The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans

449 Pages·2012·1.97 MB·English

by  Lawrence N. Powell

THE ACCIDENTAL CITY

T H E
A C C I D E N T A L
C I T Y
IMPROVISING NEW ORLEANS
LAWRENCE N. POWELL
harvard university press
cambridge, massachusetts
london, england
2012
Copyright © 2012 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
library of congress cataloging- in- publication data
Powell, Lawrence N.
The accidental city : improvising New Orleans / by Lawrence N. Powell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 674- 05987- 0 (alk. paper)
1. New Orleans (La.)—History—17th century. 2. New Orleans (La.)—History—
18th century. 3. French—Louisiana—New Orleans—History. 4. Spaniards—
Louisiana—New Orleans—History. 5. British—Louisiana—New Orleans—
History. 6. Slavery—Louisiana—New Orleans—History. I. Title.
F379.N557P68 2012
976.3′35—dc23 2011035074
To
Charles Adrian Skirven
Charles Adrian Skirven, Jr.
Louise B. Skirven

CONTENTS
1 An Impossible River 1
2 A Landjobbing Scheme 33
3 Utopian by Design 60
4 Improvising a City 92
5 Changing of the Guard 129
6 In Contraband We Trust 164
7 A Creole City 197
8 Slavery and the Struggle for Mastery 222
9 The Slaves Remake Themselves 249
10 A New People, a New Racial Order 277
11 The American Gateway 314
Epilogue 352
notes 361
acknowledgments 401
index 405

The secret for harvesting from existence the greatest
fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is—to live dangerously!
Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius!
—nietzsche, The Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann