Louisiana Creole people

This article refers to the Louisiana Creole people, both of French and Spanish origin. For the article about the Creole people of French origin, see "Cajun people". For the article about the Creole people of Spanish origin (of Canarian origin), see "Isleños in Louisiana".
Louisiana French Creole people
Total population
(2 million (2010 estimate))
Regions with significant populations
Louisiana, Texas, California, Chicago[1]
Languages
English, French, and Creole
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic; some practice Voodoo
Related ethnic groups
French American
Spanish American
African American
Native Americans
Haitian Americans

Louisiana Creole people are those who are descended from the colonial settlers of Louisiana, especially those of colonial French or Spanish descent. The term creole was originally used by French settlers to distinguish those born in Louisiana from those born in the mother country or elsewhere. As in many other colonial societies around the world, creole was a term used to mean those who were "native-born".[2][3]

Louisiana Creoles have common European heritage and share cultural ties, such as the traditional use of the French language[note 1] and may include the continuing practice of Catholicism.[2] In addition, some Creole people may have African or Native American ancestry as well.[5]

Later immigrants to New Orleans, such as Irish, Germans and Italians, also married into the Creole groups. Louisiana Creoles are mostly Catholic in religion. Through the 19th century, most spoke French and were strongly connected to French colonial culture.[6] Only the small Spanish Creole communities of Saint Bernard Parish and Galveztown spoke Spanish (until the twentieth century, since then the number of Spanish-speaking Creoles has declined in favor of English and few people over 80 years old can speak it) and they have maintained the Spanish culture (from Canary Islands, from where their ancestors came from) to the present.[4] They have had a major impact on the state's culture; hence, Louisiana is known as the Creole State.[6]

While the sophisticated Creole society of New Orleans has historically received much attention, the Cane River area in northwest Louisiana also developed its own strong Creole culture, as did several enclaves in south Louisiana: Frilot Cove, Bois Mallet, Grand Marais, Palmetto, Lawtell, and others. These communities have had a long history of cultural independence.

History

1st French period

Map of North America in 1750, before the French and Indian War (part of the international Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763). Possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain (orange)

Through both the French and Spanish regimes, parochial and colonial governments used the term Creole for ethnic French and Spanish born in the New World as opposed to Europe. Parisian French was the language of early New Orleans.

Later the regional French evolved to contain local phrases and slang terms. The French Creoles spoke what became known as Colonial French; over time, the language in the colony developed differently from that in France and was practiced by the ethnic French and Spanish and their Creole descendants.

The commonly accepted definition of Louisiana Creole today is one whose ancestry traces to Louisiana before the Louisiana Purchase.[2] It is estimated that 7,000 European immigrants settled in Louisiana during the 18th century, a number 100 times lower than the number of British colonists on the Atlantic coast. Louisiana attracted considerably fewer French colonists than did its West Indian colonies. After the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, which lasted several months, the colonists had several challenges ahead of them. Their living conditions were difficult: uprooted, they had to face a new, often hostile, environment. Many of these immigrants died during the maritime crossing or soon after their arrival.

Hurricanes, unknown in France, periodically struck the coast, destroying whole villages. The Mississippi Delta was plagued with periodic yellow fever epidemics, to which malaria and cholera were added as part of the Eurasian diseases that arrived with the Europeans. These conditions slowed colonisation. Moreover, French villages and forts were not necessarily safe from enemy offensives. Attacks by Native Americans represented a real threat to the groups of isolated colonists; in 1729, the attacks on Natchez killed 250 in Lower Louisiana. Forces of the Native American Natchez tribe took Fort Rosalie (now Natchez, Mississippi) by surprise, killing, among others, pregnant women. The French response ensued in the following two years, causing the Natchez to flee or be deported as slaves to Saint Domingue (Haiti).

Casket girls

Aside from French government representatives and soldiers, colonists include young men who were recruited in French ports or in Paris. Some served as indentured servants; they were required to remain in Louisiana for a length of time fixed by the contract of service. During this time, they were "temporary semi-slaves". To increase the colonial population, young Frenchwomen known as filles à la cassette (in English, casket girls, referring to the casket or case of belongings they brought with them) were sent to the colony to marry soldiers there, and given a dowry financed by the king. (This builds on the 17th-century example in what is now Canada: about 800 filles du roi immigrated to New France under the monetary sponsorship of Louis XIV.)

In addition, French authorities deported some female criminals to the colony. For example, in 1721, the ship La Baleine brought close to 90 women of childbearing age from the prison of La Salpetrière in Paris to Louisiana where most of them quickly found husbands amongst the residents of the colony. These women, many of whom were most likely prostitutes or felons, were known as The Baleine Brides.[7] Such events inspired the novel Manon Lescaut, written by the Abbé Prévost in 1731.

