Louisiana Creole People

Louisiana Creoles (french: Créoles de la Louisiane, lou, Moun Kréyòl la Lwizyàn, es, Criollos de Luisiana) are people descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the period of both French and Spanish rule. As an ethnic group, their ancestry is mainly of Louisiana French, West African, Spanish and Native American origin. Louisiana Creoles share cultural ties such as the traditional use of the French, Spanish, and Creole languages and predominant practice of Catholicism.

The term ''Créole'' was originally used by the Louisiana French to distinguish people born in Louisiana from those born elsewhere, thus drawing a distinction between Old-World Europeans and Africans from their Creole descendants born in the New World.Kathe Managan
The Term "Creole" in Louisiana : An Introduction
, lameca.org. Retrieved December 5, 2013
''Multicultural America'', Countries and Their Cultures Website. Retrieved February 3, 2009 The word is not a racial label and does not imply mixed racial origins—people of any race can and have identified as Louisiana Creoles.

''Créole'' was used as an identity in Louisiana from the 18th century onward. After the Sale of Louisiana, the term "Creole" took on a more political meaning and identity, especially for those people of Latinate culture. Whether white or black, these francophone Catholics had a culture that contrasted with the Anglo- Protestant culture of the new American settlers—and their slaves—from the Upper South and the North.

Creoles of French descent, including those of Québécois or Acadian lineage, have historically comprised the majority of white-identified Creoles in Louisiana. (Although Cajuns are often presented as being distinct from the Creoles, this distinction is not historically accurate and may be contested today; people of Cajun ancestry are often listed in historic documents as Creoles.) Today, some Louisianians identify exclusively as either Cajun or Creole, while others embrace both identities.

Later 19th-century immigrants to Louisiana, such as Irish, Germans and Italians, also married into the Creole group. Most of these immigrants were Catholic.

New Orleans in particular has retained a significant historical population of Creoles of color, a group mostly consisting of free persons of mixed European, African, and Native American descent. With many Creoles of color having received superior rights and education under Spain than did their Anglo-American counterparts, some of the United States' earliest writers, poets and activists of color (e.g. Victor Séjour, Rodolphe Desdunes and Homère Plessy) were Louisiana Creoles. Today, many Creoles of color have assimilated into African-American culture, while others remain a separate yet inclusive subsection of the African-American ethnic group.

In the twentieth century, the '' gens de couleur libres'' in Louisiana became increasingly associated with the term ''Creole'', in part because Anglo-Americans struggled with the idea of an ethno-cultural identity not founded in race''.'' One historian has described this period as the "Americanization of Creoles," including an acceptance of the American binary racial system that divided Creoles between white and black. (See Creoles of color for a detailed analysis of this event.) Concurrently, the number of white-identified Creoles has dwindled, with many adopting the Cajun label instead.

While the sophisticated Creole society of New Orleans has historically received much attention, the Cane River area in northwest Louisiana—populated chiefly by Creoles of color—also developed its own strong Creole culture.

Today, most Creoles are found in the greater New Orleans region or in Acadiana. Louisiana is known as the Creole State.Christophe Landry
"Primer on Francophone Louisiana: more than Cajun"
"francolouisiane.com". Retrieved October 19, 2011

Flag

The Louisiana Creole flag is based on four flags of different regions. The top left corner is a fleur-de-lis representing France, the top right is Senegal, the bottom right represents Castile (Spain), and the bottom left square is Mali.

The flag was created by Pete Bergeron of the non-profit organization C.R.E.O.L.E. INC in 1987 and celebrates the many cultures that influence contemporary Creole heritage.

History

1st French period

Through both the French and Spanish (late 18th century) regimes, parochial and colonial governments used the term Creole for ethnic French and Spanish people born in the New World as opposed to Europe. Parisian French was the predominant language among colonists in 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. Because of isolation, the language in the colony developed differently from that in France. It was spoken by the ethnic French and Spanish and their Creole descendants.

