New+Orleans+History

**__The History of New Orleans__** //The establishment of the city of New Orleans was inevitable and necessary, yet accomplished on an impossible site, creating a home for its own separate cultures and traditions.//
 * __Establishment:__**
 * 1541-1542: Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River
 * 1699: founded by the Frenchman Pierre Le Moyne declares his camp "Pointe du Mardi Gras", (Mardi Gras Point), as Louisiana's first European settler's entered the Mississippi Delta Gulf Coast Region.
 * This point is located 60 miles downstream, from Algiers Point in New Orleans on the river. It is at the mouth of the Mississippi River.
 * It was established with the Friench intention to control trade and seclude the British to the east coast
 * Population:
 * early 1700's: 250
 * 1760: 4.000
 * 1803: 8.000
 * As the city developed, there was a strong Spanish influence to the growing culture.
 * this is most likely due to the close proximity of the Spanish is the surrounding coastal colonies; Florida, plus the near by Latin American colonies
 * 1718: Jean-Baptise Le Moyne', establishes the port colony of Nouvelle Orle'ans, (New Orleans). Indians slaves are among the thieves, cut throats, prostitutes, beggars that are forced here to become the first settlers. (The St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans is built, the oldest in the United States.)
 * 1719: the first 2 shiploads of African Slaves arrive at the port of New Orleans

At the mouth of the Mississippi River in present-day Louisiana. __**Cultures:**__ //Choctaw Indians:// //French://
 * __Geography:__**
 * the delta is very unique because the sea does not flood the river mouth as most others will.
 * the enitire area is swamp land
 * there is no high ground around the delta
 * nearest "stable" ground is 200 miles away from the ocean (Baton Rouge)
 * Short History of disasters:
 * Floods:
 * 1734-1817: 38 floods. 9 of which hit New Orleans [[image:Betsy-1-sm.jpg width="172" height="172" align="right" caption="the French Quarter after Hurricane Betsy in 1964"]]
 * 1816- a levee (or crevasse) in Kenner broke, bringing water as far as Chartres St.
 * 1849- the Suave levee breaks, flooding 220 "squares" and driving 12.000 people from their homes
 * 1871- the Bonnet Carre levee breaks, Lake Pontchartrain floods. North winds blow water toward New Orleans, breaking the Hagan Ave levee and flooding the city
 * Diseases:
 * 1830's: (2 yr time span) Asiatic cholera. killed at a rate of nearly 1.000 a month
 * Before 1860: 23 yellow fever outbreaks. killing 30.000 people
 * You think Katrina was bad?
 * 1794:
 * August 10: hurricane = rain and flooding
 * August 21: another hurricane = more rain and more flooding
 * December 8: the French Quarter burns, once again. the city was then flooded by looters
 * the governor at that time, Carondelet, did not have FEMA/US troops/additional money to support him or for him to throw the blame on.
 * a few thousand by the time of French settlement
 * either left or were mixed in with other groups by 1803
 * Originally settled by the French
 * soldiers, settlers, prisoners, and "casket girls" (girls of goof reputation, given transportation and a trunk of household items)
 * ^bulk of population for majority of 1700's
 * many of these slaves were able to buy their freedom
 * French is one of the most common languages, especially in the French Quarter

//Cajun://
 * **Note:** The Cajuns did not necessarily settle in New Orleans. They settled in the bayous of the surrounding area in the same general area.
 * verbal corruption of the original "Acadian"- French exiles from the British colony Acadia (present day Novascotia)
 * driven from Acadia by the British in 1755
 * came to southern Lousiana in 1765
 * 1790- 4.000 "Acadians in the wetlands (Bayou Lafourche and Teche), later to settle in the praires
 * in bayous- they fished, trapped for furs, gathered moss, grew sugarcane, cotton, corn
 * on prairies- had cattle ranches and grew rice
 * spoke French
 * present-day language- archaic form of French + words taken from English, German, Spanish, and various Indian languages
 * language preserved because the Cajuns stayed hidden away in the bayous well into the 20 th century
 * additional result: their culture contains its own songs, dances, festivals, and.....CARWFISH RACING!
 * Roman Catholic
 * build houses and //pirogues// (boats) from cypress trees
 * Food:
 * harvested crawfish, shrimp, crabs and oysters before they even got to Louisiana
 * cuisine is somewhat similar to Creole cooking, but not the same
 * jambalaya, gumbo, turtle sauce piquante, andouille sausage, boudin (pork and rice sausage), cochon du lait, soft-shell crab, stuffed crab, crawfish etouffe, crawfish bisque, crawfish pie, etc. (anything having to do with shrimp, crab or crawfish)
 * has its own unique spices that can never truly be duplicated