Historian Joan Martin maintains that there is little documentation that casket girls, (considered among the ancestors of French Creoles) were ever brought to Louisiana. (The Ursuline order of nuns that supposedly chaperoned the arrivals until they married have denied the casket girl myth as well.) Martin suggests this was indeed a myth, and that relationships and cultural exchanges occurred early on during the initial settlement of Louisiana among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans. She also writes that some Creole families who today identify as white may have had ancestors during the colonial period who were African or mixed-race, and whose descendants married "white" over generations.[8] French Louisiana also included communities of Swiss and German settlers; however, royal authorities never spoke of "Louisianans" but always of "French" to designate the population.

Spanish Period

Main article: Louisiana (New Spain)

The French colony was ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Paris (1763). The Spanish were slow and reluctant in fully occupying the colony however, and did not do so until 1769. Spanish manumission policies helped spur the growth of the gens de couleur libres into a significant segment of the population, centered in New Orleans. Nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) dates from the Spanish period, (the Ursuline Convent an exception) yet was designed by French architects, as there were no Spanish architects in Louisiana. The buildings of the French Quarter are of a Mediterranean style also found in southern France.[9]

The mixed-race Creole descendants, who developed as a third class of free people of color (gens de couleur libres), particularly in New Orleans, also were strongly influenced by the French Catholic culture. By the end of the 18th century, many mixed-race Creoles had gained education and tended to work in artisan or skilled trades; a relatively high number were property and slave owners. Louisiana was ceded back to France in 1800 through the Treaty of Ildefonso.

Louisiana Purchase and the Haitian Revolution

Napoleon sold Louisiana (New France) to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians. Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the second republic in the Western Hemisphere and the first republic led by black people. It had occurred over several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Thousands of refugees from the revolution, both whites and free people of color (affranchis or gens de couleur libres), arrived in New Orleans, often bringing African slaves with them. While Governor Claiborne and other officials wanted to keep out additional free black men, the French Creoles wanted to increase the French-speaking population. As more refugees were allowed in Louisiana, Haitian émigrés who had first gone to Cuba also arrived.[10] Many of the white Francophones had been deported by officials in Cuba in retaliation for Bonapartist schemes in Spain.[11]

Nearly 90 percent of these immigrants settled in New Orleans. The 1809 migration brought 2,731 whites; 3,102 free persons of African descent; and 3,226 enslaved persons of African descent, doubling the city's population. The city became 63 percent black in population, a greater proportion than Charleston, South Carolina's 53 percent.[10]

The transfer of the French colony to the United States and the arrival of Anglo-Americans from New England and the South resulted in a cultural confrontation. Some Americans were reportedly shocked by aspects of the cultural and linguistic climate of the newly acquired territory: the predominance of French language and Catholicism, the free class of mixed-race people, and the strong African traditions of enslaved peoples. They pressured the United States' first Louisiana governor, W.C.C. Claiborne, to change it.

Particularly in the American South, which was a slave society, slavery had become a racial caste, as children born to slave mothers had been born into slave status since the late 17th century, through laws throughout the South. As a result, many whites liked to think of society as binary in racial terms, with all who had African ancestry classified as black, regardless of their proportion of white or European ancestry. Although there was a growing population of free people of color, particularly in the Upper South, they generally did not have the same rights and freedoms as did those in Louisiana.

When Claiborne made English the official language of the territory, the French Creoles in New Orleans were outraged, and reportedly paraded in protest in the streets. They rejected the Americans' effort to transform them overnight. In addition, upper-class French Creoles thought many of the arriving Americans were uncouth, especially the rough Kentucky boatmen (Kaintucks) who regularly visited the city, having maneuvered flatboats down the Mississippi River filled with goods for market.

Realizing that he needed local support, Claiborne restored French as an official language. In all forms of government, public forums, and in the Catholic Church, French continued to be used. Most importantly, Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole remained the languages of the majority of the population of the state, leaving English and Spanish as minority languages.

Race

Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, better known as "Madame X", was a Creole from New Orleans

Colonists referred to themselves and enslaved blacks who were native-born as creole, to distinguish them from new arrivals from France and Spain as well as Africa.[2] Over time, white Creoles, mixed-raced Creoles, and Africans created a French, Spanish, and West African hybrid language called Louisiana Creole or Louisiana Creole French. American Indians, such as the Creek people, intermixed with Creoles also, making three races present in the ethnic group. In some circumstances, Creole French was used by slaves, planters and free people of color alike, though many utilized French, and in some cases, Spanish (Louisiana Creole French is not commonly spoken, but used in singular situations). However, It is still spoken by Louisiana Creoles in Texas and Louisiana. It can primarily be heard in Zydeco music, at Creole Rodeos and among Creole and some Cajun neighborhoods. Louisiana Creole is typically not spoken in New Orleans in modernity, but certain words and phrases are still used.

As in the French or Spanish Caribbean and Latin American colonies, the Louisiana territory developed a mixed-race class, of whom there were numerous free people of color. In the early days they were descended mostly from European men and enslaved or free black or mixed-race women[2] (particularly among the Creoles of French origin, because in places where Creoles of Spanish origin lived there were no slaves).

