Louisiana Creole people

Louisiana Creole people

Total population
Unknown
Regions with significant populations
Louisiana, East Texas, Los Angeles County, California, coastal Mississippi, Chicago, Illinois, coastal Alabama, Detroit, Michigan
Languages
Louisiana French, Louisiana Creole French and American English
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic or Protestant; minorities practice Voodoo or other faiths
Related ethnic groups
Cajuns French American Spanish American African American Various Native American groups

This article is about an ethnic culture in Louisiana, USA. For uses of the term "Creole" in other countries and cultures, see Creole (disambiguation).

Louisiana Creole people refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French and Spanish descent. The term was first used during colonial times by the settlers to refer to those who were born in the colony, as opposed to those born in the Old World. After the Civil War some, in response to the changing racial climate imposed by the increasingly dominant Anglo-Saxon society (and the anxieties provoked thereby), Creole scholars such as Charles Gayarre and Alcee Fortier began to assert that the word Creole referred exclusively to people of European descent. However, references to "Creoles of Color" and "Creole Slaves" can be found in colonial-era documents, and the term as it is now commonly applied to individuals of mixed-race heritage. Both groups have common European heritage and, in most cases, are related to each other and share cultural ties.

The term "French Creoles" came to be applied to white Creoles, and "Creoles of color", in use in the Colonial era but widely popularized in the 19th-century, came to refer to mixed-race people of African and European ancestry (primarily French and Spanish, although later of additional ethnicities) who were native in the area before the Louisiana Purchase. Some Creoles of color may also have Native American heritage. Both groups of Creoles may have additional European ancestry, such as German, Irish or Italian, related to later immigrants to New Orleans. Most modern Creoles have family ties to Louisiana, particularly New Orleans; they are mostly Catholic in religion; through the nineteenth century, most spoke French and were strongly connected to French colonial culture; and they have had a major impact on the state's culture.

While the sophisticated Créole society of New Orleans has historically received much attention, the Cane River area developed its own strong Créole culture as did Frilot Cove and Rideau Settlement. These Creole enclaves have had a long history of cultural independence.

History

Map of North America in 1750, before the French and Indian War, that is part of the greater world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763). - possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain (orange) -

A definition of "Créole" from the earliest history in New Orleans (circa 1718) is "a child born in the colony as opposed to France or Spain." The definition became more codified after the United States took control of the city and Louisiana in 1803. The Creoles at that time included the Spanish ruling class, who ruled from the mid-18th century until the early 19th century. Because it had long been a French colony, residents continued to use French language and social customs. The Creoles, commonly known as "French Creoles" (both of French and Spanish descent) were Roman Catholics.

Créole chiefly remained an expression of parochial and colonial government use through both the French and Spanish régimes, a period in which ethnic French and Spanish, born in the New World as opposed to Europe, were referred to as Créole (Logsdon). At the same time, the people of the colony forged a new local identity; however, it is clear that they called themselves French Créoles. Parisian French was the language of early New Orleans. Later it evolved to contain local phrases and slang terms. The French Créoles spoke what became known as Colonial French, as over time the language began to differ from that of the French evolving in France.

American rule

The transfer of the French colony to the United States in 1803 under the Louisiana Purchase and the arrival of Americans from New England and the South ignited a cultural war. 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, the strong African traditions of enslaved peoples. They pressured the United States' first Louisiana governor, W.C.C. Claiborne to change it.

When Claiborne swiftly moved to make English the official language, the French Créoles in New Orleans were outraged, and reportedly paraded in the streets. They rejected the Americans' effort to transform them overnight. In addition, upper-class French Créoles thought many of the arriving Americans were uncouth, especially the rough Kentucky traders 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, Colonial French and Créole French remained the language of the majority of the population of the state.

Race

Enslaved blacks who were native-born also began to be referred to as Creole, to distinguish them from new arrivals from Africa. Over time, the black Créoles and Africans created a French and West African hybrid language called Créole French or Louisiana Creole French. It was used in some circumstances by slaves, planters and free people of color alike. It is still spoken today in central Louisiana. Créole French is not spoken in New Orleans any more, but certain words and phrases are still used. Creole people and culture are distinct from the Cajun people and culture, who are related to French-speaking immigrants resettled by the British from Acadia in Canada to Louisiana in the 18th century.

