User:Aearthrise/Louisianese Creole People

What is a Creole?

The Louisianese Creole as a people and a civilisation is greatly misunderstood today in the United States of America. You can find the Creole culture overtly in many of our Southern cities, namely Mobile, Galveston, Pensacola, New Orleans, & even further up the Mississippi River, in places far like Sainte Geneviève, St.Louis Missouri, Prairie du Rocher Illinois, and even in Minnesota & Wisconsin. Who are these people who call themselves Creoles?

Ancient Louisiana, the Greater Louisiana Colony

Firstly we shall understand what the word Creole means. Creole is an old colonial term used in Latin speaking colonies meaning "colonial, or native," as a means to distinguish European born subjects of Spain, France, & Portugal from the natives of the colonies. The term Creole when describing Louisianese Creoles is a term that became used as an identifier for the Louisianese ethnic group, those who shared a similar language, history, & heritage.

The early USA purchased an immense colony called Greater Louisiana, in French "Grand Louisiane," and this colony switched hands between both the Spanish & the French. There were three provinces in the Greater Louisiana colony: The Mississippi Province, which was Biloxi Mississippi, Mobile Alabama, and Pensacola on the pan-handle of Florida. The other two provinces were Lower Louisiana & Upper Louisiana. Lower Louisiana consisted of the City-State of New Orleans, known anciently as the "Isle of Orleans," the Creole City-State of Galveston, Texas, and an immense uncharted territory that ranged from Arkansas to Southern Louisiana. The most Northern province, Upper Louisiana, at it's greatest extent included Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin & Indiana. These Louisianese Creole lands all developed a distinct culture due to being part of the Spain and isolated for more than 50 years.

Spain had a policy of strict isolationism in its colonies, where it limited trade & immigration to only other Spanish territories. They would not allow trade with English, French, Americans or any other power in the area. This caused the Louisianese Creoles to become quite distinct & self-reliant. Creoles also gained many Spanish traits, like being exceptionally tolerant to different groups of people- this is a policy that created the cultures of Mexico, Colombia, Dominican Republic & other tolerant cultures.

Eventually, Spain gave the Louisiana Colony back to France, but France held onto it for only 20 days before selling it to the Americans in 1803 for 15 million U.S. dollars. The reasons for France selling Louisiana was that Napoleon Bonaparte no longer saw a French colony in the Americas as feasible. A recent revolution in St.Domingue, today called Haiti, derailed all French colonial ambitions in the Americas. Napoleon also badly needed funds for his war effort in Europe, so he sold the Louisiana colony.

Louisiana at the time of purchase was filled with the group who we call Creoles: these Louisianese Creoles spoke a form French, they were Catholic, non-chalant, inclusive, & very aristocratic. They wanted nothing to do with the English Americans, a business oriented, Protestant, serious-minded, racially divisionist, & democratic.

Ancient Louisiana especially in New Orleans, the capital, as well as Mobile, Galveston, Pensacola, & Biloxi, all had very inclusive populations. Spanish & French colonial policies & the Catholic religion encouraged settlers to marry with slaves, Indians, and other peoples, with social class being the determiner of social position. English policies were more divisive, where race meant as much to social position as did social class- a trait continued by the Americans.

The American Louisiana Purchase

When the Americans bought Ancient Louisiana in the Louisiana purchase, they didn't know how to manage the new population. They gave full rights & citizenship to all free individuals, and promised to respect their culture. Louisianese Creoles at this time defined themselves as anyone holding the French heritage, Catholic, & speaking a form of French.

The peoples who called themselves Creoles came from diverse backgrounds, many were St.Domingue refugees who escaped the turmoil of the Haitian Revolution, especially the St.Domingue Creoles of Color who brought their slaves with them to Louisiana, a welcoming land for them who shared a similar culture. These Creoles of Color spread throughout Lower Louisiana & the Mississippi territories, bringing with them their customs & their St Domingue French Creole language, which evolved into Louisianese Creole found in Mobile Alabama, Biloxi Mississippi, and throughout Louisiana (The dialect of Louisianese Creole in Louisiana, Louisiana Creole, is also called Gombo and more recently "Kouri-Vini"). Acadians who were deported from Nova Scotia in Canada also settled in Louisiana, especially in the unexplored territory between New Orleans & Galveston, which today we call the province of Acadiana. We call the people of Acadiana "Cajuns." There were also the Spaniard Creoles, and of course the original Louisianese French population of the settlements. These people all contributed to the very diverse & beautiful Louisianese Creole Civilisation.

As the English Americans divided the prior Ancient Louisianese territories into states, the former Louisianese Creoles came to identify more with their new state identities, dropping their Louisianese identity but retaining the term "Creole."

