New Orleans - The American Paradox
Volume 2 | Issue 1 - Belief
Article by Ralph Dempsey. Edited by Tom Hercock. Additional Research by Ellie Veryard.
In the 1850s New Orleans was one of America’s most extraordinary cities in culture, mentality, society and politics. With cotton and sugar flowing out of the Deep South and the feats of European industrialism flowing in, New Orleans was, by quite some way, the wealthiest city in the nation. As the hub of Southern trade and America’s biggest port, fortunes seemed to be made virtually overnight by the city’s industrious merchants. However, New Orleans was neither quintessentially Southern, nor really typically American. The long standing influence of the Spanish and particularly French enclaves had created a city quite unique on a primarily Anglo-American continent. New Orleans stood as an extraordinary example of clashing and complimentary cultures as her citizens bustled, brawled and attempted to forge their own American dream.
Certainly, New Orleans did not fit in easily into the antebellum South, indeed the city appeared to be straining against so much of the surrounding Southern nation. A Catholic bastion in a strictly Protestant nation, a city where people from all over the world rubbed shoulders surrounded by a nation often defined by racism and separatism, and of course a city intoxicated by vices of all kinds amongst a Southern society which was increasingly obsessed with honour and propriety. Indeed a visitor stated that it was not likely there were more than ten moral women in the city before going on to state that “the people here are grosser and more open in their vice than in any other part of the United States.” New Orleans reflected the stark hypocrisy of the genteel South, the interstate slave trade in the city itself was vast and included many traders devoted to the sale of “fancy girls” or in less euphemistic terms sex slaves, while burgeoning exports of sugar, tobacco and cotton were the harvest of the slave plantation system. Perhaps this city, infamous for its rum soaked degradation and innumerable brothels and gambling dens was really the South unmasked, the result of generations of wealth built upon human exploitation.
The citizens themselves had gained a reputation as easygoing and hedonistic; often they would be found enjoying themselves in the cities gambling dens and honky-tonks or in attendance at the race track or cock pit. However, their love of bawdy past times masked a shrewd business sense; New Orleans citizens became renowned for their capacity to cut deals with great ease while enjoying a life of leisure. To comprehend their beliefs is difficult, much of their labour appears abhorrent; the slavery, blood-sports and vice in particular. Yet, paradoxically they prided themselves upon their sense of honour and devotion to Christianity. In the post bellum era, the city gradually moved forward through Reconstruction, became the birthplace of jazz, later the forgotten battleground of civil rights and recently took the brunt of a vicious hurricane, yet the seedy but in some way seductive mentality of the city has remained intact. This year hundreds of thousands of tourists will travel to the annual mardi gras celebrations to revel in the wild atmosphere of the celebrations, no doubt enjoying liberal quantities of alcohol and the tradition of immodesty exhibited by nearly all female masqueraders seen on the streets. In a strange way the beliefs and mentality of the citizens of the city will be remarkably similar to their 1850s ancestors, if perhaps a little bit more tame.
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New Orleans, or La Nouvelle Orleans, was founded in 1718 by the French Mississippi Company, named after the French Regent Philippe d’Orleans, the Duke of Orleans.
In 1763 the Spanish Empire took control until 1801 when it reverted to the French. It was then sold to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
After the Haitian revolution of 1804, white and free black refugees arrived in new Orleans, bringing slaves with them.
Despite governmental opposition, French Creoles actively encouraged the immigration of black French speakers. Nearly 90% of Haitian emigrants arrived in New Orleans.
In 1840 New Orleans was the wealthiest city in the United States.
Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is held on the last Tuesday before Lent, officially beginning of the Feast of the Epiphany, or Twelfth Night. The season involves carnivals and parties, along with parades.
35% of the New Orleans population is Roman Catholic, and many current traditions and cultural strands have been influenced by the city’s Catholic history, notably Mardi Gras. Voodooism is also popularised to tourists, but is only practised strictly by a tiny minority.