The commonly accepted definition of Louisiana Creole today is a person descended from ancestors in Louisiana before the Louisiana Purchase by the United States in 1803. An estimated 7,000 European immigrants settled in Louisiana during the 18th century, one percent of the number of European colonists in the Thirteen Colonies along the Atlantic coast. Louisiana attracted considerably fewer French colonists than did its West Indian colonies.

After the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, which lasted more than two months, the colonists had numerous challenges ahead of them in the Louisiana frontier. Their living conditions were difficult: uprooted, they had to face a new, often hostile, environment, with difficult climate and tropical diseases. 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. Europeans also brought the Eurasian diseases of malaria and cholera, which flourished along with mosquitoes and poor sanitation. These conditions slowed colonization. Moreover, French villages and forts were not always sufficient to protect from enemy offensives. Attacks by Native Americans represented a real threat to the groups of isolated colonists.

The Natchez massacred 250 colonists in Lower Louisiana in retaliation for encroachment by French settlers. The Natchez warriors took Fort Rosalie (now Natchez, Mississippi) by surprise, killing many settlers. During the next two years, the French attacked the Natchez in return, causing them to flee or, when captured, be deported as slaves to their Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue (later Haiti).

In the colonial period of French and Spanish rule, men tended to marry later after becoming financially established. French settlers frequently took Native American women as their wives (see Marriage 'à la façon du pays'), and as slaves began to be imported into the colony, settlers also took African wives. Intermarriage between the different groups of Louisiana created a large multiracial Creole population.

Engagés and Casquette Girls

Aside from French government representatives and soldiers, colonists included mostly young men who were recruited in French ports or in Paris. Some labored as '' engagés'' (indentured servants), i.e. "temporary semi-slaves"; they were required to remain in Louisiana for a length of time, fixed by the contract of service, to pay back the cost of passage and board. Engagés in Louisiana generally worked for seven years, and their masters provided them housing, food, and clothing. They were often housed in barns and performed hard labor.

Starting in 1698, French merchants were obliged to transport a number of men to the colonies in proportion to the ships' tonnage. Some of the men brought over were engaged on three-year indenture contracts under which the contract-holder would be responsible for their "vital needs" as well as provide a salary at the end of the contract term. Under John Law and the Compagnie du Mississippi, efforts to increase the use of ''engagés'' in the colony were made, notably including German settlers whose contracts were absolved when the company went bankrupt in 1731.

During this time, to increase the colonial population, the government also recruited young Frenchwomen, known as '' filles à la cassette'' (in English, ''casket girls'', referring to the casket or case of belongings they brought with them) to go to the colony to be wed to colonial soldiers. The king financed dowries for each girl. (This practice was similar to events in 17th-century Quebec: about 800 '' filles du roi'' (daughters of the king) were recruited to immigrate 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 Salpêtrière in Paris to Louisiana. Most of the women quickly found husbands among the male residents of the colony. These women, many of whom were most likely prostitutes or felons, were known as ''The Baleine Brides''. Such events inspired '' Manon Lescaut'' (1731), a novel written by the Abbé Prévost, which was later adapted as an opera in the 19th century.

Historian Joan Martin maintains that there is little documentation that casket girls (considered among the ancestors of French Creoles) were transported to Louisiana. (The Ursuline order of nuns, who were said to chaperone the girls until they married, have denied the casket girl myth as well.) Martin suggests this account was mythical. The system of plaçage that continued into the 19th century resulted in many young white men having women of color as partners and mothers of their children, often before or even after their marriages to white women. French Louisiana also included communities of Swiss and German settlers; however, royal authorities did not refer to "Louisianans" but described the colonial population as "French" citizens.

French Indians in Louisiana

New France wished to make Native Americans subjects of the king and good Christians, but the distance from Metropolitan France and the sparseness of French settlement prevented this. In official rhetoric, the Native Americans were regarded as subjects of the Viceroyalty of New France, but in reality, they were largely autonomous due to their numerical superiority. The local authorities of New France (governors, officers) did not have the human resources to establish French law and customs, and instead often compromised with the Indians.

