Creole Echoes / Résonances Créoles
The Free People of Color
Colonial New Orleans, like many other slave holding societies in the New World, had a three tiered racial system in which free people of color enjoyed a middle position between whites and black slaves. Its large population of gens de couleur libres or free people of color (20,000 in 1840) made New Orleans unique among American cities and became a source of conflict between the Francophone and the rapidly growing Anglophone sectors of the city. While many of these free people of color traced their heritage back to colonial Louisiana, the arrival of free black refugees from the revolution in Haiti served to reinforce their numbers in Louisiana. The achievements of many of the city’s free people of color were described in Rodolph Desdunes’s 1911 book Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire (Our People and Our History). Politicians, soldiers, poets, and playwrights, the free people of color defended their tenuous middle status between white and black. Important among the musicians and writers of this group were Armand Lanusse, Louis Charles Roudanez, and Basile Barès. Some free black New Orleanians left the city for successful careers in France. Victor Séjour wrote twenty-one plays during his career as a playwright, most of which, like Richard III, debuted in Paris. Edmond Dédé received his early musical education in New Orleans, but left Louisiana for further study at the Paris Conservatory and a career as conductor and composer in Bordeaux. Camille Thierry found success in Paris with his work Les Vagabondes, Poésies Américaines (The Vagabonds, American Poetry)(1874). Desdunes book celebrated the achievements of previous generations of free black New Orleanians at a time when his own generation was taking the lead in fighting against Jim Crow segregation in the South.
See: Caryl Cossé Bell. Revolution Romanticism and the Afro-Creole Protest Tradition in New Orleans, 1718-1868. (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1997).
Joseph Logsdon and Caryn Cossé Bell. “The Americanization of Black New Orleans” in Creole New Orleans, Race and Americanization, ed. Arnold R. Hirsch and Joseph Logsdon. (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1992).
History. Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire. Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes. (Montréal: Arbour & Dupont, 1911).
[Hill Louisiana Rare F380 C9 D47 C.2]
Engraving. “France Militaire. Troupes Negres.”
[ Picture collection, "West Indies" folder, E-67, Box 2]
Poetry. Les Vagabondes, poésies américaines. Camille Thierry (Paris: E. Lemerre, éditeur; Bordeaux: De Laporte, éditeur, 1874.)
[Hill Louisiana Rare PS 3019 T5 V3 c.1]
Drama. The Octoroon, or Life in Louisiana. Dion Boucicault. (New York: Samuel French, 1859).
[Hill Louisiana Rare PR 4161 B2 O3 1859]
Sheet Music. Proclamation de Soulouque aux Haïtiens. Chanson épique. Henri Fourrier. (N.O., Wehrmann, 1859) in Musical composition of Henri Fourrier, 1855-1888.
[Hill Louisiana Rare M 3.1 F68]
Sheet Music. Proclamation de Soulouque aux Haïtiens. Chanson épique. Henri Fourrier. (N.O., Wehrmann, 1859) in Musical composition of Henri Fourrier, 1855-1888.
[Hill Louisiana Rare M 3.1 F68]
Drama. Richard III, Drame en Cinq Actes, En Prose. Victor Séjour. (Paris: D. Giraud et J Dagneau, 1852).
[Hill Louisiana Rare PQ 3939 S3 R5]
Engraving. "L'Empereur Faustin 1er (Soulouque)” in Picture Collection.
[ Picture collection, "West Indies" folder, E-67, Box 2]
Engraving. “Toussaint L’Ouverature” in Picture Collection.
[ Picture collection, "West Indies" folder, E-67, Box 2]
Poetry. Les Vagabondes, poésies américaines. Camille Thierry (Paris: E. Lemerre, éditeur; Bordeaux: De Laporte, éditeur, 1874.)
[Hill Louisiana Rare PS 3019 T5 V3 c.1]
