Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color

Contents

Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii I H I S T O R Y 1 People of Color in Louisiana 3 Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson 2 Marcus Christian's Treatment of Les Gens de Couleur Libre 42 Violet Harrington Bryan 3 Plaqage and the Louisiana Gens de Couleur Libre: How Race and Sex Defined the Lifestyles of Free Women of Color 57 Joan M. Martin 4 Composers of Color of Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The History Behind the Music 71 Lester Sullivan 5 The YankeeHugging the Creole: Reading Dion Boucicault'sThe Octoroon 101 Jennifer DeVere Brody 6 The Use of Louisiana Creole in Southern Literature 117 Sybil Kein II L E G A C Y 7 Marie Laveau:The Voodoo Queen Repossessed 157 Barbara Rosendale Duggal 8 New Orleans Creole Expatriates in France: Romanceand Reality 179 Michel Fabre vii CONTENTS 9 Visible Means of Support: Businesses,Professions, and Trades of Free People of Color 208 Mary Gehman 10 The Origin of Louisiana Creole 223 Fehintola Mosadomi 11 Louisiana Creole Food Culture: Afro-Caribbean Links 244 Sybil Kein 12 Light, Bright, Damn Near White: Race, the Politics of Genealogy, and the Strange Case of Susie Guillory 252 Anthony G. Barthelemy 13 Creole Poets on the Verge of a Nation 276 Caroline Senter 14 "Lost Boundaries": Racial Passing and Poverty in Segregated New Orleans 295 ArtheA. Anthony 15 Creole Culture in the Poetry of Sybil Kein 317 Mary L. Morton Contributors 327 Index 331 viii Illustrations following page 195 Alice Ruth Moore (Dunbar-Nelson) ca. 1900 Straight University commencement program, 1892 Composer/violinist Edmond Dede Composer/pianist Basile Bares Historian Rodolphe L. Desdunes Philanthropist Thorny Lafon Sisters of the Holy Family, 1915 Title page, 1859 edition of The Octoroon Portrait said to be that of Marie Laveau Edwin O. Moss barbershop, 1913 Creole wedding party, 19205 Photographer Arthur P. Bedou Creole business establishments in New Orleans Odette and Naomi Dubuclet ix This page intentionally left blank ...