Laura (Soullière) Gates Frankly, Scarlett, We Do Give a Damn: The Making of a New National Park n this paper I will be discussing how the (NPS) came to Natchitoches, , and what I have learned from the experience. I will discuss how I learned that the concepts of race and culture are far more complex in Louisiana, especially in that part of Louisiana, than I ever could Ihave imagined. I will look at more lessons in something we all know: that it is the responsibility of managers to seek out the best available scholarship, that more inclusive knowledge of history is as difficult to learn as it is difficult to interpret, and that the subtleties of history and culture are the things that make it signifi- cant. Natchitoches, Louisiana, is in the Native Americans in the area. And this northwestern part of the state, about a is part of the cultural complexity of the five-hour drive from both New Cane River area. But to understand Orleans and Dallas. Settled by the better the complexities of race and cul- French in 1714 and known as the first ture, let us run through a very short permanent European settlement in course in Louisiana history. Louisiana Purchase Territory, a During the time of French rule in French fort developed near the loca- Louisiana (1718-1763), the Code Noir tion of a large Caddo Indian village. of 1724 enforced Catholicism on all Cane River originally was the main settlers. As Caryn Cosse Bell noted in channel of the Red River, but natural her book The Afro-Creole Protest and human-caused alterations during Tradition in Louisiana, the code “rec- the 19th century changed the course ognized the moral personality of the of the river, so Cane River became slave ... [and] required that bondsmen more of an oxbow, although it be instructed in the Catholic religion remained a functional shipping route and administered the sacraments of through the early 20th century. baptism, marriage, penance, and Natchitoches prehistorically and his- extreme unction. Other provisions torically was a crossroads of overland forbade the separation of a married and water trade routes. couple and their children under four- In 1721 the Spanish established a teen years of age and prohibited slaves presidio at Los Adaes, about 15 miles from laboring on Sundays and other west of Natchitoches, with the intent Catholic holy days. The code sought of halting French expansion into to ensure social and political stability Texas. The proximity of the French by assimilating slaves and free blacks and Spanish military installations into the Christian community.”1 The brought about a frontier interaction French, in theory, believed that the among the French, Spanish, and enslaved were human beings with

32 The George Wright FORUM souls. the long period of Spanish rule, French soldiers and adventurers French remained the primary lan- had settled first at Arkansas Post in guage and the primary cultural influ- 1686 and then in Old Mobile in 1702, ences in Louisiana—the culturally and Natchitoches in 1714, and New racially more fluid society began to Orleans in 1719. Consider how early tighten up. Free persons of color were this was on the interior of the North required to identify themselves on American continent, and consider the public documents as “f.p.c.” or circumstances. In general, the early “h.c.l.” (homme de couleur libre). The French colonists did not bring women Louisiana Code of 1828 prohibited with them, and although the Code Noir the legitimization of children of forbade both interracial marriages and mixed-blood liaisons that had been liaisons, the secular male-dominated allowed under Las Siete de Partidas, society of French colonists tended to which authorized such children to ignore that. As both Bell and become legal heirs. Hiram “Pete” Gwendolyn Midlo Hall have noted, Gregory, an anthropologist at interracial liaisons were common by Northwestern State University in the middle of the 18th century in Natchitoches, has noted that in the Louisiana. 1840s “priests were writing to their Under Spanish rule (1763-1800), bishops about how to solve the prob- cultural influences evolved further. lem of it being illegal to marry mixed- Las Siete de Partidas allowed for slave race couples—it was forbidden by self-purchase (coartacion), and Anglo-American law, not Church allowed slaves to sell extra labor to law!”3 Other changes, too, were appar- their masters or others. A lack of ent on Louisiana plantations. skilled white laborers had brought During 2001 I perused the early about the French government’s policy slave records for one of the former cot- of apprenticing slaves to white trades- ton plantations of Cane River Creole men, and this continued under National Historical Park. Some of the Spanish rule, which allowed many records of Bermuda Plantation, which slaves the opportunity to purchase became Oakland Plantation shortly their freedom. Also under Spanish before the Civil War, had been rule, Bell noted that “slaves and free acquired by the Historic New Orleans men of color monopolized many of the Collection and held considerable skilled trades.”2 The French had cre- information about cultural change. ated a permanent free black military Just studying the names of the force, and the Spanish brought this enslaved circa 1820 revealed the group into their military. All of these strength of the French culture despite were reasons that a large population of the nearly 20 years since the Louisiana free people of color developed in purchase. Names were, for the most Louisiana. part, of French origin, including Following the Louisiana Purchase “Marie,” “Elise,” “Josephe.” By the and the gradual influx of les 1830s many of the enslaved came from Americains into Louisiana—despite Virginia, North Carolina, and