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

Adah Isaacs Menken, Creole actress, painter and poet.

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 (gens de couleur libres). In the early days they were descended mostly from European men and enslaved or free black or mixed-race women. French men took African women as mistresses or common-law wives, and sometimes married them. Later, wealthy young white Creole men often took mixed-race women as mistresses or consorts before, or in addition to, their legal marriages, in a system known as plaçage. The young women's mothers often negotiated a form of dowry or property settlement to protect them. The men would often transfer social capital to their mistresses and children, including freedom for those who were enslaved, and education, the latter especially for sons.

As a group, the mixed-race Créoles 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 French), 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 "Créoles of color". "New Orleans persons of color were far wealthier, more secure, and more established than blacks elsewhere in Louisiana."

Under the French and Spanish rulers, Louisiana developed a three-tiered society, similar to that of Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, St.Lucia, Mexico, and other Latin colonies. This three-tiered society included a wealthy and educated group of mixed-race Créoles. Their identity as free people of color, or Gens de couleur libres or personnes de couleur libre was one they had worked diligently towards and 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 (Hirsch; Brasseaux; Mills; Kein etc.). They were property owners and created schools for their children. There were some free blacks in Louisiana, but most free people of color were of mixed race, descended initially from male planters and wealthier merchants and their African or mixed-race mistresses. They acquired education, property and power within the colony, and later, state.

"Creole girls, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana" (1935 photo by Ben Shahn)

The gens de couleur libres were native speakers of both Colonial French and Louisiana Créole.

After the Civil War, mixed-race Creoles of Color resisted American attempts to impose a binary culture splitting the population into black and white. While the American Civil War promised rights and opportunities for the enslaved, it caused anxiety for the free persons of color. They well knew the United States did not legally recognize a three-tiered society, and were threatened by the war and prospects of emancipation for thousands of slaves. It posed a considerable threat to the identity and position of the free people of color. Following the Union victory in the Civil War, the Louisiana three-tiered society was gradually overrun by more European-Americans, who tried to classify everyone by the rest of the South's binary division of "black" and "white".

However, prominent Creole scholars such as Charles Gayarre and Alcee Fortier, began to assert that the word creole referred exclusively to people of European descent:

Creole became further suppressed after Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which legally dismantled the free colored class. The term Creole was subsequently claimed by whites to apply exclusively to a class of people who were pure, white, and unblemished by a dash of the tar brush. Some of the same white writers who had collected the Creole folk material spearheaded the publication of numerous articles, statements, speeches, book inserts, and the like to claim the new definition of Creole as exclusively Caucasian. According to Virginia Dominguez, "Charles Gayarre ... and Alcee 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." George Washington Cable was one writer who instigated much of the wrath of these newly defined Creoles. With his penchant for the Creole language, his careful research, his attention to the slave songs, and his novels, especially The Grandissimes, he exposed their preoccupation with covering up their bloodlines and in particular their blood connection with the free people of color and slaves. "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."

New Orleans was a city divided between Latin (French Creole) and American populations until well into the late 19th century (Hirsch & Logsdon). 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.

P.G.T. Beauregard, Creole Confederate General

Culture

Cuisine

Main article: Louisiana Creole cuisine

Crawfish Etouffee, a Creole dish

Louisiana Creole cuisine is recognized as a unique style of cooking originating in New Orleans. It makes use of what is called the Holy trinity (in this case, chopped celery, bell peppers, and onions) (as does Cajun cuisine). It has developed from French, Spanish, Italian, German, African, Irish, Native American, and Caribbean historic influences, as well as American influences.