As a group, the mixed-race Creoles rapidly began to acquire education, skills (many in New Orleans worked as craftsmen and artisans), businesses and property. They were overwhelmingly Catholic, spoke Colonial French (although some also spoke Louisiana Creole), and kept up many French social customs, modified by other parts of their ancestry and Louisiana culture. The free people of color married among themselves to maintain their class and social culture. The French-speaking mixed-race population came to be called "Creoles of color". It was said that "New Orleans persons of color were far wealthier, more secure, and more established than freed Africans and Cajuns elsewhere in Louisiana."[5]

Adah Isaacs Menken, Creole actress, painter and poet

Under the French and Spanish rulers, Louisiana developed a three-tiered society, similar to that of Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, Saint Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe and other Latin colonies. This three-tiered society included white Creoles; a prosperous, educated group of mixed-race Creoles, of European and African descent; and the far larger class of African slaves (though Cajuns are considered to be the fourth). The status of mixed-race Creoles as free people of color (gens de couleur libres) was one they guarded carefully. By law they enjoyed most of the same rights and privileges as whites. They could and often did challenge the law in court and won cases against whites. They were property owners and created schools for their children. In many cases though, these different tiers viewed themselves as one group, as other Iberoamerican and Francophone ethnic groups commonly did. Race did not play as highlighted of a role as it does in Anglo-American culture: oftentimes, race was not a concern, but instead, family standing and wealth were key distinguishing factors in New Orleans and beyond. Hence why Acadiens, of any race, were considered the lowest tier, since they were often the poorest persons in the region . There were some free blacks in Louisiana, but most free people of color were of mixed race. They acquired education, property and power within the colony, and later, state.[2]

After the United States acquired the area in the Louisiana Purchase, mixed-race Creoles of Color resisted American attempts to impose their binary racial culture. In the American South slavery had become virtually a racial caste, in which most people of any African descent were considered to be lower in status. The planter society viewed it as a binary culture, with whites and blacks (the latter including everyone other than whites, although for some years they counted mulattos separately on censuses).[2]

While the American Civil War promised rights and opportunities for the enslaved, the free persons of color, who had long been free before the war, worried about losing their identity and position. The Americans did not legally recognize a three-tiered society. Nevertheless, some Creoles like Thomy Lafon used their position to support the abolitionist cause. And Francis E. Dumas emancipated all of his slaves and organized them into a company in the Second Regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards.[12]

Following the Union victory in the Civil War, the Louisiana three-tiered society was gradually overrun by more Anglo-Americans who classified everyone by the South's binary division of "black" and "white". During the Reconstruction era, white Democrats regained power in the Louisiana state legislature by using paramilitary groups like the White League to suppress black voting. They worked to establish white supremacy by passing Jim Crow laws and a constitution near the turn of the century that effectively disfranchised most blacks and Creoles of color through discriminatory application of voter registration and electoral laws. The US Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 supported the binary society and the policy of "separate but equal" facilities (which were seldom achieved in fact) in the segregated South.[2]

Whites, heavily influenced by White American society, increasingly claimed that the term Creole applied to whites only. According to Virginia R. Domínguez:

Charles Gayarré ... and Alcée Fortier ... led the unspoken though desperate defense of the Creole. As bright as these men clearly were, they still became engulfed in the reclassification process intent on salvaging white Creole status. Their speeches consequently read more like sympathetic eulogies than historical analysis.[13]
Creole painter Edgar Degas (a cousin of Creole engineer Norbert Rillieux)

Sybil Kein suggests that, because of their struggle for redefinition, white Creoles were particularly hostile to the exploration by the writer George Washington Cable of the multiracial Creole society in his stories and novels. She believes that in The Grandissimes, he exposed white Creoles' preoccupation with covering up blood connections with the free people of color and slaves. She writes:

There was a veritable explosion of defenses of Creole ancestry. The more novelist George Washington Cable engaged his characters in family feuds over inheritance, embroiled them in sexual unions with blacks and mulattoes, and made them seem particularly defensive about their presumably pure Caucasian ancestry, the more vociferously the white Creoles responded, insisting on purity of white ancestry as a requirement for identification as Creole.[13]

In the 1930s, the governor of Louisiana, Huey Long, claimed that you could feed all the "pure" white people in New Orleans with a cup of beans and a half a cup of rice, and still have food left over![14] New Orleans was a city divided geographically between Latin (French Creole) and Anglo-American populations until well into the late 19th century. Those of Latin European descent lived east of Canal Street, in what became known as the French Quarter; the new American migrants settled west ("Uptown") of it. In the mid-19th century, Irish Catholic immigrants settled in a Garden District neighborhood known as the Irish Channel.

Culture

Cuisine

Crawfish étouffée, a Creole dish

Louisiana Creole cuisine is recognized as a unique style of cooking originating in New Orleans starting in the early 1700s. It makes use of what is sometimes called the Holy trinity. It has developed primarily from various European, African, and Native American historic culinary influences. A separate style of Creole cooking exists in Acadiana as well.

