Revolution, Romanticism, and the Afro-Creole Protest Tradition in Louisiana 1718-1868

344 Pages·1996·15.98 MB·English

by  Caryn Cosse Bell

Winner of the Jules and Frances Landry Award for 1996
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Devolution,
/Romanticism,
and the
_yvfro-Creole
/-rotest J/radition
in Louisiana
1718-1868
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Devolution,
Romanticism,
and the
_X/fro - Creole
/-rotest J/radition
in Louisiana
1718-1868
CARYN COSSE BELL
LOUISIANA STATK UNIVI.RSITY PRESS
Baton Rouge and London
Copyright © 1997 ^Y Louisiana State University Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
LOUISIANA PAPERBACK EDITION, 2004
Designer: Michele Myatt
Typefaces: Granjon, Cornet
Typesetter: Impressions Book and Journal Services, Inc.
Printer and hinder: Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bell, Caryn Cosse
Revolution, romanticism, and the Afro-Creole protest tradition in Louisiana,
1718-1868/Caryn Cosse Bell
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8071-2096-0 (cloth)
i. Afro-Americans—Louisiana—New Orleans—Politics and government.
2. Creoles—Louisiana—New Orleans—Politics and government. 3. Radicalism—
Louisiana—New Orleans—History—lyth century. 4. Radicalism—Louisiana—
New Orleans—History—i8th century. 5. Republicanism—Louisiana—New
Orleans—History—i9th century. 6. Republicanism—Louisiana—New Orleans—
History—18th century. 7. Romanticism—Louisiana—New Orleans—History—
i gth century. 8. Romanticism—Louisiana—New Orleans—History—i8th century.
9. New Orleans (La.)—History. I. Title.
F379.N59N4-5 1997
976-3'35—tic20 96-35429
CIP
ISBN 0-8071-3026-5 (pbk.)
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Archives of the Sisters of the Holy family, New
Orleans, for permission to cite unpublished and published materials.
Portions of Chapters 2, 4, and 7 first appeared in "The Impact of Revolutionary
Upheaval in France and the French Caribbean on Nineteenth-Century Black Leadership
in New Orleans," by Caryn Cosse Bell and Joseph Logsdon, in the Proceedings of the French
Colonial Historical Society, Martinique and Guadeloupe, May i<)8o, (Lanham, Md., 1992),
142—53, and are reproduced by permission.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources, (°°)
For Ulysses S. Ricard, Jr.
(1951-1993)
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Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction i
/ Revolution and the Origins of Dissent 9
2 The Republican Cause and the Afro-Creole Militia 41
3 The New American Racial Order 65
4 Romanticism, Social Protest, and Reform 89
5 French Freemasonry and the Republican Heritage 145
6 Spiritualism's Dissident Visionaries 187
7 War, Reconstruction, and the Politics of Radicalism 222
Conclusion 276
Appendix: Membership in Two Masonic Lodges
and Biographical Information 283
Bibliography 295
Index 313