Volume 19 • Number 4 2002 33 Figure 1. Cotton field, Cane River. National Park Service photo. Tennessee, with such names as Now let us turn to trying to under- “Sarah,” “John,” “Job,” and “Esther.”4 stand the term “Creole.” With origins According to Norman Marmillion, in the Portuguese and Spanish, the proprietor of Laura Plantation, anoth- term has had quite a semantic evolu- er Creole plantation near Vacherie, tion. Dana Lee, anthropologist and Louisiana, the same trends appeared folklorist at Northwestern State in the records for that plantation.5 University in Natchitoches, defines What we were witnessing was one the word as follows: vestige of the gradual “Americaniza- Creole simply indicates a new world tion” of Louisiana. That Americaniza- product derived from old world stock— tion brought with it deep-rooted dif- people, produce, livestock, architec- ferences in the ways that enslaved peo- ture, whatever. It was a label applied by Spanish administrators to distin- ple were perceived. The French and guish Old World (superior, purer) from the Spanish made nominal efforts to New World (inferior, impure). Rarely recognize the enslaved as human did people of French extraction refer beings who had souls, who should be to themselves as Creole. They called baptized and partake of the other themselves French for the most part. In its present use in Louisiana, it sim- sacraments. The Americans tended to ply indicates descent from colonial see the enslaved as property, equiva- Europeans, whatever the admixture. lent to livestock. Yet in northwest On Cane River and other Louisiana Louisiana the French influences pre- communities, Creole is cultural, not racial. It is tied to genealogy, French vailed well through the nineteenth 6 century, and even through the early heritage, and Catholicism. twentieth-century French was the lan- Lee’s colleague Gregory sees guage of choice along Cane River for “Creole” as meaning “New World most people. adaptations of French, Spanish and

34 The George Wright FORUM African cultures both to the natural became Melrose Plantation, was world and to each other. So all the eth- owned by Creoles of color who also nic and racial interaction that did, or had slaves. did not take place, still partook of that Marie-Therese nee Coin-Coin was cultural blend.”7 To me, the key point the daughter of African parents who to remember about the term “Creole” were the slaves of Louis Juchereau de is that it is a cultural term rooted in Saint-Denis of the French fort in French Colonialism and Catholicism. Natchitoches. Her liaison with an offi- All of this was part of the context in cer of the fort, Pierre Metoyer, resulted which a thriving cotton economy in eight children. Metoyer bought the developed during the first half of the freedom of Marie-Therese Coin-Coin 19th century.Laid out on Spanish and and that of their children and estab- French land grants, the cotton planta- lished this family on a small property tions had access to Cane River for easy on Cane River. Coin-Coin received an shipment of goods to New Orleans. additional land grant in 1794 from the The cotton plantations were very Spanish colonial government and labor-intensive operations that expanded her holdings. Eventually her expanded the numbers of enslaved family founded Yucca Plantation. people in the parish (in Louisiana a When she died in 1816, she owned parish is a county). While most planta- 12,000 acres and ninety-nine slaves. tions were owned by French Creoles Betje Black Klier noted in Pavie in the whose families had little or no racial Borderlands that “Marie-Therese mixing, Yucca Plantation, which later Coin-Coin and her children and

Figure 2. The Oakland Plantation Store. National Park Service photo.

Volume 19 • Number 4 2002 35 Figure 3. Overseer’s House and Slave Hospital, Magnolia Plantation. National Park Service photo. grandchildren were the wealthiest cult for all who remained, and poverty slave-owning free family of color in the affected even those who had earlier nation in 1830.”8 considered themselves untouchable The early plantations along Cane by that blight. Tenant farming and River grew tobacco and indigo, but by sharecropping were extensions of the the 1820s a transition into cotton was earlier institution of slavery, and plan- underway. This became the primary tation commissaries that had served crop for the plantations in the region, the enslaved evolved into plantation although all kept some agricultural stores that served the tenant farmers diversity—timber, grains, cattle, and sharecroppers, and were also the hogs—to support the large popula- social centers of the small village com- tions required at each plantation to munities of each plantation. bring in this labor-intensive crop. The Just across the Red River in Grant two plantations included in the park, Parish is the town of Colfax. The Oakland and Magnolia, were exam- parish was named for Ulysses S. ples. Grant, and the town was named for Grant’s vice president during his first The Cane River area was hit hard administration, Schuyler Colfax. As during the Red River Campaign of the historian James Loewen notes in Lies Civil War. Properties and crops were : looted or burned by both sides—each Across America not wanting the other army to gain How did it come to pass that possession. Reconstruction was diffi- Louisianans might name a parish and