Throughout the Early to Middle 1800s, the English Americans brought their racial politics & tried to increasingly divide Creole communities. By the Civil War, policies found in English American States like forcing free people of color to carry "Freedom papers" entered into these former Louisianese territories. The Louisianese Creole People though stood united by their French heritage, their catholic religion, and their French dialects. The Creoles didn't want anything to do with the English American culture- the Creoles considered their Louisianese culture to be superior to English culture. Indeed, the Creoles would frequently refer to their civilisation as the New Egypt, and Creoles from the State of Louisiana would often make comparisions of their state with Greece and Italy.

The French Colonial Review from Paris in 1850 found that in the United States as whole, the Northern Free & Southern Slave states, that Louisiana, Mobile, & other territories with Creoles were the most tolerant places in the USA. They found that even though there weren't slaves in the Northern States, the English Americans held prejudices against people of color, and that Creoles of color preferred completely to stay in their Creole lands rather than to move north, or emigrate to other lands like Liberia Africa as often the English speaking freedmen chose to do. The French Colonial Review explained that at least in Creole lands, Creoles of Color were on the second echelons of society, while in English America, they were ignored, oppressed & at the lowest place in society.

You'd be surprised to know that most of the people in this middle class of Creoles of Color owned slaves themselves. Indeed most Creoles of Color were quite wealthy, many owning more than twenty slaves, and some owned expansive plantations. For example, a wealthy Creole of Color named Andrew Durnford of Placquemines Parish, Louisiana owned a sugar plane plantation containing eighty slaves. As for a demonstration of the wealth of Creoles of Color, in New Orleans, a French Interviewer from France witnessed an affluent Madame Creole of Color make a donation of five hundred U.S. dollars to the Demoiselles de la Providence Orphanage after a sermon at the St.Louis Cathedral.

Louisianese Creoles during the Civil War

As the Civil War arrived, the Louisianese Creoles in Louisiana voted on secession. Only 52.7% of the voices at the secession convention was in agreement with secession. Sugar Cane production, what was the major crop in Southern Creole Louisiana by this point was much safer, more efficient & automated, thanks to innovations by Louisianese Creole of Color innovators like Norbert Rillieux that helped cause the need for large slave work forces to not be needed.

When the Civil War started, you'd be surprised to learn that many Creoles of Color actively supported the Confederacy. Creoles of Color not only having a stake in the future of Louisiana, Mobile, Mississippi & other lands as they themselves owned slaves actively organized to fight with the Confederacy. The Louisiana Native Guard for example was formed of Creoles of Color to defend Louisiana; other Creole communities like the Mobile Creole Militia of Alabama formed to protect their lands & culture from Northerners.

The Confederacy though, being composed of English Americans started introducing their racial politics into the military. The Louisiana Native Guard was activated in 1861, but disbanded in April 1862. The Mobile Creoles petitioned time & time again until in late 1862, they were able to form a militia to defend Mobile. English Confederate racial ideology ultimately won, though, and the Mobile Creole of Color Militia was dissolved in 1863.

New Orleans fell to Union forces in mid 1862, and this is when the Union forces infected the New Orleans Creole culture completely with English American racial politics. Prior to the civil war, there were three classes of people in Louisiana: an Aristocracy- made up mostly of planters, a Middle Class of Creoles of Color, artisans, Cajuns, immigrants, and the third slave Class referred to as "Negroes" (nègres). Many Creoles held a sentiment of abolition & emancipation towards slavery, but they felt that they needed a plan to educate the workforce to make them contributing citizens.

The Creoles of Color did not consider themselves Negroes, they called themselves instead Afro-Latin, & they held a respected place in society. As the Union invaded New Orleans, they introduced a new group of people called Creole French Negroes (Nègres Créoles), and they lumped the previous rich, educated Creoles of Color with the uneducated newly freed negro population. This appellation and division was enforced for the next three years as a Union policy in New Orleans. This policy can be seen by the change in the choice of army unit names from the previous Louisiana Native Guard to the newly renamed Union Africa Corps in June 1863. The Union wanted to make a distinction between the White & Black races, and they did.

Louisianese Creoles during Reconstruction

After the Civil War, Creoles in New Orleans faced a racial dilemma due to three years of English American racial politics and its imposition on New Orleanian Creole culture. The White Creoles were forever divorced from their Creole of Color bretheren. The White Creoles vehemently opposed the usage of the term Creole by people of color because they themselves would be confused as having ambiguous racial origins by the rich Northern Industrial minded Carpetbaggers emigrating to the South- this caused those White Creoles to become defensive. Other places with large Creole populations like Mobile, Alabama were mostly untouched during the war and their respected culture lasted, but not for very long due to immigration from prejudicial Northerners to the South, as well as prejudicial English Ex-Confederates.

Union Reconstruction caused the Louisianese Creole culture to be depreciated in value, and for Creole people to stop being first class citizens- it was no longer a culture for immigrants to assimilate into. The division caused by racial politics increased & increased over the years, causing many Creoles who previously had great social & political protections to be marginalized. The Creoles of Color especially felt the difference: over the next 30 years their rights were reduced to much less than they ever had been before the Civil War, & they still resented being classed as the same as the newly free uneducated negro population.

