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Introduction
- Vanderbilt University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
I N T R O D U C T I O N New Orleans, the Land of Creoles and Catholics WENTIETH-CENTURY RACE RELATIONS in Catholic New Orleans can only be understood in terms of the mixing of the people and cultures of Europe, Africa, and America. First France, then Spain, and finally the United States and its citizens settled the lower Mississippi Valley, producing a people and culture unique in North America. For almost one hundred years, from the founding of the city in the early eighteenth century until the early nineteenth century, before English began to dominate the linguistic landscape, the French language was spoken both at home and in public. The people are of European and African descent, with Euro-Africans known as Creoles of color, many of whom were free people of color during the era of slavery.1 Common and canon law as well as the Napoleonic Code inform Louisiana jurisprudence. New Orleans is a Catholic city in the predominately Protestant southern United States. Prior to the Civil War and the great influx of Catholic immigrants to northern urban centers in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States was a predominately southern institution. New Orleans, Mobile, Baltimore, Bardstown (Kentucky), St. Louis, Charleston, and Savannah all had significant Catholic populations, Baltimore and New Orleans being the largest. Only four years separate the establishment of the first diocese in the newly formed United States of America in Baltimore in 1789 and the establishment of the diocese of New Orleans in the French-settled territory of Louisiana in 1793. Some fifteen years later, in 1808, the dioceses of Bardstown, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York were all established. Charleston (1820), St. Louis (1826), and Mobile (1829) followed the eastern sees. In antebellum America, the vast majority of Catholics lived south of the Mason-Dixon line.2 As a largely southern denomination, American Roman Catholics were forced to confront the issue of race, first in the form of slavery and later in the development of segregation. The church accepted both practices with little protest. During the antebellum period, the church did not involve itself in the politics of T 1 Anderson final pages 8/10/05 9:15 AM Page 1 the day, especially regarding the question of slavery. As a minority in a predominantly Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture, Catholics wanted to be accepted by the majority population. In the North and the South, Catholics adopted different strategies for survival, but, for differing reasons, a majority of Roman Catholics in both regions accepted slavery.3 Southern Catholics endorsed the “peculiar institution” as a way of demonstrating their loyalty to the region and its white population. Given that Catholics were taught to obey civil law and respect public officials, southern Catholics did not challenge the social mores of the region. The spirit of conformity also led southern Catholics to reject abolitionist positions. For the most part, southern Catholics accepted the institution of slavery; members of both the laity and the clergy owned slaves. Northern Catholics accepted slavery but for different reasons . As recent arrivals to the United States, European Catholics were readily welcomed into the Democratic Party, which favored slavery. Fear of black labor also influenced Northern Catholic opinion, especially among Irish Catholic workers. Freeing the slaves would result, many of them believed, in an influx of freed black laborers, creating unwanted competition. Catholic strength in the Democratic Party and the attendant political victories gave rise to a nativist and anti-Catholic movement, the Know-Nothings. Because of their proslavery sentiments, Northern Catholics were placed on the defensive by both the abolitionists and the Know-Nothings. For most Catholics the abolitionist movement was too radical and its ideas too threatening to the social order to be adopted regardless of one’s attitude toward slavery.4 Unlike Protestant denominations such as the Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists, Roman Catholics in the United States did not suffer a sectional division over the slavery question. Because Catholics did not consider slavery to be intrinsically evil (e.g., not a matter that would threaten one’s immortal soul), it could be tolerated and even accepted.5 Black priest and historian Cyprian Davis notes that most white Catholics’ acceptance of slavery was as much a result of racial prejudice as it was a reaction to abolition.6 Regardless of their station in life, blacks were considered socially inferior by most white Catholics. This belief influenced white Catholics’ attitudes in...