36 The George Wright FORUM town after these Republicans so soon Louisiana community with consider- after the Civil War? The answer is that able history and cultural diversity,but, black men were in on the naming. lying as it did in the backwater of the African Americans were voting during Reconstruction, and voting freely.... Red River, it was in general left behind Based on ‘one man, one vote,’ by 20th-century development. Republicans were narrowly in the Yet there were benefits to lack of majority. But signs in Grant Parish “progress.” What remained in indicated that Democrats were organ- 9 Natchitoches was a cultural mélange izing to take away that privilege. of people, many with Creole roots, When both parties declared victory and many of whom spoke French. in a gubernatorial race in 1873, What remained were buildings that President Grant told Congress that he had architectural elements taken from would recognize the Republican can- French and African traditions, for the didate as governor. That governor plantations continued as working cor- replaced the sheriff and parish judge porations or leased farm properties. with Republicans. Fearing violence Deterioration set in to those buildings from the Democrats, African no longer used, but local traditions of Americans around Colfax “raised a “Waste not,want not, use it up, wear it militia under the command of black out, make it do or do without” pre- veterans, posted pickets at the major vailed.11 That continued use saved roads, fashioned two makeshift can- hundreds of historic buildings. nons from pipes, and fortified the Creoles of color recognized their cul- courthouse against attack.” Other tural importance and in 1979 formed black farmers joined them, and they the St. Augustine Historical Society to held the town for three weeks. On preserve a property of cultural signifi- Easter Sunday, white Democrats cance to them, and they initiated a attacked and slaughtered 150 people Creole Heritage Day festival each in what Eric Foner described as the January to serve as a homecoming cel- “bloodiest single act of carnage in all ebration for all Cane River Creoles. of Reconstruction.”10 Loewen noted Like the Cane River African that the Colfax riot was the beginning Americans, many of the Creoles had of the end of Reconstruction. It also left during the out-migration to jobs showed the lack of federal enforce- elsewhere when farming was mecha- ment of Reconstruction laws, includ- nized, yet their roots remained strong ing the 14th and 15th amendments. in Cane River. Most likely some of those killed were In the white community, the from Cane River. Association for the Preservation of These are all pieces of the history Historic Natchitoches acquired of that part of Louisiana, and all neces- Melrose Plantation and began telling sary parts to understand in this com- the stories of Marie-Therese Coin- plex equation of what makes up a Coin and her family,of Cammie Henry sense of place. As Cane River itself and her small arts-and-crafts colony of changed in the late 19th century, the early 20th century, and of the Natchitoches became a small African American painter Clementine

Volume 19 • Number 4 2002 37 Hunter, whose primitive paintings of This was the first time that I had Cane River life depict her perspective ever seen cultural sensitivity and on the world. research mandated in legislation creat- This is the rich cultural area where ing a new park. Cane River Creole National Historical Most people understand the con- Park came into being. cept of national parks, but what are In 1994 Congress passed legisla- national heritage areas? The national tion creating both the park and Cane heritage area program is administered River National Heritage Area. The through the National Park Service. legislation authorized the park to NPS defines national heritage areas as “serve as the focus of interpretive and follows: education programs on the history of A National Heritage Area is a place the Cane River area and to assist in the designated by the United States preservation of certain historic sites Congress where natural, cultural, his- along the river,” to preserve Oakland toric and recreational resources com- bine to form a cohesive, nationally and the outbuildings of Magnolia distinctive landscape arising from pat- Plantation, and to use a culturally sen- terns of human activity shaped by sitive approach in the partnerships geography. These patterns make needed for addressing the preserva- National Heritage Areas representa- tion and education needs of the Cane tive of the national experience through the physical features that River area. The legislation also called remain and the traditions that have for the National Park Service to coor- evolved in the areas. Continued use dinate a comprehensive research pro- of the National Heritage Areas by peo- gram on the complex history of the ple whose traditions helped to shape Cane River region. the landscapes enhances their signif- icance.

Figure 4. Carpenter’s Shop and Mule Barn, Oakland Plantation. National Park Service photo.