Gumbo is a traditional Creole dish from New Orleans with French, Spanish, Native American, African, German, Italian and Caribbean influences. It is a meat-based soup sometimes made with some combination of any of the following: seafood (usually shrimp, crabs, with oysters optional, or occasionally crawfish), sausage, chicken (hen or rooster), alligator, turtle, rabbit, duck, deer or wild boar. Gumbo is often seasoned with filé, which is dried, ground sassafras leaves, both contain the "Holy Trinity" and are served over rice. It was created by French colonists trying to make bouillabaisse with New World ingredients. Starting with aromatic seasonings, the French used onions and celery as in a traditional mirepoix, but lacked carrots, so they substituted green bellpeppers. Africans contributed okra; the Native Americans contributed filé(file is ground, dried sassafras leaves); the Spanish contributed peppers and tomatoes; and new spices were adopted from Caribbean dishes. The French would later favor a roux for thickening. In the 19th century, the Italians added garlic.

After arriving in numbers, German immigrants dominated New Orleans city bakeries, including those making traditional French bread. They introduced having buttered French bread as a side to eating gumbo, as well as a side of German-style potato salad.

Red beans and rice is a dish of Louisiana and Caribbean influence which contains red beans, the "holy trinity" of onion, celery, and bell pepper, and often andouille smoked sausage, pickled pork, or smoked ham hocks. The beans were then served over white rice. It is one of the famous dishes in Louisiana, and is associated with "washday Monday," as it was a dish which could be cooked all day over a low flame while the women of the house attended to washing the family's clothes. Red beans and rice originates from New Orleans.

"Gumbo" (Gombô, in Louisiana Creole, Gombo, in Louisiana French); in French, or gombo, is a hybrid stew of various influences. Okra is traditionally grown in regions of Africa, the Middle East and Spain. Gombo is the Louisiana French word for okra, which is derived from a shortened version of the West African words kilogombó or kigambó, also guingambó or quinbombó. "Gumbo" became the anglicized version of the word Gombo after the English language became dominant in Louisiana. In Louisiana French dialects, the word "gombo" still refers to both the hybrid stew and the vegetable.

Jambalaya is the second of the famous Louisiana Creole dishes. It developed in the European communities of New Orleans. It combined ham with sausage, rice and tomato as a variation of the Spanish dish paella, and was based on locally available ingredients. The name for jambalaya comes from the occitan language spoken in southern France, where it means mash-up and where it is also a type of rice cooked with chicken.

Today, jambalaya is commonly made with seafood (usually shrimp) or chicken, or a combination of shrimp and chicken. Most versions contain smoked sausage, more commonly used instead of ham in modern versions. However, a version of jambalaya that uses ham with shrimp may be closer to the original Creole dish.

Jambalaya is prepared in two ways: "red" and "brown." Red is the tomato-based version native to New Orleans and is also found in parts of Iberia and St. Martin parishes, and generally uses shrimp or chicken stock. The red-style Creole jambalaya is the original version.

After the Civil War, some French Creoles and Creoles of Color whose fortunes had collapsed moved out of New Orleans to Cajun country, taking their recipes with them.

Music

Main article: Creole music
Creole girls, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana" (1935 photo by Ben Shahn)

Zydeco (a transliteration in English of 'zaricô' (snapbeans) from the song, "Les haricots sont pas salés"), was born in black Creole communities on the prairies of southwest Louisiana in the 1920s. It is often considered the Creole music of Louisiana. Zydeco, a derivative of Cajun music, purportedly hails from Là-là, a genre of music now defunct, and old south Louisiana jurés. As Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole was the lingua franca of the prairies of southwest Louisiana, zydeco was initially sung only in Louisiana French or Creole. Later, Louisiana Creoles, such as the 20th-century Chénier brothers, Andrus Espree (Beau Jocque), Rosie Lédet and others began incorporating a more bluesy sound and added a new linguistic element to zydeco music......English. Today, zydeco musicians sing in English, Louisiana Creole, or Colonial Louisiana French.

Today's Zydeco often incorporates a blend of swamp pop, blues, and/or jazz as well as "Cajun Music" (originally called Old Louisiana French Music). An instrument unique to zydeco is a form of washboard called the frottoir or scrub board. This is a vest made of corrugated aluminum, and played by the musician working bottle openers, bottle caps, or spoons up and down the length of the vest. Another instrument used in both Zydeco and Cajun music since the 1800s is the accordion. But there is a difference.....Zydeco music makes use of the piano or button accordion while Cajun music makes use of the diatonic accordion or Cajun accordion often called a "squeeze box". Cajun music also includes the fiddle and steel guitar more often than Zydeco music

Zydeco can be traced to the music of enslaved African people from the 19th century and is represented in Slave Songs of the United States, first published in 1867. The final seven songs in that work are printed with melody along with text in Louisiana Creole. These and many other songs were sung by slaves on plantations, especially in St. Charles Parish, and when they gathered on Sundays at Congo Square in New Orleans.

