This place!! New Orleans Louisiana is oozing of so much history!!! where the story tellers!!? There is no State in the Union,hardly any spot of like size on the globe where the man/ woman of color has lived so intensely,made so much progress, been of such historical importance ( as in Louisiana ) and yet about whom so comparatively little is known. Alice Dunbar Nelson 1916 And with this quote I fully agree. I am currently staying in a part of New Orleans (BAYOU RD) which was owned INDEPENDENTLY by Free People of Color businesses schools etc (same street by the community book store and K & Q Emporium (FPC here determined and defined their own destiny) until the antebellum period, Louisianas free people of color enjoyed a relatively high level of acceptance and prosperity, a legacy of the states French and Spanish founders, but as the American Civil War approached, white society increasingly turned against them. Most heavily concentrated in New Orleans, many worked as artisans and professionals. Significant numbers were also found in Baton Rouge, St. Landry Parish, and the Natchitoches area. based on my observation and feeling, hurricane Katrina came to wipe of FPC history and few are left to hold the torch of truth and if in 1916 many where not aware of the ways of FPC how much more now!!! AS IF people of color are not free now?...the hurricane for me feels like a way of reconstructing a city without the original people being involved in the process and commercialising roots and traditions without its people...there is an element of disrespect BUT thats convo for another day! In Louisiana, the first Free.People of .Color. came from France or its colonies in the Caribbean and in West Africa. During the French colonial period in Louisiana, F.P.C. were a rather small and insignificant group. During French rule from 1702-1769, there are records for only 150 emancipations of slaves. The majority of slaves freed in Louisianas colonial period was during the Spanish reign from 1769-1803, with approximately 2,500 slaves being freed. The majority of these slaves were Africans and unmixed blacks who bought their freedom. Later on, this initial group would be augmented by Haitian refugees and other F.P.C. from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, other parts of the United States and from around the world. Besides self-purchase and donation of freedom, slaves sometimes earned freedom for meritorious service in battle or saving the life of their masters. A significant amount of slaves became free because they were the children of white native-born and European fathers who sometimes openly acknowledged their mixed offspring and who also usually freed the mother of their children. It would be several generations before mulatto, quadroon and octoroon women would become the common-law wives and mistresses of white men. The reason for the high number of F.P.C. in New Orleans was largely due to the influx of Haitian refugees into the city in 1809. Approximately 10,000 people arrived in New Orleans with roughly a third being F.P.C., another third slaves and the remaining whites. By the eve of the Civil War in 1860, the reported total population for F.P.C. in Louisiana was 18,647 people with the majority being in New Orleans with a census tally of 10,689 people. However, these figures seem too low given a natural increase and the much larger figures reported in 1840 and 1850. Although some F.P.C. did migrate to Haiti, Mexico, and to Europe, these low figures were probably due to under-reporting by Louisiana census takers. Free People of Color were highly skilled craftsmen, business people, educators, writers, planters and musicians. Many free women of color were highly skilled seamstresses, hairdressers and cooks while some owned property and kept boarding houses. Some F.P.C. were planters before and after the Civil War and owned slaves. Although shocking and incomprehensible to many people today, the fact that some F.P.C. owned slaves must be viewed in its historical context. Today the legacy of Free People of Color is still with us, in jazz, Creole cuisine and numerous artists, politicians and educators. So my thing is if our ancestors despite all odds could define and determine their own destiny build businesses and schools from nothing how much more with us in these times with excess to the world people and skills...do we even want that?cos clearly no one care about reparations of slavery so rather than beg we need to go back and seek the stamina our ancestors had to revive the spirit not through false wanna bes and and culture vultures,,but the question is do we want that freedom?
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:17:04 +0000
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