In 1873 the Creoles of the city of New Orleans came together to attempt a unified front to bring back the economy. They created the Louisiana Unification Movement. It was led by prominent Creoles, including the Ex-Confederate General turned Black Civil Rights Advocate Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. The movement was one of the first civil rights movements in America, and its goal was the complete desegregation of schools, transportation, and social places, as well as to devise a plan to provide the newly freed population with land. English Americans persuaded the newly freed population to not join the movement to maintain political power, as well as hardcore English American divisionists not joining because of wanting to keep the races separate.

Beauregard spoke at one of the meetings:

"I am persuaded that the natural relation between the white and colored people is that of friendship, I am persuaded that their interests are identical; that their destinies in this state, where the two races are equally divided are linked together, and that there is no prosperity in Louisiana that must not be the result of their cooperation. I am equally convinced that the evils anticipated by some men from the practical enforcement of equal rights are mostly imaginary, and that the relation of the races in the exercise of these rights will speedily adjust themselves to the satisfaction of all."

Unfortunately the movement did not succeed, and the Creoles became more and more divided by the imposed English American racial ideology. Creoles of Color had to adapt to the new situation in Louisiana, and as reconstruction ended, racist policies continued to enter Louisiana. By 1890 the Creole of Color community had enough of the erosion of their rights, and they implemented plans to recover their previous rights & privileges. One of the most famous examples of this was the Plessy vs. Ferguson case in 1896.

Creoles of Color Attempt to Regain their Rights

Homère Adolfe Plessy, a Creole of Color who could pass for white joined the comité des citoyens, a Civil Rights Group run by Creoles to reinstate Creole of Color rights. He purchased a first class ticket on a train, and when he was about to board, he had to explain to the conductor that he in fact was colored man. The conductor in term tried continuously to let the man go, but Monsieur Plessy held up the train. When the police arrived, they also tried to let Monsieur Plessy go, but Monsieur Plessy insisted in going down to the precinct with the investigators. He was released later on, and the courts wanted to drop his case, but Monsieur Plessy denied this in order to have the case continue to the Supreme Court.

The court case did arrive to the supreme court where he & Albion W. Tourgée argued that Creoles of Color were a distinct group, and that their rights were guaranteed not only by the Purchase of Louisiana, but also by the 13th, 14th, & 15th amendment. The Court ruled, unfortunately that segregation was legal, given that it was Separate but Equal. This was a devastating loss for Creoles of Color.

The period of the 1890's to 1920's was darkest period for Creoles of color, who as an ethnic group finally became part of the broader African-American group. However, Creoles of Color did contribute continuously to American culture as in 1920's a new form of music created by Creoles, called Jazz, took the world by storm. Jazz initially was sung in Louisiana Creole.

In the following decades, Creoles as an ethnic group in general became marginalized, as French became reclassified as a foreign language in Louisiana, and that elementary schools could no longer be conducted in French. It became shameful for many Creoles to be French.

Modern Usage of the terms Cajun & Creole in Louisiana

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Huey P. Long

Americanization relatively untouched the Cajun Creoles for a long time, unlike other Louisianese Creoles, and they were able to maintain their old world customs & values. In the 1930's though, Cajun Country finally became connected to Louisiana by the Huey Long administration's helpful projects in not only infrastructure, but also education, and hospitals. This caused Cajun Creoles to open to the world, as well as to begin their Americanization. Racial politics entered Cajun Country, and what used to be the ancient sentiment "if you are French, you are one of us," evolved into English American divisive racial politics. Cajuns themselves were a marginalized group by English Protestant Americans. During the 1950's, Cajuns remarked that their schools were on the same level as Black schools in the cities. Cajuns also saw a massive spike English missionaries to convert them to Protestantism, where you would start to see White & Black segregated Protestant Churches sprout rather than the traditional unified Catholic French Church.

In the 1960's, Cajuns took pride in their culture, and began to promote it. Unfortunately the damage by Americanization & English American racial politics was already done. Much of the population in Cajun Country failed to teach the younger generations French due to shame, causing the understanding of the diversity & history of the Louisianese Creole culture to disappear. People who used to define themselves by their unique Louisianese French heritage as "Creole" came to be identified either as only Cajun- a term for a White French speaker, or only Creole- a term for a black French speaker. This 1960's Americanized understanding of the terms Cajun & Creole permeates even today.

I hope that this introduction to Louisianese Creole Culture is of value to you, as a peruser of our Ancient Louisianese Culture, & if you are in one of the previous Louisianese territories, I hope that you understand that it is privilege, a gift to be born in our Creole culture, but that today it is your choice if you want to follow in our people's path to healing.

With love & grace - A.P.J. Earthrise, a proud Creole from the Grand State of Louisiana.