavery, ligious traditions and institutions, which em- and notjust of Brazilian slavery.. .The phasized the moral personality of the slave." dynamics of race contact and sex interest The differing Anglo-Saxon and Latin attitudes were stronger than prejudice, theory, law or toward race mixing may also in part arise belief.. . This same mingling of the races and from the difference between Protestant and classes occurred in the United States...in Catholic attitudes toward sin and sexual con- spite of law, doctrine or belief. Every traveler tact." If an illicit union is regarded with guilt in the South before the Civil War comments and shame, the offspring would be more like- on the widespread miscegenation.»47 ly to be cast aside than publicly acknowledged. A mulatto child, although not openly However, as critics have pointed out, the recognized, couldstillcertainly be given effect of cultural differences operates within favored treatment and a special position on certain limits") something Tannenbaum the plantation. But to free him, in most of the himself recognizes. In a comparison of racial United States South, involved overcoming patterns in the British West Indies and the very stiff legal barriers to manumission and United States, Winthrop Jordan shows that then condemning him as a freedman to life as two societies with the same cultural heritage a kind of outcast. Because of the severe restric- developed completely different attitudes to- tions on manumission, only in a few urban ward interracial sex and those of mixed blood. centers were there free colored communities In the British as in the French West Indies, of any size. And very few were anything like white men openly kept colored mistresses and New Orleans, where the free colored com- freed their mulatto children, who were ac- munity had its own schools, churches, social corded many privileges of whites. Jordan and cultural life, and where a freedman could ascribes this West Indian practice to such fac- live with a relatively large degree of freedom tors as the ratio of men to women and of Ne- and range of opportunities. groes to whites in the total population. Where both were high, as on the island of Jamaica This striking difference in the initial (or in St. Domingue, as we have seen), misce- growth and position of free colored popula- genation was considered more acceptable and tions in Haiti and Louisiana on the one hand there was a greater willingness to accept the and the rest of the United States South on the consequences of these union;. Jordan also other can perhaps be explained by differences points out that in the British West Indies, as in the cultural backgrounds of the colonists. in St. Domingue, the bulk of the whites want- In his discussion of the relationship between ed only to make money and leave quickly. By colonists' different cultural backgrounds and contrast in the United States most of the the slave systems and racial attitudes they white residents looked on their new home as developed, Tannenbaum suggests a direct cor- a place to settle permanently. Further, the 118 population in the United States was predomi- tion could not cl4pend on the loyalty of most nantly white,51 with large numbers of white of the white pe6ple, they turned to the free women and a greater importance given to colored and «went so far as to exact a declara- marriage and stable family life.52 tion in the affirmative [of loyalty to the new government] from two militia companies of These demographic and cultural factors men of color in New Orleans, which were doubtless influencedthe attitudes of the composed of all the mechanics whom that white colonists toward the growth of free Ne- city possessed.»66 On the whole the free col- gro populations in St. Domingue, Louisiana, oreds kept their pledge of loyalty. On several and the rest of the American South. But the occasions they revealed information about differences in these attitudes and in the posi- conspiracies among the French." Their mili- tionree Negroes were to attain in these slave tia companies joined the regular standing societies also arose from the political, military, army in fighting Indians and the British. Dur- and economic needs of these societies. ing peacetime their troops served as slave- catchers" and performed such emergency In both Louisiana and Haiti the free peo- tasks as mending the levee. ple of color performed certain essential ser- vices in the slab". system for which no other The free peo"ple of color provided other group was available. And in both colonies, es- services in colonial Louisiana. They were over- pecially in times of political division among seers for many whiteplanters" and in New the whites and rebelliousness among the slaves, Orleans and other towns they were the trades- the ruling whites were forced to depend on men, the mechanics, and the owners of small the free people of color for support. In Loui- businesses.59 Someacquiredsubstantial siana because of tUe small size of the white amounts of property and wealth." Some be- population, free Negro soldiers were consider- came plantation owners and were as success- ed so important that they were used in the ful as Jean Baptiste Bienville, a free Negro military defense of the colony from the very planter whose estate was valued at almost outset. After the Natchez massacre of 1729 it 14,000 pesos in 1802.61 In return for these was suggested several times that a regular achievements, the free coloreds were given the company of free Negroes be formedfor same legal rights and privileges whites. instant call against the Indians» in case of at- They were free to bring civil aons against tack." whites and often did. They were guaranteed equal protection of property rights and full When the Spanish took over the colony rights to make contracts and engage in all from the French, they continued this policy business transactions.62 And the government of arming the free colored men. But the mili- insured that these rights were protected.63 tary problems of the Spanish authorities were Thus the free people of color were able to far more serious than just defending the col- develop a privileged position in Louisiana ony from outside attack. The new govern- Negro society. As late as 1856 the Louisiana ment faced a hostile white population which Supreme Court was to affirm that «in the remained loyal to France and was reported eyes of Louisiana law there is . all the dif- to be continually plotting against their new ference between a free man of color and a rulers. The plots often included plans to en- slave that there is between a white man and a courage slave uprisings or to enlist the aid of slave.»64 And since the government needed free Negroes." Since the Spanish administra- the support of the free coloreds to bolster its 121 119 tenuous control, it adopted a policy of pro- were gradually modified by a number of re- tecting this privileged position. strictions, their numbers and economic power continued to grow. Since their economic privi- Yet although the government and the leges to acquire and dispose of property and ruling whites protected the distinction be- engage in business transactions were never tween a free man of color and a slave, they touched,7° they continued to *lure sub- took equal if not greater care to preserve the stantial amounts of wealth as master-artisans distinction between themselves and a free and planters, sometimes becoming the credi- man of color. Free Negroes were forbidden to tors of resident whites. sit next to whites in theaters or public vehicles. They were subject to reenslavement for cer- Further, as in Louisiana the free people tain crimes" and required to show deference of color of St. Domingue became a kind of to their former masters.66 They were also buffer group in a struggle within a divided periodically subjected to other humiliating ruling class. In St. Domingue the conflict social distinctions such as a government ordi- centered around whether the locus of political nance in 1788 which made it illegal for any control should reside with the representatives free woman of color to «walkload in silks, of the royal government sent from Paris or jewels or plumes* and which required that with the resident planters. The struggle be- they all had to cover their hair with a ker- came acute in the mid-eighteenth cent try. A chief.67 These racial distinctions served a par- dramatic increase in the island's prosperity at ticular function, part of which was an ideo- that time prompted the Crown to abandon its logical justification for slavery. But the color rather loose supervision of the island and at- line also served to preserve a strict social tempt to replace the local civil and mili- hierarchy with whites on top and the free col- tary authorities (controlled by the resident oreds securely «in their place,* midway be- planters)byitsown administrativenet- tween the ruling whites and the slaves. work. In St. Domingue the free people of color Throughout this struggle and especially developed a similar position. Here too the in the 17f Os when the white colonists threat- ruling1., ilites depended on them for certain ened insurrection after the Crown suppressed vital services. With a free population of 15,836 the colonial militia,71 the royal government (half of which was free coloreds) and a slave turned to the free people of color. Like the population of 164,859 in 1753,68 the whites Spanish government in Louisiana the French ne deall the help they could get to patrol Crown looked to the free coloreds for sup- thehostilelabor force which surrounded port against the white colonists. They armed them. The precarious internal security of the and organized them into special companies island and the whites' need for allies were and promised them reforms to improve their heightened by a constant threat of attack conditions. Later when resistance among the from a rival commercial power. Thus the free whites had been temporarily halted, the spe- men of color were used in the militia and in cial free colored companies were disbanded the marQchaussee, a mounted police organiza- and reorganizedintomilitia units, which tion which captured runaway slaves, patrolled servedunderwhiteofficers,incontrast the highways, and fought maroon colonies. to the past when they had always been And although their early guarantee ofall commanded by officers of their own col- rights and privileges of French citizens»69 or.72 120 The policy of the French government to- was no longer in the hands of acolonial gov- ward the free people of color was flexible and ernment but in the hands of the planters had a very definite purpose. At times the free themselves. And they had no need of an inter- people of color were protected and granted mediate caste of free coloreds to help them special privileges. At other times they were maintain control. Rather they needed to unite degradedwithdiscriminatoryregulations. all the whites planters and nonplanters (all Both of these thrusts were part of the govern- of whom had the vote)in continued adher- ment's ge eral purpose of maintaining strict ence to their control and to the slavesystem. divisions a ong the different groups in the «The slave in the South came less and less fre- colony so t at no one group would be strong quently to be manumitted, ...freedmen were enough to challenge French colonial rule. deprived of effective citizenship and . .. mu- According to Julien Raimond, the wealthy lattoes were forced back into the Negro mulatto who servedas the free colored group, ...»76 because there was no need for spokesman during the French Revolution, them in order for -the system to function and they followed the Kmaxim of government,» because that crossclass unity of Southern the simple and longtested principle of divide whites was achieved by the most rigid color and rule.73 The discriminatory regulations line: black (read all shades up to «passing») is obviously served to keep the free people of bad and should be slave; white is goodand color apart from the whites. One set of royal should be free. In this system free Negroes instructions sent to the governor of St. Do- were seen as a threat to«the harmony and mingue in 1766 predicts that if «the whites compactness of Southernsociety»77 and were to end up uniting with thefree coloreds, «the greatest and most deplorableevil.»Th the colony could easily withdraw from the King's authority.»74But the government In Louisiana and especially St. Domin- was also careful to protectthose privileges gue, where whites wereoutnumbered by which isolated the free colored from the black slaves, the existence of a separate group slaves to prevent what to them and the white of free coloreds was essential, not only for colonists was an even more threatening com- providing certain needed services but inhelp- bination. Thus in both Louisiana and Haiti a ing to centrol the slave population. Their in- special position for the free people of color termediate privilegedposition conveniently was created, in part because theyperformed divorced them from the slave class from certain vital e:onomic and military services which they had come and kept them from for the slave systems. This position was main- challenging the class structure from which tained and strengthened by the colonial gov- they benefitted. But their position also con- ernments' need for allies. tained tensions and generated the fearthat too many privileges for the freecoloreds In the United States, as Marvin Harris would produce a challenge to theracial points out, these same services could be per- hierarchy of white dominance and give slaves formed by a large group of «middle class» ideas which might be disastrous for the stabil- whites.75Despite a large influx of Negro ity of the slave system. Thus while the color slaves and tile growth of the plantation sys- line in a three-caste society was moreflexible tem, the antebellum South remained alarge- than in a two-caste slave society and included lywhite society, about three-quarters of the attitudesome white is betterthan no which was made up of non-planters. After white,» it nevertheless strictly preserved the theAmerican Revolutionpolitical power principle «white is best.» Although free peo- 10 f-1 4_ 4, 0 121 ple of color shared the same class position of any trouble for the new government. When a many whites as planters, they were socially mass meeting was called for the free colored excluded from membership in that class and people of New Orleans to «consult together as were forced to form a separate and subordinate totheirrights» (it was called after they had caste, a «middle estate, between the whites been excluded from a general public assem- and the slaves, who, although enjoying the bly), Governor Claiborne convinced leaders of privileges of freedom, only [did] so with modi- the free colored community not to hold the fications.»7 9 meeting oor publicly manifest any disqui-. etude.»83 When whites demanded that the In such a system of class coercion and ra- author of the call for the meeting be punish- cial hierarchy the free people of color remain- ed, Claiborne refused saying it was better /o ed a constant source of tension." These un- keep the affair as quiet as possible «in a coun- derlying tensions became more acute when try where the Negro population was so great.» the system was threatened or when important The governor feared that any harm done to changes in the economy or social structure the author might lead to retributions by the produced strains. One such period of strain free coloreds and a repetition of the much .took place in Louisiana when it,was transferred feared slave revolt which by then had destroy- to the United States, which purchased the ter- ed slavery in St. Domingue.84 A large slave re- ritory from the French in 1803. At that time volt in Louisiana a few years later in St. Charles the free people of color became a central con- and St. John the Baptist parishes, involving cern for the incoming American administra- about four or five hundred slaves, increased tion. The Americans were generally nervous the general tension." about taking over a territory whose popula- tion had seen frequent changes of government, The concern about the free people of with loyalties torn between France, Spain, color was heightened in this period by the and the United States. And they were espe- sudden influx of a large number of new free cially nervous about the large slave population colored residents, refugees from St. Domingue, ana the existence ofa large, wealthy,armed and the rapid growth of the slave population free colored community. They found «painful at this same time as a result of the spread of and perplexing...the formidable aspect of the plantation system. In less than ten years the armed Blacks and Mulattoes[sic]officered the influx of refugees more than doubled and oganized.»81 Immediately before the Louisiana's free colored population.86 And transfer, notes one observer, since the free with the boom in Louisiana sugar and cotton people of color represented such a large class productionthe slave population increased in the population and were used to the treat- from 34,000 in 1810 to 69,064 in 1820 and ment of the Spanish government which had to 109,558 in 1830.87 «accorded them rights in common with other subjects,» it was «worth the consideration of The new AmeriCan regime's uneasiness the vvernment they be made good citizens or about the free coloreds was expressed in a formidable abettors of the black people[sic] series of new restrictions. Repeated attempts ...iftheyshould ever become trouble- were made to restrict the immigration of the some.»82 free coloreds from the West Indies." The first session of the territorial legislature de- The new American governor tried to win clared that free Negroes could not insult or their loyalty and convince them not to make strike a white, or presume «to conceive of 122 themselves of equal to whites.*89 New restric- tude toward them during the War of 1812. tions were put on the formerly unrestricted Claiborne urged General Jackson to use a bat- right of a master to free his slaves90 and on talion of free men of color, saying: «These admission of free Negroes into the territory.91 men, sir, for the most part, sustaingood char- The death penalty was established for all free acters. Many of them have extensive connec- people of color and slaves (but not whites) for tions and much property to defend and all arson, poisoning a white person, or rapeof a seem attached to arms. The. mode ofacting white woman or child,92 and free men of toward them at the present crisis is an inquiry color were prohibited from owning white ser- of importance. If we give them not our con- vants.93 fidence, the enemy will beencouraged to in- trigue and corrupt them*" And the develop- But in spite of these early restrictions, ment of New Orleans at this time into one of which were followed by much harsher ones in the most important port cities in the United later years, the free people of color kept on States meant that the free colored community growing in numbers, wealth, and property. was actually able to strengthen itSposition.9 And despite the tensions' and resulting pres- The growth of the large plantations and the sures from -the new administrationand the 'MississippiRiver trade, which linked the Anglo-Saxon immigrants, their protected posi- South and the Midwest, brought cotton, tion in Louisiana slave society was also main- sugar, pork, and hundreds of othercommodi- tained. 'How can this be explained? ties to Crescent City. Such a great commercial metropolis, third largest in the antebellum A sizable free colored community had South,96 needed an urban middle class to long been a well-established social fact in work at,the skilled trades, to run the hundreds Louisiana and its members shared the language, of retail shops,- and to perform commercial customs, and cultural traditions of the bulk of transactions. The free people of color filled the white population. Many of the old resi- this basic need,97 and since the system still dents felt a greater affinity with these free needed them, their established position in so- coloreds than with the new immigrants from ciety remained more or less secure even at a the Southeast, the North, Germany, and Ire- time of tremendous strains and changes with- land. Further, at the very time of the American in Louisiana slave society." But the tension takeover this already important group had remained. For example, in the wake of the been doubled in size and wealth by the addi- reaction to the Nat Turner insurrection in tion of free people of color from the French 1830 new moves were made to restrict manu- West Indies. This meant that although the mission and to prevent the return of any free spread of the plantation system brought grow- Negro who left the state.99 ing limitations on manumission, the free col- oreds were already numerous enough to be In St. D&mingue these tensions were able to continue to grow substantially through much closer to the surface and there were natural increase alone without having to de- mounting pressures against the free colored pend upon manumission. population throughout the eighteenth century. Free Negroes were prohibited from practicing Even under the new regime they contin- the professions of doctor, druggist, or sur- ued to perform important functions forthe geon,1°0 leaving the colony without permis- slave system. Their continued strategic impor- sion,101 and (except for officers in the militia tance is illustrated by the government's atti- or the marechaussee) carrying arms or pur- 123 chasing ammunition.102 Restrictions of this leaders, educators, musicians, dramatists, art- sort, however, were not very effective in either ists, and writers. In Louisiana they had their St. Domingue or Louisiana. In Louisiana the own community-supported schools.110 native free colored population was usually exempted from restrictive legislation and was What would happen to the position of very often defended by the old Creole resi- the free people of color at a time of funda- dents.103 mental crisis in the slave system? Such crises existed in the last decade before the French In St. Domingue the free coloreds con- Revolution in St. Domingue and also in the tinued to have an impressive economic posi- last decade before the Civil War in Louisiana. tion. Amounting to about half of the free Then the pressures which had always existed population, the free coloreds owned, accord- against free coloreds turned into real assaults. ing to some sources, one-third of all the land and one-fourth of all the slaves.104 In one In St. Domingue the tremendous growth Southern parish, Jeremie, they owned almost of the slave population in the late eighteenth all the land. With the expansion of coffee pro- century heightened the need the white popu- duction in the frontier areas around 1760, lation felt to maintain a constant suhordina- thousands of free colored people who owned tion of the entire colored population which so land there were able to profit and expand greatly outnumbered the white.111 And there their small estates into plantations. In the was an increasing fear that the growing «spirit plains they also gained in importance, not so of liberty, independence, and equality» would much as sugar planters but as overseers on ab- spread, «destroying the ties of discipline and sentee sugar, coffee, or indigo plantations. It subordination and thus preparing a revolution became customary for a white planter to edu- of which the neighboring colonies already fur- cate his mulatto children in France and then nish an example and which only the greatest trust them with the running of the estate vigilance will be able to prevent.»112 In Loui- when they returned to the island. As in Loui- siana half a century later growing free Negro siana the free coloreds also worked as carpen- and slave populations were linked as the sec- ters, bookkeepers, housekeepers, and in other tional controversy intensified, and free Ne- skilled trades.1135 groes were seen as a greater and greater threat. In Louisiana the free people of color Contributing to the campaign against monopolized such professions as the building them was the jealousy and race prejudice at- trades and catering and professional personal tributed to the poor whites by both Desdunes services such as barbering and tailoring.106In in Louisiana and Raimond in St. Domingue, addition there were Negro stockholders in the two well-known colored Creoles.113 For powerful Citizen's Bankl °7 and a few pros- these men of low origins and little property or perous businessmen and manufacturers. The wealth «race prejudice was more important free Negroes also controlled the cigar industry, than even the possession of slaves, of which and some owned sizable factories.108 And al- they held few. The distinction between a though not nearly as numerous as in St. Do- white man and a man of color was for them mingue, several free colored planters existed fundamental. It was their all.»114 A new in- in Louisiana)" The free colored communi- flux of poor whites had come to St. Domin- ties continued to have their own independent gue in the last decade before the French social and cultural institutions with their own "evolution, drawn by the extraordinary pros- 1 2 124 perity. When they arrived, they found that al- state, made it mandatory for any slave freed most all of the good land was already taken in Louisiana to leave the state, and later out- up much of it by free coloredmen.115 If lawed manumission altogether.125In the they tried to find work as artisans in the same period most of the free Negroes' schools towns, they also came tip against the competi- were closed down, and the state legislature tion of free men of color. In Louisiana too in prohibited the incorporation of any new reli- the 1840s and 1850s, a large number of immi- gious, charitable, scientific, or literary societies grants, mostly German and Irish, came to composed of free coloreds and dissolved all New Orleans looking for work. Although they such existing associations.' 26 Free Negroes replaced free Negroes and slaves to a large ex- were forbidden to operate billiard halls, cof- tent as common laborers, they were unable to fee houses, and liquor stores, or to work as do so in most of the skilled trades, which re- riverboat captains.127 The parishes and cities mained the monopoly of free people of col- added their own restrictions. In New Orleans or) 16 In both societies this competition these ranged from limitations on shooting off made the poor white people a leading force firecrackers to the prohibition ofanyassem- for the suppression of the freecoloreds.117 bly of colored people, free or slave) 28 Final- But the chief reason for the mounting agita- ly in 1859 the legislature decided to encourage tion against free Negroei was the desire to «free people of African descent to select their mobilize all of white society in defense of the masters and become slaves for life.»128 system. Faced with a real crisis, whites felt it essential to achieve the tightest unity while Considering these attacks, it is amazing they prepared for a possible confrontation. to what extent the free people of color were To do this they fell back on the racism which able to retain their established position. De- was part of both theirideological basis for spite the hostility130 the free coloreds of slavery and their three-caste racial pattern. Louisiana continued to enjoy all rights in civil courts, including the right to testify against Discrimination against free people of col- whites. They were allowed to remain in the or increased drastically in bothsocieties. In state, and the legislature went only so far as St. Domingue they Were forbidden to go to to invite them to choose a master and enslave France) 15 to use the last names of white themselvesif they wanted to.In St. Domin- men,1 19 or to use the titles «Sieur» and «Da- gue too most of their civil rights in the courts me» when addressing eachother) 2° They were preserved. And in both places economic were prohibited from dressinglike whites, rights suffered no limitations: there was no wearing their hair like whites, or wearing any tampering with the free coloreds' rights to jewels or finery.121 They could no longer buy and sell property. to enter into contracts, play European games122 or sit in the same and to inherit or transmit property by will 31 sections of churches and theatres aswhites,123 and they were forbidden to meet, even for Tifailure to destroy totally the privi- weddings, festivals, or dances.124 leged position 'of the free coloreds demon- strates the precarious structure of the three- In Louisiana where until the 1850s there caste system. It was dangerous to allow the had been few legal restrictions other than de- race prejudice and fear which became acute in nial of suffrage and of the benefits of the times of extreme tension to go unchecked. free school law, the legislature now prohibited The French royal government knew this. It nonresident free Negroes from entering the feared that to carry the policy of debasing the 12' 125 free people of color too far might throw them makers, etc., whose sudden emigration from into an alliance with the slaves. In 1774 the this community would certainly be attended governor general and intendant of the Wind- with some degree of annoyance.»138 If the ward Island issued an ordinance requiring the whites of St. Domingue had shown the same registration of all men of color who claimed awareness of the danger of excessive repres- to be free; anyone without an authorized title sion, they might have been able to avoid the to freedom was to be enslaved. But two years revolution which destroyed them. «He who later the King declared the ordinance void fears change more than disaster, how can he since it «tended to put the status of the free forestall the threatening disaster?»137 men of*color in doubt, to bring them closer to the slave population, diminishing that en- When the white people of St. Domingue mity which has always existed between them were finally confronted by a large-scale slave . . If our colonies were attacked, this policy uprising in 1791, they responded traditionally might then help our enemies, for themen by retaliating against the free coloreds.. They would want to be revenged for the harms they did not realize that the three-caste system had had suffered .»132 actually succeeded better than they knew as a means of preserving soda! stability. It had In Louisiana resistance to the harsh ra- kept the free colored people apart from the cial policies came from.important elements slaves and engendered mutual hatreds. The among the whites themselves, stirring a debate years of economic privileges and racial status unheard anywhere else in the South. In 1846 had led the free people of color to identify a bill was introduced in the state legislature to with white society and with the slave system. disqualify free Negroes as 'court witnesses. A Time and again the free cololeds offered to minority of legislators protested that this cooperate with the whites to put down the would be a departure from long-established slave revolt which threatened that system. In tradition, insisting thatas long as people of return they asked for equal political rights to color are permitted to reside among tn., the which, they insisted, all men of property and law should tend to elevate, not degrade» education were entitled. But the whites were them.133 so blinded by the importance of preserving their own superior position as a race that they The defenders of the free people of color refused this offer of class cooperation and argued along class lines. The free coloreds clung rigidly to the other thrust of the three- were a group with property and wealth, they caste system: the color line. In defense of an insisted, and far from encouraging slave rebel- irrational ideology racism the ruling class lion, «acted as a restraint upon the slaves.»134 brought itself down and with it the whole sys- There wa; little danger of cooperation be- tem.138 In the next few years the slave revolt tween wealthy free Negroes and slaves, since became a revolution spreading throughout the the former gregard the slave with more dis- island. After the bloodiest white repression dain and antagonism than the white man.»135 the free colored people took up arms and Every attempt at severe legislation in the fought alongside the slaves, forcing the whites 1850s was fought by this group of whites. to leave, destroying slavery altogether, and es- Even those who normally opposed thr. free tablishing thefirstNegro republicinthe coloreds admitted thatthey form the great Americas) 39 majority of our regular settled masons, brick layers,builders,carpenters,tailors,shoe- In Louisiana the slave system was also 126 destroyed but not as a result of a slave upris- and free coloreds into antagonists by grant- ing. When the free coloreds began to organize ing special privileges to the free coloreds and politically during the Civil War, their problem thereby winning their loyalty to the prevailing was not whether to ally with theslaves in order of domination. Although the free peo- seeking to overturn the system or with the ple of color were forced to form a separate whites to preserve it, but rather to unify the caste, it was one which mirrored the valuesof whole black and colored population to fight white society and the planter class. Thus they for political gains in the new system being es- attacked the racial barriers but not the class tablished during the early Reconstruction.140 subordination of the three-caste system, and aspired to full participation in white society In both societies the three-caste system rather than its destruction or transformation. succeeded in turning potential allies slaves 127 Notes 1. Louisiana's free Negro population outnumbered 6. Frederic Bancroft calls Louisiana the «least the combined free Negro populations of Missis- American of the Southern states* (Slave Trad- sippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina by ing in the Old South [Baltimore, 1931], p: 219). almost 3,000; in 1860 there were 18,647 free Negroes in Louisiana, 9,914 in South Carolina, 7. J. B. D. DeBow, Statistical View of the United 3,500 in Georgia, 2,690 in Alabama, and 773 in States, Being a Compendium of the Seventh Mississippi (U. S. Bureau of the Census, Negro Census (Washington, 1854), p. 83. Throughout Population in the United States, 1790-1916 the entire antebellum period, Louisiana had the [Washington, 1918], p, 57). highest ratio of mulattoes to blacks of all the free Negro populations in the Southern states, 2. Larger numbers of free Negroes in the South could be round in areas outside the deep South 8. Franklin E. Frazier, The Negro Family in the where the plantation system no longer flourish- United States (New York, 1948), p. 156. ed: the Tidewater region of Virginia and Mary- :and, and the Piedmont region of North Carolina 9. Jay K. Ditchy, Early Census Tables of Louisi- and Virginia. John H. Russell, The Free Negro ana,* Louisiana Historical Quarterly (hereafter inVirginia: 1619 -1865 [Baltimore, 1913], .p. abbr. CHO) 13 (1930) : 208. 13). In 1860 there were 83,942 free Negroes in Maryland, 30,463 in Virginia, and 30,463 in 10. Arther W. Calhoun, A Social History of the North Carolina (Bureau of the Census, p. 57). American Family (Cleveland, 1917-18), p. 331, quoted in Frazier, p. 155. 3. Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey in the Sea- board Slave States, (New York, 1904), pp. 246, 11. Joe Gray Taylor, Negro Slavery in Louisiana 269; see also Harriet Martineau, Society In (Baton Rouge, 1963), p. 4. America, 2: 326-27; and Joseph Holt Ingraham ed., The Sunny South (Philadelphia, 1860), p. 12. Charles E. Gayarre, History of Louisiana (New 330. This last group included men like Antoine York, 1866), 1:242, 254. Dubuc let, who in 1860 owned 95 slaves and amployed a white overseer on his sugar planta- 13. A census of the troops taken by the inspector tion. general in that year showed that New Orleans and the surrounding areas had a population of 4. Ulrich B. Phillips,American Negro Slavery (Ba- 293 men, 140 women, 155 French servants, 51 ton Rouge, 1966), p. 439; Robert C. Reinders, Indian slaves, and 514 Negro slaves (Ditchy, pp. The Free Negro in the New Orleans Economy, 214-20). 1850.1860,* Louisiana History 6 (1965): 275; Charles E. Gaya! re, a Historical Sketch The 14. George W. Cable, The Creoles of Louisiana (Lon- Quadroon of Louisiana,* MS in Charles E. Ga- don, 1885), pp. 23-25, quoted in Charles B. yarr4 papers, quoted in Grace King, New Or- Rousseve, The Nero in Louisiana: Aspects of leans: The Place and the People (New York, his History and Literature (New Orleans, 1937), 1937), p. 345. p. 22. 5. P. 441. 15. Glyarre, 2: 165. 128 16. «Index to Spanish Judicial Records,* LHQ 15 24. Berquin Duvallon, Vue de fa colonie espagnole (1932) : 688. du Mis4issipi et les provinces de Louisiana et Floride occidentale en L'annee 1802 (Paris, 17. (Records of the Superior Council,* LHQ 14 1803), p. 254. (1931): 598. 25. "ierre C. de Laussat, Mdmoire sur ma vie pen- 18. The Code, published in 1724 by Bienville, was , dant les anndes 1802 et 1803 (1831), P. 156, based, with only minor changes, on the original quoted in Carlyle J. Sitterson, Sugar Country: Code Noir of Louis XIV, which established the The Cane Sugar Industry in the South, 1753- basis for all legislation governing slaves and free 1950 (Lexington, Ky., 1953). p. 69. Negroes in the French colonies. 26. Gayarre, 3: 408. 19.The Superior Council was the chief judicial body of the colony, as well as the place of 27. Rodolphe Desdunes, Nos hommes et notre histoire (Montreal, 1911), p. 147. registryofall deeds and mortgages, slave emancipations, recordsofvitalstatistics, The three illegitimate mulatto chilaren of An- etc.,during the period of French colonial 28. dres Juan were all left large sums at his death. rule. Its members were appointed by the King, and it had jurisdiction over all civil and criminal During their father's lifetime, they had been educated and lived in his home as members of cases. the family ((Index to Spanish Judicial Records,* 20. Le Code Noir, pp. 310-11, cited in Herbert E. LHQ 24 [1941]:1260-61 Sterkx,The Free Negro in Ante-Bellum Loui- siana* (Ph. D. thesis, Univ. of Alabama, 1954), 29. Anna Lee West Stahl,The Free Negro in Ante-BellumLouisiana,* LHQ 25(1942): PP. 5-6. 310-12. 21. Ibid., p. 365, cited in Sterkx, p. 6. 30. Pierre de Vassiere, Saint-Domingue, la societe et 22. «Index to Spanish Judicial Records,* LHQ 22 la vie creoles sous rancien ragime (Paris, 1909), (1939): 269-271. In one such case, Miguel, a pp. 45-55. slave, petitioned the court when his mistress re- fused to set a price for his manumission. The 31. Letters from DuCasse, 1 Sept. 1648 and 13 Jan. court ruled that she would have to draw up the 1699, quoted in ibid., p. 48. emancipation papers, setting Miguel's price at 10 500 pesos. The records also show that slaves 32. Letter from Messrs. de Blenac and Mithon, Aug. 1713, quoted in ibid., p. 78. were frequently purchased bymembers of their family who had already gained their own free- dom (Ibid., 10 [1927]: 455-61; 6 [1923]: 316; 33. Ibid., p. 50. 