38 The George Wright FORUM While the national heritage area park. Following land acquisition, the program is administered through first broad step upon which the NPS, most heritage areas themselves agency embarks is the general manage- are directly administered through ment planning process. For Cane commissions, not-for-profit agencies, River we were fortunate to have con- and private staff. Most have a 50/50 siderable interdisciplinary back- matching requirement for any federal ground research on history, ethnogra- funds they receive. The legislation for phy, architecture, and archeology in Cane River National Heritage Area formulating the vision for the park. does not have that requirement. That, combined with the public An additional aspect of national involvement required under the heritage areas that appears common to National Environmental Policy Act all is the concept of local, grassroots and the strong community involve- preservation efforts. In heritage areas ment required by common sense, gave local people have strong traditions of the direction the park should take. historic preservation and, quite often, Although both the Oakland and landscape conservation efforts that Magnolia Plantation units had historic were underway long before federal structures and a very significant cul- designation. It is apparent that most tural landscape, changes to them over heritage areas sought federal designa- time and lack of information on their tion to increase awareness of those exact configuration in earlier periods local or regional resources and pro- resulted in only one appropriate grams, to enhance opportunities for action: Both properties were to look federal funding, or to tap into other much as they did circa 1960 when the types of technical assistance that might last of the tenant farmers and share- be available through the National Park croppers—most of whom were Service. Often the local people who descended from former slaves—left push for designation of heritage areas the two plantations. That is the time seek to provide recognition of the sig- when mechanization replaced mules nificance of the resources in that com- and hands, and when the large cotton- munity to other residents who either picker shed (large enough to hold a may not recognize their significance or machine the size of a combine) who may not have the same level of replaced the long, low tractor shed. It concern for those resources. National was the end of an era, and an appropri- heritage area designation brings with it ate end date that offered tremendous a meaningful title, access to federal opportunities for interpretation, for funding and technical assistance, and we were not limited by a set moment the opportunity to enhance preserva- in time. We had continuum. tion and conservation efforts within Most visitors to southern planta- that heritage area on local, regional, tions have little interest in anything and national levels. other than the “Big House,” and so And my park was located smack much of that is something that we as a dab in the middle of one. nation have brought upon ourselves. Now on to the development of the One well-meaning Natchitoches resi-

Volume 19 • Number 4 2002 39 dent who is a stalwart preservationist for our visitor parking, for a number of in the white community mailed me a reasons, is in a field at the back of the flyer of another Louisiana plantation. property.Visitors will park there, enter She attached to it a note stating that through an entrance pavilion, and she hoped the park would be up and then walk to the historic portion of the running soon, looking like that attach- unit from “back of the Big House.” In ment. In the photograph, a young our interpretive programs we tell the white woman in hoopskirts and bon- story Solomon Williams, the enslaved net stood on the massive front porch blacksmith from Bermuda (later of a Big House and cordially greeted Oakland) Plantation who took outside visitors, who all happened to be white, contracts during his period of enslave- as they walked up the front steps from ment and who stayed at Oakland fol- garden, replete with azaleas and spring lowing the Civil War. When his floral displays. descendents came looking for him If you knew the park staff at Cane they told us that they would have River, you would know that none of us found him sooner but all family do hoopskirts. records indicated that he came from Over an extended period of time Bermuda, and they thought it meant the local resident and I have had long the island in the Atlantic instead of discussions, and now she understands this small plantation community of why the National Park Service is Louisiana. We also discuss the approaching its visitor services in a Prud’homme family, who held the different manner. You will note that I plantation for more than 200 years did not say that she necessarily agreed and who remain deeply committed to with our approach, but she does the property’s preservation. We have understand the reasoning behind it. similar approaches at Magnolia The beauty of Oakland and Plantation that assist us with more Magnolia Plantations and a large inclusive approaches to history and aspect of their significance are the interpretation. number of outbuildings that remain. Constant vigilance is required in Quarters occupied by enslaved people dealing with well-meaning people to and then tenant farmers and share- promote dialogue and understanding croppers, a blacksmith shop, a gin of history, of people, of events. This barn and a mule barn, a carpenter’s may be in a one-on-one situation, as in shop, plantation stores, cisterns, and the hoopskirt issue, or it may be in remnant landscapes are all manifesta- architectural and design manipulation tions of the lives of people whose fam- to force visitors’ attention to a different ilies lived and worked the plantations focus. for 200 years. Sixty-two historic struc- It is the responsibility of NPS to tures at the park’s two units not only discuss slavery and Reconstruction. allow but also encourage or even force When two plantations included visitors to understand that a plantation among their property lists 175 and was more than a Big House. 275 enslaved people, respectively, it At Oakland Plantation the design would be ludicrous to think that our