Among the Spanish Creole people highlights, between their varied traditional folklore, the Canarian Décimas, romances, ballads and pan-Hispanic songs date back many years, even to the Medieval Age. This folklore was carried by their ancestors from the Canary Islands to Louisiana in the 18th century. It also highlights their adaptation to the Isleño music to other music outside of the community (especially from the Mexican Corridos).[4]

Language

19th-century newspaper clipping from Thibodaux, LA

Louisiana French (LF) is the regional variety of the French language spoken throughout contemporary Louisiana by individuals who today identify ethno-racially as Creole, Cajun or French, as well as some who identify as Spanish (particularly in New Iberia and Baton Rouge, where the Creole people are a mix of French and Spanish and speak the French language[4]), African-American, white, Irish, or other origins. Individuals and groups of individuals through innovation, adaptation, and contact, continually enrich the French language spoken in Louisiana, seasoning it with linguistic features that can sometimes only be found in Louisiana.[15][16][17][18][19]

Tulane University's Department of French and Italian website prominently declares "In Louisiana, French is not a foreign language".[20] Figures from U.S. decennial censuses report that roughly 250,000 Louisianans claimed to use or speak French in their homes.[21]

Louisiana Creole (Kréyol La Lwizyàn) is a French Creole [22] language spoken by the Louisiana Creole people and sometimes Cajuns and whites of the state of Louisiana. The language consists of elements of French, Spanish, African, and Native American roots.

Among the eighteen governors of Louisiana between 1803–1865, six were French Creoles and spoke French: Jacques Villeré, Pierre Derbigny, Armand Beauvais, Jacques Dupré, Andre B. Roman, and Alexandre Mouton.

According to the historian Paul Lachance, "the addition of white immigrants to the white creole population enabled French-speakers to remain a majority of the white population [in New Orleans] until almost 1830. If a substantial proportion of free persons of color and slaves had not also spoken French, however, the Gallic community would have become a minority of the total population as early as 1820."[23] In the 1850s, white Francophones remained an intact and vibrant community; they maintained instruction in French in two of the city's four school districts.[24] In 1862, the Union general Ben Butler abolished French instruction in New Orleans schools, and statewide measures in 1864 and 1868 further cemented the policy.[24] By the end of the 19th century, French usage in the city had faded significantly.[25] However, as late as 1902 "one-fourth of the population of the city spoke French in ordinary daily intercourse, while another two-fourths was able to understand the language perfectly,"[26] and as late as 1945, one still encountered elderly Creole women who spoke no English.[27] The last major French-language newspaper in New Orleans, L’Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans, ceased publication on December 27, 1923, after ninety-six years;[28] according to some sources Le Courrier de la Nouvelle Orleans continued until 1955.[29]

Today, it is generally in more rural areas that people continue to speak Louisiana French or Louisiana Creole. Also during the '40s and '50s many Creoles left Louisiana to find work in Texas, mostly in Houston and East Texas. The language and music is widely spoken there; the 5th ward of Houston was originally called Frenchtown due to that reason. There were also Zydeco clubs started in Houston, like the famed Silver Slipper owned by a Creole named Alfred Cormier that has hosted the likes of Clifton Chenier and Boozoo Chavais.

On the other hand, Spanish usage has fallen markedly over the years among the Spanish Creoles. Still, in the first half of twentieth century, most of the people of Saint Bernard and Galveztown spoke the Spanish language with the Canarian Spanish dialect (the ancestors of these Creoles were from the Canary Islands) of the 18th century, but the government of Louisiana imposed the use of English in these communities, especially in the schools (e.g. Saint Bernard) where if a teacher heard children speaking Spanish she would fine them and punish them. Now, only some people over the age of 80 can speak Spanish in these communities. Most of the youth of Saint Bernard can only speak English.[4]

New Orleans Mardi Gras

New Orleans Mardi Gras in the early 1890s

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday in English) in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a Carnival celebration well known throughout the world. It has colonial French roots.

The New Orleans Carnival season, with roots in preparing for the start of the Christian season of Lent, starts after Twelfth Night, on Epiphany (January 6). It is a season of parades, balls (some of them masquerade balls), and king cake parties. It has traditionally been part of the winter social season; at one time "coming out" parties for young women at débutante balls were timed for this season.

Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French), the day before Ash Wednesday. Usually there is one major parade each day (weather permitting); many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the season. In the final week of Carnival, many events large and small occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities.

The parades in New Orleans are organized by Carnival krewes. Krewe float riders toss throws to the crowds; the most common throws are strings of plastic colorful beads, doubloons (aluminum or wooden dollar-sized coins usually impressed with a krewe logo), decorated plastic throw cups, and small inexpensive toys. Major krewes follow the same parade schedule and route each year.

While many tourists center their Mardi Gras season activities on Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, none of the major Mardi Gras parades has entered the Quarter since 1972 because of its narrow streets and overhead obstructions. Instead, major parades originate in the Uptown and Mid-City districts and follow a route along St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street, on the upriver side of the French Quarter.

To New Orleanians, "Mardi Gras" specifically refers to the Tuesday before Lent, the highlight of the season. The term can also be used less specifically for the whole Carnival season, sometimes as "the Mardi Gras season". The terms "Fat Tuesday" or "Mardi Gras Day" always refer only to that specific day.