Indian tribes offered essential support for the French: they ensured the survival of the New France's colonists, participated with them in the fur trade, and acted as guides in expeditions. The French alliance with Indians also provided mutual protection from hostile non-allied tribes and incursions on French & Indian land from enemy European powers. The French & Indian alliance proved invaluable during the later French and Indian War against the New England colonies in 1753.

The French & Indians influenced each other in many fields: the French settlers learned the languages of the natives, such as Mobilian Jargon, a Choctaw-based Creole language that served as a trade language in use among the French and various Indian tribes in the region. The Indians bought European goods (fabric, alcohol, firearms, etc.), learned French, and sometimes adopted their religion.

The ''coureurs des bois'' and soldiers borrowed canoes and moccasins. Many of them ate native food such as wild rice and various meats, like bear and dog. The colonists were often dependent on the Native Americans for food. Creole cuisine is the heir of these mutual influences: thus, ''sagamité'', for example, is a mix of corn pulp, bear fat and bacon. Today jambalaya, a word of Seminole origin, refers to a multitude of recipes calling for meat and rice, all very spicy. Sometimes shamans succeeded in curing the colonists thanks to traditional remedies, such as the application of fir tree gum on wounds and Royal Fern on rattlesnake bites.

Many French colonists both admired and feared the military power of the Native Americans, though some governors from France scorned their culture and wanted to keep racial purity between the whites and Indians. In 1735, interracial marriages without the approval of the authorities were prohibited in Louisiana. However, by the 1750's in New France, the idea of the Native Americans became one of the "Noble Savage," that Indians were spiritually pure and played an important role in the natural purity of the New World. Native Americans did marry French settlers, with Indian women being consistently considered as good wives to foster trade and help create offspring. Their intermarriage created a large ''métis'' ( mixed French Indian) population In New France.

In spite of some disagreements (some Indians killed farmers' pigs, which devastated corn fields), and sometimes violent confrontations ( Fox Wars, Natchez uprisings, and expeditions against the Chicachas), the relationship with the Native Americans was relatively good in Louisiana. French imperialism was expressed through some wars and the slavery of some Native Americans. But most of the time, the relationship was based on dialogue and negotiation.

Africans in Louisiana

Inability to find labor was the most pressing issue in Louisiana. In 1717, John Law, the French Comptroller General of Finances, decided to import African slaves into Louisiana. His objective was to develop the plantation economy of Lower Louisiana. The Royal Indies Company held a monopoly over the slave trade in the area. The colonists turned to sub-Saharan African slaves to make their investments in Louisiana profitable. In the late 1710s the transatlantic slave trade imported slaves into the colony. This led to the biggest shipment in 1716 where several trading ships appeared with slaves as cargo to the local residents in a one-year span.

Between 1723 and 1769, most slaves imported to Louisiana were from modern day Senegal, Mali and Congo. A large number of the imported slaves from the Senegambia region were members of the Wolof and Bambara ethnic groups. During the Spanish control of Louisiana, between 1770 and 1803, most of the slaves still came from the Congo and the Senegambia region but they also imported more slaves from modern-day Benin. Other ethnic groups imported during this period included members of the Nago people, a Yoruba subgroup.

In Louisiana, the term ''Bambara'' was used as a generic term for African slaves. European traders used ''Bambara'' as a term for defining vaguely a region of ethnic origin. Muslim traders and interpreters often used ''Bambara'' to indicate Non-Muslim captives. Slave traders would sometimes identify their slaves as ''Bambara'' in hopes of securing a higher price, as Bambara slaves were sometimes characterized as being more passive. Further confusing the name's indication of ethnic, linguistic, religious, or other implications, the concurrent Bambara Empire had notoriety for its practice of slave-capturing wherein Bambara soldiers would raid neighbors and capture the young men of other ethnic groups, forcibly assimilate them, and turn them into slave soldiers known as ''Ton''. The Bambara Empire depended on war-captives to replenish and increase its numbers; many of the people who called themselves ''Bambara'' were indeed not ethnic Bambara.