//Creole://
 * these are the "Gens de couleur Libres", the Free People of Color (in French)
 * many of these people originated from:
 * Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) after the 1700s-1800s slave riots
 * Cuba after 1809
 * From the French
 * 1756: More than 40 slaves escape into the swamps and bayou's
 * Aided by the "Maroon camps", their numbers began to swell as free men of color.
 * Indian squaws are known to be in the camps, and some bear children which are known as mulatto's.
 * children of slave women and their white owners were often given their freedom upon the death of their father or during their childhood
 * **1769:** The French settlers started to take advantage of their female slaves; some became willing sex slaves to make their lifes easier.
 * Many willingly bore children for their master's, but made deals with them that their children were born free, and that their parents were well taken care of.
 * ** These were the first true African Creoles .**
 * as free people, young colored women were renowned as beautiful and were presented to society
 * //Placage//
 * "Quadroon" (modernly translated to a person with one-fourth black blood, the term fron 1824) balls = debutante balls
 * severly chaparoned by the girl's mother and relatives
 * the purpose of these balls was for a young woman to gain the protection of a rich white man
 * the woman would become the equivalent of the man's mistress because marriage between the races was illegal
 * after dancing together, a bargain would be arranged between the girl's family and the "protector" only if the girl was attracted to the man
 * Terms of agreement:
 * all children of the union would be provided for (with substantial inheritances) and educated
 * male children were often sent to France
 * female children were educated in local convent schools
 * the lady would be provided is a home, which she would own
 * furnished and supplied with servants
 * often last for the lifetime of both parties or end upon the man's official marriage
 * white Creole men would marry white Creole women in their 30's and combine family fortunes
 * however, many of these marriages were arranged. therefore, the Creole man's relationship with his placee (mistress) would continue
 * upon the cancelation of the agreement, the "free woman of color" would support herself through business ventures, renting rooms, or other occupations (hairdressing, sewing, etc.)
 * *♥ this was not the only opportunity allotted to these women. many married and had their own typical households for the time ♥*

//Mardi Gras//: ---Mardi Gras translates into "Fat Tuesday" from French. This is the last day before Lent. Therefore, this day is, quite literally, the last day to live before 40 days of prayer.... ---This is a day of over indulgence of just about every kind!
 * Mardi Gras came to America in 1699 with the French explorer (Jean Baptiste Bienville) Iberville and the Moyne brothers.
 * 1743: The Marquis de Vaudreuil, early Louisiana governor, established elegant society balls that became the earliest model for the upper class Carnival Ball Masque celebrations of later generations. These balls were held at his home and could have started as early as 1741.
 * 1744: The "Place de Negroes", (later known as Congo Square) became the established place to meet, conduct business, get news, etc, on Sundays, for free men of color (otherwise known as Creoles)
 * later for the area slaves as well
 * they sold produce and other goods to earn money to buy their freedom. It is also here that they would first begin to celebrate **Mardi Gras** openly and among themselves.
 * 1827: Creoles are the dominant culture the Mardi Gras celebrations
 * 1835: perhaps the first Mardi Gras parade
 * 1837-1838: first record of masked processions in New Orleans

__Complete Citations:__ Browne, Turner, et al. __Cajuns__. 19 May 2009 . Cable, George W., et al. __Creoles__. 19 May 2009 . Donnald, McNabb, and Louis E."Lee" Madère, Jr. __A History of New Orleans__. 2003.19 May 2009 . "History of Les Gens de Couleur Libres." __Les Gens de Couleur Libres__. 2002. Ambiance Studio Web Design. 19 May 2009 <[]>. "History." __New Orleans French Quarter__. 2009. 25 May 2009 .

__Primary Sources:__

//"I now embrace a leisure moment to write you inofficially [sic] from this City; and to observe, that the high expectations I had formed of the value of our new acquisition to the United States, are fully confirmed by my personal observations. The country on the Mississippi is fertile, happily adapted to cultivation, its productions various and abundant, the people wealthy, and in the enjoyment of all the necessaries, and many of the luxuries of life. **New-Orleans is a great, and growing City.** The commerce of the Western Country concentrates at this place, and there appears to me a moral certainty, that in ten years, it will rival Philadelphia or New-York." -//Governor William Charles Cole Claiborne to President Thomas Jefferson

---This quote was written in January of 1804. This was one monther after Governor Claiborne and General James Wilkinson had taken Louisiana from the French and Claiborne is assuring the president that the Louisiana Purchase was worth the asked price of fifteen million dollars. He also said that the city of New Orleans had a bright and promising future. New Orleans, according to this site, was the only piece of French territory that President Jefferson had wanted to acquire. This site calls New Orleans "the Crescent City" because of its location on the Mississippi River. The city was already a metropolis at this time as well as a trade center with a diverse and growing urban population, already at eleven thousand. ---Historian Glibert Din congruently described New Orleans as the following:

"//New Orleans also grew rapidly in the American era, outpacing the western towns founded in the late eighteenth century. For decades, New Orleans remained the only significant city in the deep South. Despite its location in a troublesome site, its presence at the base of the Mississippi Valley made it the natural emporium for a vast hinterland upriver. The growth that New Orleans experienced in the nineteenth century was set in the Spanish period in Louisiana."// [__The New Orleans Cabildo, Colonial Louisiana's First City Government__, 1769-1803 (Baton Rouge, 1996), 36]. -historian Glibert Din

"'A Great and Growing City': New Orleans in the Era of the Louisiana Purchase." __Louisiana Division/City Archives__. New Orleans Public Library. 22 May 2009 .

List of ingredients include: [|Tabasco] and other hot sauces. Cayenne pepper. Cane syrup. [|Tasso.] [|Creole hot sausage.] [|Andouille.] Crawfish

"Some Key Ingredients for Louisiana Cuisine." __Creole and Cajun Recipe Pages__. 25 May 2009 .