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Creole History
 A definition of Creole from the
earliest history in New Orleans (circa 1718) is "a child born in the colony as opposed to
France or Spain. (see Criollo)" The definition
became more codified after the United
States took control of the
city and Louisiana in 1803. The
Creoles at that time included the Spanish ruling class, who ruled
from the mid-1700s until the early 1800s. French language and social
customs were paramount even under Spanish rule. White or French
Creoles (both of French and Spanish descent) were Roman Catholics.
Whites of French/Spanish mixture identified themselves as French
Creoles.
Creole chiefly remained an expression of
parochial and colonial government use through both the French and
Spanish regimes, a period in which Europeans of French and Spanish
ancestry, born in the New World as opposed to Europe, were referred
to as Creole (Logsdon). Simultaneously, the people of the colony
forged a new local identity; however, it is clear that everyone
referred to themselves as French Creole. Parisian French was the
language of early New Orleans. Later it evolved to contain local
phrases and slang terms. The white French Creoles spoke what became
known as Colonial French, as it began to differ from French as used
in France .Enslaved blacks who were native-born also began
to be referred to as Creole
, to distinguish them from new African
arrivals. Over time, the black Creoles and Africans created a French
and West African hybrid language called Creole French or Louisiana
Creole French. It was used in some circumstances by slaves, planters
and free people of color alike. It is still spoken today in central
Louisiana. Creole French is not spoken in New Orleans any more. Only
words and phrases remain.
As in the French or Spanish Caribbean and
Latin American colonies, the Louisiana territory also developed a
mixed-race class, of whom there were numerous free people of color
(gens de couleur libres). In the early days they were
descended from European men and enslaved or free black or mixed-race
women. In the early colonial years, there were few European women in
the colony. French men took African women as mistresses or common
law wives, and sometimes married them. Even when more women of
European descent were in the colony, wealthy white Creole men often
took mixed-race mistresses before, or in addition to, their legal
marriages, in a system known as plaçage. The young women's
mothers often negotiated a form of dowry or property settlement to
protect them. The men would often transfer social capital to their
mistresses and children, including freedom for those who were
enslaved in the early years, and education, the latter especially
for sons.
As a group,
the mixed-race Creoles rapidly began to acquire education, skills
(many in New Orleans worked as craftsmen and artisans), businesses
and property. They were overwhelmingly Catholic, spoke Colonial
French (although some also spoke Louisiana Creole French), and kept
up many French social customs, modified by other parts of their
ancestry and Louisiana culture. With enough numbers, the free people
of color also married among themselves to maintain their class and
social culture. The French-speaking mixed-race or mulatto population
came to be called Black Creoles and Creoles of color. "New Orleans
persons of color were far wealthier, more secure, and more
established than blacks elsewhere in Louisiana."
The transfer of the French colony to
the United States in 1803 under the Louisiana Purchase and the
arrival of Americans from New England and the South ignited an
outright cultural war. Some Americans were reportedly shocked by
aspects of the cultural and linguistic climate of the newly acquired
territory: the predominance of French and Catholicism, the free
class of mixed-race people, the strong African traditions of
enslaved peoples. They pressured the United States first Louisiana
governor, W.C.C. Claiborne to change it.
 When Claiborne swiftly moved to make
English the official language, French Creoles in New Orleans were
outraged and allegedly paraded the streets and rejected the
Americans' effort to transform them overnight. In addition, upper
class French Creoles thought many of the arriving Americans were
uncouth, especially the rough Kentucky traders who regularly visited
the city, having maneuvered flatboats down the Mississippi River
filled with goods for market. Creoles of both white ancestry and
free people of color resisted American attempts to impose a binary
culture splitting the population into black and white, as they were
used to one in which there was a fluid upper class of mixed-race
people.
Realizing that he needed local support
to make any progress in Louisiana, Claiborne restored French as an
official language. In all forms of government, public forums and in
the Catholic Church, French continued to be used. Most importantly,
Colonial French and Creole French remained the language of the
majority of the population of the state. New Orleans was a city
divided between Latin (Spanish, and French Creole,) and American
populations until well into the late 19th century (Hirsch &
Logsdon). Those of European descent lived east of Canal Street; the
new American migrants settled west of it.
Among the eighteen governors of
Louisiana between 1803-1865, six were French Creole and were
monolingual speakers of French: Jacques-Philippe Villere, Pierre
Augustin Charles Bourguignon Derbigny, Armand Julien Beauvais,
Jacques Dupre de Terrebonne, Andre Bienvenue Roman, and Alexandre
Mouton.
When Americans began to arrive in
number in Louisiana in the early decades of the 19th century, locals
identified themselves as French Creoles to distinguish themselves
from the nouveaux-arrives
Americans.
 Under the French and Spanish,
Louisiana was a three-tiered society, similar to that of Brazil,
Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, and other Latin colonies. This three-tiered
society allowed for the emergence of a wealthy and educated group of
mixed-race Créoles. Their identity as free people of color, or
Gens de couleur libres or personnes de couleur libre was one they had
worked diligently towards and guarded with an iron fist. By law they
enjoyed most of the same rights and privileges as whites. They could
and often did challenge the law in court of law and won cases
against whites (Hirsch; Brasseaux; Mills; Kein etc.). There were
some free blacks, but in Louisiana most free people of color were of
mixed race, descended initially from the children of planters and
wealthier merchants. They acquired education, property and power
within the colony, and later, state.
In efforts to maintain their social
and political identity, the former gens de couleur libres
began to use the term 'Creole' much in the same way that the white
elite had beginning in 1803. The gens de couleur libres were
native speakers of both Colonial French and Louisiana Creole. If the
outbreak of the American Civil War promised rights and opportunities
for the enslaved, it caused anxiety for the free persons of color.
As they knew the United States did not legally recognize a
three-tiered society, they were threatened by the American Civil
War. The potential of the end of slavery posed a considerable threat
to the identity and position of the free people of color. Following
the Union victory in the Civil War, the Louisiana three-tiered
society was gradually overrun by larger numbers of Americans who
believed in the binary division of people by race.
By the 1880s, the increasing number of
English-speaking Americans in New Orleans and Louisiana had caused
the decline in French as an official language. Today, it is mostly
in more rural areas that people continue to speak French or
Louisiana Creole. Both white and mixed-race Louisiana Creole peoples
continue to be French-influenced, and most practice Catholicism or
were raised as Catholics.
To be continued
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