14 [1931]: 119-23; 24 [1941]: 1279-80; 26 This remark was part of a report on the social [1943]: 1191-98). 34. conditions in the colony made in 1760 (H. P. Davis, Black Democracy: the Story ofHaiti 23. The population figures for 1785 are: whites, 9,766;slaves,15,010 (Caroline M. Burson, [New York, 1928], p. 23). The Stewardship of Don Esteban Mira, 1782- . 1792 [New Orleans, 1940], p. 105). 35. Ibid., p. 50. '31 129 36. Unlike the Spanish, who gave up their early at- America, 1607-1776 [Chapel Hill, 1947], pp. tempts at plantation colonies in the search for 3-4). gold and silver, the French, like the English, saw that colonial agriculture held a promise of 46. Carl Deg.er, «Slavery and the Genesis of Ameri- rapid and unprecedented prosperity. They were can Race Prejudice,* Comparative Studies in right. By the middle of the eighteenth century, Society and History 2 (1959): 56-62. St. Domingue was considered the richest Euro- pean colonial possession. 47. Slave and Citizen (New York, 1941), pp. 121-23. 37. De Vassiere, p. 75. 48. Passim. 38. Letter, 3 May, quoted in ibid., p. 76. 49. David Brion Davis and others point out that the practice of interracial sex was less acceptable in 39. Ibid., p. 65. the French colonies than in the Spanish or Por- tuguese (The Problem of Slavery in Western 40. Consideration sur Pete present de St. Domin- Culture [Ithaca, 1966], p. 276). gue (Paris, 1776), 2: 79. The Code Noir placed no restrictions on mixed marriages. They re- 50. See Davis; Marvin Harris, Race Patterns in the mained legal in all the French colonies, except Americas (New York, 1964); and Sidney W. for Louisiana, in which Article 6 of the Code Mintz's rev. of Stanley Elkins' Slavery in Amer- Noir of 1724 forbade the practice (Auguste Le- ican Anthropologist 63 (1961): 579-87. beau, de la condition des gens de couleur fibres sous l'ancien regime [Paris, 1903], p. 93). 51. Although the need for a labor force brought in- creasing importation of Negroes, only in South 41. C.L.R. James, Black Jacobins (New York, Carolina did the Negroes outnumber the whites 1963), P. 37. (Phillips, p. 87). 42. All free men having children by a slave were al- Winthrop Jordan, «American Chiaroscuro: The so fined 2,000 lbs. of sugar (Lebeau,.p. 96). Status and Definition of Mulattoes in the Brit- ish Colonies,* William and Mary Quarterly 59 43. Elsa V. Goveia, «The West Indian Slave Laws of (1962): 18-19. the Eighteenth Century,* Revista de ciencasso- ia/es 4 (1960) : 97. 53. «Records of the Superior Council* LHQ 4 (1921): 524, and «Sidelights of Louisiana His- 44. Davis, p. 28. tory,*trans. William Price, LHQ 1(1918): 132-33. 45. Settlers were confronted with a wilderness to be tamed and cultivated and they included a 54. This opposition reached its height around the fair share of criminals, debtors, and others gath- time of the French Revolution. Conspiracies ered from the London streets and jails. Many of among French planters were discovered in the them came under one or another form of bond- German Coast district, in St. Charles Parish, and age. Abbott Smith writes that more than half of at Pointe Coupee. These men were plotting to all persons who came to the colonies south of participate in a large-scale uprising planned to New England were bond servants (Colonists in coincide with a hoped-for French invasion of Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in the territory (Gayarre, 3: 354; 377). 130 ./ protected 55. From a letter by Laussat, the Colonial Prefect emu .ligeeti and Negroes are openly strike one of France placed in charge of Louisiana in 1803, by the government. He who was to ibid., 3: 595. This underscores both the strategic of these persons, even though he had run away and economic significance of the free coloreds. from him, would be generally punished*(Paul Alliot, tiglections, cited in Alice )unbar-Nel- 56. Sterkx, pp. 97-111. son, tPeoplt. ofColor in Louisiana,* Journal of Negro History[1916j: 56). 57. In 1784 they were sent to crush a maroon col- ony of fugitive slaves which had beenraiding 64.State v. Harrison, 11 La. An. 722(Ded 1856), plantations and terrorizing whites in the area quoted in Sterkx, p. 224. around the village of Gaillard. At a meeting of the Cebildo on 4 July 1784 the Attorney Gen- 65.Code Noir, pp. 301.2, cited in Sterkx, p.6. eral reported that several expeditions of free Negroes and mulattoes had not been able to 66.Laws of Las Siete Partidas Which AreStill in destroy the colony, partially because their Force in the State of Louisiana, trans.Mo- forces were too small and because many of the reau L. Lislet andHenry Carlton, 1: 591-94. free Negroes were ecreoles of this province, which reluctance is due to the fear of reprisals 67. King, p. 334. against theirfamilies.*(Alphabetical and of 11,104 whites Chronological Digest of the Acts and Delibera- 68. The free population consisted 1754, cited in de tions of the Cabildo, 1769-1803, 7: 154, 194- and 4,732 coloreds (census of 96, 201-4). Vassiere, p. 116). included the right to hold, 58. *index to Spanish Judicial Records,* LHQ 15 69.- Lebeau, p. 1. These (1932): 534, and *Records of the Superior buy, and sell property as they pleased,bear wit- Council of Louisiana,* 0'0 24 (1941): 585. ness (even againstwhites), travel freely, own and sell slaves, marry whomeverthey pleased, 59. Abstracts of French and Spanish Documents and enter any occupation. Concerning the Early History of Louisiana,* trans. William Price, LHQ 1(1918): 242, and 70. Ibid., pp. 111-14. Duvallon, p. 253. 71. Before 1685 the militia had beenthe only and 60. *Index to Spanish Judicial Records,* LHQ 12 authority on the island, with the governors (1928) : 341-48. .*) captains also serving as judges.Even after civil authorities were established, themilitia, con- 61. Archives of the ,Spanish Government of West trolled by the planters, continued tohave an Florida, 5:268-71. administrative and judicial authority.It served as the chiefintermediary between the Inten- 62. American State Papers (8th Cong., 1st sass., dant and the residents, and wascharged with ser.1), Class X, Miscellaneous, 1:381, cited in preserving public order. Anunderstanding of Donald E. Everett, *Free Persons of Color in this system can be gained from aletter by the New Orleans, 1803-1865* (Ph. D. diss., Tulane governor in 1761: Univ., 1952). dit is a necessity (with] 8,000 whites in all who are capable of bearing arms ...and nearly 63. A visitortoLouisianain 1803 wrote that 33 131 200,000 blacks - their slaves and their enemies one side, and the slaves, their inferiors, on the ...around them day and night...Each lit- others (New Orleans 'Daily Picayune, 15 Jan. tle area has its leader, the captain of the militia. 1860). He supervises all the royal orders, public works, collection of taxes, settlement of quarrels be- 81. Gen. James .Wilkinson to Dearborn, 21 Dec. tween residents, the discipline of slaves, and the 1803, quoted in The Territorial Papers of the military services in time of peace and war.... It United States, Vol. IX: The Territory of Or- is easy to judge how useful such a sytem is in a leans, 1803-1812, ed. Clarence E. Carter (Wash- country whirre every white man is armed, and ington, 1940), p. 139. During the ceremonies must be, and where one can travel 30 leagues held in New Orleans to celebrate the transfer, without finding a court of justice or a judge* Gov.Claibornerequested ammunition and (14 Sept. 1761, cited in de Vassiere, pp. 115- four or five thousand stands of arms* from 17). Pres. Jefferson in the event of riots by the free colored Orleanians (Claiborne to Jefferson, 29 72. Julien Raimond, Memoire sur les Causes des Sept. 1803, in Carter, p. 59). Troubles et des Desastres de la Colonie de St. Domingue (Paris, 17931, p. 18. 82. Benjamin Morgan to Chandler Price, 7 August, 1803, in Carter, p. 7. 73. Ibid., p. 18. 83. Claiborne to Secretary of State James Madison, 74. Cited in Gabriel Debien, gGens de couleur li- 3 July 1804, in Official Letter Books of W. C. C. bras et colons de St. Domingue devant la Con- Claiborne,1801-1816, ed. Dunbar Rowland stituante,x Revue d'histoire da l'Amerique fran- (Jackson, Miss., 1917) 2: 234. caise 4 (1950) : 214. 84. Claiborne to Madison, 12 July 1804, in ibid., 75. Pp. 86-89. pp. 244-46. 76. Ibid., p. 89. .85. Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Re- volts (New York, 1943), pp. 249-50. The revolt 77. A. Featherman, gOur Position and that of our was finally put down severely by some 600 Enemies,* DeBow's Review 31 (1861): 27. armed U. S. troops and militiamen. As usual some free colored men were also used. Claiborne 78. Quoted in Jcon M. Macklin, oThe Evolution of was impressed with their zeal and thanked them the Slave Statusin American DemocraCy,* for their gbravery and patriotism* (Claiborne Journal of Negro History 2 (1917) :246. to Major Dubourg, 14 Jan. 1811, in Rowland, 5:100). 79. Petit,Traite sur le gouvernement des esciaves (Paris, 1777), introduction, p. iii, quoted in Le- 86. Dunbar-Nelson, p. 52. In 1803 the total free beau, p. 3. colored population was 1,566; the census of 1806 showed 3,350 free coloreds (Sterkx, p. 80. When a group of 81 free coloreds left Louisiana 118). for Haiti in 1860, a white newspaper wrote that their departure would grelieve us from the pain- 87. Taylor, p. 37; Sitterson, p. 60. ful task of maintaining the proper equilibrium between them and whites, their superiors, on 88.At both the first and second sessions of the ter- 132 New Orleans, and ritorial legislature of Louisiana, laws werepass- above the rank of artisan in heavily preponderated in virtuallyall the classes ed to *prevent the introductionof free people (Phillips, p. 439). of color from Hispaniola, andother French is- but that of unskilled laborers* lands of America into the Territory ofOrleans *; plantation system did those from the French islandsalready living in 98. The expansion of the further separate the free col- the territory had to prove theirfree status or be serve, however, to of slaves. This classed as fugitive slaves (Dunbar-Nelson, p.52; ored community from the mass by the tightening on manu- Gayarrir 4: 218-19; Everett, p. 65). was accomplished mission, the plantation life ofthe slaves, and the fact that most of theslaves did not share 89. Lawrence Dunbar Reddick, TheNegro in the the old French cul-, New Orleans Press, 1850-1860: AStudy in At- the free coloreds' link with existed in St. Domin- titudes and Propaganda* (Ph. D. diss.,Univ. of ture. This distance also Chicago, 1939), P. 7. gue, where the bulkof the slaves came fresh from Africa and where theconditions of work 90. Laws of the Territory of Orleans,1st. Leg., 1st were much morebrutalizing. sess.,1807,pp. 82.88, quoted inSterkx, p. 2nd sass., 1830, 153. 99. Laws of Louisiana, 9th Leg., pp. 90-92. 91. Dunbar-Nelson, p. 63. 100. Royal ordinance of1764, cited in Lebeau, pp. 92. Laws of the Territory of Orleans, p.164, cited 106-9; Debien, p. 213. in Sterkx, p. 209. 101. Lebeau, p. 75. 93. Until 1818 redemptioners mightfind themselves in the service of either whites orfree people of 102. This prohibition hadbeen adopted by several color; the legislature then *founditself called localities and was extended to thewhole colony upon to notice thafrequency with which free by ordinance of the governor on29 May 1769: persons of color bought thewhite stranger, and *Carrying arms is one of the specialprivileges in their tardy wisdom theyforbade any such that our King has granted only tocertain privi- further purchases on their part*(Alton V. leged groups who are, by theirprofessions, des- Moody, *Slavery on Louisiana SugarPlanta- tined to use them .. .Since even men who are tions,* LHQ 7 [19241: 204).. born free do not all have theright to carry arms, there is even greater reasonwhy freedmen without special 94. Gayer* 4:336. should not be allowed to do so permission. Such permission putsthem into the possibly hope to at- 95. It was second only to NewYork as the largest highest position they could port of entry in the antebellumU. S. (Roger W. tain. Therefore, we have thoughtit best to limit Shugg, Origins of Class Struggle inLouisiana, that permission to only thosewho, in the pres- 1840-1875 [Baton Rouge, 19391 p. 39). ent situation, distinguishthemselves by a spe- cial zeal for the defense of country*(Preamble, touchant le 96. U. S., Bureau of the Census,Preliminary Re- tOrdonnance des administrateurs port (Washington, 1860), pp.242-43, cited in port d'armes des gensde couleur,* in Moreau Shugg, p. 38. de St. Mary, Loix at constitutionsdes colonies francaises de l'Amdrique sous le ventde 1550 a 1785 [Paris, 1784-901 4: 466). 97. The men of mixed blood filled allthe places ?3J 133 103. The act of 1830 to prevent the return of any with servitude and that nothing can make him free Negro who left the state was amended the equal to his master* (Archives Coloniales, F, next year to exempt all permanent residents, pp. 71, 72, cited in Lebeau, p. 9). property owners, and those gainfully employ. ed (Laws of Louisiana, 1Uth Leg., 1st sess., 112. Lebeau, p. 76. 1831, p. 98). 113. Desdunes, p. 149; Raimond, Observation sur 104. Although the population figures vary slightly, l'origine at les proves du prOuge des colons they all come close to those of Moreau de St. blancs contre les hommes de couleur (Paris, Wry for 1790: whites, 4.0,000; free coloreds, 1791). Raimond made this point inallhis 28,000; slaves, 452,000 (Louis Elie Moreau de speeches. St. Wry, description topographique, physique, et politique de- St. Domingue [Philadelphia, 114. James, p. 34. 17971 1: 285). 115. Debien, pp. 215-16. 105. Debien, pp. 215-16; James, p. 39. 116. Reinders, pp. 275ff. 106. Phillips, p. 439. 117. Shugg, p. 119; Reinders, pp. 276 -77; James K. 107. Reddick, p. 8. Greer, «Louisiana Politics, 1845-1861,D LHQ 22 (1929): 260.61, 381-425. 108. Desdunes, pp. 123-25. 118. 1778, Lebeau, p. 77. 109. Although for the most part they rarely owned more than two or three slaves, there were some 119. 1773. Ibid., p. 89. free colored persons with large slaveholdings; in 1830 in the whole South there were only 10 120. Ibid., p. 30. Negroes with holdings' of 50 or more slaves - 9. of them were in Louisiana (Carter G. Woodson, 121. Moreau de St. Wiry, 6: 885. Free Negro Ow Hers of Slaves in 1830 [Washing- ton, 19241 pp. 6-15, 41-81). The 1850 census ,122. James, p. 41. classified 242 free colored people as planters (DeBow, p. 81). In 1860 there were only six 123. 1779. As with whites,.going to Mass had been a holdings of over 50 slaves owned by free Ne- major social event for the free coloreds. When groes, with an average of about 82 slaves each separate seating was instituted they stopped at- (Joseph K. Menn, The Large Slaveholders of tending so as not to have to «submit to the Louisiana, 1860 [New Orleans, 19641 pp. 92- publicshame ofsegregation*(JamesLey- 94). burn, Haitian People [New Haven, 1941], p. 117). 110. Desdunes, pp. 29, 30, 141. 124. Moreau de St. Wry, 6: 727; Lebeau, p. 45. 111. This distance, rigorously enforced even after freedom [italics mine] is the chief means of pre- 125. Laws of Louisiana, 15th Leg., 2d sess., 1842, p. serving the subordination of the slave, because 308; 4th Leg., 1st sass., 1852, pp. 214-15; 3d of the implication that his color is identified Leg., 2d sass., 1857, p. 55. 134. 126. Ibid., 3d Leg., 1st sess., 1850, p, 179. 136. New Orleans Picayune, 16 July 1859. 127. Ibid., 4th Leg., 2d sass., 1859, p. 172. 137.IMax Frisch, Biederman and the Firebugs. in 128. Robert C. Reinders,The Decline of the New 138. The reasons for the success of the slave revolt. Orleans Free Negro in the Decade before the St. Domingue go beyond the refusal of the Civil War,* Journal of Mississippi History 24 whites to collaborate with the free coloreds. (1962):91. Other important factors include the nature of slavery on the island, which in part accounts for 129. Laws of Louisiana, 4th Leg., 2d.sess., 1859, pp. the cohesiveness and leadership of theslaves, 21415. and the fact that the French Revolution of 1789 had touched off a civil war among the 130. There were virulent attacks against them in the whites and was fgllowed by a war with the press, and vigilante groups begannightly rides Spanish whichlefttheruling class totally to seek out and punish free Negroes(Reddick, divided. passim; Barde, Histoire des comitds des vigi- lances aux Attakapas, cited in Sterkx, pp. 309, 139. This discussion is based on Raimond;Debien; 406-8). Emile Nau, Reclamations par les affranchis des droits civils et politiques. Mort au Prince, 131. Reinders, p. 90; Stahl, p. 375; Desdunes, p. 1840); Mercer k, (Julien Raimond,* Jour- Charles 148; Lebeau, pp. 11-114. nal of Negro History 26 (1941) :139.70; Oscar Hardy, The Negro Question in theFrench 132. Archives Coloniales, F, 261, pp. 611.15(18 Revolution (Menasha, Wis., 1919); and James. Aug. 1775). 140. Although a full discussion of the freecoloreds 133. Journal of the ,House of Representatives,1st during Reconstruction goes beyond the scope Leg., 1st sass., 1846, p. 228, cited in Sterls of this article, questions of interest would be: alliatice and pp. 22, 71-72. Who provided the leadership in this on what basis was the unityestablished? Geral- 134. Baton: Rouge Gazette and Comet, 6 May dine McTigue of Yale University is currently 1859. working on a dissertation on this subject and should provide us with some of the answers. 135. New Orleans Daily Delta, 17 Jul/ 1852. Reprinted by permission of theJournal of Social History. 1.37 t THE FREE NEGRO IN THE NEW ORLEANS ECONOMY, 1850-1860 By Robert C. Reinders The historian studying the place of the f.m.c. or h.c.l.aftertheirnames. To an free Negro in the New Weans economy is re- even greater extent this is also true of city striated by limited sources and by the fact .directories. License applications sometimes that available materials al, often disguised by list race; mostly they do not. Unless the re- the particularracial and social conditions searcher is thoroughly familiar with the free which prevailed in the Crescent City. Manu- Negro community of the 1850's and I make script census returns are woefully inadequate; no such assumptionhis information will be people are frequently listed without a racial incomplete and his conclusions will be highly designation either because of sloppiness on tentative. the part of census takers or because lighter' free Negroes simply failed to offer informa- Moit of the 10,000 free Negroes in New tion about their race and status. Moreover the Orleans in the 1850's were unskilled laborers. census of 1850 was taken in the summer During the winter season additional unskilled /when free Negroes who worked In the city free Negroes entered the city, often with during the winter season were absent. This forged passes, but the stringent laws passed was not a problem in the 1860 census since against this group in the mid-fifties reduced out of state free Negroes were not then per- their number to a negligible figure.2 Laws mitted in the city. Even rough approxima- against manumission also must have cut off tions can be confusing. The census of 1830 the flow of unskilled free Negroes from the lists 11,906 free Negroes in New Orleans; country parishes who generally moved to the number rises abruptly to 19,226 in 1840 New ()deans after obtaining freedom. Accord- and declines rapidly to 9,961 in 1850. Ac- ing to a list of 1,873 free Negroes who regis- cording to one scholar the decline front 1840 tered to remain in Or. state, 911 were un- was the result of faulty census taking and skilled. Most of the men were employed on therefore the 1850 figureis undoubtedly steamboats and others were dock workers and higher) The slave cenuses of 1850 and 1860 domestic help.3 Judging by newspaper adver- do not list a single slave owner as a free tisements local free Negro workers were en- Negro yet from other evidence it is known listed to work out of the city on railroad con- that there were a few hundred. Manuscript struction crews and,as field hands.4 Three- tax assessments supposedly list people by race fifths of the city's free Negroes were women until the knowing researcher discovers well- and were more likely to be unskilled than known free Negroes without the characteristic men. Nearly half of the 911 unskilled men- 136 tioned earlier were women. They were largely the St. Louis cemeteries who had a private employed in domestic service or at home as studio on St. Peter Street. He went to Europe 4 washwomen.5 in 1852 and quickly achieved a noteworthy reputation as a sculptor.11 Among free Negro men the ratio of skilled to unskilled was considerably higher A few of these skilled workers were, than among Irish and German immigrants. In- according to the censuses of 1850 and 1860, r.deed free Negroes dominated certain skilled relatively prosperous. Thus Peter Howard, a trades. According to J.D.B. De Bow, director porter, and C. Cruisin, an engraver, were t of the 1850 census, there were in that year worth between ten and twenty thousand do* 355 carpenters, 325 masons, 156 cigar makers, lars, and A. Tescault, a bricklayer, owned 92 shoemakers, 61clerks, 52 mechanics, personal and real property valued at nearly 43 coopers, 41 barbers Oahe birthright of $40,000.00.1 2 the free Negro),5), 39 carmen, and 28 painters. In addition there were free Negro black- Both skilled and unskilled Negroes were smiths (15), butchers (18), cabinet makers subject to changing labor patterns brought (19), cooks (25), overseers (11), ship carpen- about chiefly by the large scale movement of ters (6), stewards (9), and upholsters (8). Irish and German immigrants into New Or- Only 179 were classed as tlaborers» and only leans after 1845. Europeans tended to replace about an extra 100 could be considered hold- free Negroes as domestic servants, waiters, ing unskilled jobs.? It is possible that De Bow and hotel workers. The St. Charles Hotel, might have exaggerated the totals in order to which once employed free Negroes, by the show that New Orleans free Negroes were 1850's had an almost all-Irish staff.1 3 Cabs more prosperous than free Negroes in New and drays, usually driven by free Negroes in York, Philadelphia, and Boston. However, the thirties, were almost exclusively handled other data indicates that free Negroes were by whites two decades later. Of 146 permits prominent in skilledtrades. Five hundred for carriages in 1858 only five were given to and forty skilled workers signed a register to free Negroes; and only four of 205 cab pek.- remain in the state during the years 1842- mits were granted to free men of color.14 1861this was slightly less than a third of Negroes retained a hold as market sellers, but the total.8 Travellers noted free Negro arti- free Negro peddlers were replaced by whites.1 5 sans being served by Irish waiters and free The docks, once crowded with free Negro Negromasons withIrishhodcarriers.9 stevedores and steamboat roustabouts, came The handful of short biographies of free by the fifties to be an Irish preserve. Negroesthatareavailableindicatethat many were skilled workers. They even had There were certain crafts which all but their own organization,theSociete des excluded free Negroes. Printing, baking, sail- Artisans, one of whose founders, Victor making, glazing, lithography, engraving, pilot- Sejour, later became famous as a poet, play- ing were held by whites. Nor is there any wright, actor, and Secretary to Napoleon indication that Negroes worked as screwmen 111.10 Eucene Warbourg, another free Negro loading cotton ships or as yard men in cotton craftsman, deserves special mention. He was presses.Itis perhaps significantthat the a tombstone carver unsigned examples of his printers, pilots, and screwmen were tightly work are probably still to be uncovered in organized.1 6Then as now craftunions 139 137 r. excluded Negro workers. In 1850 there was at least one wealthy free Negro wood dealer and one beer merchant. There were only a handful, of Negro pro- Merchandizing and wholesale enterprises were fessional men in New Orleans. According to rare though P. Le Blanc managed a fairly pros- the 1850 census there were four free colored perous dry goods store.2° The best known doctors in the city, but it is doubtful if they Negro business was owned by Cede Macarty werealldoctors of medicine. Alexandre who inherited $12,000 and by her death in ChaumetteandLouisCharles Roudanez 1845 had builtit up to a business worth .Aere:the first recorded Negro doctors in the $155,000. She had an importing business in city. Both were educated in Paris and re- New Orleans, a depot in Plaquemines, and turned to New Orleans; after several, years tradedasfar asthe Attakapas country. they were, accredited by,the local medical Court records indicate that she had «Un- profession. Negro nurses were in great de -' limited Credit* and engaged in note discount- mand because supposedly they were immune ing as a sideline.21 Negro control over the to the periodic epidemicsduring a fever cigarindustryallowedmenlikeLucien season they could earn as much as ten dollars Mansion and Georges Ales to operate sizable a day. There were free Negro school teachers, factories. Alces employed as many as two though the number declined during the 1850's hundred hands.22 as free Negro schools were closed. By 1860 all known free colored teachervere connec- Only as gentlemen tailors could it be ted with a single school. A--fiw free men of said that free Negroes played an important color made a living as musicians and music role in any line of merchanclizing. According teachers. The profession of architecture was to Charles Gayarre the elite tailorsDumas, represented by Joseph Abeillard and Nelson Clovis, Lacroixwere all free men of color.23 Fouche, and inNorbert Rillieux the city Lacroix certainly stressed his select patrons in could boast of a free Negro inventor-engineer. an advertisement he placed in the city direc- (Rillieux went to France before the Civil War tory for 1853.24 and became headmaster of the prestigious Ecole Centrale of Paris.)1 7 The profession of Lacroix, Francois, merchant tailor, commissionbrokerwasrepresentedby ( established1817)importerof Thorny Lafon and Honore Pottier. There French cloth, fancy casimere, and were no free Negro bankers, but a few Ne- the best and most extensive assort- groes served as money lenders.1 8 ment of clothing of every descrip- tion, made in Paris, by the first Free Negroes found the world of busi- fashionable tailors, and an elegant ness less restrictive than the professions. Most variety of gloves, cravats, stocks, Negro places of business were small affairs, etc.; 23 St. Charles. capitalized at a few hundred dollars and gen- erally given to retail sale of groceries and Lacroix and other free Negro tailors were at liquor.19There were afew grocers like their most prosperous in the 1830's. It is the Francis Snaer, A. Biandin, and G.N. Ducroix view of one contemporary free Negro that who were worth over $10,000. The4best after 1840 New Orleans free colored tailors known rooming houses inthe city were frequently moved North where their skills owned and operated by free Negro women. were in demand and legal restrictions were 1._ 4 0 138 less onerous.28 themselves a home.*27 How much property . they owned is one of the mysteries of New One free 'Negro business man, however, Orleans history. Erastus Puckett in a study who seemed to have thrived in the fifties was written in 1906 stated that on the basis of Pierre A.D. Casenave. Born in Santo Domingo his perusal of the 1836 tax records free and probably the son of a cabinet maker and Negroes thenowned property valued at grocer who resided in the lower section of the $2,462,470. For 1850 it had dropped to city, Casenave became confidential clerk of $755,765, and in 1860 it was $739,890.28 the merchant-philanthropist, Judah P,Touro, Dunn informed _a Congressional Committee The free Negro was one of the executors of that the figure was between fourteen and Touro's estate and in the latter's will was a sixteen million dollars in 1860.. In 1863 a ,beneficiary of $10,000. In 1853 Cascnave group of free Negroes declared they paid was in the «commissionbitsiness* and four taxes on property worth $9,000,000 but in years later he was worth an estimated thirty the following year some free Negroes wrote to forty thousand dollars and had an excellent to President Lincoln that their real estate was credit rating. Later in the fifties he opened an valued at $15,000,000. A delegate to the «undertaking shop* on Marais Street and 1864 Louisiana Constitutional Convention another place of business in she Vieux Carre. putthesumat$13,000,000.29J.D.B. Unlike most undertakers of the age he did De Bow, using the inexact data of the 1850 not have to live in close proximity to horses census,calculatedNegro property worth and cadavers as he had his own separate resi- $2,214,020.30The African Repositoryre- dence. He owned a hearse, foucarriages, and ported in 1857 that free Negroes paid taxes a cab. It was said of Casenave that he was on propertyin excess of $4,000,000.31 «the grandest undertaker of funeral splendor Years after the Civil War a writer estimated in New Orleans.» Judging by obituary notices that ante-bellum free Negroes owned one- his clientele was'almost exclusively white. By fifth of the taxable property of the city; this 1814 he had assets of $100,000. It should be would have been around $22,000,000 in pointed out that Casenave's case was an ex- 1860.32 ception; though undoubtedly a capable in- dividual, his road to riches was made possible My own guess, based on incomplete tax only through the instrumentality of an un- returns for 1858 and 1859, is that free Ne- usual white merchant.26 groes were taxed on about $2,000,000 worth of property. I should point out that three of Perhaps reflecting the conservative atti- the largest free Negro landholders were not tudes of the Creoles and perhaps desiring to listed by race and I can assume that others, find financial security amidst the growing in- whose names were unfamiliar to me, were security of New Orleans life, free Negroes also «white*; therefore it might be logical to tended to invest their surplus funds in real add a half million dollars to the above total. estate. All research indicates the validity of As a further caution it should be pointed out Oscar Dunn's response in 1867 US the ques- that real estate, slaves, stocks and bonds, busi- tion, «Is it not true of your people as a class ness property, and horses and wagons were that whenever they are able to accumulate greatly undervalued. For example, market property they generally putitinto real prices for slaves were two to three times estate?* «Yes sir,* Dunn replied, «they buy greater than assessed value. About the only 139 thing that can be said with some degree of mission followed. Thus records of emancipa- validityisthat New Orleans free Negroes tion courts for 1827 to 1851 show that of owned more real estate than free Negroes in 1,353 petitions to free slaves, 501 were en- other cities.33 tered by free Negroes.36 In the 1850's the process of manumission became more dif- Real estate was owned by free Negro ficult a freed slave had to leave the state women to a far greater extent than among and in 1857 emancipation was made impos- their white sisters. There were of course three sible; therefore slaveholding was the only colored women to every two Negro men; means by which the letter of the law could be more important under the placage system free observed without complying with its spirit.37 Negro women were rewarded with land and Certainly the slave system forced many free homes by their white lovers. It is not surpris- Negroes to invest their limited capital into ing therefore that several of thelargestRegro the purchase of slave relatives.38 landholders were women, a few having tax- able property valued at over $20,000.34, There were free Negroes who owned sev- eralslaves and undoubtedly viewed their Among the large .male landholders was bondsmen as an exploitable resource. Carter P.A. LeGoaster (or Leguaster) who in 1859 Woodson's pioneer study of 1830 census lists owned $51,000 worth of taxable property 2,351 slaves owned by 735 New Orleans free in the Dryades-Perdido-South Rampart street Negro masters; 153 owned five or more slaves, area plus additional real estate which he re- 23 owned between ten and twenty slaves, ported to the census taker in 1850 as worth while Cecee Macarty owned 32 slaves.39 It is $150,000. He was then the wealthiest free impossible to obtain accurate figures for the Negro in New Orleans. The most valuable 1850's, but by all indications multiple owner- chunk of real estate owned by a free Negro ship of slaves by free persons of color was was an entire city block on Canal and Old far less common than it had been in earlier Levee streets inherited by Aristide Mary from decades.46 his white father. Some free colored men un- doubtedly invested in land on the edge of the The law took an ambivalent attitude swamp which they could assume would be toward free Negro enterprises. The southern drained in the near future. Francois Lacroix stress on property rights and the paternalism owned two and a half city blocks in what is of the French and Spanish codes tended to now mid-city; whole blocks in the same area benefit the free Negro in his economic rela- were the property of Adele Pavageau, Simon tions.41 Thus a Louisiana court in 1836 ques- Bahan, J.V. Foneal, and Etienne Vanettetioned a state law which restrictssale of Smaller Negro holdings were common in the bank stocks to free white citizs of the same district; land was cheap and a kind of United States.42 The rights of free Negroes isolation was possible.35 to buy and sell property and sue in the courts was neverchallenged.43 Slave. ownership was fairly common among free Negroes. In most instances free Not all property rights however were Negroes owned only a single slave, seldom held inviolate. The Louisiana legislature in over three, which more than likely were 1859 made it illegal for a free Negro to own a members of the family. Frequently manu- coffee house, billiardhall, or retail store 140 where liquor was sold. Three years earlier the peror in -1858 sent an agent to New Orleans state and city had pissed legislation prevent- to encourage migration. At least 281 tditerate ing free Negroes from obtaining liquor li- and respectable* free Negroes went to Haiti censes." The courts caught between proper- in 1859-1860 and itis the opinion of one ty rights and emotional public demands for scholar that «many more* migrated to the restrictions on free Negroes tended, in the fif- island kingdom.49 ties, to hedge. In a case involving the African Methodist Episcopal Church the court stated Migration was a drain on free Negro capi- that the legislature could require them to dis- tal and skills, and in this light it is interesting band; in the words of the justices: «the Afri- to quote the Daily Picayune, normally one can race are strangers to. our. Constitution and of the most rabid free Negro-baiting news- are subject of special and exceptional legisla- papers in New Orleans. tion.* But the court insisted, their right to purchase property as an association was un- They [free Negroes] form the great challenged. The court had its principles and majority of our regular settled ma- its politics.45 sons, brick layers, builders, carpen- ters,tailors,shoemakers, etc., Added to the hostility of the city and whose sudden emigration from this state governments, newspapers kept up a con- community would certainly be at- stant barrage of anti-free Negro editorials tended with some degree of annoy- and comments." These views unquestion- ance;' whilst we can count among ably affected those free Negroes who were them no small number of excel- workingmen as well as those in business. Ven- lent musicians, jewelers, goldsmiths, ture capital all but dried up as banks simply tradesmen and merchants. did not lend money tt) free Negroes and only a few colored men had surplus capital to lend The city's free Negroes, the Picayune piously to their fellows.47 It is not surprising there- if not hypocritically added are a «sober, fore that from the late 1830's sensitive free industrious and moral class, far advanced in Negroes began to migratechiefly to France. education and civilization.*50 A decade later the emigration movement be- came more common. J.B. Jordan, a moder- The 1850's then saw the New Orleans ately wealthy free Negro, wrote in 1850: free Negro hold his own in the skilled trades. «About five years ago the dislike to Coloniza- Free colored common laborers facedin- tion seems to have passed away. Some few creased competition from European immi- would talk of it whilst others in their timidity grants, though in the boom years of the de- would only listen. Now there are few persons cade the demand for labor was great enough who hesitate to speak of Colonization and of to prevent large scale Negro unemployment. their intention to emigrate to Liberia in a few Negro businessmen declined in number and years.*49 A move to Haiti appealed to more prosperitysince the 1830'stheir's was a free Negroes than a return to a forgotten lost cause. Land was the one hope of security Africanhomeland.Aftertherestrictive and the few Negroes who invested in property legislation of 1855 Lucien Mansion provided could be assured of profitable increases in funds for free Negroes who wished to emi- land values. In general the fifties was a period grate to Haiti or Mexico and the Haitian Em- of white hostility, restrictive laws, and declin- '43 101 . ing economic opportunitiis. The thee col- them... 451 It is understandable therefore oured,* remarked a native of Massachusetts that most local free Negroes, rich and poor in 1853, 4C are in all states, in a position, both alike, seemed extremely pleased to greet the civilly, and socially, calculated to depress Bluecoats in 1862.52 142 Notes 1. Annie Lee West Stahl, "The Free Negro in Lou- (Princeton, 1962), 189; Luther Porter Jackson, isiana," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXV Free Negro Labor and Property Holding in (April, '1942), 381. In 1860 there were 10,939 Virginia 1830-1860 (New York, 1942), 101; free Negroes in Orleans Parish. Joseph C.G. James M. Wright, The Free Negro in Maryland, Kennedy, Population of the United States in Columbia University Studies in History, Eco- 1860, Compiled from the Original Returns of nomics and Public Law (No. 222; New York, the Eighth Census under the Direction of the 1921), 155. Secretary of the Interior (Washington, 1864), 191. 8. Puckett, "Free Negro in New Orleans," 51. The list included women's professions such as 2. Attorney General of Louisiana, Report, 1857 seasmstresses (189), hair dressers(10), and (Baton Rouge, 1858), 11. dressmakers (21). 