40 The George Wright FORUM Figure 5. Big House, Oakland Plantation. National Park Service photo. interpretive programs would not dis- the community responsible for pro- cuss this issue. In an area just up the viding a culturally sensitive approach road and across the river, it is our to park development and interpreta- responsibility to discuss the Colfax tion, it is our responsibility to bring all massacre that changed the way civil parties to the table to discuss sensitive rights were administered in the United issues. This process is underway right States. now in the development of a master It is our responsibility to talk open- interpretive plan for Cane River ly about slavery. We have found that National Heritage Area. About 20 most people breathe a sigh of relief people representing an inclusive when they realize it’s okay to discuss group of Cane River interests is work- the subject. They visibly relax when ing together on this project. they discover that they can ask ques- Explaining the complexities of race tions about it, and when they get and culture in that area of northwest- answers based on historical research ern Louisiana is not an easy task. It rather than conjecture. The one differ- involves obtaining a grasp of French ence is that we make a point of refer- and Spanish colonialism and their ring to “enslaved people” rather than legal systems. It involves comprehend- “slaves,” thus putting the emphasis on ing the ways that those cultures adapt- the concept of the enslaved as people ed to the New World. It includes rather than property. understanding how earlier cultures It is imperative that we deal with rationalized slavery and the oppres- the reality of the communities in sion of people of color. But it also which we live. As the federal agency in includes bringing those discussions

Volume 19 • Number 4 2002 41 Figure 6. Brick slave quarters, later used as housing for tenant farmers, Magnolia Plantation. National Park Service photo. out into the sunshine. And I have stand Cane River without having found that we have to explain these broad discussions on historical and complexities to Park Service profes- cultural perspectives. sionals from a variety of disciplines, to So yes, Scarlett may remain in the travel writers for newspapers and mag- South throwing her temper tantrums, azines, to visitors who come to the but at this small park in Louisiana we park and the heritage area, and to our- are not walking away slamming the selves on the park staff. The process is door behind us. Rather we work with an iterative one of constant refinement everyone. We work with all of the as the results of new research come to affected communities. We work hard light. at developing opportunities to expand Through the use of interdiscipli- thinking, to improve citizenry, to gen- nary research, some done locally and erate more excitement in the phenom- some completed by outsiders, the park enal resources of the park and the her- has aimed to contribute to that body of itage area. At Cane River we have a knowledge of all of the resources of chance to show that the roots of Cane River, and in doing so has tried American’s problems with race and to keep in the forefront a dialogue of ethnocentrism are byproducts of colo- social conscience. One cannot tell the nial order, not something inherent in history of two cotton plantations with- human biology. That is what we are out discussing enslaved labor. One striving to do. cannot discuss the cultural history of Frankly, my dears, we do give a Louisiana without addressing the gens damn. de couleur libre. One cannot under- [Ed. note: this paper was originally presented at the Organization of American Historians / National Council on Public History annual meeting, April 2002, Washington, D.C.] Endnotes 1. Caryn Cosse Bell, Revolution, Romanticism and the Afro-Creole Protest Tradition in Louisiana 1718- 1868 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997), p. 12. 2. Ibid., p. 16.

42 The George Wright FORUM 3. Personal correspondence, Hiram Gregory to author, August 1, 2000. Gregory is a professor of anthropology at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. 4. Prud’homme Family Papers, Historic New Orleans Collection. 5. Multiple discussions between the author and Norman Marmillion during 2001 confirmed and recon- firmed this trend. 6. Personal correspondence with the author, April 27, 2000. 7. Personal correspondence with the author, August 1, 2000. 8. Betje Black Klier, Pavie in the Borderlands: The Journey of Theodore Pavie to Louisiana and Texas 1829-1830 (Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 2000). 9. James Loewen, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong (New York: The New Press, 1999), p. 212. 10. Ibid., 212. 11. According to Margo Haase, who lived on the Oakland Plantation property for a number of years, Alphonse Prud’homme quoted that saying frequently; and he lived by it. The eight generations of Prud’hommes who lived at Oakland used and reused items and never threw anything away. Part of the legacy of Oakland Plantation includes a huge museum collection conservatively estimated at 250,000 objects.

Laura (Soullière) Gates, Cane River Creole National Historical Park, 400 Rapides Drive, Natchitoches, Louisiana 71457; [email protected] 1

Volume 19 • Number 4 2002 43