Creole places

Cane River Creoles

While the sophisticated Creole society of New Orleans has historically received much attention, the Cane River area developed its own strong Creole culture. The Cane River Creole community in the northern part of the state, along the Red River and Cane River, is made up of multi-racial descendants of French, Spanish, Africans, Native Americans, similar mixed Creole migrants from New Orleans, and various other ethnic groups who inhabited this region in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The community is centered around Isle Brevelle in lower Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. There are many Creole communities within Natchitoches Parish, including Natchitoches, Cloutierville, Derry, Gorum, and Natchez. Many of their historic plantations still exist.[30] Some have been designated as National Historic Landmarks, and are noted within the Cane River National Heritage Area, as well as the Cane River Creole Historic Park. Some plantations are sites on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.

Isle Brevelle, the area of land between Cane River and Bayou Brevelle, encompasses approximately 18,000 acres (73 km2) of land, 16,000 acres of which are still owned by descendants of the original Creole families. The Cane River as well as Avoyelles and St.Landry Creole family surnames include but are not limited to: Métoyer, LeRoux, Hughes, McClain, Evans, Boyér, LaCour, Lemelle, Carriere, Damas, Fuselier, Biagas, Simien Reynaud, Bernard, Lambre', Arnaud, PrudHomme, Balthazar, Chevalier, Dunn, Hebert, Fredieu, Llorens, Barre', Beaudoin, Buard, Bayonne, Bossier, Brossette, Cyriak, Cyriaque, Coutée, Cassine, Colston, Monette, Esprit, Sylvie, Sylvan, Tyler, Moran, Rachal, Conant,Guillory, Antee, LéBon, Lefìls, Papillion, Arceneaux, DeBòis, Landry, Gravés, Deculus, St. Romain, Beaudion,LaCaze, DeCuir, Pantallion, Mathés, Mullone, Severin, Byone, St. Ville, Delphin, Sarpy, Sers, Laurent, De Soto, Christophe, Mathis, Honoré, De Sadier, Anty, Dubreil, Roque, Cloutier, Le Vasseur, Vachon, Versher, Vercher, Mezière, Bellow, Gallien, Conde, Porche, and Dupré. (Most of the surnames are of French and sometimes Spanish origin).[30]

Pointe Coupee Creoles

Another historic area to Louisiana is Pointe Coupee, an area northwest of Baton Rouge. This area is known for the False River; the parish seat is New Roads, and villages including Morganza are located off the river. This parish is known to be uniquely Creole; today a large portion of the nearly 22,000 residents can trace Creole ancestry. The area was noted for its many plantations and cultural life during the French, Spanish, and American colonial periods.

The population here had become bilingual or even trilingual with French, Louisiana Creole, and English because of its plantation business before most of Louisiana. The Louisiana Creole language is widely associated with this parish; the local mainland French and Creole (i.e., locally born) plantation owners and their African slaves formed it as communication language, which became the primary language for many Pointe Coupee residents well into the 20th century. The local white and black populations as well as persons of blended ethnicity spoke the language, because of its importance to the region; Italian immigrants in the 19th century often adopted the language.

Common Creole family names of the region include the following: Battley, Parker, Guerin, Jarreau, Bridgewater, Olinde, Decuir, Gremillion, Roberson, Christophe, Joseph, Part, Major, Valéry, Robert, Francois, Aguillard, Duperon, St. Amant, Domingue, Patin, Porche, Chenevert, Carmouche, Gaines, Fabre, Jarreau, St. Romain, Bonaventure, Bergeron, Pourciau, Morel, Tounoir, and dozens more.

Brian J. Costello, an 11th generation Pointe Coupee Parish Creole, is the premiere historian, author and archivist on Pointe Coupee's Creole population, language, social and material culture. Most of his 18 solely-authored books and five co-authored books as of 2014 specifically address these topics. He was immersed in the area's Louisiana Creole dialect in his childhood, through inter-familial and community immersion and is, therefore, one of the dialect's most fluent, and last, speakers.

Avoyelles Creoles

Avoyelles Parish has a history rich in Creole ancestry. Marksville has a significant populace of French Creoles who have Native American ancestry. The languages that are spoken are Louisiana French and English. This parish was established in 1750. The Creole community in Avoyelles parish is alive and well and has a unique blend of family, food and Creole culture. Creole family names of this region are: Sylvan, LeRoux, Auzenne, Mouton, Moten, Normand, Gaspard, Fontenot, Chargois, Fuselier, Ravarre, Tyler, Perrie, Carriere, Barbin, DeBellevue, Goudeau, Bordelon, Gauthier, Lamartiniere, Lemoine, Gremillion, Broussard, Boutte, Esprit, Rabalais, Beaudoin, DeCuir, Dufour, DuCote, Deshotels, Muellon, Lemelle, Saucier, Guillory, and Biagas. A French Creole Heritage day has been held annually in Avoyelles Parish on Bastille Day since 2012.