3. Donald Edward Everett, "Free Persons of Color 9. J. Milton Mackie, From Cape Cod to Dixie and in New Orleans, 1803-1865," (Ph.D. disserta- the Tropics (New York, 1864), 162; Frederick tion, Tulane University, 1952), 199; Erastus Law Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave Paul Puckett, "The Free Negro in New Orleans States (New York, 1858), 589. to 1860," (M.A. thesis, Tulane University, 1907), 48-49. 10. R.L. Desdunes, Nos Hommes et Notre His- toire .(Montreal, 1911), 38-40. 4. Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New Or- leans," 203. There was also.a demand for skilled 11. Ibid.Oscar Dunn, a famous Reconstruction workers like coopers and grinders in the sugar politician, had been a free Negro plasterer in parishes. New Orleans. U.S. House of Representatives, Testimony Taken by the Sub-Committee of 5. Puckett, "Free Negro in New Orleans," 48-49. Elections in Louisiana, 41st Cong., 2d sess. (Misc. Doc. No. 154), 2 Pts. (Washington,1870), 6. William H. Russell, My Diary North and South Pt. 1, p. 181. (2 vols., Boston, 1863), II, 73. 12. Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New Or- 7. United States bureau of the Census, Negro leans," 205-207. Population,1790-1915 (Washington,1918), 209-210. New Orleans Negroes were more 13. Ibid., 195. prominent in the building trades than their brothers in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, 14. City of New Orleans, . Treasuer, Licenses on Charleston, Baltimore, or the Virginia cities: Cabs,Carriages and Omnibuses, 1858 [and Robert Evans Jr., "The Economics of American 1859], (MS., Louisiana Department, New Or- Negro Slavery 1830-1860," National Bureau of leans Public Library). See Also Charles Lyell, Economic Research, Aspects of Labor Econom- A Second Visit to United States (2nd ed., ics: A Ccxerence of the Universities-Nation.' 2 vols., London, 1850), II, 160-61; Olmstead, Bureau Committee for Economic Research Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, 589. 145 143 In Virginia cities, driving drays and hacks was a leans," 205-207. near monopoly by free Negroes thrpughout the ante-bellum period. Jackson, Free Negro 21. Helen Tuncliff Catteral(ed.), Judicial Cases Labor and Property Holding in Virginia, 77. Concerning American Slavery and the Negro (5 vols., Washington, 1932), III, 392, 589. 15. Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New Or- leans," 202; City of New Orleans, Treasurer's 22. Desdunes, Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire, 123. Office, Peddler's Licenses for 1857 and 1858, Twenty-two free Negroes listed themselves as (MS., Louisiana Department, New Orleans Pub- "manufacturers" in the registry of free Negroes. lic Library). Most of the licenses were issued to It is likely that most were skilled workingmen individuals with German names. who operated one-man shops. Puckett, "Free Negro in New Orleans," 51.52. 16. 13:%, 31 C. Reinders, "A Social History of New Orieans, 1850-1860," (Ph.D. dissertation, Uni- 23. Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New Orleans," verst', Jf Texas, 1-957), 107-108. Barbers were 195. organized jin manner that appeared to repre- sent a labor union. This may have been a Negro 24. Cohen's New Orleans Directory...for 1853 group. Ibid., 101. It* (New Orleans, 1853), 151. Lacroix was not listed as a free man of color in the city direc- 17. Desdunes, Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire, tory. 99.103, 106; Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New Orleans," 199-200; Charles Barthelemy 25. Harris, The Negro as Capitalist, 11. Harris relied Nousseye, The Negro in Louisiana: Aspects of on an account of a free Negro, Martin Delaney, His History and His Literature (New Orleans, who in 1848 published Condition, Elevation, 1937), 119. Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States. 18. Everett, "Free Persons of Color inNew Or- leans," 205-207. One source states that in the 26. "Louisiana," X, 497, XIII, 141, Dun & Brad- 1840's there were light free Negro brokers in street Collection (Baker Library, Harvard Grad- New Orleans. Abram L. Harris, The Negro as Cap- uate School of Business Administration, Boston, italist: A Study of Banking and Business among Massachusetts);Desdunes, Nos Hommes et American Negroes (Philadelphia, 1936), 9. Notre Histoire,109; City of New Orleans, Licenses on Cabs, Carriages and Omnibuses 19. Tax records found in the Louisiana Depart- 1858 [and 1859]. ment, New Orleans Public Library reveal that the average free Negro grocery or tavern was 27. Testimony Taken by the Sub-Committee of seldom capitalized at over $500. The register of Elections in Louisiana, 179. free Negroes entitled to remain in the state lists 94 men who classified themselves as "mer- 28. Puckett, "Free Negro in New ()Hearn.," 59, chants." An additional 53 persons Puckett 61-62. classified as "proprietors."Puckett,"Free Negro in New Orleans," 51. 29. Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New Or leans," 227-28. 20. Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New Or- 144 30. "The Free Black Population, North and South," with Absentee Ownership of Slaves in the De Bow's Review, XXIII (August, 1857), 217. United States in1830 (Washington, 1924), 9-15. 31. Sterling Charles Scott, "Aspects of the Liberian Colonization Movement in Louisiana," (M.A. 40. For a general picture of slave holding in New thesis, Tulane University, 1952), 59. Orleans during the fifties see Robert C. Rein- ders, "Slavery in New Orleans in the Decade 32. P.F. de Gournay, "The F.M.C.'s of Louisiana," beforethe Civil War," Mid-America, XLIV Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, LIII(April, (October, 1962), 211-21. 1894), 513. 41. Catteral (ed.),Judicial Cases Concerning 33. Jackson,Free Negro Labor and Property American Slavery and the Negro, Ill, 392-93, Holding inVirginia, 138; Harris, The Negro 601. as Capitalist, 7.8; Wright, The Free Negro in Maryland, 185. 42. Ibid., III, 510. Stock and bond holding among free Negroes was rare. Citizen's Bank records 34. Puckett, "Free Negro in New Orleans," 61.62; for 1836 list ten free Negro bank stockholders, Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New Or- but for the years 1858.1859 I found no Ne- leans," 206-207. For a discussion of the placage groes who reported stock or bond holdings to see Robert C. Reinders; End of an Era: New tax collectors. Everett mentions only one case Orleans 1850.1860(NewOrleans,1964), of a free Negro owning stocks. Citizens' Bank, 187 -168. Minute Book No. 1, April 8, 1833-May 6, 1837, p. 246 (Archives Department, Howard-Tilton 35. Cityof New Orleans, Board of Assessors, Memorial Library, Tulane University); Everett, RealEstateTax Assessments [1858-1859], "Free Persons of Color in New Orleans," 212; (MS.,LouisianaDepartment, New Orleans Harris, The Negro as Capitalist, 8. PublicLibrary);Testimony Taken by the Sub-Committeeof ElectionsinLouisiana, 43. In criminal cases free Negroes were often de- 179; Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New nied counsel and held arbitrarily. Fortunately Orleans," 206. free Negroes were law abiding and seldom had to face a police court judge.Ala Barkerto 36. Puckett, "Free Negro in New Orleans," 32; James G. Birney, October 2, 1845, Letters of New Orleans Emancipation Court, Docket of James Gillespie Birney1831-1857,Dwight L. Cases, 1846-1851, (MS., Louisiana Department, Duiriond, ed. (2 vols., New York, 1938), II, New Orleans Public Library). 976-78; Reinders, "Social History of New Or- leans," 235. 37. Sumner Eliot Mattson, "Manumission by Pur- chase," Journal of Negro History, XXXIII 44. Robert C. Reinders, "The Decline of the New (April, 1948), 146-67. Orleans Free Negro in the Decade before the CivilWar," Journal of Mississippi History, 38. Harris, The Negro as Capitalist, 9. XXIV (April, 1962), 90. 39. Carter G. Woodson, Free Negro Owners of 45. Robert C. Reinders, "The Chur*ches and the Slaves in the United States in 1830 Together Negro in New Orleans,, 1850.1860," Phylon, 147 145 XXII (Fall, 1961), 246. leans," 128-30; Reinders, "Decline of the New Orleans Free Negro in the Decade before the 46. Lawrence Dunbar Reddick, "The Negro in the Civil War," 96. On Lucien Mansion see Rous- a New Orleans Press, 1850-1860: A Study in At- seve, The Negro in Louisiana, 66-67, 115, 129, titudes and Propaganda," (Ph.D. dissertation; 152-53. University of Chicago, 1939), 259. 50. Daily Picayune, Jply 16, 1859. 47. Harris, The Negro as Capitalist, 23-24. 51. "The White, Free-Colcred, and Slave Popula- 48. J.B. Jordan to Dr. J.W. Lugenbeel, October 1, tion of the United States," De Bow's Review, 1850, "Letters to the American Colonization XV (August, 1853), 132.33. Society," Journal of Negro History, X (April 1925), 272. Jordan himself went to Liberia 52. Donald Edward Everett, "Demands of the New and opened a saw mill. Jordan to Rev. William Orleans Free Colored Population for Political livilLain,August 25,1850, July24,1851, Equality,1862-1865,"LouisianaHistorical Ibid., 271, 275. Quarterly, XXXVIII (April, 1955), 43-64. 49. Everett, "Free Persons of Color in New Or- Reprinted by permission of the Center for Louisiana Studies. THE FREE NEGRO IN ANTE-BELLUM LOUISIANA By Annie Leer est Stahl THE QUADROON The discussion of the free negro in Loui- After this long process of selective breeding, siana furnishes us no more serious social prob- there was produced a type so unusually at- lem than that of the quadroons. These were tractive that when, in the latter part of the -daughters of white men by half-blooded eighteenth century, the best Santo Domingan mothers. Their position was indeed an anoma- families had fled from the slave revolution to lous one. Though often endowed with superior take refuge in New Orleans, accompanied by mental qualities and personal charms, they their sang melee mistresses, many of them had were forbidden by law to marry white men of only one sixty-fourth part negrto blood. These any class. The same law gave them no protec- women were characterized as Les Sirens. tion against becoming victims of seduction Practically all travellers, who left accounts of and prostitution. their experiences in Louisiana, used extrava- gant phrases in describing them. Besides the white and slave immigration from the West Indies, with resultant gens de Ingrahahl wrote, couleur, there was a large influx of gens de couleur fibres into New Orleans. Hostile legis- «I have heardit remarked that lation did trot prevent this class from entering some of the finest looking women in large numbers. Like the white emigres, they of New Orleans are quadroons.. brought in the customs and manners of a soft- They have large fine eyes, good fea- er climate, a more luxurious* society, and a tures, magnificent forms, and ele- different civilization. In comparison with the gantly shaped feet.» tree colored people of New Orleans, they represented a distinct caste, and they grew He spoke of them as walking the streets with with such alarming rapidity that their number the «airs of donnas.* made for some time a decided influence on the home of their adoption. An English visitor exclaimed: Two hundred years before these blacks They furnish some of the most were introduced in Louisiana, the plantersof beautiful women that can be seen, Santo Domingo had been choosing the hand- resembling in many respects, the somest from among their slaves as mistresses. higher order of women among the 147 _I 4 9 148 Hindoos, with lovely countenances, cated and accomplished to a marked degree. full, dark, liquid eyes, lips of coral They possessed superior. mental qualities and and teeth of pearl, long raven locks ambitions, which distinguished them from the of soft and glossy hair, sylph -like pure negro. It was not unusual for quadroon figures, and such beautifully round- children to be educated abroad. Many wealthy ed limbs and exquisite gait and fathers, because of existing prejudices, sent manner, that they might furnish their daughters to France for cultural advan- models for a Venus or a Hebe tages. Great pains were lavished upon the the chisel of a sculptor. quadroon girl's training to develop her natural charm to lend attraction to the role which she One of the few writers, who differed ma- was destined to play. Many of these, with terially in his description of the quadroons, good education and property, made their was Featherstonhaugh, an English traveller, homes in Fance, where they found no diffl- who wrote: Cully in forming legal establishments. I had occasion to see a good many James Stuart comments on the fact that of them during my stay, at a ball or the quadroons were frequently a$ well edu- two I had access to; and certainly it cated, as interesting, and as cultivated in man- must be allowed that they . carry ners as those who considered it almost a sacri- their persons very well; but in the lege to notice them in any way. He compli- lips pnd mouth, and in an unpleas- ments them in saying that they conducted ing coarse texture of the skin, the themselves ordinarily with more propriety, negro blood shows itself very dis- and decorum than the white women. tinctly. A gentleman of New England education, At the theatre he saw none remarkable for in relating reminiscences of his experiences in their beauty, which he explained as having the society of quadroons, was impressed with been so elegantly described to him as females, the culture and refinement which characterized beautiful beyond all comparison with others three accomplished young women whom he and very noted for «une belle taille, et un gor- knew. They were well informed, interested in ge magnifique.» current literature, and their musical taste was especially developed. So great became the beauty and luxury of these quadroons, that in 1788 Governor Harriet Martineau says, Miro passed an ordinance which is one of the most extraordinary legal acts recorded in Lou- «The Quadroon girls of New Or- isiana. The directory of that year listed 1,500 leans are brought up by &lir moth- unmarried free women of color, living in little ers to be what they have been; the houses near the ramparts. The governor's rul- mistresses of white gentlemen. The ing caused it to become an act of misconduct boys are some of them sent .to «if one of thewomen walks abroad in silks, France; some are placed on land in jewels, or plumes, and by so doing the woman the back of the State; and some are is liable for punishment.» The only head cov- sold in the slave-market. They mar- ering which she was permitted to use was the ry women of a somewhat darker tignon. Many of these women were well edu- color than their own; the women of 1 5 0 their own color objecting to them Whites representing good. society, were admit- sont si clegatants!'» ted. He related that most of the gentlemen re- `mined only a short while before hastening They despised the negro as an inferior, and away to the quadroon dance, where they ambitious ones 'regarded alliances with men amused themselves to a greater extent and evenof/heirowri class as limiting. were much more at ease. The Duke found the quadroon ball much more decent than the The quadroon balls, that divided the masquerade ball. which he attended at the nights of the week with balls given to the French Theatre, where-only whites were pres- white ladies, were attended only by white ent. The colored ladies were well chaperoned men. Visiting gentlemen were always intro- by their mothers, they were tastefully dressed, duced to these, estertainments as they were and did the honors of their entertainments considered thei.4usement parexcellencein with great propriety and grace. Of a quadroon New Orleans. To these balls the young crea- masquerade at the Theatre St. Philippe, that tures were taken as soon as they reached he left a white soiree to visit, the Duke says: womanhood. Here they displayed their ac- «Several of them [the quadroon ladies] ad- complishments indancing and conversing .dressed me and coquetted with me in the with white men in attendance.Reared in chas- most subtle and amusing manner.» This royal tity, the mothers watched them'carefully and visitor confessed himself not indifferent to accompanied their daughters to the balls until the tempting contrast offered by the two balls they found a suitable protector. only a few blocks apart. He wrote that the women who attended these entertaimnents Saxon says, were almost white, and that from their skins, it was impossible to detect their origin. He «Officially they [the quadroon balls] took great care not to disclose to the whites did not exist.Little was printed where he had been when he returned to their about them, except those references ball. «I could not, however,.refrain from mak- which found their way into the dia- ing comparison, which in no wise redounded ries of travellers...They were the to the advantage of the white ssembly.» principal diversion for white gentle- men.» Itisrelatedthat various families of daughters by the same father often appeared Only colored ladies were admitted. The men at these quadroon balls on the same evening of .that caste, it is understood, were shut out when their legitimate brother was present. by the white gentlemen- «To take away all Semblance of vulgarity, the price of admis- Oneoftheoutstandinglimitations sion is fixed at two dollars, so that only per- placed upon this class of people was that of sons of the better class can appear there.» marriage. This form of union between a white man and a descendant of a negro, in however The Duke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach, in remote a degree, was riot legal in the slave relating interesting episodes which occurred states. According to Article 95 of theCivil during his stay in New Orleans, describes his Cede of Louisiana,the following restriction experiences at two balls which he attended was placed upon such marriages: one evening. First was the subscription ball given atthe French Theatre,. where only Free persons and slaves are incapable I SO of contracting marriage together; quadroon and th octoroon are the subjects of the celebration of such marriage is hundreds of e citing and interesting tales. forbidden,- and the marriage is void; Duels were co n incidents of the Creole there is the same incapacity and the dancing assemblies, and the Cordon bleu balls same nullity with respects to mar- the deities of which were the quadroon riages contracted by free white per- women. The affairs of honor weresettled by sons with free people of color. a midnight thrust in a vacant squarebehind the Cathedral or in a daylight encounter at Before a marriage could be legally solem- The Oaks» or Les Trois Capalins.» nized between a white person and a colored, the former was required to make oath that he The great ambition of the unmarried had negro blood in his veins. The difficulty to quadroon mothers was to have their children a white man taking oath, lay notonly in the pass as whites and therebyhave access to the falsehood, but in the realization that by ac- privileged class. This desire to rise from a low- knowledging the existence of such a stain, he er level to social equalitywith a superior race voluntarily shut himself out of the society of was implanted in4e heartof the quadroon. his people forever. &nee, an aversion on their part to marrying men of their own color, andtheir almost com- The step was once taken by a young plete denial of onelode of morality accepted American who resided in New Orleans. A rich by white women, and their consequent adop- merchant and sugar planter, possibly of Jew- tion of a separate standard of morals. ish extraction, had an only daughter, a qua- droon, who was very talented and beautiful. When the quadroon's admirer became She was heiresa to her father's great wealth, desirous of forming a liaison with her, she but he refused to bestow his property on his usually referred the applicant to her mother. daughter or anyone but a white man who The parent inquired into the circumstancesof would be willing to wed her lawfully. This in- the suit before regulating the terms of the bar- volved taking the oath that negro blood ran in gain. In many cases she received fifty dollars a his veins. With a view of satisfying his con- month, during which time the lover had ex- science, the suitor, prior to appearing before clusive right to the house, or if he so desired, the authorities, pricked the finger of his fian- he might live there with utmost safety and cée and inserted some of the blood which tranquility.Quite frequently he provided trickled from the wound into a gash which he housekeeping quarters in a tenement in a cer- had made in his own hand. After this he took tain part of the city. Sometimes the suitor the oath which made them legally man and agreed to pay a stated amount, perhaps two wife. He did not delay in carrying his bride to thousand dollars, or a sum in proportion to Europe. the girl's merits. The wealth thus secured varied with her attractiveness and the number Possibly no city in the United States so and value of other lovers she might expect. abounds in stories pathetic and tragic as does Occasionally the contract included an addi- New Orleans. The basis of these were the tional payment of a specified amount for each mingling of races, the conflicts of French and child which the quadroon might bear him. Spanish, and especially the relations between Upon this fund she could retire when the the whites and the fair women of color. Many, liaison terminated or use it as a protection in no doubt, have never been published.The the event of her suitor's death. I 151 After the bargain was made, the mistress according to her own standard, lost nothing was called une placee. Her friends entertained by having served as mistress of a white man as her as a prospective bride would be feted, af- the connection did not prevent her from mat- ter which she probably moved to her newly rimony with a free man of color. furnished establishment.The attachment of the quadroon is so constant and her conduct In such liaisons, the children were illegit- so free from stain that the connection is con- imate, and as such men did not contract mar- sidered in the light of a left-handed marriage.* riages with them. The Catholic Church recog- According to custom, they were esteemed as nized unions of this kind and bound the hus- honorable and virtuous while they were faith- -,band to support and provide for his offspring, ful to one man. If, in their amours, they be- but this did not prevent him from entering came indiscriminate, they lost the advantage upon knarital relations. Among the French of this rank and became classed as prostitutes and Spanish settlers an entirely different feel- or slaves. The instances of their infidelity ing existed toward their children of a mixed were rare. Though unfaithfulness was punish- race from that which the emigrants from ed among them they no sooner disengaged states usually manifested. A man of the for- from one attachment than they were free to mer class never, ppeared to regard such chil- form another. - dren as attaching any disgrace to his character. The connection sometimes lasted for We are to remember, in connection life; usually for several years. During this time with the conditions in Louisiana, a man sustained ails relation, he commonly that a general trait of French and moved also in reputable society on the other Spanish colonists in all countries side of town. Perhaps he married and had a has been that they have commonly family establishment elsewhere. Before doing recognized and provided for the this, he might have separated from his /0(10e. wives taken from among native If so, he paid her according to the agreement, women, negro, Indian, or any other sometimes more in proportion to his affection nationality, and that they have ac- for her or his sense of cruelty of the proceed- knowledged and provided for their ings. Some men continued to maintain both children; while the Anglo-Saxon, as homes, particularly if the legal marriage was a rule, leaves these women and chil- one de convenance. Occasionally the attach- dren to shift for themselves. ment to the quadroon was so strong that the relation was never discontinued. These men EDUCATION AND RELIGION left propert,-, at their math, to children from OF THE FREE NEGRO such unions The education and religion of the free When the time came for the man to take negro offer many interesting studies V- those a white wife, the news probably reachedhis who trace their development. Distinct laws miadroon m; 'tress either by letter telling her and customs governed both, and in many that she might claim the house and furniture, ways these people's participation in either was or by a newspaper which announced the mar- circumscribed and limited. riage. The free negroes who came to New Or- Lyle Saxon thinks the quadroon woman, leans after the revolution in Santo Domingo 152 - 4. 9 were of a higher type than the ordinary negro. The Daily Crescent of October 2, 1848, They spoke the French language and all were contained 14 following article under the cap- Catholics. Some educated their children in tion, oUnlawiul Assemblage of Negroes»: France, the northern states, or in private' schools at home. For some time past the negroes of Faubourg Treme, in the first muni- In most southern states teaching a slave cipality, have been holding meet- or free negro to read or write was considered ings on the Sabbath, as is alleged a crime. The punishment was imprisonment for divine worship, in the public and a fine of five hundred dollars if the of- house on Villerestreet, without fender were w!,ite; fines and whippings if he legal permission. Occasionally white were a slave or a free negro. This restriction, men have been seen mixing in these with corresponding punishment, prevailed in meetings and the suspicion hav- Georgia. Tennessee prohibited the teaching of ing been aroused that they might be free negroes to read or write. Any semblance incendiary characters, Lieut. Viut, of school was stopped and teachers and pupils one of the Treme police, with one were shipped. Some states did not permit or two other officers, yesterday them to have churches. Usually, restrictions pounced upon the meeting, about against meetings did not apply to the cassem- 12 o'clock, as the preacher, a negro bly of negroes for moral and spiritual uplift named Charles Dawty was in full on Sundays.» Georgia legislation provided. blast crying, KDe Lord be a coming, de Lord be coming, my bredren!» Should a free negro presume to and his hearers alternately contract- preach or exhort his companions, ing and elongating themselves like he may be seized without warrant, /the man with the Indian rubber and whipped thirty-nine lashes, and spine, were repeating his consoling the same number of lashes may be assurance. Between fifty and sixty apt cach one of his congrega- slaves and free negroes, and one white man were arrestedin the house and marched to the parish Lou isiam enacted legislation in 1850 to the jail. effect that: The white man remained in prison until a late In no such case shall the provisons hour and the other suspects were released by of this act [of 1847, entitled «An friends or owners who gave security for their Act for the organization of certain appearance to be examined. A report on the corporations in this state,»] be con- case given by this paper the following day al- strued to apply to free persons of luded to three white persons arrested in the color in this State incorporated for group. Sufficient evidence was lacking to religious purposes or secret associa- prove that the meeting was for any ot!.. e pur- tions, and any corporations that pose than religious worship as the persons ar- may have been organized by such rested were discharged «no law existing to persons under this act, for religious prevent mixed assemblys [sic] for that ob- purposes or secret associations are ject.» Five of the negroes involved, who did annulled and revoked. not have proper identification papers, were 153 ordered to leave the state. The colored preacher sored by religious organizations. The law «presented to the court his appointment by tolerated these city private schools by a signi- Bishop Quinns of Indiana to a deaconship in ficant silen_.; on the subject. Public opinion the 'African Methodist Episcopal Church of also tolerated them by a quasi encouragement America,' dated the 18 August, 1848; and a and patrons e. Under the old regime this was license from the presiding Elder, Mr. S. W. one of the/delicate subjects with which peo- Chance, of the Wesley Chapel in this city, to ple considered it wise not to interfere in ad- preach, dated the 19th August, 1846, and re- vance. So the law held its power in reserve newed the 19 December last. Recorder Genois, and while it placed heavy fines and punish- with the view, we understand, of having these ments on those who taught slaves and kept meetings more under the supervision and a strict watch over the movements of free within the control of the authorities, has sent colored people, it refrained from going any the papers connected with this meter to the further. Attorney General in the expectation that he may induce legislative action on the subject.» Many wealthy fathers provided for their children's education in white boarding schools In times of great fear of insurrection free of the North or in France. The number of col- negroes were restricted in assembling for reli- ored Creoles who received an education abroad gious purposes. Municipalities followed the approximated two thousand. The quadroon example of the states in restricting this de- girls constituted a large percentage of this spised class. In a few such places as Charleston, group. Of the free negroes who studied in Mobile, and New Orleans strict laws governing foreigncountries, some became wholesale free people of color were. not always enforced. merchants in France; others were bankers, Influential white persons cdnnected with this editors, musicians, and physicians. The law class of people by ties of blood often inter- profession was so closely guarded that they vened between them and the law and pro- were, unable to practice before the courts. vided for their home life, private education, Many of these who chose to remain in France and religious training. «In these cities tip free attained distinction in scientific, musical and negro sometimes enjoyed so many advantages literary circles. A member of the Lambert that foreigners saw very little difference be-% family of New Orleans, who was decorated tween their situation and that of the whites.» by the King of Portugal, became a professor InLouisiana were many of these mixed at Paris and composer of the famous Si J'Etals breeds. The father was usually eager to have Roi, L'Africaine, and La Somnambula. In the his colored children educated in a manner same field Basile Bones also achieved unusual that would reflect honor upon himself. If a fame. Edmond Dede was sent to Paris in 1857 master were livingin concubinage with a by some interested townspeople to complete slave. he frequently gave her freedom before his musical education. He became director of the birth of her children so that they would the orchestra of L'Alcazar in Bordeaux and a be free. This usually resulted in the father's good friend of Gounod. Natives of New Or- providing for their education the amount leans recall when he returned to Louisiana and kind depending upon his wealth. forty-six years later to play for his native city once more. «He was old, but not worn,nor There were no state schools in Louisiana bent, the fire of youth still flashed in his eye, forfreenegroes. Education was provided and leaped along the bow of his violin.» The through private schools or institutions spon- list of famous musicians of the state included 154 many free people of color.Victor Sejour, a religious test was required of pupils or patrons. native quadroon of New Orleans, became pri- vate secretary to Louis Napoleon and afa- - In the region of Opelousasand Washing- mous dramatic writer of Paris. ton (formerly called Niggervillebecause of the large number of free negroes living inthe vil- Free colored people believed that the in- lage) were many free people of color repre- feriority of condition necessarily attached to senting thrifty and prosperous planters.They itselflasting dishcilfor as the whites believed owned some of the best cotton and sugar that color was a badge of an inferior race. plantations on which were large,comfortable This theory was illustrated by the following houses. Many of these received a liberaledu- episode. A certain Mr. Bougville, who was cation. According to travellers wholeft inter- considered a successful colored Creole teacher esting accounts of their observations offree in New Orleans, related a story concerning a blacks, it was not unusual to find that many slave boy whose white father desired him to of the well-to-do class were educated.The be educated in his school. The teacher accept- Grimble Bell school for free colored children ed the pupil because the standing of the father near Opelousds,usually enrolled about one in the community was a guarantee against hundred and twenty-five pupils andfour legal proceedings. Objection soon came from teachers. Those attending the school were as a the other pupils. They opposed the idea of a rule charged fifteen dollars amonth for board slave being !alight in a room with them. Their and tuition. This institutioncontinued its parents would not tolerate such indignity.Mr. work for a number of years.After it closed, Bougville was forced to end the matter peace- many of the youthsof that section of the fully by dismissing the slave pupil and teach- state were sent to private schoolsin New Or- ing him in his master's house. leans. The standard of respectability among In Pointe Couple Parish a largepropertied free people of color contained many grada- class of free colored families usuallyprovided tions of color. This was quite significant in re- for the education of their childrenby securing gard to their schools. Some of the more fash- rooms in the principalhouses and employing ionable privateinstitutions admitted only teachers for the entire year. Attendanceat those whose skin showed a large amount of such schools necessitated the paymentof a Caucasian blood. «In others the grade was regular tuition fee. «For more thanfifty years placed lower but the same principle was rec- their schools have been kept open inthis man- ognized; while the great majority of profes- ner.» The contrast inthe literacy of the whites sors made the socialcondition of the parents with that of the free blacks wasstartling. the only criterion.» Most of the schools were Out of nearly two hundred coloredfamilies open to all who were born freeand whose pa- who were free before the war, only onefam- rents could pay the fee required.They were ily is unable to read and write while among usually held in private houses without any the white people from twenty tothirty-five external appearance indicative of their use. per cent are in ignorance.» When there was any pretext for complaint the greatest care was taken to concealthis There were numerous well-to-doedu- fact. The French Creoles were mostlyCatho- cated free blacks in NatchitochesParish along lics, so this creed usually prevailed intheir Cane River, Bayou Natchez, BayouSnipe, private schools. There is no knowledge that a Little River, and Red River. Largefamilies rf7rJ 6 1 lived at Natchitoches, Cloutierville, Isle Bre- A four-room building was erected for this pur- velle, and Campti. They were descended from pose. One room served as a chapel where the the progeny of the old French and Spanish priest from Cloutierville said Mass once or planters, noble and plebeian, and their negro twice a month and instructed the people in slaves. Indian and Mexican blood also coursed the rudiments of religion. The rest of the through their veins. French blood predomi- structure was occupied by two sisters, Daugh- nated in the population of the Natchitoches ters of the Cross.In this same building the region and this language was usually spoken. good sisters taught Catechism and the three During a journey down Cane River, Olmsted R's, but only to girls. The boys were instruct- learned from the captain of the boat, the ed in a little shack by one or the other of the Dalman, of a settlement of well-educated Canadian Instituteurs'.» The instruction was free people of color in the vicinity of Natchi- given in French, for it was the language exclu- toches. They spoke French among themselves sively spoken there. Not long after this, prob- but all were able to converse in English. ably in 1856, a building which served the dual role of school and convent was erected. Just Education among these free negroes was previous to this, a wealthy quadroon planter prompted by the Catholic Church and included and slaveowner, Augustin Metoyer (Grandpere both religious instruction and training in the Augustin), donated a plot of ground for a rudiments of learning. The first missionary church, a rectory, and a cemetery. In 1856 work among Catholics in Natchitoches Parish Isle Brevelle was made a parish with a resident was done in 1717 by the venerable priest, priest. Reverend F. Martin was the first to Antonio Margil. He ministered alike to white, hold this appointment. During the Civil War red, black, and mixed. Records relate that a when the «Yankees» marched through this certain Father Martin of Avoyelles attended country creating havoc and devastation, les his flock among the rivers and bayous in that banns sceurs left the place snd never came section in 1829. In 1840 Reverend J. ninon, back. Not until 1889 did the Sisters of afterwards Bishop of Buffalo, did excellent re- Divine Providence undertake the arduous task ligious work in that country. All of these pio- of educating the young people of Isle Brevelle. neer missionaries labored under greatadversi- ties and trying circumstances. When the New Various Catholic orders of religious or- Orleans Archdiocese was divided with the re- ganizations in New Orleans did much for the sultant formation of the Diocese of Natchi- spiritual welfare and education of the free ne- toches in1852, the Reverend A. M. Martin groes there. In the Annals of the Ursuline was appointed its first bishop. He was a man Nuns we read: of great vision, courage, and determination. His faith and zeal were bound up in the cause In 1831 two of the religious of our of religion. His consecration in 1853 marked community were sent to the estab- the beginning of the actual history of the lishment conducted by Miss Alli- Parish of Isle Brevelle. quot in order to keep a school for free colored children. This school Cloutierville was founded with Isle Bre- was located on St. Claude Street velle as one of its missions. A plan was soon and was maintained by the Ursu- formulated to give free negroes on Cane River lines until 1838. and in the surrounding country religious in- struction and spiritual care at regular intervals. According to the story recorded, Miss < 5 7 156 Jeanne Alliquot, a very charitable lady, dedi- acter. Their first establishment was an obscure cated her life to work among children, par- one on the Bayou Road. A few years later ticularly negroes. When she was no longer they took charge of a home for old and infirm physically able to carry on her responsibilities, women; later they built a house on Bayou Bishop Denekere confided her troubles to the Road between Rampart and St. Claude streets. Ur aline sisters: His distress appealed so keen- Now the community occupies the building ly to them that they promised to add to their once used for the famous quadroon balls. overburdened schedule the duties formerly as- These Sisters of the Holy Family followed the sumed by this noble benefactress.The Ursu- rule of St. Augustine, the novitiate lasting two lines lo fed this work so dearly that the most years and six months; vows wererenewed distinguished and cultured among them es- every year until after ten yearsprofession. teemed themselves happy to be allowed to Then they became perpetual. consecrate themselves to it.» The boarding school was so successful and its growth so The first free school opened for colored rapid that the religious were not sufficient in children in the United States was the Ecok number to care for all of its problems. In Des Orphelins Indigents which was founded 1837 this service to which they had become April 20, 1847. It became Me largest Colored so strongly attached was given toot: er reli- Creole school in New Orleans. This institution gious. was under the patronage of theCatholic Soci- ety for the Instruction of Indigent Orphans In 1842 in the zenith of the brilliant, un- (Societe Catholique pour l'Instruction des wholesome notoriety of the quadroon women, Orphelins dans l'Indigence). The Widow Ber- the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy nard Couvent, a free woman of color and na- Family was founded. Bishop Blanc of New tive of Guinea, provided by will at her death Orleans, who was deeply concerned in the in 1837 that the lot and buildings on the needs of colored people, together with Father corner of Union and Greatmen streets wereto Etienne Rousse lon,his Vicar General, or- be used as a school for colored orphans. Ten ganized a community of colored sisters whose years later ten free men of color,residents of duty was to care for negro orphans and poor New Orleans, formed an organization «for the aged negroes. Three young women of color, purpose of establishing and supporting one or who descended from three of the oldest and more schools for theinstruction of indigent most reputable free colored families in New orphan children of 'both sexes.» This society Orleans, united with the resolve to use their had the power to own property and make lives for service. They dedicated themselves, laws and regulations for the discipline, educa- their education, and wealth to the fostering of tion,health, and religiousinstructionof religion and charity. The group was soon join- pupils. It further provided that when these ed by another young woman of good family children attained a certain age, the organiza- and education. Mother Juliette was the eldest. tion was authorized, withthe consent of We know little of the history or personality those in charge of the orphans, to bind them of these sisters, as they concealed facts rela- out to learn a useful trade or dispose of them tive to their lives. But we can see the great according to the charitable p4tposes of the faith and courage manifested in the selection institution. Persons whocontributedtwo dol- of this noble vocation. It called for untold lars and forty cents annually were considered perseverar ein overcoming numerous ob- directors. This school was aided. by Aristide Itacles which confronted a work of such char- Mary, a well-to-do Creole of color who left 1 58 157 five thousand dollars for its support, and by avoid all that is evil and offering then all pos- Thorny Lafon, a wealthy free man of color. sible aid and encouragement to progress in Before the occupation of New Orleans by spiritualperfection;»thepracticalwork Federal t:oops small appropriations were oc- adopted as the means of furthering this object casionally made by the state for the upkeep was the evangelization and spiritual care of of this orphanage, but these sums were never the negroes. The society was considered to sufficient to support it adequately. The insti- have a great influence for good and it con- tutionhas beenin continuous existence. tinued to be a very active organization until it Many children, not orphans, are willing to pay ceased to function in the last few years. a fee to obtain the thorough education which the school offers. In 1859 John F. Cook went to New Or- leans from St. Louis and organized a school The founding of the Christian Doctrine for free children of color. This was at the time Society of New Orleans in March, 1818, was when discontent was prevalent in the South, an event of unusual interest. The inspiration when there was much talk of secession and of this organization was Bishop Dubourg, a war. Cook had violated laws by coming into Capuchin Father attached to the Cathedral of the state and by opening a school for free St. Louis. The association was specially privi- children of color. He taught for a year. At the leged by two Popes. Originally the society ad- expiration of this time the schoolmaster left mitted only men to membership. About a New Orleans as he had been warned that he half _entury later it included women also. It was to be arrested and detained. became very active and its membership at times approximated two hundred individuals. An unusual character in the educational oThe primaryobjectof thesociety was and religious life of the free negrOes in New promotion of the spiritual well-being of its Orleans was the Reverend Walter Rogers, one members by the practice of good works and of the most prominent colored pa:Aors in that the development of Christian virtues. The city. While he was serving in this capacity he second aim was to honor in a particular man- published a small book (about fifty pages) of ner the Most Blessed Virgin Mary in her Im- extracts from his sermons, Bible narratives, maculate Conception, and also to foster a hymns, and religious meditations for the use particular devotion to St. Joseph and St. Louis. of the Sunday School. Rogers' Compositions The third aim was to help all its members to was published in 1850. walk in the path by virtue, aiding them to FREE BLACKS, NEW ORLEANS, AND R. L. DESDUNES By Charles E. O'Neill, S. J. In 1804 the French-speaking population nor the degradation of theslave. They stood of New Oriel? -,s addressed a memorial of pro- between or rather apartsharing the culti- test to the United States Congress. Their lan- vated tastes of the upper caste and the painful guage, a most precious possession, was threat- humiliation attached to the race of the en- ened. They did not doubt 'that the time would slaved. Little is known of their aspirations, come when their children would speak the their achievements, their anguish. language of the new republic which now gov- erned their Lousiana, but they petitioned that The 4(free persons of color» are found in A there be no sudden elimination of the French French colonial Louisiana as early as 1725. language fron Ir.; legislature and the courts. On August 14, 1725 Jean Raphael, a free Ne- gro from Martinique, married Marie Gaspart In 1968 the legislature of the state of from Bruges in Flanders. On November 27, Louisiana passed a bill that assures the teach- 1727, Jean Mingo, free Negro, married Therese, ing of Frene, in public elementary and high a Negro slave belonging to M. deCantillon, schools. with permission of plantation manager Darby. .1 Between these two events lies the history From then on church records and civil of the striking survival to our times of the archives mention the presence of the free per- French language in Louisiana. The pen of sons of color. Some entered the colony as free many a historian and novelist has sketched people, some were freed in recognition of the portrait of the French-speaking Louisiana merit and loyalty.2 Some had been slaves, but gentleman, the gracious chatelain of his plan- had been given freedom by their white lover tation home and town house, his high-temper- or parent; some had purchased their freedom ed sons and his vivacious daughtersbelles et by extra work during leisure hours. cheries. According to the Code Noir, the free What is not so well known is that many a person of color had the rights of any citizen French-language writer of nineteenth-century of French Louisiana, except for marriage with Louisiana was partly of African ancestry. and legacies from whites. In a society where a Poets,journalists,dramatists came from black slave could sue a white the position ofthe among the gens de couleur fibres the free free person of color was more solid indeed. Yet people of colorand their descendants. They the social pressure of custom maintained the shared neither the privileges of the master class superior position of the white over the person 159 11. 60 160 of color however free and «equal.»3 In 1812 Louisiana's Battalion of Free /1 Men of Color was unique in the United States/ During the Spanish regime, easy emanci- the «only Negro volunteer militia with its pation plevailed and the free population of own line officers.» Andrew Jackson welcomed color continued to grow. The census of 1788 the free Negro troops who fought heroically showed 1,701 free Negroes in a total popula- at the Battle of New Orleans (1815). The tion of 43,111 in Louisiana and West Florida.4 state legislature gratefully praised their pa- In New Orleans their number grew from 99 triotism and bravery.11 out of 3,190 in 1769 to 1,355 out of 10,000 in 1803.5 Valor and prowess in the field did not win expected American rights in the constitu- While on several occasions the French tion and legislature of the new state. Only had given freedom to slave volunteers in ex- twenty-one-year-old white males could vote change for military service in the defense of and be elected representatj,ves; as their age in- the colony, the Spanish organized a militia creased they became eligible for the senate.12 composed entirely of free men of color (par- dos y morenos).6 They participated in the Political discrimination did not block fi- capture of Baton Rouge and Pensacola in Gal- nancial power. Several persons of color amass- vez's dramatic campaigns against the Brit- ed outstanding fortunes, particularly in real ish during the American War of Indepen- estate. However, the vast majority of this eth- dence.7 nic and social middle group lived by arduous toil in trades. Most typical were the occupa- In the Spanish era (1766-1803) the free tions of tailor, barber, carpenter, mason, cigar Negro enjoyed a lively social life in New Or- maker, shoemaker and hack driver) 3 leans. The city's firsttheater had mulatto stars.8 The average white accepted this middle Without ever according political equality layer of society between himself and the black the Louisiana Supreme Court steadily pro- slaves, and dealt easily with its members. Yet tected the middle position of the free persons the white population had two complaints. They of color against the more militant whites. In suspected that the free mulatto might pro- the antebellum era, a recent study concludes, mote slave discontent and revolt. They ad- «free Negroes [ in Louisiana] can be consider- mired the beauty of the cag-au-lait quadroons ed as possessing the status of quasi-citizenship and octaroons, but felt that the liaisons con- and as such enjoyed a better position than stantly undermined the morals of young any of their counterparts in other states of white males.9 the South.»14 Yet the free man of color con- tinued to be «denied legal suffrage, the right Revolution in Saint-Domingue sent refu- to run for public office, and made the subject gees fleeing to Louisiana, white and black and of discriminatory legislation because of his mixed, slave and free, young and old. C:iba al- color.»1 5 so sent emigrants to New Orleans in the first decade of the nineteenth century. By 1810 As the abolitionist movement intensified, there were 7,585 free persons of color among feeling against the free persons of color in- the 76,500 who lived in the Territory of Or- creased. The fear of slave rebellion was ever leans soon to become the state of Louisiana present, and the free Negro was, in the mind (1812).10 of the dominant but slightly outnumbered '6I 161 race, the most likely leader of any such upris- Homere Plessy among them did what they ing. Thus between 1830 an.360 social pres- could, but they faced a tidal wave of emotions sure and legislative action-,:creased against and laws. emancipations, against immigration of free Negroes, and in favor of colonizing resident Two decades after the wave had struck, free Negroes out of the state. Finally in 1857 Black historian Alice Dunbar-Nelson wrote: legislation was passed putilng an end com- pletely to manumissions in Louisiana.16 «There is no State in the Union, hardly any spot of like size on the When Louisiana had entered the union as globe, where the man of color has a state in 1812, there had been among its lived so intensely, made so much total population of almost 00,000 about 8,000 progress, been of such historical im- free persons of color; most of them resided in portance and yet about whom so the city of New Orleans. When Louisiana se- 'comparatively little is knowrt.'His ceded and joined the Confederacy in 18611 history is like,the Mardi Gras of the her free persons of color numbered about city of Nfev Orleans, beautiful and 18,700, over half of whom lived in New Or- mysterious and wonderful, but with leans; by this time Louisiana's total popula- a serious thought underlying it all. tion had increased to about 709,000.17 May it be better known to the world some day.>>20 During the Civil War three regiments of «men of color in New Orleans were the only It was this abysmal knowledge gap which organized [Negro] soldiery on the Confederate Rodolpl.e Lucien Desdunes had tried to fill side.» With what freedom and under what by his major work, Nos Hommes et Notre His- pressure they enlisted is not clear. Overconfi- toire, published in 1911. Black pride and. dent Louisiana leaders dismissed these militia- French pride flow in his recounting of these men as not needed. After the Federals took biographies. Gifted, but deprived of higher New Orleans in 1862, the city's men of color, education, Rodolphe Desdunes not only pro- jointly with newly freed slaves, composed the vides data unobtainable elsewhere but also first colored regiment of the Federal army. serves as a symbol of the people whom he Louisiana «furnished more colored troops for memorialized. the war than any other State,» but the major- ity of them were freedmen, who in the general Little about him has been published, lit- population far outnumbered the «f.p.c.»1 8 tle has been known. Even the indefatigable re- searcher Edward Larocque Tinker had little to In the Reconstruction era, education and show, and that little was not entirely accu- savoir-faire led the free persons of color into rate.21 leadership posts ahead of the newly freed slaves. Active in politics and in the press, Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes was born in these leaders surpassed their counterparts in New Orleans November 15. 1849. Jeremiah other states." With anguish and dismay the Desdunes, his father, had been forced to leave late nineteenth-century heirs of the free peo- Haiti in a political struggle. Jeremiah's wife ple of color witnessed the raging surge of the Henrietta was a Cuban.22 The couple had two campaign for segregation and disenfranchise- other sons, Pierre-Aristide (poet by profes- ment. 'They R. L. Desdunes and his friend sion. a cigar-maker by trade) and Danie1.23 162 Rodolphe married Mathilde Chaval, and the assassinated William McKinley, and then of their union were born Wendell,Daniel went on to win a four-year term in his own (who taught music at Boys Town inNebraska), right. (Desdunes would see that a grandson of Coritza, Agnes, Lucille, and Jeanne. The fam- his was named for his admired President Ted- ily lived at 928 Marais Street in downtown dy.) The former merchant, turned-customs- New Orleans.24 inspector, had a position with a solid salary that permitted him to write . like customs The family formerly had a cigar factory, officers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman with tobacco coming from their own plantation. Melville of an earlier period. However, jovial raconteur Rodolphe Lucien Des- dunes was4ot a businessman; he wanted to Then one day in 1911(?), Desdunes and write. In 1879 he obtained ajob with the Unit- four other officers went to supervise weighing ed States Customs Service as a messenger, with for customs aboard a ship unloading granite. a salary of six hundred dollars a year. The fol- In a tragic accident dust blew from the stone lowing year he rose to clerk at fourteen hundred into his eyes. Despite efforts made in federal dollars a year. He was dropped from the rolls in August, 1885, an event perhaps related to the hospitals to save the sexagenarian's eyesight, Republicans' loss of the presidency to Demo- Desdunes was to spend the' remaining seven- crat Grover Cleveland. Yet Desdunes returned teen years of his life in degrees ofblindness:29 to the service as clerk, to serve from 1891 to He had to retire from the 'Customs Service in 1894.25 September, 1912.29 It was during this period that Desdunes, Still, he had his wife, his children, his with a few friends, organized theComo des grandchildren, and his friends. Dr. Dusuau, a Citoyens,Citizens' Committee, which launch- pharMacist, used to read to him. Rene Grand- ed the Plessy v.Fergusoncase.26 The 1890's jean used to converse with him. Grandmother were a discouraging decade,for not only did Mathilde had goodies for the grandchildren, the United States Supreme Court uphold ra- but the young people had to go outside when cial segregation in 1896, but also the state of the patriarch engaged in long conversations Louisiana revised its constitution in 1898 so with old friends. Desdunes wrote English with as to disfranchise the Negro. The personal style and spoke it fairly well, but at home he memoirs given by Desdunes inNos Hommes preferred French. He liked his tobacco, a fam- et Notre Histoirereach only through 1896. ily tradition. Wine he took sparingly, a little with his meals but nothing more.30 Such was In 1899, once again at the Oistomhouse. the daily routine of this benign, dignified man. Desdunes was giventhe post of assistant weigher at twelve hundred dollars a year on His grandson, Theodore Frere, recalls a a probationary basis. OnAugust 5, 1899, he childhood memory. Grandfather Desdunes signed the oath of office in a firm, round used to leave hanging outside of the house the hand. His conduct and capacity having proven gun he was assigned as a customs agent. Natu- satisfactory, he received a permanent appoint- rally the firearm rusted. Desdunes would say: ment on January 31,1900.27 «When I cannot subdue a man with my bare hands, I will quit, because life was given by Life seemed secure at this time for Des- God, not to be taken by men.»31 dunes. The Republicans continued to hold the presidency; Theodore Roosevelt succeeded While visiting his son Daniel in Omaha, 163 4P 163 I Nebraska, Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes died on Acknowledging the position of the learned August 14, 1928, of 'ancer of the larynx. It4 northern Negro academician, Desdunes was was occasionally said that he died in California.; piqued by W. E. B. Du Bois' blanket generali- this misconception may have arisen from the zation that the southern Negro lacked book fact that it was Mrs. Coritza Mora of Stock- learning and industrial skills. «The Negroes ton, California, who made the arrangements of the South do not deserve to stand under for sending the remains to New Orleans. He thandictment which the first part of that was interred in the family tomb in St. Louis declaration conveys.»35 The New Orleans Cemetery No. 2, Square 3.32 His widow, two Creole Negro listed learned and distinguished sons, and three daughters survived the vener- Louisianians of his race. able author who had celebrated the eloquence and the suffering of his people.33 Desdunes went on to take issue with Du Bois' analysis and procedure in matters of Desdunes' literary career included con- race, history, revolution, and rights. He felt tributions to The Crusader (1889-98), a jour- that Du Bois had uncritically accepted Tous- nal published by Dr. L. Martinet. From Des- saint L'Ouvertu:e as the greatest black hero dunes' pen came also some pamphlets for of the Saint-Domingue revolution, -whereas, example, Hommage rendu a la memoire d'A- in actuality, he argued, L'Ouverture was quite lexandre Aristide Mary decide a la Nouvelle- willing to see the island remain under France Orleans, le 15 mai, 1893, a l'age de 70 ans. and to acc..tpt a position of authority in the The eighteen-page pamphlet was «not for French administration. It was Jean Jacques sale,» but was distributed among friends. Dessalines whom Desdunes considered the Mary's generosity as quiet contributor to real hero. In a phrase that must have made Du many causes was praised. Desdunestold of Bois wince, Desdunes stated that Toussaint how Mary had opposed P. B. S. Pinchback re- L'Ouverture was the Booker T. Washingtop of garding the establishment of a separate state Haiti. university for blacks, which would be called «Southern University.» A visit by Desdunes In strong terms Desdunes condemned had led Mary to lend his support to the fund white oppression. However, he felt the day that would carry Homere Plessy's case through would come when just whites would oppose the courts. unjust whites as in the days of abolition. «By striving for justice, justice we may obtain, by Tragically, Mary, a septuagenarian «by- reaching out for justice and domination, we ac had taken his own life. Des- are in danger of losingboth.»35 ,1_,Ies, annoyed that Mary hadbeen refused church burial, complained that some persons Desdunes excoriated all flight from Ne- less Christian than this glihre penseur» suicide gro racial identity. He felt that the present had been accorded religious funeral services. and future need of the Negro was a high He challenged his local Catholic clergy to see moral integrity and a confident sell- identity. to the elimination of «unjust manoeuvers» This foundation he considered basic to polit- and «affronts, even in the house ofGod.»34 ical peace and happiness. In March, 1907, Desdunes published a At the conclusion of the pamphlet, Des- fifteen-page pamphlet entitled A Few Words dunes posed a fundamental challenge to Du to 13,..DuiloisWith Malice Toward None'. Bois' generalizations, for he distinguished the 164 164 hopeful,philosophicalLatin-culture Negro for its printing and publication in the largest from the doubtful, practical Anglo-Saxon-cul- French-speaking city in America.37 ture Negro. Whatever may be thought of Des- dunes' ideology, he shows himself in this Keen feeling and simple manner run pamphlet to be a reflective thinker and a well - throughhisnineteenth-centurystyle. The read, scintillating discussant. sophisticated critic will look in vain for em- bellishing conceits. His book was his avoca- Desdunes' major work, Nos Hommes et tion a labor of love for his people. The data Notre Histoire: had fortunately been com- he was able to obtain are often anecdotal and pleted before his sad loss of sight. The latest uneven, and unevenly distributed. buthis date given in the book' is. 11)08. In 1911, L. work is a unique source of information and Martin of 'Montreal urged the author to pub- insight regarding these men and women who lishhis manuscript and made 'arrangements suffered for race and for language. 1 6 5 165 Notes 1. St. Louis Cathedral Archives, Marriage Book I, 11, Art. 6, 10 and 18. 89, 140. 13. Robert C. Reinders,The Free Negro in the 2. See Louisiana State Museum Archives, May 13, New Orleans Economy,» Louisiana History, 6 1730, LHQ, IV, 524. (1965), 274-81. Sterkx, The Free Negro, Chap- ter V,The Economic Life of the Free Negro.» 3. Paris, Archives des Colonies, B43, 388-407. 14.Sterkx, The Free Negro, 171. 4. H. E. Sterkx, The Fre- Negro in Ante-Bellum Louisiana, (Rutherford, J., 1972), 85. 15. Ibid., 199. 5. Lawrence Kinnaird, ed., Spain in the Mississippi 16. Ibid., 119-50, 285-315. Valley 1765-1794 (Washington, AHA, 1940), II, 196 17. Population of .the United States in 1860 (Wash- ington, 1864), 194. 6. Archival references in E. J. Burrus, J. de la Peh'a, C. E. O'Neill and M. T. Garcia, Catalog° de Do- 18. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, «People of Color in Loui- cumentos des Archivo General de Indies Seed& siana,* Journal of Negro History, 11 (1917), 67- V, Gobierno, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, 69. John D. Winter, The Civil War in Louisiana, sobre la Epoca Espaflola de Luisiana (New Or- (Baton Rouge, 1963), 35, 129, 144-45, 209, leans, 1968), II, 506. Roland C. McConnell, Ne- 253. gro Troops of Ante-Bellum Louisiana (Baton Rouge, 1968), 4-32. 19. Charles B. Rousseve, The Negro in Louisiana (New Orleans, 1937), 96-125. 7. Sterkx, The Free Negro, 74. McConnell, Negro Troops, 17-21. 20. Dunbar-Nelson, «People of Color in Louisiana,» 78. 8. Rene LeGardeur, Jr., The First New Orleans Theatre (New Orleans, 1963), 10-14. 21. Edward Larocque Tinker, Les &fits de langue francaise en Louisiane au XIXe siècle (Paris: Li- 9. Sterkx, The Free Negro, 61 ff and 84. brairieAncienne Honore Champion, 1932), 134. 10.Aggregate Amount of Persons Within the United States in the Year 1810 (Washington, 1811),1, 22. Certificateof Death A4339, Omaha-Douglas 82. County Health Department; interview with Mr. Theodore Frere, grandson of Ro.'olphe Lucien 11. McConnell. Negro Troops, 53, 67, 70 and 93; Desdunes, May 2, 1971. Marcus B. Christian, Negro Soldiers in the Bat- tle of New Orleans (New Orleans, 1965). 23. Edward Maceo Coleman, Creole Voices: Poems in French by Free Men of Color (Washington, 12. Louisiana Constitution of 1812, Art. 1 1, Sec. 4, D. C.: The Associated Publishers, Inc., 1945), 8 and 12. Louisiana Constitution of 1845, Title 122-23. The late A. P. Tureaud, distinguished 166 attorney and historian, enlightened and encour- 31. Ibid. r. aged me as he did also the late Mr. Coleman. 32. Certificate of Death A4339. (On the certificate 24. Interview with Theodore Frere; New Orleans his tcolor or races is listed as cFrench.») Tink- City Directory, 1912. er, Les dcrits de langue francaise, 134. F. G. Rome, Executive Director, New Orleans Arch- 25. J. W. Fath, Acting Chief, Civilian Reference diocesan Cemeteries, to Charles E. O'Neill, Branch, National Records Center, to Charles E. April1, 1971. Desdunes may have been en O'Neill, June 8, 1971; interview with Theodore route to or from California. Frere. 33. New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 17, 1928. 26. Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes, Hommage rendu ... AlexandreAristide Mary. ..(NewOrleans, 34. Desdunes, Hommage rendu, 17. Another eulogy 1893), 11. by Desdunes, two pages of verse, was printed and distributed, A la memoire de [sic) Eugene 27. Oath of office, August 5, 1899; oath of office Antoine, Deckle le 19 Decembre 1905, a rage for absolute appointment, February 5, 1900; de 61 ans. (New Orleans, 19061 ?]). L. J. Gage to Collector of Customs, New Or- leans,Louisiana, January 31, 1900. National 35. Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes, A Few Words to Archives, Treasury Department, Record Group Dr. DuBois 'With Malice Toward None' (New 56. With gratitude to Mark G. Eckhoff, Direc- Orleans, 1907), 2. torofLegislative, Judicial, and Diplomatic Records Division. 36. Ibid., 14. 28. Interview with Theodore Frere. 37. Tinker's theory in Les &His de langue fran- caise that no Louisiana printer would have 29. J. W. Fath to Charles E. O'Neill, June 8, 1971. accepted the job because the book applied the term creole to persons of color seems con- 30. Interview with Theodore Frere. trived. Reprinted by permission of the Louisiana State University Press. 6 7 r- SOME EFFECTS OF ACADIAN SETTLEMENT ON THEPATTERN OF LAND OCCUPANCE IN LAFAYETTE PARISH 4 By Lyle Givens Williams t Acadian settlement had an important in- An early record of the group which fluence on the pattern of land occupance in reached the Attakapas is found in the archives Lafayette Parish. Among the earliest French of the Cabildo in a contract signed on April 4, colonists in the New World, the Acadians had 1765, by eight chiefs of the Acadians, «chefs lived for nearly a hundred and fifty years in des Acadiens,» with Antoine Bernard Daute- Nova Scotia when Great Britain gained posses- rive, a former captain of infantry who owned sion of all French territory in Canada in 1763. large tracts of land in the Attakapas around Of sturdy peasant stock, the Acadians had for the present Lake Dlmterive in Iberia Parish. generations earned their livelihood by fishing, Through this contract Dauterive promised to farming, and raising cattle. They were ardent furnish to each Acadian family for six con- Roman Catholics with a zealous, almost fana- secutive years five cows with their calves and tic love for their families and for France. Lit- one bull. He agreed to take the risk of the loss tle need be said here of their stubborn resis- of the cattle only the first year; as soon as tance to British rule, their deportation, now notified of a loss, he would immediately re- celebrated as «Le Grand Derangement,» and place the animal by another one of the same the hardships of the long odyssey which final- kind and would not hold the Acadians re- ly brought some four to six thousand of them sponsible for losses by death during the first to Louisiana between 1758 and 1790. Here year. He reserved the right to rescind the con- they were kindly received by government offi- tract after three years and to take back his cials and private individuals alike. They were cattle, all increase to be divided between him settled along the Mississippi above New Or- and them. The Acadians might sell some of leans on lands in what are today St. James the cattle before the expiration of the con- and Ascension parishes. Later arrivals were tract, provided they gave him half the price sent by Spanish governors to the more remote receiveAt the end of six years, they were to areas; Natchitoches, the Opelousas, and the give back to M. Dauterive the same number of Attakapas. cattle thehad received from him, of the same age and kind as those that had been re- This paper. however, is concerned pri- ceived. All increase and profits were to be marily with those Acadians who came to the equally divided between M. Dauterive and Attakapas and settled along the banks of the them. The chiefs of the Acadians, Joseph bayous of what is now Lafayette Parish, along Broussard, dit Beausoleil, Alexandre Brous- the Carencro. the Queue de Tortue, and the sard, Joseph Guillebeau, Jean Dugas, Olivier Vermillion. Thibaudau, Jean-Baptiste Broussard, Pierre 167 68 168 41.11111. Arseneau, and Victor Broussard, bound them- thorized in the districts of Attaka- selves and their colleagues oin solido*, and pas, Opelouscs, and Natchitoches, mortgaged all their property. So did M. Dau- where the inhabitants paid more at- terive. The contract was signed before Jean- tention to raising cattle than to the Baptiste Garic, notary, .in the presence of culture, of the soil\ Where the land Charles Aubry, acting governor of the colony; was less than a league in depth. the NicolasFoucault,ordonnateur;Nicholas grant was of two leagues in front Chauvin de la Freniere, attorney-general; Ma- with a depth of half a league. But zange; andCouturier.1 The contract was sign- no grant of forty-two arpents ed after the cession of ,Louisiana to Spain, but front and depth was authorized to -4% .before the Spanish governor had arrived in be made to any person who was not New Orleans. Aubry, a Frenchman, was acting the owner of one hundred head of for the King of Spain. tame horned cattle, a few horses and sheep and two slaves.5 Ale& Fortier comments, dt is not stated where the Acadians were to go After leaving All grants were to be made in the name of the New Orleans; but some of their chiefs certain- King by the governor of the province. ly went to the Attakapas country, for in the church register in St. Martinville is a certificate It should be borne in mind that under of the birth of a daughter of Olivier Thibau- the terms of the replations none of the Aca- dau born on May 10, 1765 ..2 diens would have qualified for the square league of land which was the maximum allow- Fortier was unnecessarily cautious: he ed. The cattle they had acquired from Daute- might better have said that most of the chiefs rive would not by 1769 have increased to a found their way to the Attakapas, and lie hundred, and, if by some good fortune, any might have added, to Lafayette Parish. Not .3family had the required number of cattle, it only do the St. Martinville church records tes- most certainly could not have met the require- tifythat Arceneaus and Broussards came ment concerning slaves. there, butthe American State Paperslist four of the eight signers of the aforementioned The accompanying map was compiled contract as holders of Spanish patentsdo. fru the lists of confirmed grants in'the lands along the Carenc.), the Queue de Tor- American State Papersand from. the maps of tue, and theVermillion.3 early surveys in the Lafayette and the St. Mar- ti.* Parish Court houses. The hatched sections Among the first official acts of Ger_ial represent the lands titles to which were con- Alejandro O'Reilly, after he consummated the firmed by right of Spanish patent. Confirma- transfer of Louisiana to Spain (1769), was the tion was made by a United States Commission ordering of a census and the publishing of the on evidence provided by UnitedStates survey- regulations in regard t-N land grants.4 In order ors who were sent in theterritory after the to secure an early co.lance with the condi- LoUisiana Purchase. The Spanish patent lands tion of the grants, the grantee was declared in- without exception lie along the bayous Caren- capable of alienating the land until the stipu- cro, Vermillion, and Queue de Tortue.These lated improvements were made: lands comprise one hundred forty numbered sections, the property of some seventy-eight grants of a square league were au- individuals, many with the same family name, _ 1 6 9 169 most of them Acadian.6 by 'its union with the gulf, forms the natural communication of its The largest families, the Arceneaus and inhabitantswiththesea . .. the the Broussards, settled in Ts 8 & 9S Rs 4 & Carrion Crow a part of the bound- 5E and in T lOs Rs 4, 5 & 6E, respectively; ary between Opelousas and Attaka- the Dugas in T 9S R 4 & 5E; the Guilbeaus pas ...[has] some good farms «along near the Arceneaus in T 8S R 4E; the Thibau- both sides of the woods.»7 daus in T 8S R 4E and T 9S R 4 & 5E. (They have intermarried with each other and with The land was not only.good for cattle, as other Acadian and Creole families to such an the Spanish thought, but also for agriculture. extent that today they are nearly all related.) The Acadians, however, were traditional cat- tle raisers, and ovacheries» were numerous It is perhaps natural that the chiefs should throughout the parish. have chosen the best lands. The Arceneaus settlement which was so numerous in 1816 Among the claims recognized by the that Darby locates it on his map, occupied the UnitedStates Governmentin1816 were first terrace that rises out of the swamp west those to lands which had been settled and oc- of the Vermillion river, high well-drained land cupied prior to December 20, 1803. Many of near good cypress timber. The Broussards the sections were claimed by the adjacent east of the Vermillion are in the Cote Gelee. Spanish patent holders, some of them being Darby describes the banks of the Vermillion owned jointly for «vacheries» or as sources of in enthusiastic terms: fire wood. Seven of these exceed a thousand acres. From the diversity of soil, and ele- vation, there is no risk in giving the With prospering herds of cattle and rich preference in beauty of appearance agricultural lands one would expect some of to the banks of the Vermilion, over the inhabitants to be %...41thy and seek the re- any other river in Louisiana, south finements and luxuries that wealth makes pos- of Bayou Boeuf. If situations sible: But such was not the case. On the con- favorable to health, united to the trary, Darby was struck when traveling in the most agreeable prospects, which are Attakapas and Opelousas by the plainness of bounded but by the horizon, should the homes where even wealthy families were be sought after; were taste to select likely to keep a loom itshe parlor. sites for building, its research would here be requited, and be gratified In 1857, forty years aft,n. Darby's visit, by the breezes which come direct Frederick Law Olmstead comments on the from the hosom.of the ocean; fancy close knit communities: itself could not form a more delight- ful range than the Carrion Crow «If a Creole farmer's child marries, andCoteGelee settlements... he will build a house for the new The lower parts of the Vermilion, couple adjoining hiS own; and when no doubt will suit the culture of another marries, he builds another sugar cane, whilst the, whole extent house so often his whole front of its banks are well adapted to cot- on thz river is at length occupied. ton and corn... The Vermilion. Then he begins to build others, 170 back of the first and so, there grad- both descended from the builder of the house, ually forms a little village, whaever which stands not far from the Moss Street Ex- there is a large Creole family own- tension, the old road to Carencro which ran ing any considerable piece of land»8 along the top of the Prairie Terrace. The Mudd house is on North Sterling, between Olmstead does not explain what he considered Mudd and Siracoe. The story is that it was a «considerable piece ofland.