Gumbo is a traditional Creole dish from the French Quarter or Vieux Carré, the original European quarter of the city. It is a stew based on either seafood (shrimp, crabs, and sausage, but oysters are optional) or chicken and sausages. Both contain the "Holy Trinity" and are served over rice. Gumbo is often seasoned with filé. It was created in New Orleans by the French trying to make bouillabaisse with New World ingredients. Starting with aromatic seasonings, the French used onions and celery as in a traditional mirepoix, but omitted carrots. Africans contributed okra; the Spanish contributed peppers and tomatoes; the Native Americans contributed filé, or ground sassafras leaves; and new spices were adopted from Caribbean uses. The French would later favor a roux for thickening. The Italians added garlic. After arriving in numbers, the Germans dominated the bakeries of New Orleans, including those making traditional French bread. They introduced the practice of having buttered French bread as a side to eating gumbo, as well as the traditional side to gumbo, potato salad.

"Gumbo" (Gombô, in Louisiana Creole, Gombo, in Louisiana French); in French, gombo is the name for okra. The name gombo in the French language comes from the West African name for okra. Okra is from regions of Africa, and parts of the Middle East and Spain. The word gombo entered the French language from a West African language, and even today in French, okra is referred to as "gombo". Gombo was the informal name of the stew, due to the popularity of okra for thickening the mixture before a roux was used. Thus, the stew was named gombo. Gumbo is just a localized evolution of the word gombo, once the English language became dominant in Louisiana. Gombo is a shortened version of the words kilogombó or kigambó, also guingambó or quinbombó, in West Africa. Gumbo is based off of a local variation at an early attempt to make a French bouillabaisse. But the French had help from the Spanish, Africans, Native Americans, and later on the Italians and Germans, in which the bouillabaisse evolved into a new local stew, no longer recognized as bouillabaisse.

Jambalaya is the second of the famous Louisiana Creole dishes. It also arose in the original European sector of New Orleans. It combined ham with sausage, rice and tomato. Today, jambalaya is commonly made as a seafood (usually shrimp) or chicken jambalaya, or a combination of shrimp and chicken; most varieties contain smoked sausage more commonly used instead of ham in modern versions. But, a version of jambalaya uses ham with shrimp, and may be one of the original jambalayas. Jambalaya is prepared in two ways: red and brown. Red jambalaya is the original version of the dish, native to New Orleans. It is found in the New Orleans metro area as well, and in parts of Iberia Parish, parts of St. Martin Parish. Red jambalaya is known as Creole jambalaya, which comes from the Spanish heritage of New Orleans. Red jambalaya gets its color from a tomato base and commonly uses shrimp stock. In Cajun areas, people prepare a brown jambalaya in a Cajun style that omits the tomato. The brown color comes from the rendering of tasso (a type of salt-cured, smoked pork shoulder).

Jambalaya's origins derive from the Spanish influence of paella in New Orleans. An extended evolution of the dish Paella in Louisiana, from the time of the Spanish ownership of Louisiana. The dish was introduced into Cajun culture through the white French Creoles whose fortunes collapsed after the Civil War, in which many moved to Cajun country to start new lives. Some sought refuge within the Cajun population from the Americans, some remained in the New Orleans area. The name for jambalaya comes from a combination of French and Spanish origins. The name comes from jambon, the French word for ham, the French language and Spanish language article à la, and the ending of the word paella which came to be "ya" from the Spanish pronunciation of the letters ll+a.

Music

Main article: Creole music

Rosie Ledet, Creole singer and accordion player

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

Zydeco is related to Swamp Pop, Blues, Jazz, and Cajun 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's working bottle openers or caps up and down the length of the vest.

The Creole music of enslaved African people from the nineteenth century 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 Creole French. 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.

Language

Main article: Louisiana French

Main article: Louisiana Creole French

19th century Newspaper clipping from Thibodaux, LA.

Some Louisiana Creoles speak Louisiana French or Louisiana Creole.

Louisiana French (LF) is the regional variety of the French language spoken throughout contemporary Louisiana in the south-eastern USA by individuals who today identify ethno-racially as Creole, French Creole, Spanish Creole, Mississippi Creole, Alabama Creole, Texas Creole, California Creole, African-American, Black, Chitimacha, Houma, Biloxi, Tunica, Choctaw, White, Cajun, Acadian, French, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Syrian, Lebanese, Irish and others. 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.

Tulane University's Department of French and Italian's website declares in bold text: French is not a foreign language in Louisiana. Figures from U.S. decennial censuses report that roughly 250,000 Louisianians claimed to use or speak French in their homes.