Evangeline Parish Creoles

Evangeline Parish was formed out of the northwestern part of St. Landry Parish in 1910, and is therefore, a former part of the old Poste des Opelousas territory. Most of this region's population was a direct result of the North American Creole & Métis influx of 1763, the result of the end of the French & Indian War which saw former French colonial settlements from as far away as "Upper Louisiana" (Great Lakes region, Indiana, Illinois) to "Lower Louisiana's" (Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama), ceded to British America. The majority of these French Creoles and Métis peoples chose to leave their former homes electing to head for the only 'French' exempted settlement area in Lower Louisiana, the "Territory of Orleans" or the modern State of Louisiana.

These Creoles and Métis families generally did not remain in New Orleans and opted for settlement in the northwestern "Creole parishes" of higher ground. This area reaches upwards to Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, Avoyelles and what became Evangeline Parish in 1910. Along with these diverse Métis & Creole families came West Indian slaves (Caribbean people).

Still later, Saint-Domingue/Haitian Creoles, Napoleonic soldiers, and 19th century French families would also settle this region. One of Napoleon Bonaparte's adjutant majors is actually considered the founder of Ville Platte, the parish seat of Evangeline Parish. General Antoine Paul Joseph Louis Garrigues de Flaugeac and his fellow Napoleonic soldiers, Benoit DeBaillon, Louis Van Hille, and Wartelle's descendants also settled in St. Landry Parish and became important public, civic, and political figures. They were discovered on the levee in tattered uniforms by a wealthy Creole planter, "Grand Louis' Fontenot of St. Landry (and what is now, Evangeline Parish), a descendant of one of Governor Jean-Batiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville's French officers from Fort Toulouse, in what is now the State of Alabama.[31]

Many Colonial French, Swiss German, Austrian, and Spanish Creole surnames still remain among prominent and common families alike in Evangeline Parish. Some later Irish and Italian names also appear. Surnames such as, Ardoin, Aguillard, Mouton, Moten, LeRoux, Fontenot, LaFleur, Bordelon, Brignac, Brunet, Buller (Buhler), Catoire, Chapman, Coreil, Darbonne, DeBaillion, DeVille, DeVilliers, Duos, Dupre' Estillette, Guillory, Milano-Hebert, Gradney, Landreneau, LaTour, LeBas, LeBleu, Miller, Morein, Moreau, Mounier, Ortego, Perrodin, Pierotti, Pitre (rare Acadian-Creole), Rozas, Saucier, Schexnayder, Sebastien, Sittig, Soileau, Tyler, Veillon, Vidrine, Vizinat, and many more are reminiscent of the late French Colonial, early Spanish and later American period of this region's history.[32]

As of 2013, the parish was once again recognized by the March 2013 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature as part of the Creole Parishes, with the passage of SR No. 30. Other parishes so recognized include Avoyelles, St. Landry, and Pointe Coupee Parishes. Natchitoches Parish also remains recognized as "Creole."

Evangeline Parish's French-speaking Senator, Eric LaFleur sponsored SR No. 30 which was written by Louisiana French Creole scholar, educator and author, John laFleur II. The parish's namesake of "Evangeline" is a reflection of the affection the parish's founder, Paulin Fontenot had for Henry Wadsworth's famous poem of the same name, and not an indication of the parish's ethnic origin. The adoption of "Cajun" by the residents of this parish reflects both the popular commerce as well as media conditioning, since this northwestern region of the French-speaking triangle was never part of the Acadian settlement region of the Spanish period.[33]

The community now hosts an annual "Creole Families Bastille Day (weekend) Heritage & Honorarium Festival in which a celebration of Louisiana's multi-ethnic French Creoles is held, with Catholic mass, Bastille Day Champagne toasting of honorees who've worked in some way to preserve and promote the French Creole heritage and language traditions. Louisiana authors, Creole food, and cultural events featuring scholarly lectures and historical information along with fun for families with free admission, and vendor booths are also a feature of this very interesting festival which unites all French Creoles who share this common culture and heritage.

St. Landry Creoles

St. Landry Parish has a significant population of Creoles, especially in Opelousas and its surrounding areas. The traditions and Creole heritage are prevalent in Opelousas, Port Barre, Melville, Palmetto, Lawtell, Swords, Mallet, Frilot Cove, Plaisance, Pitreville, and many other villages, towns and communities. The Roman Catholic Church and French/Creole language are dominant features of this rich culture. Zydeco musicians host festivals all through the year. Some Creole family names are: Antoine, Ardoin, Vidrine, Davis, Fontenot, Mouton, Moten, LeRoux, Guillory, Esprit, Jolivette, Jolivet, Rosignon (Rousillion), Sonnier, Hollier, Frilot, Roberts, Papillion, Simien, Lemon(d), Gradney, Gradnigo, Declouette, Judge, Rideau, Barnabe, Bossier, Bushnell, Pain, Cezar, Lafleur, Thierry, Rene, Darbonne, Gobert, Coutee, Fontenot, Chargois, McCrea, Villere, LaChappelle, Delafosse, Dupre, Birotte, LeBon, Guilbeaux, Arceneaux, Breaux, Chevalier, Durousseau, Fruge', Lavergne, Chachere, Aubespin, Auzenne, Chenier, Chretien, Ledet, Fuselier, Carrier(e), LaStrapes, Lavigne, Piert, LaFleur, Lemelle, Leblanc, Deculus, Chavis, Victorian, St Mary, Caesar (Ceaser), Frank, and Soileau .