* He is speaking built as a wedding present for a Miss Martin of the Creoles, but the pattern of division was who married a Mouton. Forigl.their compara- the same among the Acadians so that family tive comfort and ittury, these houses are not plots which originally contained two to six comparable to the elegant mansions of wealthy arpents along the banks of a stream were soon planters along the Teche. subdivided into many small farms. Across the road from the ,..atiolais house The AZadian, frugal and suspicious of is the Martin house, not the Andre Martin strangers, built his own independent farmstead. House which was on Magnolia Plantation on cultivated his (kids with the help of his sons, the site now occupied b1 the Christian Broth- sons-in-law, and eventually a few slaves, raised ers School, but theSidney Martin House, a horses and cattle and had little need for the short distance01'Voss Street Extension. It is world beyond his horizon. His establishments, very modest house of wood andplaster. The though they were occasionally extensive and walls it the oldest part of the house, which might be ca ?d plantations, rs a fey: of them was onty a two-room structure, arestill in- were, were really jtiat !ATPfarms. sulated with the original qbousillage». Rec- ords indicate this house is about a hundred The frugality and modesty ci the early and forty-eight years old. Acadian, recognized by his contemporaries, persisted through the, years, and evenduring in pre-Civil War days, the Moutons and ante-bellum prosperitk the houses remained the Martins acquired more land and rose to unpretentious. A hags known as the .Shute more importantpositions than their neighbors. Prejean hOt2se w NO is perhaps a hundred taid Governor Mouton's domain, which was near fifty years old, still stands in ti.e middle of a the Vermillion and was named Ile Copal, might cotton field on ?rejean land. Though alittle have warranted the name plantation, but its larger than some,'reveals the usual !;:yes of extent did not exceed four hundred acres. pioneer Acadian houses. Its stout cypress time The governor's house was destroyed byfire bers have defied the ravages of time. However, shortly after the property was acquired by the it is obvious that even in its prim^ it wasnot Lafayette School Board. Three other houses a grand house. built by the Moutons about 1848 still stand. They are almost identical in style: two, the 'DA sane :Light be said for the Arceneaux Couret House, and the Mudd House, now and the Latiulais houses. The latter has a new owned by the Kenneth Bowens, are in excel- roof. but is otherwise unchPnged. The porch lent condition and just about as they were, on the Arcen-aux houseis obviously not the except for the absence of the outsidekitchens; original. The Couret House is not far from the the third and also the largest, theWilliam Sidney Martin house and is very close, onthe Bethel' Torian house, is dilapidated beyond adjoining farm, to the Torian House. Mr. and repair. It can be seen from 1-10 near its inter- Mrs *William Couret, second cousins, were section with the r- .ngeline ThruwayWest. 1 71 171 ant The most spacious home in the parish sand acres in scattered sections, the individual and the only one around which hangs a tradi- holdings rarely exceeded a few hundred acres. tion of lavish entertaining was the Long Plan- The large sugar houses, the cotton gins, the tation House, on the east side of the Vermil- rows of slave quarters that had come to be the lion below the old Vecnil lion River Bridge distinguishing features of the southern planta- across which ran the Old Spanish Trail, old tion system did "hot exi3t in Lafayette Parish. Highway 90. It was the scene of brilliant par- This was so not because the land was not suit- ties for visitors from New Orleans. But Beraud, ed to the culture of cane or cotton, or be- a man of exotic tastes, was a Frenchman, not cause the means of transport to outside mar- an Acadian. He had Amarried the daughter of kets was lacking, but because so many of the an early surveyor, Campbell, a Scotsman, who inhabitants of the parish were proto-types of himself had married into the wealthy Martin the original settlers. Frugal and content with Family. The Martins and the Moutons owned simple pleasures, they lived clustered in fam- much of the land on which the town of Ver- ily/groups along the waterways. milionville was built in 1824. Therefore, we may say in summary that, A review of the history of the houses in because so many Acadians were settled on the area shows that the pattern of life in them small holdings in the area of the Attakapas differed greatly from that in St. Mary Parish, that in 1844 became the present Parish of La- for instance. And thus, if would be safe to say fayette, this parish remainedparish of small that because so many Acadians received Span- independent farmers. In his new home, the ish patents to land in Lafayette Parish, the basic character of the Acadian had only served pattern of occupance by small independent to perpetuate his traditional patterns of living, farms was so firmly established that the ante- a simple combination of agrarian and pastoral bellum plantation pattern was effectively dis- pursuits, the labor for which was provided in couraged. The original Spanish grants, modest great part by his own hands. The Spanish in extent, were subdivided for generations Patent Law which kept tht,ze of his original among sons and daughters of successive inher- holdings small did nothing to discourage his itors. Although some few of the combined natural bent. family holdings contained a couple of thou- 172 fa Notes 1. Aida Fortier, A History of Lciuiskina (New 5. Ibid., p. 213. York: Manzi, Joyant and Co., 1904), I, 243- 6. American State Papers. Public Lands, Ill. The nameslistedarescatteredthroughout the 2. Ibid., pp. 244-245. volume. 3. American State Papers. Public Lands (Washing- 7. William Darby, A Geographical Description of ton: Gales and Seaton, 1834), III, pp. 130, the State of Louisiana(Philadelphia: John 173, 191. Melish, 1816), pp. 110, 111, 113. 4. Francois-Xavier Martin, The History of Louisi- 8. Frederick Law Olmstead, Journey in the Sea- ana From the Earliest Period (New Orleans: board Slave States (New York: G. P. Putnam's James A. Gresham, 1882), pp. 206, 213. Sons, 1904), II, 305. Reprinted bypermission of theAttakapas Gazette. 173 THE FORBIDDING ATCHAFALAYA BASIN By Louise Callan When Philippine set out on This mission I thought it best to do what these of charity, she little dreamed of the\adventur- men who knew the country advised, ous journey that lay ahead. Nor could she re- so we got into the canoe. The men alize how fascinating an account he,letters at the oars were soon pretty tired, would make. When she is her own biographer, and from the second little bayou the pages come alive with her vigorous person- we passed into a third. ality, and,the story glows with her own ani- mation. She had already visited Grand Coteau .'ou can form some idea of the and was on her way to New Orleans to board place we were in if you recall the a northbound steamboat when she wrote to descriptions of the waters surround- Mother Barat from a dingy inn at Plaquemine, ing Tartarus. The water was 'black Louisiana, on September 8: and evil-smelling. M far as the eye could see,it flowed through the On July 29 we left the river boat most dismal forests which stand in and waited at an inn at P':Irmemine water all but one or two months of for a chance to board the bayou the year. The trees have only a little steamboat, which was undergoing dark foliage high up near their tops, repairs. We spen't seven days there and this is almost hidden under the at 20 francs a day, besides 60 francs long gray beards that hang from ev- for transportation three leagues to ery branch of these old trees. (This where the steamboat was. Then we hanging moss is a parasitic plant; had to pay 35 francs apiece to travel when dried and beaten, it becomes for 24 hours on that boat. We had a kind of fiber from which the hoped to reach the landing in it, countryfolk make mattresses.) The but the receding waters had left the further we advanced, the denser the place so miry, the oxen could not corest became; but there was no dry be driven into it. So the boatmen land in sight, not even a sign of it. decided to transfer us and our bag- The da' wore on. We had only a lit- gage to a small boat that cost us 50 tle bread to feed the eight people in francs to travel fur leagues on an- the boat.I said to the guide, «I other little bayou which, they said, think you have lost your way. Would would bring us to dry land. As the it not be more prudent to turn back captain considered this a good plan, and find a place where there is dry 174 land, no matter where?» He replied to prayer, recommending my soul that that was impossible, and his to God in preparation for death, embarrassed manner convinced me but to my companions I only sug- that we were lost in the swamp. Just gested prayer and patience. As the then we heard shouting. «Listend> boatmen were exhausted with row- he said, «they are calling from the ing, I feared my complaints might bank to tell us they are waiting for annoy them. us.» I answered,But notice, the shouts are coming from a very dif- At last, just when I was positive ferent direction.» we were lost in the swamp,dry land suddenly appeared, and we At that same moment we saw saw a cart drawn byfour oxen coming rapidly from behind us a waiting for us. It was like a resur- canoe filled with Indians,Negroes, rection I really was not ready to and whites, mostly naked exceq, die. I shall never forget the names for loin cloths, the most frightful' of those animals: Flambeau, Rous- looking men, yelling and whistling seau,Gaillard, Tout-Blanc the as they are represented whenrush- words' rang through the woods ev- ing to an assured victory. Our boat- ery minute, for the driverhad to men grew pale and not one ofthem urge them on continually overthe would have been able to put up any muddy ground. We spent the night resistance. My three young compan- at ari inn, where a few days before ions were terrified, though they all this the travelers staying there never dreamed of dangers as great had been robbed. But we were quite as I was picturing to myself.I told safe. At two o'clock in the morning them to pray earnestly to God and we set out again in a cartand at place themselves under the protec- nine o'clock [on August 7] reached tion of the Blessed Virgin, and I the convent of the Sacred Heart. immediately promised a novena of Father Rossi, pastor of another par- Masses in return for our safety. The ish in the Opelbusas district,vias just canoe was already upon us. The sav- leaving. He continued to say Mass ages stared at us as if petrified,then for us twice a week while I was there, passed by, after having stopped some as the priest whom Monseigneurhas time close beside us. They eyed our named to serve as chaplain had not water bottles, which they thought arrived. I have had no news from were filled with the liquorthey are either France or St. Louis. Letters so crazy about. Theyseemed to ordinarily take six weeks to reach have nothing to eat with them, yet here from St. Louis. I asked Mother they left us without asking for any- Octavie to hold at Florissant any thing. I thought they had passed us that might come during my absence, by just to go ahead and wait for us as I thought they would notreach at a place where they could attack me at Opelousas ... us more easily, so I gave myself up e' 1 75. THE BATTLE OF BAYOU QUEUE-TORTUE By Alexandre Barde Le 3 septembre etait arrive. gne. DeE quatre heures du matin, heure con- M. Alfred Mouton, ex-eleve de West-Point, venue pour commencer le mouvement, le ma- et qui avait le commandement pendant Li jor St-Julien traversait le pont Vermilion, a la journee, passa une revue rapide de ces Hots tete de cent vingt hommes armes jusqu'aux de soldats arrivant de tous les cotes. dents et pleins d'enthousiasme. Tous les Comites de cette partie du pays Le silence regnait dans les rangs; les pre- etaient venus en nombre; plusieurs avaient mieres lueurs du soleil commenoient o peine aussi leurs cadres au grand complet. it mettre en lumiere les canons de fusils et de revolvers. Le commandant comptases hommes et sourit. L'empressement de ceux-ci lui fai- A cinq heures du matin, ce magnifique sait bien augurer de ceux qu'on devait encore detachement de cavalerie laissait derriere lui la rencontrer avant d'arriver a la maison Lagran- belle avenue Crow et passait dans les rues de ge. Vermillonville, sans y faire halte; puis, mar- chant fraternellement et cote a cote avec le En moms d'un quart d'heure, sept Comi- \Comite de Vermillonville, au grand complet, tes s'etaient ii-se. dirigeait, a cinq milks plus loin,vers l'ha- bitation Terence Beguenaud, on devait se faire Cote-Gelee..capitaine. ..Major St-Julien. is jonction les Vigilants de Lafayette et de St- Vermillonville Alfred Mouton. Martin. Saint-Martin D Beraud Pointe L Savoie. Ils arrivaient de tous les cotes, nombreux, Pont-Braux ..capitaine Beguenaud. ardents, et faisant etinceler au soleil levant Grande-Pointe Domingeau. leurs armes luisantes. Anse-n-la-Butte Dupre-Patin. Hommes et chevaux, tous semblaient ap- On forma immediatement trois colonnes: peler la lutte. On eat dit le prologue d'un de ces drames sanglants on va se jouer un empire. Gauche,Cote-Gelee. Dans ce pays aux passions brnlantes comme le Centre, Vermillonville. soled, jamais cant d'enthousiasme n'avait re- Droite. Pointe, Pont-Braux, Grande- 175 I 76 176 Pointe, Anse-A-la-Butte. La prairie oil l'on entrait est une de ces rares savanes louisianaises qui disparaissent Saint-Martin, n'etant pas assez nombreux, tous les jours helas! sous la charrue impitoya- s'etait fondu dans le Comite de Vermillonville ble de I'agriculteur. et devait faire la campagne avec lui. C'est la derniere poesie du pays qui s'en Le canon fut place entre le centre et la va avec ces savanes; mais cr'y faire?L'homme droite qui s'enfermerent aussitOt dans une est un rapin qui mutile depuis six mille ans les double hale de baionnettes. toiles du Grand Peintre. Si M. Rouquette etait venu au monde cinquante ansplus tard, les A cheval sur ce canon,brillant comme modeles lui 3uraient manqué et it n'aurait s'il ne fut sorti que la veille de ('arsenal de Ba- point dcrit ses cheres Savanes. ton-Rouge,a cheval sur ce canon, on remar- L quait une espece de gnome, d'être fantastique, Cette prairie, une des dernieres qu. nous comme ii y en avait dans tous leschateaux dfi restent, est un de ces immenses theatres de Moyen-Age, sans doute pour rappeler Satan verdure q ,ie les generaux choisissaient pour aux mondaines chatelaines:c'etait Georges ces immenses chocs d'hommesqu'on vit tant Reiner, un Anglais fait prisonnier le 8 Janvier de fois sous Napoleon. et kabli, depuis cette époque. dans le pays. Georges est depuis vingt ans l'artilleur de tou- D'unJ largeur de plusieurs lieues, s'eten- tes les fetes publiques de la paroisse Lafayette. dant en longueur jusqu'a la mer, on dirait une II aime son canon comme Quasimodo les clo- page du Far-West jeteedans un coin de cette ches de Notre-Dame, et ce n'est pas la seule paroisse. Point d'arbres; point de bayous; rien ressemblance qu'il alt avec le sonneur de clo- que la mer de verdure .flieante. Si elle avait ches cite par le grand poke. 11 avait demande les debris de quelque tri indienne, on repas- et obtenu l'honneur d'accompagner sa chere serait, en la voyant, la Prairie et le Trapper de piece au combat. Cooper. Quelques petites coulees, quelques modestes platins, raient de leurs lignes noir- Le signal du depart fut donne. atres cet ocean de verdure aux lignes infinies. Et, comme on entrait en pays ennemi, Quelques rares maisons ran nantes on Lino des avant-gardes etl'on se couvrit jettent timidement leurs silhouettes a I'ombre d'eclaireurs qui servirent de trait d'union aux de quelque arbre isole venu a la grace de Dieu trois colonnes qui allaient operer leur mouve- dans un coin de cette prairie immense. ment en avant a deux miles dedistance les. unes des autres. C'est la que les Comites s'etaient engages. Bien que la matinee lilt peu avancee, le A neuf heures rnatin eut lieu une hal- del etait un peu orageux; au loin, on enten- te generale. dait les vaguer et sourdes detonations du ton- nerre. La chaleur commencaita etre intense. Les hommes se desaltererent. C'etait un cadre digne du tableau herol- Le soleil kait brulant. comique qui allait etre signe par sept a huit cents artistes. La marche repr;se, la colonne de gauche I '77 177 rencontra les cavaliers du Comite Foreman Dans cette prairie large, plane, comme qui leur capitaine en tete, s'etaient faits, de- une zone saharienne, on avait deja apercu puis le matin, batteurs d'estrade, et n'avaient quelques cavaliers armes se rendant, isoles ou cesse d'observer l'ennemi en decrivant autour par groupes de trois ou quatre, a la maison de la maison Lagrange de nombreuses ellipses. Lagrange. Ces cavaliers,presque tous vaqueros, On leur avait fait une chasse eperdue, ar- etaient tous des hommes d'action et de verita- dente, et deux d'entre eux etaient meme tom- bles centaures. Arrives les premiers sur le ter- Ws au pouvoir de deux Vigilants de la Cote- rain ils se seraient engages sans attendre leurs Gelee, Raphael Lachaussee et Charles Comeau camarades. Heureusement, l'ennemi n'avait qui, au moment de les atteindie, leur avaient pas fait de sortie. crie: Rendez-vous, ou vous etes morts! Le Comite de Vermillon, capitaine Sarra- Its avaient jete leurs armes,ce qui veut zin Broussard, avait Ansi raffle les cavaliers de dire qu'ils avaient voulu vivre. Foreman et s'etait fondu avec eux. Les Comites marchaient toujours. Cette compagnie de cavalerie forma une quatrieme colonne a l'extreme gauche. BientOt on decouvrit, a droite, une cen- taine d'hommes armes qui semblaient campes La marche en avant continua dans la di- le long de la barriere d'un dos. On detach un rection du nord-ouest, oo l'on devait rencon- piquet de cavalerie pour reconnaitre si ce ras- trer les comites de St-Landry et Calcassieu. semblement etait ami ou ennemi. Dans quelques maisons qu'on trouvait, Avis avait ote donne en mettle temps aux comme des sentinelles perdues, dans cette autres colonnes que la droite avait devant prairie immense, les femmes et les enfants, elle un corps arme dont on ignorait le dra- montes sur les toits, jetaient de longs regards peau. de curiosite sur ces longues lignes de cavaliers et sur leurs armes etincelantes. Dans ces mai- Le centre s'etait aussitot hate d'accourir sons, point d'hommes; ils etaient tous sous les pour renforcer la droite, si Ix ,)in etait. drapeaux de John Jones. Cependant, le piquet envoye en recon- Les Comites marchcient toujours. naissance s'etait rapproche du rassemblement inconnu, et celui qui commandait, arrive a Nous avons dit que l'on marchait vers le vingt pas, avait crie: nord-ouest, en laissant a gauche la maison La- grange, afin de rallier les colonnes de Saint- «Qui vive? Qui etes-vous? Landry et Calcassieu. Comites de Vigilance! avaient repondu Le point choisi pour cette derniere halte les autres. etait precisement la maison de John Jones, de celui-la ineme qui avait donne son nom a Lesquels? un mouvement ou lui et ses compagnons al- talent etre brises comme des roseaux! ... Prairie-Robert! Fakataique!D 178 Alors les mains et les voix avaient khan- On fut bientot en vue de Ia maison La- ge des poignees de mains et des paroles amica- grange. les et l'on avait informe promptement nos co- lonnes anxieuses que le corps que l'on venait A un mille et demi environ, un des chefs de reconnaftre etait compose d'auxiliaires et de ('expedition braqua une longue-vue sur le d'amis. quartier-general de cettft insurrection lepreuse, et contempla longtemps le spectacle qui sem- Prairie-Robert et Fakatalque etaient en blait danser au bout de sa lunette. effet les deux corps attendus pour prendre part A l'attaque de Ia maison Lagrange. Its Bien ',me lee nuages cuivres voilassent le avaientfaitsept prisonniers qu'ils avaient soleil Ason T-agrange tfen decoupait pas trouves armes de revolvers et de fusils portant moins, dans un ciel assez lumineux, son toit d'enormes charges, et les poches bourrees ainsi que ceux de sa cuisine et de son magasin. postes et de cm...ouches et qui, interroges ce qu'ils voulaient faire de leurs munitions et Les uns et I 'sitres fourmillaient d'hom- de leurs armes, avaient repondu qu'ils vor mes armes qui .mogeaient la partie de la laient faire cane chasse a la papabotte. prairie que commencaient A rgyer les colonnes vigilantes. Quelques jeunes gens de Calcassieu s'e- talent joints A cette vaillante troupe comman- La cour rPgotgeait.aussi d'hommes allant, d& par les capitaines Stanton et Maggy. venant et echangeant avec ceux qui etaient perches sur les toits des paroles et des gestes Des ce moment, tous les Comites se trou- gestes qui traduisaient les paroles au lointain vant au complet, on commenca le dernier observateur de ce spectacle etrange. mouvement, le mouvement decisif, la marche sur la maison Lagrange. Plusieurs chefs prirent a leur tour la lon- gue-vue et observerent cette fourmiliere hu- Entre elle les Comites, it y avail une maine qui semblait peu u peu disparaitre et distance de de4x mules et demi A trois m:T-. rentrew sous terre a mesure qu'approcbaient les. les colonnes assaillantes. L'expeditien comptait environ six cents Enfin les Comites arriverent u deux cents cavaliers. Cette derniere etape serait donc vite metres de la maison Lagrange et s'arreterent. franchie. Le moment supreme et desire de tous I)ans toutes les poitrines, it y avait ar- etait venu. deur et espoir. Si nombreuse que flit la bande de Jones, si forte que flit sa citadelle, it ne lui Cl tte mison etait bien telle que l'avaient restait guere d'autre alternative que d'être depeinte les t atteurs d'estrade des Comites. bloyee, soit dans un cc nbat dont l'issue ne pothilit etre douteuse, soit dans une &bite Comme sa cuisine et son magasin, elle qui, si elle avait coute une blessure ou une vie faisait face a la coulee de la Queue-Tortue, at'x Vigilante, aurait expose les vaincus A des distaate u peine de quelques metres, et se represailles qui seraient restees A l'etat de le- montrait toute marquetee de creneaux du gende dans !'histoire a ttakapienne .. rez-de-chaussee au pignon. On l'avait aussi de- 179 179 C lattee sur ses quatre faces, a hauteur de cein- mante de la piece, apres lui avoir fait decrire ture d'homme. Les autres edifices montraient dans les airs un gracieux demi-cercle... aussi leurs creneaux comme autant de bou- ches beantes. Un cri de terreur partit de la cour enne- mie oa etait massee une pantie de la bande et Dans 'cour, quelques lilas etendaient chacun d'eux s'empressa de disparaftre derrie- les panaches verts de leurs branches. re les edifices ou de gagner le bois a travers la coulee de la Queue-Tortue, coulee g ri avait Dans un coin, Malt un monceau de pieux, peu d'eau a cette epoque et qui, du reste, est sur lequel s'etait hiss& a l'approche des colon- gueable a toutes les ipoques de l'annee. nes, un individu qui, battant des ailes, avait itnit6 le chant du coq et s'etait ensuite, non A ce cri et a cette fuite, Georges baissa replonge dans la foule qui disparaissait peu a sa meche et attendit de nouveaux ordres. peu comme dans des trappes de theatre, mais cache sous ces mettles pieux oil it devait etre On poursuivait déjà ceux qui avaient pris et fouette quelques heuies plus tard. donne le signal de la fuite... onentendait crier poursuivants et poursuivies . parfois La maison fit d'abord investie avec une retentissaient dans les hois des detonations rapidite remarquable. isolees FakataiqueetPrairie-Robert recurent Le gros de l'armee de John Jones Malt l'ordre de se porter a l'ouest a l'entree du bois encore retranche dans les edifices de la maison. qui offrirait des tiloyens de fuite faciles aux bandits, s'ils essuyaient une defaite. C'est alors que le gouverneur Mouton, qui etait venu' en voiture jusque sur le terrain, Un officier energique et intelligent de mais qui, le moment de l'action venu, etait Vermilion, M. E. Manx, fut chargé de traver- monte a cheval comme les autres chefs c'est ser la coulee a I'est afin de preter la main a ce alors, disons-nous, que le gouverneur Mouton corps avec ses appela le major St-Julien et M. Valmont Ri- chard (du Comae de Saint-Martin). Phis la piece de six fut placee osterlAble- ment en batterie a deux cents metres et bra- «Suivez-moi, messieurs, leer dit-il. Epar- quee sur la maison qui s'etait heirissee de fusils gnons le sang, s'il est possible. Allons parler a A toutes les ouvertures et a tous les creneaux. ces j Ensuite: a 'ate de la piece on alluma du Un guatrieme. M. Steack, se joignit spon- feu. Ce feu fut allume lentement ...lente- ianement a eux et le groupe de cavaliers se di- ment ... comme pourlaisser a l'eanemi le rigea, sans armes, vers la maison; ou, pour temps de savourer cc prelude de la canonnade. etre plus conforme a la verite, le Gouverneur etait arme d'un parasol; le Major de sa longue- Quand le feu flamba. Georges Reiner ap- vue; et MM. Richard et Steack ...de ieurs prod... de la flamme une meche blanche qui chapeaux que, pour le moment, ils avaient couronnu bientot d'une friar& bleuatre. changes en &entails. Et comme it approchait cette meche fu- A moins de s'appeler le Roi d'Yvetot, it ISO Malt impossible d'avoir un exterieur plus paci- sacre, et que nous sommes blancs et libres. fique que ces messieurs. -Tout beau, monsieur Lagrange, fit le Its descendirent avec un sang-froid tout Gouverneur avec une dignite supreme; je suis romain a la barriere. venu a vous, non pourdiscuter, mais pour in- terroger, et mem pour sommer. Vous avez John Jones et Emi lien Lagrange se pre- chez vous, dans vos rangs, Olivier Guidry dit senterent, et alors eut lieu le dialogue suivant, /Vain Canada, ses deux fils Ernest et Geneus qui nous a ete repete et analyse par un des ac- Guidry. et son neveu Onezime Guidry, bannis teurs de cette scene. par mon Comite et que monComite veut re- prendre e.` chatier. Voulez-vous les livrer ou «Que desirez-vous. messieurs? dernanda les defendre? le premier. . Nous ne connaissons pas ces hommes, Nous informer de ce qui se passe au- fit Jones. jourd'hui ici, repondit le Gouverneur. C'est bien; nous saurons bien les trou- Nous avnns une reunion politique. ver et les arreter nous-memer,. Unederniere question: Vous avez des fusils. Voulez-vous Une reunion p o l i t i q u e ? ...Mais nous combattre ou les remettre?» ne sommes a la veilled'aucune election gene- rale ni particuliere; mais a une reunion politi- Et commie Jones repondait evasivement qie on n'apporte pas de fusils, - et vous avez a ces demandes categoriques: des fusils! et mane des canons peut-titre! N'a- vez-vous pas quelque part des amisqui vous «Gouverneur, dit le MajGr, nous sommes en auraient promis un ou deux pour cettefê- venus ici pour &hanger, nondes paroles oi- te? Vous dites non de la tete, je veux bien le seuses, mais des banes. Puisqu'ilsrefusent de croire. La hronique le dit pourtant. vous rendre vos bannis et leers armes,retour- nons u notre poste, et commenconsle com- Nous ne sommes pas assez riches pour bat.» avoir Lies canons, repartit Jones avec amertu- me. Le Gouverneur fit un geste d'assentiment, et avisant a quelques pas de Jai, laconcubine Soit; mais vous avez des fusils ... de Lagrange qui, un enfant dans les bras, etait heaucoup de fusils, des cartouches, des muni- spectatrice de cette scene: tions de guerre de toute espece. C'est toujours la chronique qui le dit, et cettefois elle a du «Messieurs, dit-il a Jones et A Lagrange, dire vrai. nous ne voulons faire la guerreni aux femmes, ni aux enfants. La place de cette femme et de Nous n'avons que cinq ou six fusils ap- cet enfant n'est done pas ici. Si vousvoulez portes, soil pour tirer des salves a notre re les eloigner de cette maison qui pent -titre dans union, soit pour chasser a la papabotte. une minute sera un champde 5ataille, je vais leur dormer une escorte de mes Vigilants qui Nous nous sommes reunis, interrompit les menera dans tel lieu qu'il vous plaira de me Lagrange, puree que le droit de reunion est designer et qui les respectera, je vous en re- '81 181 ponds sur ma tete.» les edifices se firent entendre de sourds mur- mures de desapprobation. Chez eux qui ap- En re moment, Jones rentra dans in mai- portaient les armes, it y eut aussi hesitation, son et en ressortit avec une demi-douzaine de tiraillement. fusils qu'il deposa debout con tre la barriere. Le Major saisit de limit ce tiraillement, de «Vous devez en avoir encore, cherchez;» l'oreille ces murmures. Se tournant vers ses dirent ceux qui avaient partage.la perilleuse adversaires et les regardant avec mepris: mission du gouverneur Mouton. Nous disons perilleuse, car pendant que ce groupe d'hom- «Reprenez vos fusils et acceptez le com- mes de cur s'entretenaient avec Lagrange et bat, leur cria-t-il, ou rendez-vous a discre- Jones, sans autres armes que leur titre sacre tion!» de parlementaires, un des bannis reclames par M. Mouton avait passe son fusil a travers un Ce mot parfaitement hiff. Ague, cGnime des creneaux et l'avait mis trois fois en joue. tous les details de ces scenes, fic cesser toute Heureusement ses compagnons, rniFux instruits hesitation. Sur ces entrefaites, les vingt-quatre que lui des consequences de cetfe violation hommes demandes entrerent en bon ordre des lois de la guerre, avaient trois fois detour- dans la cour ..pendant que deux cents tetes ne cette arme prate ii tuer . ale Vigilants apparaisssient it mutes les bathe- res. AussitOt que Jones avait remis ses pre- miers fusils,le Gouverneur avait envoye re- Le poeme herol-comique yuchait deci- querir vingt-quatre Vigilants qui auraient la dement a son denouement. mission de veiller au desarmement general. Q Ce fut alors une de ces scenes excentri- L'envoye rejnignit le Comite au moment qe.es qui auraient tente le pinceau d'un pein- oCi MM. Alfred Mouton et le colonel Creigh- tre fantaisiste ...si dans les rangs des Comites ton (qui firent preuve durant cette journee it y avait eu un peintre d'un zele au-dessus de tout eloge), allaient en- voyer des detachements de vingt-quatre hom- II n'y en avait pas... ales par Comite, au secours des quatre pane- men takes qu'ils croyaient en danger. Leur joie La fuite avait commence; la fuite fc. fut rive en apprenant le t'enouement de ce effaree; la fuite avec toutes ses vertigineuse' drame ou les Vigilants n'avaient accepte un -weurs. role que sous le coup d'une necessite de salut public. La cause de l'ordre ailait donc etre ga- Tous ces courages, qui avaient failli gnee its qu'elle ea' fait verser une goutte de l'heure du combat, semblaient avoir des ailes sang. aux pieds comme certains dieux mythologi-, ques, et aevoraientle sol comme ces coureurs Pendant que renvoye des parlementaires impossibles, surhumains, que nous avons tous iemplissait sa mission, cetaci assistaient a la vu passer quelquefois dans nos raves. remise des fusils. Le bois ouvraitsesprofondetdsraux Une quinzaine environ avaient ate dispo- fuyards .le bois couvert et sillonne dans ses a leurs pieds, lorsque Jails la cour et dans tous les sens de patrouilles vigilantes.0 162, Les edifices de la maison Lagrange avaient prisonniers des Vigilants, etaient gardes, en vain- ouverteux-inemes tous leurs asiks. dans la cour de la maison Lagrange, par un fort de tachemen t. On se cachait ou lion se laissait emporter par la pire des fuites, la fuite sans espoir! Pendant ees scenes de fusion et de desordre indicibles, it s'accomplissait un dra- Etudions d'abord les scenes de la mason. me, le seul 'qui ait assombri cette journee si heureuse pour la cause de l'ordre. LA, des insurges etaient entasses. Le 8. nier en regorgeait; on en retirait sept de des- Un des bannis les plus dangere, par sa sous un lit. resolution et son audace, et dont l'arrestation avait ete demandee par le gouverneur Mouton, Sous un autre lit, C. une vaste manne sur lequel it avail 'eve soin fusil a trois reprises, d'osier, recouverte de coton, et renfermant Geneus voyanela cause de 'Insurrec- pbtsieurs milliers de car-touches. tion perdue ,'etait refugie derriere le magasin fortifie, dans un cant de barriere protegeant Entre les matelas d'un autre lit, c'etait le des berges de foin. drapeau fait par la concubine de Lagrange et Mile Valette, sa fdle, pour couvrir b triomphe Un Vigilant du Carancro l'avait vu se re- de 'Insurrection et qui ne covvrait, helm! que fugier dans cet asile qui ne devait pas etre plus sa &fakeet une defaite deiastreuse! protecteur que les autres, et croyant que son courage, A lui, etait au moins A la hauteur de Ce drapeau fut decouvert par Raphael celui de Geneus Guidry, il s'etait jure A Lachaussee (Cdte-Gelee). meme de lizrreter, jouer dix fois sa vie. Ce Vigilant, d'une des meilleures families de la Et A chaque pas, c'etait une decouverte paroisse Lafayette, etait un jeune homme et une trouvailk! d'une force athletique et d'un courage a la hauteur de sa force physique: ils'appelait lei, des couteaux bovi Anives! J. L. F. Treville Bernard. L A, des revolvers! Insoucieux du danger que pouvait pre- senter cette anestation, certain de pouvoir re- Et des postes! duke G. Guidry a 'Impuissance de nuire s'il pouvait le saisir avec ses.mains herculeennes, Et des banes! it avait genereusement refuse de faire usam dei armes qui herissaient sa ceinture; ce qu'il Et des liff.;uts! voulait, c'etait, non le cadavre de Geneus, mais Geneus vivant. S6pare de lui par une bar-, Et tout ce qui peut dechirer! et tuer! et Here, il se disposait a la franchir d'un bond, brayer! qui lui aurait fait perdre environ une demi- seconde. iorsqu'un coup de pistolet retentit Et A chaque instant,: etaient un, deui, et Geneus s'affaissa sur lui-meme; c'etait une trois prisonniers qu'on arrachait des tanieres balle suicide qu'il venait de se tirer dans I'o- peu discretes quills avaient cru etre des asks, reille. Tombe, mais encore maitre de lui, il se et qui venaient grossir Pnombre de ceux qui, frappa A la gorge avec son poignard a plusieurs 33 183 reprises.II rala ensuite quelqug minutes et phis touffues et s'y declarerent, habits 0 mourn t. chair, aux millers d'epines qui les firent sai- gner a chaque pas comme les pointes d'un ci Fouille apres sa mort, on trouva dans ses lice. poches une fiole de poison,qui fut remise au docteur Frances, le medecin de l'expedi- On rapporte mime que dans une de ces tion,un couteau pdignard et un revolver. roncieres, ou sept individus etaient déjà Wu- gies, it s'en glissa un huitieme, mais sans bruit, Ainsi mourut Geneus, la seule victime de sournoisement, comme aurait pu faire un ser- la journee. Deja banni par un Comite,coupa- pent,si un serpent n'avait pas cherche les ble de la violation d'une des lois les plus sa- abris les plus profonds devant le tohu-bohu de cites de la guerre, le respect des parlementai- cette journee. res, it desespera d'obtenir une grace, qu'on lui aural! peut-titre accord& sans qu'il la deman- En entendant le bruit, a peine percepti- &it lui-meme, et de peur de subir une mort ble, que faisait cet hnmme en deplacant les honteuse, it se donna lui-meme la mort. ronces, les sept individus crurent a l'interven- tion mysterieuse de quelque Vigilant et ally Dans la fin de Geneus, quelques person- rent se refugier ailleurs en lui laissant la ron- nes virent dustolcisne. Le stoicisme est mort ciere libre. %wee le Paganisme. Folk, remords, scepticisme, creinte du deshonneur, gels sont les mots Ce Vigilant etait un des leurs qui, comme qu'on pourrait lire stir le front de tousles sui- eux, essayait d'echapper a is poursuite des cides du Catholicisme. La Croix a tile les Comites. mods stolques de l'antiquite. Ce malheureux resta toute la journeeen- Dans le bois, c'etait aussi, comme autour foui sous les ronces, entendit peut-titre I'autre. _ de la maison, une poursuite acharnee, impi- bruit celui du fouet qui devait bientot toyable des uns; une fuite echevelee de la part succeder au tumulte resultant de la poursuite, des autres. et monta, dit-on, le sou, sur un cheval qui, ar- dent comme celui de Mazeppa, l'emporta dans Si les Vigilants chargeaient impitoyable- la direction de la Sabine, ce refuge de tant d'e- ment tout fugitif qui essayait vainemeht die- paves sociales. chapper a ceux qui s'attachaient a sa poursui- te, les vaincus profitaient, de leur Me, de Cette chasse aux vaincus aurait presente tour les plis de terrain, de toutes les cachettes des difficultes insurmontables a toute autre pouvaient les rendre invisibles a leurs vain- troupe que les poursuivants. A chaque pas, ils ,queurs. trouva*nt fosses, flaques d'eau, troncs d'ar- bres renverses branches brisees par l'ouragan II y en eut qui se cacherent non sur des et se dressantidevant la cavalerie, plus infran- branchesd'arbre, comme' Cliarles-Edouard chissables que les barricades parisiennes le d'Angleterise, mii;s dans des &roncs creux otl ils jour oi) se font les revolutions. pouvaient petit -titre se heurter a des serpents ou a quelque essaim d'abeilles .. Rien n'arreta le torrent. Les powsuiyants atteignirent tout ce qu'ils virent; r ..yards, D'au tres chercherentles ronciereles de leur cote, mirent a profit leur cont.d.,ssance 184 parfaite du terra:41 ,t s'echapperent en grand D'autres episodes avaient marque cette nombre. journde déjà si accidentde. Adolphe Comeau (Cote-Gelee) et Lebleu Au moment otl le sauve-qui-imut com- de Comarsac (Prairie-Robert), montes, l'un mencait, on avait vu arriver, du large, a toute sur un excellent cheval, l'autre-sur un mulet course de cheval, un mulatre qui Oak venu se mexicain, firent des prisonniers dans les cir- jeter etourdiment dans le Bros des Comites. constances suivantes: «Au nom de qui viens-tu? Que viens-tu Its avaient devant eux plusieurs fuyards faire ici? lui avait-on demande. armes, avec lesquels, apres d'inutiles somma- tions,ils avaient dchange des coups de fusil Je viens au nom de ma maftresse, cher- sans am s. La poursuite n'en continua pas cher clls nouvelles de mon maitre, M. Maxithi- 4r9ins eorsqu'ils furent a port& de la voix: lien Leblanc. (II dtait clej4 lie et garde a vue comme prisonnier.) «Rendez-vous!» leur crierent les deux jeunes gens qui n'ay.:ient plus de coups de feu Tu lui en rapporteras de fraiches,» lui A tirer, tandis que les autres en avaient encore. avait-on repondu, et on l'avait fouette. Les fuyards s'arretirent. Ce mulfitre, on le sut plus tard, venait chercher des nouvelles au nom d'une certaine 4posez vos fusils, la!» ajouterent-ils d'homm.s de la riviere Mermento, amends par en designant un arbre qui se trvait a quel- Jean-Baptiste Istre, qui s'etaient arretes, pour ques pas. reprendre htleine et faire faire halte a leurs chevaux, a l'habitation Maxim;:.en Leblanc Les fusils furent deposes alieu indique dont le proprietaire, comine nous l'avons dit. et leurs possesseurs amends prisonniers. etait ddja prisonnier des Vigilants. Ce trait de courage ne fut du reste pas le Le mulatre fcuette s'en revint tristement seul. ala maison d'ou on l'avait envo}.. Comme les colonnes des Comites arri- «Quelles nouvellesN lui demands -t,on vaient devant la maisdn Lagrange, le cheval de anxieusement lorsqu'on le vit apparaitrer a la Louis Beer;'pleinier servant de la piece de ca-' porter. non, s'echappa et alla donner du front contre o la barriere de cette maison en ce moment heti- 11 desce 'dit lentemein peniblement see de fusils. Un membre du Comite Prairie- de cheval et. silencieux comme la statue du Robert. grand et Brun, dont nous regrettons Commandeur, it se contenta de faire une re- de ne pas savoir le nom, s'elanca seul et au ga- ponse ... enpantomime. lop, very le cheval qui semblait vouloir deser- ter a l'ennemi, comme Bourmont laveille de La reponse etait trop eloquente pour ne la supreme bataille de IlEmpire et le ramena pas etre comprise en ce moment. triomphalement a son maitre en murmurant: LA aussi, comme a la Queue-Tortue, «Quanta eux, ifs ne l'auront pas!» commenca une fuite echevelee. 