Africans contributed to the creolization of Louisiana society. They brought okra from Africa, a plant common in the preparation of gumbo. While the '' Code Noir'' required that the slaves receive a Christian education, many practiced animism and often combined elements of the two faiths. The ''Code Noir'' also conferred '' affranchis'' (ex-slaves) full citizenship and gave complete civil equality with other French subjects.

Louisiana slave society generated its own distinct Afro-Creole culture that was present in religious beliefs and the Louisiana Creole language. The slaves brought with them their cultural practices, languages, and religious beliefs rooted in spirit and ancestor worship, as well as Roman Catholic Christianity—all of which were key elements of Louisiana Voodoo. In addition, in the early nineteenth century, many St. Dominicans also settled in Louisiana, both free people of color and slaves, following the Haitian Revolution on Saint-Domingue, contributing to the Voodoo tradition of the state. During the American period (1804-1820), almost half of the slaves came from the Congo.

Spanish period

In the final stages of the French and Indian War with the New England colonies, New France ceded the Louisiana to Spain in the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762). The Spanish were slow and reluctant to fully occupy the colony, however, and did not do so until 1769. That year, Spain abolished Native American slavery. In addition, Spanish liberal manumission policies contributed to the growth of the population of Creoles of color, particularly 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). These buildings were 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.

Spanish Louisiana's multiracial Creole descendants, which included ''affranchis'' (ex-slaves), free-born blacks, and mixed-race people, known as Creoles of color (gens de couleur libres), were strongly influenced by French Catholic culture. By the end of the 18th century, many Creoles of color were educated and tended to work in artisan or skilled trades; a relatively high number were property owners. Many Creoles of color were free-born, and their descendants often enjoyed many of the same privileges as whites while under Spanish rule, including (but not limited to) property ownership, formal education, and service in the militia. Indeed, Creoles of Color had been members of the militia for decades under both French and Spanish control of the colony of Louisiana. For example, around 80 Creoles of Color were recruited into the militia that participated in the Battle of Baton Rouge in 1779.

Throughout the Spanish period, most Creoles continued to speak French and remained strongly connected to French colonial culture. However, the sizeable Spanish Creole communities of Saint Bernard Parish and Galveztown spoke Spanish. The Malagueños of New Iberia spoke Spanish as well. (Since the mid-20th century, the number of Spanish-speaking Creoles has declined in favor of English speakers. Even today, however, the Isleños of St. Bernard Parish have maintained cultural traditions from the Canary Islands. 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.)

Cajuns and Isleños in Louisiana

In 1765, during Spanish rule, several thousand Acadians from the French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) made their way to Louisiana after having been expelled from Acadia by the British government after the French and Indian War. They settled chiefly in the southwestern Louisiana region now called Acadiana. The governor Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga, eager to gain more settlers, welcomed the Acadians, who became the ancestors of Louisiana's Cajuns.

Spanish Canary Islanders, called Isleños, emigrated from the Canary Islands of Spain to Louisiana under the Spanish crown between 1778 and 1783. In 1800, France's Napoleon Bonaparte reacquired Louisiana from Spain in the Treaty of San Ildefonso, an arrangement kept secret for two years.

2nd French period, the Sale of Louisiana

Spain ceded Louisiana back to France in 1800 through the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, although it remained under nominal Spanish control until 1803. Weeks after reasserting full control over the territory, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the wake of the defeat of his forces in Saint-Domingue, which Napoleon had been trying to regain control of Saint-Domingue following the St. Dominican Rebellion and subsequent Haitian Revolution.

St. Dominican Refugees in Louisiana

In the early 19th century, floods of St. Dominican refugees fled from Saint-Domingue and poured into New Orleans