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ According to anthropologist Samuel G. Armistead, even in New Iberia and Baton Rouge, where the Creole people is a mix of French and Spanish, they speak the French language and their names and surnames are Frenchified, although in Saint Bernard Parish and Galveztown still there people who are descendents of Spanish settlers that speak Spanish.[4]

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ "Louisiana French", Ethnologue.com Website, accessed 3 Feb 2009
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kathe Managan, The Term "Creole" in Louisiana : An Introduction, lameca.org, Accessed December 5, 2013
  3. ↑ Bernard, Shane K, "Creoles", "KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana", accessed October 19, 2011
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 G. Armistead, Samuel. La Tradición Hispano - Canaria en Luisiana (in Spanish: Hispanic Tradition - Canary in Louisiana). Page 26 (prorogue of the Spanish edition) and pages 51 - 61 (History and languages). Anrart Ediciones. Ed: First Edition, March 2007.
  5. 1 2 Helen Bush Caver and Mary T. Williams, "Creoles", Multicultural America, Countries and Their Cultures Website, accessed 3 Feb 2009
  6. 1 2 Christophe Landry, "Primer on Francophone Louisiana: more than Cajun", "francolouisiane.com", accessed October 19, 2011
  7. ↑ National Genealogical Society Quarterly, December 1987; vol.75, number 4: "The Baleine Brides: A Missing Ship's Roll for Louisiana"
  8. ↑ Joan M. Martin, Placage and the Louisiana Gens de Couleur Libre, in Creole, edited by Sybil Kein, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 2000.
  9. ↑ "National Park Service. Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings. Ursuline Convent.". Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  10. 1 2 "Haitian Immigration: 18th & 19th Centuries", In Motion: African American Migration Experience, New York Public Library, accessed 7 May 2008
  11. ↑ The Bourgeois Frontier : French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion, by Jay Gitlin (2009). Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10118-8, pg 54
  12. ↑ Shirley Elizabeth Thompson, Exiles at Home: The Struggle to Become American in Creole New Orleans, Harvard University Press, 2009, pg. 162
  13. 1 2 Kein, Sybil. "Creole: the history and legacy of Louisiana's free people of color". Louisiana State University Press, 2009, p. 131.
  14. ↑ Randolph Delehanty, New Orleans: Elegance and Decadence, Chronicle Books, 1995, pg. 14
  15. ↑ Carl A. Brasseaux, French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer on Francophone Louisiana. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2005. Alcée Fortier. Louisiana Studies: Literature, Customs and Dialects, History and Education. New Orleans: Tulane University, 1894.
  16. ↑ Thomas A. Klingler, Michael Picone and Albert Valdman. “The Lexicon of Louisiana French.” French and Creole in Louisiana. Albert Valdman, ed. Springer, 1997. 145-170.
  17. ↑ Christophe Landry. "Francophone Louisiana: more than Cajun." Louisiana Cultural Vistas 21(2), Summer 2010: 50-55.
  18. ↑ Alcée Fortier. Louisiana Studies: Literature, Customs and Dialects, History and Education. New Orleans: Tulane University, 1894.
  19. ↑ Thomas A. Klingler. “Language labels and language use among Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana.” Ed. T. Sanchez and U. Horesh. Working papers in linguistics, 9(2), 2003. 77–90.
  20. ↑ "Tulane University - School of Liberal Arts - HOME". Tulane.edu. 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2014-03-20.
  21. ↑ "Table 4. Languages Spoken at Home by Persons 5 Years and Over, by State: 1990 Census". Census.gov. Retrieved 2014-03-20.
  22. ↑ "Louisiana Creole Dictionary", www.LouisianaCreoleDictionary.com Website, accessed 15 July 2014
  23. ↑ Quoted in Jay Gitlin, The Bourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion, Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10118-8 p. 159
  24. 1 2 Gitlin, The Bourgeois Frontier, p. 166
  25. ↑ Gitlin, The Bourgeois Frontier, p. 180
  26. ↑ Leslie's Weekly, December 11, 1902
  27. ↑ Gumbo Ya-Ya: Folk Tales of Louisiana by Robert Tallant & Lyle Saxon. Louisiana Library Commission: 1945, p. 178
  28. ↑ French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer on Francophone Louisiana by Carl A. Brasseaux Louisiana State University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8071-3036-2 pg 32
  29. ↑ New Orleans City Guide. The Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration: 1938 pg 90
  30. 1 2 "Cane River Creole Community-A Driving Tour", Louisiana Regional Folklife Center, Northwestern State University, accessed 3 Feb 2009
  31. ↑ Napoleon's Soldiers In America, by Simone de la Souchere-Delery, 1998
  32. ↑ Louisiana's French Creole Culinary & Linguistic Traditions: Facts vs. Fiction Before And Since Cajunization 2013, by J. LaFleur, Brian Costello w/ Dr. Ina Fandrich
  33. ↑ Dr. Carl A. Brasseaux's "The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana," 1765-1803

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