1 8 5 185 Its fuirent tous d travers champs, aban- des baionnettes vigilantes. donnant armes, chevux, equipements, muni- tions, tout ce qui derait les aider a marcher et Puis les colonnes expeditionnaires dine- combattre. rent. Chaque soldat avait recu, la veille, l'or- dre d'emporter pour deux jours de vivres. Jamais plus vaste insurrection n'avait eu Chacun tira alors de sa valise les provisions plus pietre denouement. qu'y avait placees b tendresse maternelle, conjugale ou fratemelle. On fit, en riant, un II etait une heure de l'apres-midi. iepas de Spartiates. Mais l'eau?... Nous l'avons deja dit, la journee etait La tempekature etait brillante et l'on brillante; on Malt trempe de sueur; on souf- avait beaucoup couru...et rim n'avait pour frait, mais toutes les souffrances physiques se desalterer que le puits de la maison Lagran- s'effacaient devant les resultats de la journee. ge . puits immense qui contenait peut-titre du poison et la mort. On haletait et, comme Quatre-vingts prisonniers, enfermes dans Tantale, on regardait ce puits dont l'eau etait un cane de Vigilants; cinquante-sept fusils re- miroitante et limpide et semblait aller au de- mis volontairement ou pris de force; une van t de la coupe. quantite d'armes semees dans les bois par les fuyards; une insurrection faite sur une vaste La concubine de Lagrange vit tous ces re- echelle et se denouant par le plus miserable gards, toutes ces sotiffrance1/4 toutes ces crain- avortement, tel etait le bilan de la journee. tes, et mue par une de ces pensees delicates qui se trouvent chez la grande dame comme Les Vigilants avaient le droit d'être con- chez la fe. line dechue .elle envoya sa fille tents. puiser de l'eau et en but ostensiblement. Lesprisonniers tk.rent conduits, sous L'expedition comprit .but.. .epuisa bonne garde, a deux cents metres de la mai- le puits en moins d'un quart-d'heure et alla son Lagrange, sous rle grands arbres, a l'ombre ensuite etancher sa soif en disputant l'eau desquels retissaient, comme aux temps home- bourbeuse de l a Queue-Tortue aux serpents... riques, les quartiers de trois bumf's, etendus que la chaleur y avait accumules par mil- sur des barres de fer, au-dessus de trois four- liers. naises ardentes. Dans cette chronique a vol d'oiseau, C'etait le theatre du diner que les vain - nous avions oublie une figure siuistre dont cus ne desaient pas manger. nous avons trace ailleurs la silhouette si- lhouette qui est loin de rappeler celle de l'An- D'unate, les fourneaux prirnitifs que tinotis antique: nous voulons parler du Dr. nous avons lecrits; de l'autre, une tribune Wagner. dre.ssee tribune qui sans doute attendait1le Dr. Wagner, un orateur qui ne se presenterait A l'heure on l'insurrection se debandait, pas ... on l'avait vu pies de la barriere de la maison Lagrange, desespere sans doute de n'avoir pu Cest la que les prisonniers furent con- remplir son role d'agent provocateur...puis duits, en .ttendant jugement, sous la garde it avait disparu. 1c6 186 Quand on se fut reconnu et compte, l'on miserablement avait un tle but: demanda s'il etait parmi les prisonniers . L'invesion de la paroisse; 11 y brillait par son absence, comme Ce- sar au senat de Rome. Le pillage; On lanca aussitOt un piquet de cavalerie La revoke des negres. asa poursuite ... Presque tous les prisonniers declarerent Les cavaliers revinrent, ayant fait buisson que: creux, comme o,i dit en termes de chasseur. Pour nous servir de ''expression de l'un de ces Its ne s'attendaient a avoir sur les bras messieurs, II avalt brine les chemins. que le Comite deVermillonville Comite qu'on leur avait represents comme hostile aux L'heure du jugement etait venue. pauvres et devrant lesbalayer tous (sic) de la paroisse Lafayette. (C'etait une calomnie des Deux tlelegues par Comite composerent meneurs de ''insurrection, contrelaquelle le jury charge de peser les hommes et les cho- nous n'avons pas besoin deprotester.) ws de 'Insurrection. Que, s'ils avaient triomphe de ce Comite, Itss'assirent a l'ombre d'un bouquet its devaient marcher sur Vermillonville, hisser d'arbres comme des juges et appelerent, un leur pavilion sur l'eglise le ce village, eventrer un, 1.^s vaincus qui, toujourslies et entoures les coffres-forts de MM. Alexandre et Emile de balonnettes vigilantes, entendirent sonner Mouton, V. A. Martin, Gerassin Bernard, La- tristement le quart-heure de Rabelais. tiolais, CamilleVqucet, Francois D'Aigle, &c., &c., ereh egorger proprietaires. 11 y eut des confessions ...d'horribles confessions. Aucun n'eut le courage de la dis- Que ces chefs morts, ils devaient sonner cretion. Tous livrerent leurs mysteres. II y eut le tocsin, appeler les negres a la revoke et in- meme comme une fievre de denonciations qui cendier les habitations. s'cmpara de ces tres peu heroiques et fres peu in tere;santes victimes. Si les quelques hommes Que les cartouches trouvees dans la mai- lionorables qui. apres cette journee, donne- son Lagrange, avaientete faites par un ancien rent quelques sympathies a cette boue sociale, soldat de l'armee d'Afrique, colporteurqui avant assists aux interrogatoires,ils auraient mangeait chaque jour le pain des habitants de senti, comme nous, dans leur cceur, to mepris la paroisse Lafayette et qui depuis y a fait succeder a la pitie. proscrire le colportage, et que ce: homme se nommait Klein. Pourquoi, le lendemain du 3 Septembre, Ices Comites ne publierent-ils pas les revelations? Devant de pareilles declarations, la tache du jury devenait facile; aussi les honnetes gens condensant touter les declarations qui le composaient se mirent-ils a delibe- des prisonniers, on peut constater: rer. Que le mouvement qui venait d'avorter si II y avait un crime a punir. 1 S 7 Le pine des crimes, une prise d'armes Ses lieutenantsEmilien Lagrange, linkins, contre la societe avec un drapeau portant ces Istre et deux autres comparses, recurent en- trois mots: Invasion de la Paroisse! Pillage et suite, comme leur chef, 120,coups de fouet. Massacre! Rev° lte des Negres! Une seconde categorie de condamnes en Ce crime demandait un chatiment exem- recut 40. plaire. Une troisieme, 20. Quel serait ce chatiment? Y eut-il chez ces Catilinas de bas Stage Les Comites ne pouvaient assumer sur , un de ces-crigd'indignation, une de ces explo- eux de noyer dans le sang des vaincus une vic- sions de l'ame qui vont au cceur de ceux qui toire qui ne leur avait point ete disputee. Re- en sont temoins? Non. Plus d'un soldat des courir aux moyens sommaires et terribles em- Comites attendit un de ces cris, une de ces ex- ployes si souvent par les Comites texiens, plosions, pour se jeter entre les executeurs et c'efit ete se faire traduire au tribunal du mon- les martyrs et demander aux uns la grace des de civilise, et se faire Mar du titre peu envi- autres. Thus recurent le fouet, non com- able de bourreau. Les pt.& peserent et com- me un chatiment infamant, mais comme une prirent toutes ces raisons et froidement, sans torture physique. Les coups furent comptes passion, impassibles comme des juges, ils de- par eux, non comme une fletrissure a l'hon- cr avec dbuleur, mais en s'inclinant de- neur, vials comme un amende de guerre im- vant la aecessite, le supplice du fouet et l'exil posee a leurs corps... Nous nous trompons: dans cinq fours. un seul demands la mort et nous soume-- tons ce fait A ceux qui aiment A etudier les Le Dr. Wagner, principal acteur de cette 'mysteres du cur humain: ce cri fut pousse journee a laquelle it s'etait &robe par la fuite, par un des bandits les plus compromis. fut aussi condamne au chatiment reierve aux capitaines, et le recut, le lundi suivpnt, de la 11 etait six heures du soir. main des cavaliers de l'energique Sarrazin Broussard. La tache des Comites etait finie. Le supplice du fouet fut inflige. Les 500 soldats de I'ordre remontdrent A cheval et s'eloigndrent, apres avoir remis en Non A outrance, comme l'ont dit cer- liberte leurs prisonniers. tains journaux qui ont leurs renseigne- ments A une source impure. ils venaient d'etouffer une insurrection, sans avoir repandu une goutte de sang et de Le chatiment fut nwsure !'outrage. delivrer leurs paroisses de bandits que la loi Malgre l'enivrement de la victoire, chacun fut n'avait jamals eu is puissance de reprimer. jugs scion la part qu'il avait prise au drame qui venait de se jour r. La prairie etait deserte; it n'y avait plus qu'un cadavre: celui de Geneus Canada, qui, Le chef de cette peu herague insur- le matin, se voyant poursuivi, s'etait fait sau- rection subitle supplice du fouet pre- terlacervelle. (La veridique Banniere des mier. Planteurs l'a fa!t mou& par is main des Co- 1 8 8 188 mites; nous lui repondons que les thugs, que Un court episode vint seulement Clore la son parti y a quatre ans, en vile, periode militante dei Comites. Dans les der- n'ont jamais tait ecole aux Attakapas.) niers jours de september, un des bandits, Ber- nard Lacouture, banni pour volcommis en Les Comites s'empresserent de regagner complicite avec ses trois beaux-freres, lesHer- leers foyers otl veillaient des meres, des sceurs, pin, et accuse d'assassinat sur la personned'E- des femmes inquittes, et de relever en meme mile Comeau, dans la prairie de la Cote-Gelee, temps les patrouilles annees que la prudence Bernard Lacouture s'aventura a laNouvelle- des chefs avait placees sur tous les chemins. ;iberie. informe de son retour, lemajor St- Ces patrouilles avaient recu la consigne d'ar- Julien se rendit h la maison etait le banni. reter tout inconnu qui serait rencontre, du- La maftresse tie la maison pretenditqu'il etait rant la nuit du 3 septembre, sur leschemins absent. Alors le Major ordonna qu'onexplorat attakapiens. La crainte d'une diversion proba- le grenier; deux ou, trois hommes ymonterent ble, ninon certainc, des bandits, diversioq qui et furent accueillis par deux coupsde feu, qui se serait traduite au moans pardes incendies, se perdirent dans lesboiseries. Le Major mon- avait dicte cette consigne severe, qui du reste ta a son tour, seul selon sonhabitude, et com- ne fut appliquie qu'a deux fuyardsde l'armee me it se presentait a la portedu grenier, it fut de John Jones qui, ne voulant pas s'arreter, frappe au cou d'une hache quiheureusement furent salues de deux balles, qui ne leur firent ne l'atteignit que parricochet. sans quoi la mais aucun mal. blessure eat ete mortelle. Il chancela, avec son vigoureuxsang-froid, repondit par Le lendemain, tout etait rentre dansl'or- deux coups de pistolet, apresavoir inutile- dre. A is tempete sae la veille avaientsuccede ment somme de se rendreLacouture, qui tom- le calme, la serenite des époques lesplus heu- bs pour ne plus se relever,baigne dans son plus pur que celui de reuses et des bandits armes de JohnJones, sang. Ce sang n'etait pas it ne restait plus que des vaincus qui, toutsai- Geneas Guidry, et le sort des deuxvictims de gnants encore des blessures revues laveille, al- la lutte doit etre leger it la consciencedes Vi- Iaient commencer tristement le dur voyagede gilants. I'exil. REBELS WITHOUT A CAUSE1 Fromthe Franklin Register Scandalous: Itis said that one of the guns, and made back tracks, boasting, as they commands that were in the recent fight on ran, that they had not fired a gun. This is the Lafourche [Bayou Lafourche] threw away scandalous, if true. everything they had about them, except their Notes 1. From the Franklin Register, Oct. 30, 1862, Nov. 21, 1862. quoted in the New Orleans Daily Picayune, 189 1 9 SECESSION FROM THE CONFEDERACY?1 From thc( Richmond (Indiana) Palladium The Union, feeling in this part of the tary apparel consists of a drab colored coat, state [Lafayette, St. Martin and Vermilion with broad cape; pants of the piece but very parishes] especially among the poorer class greasy; a dirty shirt, which had once been red, of citizens, is very strong. They are coming in- a rough pair of boots, and a broad-brim straw to our [Union] lines by the hundreds, and hat...The union men were glad to get him either volunteering or taking the oath of alle- prisoner. They danced and jabbered around giance [to the United States]. Ma4 of them like so many Indians, and were much surprised say they have not been home or inside of a that our Generals did not order him hung house, for eighteen months, but have been without ceremony. He has been a terror to all hiding in the swamps to avoid the [Cinfeder- the loyal men of the country; hunting them ate) conscription. There is now already near down with dogs, like slaves, and those that es- three hundred of them mounted, and acting caped his savage cruelty, did so by fleeing to as scouts, and they are found to bt useful, as the swamps and cane brakes for safety. And they are acquainted with every part of the now they are coming forth like the leaves of countr) [General John Pratt, the local Con- the forest, eager to be armed and swear eter- federate conscription officer, was captured nal vengeance against their prosecutors. They recently by Union forces. His beard looked have been shut up in the swamps so long, they morelike porcupine quills than anything are little better than wild men, as indeed they human, find to finish the beauty of his face, it look, and then there will [be] a fearful reckon- was sprinkled miscellaneously from the _hin ing soon for their wrongs and suffering. to his eye brows with tobacco juice. His mili- Notes 1. From the Richmond(Indiana)Palladiui western Archives, Collection 28, Folio 1-G, [Sept, 1863], Walter J. Burke Papers, South U. S. L., Lafayette, La. Reprinted by perrniss.m of the Center for Louisiana Studies. :91 '91 OZEME CARRIERE AND THE ST. LANDRY JAYHAWKERS, 1863-1865 by Carl A. Brasseaux During the twilight years of the Civil however, were flogged and released with an War, the northern St. Landry prairies were admonition to quit the Pelican State. protected from Confederate impressment par- ties by a band of Jayh -kers, or anti-Confed- Although disobedience would inevitably erates, led by Ozone Carriere. Well armed, result in death in the event of recapture by well acquainted wit4 the terrain, and coura- the %igilantes, most of the captives turned a geous, Carriere's Jayhawkers not only held deaf ear to the warning and continued their the Confederates at bay, but, paradoxically, life of crime from bases in the sparsely inhab- frequently murdered innocentcivilians as ited portions of western St. Landry Parish. As well, Why did Carriere's men take up arms a consequence, by 1860,vigilantes from La- against the Confederates? How did they sw- -fayette and Vermilion parishes frequently vive? Why did they kill civilians whom they conducted raids upon the alleged criminal purported to protect? And who were their bases. The raiders victims, however, were all victims? These questions can be considered toofrequentlyinnocentprairiesettlers, only aftei a cursory examination of the his- prompting the St.Landrianstoorganize toricaldevelopments contributingtothe counter-vigilante groups. As a consequence, uniqueness of the predominatelyCreole1 by mid-1860, St. Landry Parish was the scene northern prairies which spawned Carriere's of bloody guerilla warfare reminiscent of Jayhawker band. «Bleeding Kansas.»4 Fighting, however, vv. suspended during the 1860 presidential cam- In the twilight years of the antebellum paign and the ensuing secessior, crisis: period, the southwestern Louisiana prairies were infested with rustlers and banditti whom During the campaign, residents of the the Baton RougeWeekly GazetteandComet counter-vigilante bastion of Bois Mallet (a pre- characterized in 1860 as «the basest scoun- dominately Creole area surrounding present- drels that ever disgraced human iorm42 day Swords) actively supported the Constitu- Active vigilante groups in the southern prairie tional-Union candidate, John Bell, the major perishes of Lafayette, Vermilion, and St. local opponent of John Breckinridge, the Martin attempted to exterminate this criminal Southern rights can;:date who was supported element, and, at the celebrated Battle of by vigilante leaders. In fact, Bell received Bayou Queue Tortue in late 1859, captured eighty-one per cent of the ballots cast at the many of the brigands.3 Most of the bandits, Bois Mallet pol1.5 193 '92 194 Following the election, Governor Thomas for example, said that among the Rebei forces.. 0. Moore called for a secession convention, in South Louisiana, «there is great dissatisfac- and, shortly thereafter former vigilante lead- tion among the troops.»11 This dissatisfac- ers and sympathizers launched campaigns on tion was manifested in spring 1863 by whole- the secessionist ticket. The pro-secessionist sale desertions among Southwest Louisiana movement in St. Landry Parish was led by conscripts during the rapid retreat of Major- former governor Alexandre Mouton who had General Richard Taylor's Confederate army lent the prestige of his name to the vigilante following defeats on the lower. Teche at the cause.6 Following his electionas a delegate to hands of Major-General N.P. Banks' Yankee the convention, representing the state sena- invaders.1 2 torial district of which St. Landry was a part, Mouton served as president of the assembly After deserting the Confederdee army, and, under the former governor's leadership, many Creole conscripts organized on the the convention severed the state's ties with northern prairie, «10 to 18 miles west» of the Union.? Opelousas for the purpose of resisting rein- duction into' the Rebel army.1.3 During the Because of the vigilante leaders' support the summer of 1863, Ozeme Carriere, a prai- of the Southern cause, Louisiana's secession rie Creole, welded trihodeserters into i tightly and subsequent incorporation into the Con- knit, quasi-military force. Once organized, federate States were apparently unpopular Carriere's «battalion»14 Jayhawkers as they among the northern prairie Creoles, for few were christened by Opelousas Confederate of thenrallied to the Confederacy's colors sympathisersbecame a haven for the ever in the ensuing months. For example, of the growing number of South Louisianians desert- eighty-eight officers and men who enlisted ing Taylor's army. The number of deserters in the «Sons of St. Landry,» a Confederate was augmented by fugitive slaves, and after company recruited in the Opelousas and up- July, 1864, by free men of color escaping per prairie areas, only twenty-eight per cent Confederate attempts to impress them into were prairie Creoles.8 North Louisiana work crews.16 The admis- sion of blacks into the outlaw band appears The prairie Creoles' initial indifference to have been Carriere's decision, for, prior to to the Confederacy was quickly transformed the war, he had cohabitated with two mulatto into animosity in late April, 1862, when the women.1 6 ConfederateCongressadoptedthefirst conscription act in American history.9 One As Carriere's forces grew, he was faced month later, the local militia commander, with logistical problems. In order to arm and Brigadier-General John G. Pratt, established feed the outlaws, Corriere ordered raids upon Camp Pratt, a camp of instruction of the isolated prairie residences from Plaquemine northern shore of Spanish Lake, and subse- Brule to the southwestern outskirts of Ope- quently began impressing reluctant prairie lousas; «horses, cattle and saddles» were the conscripts into the Confederate army.1° usual objects taken.1 7 Forced into the Confederate service, the Because of the raids' demoralizing effect conscripts' morale was understandably low. A upon the civilian morale, the local civil and Union intelligence report of September, 1862, military authorities organized a punitive strike. 9 3 SO 195 As reported by the August 15, 1863, issue of many robbers in the parish, this is the first thE9pelousas Courier: . time they have gone about publicly in day.. a light robbing citizens.»21 6 On Sunday last, a company of mounted troops, joined, it appears, These raids were noteworthy not only by some citizens, started in pursuit for their boldness, but for their bloodlessness of the jayhawkers, and when arrived aswell.Although the thieves frequently in their quarter, dismounted and threatened to shoot their victims, as well as leisurely laid down, waiting for «every 'damned Confederate»they could find, something or other, when, all at the Jayhawkers ned no one in th9k initial once here come the jayhawkers raids upon the T.P. Guidry, Fel& Dejean, pouncing upon them and throwing Madison You 'erence Jeansonne, and dismay among the crowd . Firing g com- Francois Savoy residences.2 2 me nced, runnire too commenced, and from what we can learn we had Despite the foraging raids, however, Car- one man killed and several wound, rier's power continued to grow. According to ed, one of whom has since died. We' Confederate authorities in Opelousas, by late know not the loss of the other February, 1864, the Jayhawkers had become side a symbol ofConfederate resistance for «dis- contended whites and free negroes [as well as] With their victory over combined Con- slaves already demoralized by the Yankees...22 federate and Home Guard forces, Carriere's According to Capt. H.C. Morell, enrolling - . Jayhawkers became the undisputed masters of officer at Opelousis: the upper prairie. Having grown to approxi- mately 1,000 men by February, 1864, Car- .Carriere is daily becoming more riere's«battalion»establisheda defensive and more popular with the masses, perimeter stretching from Prairie Mamou to and that every day serves to increase upper VermilionParish.lfi Moreover, accord- his gang. These men [Carriere and ing to Governor Henry W. Allen, an additional his lieutenants] are making the ig- 8,000 Confederate deserters and conscript norant and deluded suppose that evaders sought. refuge behind the Jayhawker they are their champions, that the lines.1 9 object they follow ...isto bring the war to a close, and tell them if 0 The Jayhawkers' defensive posture. how- they could only make everybody ever, quickly dissolved into anarchyfollowing join them the war would soon be the withdrawal of Confederate forces from brought to,a close.24 St. Landry Parish in late winter1864.20 Resortingto common banditryinmid- Carriere's war against the Confederacy February, Carriere's men «swept over the also drew the attention of the Union military country known as Plaquemine Ridge, rob-. command. For example, inlate October, bing the inhabitants in many instances of 1863, the second Federal invasion of south- everything of value they possessed. but tak- western Louisiana, General Charles P. Stone ing particularly all the fine horses and good directed Major-General William B. Franklin, arms they could find. Althoughthere are field commander of the Yankee expedition. "4- 9 4 to offer Carriere a commission in the Union ample, when 63-year-old Bosman Hayes of army.25 Carriere apparently refused to serve 'Plaquemine Brule attempted to resist eight in the Federal army, for during the short-lived Jayhawkers who were stealing his horses, he Union invasion of St. Landry Parish in late was murdered by Don LouisGodeau.32 Three March, 1864, Franklin was ordered to obtain weeks later, Napoleon Franchebois was mur- from a local Union sympathizer, Judge B.A. dered by James Veillon during a nocturnal Martel, «names of reliable men who can con- Jayhawker raid.33 Finally, in early Novem- trol and make valuable to you as scouts that ber, Carriere's men maliciously set fire to the large body of men known as jayhawkers Bois Mallet residences of Charles Derosier, more than 1,000.»26 Like the Confederates, Sylvin Saunier, and Joseph B. Young, «leaving however, the Yankees were unable to dislodge their respective families to take care of them- Carriere. selves as best they ()Could, and prevented them even of saving the most necessary clothing.34 Because of his increasing threat to Con- federate dominion in St. Landry Parish. local Although the Jayhawker scourge persis- civil and military leaders issued a litany of ted in Si. Landry Parish on a less violent level petitions for military aid to Major-general in subsequent months, the murders and shoot- Richard Taylor, the departmental command- ings seriously undermined Carriere's support er.27 Taylor responded in May with a procla- among the masses. Moreover, during the twi- mationdirectingConfederatesoldiersto light months of the war, Confederate con- shoot Jayhawkers on sight.28 In addition, scription ended in southwestern Lov.isiana.36 the departmental commander dispatched Col. Having thus lost its raison d'etre, Carriere's Louis Bush's 4th Louisiana Calvalry into the battalion disintegrated. In fact, by May, 1865, area. the St. Landry Jayhawkers had dwindled to only fifty men.37 Thus, when confronted by The 4th Louisiana's anti-Jayhawker elm- Bringier's cavalrymen in May, 1865, Ozeme paign was directed by Bush's executive of- Carriere faced overwhelming odds. He never- ficer,Lt. Col. Amedee Bringier who, from theless resisted arrest and was killed in the en- May, 1864 to May, 1865, conducted a per- suing struggle.38 sonal vendetta against Carriere. During his initial tdur of duty in St. Landry Parish (Oc- Carriere's death signaled the end of law- tober,1863-January, 1864), Bringier's men lessness on the southwestern Louisiana prai- had executed over 100 Jayhawkers." More- ries. At the height of his power in early 1864, over, upon reassignment to «lower Louisiana» the St. Landry Jayhawker had served as the in April, 1864, Bringier gleefully informed his symbolic leader of the anti-Confederate move- wife that he would soon «exterminate the ment in the prairies, but the «liberator's» Jayhawkers. .»30 Bringier's subsequent power base was quickly eroded by the depre- raids on Carriere's Bois Mallet Headquarters, dations wrought by his subordinates upon the however, failed to capture the Jayhawker prairie population. Moreover, the cessation of leader.31 conscription during the closing months of the war robbed Carriere's Jayhawker band of its The increasingConfederatepressure, raison d'etre and the unit disbanded. With the. nevertheless, made the Jayhawkers increasing- dissolution of his forces, Carriere, who had so ly desperate: the result was violence. For ex- successfully evaded Confederate assasination 197 squads for two years, became a markea man. ate military rule until his death shortly before He nevertheless continued to resist Confeder- Concederate Louisiana's collapse. 196 198 Notes 1. Creoles were descendents of French, Spanish, lion: A Compilation of the Official Records and German settlers in colonial Louisiana. For of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 the settlement patterns of the Creole popula- parts in 70 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1880-1901), tion in the northern prairies, consult the au- Series 1, Volume XV, Page 245; hereafter cited thor's aThe Secession Moveme it in St. Landry as OR, with series, volume, and page numbers. Parish,1860-1861.* Louisiana Review, VII (Winter, 1978), 128-55. 12. Major-general Richard Taylor, commander of Confederate forces in western Louisiana repor- 2. The Baton Rouge Weekly Gazette and Comet, tedthatok/early the whole of Lieutenant March 7, 1860. ColonelV.A.Fournet'sbattalion,passing through the country in which the men lived, 3. William Arceneaux, Acadian General: Alfred before joining the army, deserted with their Mouton and the Civil War (Lafayette, La., 1972), arms ...* OR, 1, XV, 393. pp.28-37;Alexandre Barde, Histoire des Comites de Vigilance aux Attakapas (Hahnville, 13. Courier. August 15, 1863. La., 1861), pp. 388-402. 14, Ibid. 4. Weekly Gazette and Comet, May 15, 1860. 15. General Orders No. 55, Bureau of Conscription, 5. The Opelopsas Courier, November 10, 1800. Trans-Mississippi Department, published in ibid., August 20, 1864. 6. The Brashear City Attakapas Register, October 1, 1859, quoted in Barde, Comites de Vigilance, 16. According to the 1860 census, Carriere was a p. 404. 29-year-old prairie settler who lived with Mary Guillory, a 35-year-old mulattress, and her 20- 7. See the Official Journal of the Proceedings of year -oldsister, May T. Guillory. He was an the Convention of the State of Louisiana illiterate farmer, owning $2,000 in personal (New Orleans, 1861). property and $500inrealestate.Eighth Decennial Census of. the United States, 1860, 8. Courier, April 12, 1862. St. Landry Parish, p. 130. 9. The Confederate Congress approved the first 17.Courier, August 15, 1863. conscription act on April 16, 1862. John D. Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana (Baton 18. Operating to the north of Carriere, near Bayou Rouge, 1963), P. 83. Chicot, was a small Jayhawker unit commanded by Dr. Dudley who claimed to have received a 10. Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr., ed., «Prison Life at Union commission as major in 1884. To the Camp Pratt,*Louisiana History, XIV (Fall, southwest of Carriere's forces, along the Mer- 1973), 387. menteuRiver,operated a Jayhawker band about which littleis known. The Mermentau 11. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebel- Jayhawker s, who conducted raids as far North 197 199 as Opelousas, were apparently dispersed by May 18, 1864. Louis Amedee Bringier Papers, Confederate cavalry in February, 1864. *Major» Louisiana StateUniversity Archives, Baton Dudley's unit, on the other hand, was captured Rouge, Louisiana;hereafter cited as Bringier and executed by Confederate authorities in Papers. January, 1865. ibid., February 20, March 5, 1864; January 28, 1865; OR, 1, XXXIV, 599, 29. Courier, March 5, 1864. 962-77. 30. Louis Amedee BringiertoStellaBringier, 19. Winters. Civil War, p. 306; OR, 1, XXXIV, 966. April 21, 1864, Bringier Papers. 20. OR, 1, XXXIV, 966. 31. Louis Amedee Bringier to his son, November 26, 1864;Louis Amedee Bringier to Head- 21. Ibid. quarters, January 13, 1865;Bringier Papers. 22. The Jayhawker raiding parties were led by 32. Courier, September 10, 1864. Carriere's lieutenahis DonLouiaGodeau, Agile Myers, Edouard Simon, Maximilien Guil- 33. Ibid., October 29, 1864. I ory and one Ardoin. Ibid., 962-68. 34. Ibid., November5, 1864. 23. Ibid., 966. 35. Ibid. 24. Ibid. 36. J.L. Brent to Louis Amedee Bringier, May 10, 25. Dr. Dudley apparently received his commission 1865, Bringier Papers. by this means. Ibid. XXVI, 978. 37. Napier Bartlett, Military Record of Louisiana 26. Ibid., XXXIV, 599. ...(Baton Rouge, 1964), Part III, 36. 27. Ibid., 962, 965-67. 38. Ibid. 28. Proclamation by Major-General Richard Taylor, Reprinted by permission of theAttakapas Gazette. I. 9 8 PRINCE CAMILLE DE POLIGNAC AND THE #MERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1863-1865 By Roy 0. Hatton THE DE POLIGNAC HERITAGE ereign power, even to the extent of issuing coins. The site of the family castle was origi- On November 15,1913, Camille Armand nally a Roman settlement known as Costal Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac died at his Lum Appollom Acum from which the name desk from cerebral edema while attempting to de Polignac is derived. work a mathematical problem that had puzzled him for a number of years. Thus ended in a Camille de Polignac cane from that rather mild manner the life of a versatile and breed of men who could not be satisfied with talented man. His death was not indicative of the formal and leisurely life of most people of the way he had lived. During his eighty-ene noble birth. He belonged to that group who full and eventful years he had achieved dis- would stubbornly suffer many hardships while tinction in many varied and unrelated fields, fighting for a cause. including journalism, mathematics, and civil engineering. Camille's grandparents were intimately associated with the French monarchy during As a soldier of fortune he fought in three the years of the Revolution and Restoration. wars in different parts of the world, receiving His grandmother, dhe beautiful Duchess de praise and honor in each for his gallantry and Polignac was the boson. friend of Queen Ma- bravery. In the Crimean War he achieved the rie Antoinette, and her children were brought rank of second lieutenant at the age of twenty- up with those of the royal family.» Her son, one. Polignac served as major general in both Camille's father, Jules Armand Auguste Marie, the American Civil War and the Franco-Prus- Prince de Polignac (1780-1847), a politician sian War. He has the distinction of being the and diplomat, brought a great deal of suffer- only foreigner told flag rank in the Ameri- ing to the Polignac family because of his de- can Civil War. votion to the royal cause, spending ten years in prison under Napoleon. Camille de Polignac's achievements can be attributed to his devoted effort and re- After the Bourbons were restored to markable ability. Yet his heritage alone was power in 1814, Jules was released from prison, sufficient to satisfy the desire of most men held various governmental offices and played for prestige and status. Polignac could trace a leading role in the annexation of Algeria. In his ancestors to the ninth century and the 1820 the title of «Pt ince» was bestowed upon Province of Velay where they were the sov- him by Pope Pius VII. He served as Ainbassa- 201 1. 