Louisiana Creole French (Kréyol La Lwizyàn) is a French Creole language spoken by the Louisiana Creole people 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 Créoles and were monolingual speakers of French: Jacques-Philippe Villèré, Pierre Augustin Charles Bourguignon Derbigny, Armand Julien Beauvais, Jacques Dupré de Terrebonne, André Bienvenue Roman, and Alexandre Mouton.

In New Orleans, by the 1880s the increasing number of English-speaking Americans in New Orleans and Louisiana had caused the decline in French as an official language. Today, it is generally in more rural areas that people continue to speak Louisiana French or Louisiana Creole.

The last French language newspaper in New Orleans, L’Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans, ceased publication December 27, 1923, after ninety-six years.

New Orleans Mardi Gras

Main article: New Orleans Mardi Gras

Revelers on St. Charles Avenue, 2007

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday in English) in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a Carnival celebration well-known throughout the world.

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 the whole Carnival season, sometimes as "the Mardi Gras season". The term "Fat Tuesday" or "Mardi Gras Day" always refers only to that specific day.

Cane River Créoles

While the sophisticated Créole society of New Orleans has historically received much attention, the Cane River area developed its own strong Créole culture. The Cane River Créole 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 Créole 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 Créole communities within Natchitoches Parish, including Natchitoches, Cloutierville, Derry, Gorum, and Natchez. Many of their historic plantations still exist. 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 Créole families. The Cane River as well as Avoyelles and St.Landry Créole family surnames include but are not limited to: Métoyer, LaCour, Balthazar, Chevalier, Dunn, Hebert, Fradieu,Llorens, Bayonne, Brossette, Coutée, Cassine, Monette, Sylvie, Sylvan, Moran, Rachal, Conant, Chargòis, Esprít, Demby, Guillory, LéBon, Lefìls, Papillion, Arceneaux, DeBòis, Landry, Gravés, Deculus, St. Romain, Beaudion, Darville, LaCaze, DeCuir, Pantallion, Mathés, Mullone, Severin, Byone, St. Ville, Delphin, Sarpy, Laurent, De Soto, Christophe, Mathis, Honoré, De Sadier, Anty, Dubreil, Roque, Cloutier, Le Vasseur, Mezière, Bellow, Gallien, Conde,Porche and Dupré. (Most of the surnames are of French or Spanish origin).

Pointé Coupee Créoles

Another historic area to Louisiana is Pointé Coupee, an area west of Baton Rouge. This area is known for the beautiful False River, the capital of this parish, New Roads and other villages such as Morganza are located off the river. This parish is known to be uniquely Créole, today a large portion of the nearly 22,000 residents can trace Creole ancestry. The area was very valuable for its many plantations 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 Créole language is widely associated with this parish. The language started from the plantations. The local French, Creole, and Spanish plantation owners and their African slaves formed a communication language. This Créole language became a first language for many Pointé Coupee residents well into the 20th century. The local white and black population spoke the language, because of its important to the region, even Italian immigrants in the 20th century often adopted the language.

Common Créole families of the region include the following according to the Decuirfamily.com website: Decuir, Gremillion, Roberson, Christophe, Part, Major, McCarthy, Valéry, Robert, Ramirez, Castillo, Olivier, Fontenot, Francois, Aguillard, Duperon, Gaspard, St. Armand, Johnsons, Reeds, Nelson, and many dozens more.

See also

• Creoles of color
• List of Louisiana Creoles

External links

• Too White To Be Black, Too Black To Be White: The New Orleans Creole
• Creole Poems
• Creole Literature (1800-1900)
• Learn Louisiana French
• francoluoisiane.com
• LA Creole
• Louisiana Creole Heritage Center
• Creole spirit
• Celebrating Frenchtown
• Left Coast Creole
• Cast From Their Ancestral Home, Creoles Worry About Culture's Future
• THE MEXICO-LOUISIANA CREOLE CONNECTION
• The Battle of New Orleans
• Les Gens de Couleur Libres
• Harriet J. Bauman, "French Creoles in Louisiana: An American Tale", Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, Yale University