9 9 202 dor to the English court, and was calledby he fought with the Fourth Hussarsin Charles X in 1829 to become Minister of For- trenches of Sevastopol. His conduct or eign Affairs and President of the Council.As battlefield won him a commission as seconu President of the Council he was held responsi- lreutenant of the Fourth Regiment of Chas- ble for i.suing the Four Ordinances which seurs d'Afrique. were the immediate cause of therevolbtion of July, 1830. He attempted to escape, but was At the end of the Crimean War in 1856, arrested and condemned to perpetual im- Poligriac returned to France for garrison duty prisonment, spending six years in the Fortress and received the medal of the CrimeanWar. of Ham. By amnesty in 1837 his sentence was Garrison duty did not satisfy his restlesschar- commuted to exile. acter, so he resigned his commission,Febru- ary 26, 1859, to take a trip toCentral America The family spent most of its time in ex- to study political economy and thegeograph- ile at the Castle of Wildthurn in Bavaria. Later ical conditions of that area. J,Ies was permitted to re-enter his nativeland on the condition thathe not live in Paris. He In the course of eventsPolignac met resided at St. Germain until his death on P. G. T. Beauregard in 1859 in New Yorkin March 29, 1847. the office of a mutual friend,Major John G. Barnard. Beauregard, apparently familiarwith Camille de Polignac was born, February Polignac's accomplishments as a civil engineer, 16, 1832, at Millemont Seine-et-Oise, France invited him to inspect the, fortifications of during the first few Months of his father's im- New Orleans. Due to pressingobligations at prisonment. Camille was one of five children, home, however, Polignac had to return to the third of four boys. His mother,Marie France and was unable to accept theinvita- Charlotte Parkyns, was the second wifeof tion. Jules de Polignac. Of English noblebirth, she was the daughter of theLord of Rancliffe. II1860, he went to Nicaragua where he was employed by that governmentto organize in 1842, at the age of ten, Polignac went the defense of its transit facilities. Tocounter- to Paris to study at St. StanislasCollege. He act British influence in that country,Polignac spent ten years there, making abrilliant rec- proposed a plan whereby the UnitedStates ord as a student, excelling in mathematicsand was to assumeresponsibility for the protec- music. These, along with the study ofpolitical tion of the lives and property of hercitizens economy, were his favoritehobbies. While at using those facilities. He returned toNew St. Stanislas College, Polignac took partin an York with a letter from AlexanderDimitry, academic contest, the «Concurs generale.» the United States Minister to CentralAmerica, Competing against all university studentsin introducing him to a number of prominent France, he won first prize in higher mathe- people, among them Serator JohnSlidell of matics. Louisiana, to whom he was to offer his pro- posal. While the plan met with theapproval of Having completed his education, Poll- Slidell and Judah P. Benjamin, it was never gnac joinedtheFrench army in May, 1853, adopted. Polignac blamed the rejectionof the and was promoted to the rank of sergeantof project on «a tack of funds.» artillery of the Third Regiment ofChasseurs on June 13, 1854.During the Crimean War. Polignac returned to Paris. At the out- 203 break of the Civil War, he wrote to P. G. T. teeth that showed brilliantly when he smiled, Beauregard, e'ipressing his sympathy for the and a dark waxed mustache which lent a Southern cause and offering to recruit Irish- fierceness to his expression...» His Napole- men through one of his cousins who had ei onic beard brought many stares and jokes as tides in Ireland. He also indicated his willing- he rode past the soldiers. ness to recruit a number of noncommissioned officers from France for the Confederacy. Ex- This polished Frenchman of noble birth, pressing his views toward the South, Polignac a favorite in European court' circles, had re- explained: markable powers of adjustment. Within a short time he was able to mingle with the 1 have followed with the deepest in- crude rustics in his charge. His drill tactics terest the great events which have seem to have left some of the backwoodsmen taken place in your country, and all awed, for at the Richmond fairgrounds one of my sympathies have been with the the mountaineers said of Polignac: «that-thur democratic party whose rights seem- furriner he calls out er-lot er gibberish, and ed to be incontestable ...I have al- thum-thur Dagoes jes maneuvers-up like Hell - ways had a profound admiration beatin'- tan -bark! Jes like he was talkin sense!» for your country. I have always Even though the mountaineer did not under- considered it as an adopted father- standthe foreigner's «gibberish,» Polignac lar4 where I shall be happy to some- s. ake English fluently and, when he losthis day settle.Ihave even left the temper, even «swore like a trooper.» French Army for the sole purpose of making a beginning of the proj- During the summer of 1862, Polignac ect .. .I wish only to. show you accompanied General Beauregard to Corinth, thatI perpetuated the traditions Mississippi, where he aided in reorganizing the ",---Ithich make our two nations, two Army of the West. He was transferred to Gen- sisters, and that I shall be happy to eral Braxton Bragg's staff on July 17, 1862, come and offer the tribute of my when General Beauregard was forced to retire person to your cause. because of ill health. Accompanying General Bragg when he invaded Kentucky, Polignac THE FIRST YEARS OF THE CIVIL WAR first distinguished himself as Confederate sol dier in the battle at Richmond, Kentucky, Polignac's offer of service to the Confed- August 29-30, 1862. He was praised by Col- eracy was accepted and he returned from onel Benjamin J. Hill, commander of the Sec- France, arriving in New York on June 12, ond Brigade, Fourth Division of the Army of 1861. He then proceeded to Richmond, Vir- Kentucky, who stated in his report: ginia, and reported for active duty. On July 16, he was made lieutenant-colonel of infantry While I make no invidious distinc- in the Confederate army, and became chief of tion between the actions of officers staff to General P. G. T. Beauregard. and men under my command, I feel it obligatory to mention the gallant- The twenty-nine year old Polignac, a dis- ry of Lieutenant Colonel Polignac, tant cousin of Thaddeus Kosciusko, posed a who, in the last fight before Rich- striking figure. He was a «firey little man; mond seized the colors of the Fifth erect in figure, with keen black eyes, white Tennessee,bearingthemtrium- .204 phantly through the thickest of the the woods with hopes of bringing them in fight and encouraged the men to contact with the animal they were trying to withstand a terrible fire. avoid. Another account is given by Mrs. Louise Wigfall Wright: Colonel Preston Smith, commanding the First Brigade, also reported that Polignac deserved Probably, most of these Texan sol- the thanks of the country* for his bravery in diers had never seen a Frenchman the battle. Because of his gallantry, Polignac before; they had never tested Prince was promoted to brigadier-general on Janu- Polignac's prowess. He was certain- ary 10, 1863, and was assigned to the Army ly, both in appearance and manners, of Tennessee. On March 24, 1863, he re- unlike any of the Rangers, whom it ceived a special order from the Adjutant Gen- had been their happy fate to follow eral's office to proceed without delay with his in other,battles, and as they glanced staff to Alexandria, Louisiana, to report to atthe dapper little Frenchman, Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith, Com- they shook their heads ominously, mander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, and with derisive laughter dubbed for assignment to duty. him «polecat.» It was impossible that such a sobriquet should have Arriving in Louisiana in the spring of been given and uttered frequently, 1g63, Polignac was assigned to the command secure in the Prince'signr;ance of of General Richard Taylor,,who placed him in the vocabulary, without his curios- command of a Texas brigade of about 700 ity being aroused, and questions men, recently dismounted and transferred to following which finally discovered the Trans-Mississippi Department from Arkan- to him the play upon his name, sas. The men were discontented tothe point and the meaning of the word. He of mu tiny, and swore that «a damn frog-eating maintained, a discreet silence and Frenchman» with a name they could not pro- never revealed his knowledge, nor nounce and whose orders they could not un- his indignation, until pne day derstand would never command them. Gen- when the brigade being ordered in- eral Taylor went to the camp and pointed out to battle he had his revenge. As the the consequences of disobedience to officers, order was given to charge, he raised but added that If they were dissatisfied with himself in his stirrups and brandish- Polignac after an engagement, he would be inr his sword aloft he led his men in transferred to another command. In Taylor's person, shouting at the topof his words, «Order was restored, but it was uphill voice, «Follow me, follow nie. You work for General Polignac for some time, not- call me «Polecat,» I will show you withscandng his patience and good temper.» whether I am «Polecat» or «Poll- gnac.» And he did. With an answer- The strangeness of Polignac's name and ing shout they followed him, and ;Is effect on the Texans hizs been told in two that b-ttle over, never had a word humorous accounts. It seems the soldiers, hav- of ridicule more for the. gallant lit- ing distorted his name, pronouncing it «pole- tle Frenchman, who led them to cat,» would hold their noses whenever he was victory. near. When Polignac realized what they were doing, he led them on a long, hard ride through During the first few months of 1864 205 General Taylor was attempting to organize his ity, Polignac moved his infantry and artillery army in Louisiana. Polignac was given the job toHarrisonburg, Louisiana, a distance of of rounding up conscripts and impressing ani- about twelve miles, leaving his cavalry at Trin- mals for artillery purposes. He was ordered to ity under the command of Captain J. B. Ran- take only those animals that might fall into dle. When the gunboats approached Harrison- enemy hands but, misunderstanding the or- burg at 10:00 A.M. on March 2, Polignac was der. he took all the animals he needed, and prepared, having placed two infantry regiments was directed to return some of those taken and one section of artillery on the bank of the from loyal persons. Ouachita River, extending from the mouth of Bushley Bayou to the town. With the increased activity of the Union Army at Vicksburg, Polignac suggested that The infantry and artillery opened fire on he make a raid in the vicinity of Vidalia, Loui- the gunboats simultaneously. The ironclad siana, within enemy lines. Polignac's sugges- was safe from artillery fire, and the wooden tion to raid the Vidalia area was accepted and boats were well protected by plates of sheet- he was ordered to take control of all the iron which had been placed along their sides. country bordering the TenEas River, Lake Nevertheless, unknown to Polignac at the Concordia and Bayou Concordia. time, his fire did considerable damage to one of the wooden vessels, the Fort Hindman. As Polignac made the raid on Vidalia with the boats moved slowly up the river, they two regiments of Texas cavalry, two infantry fired on the troops along the bank, bombard- regiments, and six pieces of artillery. His raid ed the town and riddled several houses with was a success for he drove off the enemy, cap- shot. Fort Beauregard, under construction at tured some mules and cattle and was able to Harrisonburg, was also destroyed. break up the Yankee lessees occupying planta- tions on Lake Concordia and along the river. The Fort Hindman was forced to drop back below the mouth of Bushley Bayou while From Vidalia Polignac moved with his the other boats continued up the river. They brigade and a battery to Trinity (Jonesville), later returned to spend the night one mile Louisiana,located approximately forty-five above Trinity and on the morning of March 3 miles to the northwest of Vidalia, to meet a began shelling the village for the second time. squadron of six gunboats one ironclad and Polignac, at Harrisonburg, was not informed five wooden boatswhich had begun moving ,if the movement of the enemy. Upon learn- up the Ouachita River on March 1, 1864. As ing that the gunboat Fort Hindman had been the gunboats advanced up the river they were crippled by artillery fire on March 2 and re- pursued by a light force of cavalry led by Cap- quired towing to Trinity, Polignac immediate- tain W. H. Gillespie. Lieutenant °seal Gaudet, ly detached two infantry regiments to return commanding the Confederate artillery, fired to the town. It had rained throughout the on the boats with two twelve-pounder howit- previous night and Polignac declared: «The zers. He was within three hundred yards of road is almost impassable. I cannot move any the ironclad but could not check its progress artillery over it. My troops are very worn out or prevent the heavay-armed vessels from and delcient in rations.» He added, «I will shelling Trinity. be my best.» As soon as the gunboats had passed Trin- Road conditions made it impossible for P.03 206 the infantry to reach Trinity in time to pre- commander of the Red River expedition. vent three 32-pounders from falling into the hands of the enemy. Two of the guns had "The purpose of the invasion was to es- been hidden in the water earlier by the Con- tablish a base of operations against Texas. The federates who were unable to move them due strategy was to prevent the South from selling to the condition of the road. When the water its cotton and, at the same time, to gain ac- began to fall rapidly the following day, they cess to that product for Northern mills. In ad- were easily discovered. During the night of dition, the Federal government felt an inva- March 2, the Union force had found the other sion should be made before French troops, gun, buried on the river bank. who had entered Mexico City in June, 1863, could move into Texas. Rumors prevailed that On March 5, the gunboats returned to the French might attempt to annex Texas, the Mississippi. According to Rear Admiral Arizona, and Louisiana. David Porter, United States Navy, the Ouachita River expedition was perfectly successful. General Taylor began preparations to meet the Federal forces. His first effort was to General Richard Taylor held a contrary try to complete the construction of Fort De view about the outcome of the engagement. Russy on Red River. From his headquarters in In his book the General later asserted that Alexandria, he began to concentrate his troops. «the gunboats were driven off.» According to On March 7, Polignac's brigade was ordered to Taylor, Polignac «by his coolness under fire, return to Alexandria from Harrisonburg. Tay- gained the confidence of his men,...he soon lor planned to send Polignac to Fort De Russy gained their affections by his care and atten- to reinforce General William R. Scurry's troops. tion. They got on famously, and he made cap- Polignac delayed to wait for two regiments ital soldiers out of them.» which he had sent from Harrisonburg to Trin- ity in his recent engagement with Federal gun- THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN boats. He arrived in Alexandria on March 12, ahead of his brigade which was delayed until After the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, March 14. Polignac's troops arrived too late 1863 and the opening of the Mississippi River to be of any help, for on that day Fort De to Union forces, it was no secret that north- Russy fell under attack by General A. J. Smith. western Louisiana would be invaded. Lieuten- ant General E. Kirby Smith and Major General After the surrender of Fort De Russy, Richard Taylor expected the invasion to take Taylor began a 200 mile retreat. Abandoning place as soon as the water on Red River was Alexandria he joined the main body of his high enough to allow navigation. Their ex- troops on Mut' Bayou, twenty-five miles pectations proved well founded, for on March south of Alexandria. There, under the com- 12, 1864, nineteen Federal gunboats under mand of Alfred Mouton, Polignac's and Henry the command of Admiral David Porter enter- Gray's brigades were united to form a division. ed the mouth of Red River. Following him Taylor's entire force consisted of about 7,000 were 10,000 men of William T. Sherman's men. army, commanded by Brisadier General A. J. Smith. Major Ger.eral Nathaniel P. Banks, sta- Taylor ended his retreat at Mansfield on tioned in New Orleans, was to join Porter and April 3 and established headquarters in the Smith with his troops and was to serve as field area. By April 6, most of his army had arrived. 207 The following day battle preparations were the exultant southerners rang in their ears.» begun on a site three miles below Mansfield covering a crossroad leading to the Sabine Shortlybeforenightfallthe Federals River. Taylor placed his troops on either side were driven from a small creek by forces un- of the Mansfield-Pleasant Hill Road. Rein- der Polignac, Thomas Green and John G. forcementsincreasedhisforces to about Walker. At first their men made little impres- 8,800 men. sion on the Federals, but they persisted in their attack and the enemy fell back. The On the morning of April 8, as Taylor creek was the only water supply other than rode along the lines waiting for the action to Mansfield seven miles away. The Confederates break,he called out toPolignac:«Little camped near the creek that night and made Frenchman, I am going to fight Banks here if preparations for the next day's battle. (They he has a million men.» It was afternoon be- had clearly won a victory. General Taylor's fore the Federal troops began emerging from command of little more than 8,000 men had the woods on the far side of a clearing which been able to repulse the 121000 men of Banks' was about 1,000 yards wide. Taylor, believing army and to force a retreat. As a result of his these troops were massing for an assault, wait- magnificent leadership, Polignac was appoint- ed impatiently. At four o'clock, with no sign ed major general. Thus PoL.snac became the of action from the Union troops, r ,; ordered only foreigner to achiev,Nis rank in either General Mouton to attack. the Confederate or Unioi any. He also as- sumed command of Moutnn s old division. Mouton's division charged across the field «under murderous fire 61 artillery and During the night of April 8, General musketry.» When Mouton, along with many Thomas Churchill arrived from Keachi with of his officers and men, was killed, Polignac 4,400 Arkansas and Missouri troops to rein- took charge and continued the attack. He force Taylor. Banks decided not tp make a «displayed ability and pressed the shattered stand and began his retreat during the night. division steadily forward.» «The division nev- Early on the morning of the ninth, Taylor or- er halted for a moment nor even fell into con- dered his entire force to pursue the Federal fusion, but under the gallant Polignac pressed army. The cavalry, commanded by Thomas stubbornlyon.»Seven hundred sixty-two Green, was followed by the infantry units of men were killed' in the division whichhad Thomas Churchill, Mosby M. Parson, John G. consisted of 2,200 men at the beginning of Walker and Camille de Polignac. the charge. According to the journal of W. W. Heartsill, a participant in the battle, Polignac Banks decided to force a battle at the vil- was wounded, but apparently notseriously, lage of Pleasant Hill, located on a mile-square since this is the only report of the general's plateau. The Federal troops formed their line misfortune. across the open plateau from College Hill, the highest ground on the left, to the woods bor- For an hour the Federals held their posi- dering the Mansfield road on the right. Union tion; then, lacking organization and running troops had been reinforced by General A. J. out of ammunition, they gave way, panicked Smith, moving up from Natchitoches, increas- and began to flee. «On they ran. Guns, knap- ing the Federal force to about 24,000 men. sacks, blanketseverything was thrown away by the frantic soldiers as the hue and cry of Taylor's full force arrived at Pleasant Hill 208 by one o'clock in the afternoon. Because the The three infantry divisions of Walker, men were too thirsty and tired tofight, the Churchill and Parson left Mansfield for Shreve- attack was postponed while they rested. At port on April 14, followed by Taylor on the four o'clock they were ready for battle. Po li- 15th, to begin operations against General gnac's division, which had suffered most in Frederick Steele in Arkansas. E. Kirby Smith the action on the previous day, was held in re- decided to conduct the campaign personally, . serve on the Mansfield road. and left Taylor in command at Shreveport. The Confederates charged the Federal Polignac, in Taylor's absence, command: lines, but were repulsed. They fell back, re- ed the forces remaining on Red River. On formed their lines and charged repeatedly, April 14, he moved his division of infantry, suffering heavy losses. Walker. was wounded numbering approximately 2,000 effectives, and Polignac was ordered forward to reinforce toward Grand Ecore to support the cavalry Walker's division. Standing in his saddle, Poli- engaging Banks' army there. Polignac arrived gnac shouted: «My boys, follow yourPon- on April 19 and assumed commandof the gnac.» His men made several charges, but the Confederateforces.With less than 5,000 Federal line repulsed them, at timesas if by fighting men, Polignac was able to continually a resistless and superhuman power.» harass Banks. Banks' attempt to leave Grand Ecore on the morning of April 21 was thwart- Afternightfall the Confederate com- ,ed by Polignac's cavalry and skirmishers. Skir- mands became separated in the dense woods mishing continued all day, but there was no and began firing at each other. Figh'ing con- general engagement. Banks again resorted to a tinued until nine o'clock when Taylor, to pre- night retreat, marching thirty-two miles to vent more confusion, withdrew his troopsand Cloutierville without halting. fell back six miles to a water supply. Polignac with one brigade of cavalry remained behind Troops were detailed to pursue Banks. to cover the retreat. Thus the Battle of Pleas- Attacking the Union forces on April 23, the ant Hill eaded in a Confederate defeat. Confederates forced a retreat to Monette's Ferry on the Cane River four miles south of The next morning the Confederates Cloutierville. The Federals crossed the river at found themselves in possession of Pleasant that point. Polignac attempted to reinforce Hill, for Banks again had retreated during the Confederate troops at Monette's Ferry, but night. The cavalry pursued Banks while the in- arrived too late to prevent the last Federal fantry returned to Mansfield to rest and ob- troops from escaping. The pursuit of Banks tain supplies. On April 12, Polignac, in the by a part of the Confederate cavalry and a field near Mansfield, praised his troops for the portion of Polignac's division of infantry con- gallantry they had displayed in the recent bat- tinued. The Federals, however, offered no tle: resistance until they were safe in Alexandria under the protection of their gunboats. Thanks to your valor and your un- tiring energy, the host that had in- WithBanks'army confinedbehind vaded the country and was moving earthworks at Alexandria, Taylor, who had upspreadingdevastation...has arrived from Shreveport to join his troops, been repulsed and is now in full decided to divide his command in an attempt retreat. to blockade Red River and cutoff Federal 3 6 '209 communication with the Mississippi. John were few casualties on either side. Later, at a Austin Wharton's cavalry was split into three dress parade held in the field in the vicinity of units. William Steele was to command the Alexandria, Taylor expressed his appreciation first and was sent to hold the river and Rapides for the gallantry which Major General Poli- roads to the north and west of Alexandria. gnac and Major General Wharton and their Arthur P. Bagby, commanding the second commands displayed in the engagement. unit, was sent to the Bceuf road to the south of Steele's command and James P. Major was After the engagement at Mansura, Banks sentto Davide's Ferry, twenty-five miles marched to Simmesport, on the Atchafalaya south of Alexandria on Red River. Polignac's River, where a bridge had to be constructed. infantry, which consisted of 1,200 men,was It was completed on May 18. Polignac planned located on Baeuf Bayou width. supporting to attack the Federal troops as they crossed. distance of Bagby and Major.- His plans failed to materialize when A. J. Smith ordered Joseph A. Mower, with three Polignac had orders to attack any force brigades, to recross Yellow Bayou and attack attempting to reach Alexandria. If Banks tried the Confederates. Mower moved two miles be- to leave Alexandria, Polignac and Major were fore he met Wharton's and Polignac's cavalry to drive off all livestock in the Union line of and infantry divisions. In an indecisive battle march, seeing that none fell into their hands. the Confederates were repulsed. On May 6th and 7th, Polignac engaged the Federals on the Rapides road and Robert and Banks escaped across the Atchafalaya Bceuf bayous. The Federals fired on the Con- River. After sixty-seven days the Red River federates for several hours with heavy artillery, Campaign ended where it had begun on the then advanced. This action threw the Con- banks of the Atchafalaya. The Federals did federates into confusion but they rallied and not invade Texas as they had planned, and for were able to drive the Federals across Lamou- them the campaign was a failure. Although rie Bayou, capturing a number of prisoners. there were no decisive victories, the Confed- In addition, two gunboats were captured and erates had accomplished their purpose. They Polignac ordered one of his officers to take stopped Banks' advancing army and forced a possession of the badly needed guns. retreat. Their success prevented northwestern Louisiana from falling under Federal control. Banks left Alexandria on May 14 pur- No small part of the Confederate success was sued by the Confederates. Polignac, Major, due to the ability and leadership of Polignac. and Bagby covered the front and flanks, with Taylor, in discussing the campaign, said that Isaac F. Harrison on the north side of Red Polignac's and Walker's divisions had «held . River and William Steele's division following every position intrusted [sic] to them, carried in the rear. every position in their front, and displayed a constancy and valor worthy of the Guards at On May 16, Banks met Taylor's force at Inkerman or Lee's veterans in the Wilderness!» Mansura. about thirty miles south of Alexan- dria. The action was confined for the most On June 1, while still in the vicinity of part to artillery fire. For four hours Taylor Yellow Bayou, Polignac was given a field was able to hold the Federal line, but about horse by the officers of his old Texas Brigade. 10 A.M. the Federals were reinforced and Colonel J.E. Harrison, who presented the Taylor was compelled to withdraw. There horse, said: 207 210 As a slight testimonial of our confi- received letters from friends in France who dence in you as an officer, and our were sympathetic to theConfederacy. With esteem for you as a gentleman ... the troops in winter quarters and little indica- in behalf of the officers of the tion that hostilities would be renewed inthe he decided Brigade,...permit me to remark, Trans-MississippiDepartment, that we do not regard you as a mere that he would be of greater service to the adventurer, borne on the fickle South by seeking aid for the Confederacy wave of chance, seeking wealthand abroad. Since he had been an active participant distinction at the expense of a na- in the war he felt that he might have influence tion's blood. in seeking aid in France. He planned to ap- proach Emperor Napoleon III through a mu- Polignac responded: tual friend, the Duke de Morny. Amid a dangers of the field, Polignac discussed the idea with General through the drudgery of camp life, E. Kirby Smith in Shreveport and askedfor a around the still campfires the sol-, six-month leave of absence. Smith agreedwith dier's lonely hearth you have giv- Polignac's suggestion for he knew thatwith- en me back the thoughtswhich I out aid theConfederacy. %vas doomed. Poll- daily bestow upon you, ir. my un- gnac then laid the planbefore another intimate tiring exertions for your welfare, friend, Governor Henry Watkins Allenof Lou- with fatherly solicitude. Now you isiana. Governor Allen agreed withthe pro- have paid me back that debt of the posal, but none of the three wasoverly opti- heart ten and twenty fold, and with mistic about the results that might beobtain- a large interest; for thatwhich with ed. Nevertheless, since Frenchcommercial me was a duty, has beenwith you a interests leaned toward the South, it was not voluntary pledge of sympathy. This beyond the realm of possibility thatPolignac is your real gift to me; the free gift might. be able to arouse somesympathy and Since time of your thoughts ... interest for the Southern cause. was important andihere was difficulty in These were the officers of those men communicating with Richmond, neitherPresi- who earlier had called Polignac the«damn dent Jefferson Davis nor the WarDepartment frog-eating Frenchman,» aftd had distortedhis was consulted. name, calling him «polecat.*These were the Polignac suggested that his chief of staff, men who hadthreatened mutiny and swore Major T.C. Moncure, be permitted to accom- that he would never command them.The or- pany him to <:give moreweight to his pres- dinary man could not have handled such an ence abroad.* Smith andAllen approved. The undisciplined and dissatisfied group,much Governor took the opportunity to write alet- less gain their respect. Polignac wasable to ter to the Emperor to be delivered byhis aide- rise to the occasion and to gain their respect Milten- under- de-camp, Colonel Ernest Miltenberger, and admiration by his patience and berger was to be the official spokesman forthe standing and by his devotion to duty. group, representing the stateof Louisiana, not MISSION TO FRANCE the Confederacy. Polignac did not knowthe contents of the letter, but Miltenberger as- During the winter of 1864-1865, Polignac serted: 211 He [Governor Allen] referred at weeks waiting for a ship to take them to length in the most pathetic manner Havana. Upon arrival in Havana they were de- to the strong and sacred ties that tained for another two weeks before boarding bound France and Louisiana..-He al- a Spanish ship sailing for Cadiz,Spain. After a so stated in very positive language, stormy fourteen-day voyage they arrived at the imminent danger, in case the Cadiz, took a stagecoach to Madrid and from Confederate States should succumb, Madrid traveled to Paris by train. to the French occupation of Mexi- co [and] warned him that [in] such a On the last day of the trip, while reading contingency the immense Federal a newspaper, Polignaclearned that the Duke Army would beyond doubt be de Morny had died. He realized that with the turned toward Mexico. death of his friend there was little hope of ac- complishing his mission. In fact, Polignac ten- AfterPolignad'sdepartureE.Kirby tatively decided not to seek an audience with Smith wrote John Slidell, Confederate Minis- the Emperor. Upon arriving in Paris, however, ter in France, that foreign intervention was a he was greeted by a friend who was an officer necessity: in the French army, a Major de Vatry, who was on the Emperor'smilitary- staff. He ar- It cannot be too strongly impressed ranged an interview without difficulty. Ac- upon the Emperor of the French cording to Polignac, he was well received by that the security of his empire in the Emperor. They talked of the war, but not Mexico and the interest of his own of political issues. When Polignac told the Em- Government all demand immediate peror that the Confederacy wouldfight to the interference to restore peace and es- last for states' rights: the Emperor did not tablish firmly the nationality of the reply. Confederate States. Polignac requested permission to intro- Smith, aware of foreign sentiment regarding duce Colonel Miltenberger, with the letter slavery, declared that 95 per cent of the plant- from the Governor of Louisiana. The Em- ers in his department would accept any sys- peror hesitated, wanting to knowthe contents tem of gradual emancipation that would in- of the letter. When Polignac assured him that sure independence and peacefor the iople. he did not know the contents, his request was Polignac, many years later, wrote: clndeed, granted. Polignac and Miltenberger returned many [Southern leaders] knew toowell that the next day and the Emperor received them the institution of slavery proved the greatest standing. He did not open the letter but laid bar to every hope for foreign assistance.* it on a table nearby. They talked for a few minutes, then left. Miltenberger, writingof In early January,11865, Polignac, Milten- the interview, said that he and Polignac told berger and Moncure left Shreveport for France, the Emperor the purpose of the visit: traveling across Texas to Mexico by stage- coach. The Texans, hearing of Polignac's jour- The Emperor listened attentively ... ney, welcomed him at every stageof his trip, and then informed us that he had at receiving him as a guest of the state. The par- two different times, endeavored to tyfinallyarrivedat Matamoras, Mexico, get England to join France in taking where they were detained for about two action in behalf of the Confederate 209 4'0 212 States, but without success, and offered him the command, as general, over all France could not act independently the Fkanc-Ilreurs de France. Polignac did not ac- of England. He then kindly said it cept this offer because he felt that he could was too late to take further action, serve better in some other capacity. Instead, and such was the case, as the disas- he was promoted to brigadier general of the terous news of Lee's army .. . in- Auxiliary Army on October 18, and took part dicated the early and inevitable fall in several battles, one of which was that of of the Confederacy. Beaune La Rolande where he again distinguish- ed himself. THE LATER YEARS . In less than a year Polignac had display- With the fall of the Confederacy, there ed such ability that by November 24, 1870, was no need for Polignac to return to the with the rank of major general, he was placed United States. He had fought for a lost cause, in command of the 1st Division of the 20th yet he had clever swerved from the belief that Army Corps. He fought in the Battle of Ville- he was right. He never lost his love for the sexel and received the Cross of Legion of Confederacy and the principles for which it Honor. Two officers wrote of Polignac: stood. Many yeas later writing to a friend in Texas, he said he had joined the Confederacy The officers and men of his division In .1874 at the age of forty-two, Polignac cerning the South and states' rights. He praised married Marie Adolphine Longenberger. The Southerners Kfor their courage and generosity» marriage was short and tragic, for Marie died and added: in childbirth, although the child, Princess Ar- mande, lived. Polignac remarried in 1883 to The Southern States...found no Elizabeth Margaret Knight of Wolverly. This help intheir need. They fought marriage produced three children, two daugh- singlehanded against great odds, un- ters, Mable and Agnes, and one son, Victor til they sank from sheer exhaustion Mansfield, named in honor of the victory at under the crushing weight of ever Mansfield during the American Civil War. As increasing hostile ranks swelled by a family man: European mercenaries. Polignac was a tender and loving He fought for justice and justice, as he saw it, husband and father. He taught his was on the side of the South. In the same ar- children to value the same high ticle, Polignac continued: principles and ideals for which he fought and in which he sincerely The Constitutional right of secession believed. He instilled in them a love was in reality absolute. But political of the Confederacy, and from him truths do not rule the political world they learned of Southern hospitality, as mathematical theorems rule, & in Southern gallantry and Southern a paramount necessity for national loyalty. unity, if believed in, great induce- ments were found for looking on Polignac spent his last years in leisure en- secession as an academic & obsolete joying those things he loved most: mathemat- principle. Thus two doctrines stood ics, music and riding. Death came in Paris on out in bold contrast to each other: November 15, 1913, as he worked at his desk. the modern notion of national sov- He was buried in Frankfurt, Germany, in the ereignity [sic] pitted against the tra- family vault of his first wife. ditional notion of State Sovereign- ity [sic]. On one side the allegiance CONCLUSION to an indissoluble aggregate of states; on the other side allegiance to each Polignac's military contribution in the state considered as a-political unit, American Civil War was limited to the Trans- viewed academically. Both notions Mississippi Department where he was instru- are normal and can furnish the basis mental in repulsing the Federals, saving north- of a fundamental compact. western Louisiana and Texas from occupation. Even there he did not play a decisive role, but But the doctrine of national unity he was a participant who ranked in ability was more in conformity with mod- with such men as Walker, Churchill, Wharton, ern views, favoring political concen- and Green. The prospect of a distinguished tration. The North inaugurated the military career was not the motive that in- policy of the future. On the other duced Polignac to join the Confederacy. In an hand, the doctrine of State rights article published in theNineteenth Century was a revered tradition, it clung to Review,1893, Polignac gave his views con- the past... 214 He concludes with a note of optimism tion the inauguration of a policy which conspicuouslylacksthebitterness which, with the potential energy often associated with defeat: derived from free institutions will bear the nation onwards inher All well-wishers to the American peaceful path and confer lasting Republic must rejoice at its success prosperity on a generous and united and hail with unqualified gratifica- people. Reprinted by permission of the Northwestern State University of Louisiana. THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN July 21, 1861 By P.G.T. BEAUREGARD Sunday, July 21st, bearing the fate of directions were given to the reserves, when the new-born Confederacy, broke brightly without orders, to move toward the sound of over the fields and woods that held the hostile the heaviest firing. The ground in our front on forces. My scouts, thrown out in the night the other side of Bull Run afforded particulEr toward Centreville along the Warrenton turn- advantage for these tactics. Centreville was pike, had reported that the enemy was con- the apex of a' triangleits short side running centrating along the latter. This fact, together by the Warrenton turnpike to Stone Bridge, with the failure of the Federals in their attack its base Bull Run, its long side a road that ran upon my center at Mitchell's and Blackburn's from Union Mills along the front of my other fords, had caused me to apprehend '!-mot they Bull Run positions and trende4 off to the rear would attempt my left flank at the Stone of Centreville, where McDowell had massed Bridge, and orders were accordingly issued by his main forces; branch roads led up to this half-past four o'clock to the brigade com- one from the fords between Union Mills and manders to hold their forces in readiness to Mitchell's. My forces to the right of the latter move at a moment's notice, together with the ford were to advance, pivoting on that posi- suggestion that the Federal attack might be tion; Bonham was to advance from Mitchell's expected in that quarter. Shortly afterward ford,Longstreet fromBlackburn's,D.R. ( the Federals were reported to be advancing Jones from McLean's, and Ewell from Union from Centreville on the Warrenton turnpike, Mills by the Centreville road. Ewell, as having and at half-past five o'clock as deploying a the longest march, was to begin the move- force in front of Evans. As their movement ment, and each brigade was tc, be followed by against my left developed the opportunity I its reserve. In anticipation of this method of desired, I immediately sent orders to the bri- attack, and to prevent accidents, the subordi- gade commanders, both front and reserves, on nate commanders had been carefully instruc- my right and center to advance and vigor- ted in the movement by me in conference the ously attack the Federal left flank and rear night before, as they were all new to the re- at Centreville, while my left, under Cocke and sponsibilities of command. They were to es- Evans with their supports, would sustain the tablish close communication with each other Federal attack in the quarter of the Stone before making the attack. About half-past Bridge, which they were directed to do to the eight o'clock I set out with General John- last extremity. The center was likewise to ad- ston for a convenient position, a hill in rear vance and engage the enemy in front, and of Mitchell's ford, where we waited for the 2121 3 216 opening of the attack on our right, from his troops on each side of a small copse, which I expected a decisive victory by mid- with such cover as the ground afforded, and day, with the result of cutting off the Federal looking over the open fields and a reach of army from retreat upon Washington. the Sudley road which the Federals must cover in their approach. His twohowitzers Meanwhile, about half-past fi,e o'clock, were placed one at each endof his position, the peal of a heavy rifled gun was heard in and here he silently awaited the masses of the front of the Stone Bridge, its second shot enemy now drawing near. striking through the tent of my signal officer, Captain E.P. Alexander; and at six o'clock a The Federalturning column, about full rifled battery opened against Evans and eighteen thousand strong, with twenty-four then against Cocke, to which our artillery re- pieces of artillery, had moved down from mained dumb, as it had not sufficient range Centreville by the Warrenton turnpike, and to reply. But later, as the Federal skirmish- after posing Cub Run had struck to the right line advanced, it was engaged by ours, thrown by a forest road to cross Bull Run at Sudley well forward on the other side of the Run. A ford, about three miles above the Stone scattering musketry fire followand mean- Bridge, tnoving by a long circuit for the while about seven o'clock, I ordered Jackson's purpose of attacking myleft flank. The brigade, with Imboden's and five guns of head of the column, BurnsEe's brigade of Walton's battery, to the left, with orders to Hunter's division, at about 9:45 A.M. de- support Cocke as well as Bonham; and the boucheci from the woods intothe open brigades of Bee and Bartow, under the com- fields, in front of Evans. Wheat at once en- mand of the former, were also sent to the gaged the: skirmishers, and as the Second support of the left. Rhode Island regiment advanced, supported by its splendid battery of six rifled guns, the At half-past eight o'clock Evans, seeing fronting thicket held by Evans's South Caro- thlt the Federal attack did not increase in linians poured forth its sudden volleys, while boldness and vigor, and observing a lengthen- the two howitzers flung their grape-shot upon; ing line of dust above the trees to the left of the attacking line, which was soon shattered the Warrenton turnpike, became satisfied that and driven back into the woods behind. Minor the attack in his front was but a feint, and Wheat, after handling his battalion with the that a column of the enemy was moving utmost determination, hadfallen severely around through the woods to fall on his flank wounded in the lungs. Burnside's entire brig- from the direction of Sudley find. Informing ade was now sent forward in a second charge, his immediate commander, Cock', of the supported by eight guns; but they encountered enemy's movement, andif his own disposi- again the unflinching fire of Evans's line, and tions to meet it, he left four companies under were once more drivenback to the woods, cover at t le Stone Bridge, andled the re- from the cover of which they continued the mainder of his force, six companies of Sloan's attack, reenforced after a time by thearrival Fourth South Carolina and Wheat's battalion of eight companies of United States regular of Louisiana Tigers, with two six-pounder infantry, under Major Sykes, with six pieces howitzers,acrossthevalleyof Young's of artillery, quickly followed by the remain- Branch to the high ground beyond it. Resting ing regiments of Andrew Porter's brigadeof his left on the Sudley road, he distributed the same division. The contest here lasted 21 4 217 fully an hour; meanwhile Wheat's battalion, an almost unbroken fringe of second-growth having lost its leader, had gradually lost its pines gave excellent shelter for our marksmen, organization, and Evans, though still opposing who availed themselves of it with the most these heavy odds with undiminished firmness, satisfactory skill. To the west, adjoining the sought reenforcement from the troops in his fields that surrounded the houses mentioned, rear. a broad belt of oaks extends directly across the crest on both sides of the Sudley road, in General Bee, of South Carolina, a man of which, during the battle, the hostile forces marked character, whose command lay in re- contended for the mastery. General Bee, with serve in rear of Cocke, near the Stone Bridge, a soldier's eye to the situation, skillfully dis- intelligently applying the general order given posed his forces. His two brigades on either to the reserves, had already moved toward side of Imboden's battery which he had bor- the neighboring point of conflict, and taken rowed from his neighboring reserve, Jackson's a position with his own and Bartow's brigades brigadewere placed in a small depressimi of on the high plateau which stands in rear of the plateau in advance of the Henry house, Bull Run in the quarter of the Stone Bridge, whence he had a full view of the contest on and overlooking the scene of engagement theok.ositeheight acrossthe valley of upon the stretch of high ground from which Young's Branch. Opening with his artillery it was separated by the valley of Young's upon the Federalbatteries, he answered Branch. This plateauis inclosed on three Evans's request by advising him to withdraw sidesby two small water-courses, which to his own position on the height; but Evans, empty into Bull Run within a few yards of full of the spirit that would not retreat, re- each other, a half mile to the south of the newed his appeal that the forces in rear would Stone Bridge. Rising to an elevation of quite come to help him hold his ground. The newly one hundred feet above the level of Bull Run arrived forces had given the Federals such at the bridge, it falls off on three sides to the superiority at this point as to dwarf Evans's level of the inclosing streams in gentle slopes, means of resistance, and General Bee, gen- but furrowed by ravines of irregular directions erously yielding his own better judgment and length, and studded with clumps and to Evans's persistence, led the two brigades patches of young pines and oaks. The general across the valley under the fire of the enemy's direction of the crest of the plateau is oblique artillery, and threw them into action- -one to the course of Bull Run in that quarter regiment in the copse held by Colonel Evans, and to the Sudley and turnpike roads, which two along a fence on the right, and two under intersect each other at right angles. On the General Bartow on the prolonged right of this north-we-sternbrow,overlooking Young's line, but extended forward at a right angle Branch, and near the Sudley road,is the and along the edge of a wood not more than latter climbs over the plateau, stood th : house a hundred yards from that held by the enemy's of the widow Henry, while to its right and left, where the contest at short range became forward on a projecting spur stood the house sharp and deadly, bringing many casualties and sheds of the free negro Robinson, just to both sides. The Federal infantry, though behind the turnpike, densely embowered in still in superior numbers, failed to make any trees and shrubbery and environed by a headway againstthis sturdy van, notwith- double row of fences on two sides. Around standing Bee's whole line was hammered also the eastern and southern brow of the plateau by the enemy's powerfulbatteries,until 215 218 Heintzelman's division of two strong brigades, his right, though he had sent him between arriving from Sudley ford, extended the fire seven and eight o'clock a copy of his own on the Federal right, while its battery of six order which recited that Ewell had been al- ten-pounder rifled guns took an immediately ready ordered to begin the movement. I dis- effective part from a position behind the Sud- patched an immediate order to Ewell to ad- ley road. Against these odds the Confederate vance; but within a quarterof an hour, just force was still endeavoring to hold its ground, as I received a dispatch from himinforming when a new enemy came into the field upon me that he had received no order toadvance itsright. Major Wheat, with characteristic in the morning, the firing on the left began to daring and restlessness, had crossed Bull Run increase so intensely as to indicate a severe alone by a small fora above the Stone Bridge, attack, whereupon General Johnston said that in order to reconnoiter, when he and Evans he would go personally to that quarter. had first moved to the left, and, falling on some Federal scouts, had shouted a taunting After weighing attentively the firing, defiance and withdrawn, not, however, with- which seemed rapidly and heavily increasing, out his place of crossing having been observed. it appeared to me that the troops on the right This disclosure was now utilized by Sherman's would be unable to get into position before (W.T.) and Keyes's brigades of Tyler's division; the Federal offensive should have Made too crossing at this point, they appeared over the much progress on our left, and that it would high bank of the stream and moved into po- be better to abandon it altogether, maintain- sition on the Federalleft. There was no ing only a strong demonstration so as to de- choice now for Bee but to retire a move- tain the enemy in front of our right and cen- ment, however, to be accomplished under ter, and hurry up all available reenforcements different circumstances than when urged by includingthereserves that were to have him upon Evans. The three leaders endeavored moved upon Centreville to our left and fight to preserve the steadiness of the ranks as the battle out in that quarter. Communicating they withdrew over the ^oen fields, aided by this view to General Johnston, who approved the fire of Imboden's guns on the plateau and it (giving his advice, as he said, for what it was the retiring howitzers; but the troops were worth, as he wits not acquainted with the thrown into confusion, and the greater part country), I ordered Ewell, Jones, and Long- soon fell into rout across Young's Branchand street to make a strong demonstrationall around the base of the height in the rear of along their front on the other side of the run, the Stone Bridge. and ordered the reserves below our position, Holmes's brigade with six guns, and Early's Meanwhile, in rear of Mitchell's ford, brigade, also two regiments of Bonham's I had been waiting with General Johnston for brigade, near at hand, to move swiftly to the the sound of conflict to open in the quarter left. General Johnston and I now set out at Centreville upon the Federal left flank and full speed for the point of conflict. We arrived rear (making allowance, however, for the there just as Bee's troops,ifter giving way, delayspossibleto commands unused to were fleeing in disorder behindthe height in battle), when I was chagrined to hear from rear of the StoneBridge. They had come General D.R. Jones that, while he had been around between the base of the hill and the long ready for movement upon Centreville, Stone Bridge into a shallow ravine which ran General Ewell had not come up to form on up to a point on the crestwhere Jackson had 2i 6 219 already formed his brigade along the edge of accomplished victory, were already advancing the woods. We found the commanders reso- across the valley of Young's Branch and up lutely stemming the farther flight of the rou- the slope, where they had encountered for a ted forces, but vainly endeavoring to restore while the fire of the Hampton Legion, which order, and our own efforts were akfutile. had been led forward to the Robinson house Every segment of line we succeeded in form- and the turnpike in front, covering the re- ing was again dissolved while another was treat and helping materially to check the being formed; more than two thousand men panic of Bee's routed forces. were shouting each some suggestion to his neighbor, their voices mingling with the noise As soon as order was restored I reques- of the shells hurtling through the trees over- ted General Johnston to go back to Portici head, anddll word of command drowned in (the Lewis house), and from that point the confaron and uproar. It was at this mo- which I considered most favorable for the ment that General Bee used the famous purposeforward me the reenforcements as expression, them the immediate presence of the com- so deep below the adjacent ground as toaf- mander. As the regiment raised a loud cheer, ford a covered way up to the plateau. Sup- the name was caught by some of the troops of ported by the formidable :ines of Federal Jackson's brigade in the immediate wood, musketry, these two batteries lost no time in who rushed out calling for General Beaure- making themselves felt, while three more bat- gard. Hastily acknowledging these happy signs' teries in rear on the high ground beyond the of sympathy and confidence, which reenforce Sudley and Warrenton cross-roads swelled the alike the capacity of commander and troops, shower of shell that fell among'our ranks. I placed the Forty-ninth Virginia in position on the extreme left next to Gartrell, and as I Our own batteries, Imboden's, Stanard's, paused to say a few words to Jackson, while five of Walton's guns, reenforced later by Pen- hurrying back to the right, my horse was dleton's and Alburtis's (their disadvantage killed under me by a bursting shell, a frag- being reduced by the shortness of range), ment of which carried away part of the heel swept the surface of the plateau from their of my boot. The Hampton Legion, which had position on the eastern rim. I felt that, after suffered greatly, was placed on the right of the accidents of the morning, much depended Jackson's brigade, and Huntor'; Eighth Vir- on maintaining the steadiness ofthe troops ginia, as it arrived, upon the riglit of Hampton; against the first heavy onslaught, and rode the f.wo latter being drawn somewhat to the along the lines encouraging the men to un- rear so as to form with Jackson's right regi- flinching behavior, meeting, as I passed each ment a reserve, and be ready likewise to make command, a cheering response. The steady defense against any advance from the direc- fire of their musketry told severely on the tion of the Stone Bridge,' whence there was Federal ranks, and the splendid action of our imminent peril from the enemy's heavy forces, batteries was a fit preface to the marked skill as I had just stripped that position almost en- exhibited by our artillerists during the war. tirely of troops to meet the active crisis on The enemy suffered particularly from the the plateau, leaving this quarter now covered musketry on our left, nowefurther reenforced only by a few men, whose defense was other- by the Second Mississipdi the troops in this wise assisted solely by the obstruction of an quarter confronting each other at very short abatis. range. Here two companies of Stuart's cavalry charged through the Federal ranks that filled With six thousand five hundred men and theSudley road,increasingthedisorder thirteen pieces of artillery, I now awaited the wrought upon that flank of the enemy. But onset of the enemy, who were pressing for- with superior numbers the Federals were ward twenty thousand strong, with twenty- pushing on new regiments in the attempt to four pieces of superior artillery and seven flank my position, and several guns, in the companies of regular cavalry. They soon ap- effort to enfilade ours, were thrust forward peared over the farthc: rim of the plateau, so near the Thirty-third Virginia that someof seizing the Rainson house on my right and its men sprang forward and captured them, the Henry house opposite my left center. but were driven back by an. overpowering Near the latter they placed in position the force of Federal musketry. Although the en- two powerful batteries of Ricketts and Griffin emy were held well at bay, their pressurebe- of the regular army, and pushed forward up came so strong that I resolved to takethe the Sudley road, the slope of which was cut offensive, and ordered a charge on my right 21& 221 for the purpose of recovering the plateau. The equally enabled them to outflank my right movement, made with alacrity and force by in the direction of the Stone Bridge, imposing the commands of Bee, Bartow, Evans, and anxious watchfulness in that direction. I knew Hampton, thrilled the entire line, Jackson's that I was safe if I could hold out till the ar- brigade piercing the enemy's center, and the rival of reenforcements, which was but a mat- left of the line under Gartrell and Smith fol- ter of time; and, with the full sense of my lowing up the charge, also, in that quarter, so own responsibility, I was determined to hold that the whole of the open surface of the pla- the line of the plateau, even if surrounded on teau was swept clear of the Federals. all sides, until assistance should come, unless my forces were sooner overtaken by annihila- Apart from its impression on the enemy, tion. the effect of this brilliant onset was to give a short breathing-spell to our troops from the It was now between half-past two and immediate strain of conflict, and encourage three o'clock; a scorching sun increased the them in withstanding the still more strenuous oppression of the troops, exhausted from in- offensive that was soon to bear upon them. cgssantfightingagainst such heavy odds, Reorganizing our line of battle under the un- many having been engaged since the moaning. remitting fire of the Federal batteries oppo- Fearinglestthe Federal offensive should site, I prepared to meet the new attack which secure too firm a grip, and knowing the fatal the enemy were about to make, largely re- result that might spring from any grave infrac- enforced by the fresh troops of Howard's tion of my line, I determined to make another brigade, newly arrived on the field. The effort for the recovery of the plateau, and or- Federals again pushed up the slope, the face dered a charge of the entire line of battle, in- of which partially afforded good cover from cluding the reserves, which at this crisis I my- the numerous ravines that scored it and the self led into action. The movement of the sev- clumps of young pines and oaks with which eral commands was made with such keeping it was studded, while the sunken Sudley road and dash that the whole surface of the plateau formed a good ditch and parapet for their was swept clear of the enemy, who were aggressive advance upon my left flank and driven down the slope and across the turnpike rear. Gradually they pressed our lines back on our right and the valley of Young's Branch and regained possession of their lost ground on our left, leaving in our final possession the and guns. With the Henry and Robinson Robinson and Henry houses, with most of houses once more in their possession, they re- Ricketts's a'nd Griffin's batteries, the men of sumed the offensive, urged forward by tneir which were mostly shot down where they commanders with conspicuous gallantry. bravely stood by their guns. Fisher's Sixth North Carolina, directed to the Lewis house The conflict now became very severe for by Colonel Jordan from Manassas, where it the final possession of this position, which had just arrived, and thence to the field by was the key for victory. The Federal numbers General Johnston, came up in happy time enabled them so to extend their lines through to join in this charge on the left. Withers's the woods beyond the Sudley road as to out- Eighteenth Virginia, which I had ordered up reach my left flank, which I was compelled from Cocke's brigade, was also on hand in partly to throw back, so as to meet the attack time to follow and give additional effect to from that quarter; meanwhile their numbers the charge, capturing, with the Hampton 219 222 Lesion, several guns, which were immediately ceded by its commander, who, while alone, turned and served upon the broken ranks of fell into the hands of a number of the enemy, the enemy by some of our officers. This hand- who took him prisoner, until a few moments some work, which broke the Federal fortunes later, when he handed them over to some of of the day, was done, however, at severe cost. our own troops accompanying his battery. A The soldierly Bee, and the gallant, unpetuous small plateau (Bald Hill), within the south- Bartow, whose day of strong deeds was about west angle of the Sudley and turnpike cross- to close with such credit, fell a few rods back roads, was still held by a strong Federal bri- of the Henry house, near the very spot gadeHoward's fresh troops, together with whence in the morning they had first looked Sykes's battalion of regulars; and while Ker- forth upon Evans's struggle with the enemy. shaw and Cash, after passing through the Colonel Fisher also fell at the very head of his skirts of the oak wood along the Sudley road, troops. Seeing Captain Ricketts, who was bad- engager! this force, Kemper's battery was sent ly wounded in the leg, and having known him forward by Kershaw along the same road, into in the old army, I paused from my anxious position near where a hostile battery had been duties to ask him whether I could do anything captured, and whence it played upon the en- fot him. He answered that he wanted to be emy in the open field. sent back to Washington. As some of our prisoners were there held under threats of Quickly following these regiments came not being treated as prisoners of war, I replied Preston's Twenty-eighth Virginia, which, pass- that that must depend upon how our pris- ing through the woods, encountered and oners were treated, and ordered him tobe drove back some Michigan troops, capturing carried to the rear. I mention this because Brigadier-General Wilcox. It was now about the report of the Federal Committee on the three o'clock, when another important re- Conduct of the War exhibits Captain Ricketts enforcement came to our aid. Elzey's brigade, as testifying that I only approachedhim to seventeen hundred strong, of the Army of the say that he would be treated as our prisoners Shenandoah, which, coming from Piedmont might be treated. I sent my own surgeons to by railroad, had arrived at Manassas station, care for him, and allowed his wife to cross six miles in rear of the battle-field, at noon, the lines and accompany him to Richmond; and had been without delay directed thence and my Adjutant-General, Colonel Jordan, toward the field by Colonel Jordan, aided by escorting her to the car that carried them to Major T.G. Rhett, who that morning had that city, personally attended to the comfort- passed from General Bonham's to Gener able placing of the wounded enemy for the Johnston's staff. Upon nearing the viciniof journey. the Lewis house, the brigade was directed by a staff officer sent by GeneralJohnston to- That part of the enemy who occupied ward the left of the field. As it reached the the woods beyond our left and across the oak wood, just across the Sudley road, led Sudley road had not been reached by O.: by General Kirby Smith, the latter fell severe- headlong charge which had swept their com- ly wounded; but the command devolved upon rades from the plateau; but the now arriving Colonel Elzey, an excellent officer, who was reenforcements (Kershaw's Second and Cash's now guided by Captain D.B. Harris ofthe En- Eighth Sollth Carolina) were led into that gineers, a highly accomplished officer of my quarter. Kemper's battery also came up, pre- staff, still farther to the left and through the 22 0 223 woods, so as to form in extension of the line many of our forces on the plateau; and bid- of the preceding reenforcements. Beckham's ding those of my staff and escort around me battery, of the same command, was hurried raise a loud cheer, I dispitched the informa- forward by the Sudley road and around the tion to the several commands, with orders to woods into position near the Chinn house; go forward in a common charge. Before the from a well-selected point of action, in full full advance of the Confederate ranks the en- view of the enemy that filled the open fields emy's whole line, whose right was already west of the Sudley road, it played with deadly yielding, irretrievably broke, fleeing across and decisive effect upon their ranks, already Bull Run by every available direction. Major under the fire of Elzey's brigade. Keyes's bri- Sykes's regulars, aided by Sherman's brigade, gade, which had made its way across the turn- made a steady and handsome withdrawal, pike in rear of the Stone Bridge, was lurking protecting the rear of the routed forces, and along under cover of the ridges and a wood enabling many to escape by the Stone Bridge. in order to turn my line on the right, but was Having ordered in pursuit all the troops on easily repulsed by Latham's battery, already the field, I went to the Lewis house, and, the placed in position over that approach by Cap- battle being ended, turned over the command tain Harris, aided by Alburtis's battery, op- to General Johnston. Mounting a fresh horse portunely sent to Latham's left by General the fourth on that day,I started to press Jackson, and supported by fragments of the pursuit which was being made by our troops collected by staff officers. Meanwhile, infantry and cavalry, some of the latter having the enemy had formed a line of battle of been sent by General Johnston from Lewis's formidableproportionsontheopposite ford to intercept the enemy on The turnpike. height, and stretching in crescent outline, I was soon overtaken, however, by a courier with flanks advanced, from the Pittsylvania bearing a message from Major T.G. Rhett, (Carter) mansion on their left across the Sud- General Johnston's chief-of-staff on duty at ley road in rear of Dogan's, and reaching to- Manassas railroad station, informing me of ward the Chinn house. They offered a fine a report that a large Federal force, having spectacle as they threw forward a cloud of pierced our lower line on Bull Run, was skirmishers down the opposite slope, prepara- moving upon Camp Pickens, my depot of sup- tory to a new assault against the line on the plies near Manassas. I returned, and commu- plateau. But their right was now severely nicated this important news to General John- pressed by the troops that had successively ston.Upon consultation it was deemed best arrived; the force in the south-west angle of that I should take Ewell's and Holmes's bri- the Sudley and Warrenton cross-roads were gades, which were hastening up to the battle- driven from their position, and, as Early's field, but too late for the action, and fall on brigade,which, bydirection of General this force of the enemy, while reenforcements Johnston, had swept around by the rear of should be sent me from the pursuing forces, the woods through which Elzey had passed, who were to be recalled for that purpose. To appeared on the field, his line of march bore head off the danger and gain time, I hastily upon the flank of the enemy, as he was now mounted aforce of infantry behind the retiring in that quarter. cavalry-men then present, but, on approach- ing the line of march near McLean's ford, The movement upon my extreme left which the Federals must have taken, I learned was masked by the trend of the woods from that the news was a false alarm caught from 221 224 the return of General Jones's. forces to this gladly accepted this theory. To this may be side of the run, the similarity of the uniforms added the general readiness to accept a senti- and the direction of their march having con- mental or ultra-dramatic, explanationthe vinced some nervous person that they were a magic wrought by the delay or arrival of some force of the enemy. It 'was now almost dark, force, or the death or coming of somebody, and too late to resume the broken pursuit; on or any other single magical eventwhereby my return I met the coming forces, and, as history is easily caught, rather than to seek an they were very tired, I ordered them to halt understanding of that which is but the gradual and bivouac for the night where they were. result of the operation of many forces, both After giving such attention as I could to the of opposing design and actual collision, modi- troops, I started for Manassas, where I arrived fied more or less by the falls of chance. The about ten o'clock, and found Mr. Davis at my personal sentiment, though natural enough at head- quarters with General Johnston. Arriving the time, has no place in any military estimate, from Richmond late in the afternoon, Mr. nor place of any kind at this day. The battle Davis had immediately galloped to the field, of Manassas was, like any other battle, a accompanied by Colonel Jordan. They had progression and development from the de- met between Manassas and the battle-field the liberate counter-employment of the military usual number of stragglers to the rear, whose resources in hand, affected by accidents, as appearance belied the determined array then always, but of a kind very different from sweeping the enemy before it, but Mr. Davis those referred to. My line of battle, which had the happiness to arrive in time to witness had twice not only withstood the enemy's the last of the Federals disappearing beyond attack, but taken the offensive and driven Bull Run. The next morning I received from him back in disorder, was becoming mo- his hand at our breakfast-table my commis- mentarily stronger from the arrival, at last, sion, dated July 21, as General ih the Army of the reenforcements provided for; and if of the Confederate States, and after his return the enemy had remained on the field till the to Richmond the kind congratulations of the arrival of Ewell and Holmes, they would have Secretary of War and of General .Lee, then been so strongly outflanked that many who acting as military adviser to the President. escaped would have been destroyed or cap- tured. It was a point made at the time at the North that, just as the Confederate troops Though my adversary's plan of battle were about to break and flee, the Federal was a good one against -a passivedefensive troops anticipated them by doing so, being opponent, such as he may have deemed I struck into this precipitation by the arrival must be from the respective numbers and upon their flank of the Shenandoah forces positions of our forces, it would, in my judg- marching from railroad trains halted en route ment,. have been much better if, with more with that aima statement that has been dash, the flank attack had been made by the repeated by some writers on both sides, and stone bridge itself and the ford immediately by an ambitious but superficial French author. above it. The plan adopted, however, favored above all things the easy execution of the of- There were certain sentiments of a per- fensive operations I had designed and ordered sonal character clustering about this first bat- against his left flank and rear at Centreville. tle, and personal anxiety as to its issue, that His turning columneighteen thousand strong, 222 P 225 and presumably his best troops was thrown the army, through which! was left unacquaint- off by a long ellipse through a narrow forest ed with the actual state of affairs on my left. road to Sudley ford, from which it moved The Federal attack, already thus grea .y fa-. down _upon my left flank, and was thus dis- vored, and encouraged, moreover, by the rout located from his main body. This severed of General Bee's advanced line, failed for two movement of his forces not only left his ex- reasons: their forces were not handled with 'posed left and rear at Centreville weak against concert of masses (a fault often made later on the simultaneous offensive of my heaviest both sides), and the individual action of the forces upon it, but the movement of his turn- Confederate troops was superior, notwith- ing column would have been disconcerted and standing inferiority in numbers, arms, and paralyzed by the early sound of this heavy equipments, and for a very palpable reason. conflict in its rear, and it could not even have That one army was fighting for union and the made its way back so as to be available for other for disunion is a political expression; maneuver before the Centreville fraction had the actual fact on the battle-field, in the face been thrown back upon it in disorder. A new of cannon and musket, was that the Federal army is very liable to panic, and, in view of troops came as invaders, and the Southern the actual result of the battle, the conclusion troops stood as defenders of their homes, and can hardly be resisted 'that the panic which further than this we need not go. The armies fell on the Federal army would thus have were vastly greater than had ever before seized it early in the day, and with my forces fought on this continent, and were the largest in such position as to wholly cut off its re- volunteer armies ever assembled since the era treat upon Washington. The commander of of replar armies. The personal material on the front line on my right, who failed to move both sides was of exceptionally good charac- because he received no immediate order, was ter, and collectively superior to that of any instructed in the plan of attack, and should subsequent period of the war. The Confed- have gone forward the moment General Jones, erate army was filled with generous youths upon whose right he was to form, exhibited who had answered the first call of the coun- his own order, which mentioned one as having try. For certain kinds of field duty they were been already sent to that commander. I exon- not as yet adapted, many of them having at erated him after the battle, as he was technic- first'..me with their baggage and servants; ally not in the wrong; but one could not help these they had to dispense with, but, not to recalling Desaix, who 'even moved in a direc- offend their susceptibilities, I then exacted tion opposite to his technical orders when the least work from them, apart from mil- facts plainly showed him the service he ought itary drills, even to the prejudice of important to perform, whence the glorious result of field-works, when I could not get sufficient Marengo, or help believing thatClf Jackson negro labor; they shad come to fight, any not had been there, the movement would not to handlehe pick and shovel,* and' their have balked. The Federal commander's flank- fighting redeemed well their shortcomings ing movement, being thus uninterrupted by as intrenchers. Before I left that gallant army, such a counter-movement as I had projected, however, it had learned. how readily the hum- was further assisted through the imperfection bler could aid the nobler duty. and inefficiency of the staff organization of THE BATTLE OF PLEASANT HILL By Sarah A. Dorsey In the month of March, 1864, General andria, and then marched unchecked up the Banks made his famous raid up the valley of whole valley of the Red River, until they the Red River. General Taylor, stationed at reached Mansfield, a small town between Alexandria, had been advised in February, by Shreveport and Natchitoches. Taylor had secret information sent him from New Or- fallen back before the Federals, skirmishing leans, of the probable Federal plan of attack, every day, until he found himself herealmost by one division under A.J. Smith, from Vicks- at the doors of Shreveport, within a day's burg, and General Banks from New Orleans, march of the Texas border. Taylor was too who was to march up through the Teche much like his father, in tem&rament, nct country. Taylor immediately notified Gen- to be very soon wearied ofretreat.He knew eral Kirby Smith of his suspicions of this at- too much about Buena Vista, for that modus tack, and Smith began to concentrate his operandi to content him very long. He was troops to meet the attack, if so made. one of our best fighting-men,atrifle too impatient and passionate, with perhaps not Smith's department was very large, and sufficient sense of subordination. In truth, he so desolated in Arkansas and Louisiana; that was both a very able and veryimperious man. in order to subsist the troops, it was neces- He had even dared to resistStonewall Jackson, sary to scatter them; so the forces were scat- and fight at Port Republic, almost in disobe- tered over Louisiana and Texas. Shreveport dience to orders. He gained a victory then, and its vicinity was the central point in this and of course General Jackson thanked him; widely-scattered circle of troops. Upon the but if he hadn't been successful, he would reception of Taylor's information, Smith be- have beenbroke.So it was now at Mansfield. gan to draw in his forces. Taylor was tired of running. He resolved to make a stand, and sent a despatch to Smith, General A.J. Smith came up the Red at Shreveport, to that ,effect. Taylor had River, Banks advanced up the Teche. It was 9,000 mei',at Mansfield. He selected his estimated by us that Banks had a force of battle-ground as well as he could, about a forty thousand men, and a co-operating navy quarter of a mile from Mansfield. The country of sixty gunboats and transports,and a here is hilly, and heavily wooded. legion of camp-followers and speculators, in histrain. The Federals captured Fort The line of battle was single. Mouton DeRussy, an inferior earthwork below Alex- commanded his own Brigade, with Polignac's 227224 `228 in the center. Majors, with. his cavalry dis- blood pouring in torrents, he still waved his mounted, formed the left wing. De Bray, with sword, and cheered on hisLouisianians. mounted cavalry, was posted on the extreme They responded with a cry of vengeance. An- right. Churchill and Parsons, with Missouri other shot struck Armand in the breast,the and Arkansas troops, acted as reserves, sta- gleaming sword dropped from the cold hand. tioned three miles in the rear. The public Armand lay dead. The Eighteenth Louisiana road, by which the Federals were advancing, rushed on. Polignac led his troops gallantly. ran over a very steep hill. They had posted Mouton was always in the front. The guns one of their best batteries (Nims'), the same were taken after a desperate struggle. The battery that Allen had rushed upon, captured Federals broke and fled. Mouton pursued: and lost, after being wounded at the battle of he passed a group of thirty-five Federal sol- Baton Rouge,upon the top ,of this high hill. Aiem.they ,threw.dowritheirarrns.in.Ioken.of Taylor rode along this line, and when he passed surrender. Mouton turned, lifting his hand to Polignac, he called out, vLittle Frenchman, I stay the firing of the Confederates upon this am going to fight Banks here, if he has a mil- group of 1,;:soners: as he did so, five of the lion of menb> Taylor now ordered Mouton to Federals stooped down, picked up their guns, advance until he engaged the enemy. Mouton aimed them at the generous Confederate: in led the charge of infantry. By agreement, all a moment, five balls pierced the noble, mag- the Confederate officers retained their horses, nanimous breast; Mouton dropped from his which was one reason why so many of them saddle dead, without a word or a sigh. The were killed in this famous charge. Mouton Confederates who witnessed this cowardly charged down a hill, over a fence, through a deed, gave a yell of vengeful indignation, and ravine, then up a hill right in the teeth of before their officers could check them, the the guns. The charge lasted twenty-five min- thirty-five Federals lay dead arounv' Mouton. utes. The men were moved forward at double- The chase of the Federals was continued a quick, exposed to a terrible fire all the time, mile and a half by this division, then the re- especially whilst in the ravine, between the serves under Walker and Churchill took up the woods and the hill, upon which the Federal hunt, and drove back the enemy to Pleasant batteries were stationed. The exposure to Hill.Half way between Pleasant Hill and :,rape and canister was dreadful; many Con- Mansfield, there was a creek of pure water, federates fellhere. The men were nearly for which there was a heavy fight. It ended breathless when they struggled up t.qe ravine. in theConfederates retaining possession of Mouton commanded them to throw them- the water,on whose margin they bivouacked selves prostrate a moment, to recover breath. that night,Major-General N.P. Banks' asser- Then they sprang up, and rushed on to the tion to the contrary notwithstanding. Mouton attack. The officers fell fast. Armand, at the had (2,2J0) twenty-two hundred men in this head of his Creoles, had his horse killed, and charge; he lost seven hundred and sixty-two. received a shot in the arm. Starting to his feet, Fiveofficerswere killed, amongst them after disengaging himself from his dying steed, Taylor, of the Seventeenth Texas, a much- he ran on by the side of his men, waving his beloved officer. It was the musket-fire from sword in the other unwounded hand. Again a the enemy on the left of the ravine, and the shot struck himhe fell a wound through grape and canister in it, that killed most of both thighs. He raised himself again, on his Mouton's men. Mouton said to PrAignac, pre- wounded arm, half-reclining, with the life- vious to the attack, vLet us charge them right 229 in the face, and throw them into the valley.» of six guns, which Allen had such cause to re- member; had also captured twenty-two guns The battle of Mansfield was fought on on the road. The 4Grand Army fled in wild the 8th of April. It was a day of fasting and confusion. At Pleasant Hill the Federals were prayer, specially ordered by General Smith, re-enforced. Taylor engaged them again, with and spent by most of us, ignorant of the con- Walker and Churchill's Divisions. The fight test that was transpiring, on our knees before was heavy; and night fell on ca drawn battle;» our altars. Taylor now pressed his success. He but the Federals retreated under cover of had captured an immense wagon - train,two darkness, and Taylor camped on the battle- hundred and ninety-five wagons, filled with ground. most valuable stores; had taken Nims' Battery 226