Black-owned publications included L’Union (one of the first Black newspapers in the South specifically), La Tribune de la Nouvelle-Orléans (The New Orleans Tribune), the New Orleans Daily Creole, and more allowed and ignited Creoles to tell their stories.
New Orleans natives Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes and Alice Dunbar-Nelson explored the complexities of what it meant to be a Creole of Color in Colonial Louisiana and America throughout the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. They both graduated from the Historically Black College Straight University (now Dillard University) and intertwined English and French in their writings.
As social activists, Desdunes and Dunbar-Nelson also understood the differentiation between ethnicity and race, especially concerning African Americans and Afro-Creoles. Typically, the two groups did not speak the same language nor inherit the same cultural customs. Regardless, their community organizing and literary works advocated for resources and social justice for both groups. When addressing the matter of the differences, Desdunes wrote, “Without going into further details we will simply remark that if it were possible to convince the American Negro on the established worth of the Latin Negro, there is no example seen in the other races, that could not find a parallel in the history of the black race. It would be a blessing if our faith in the unity of humanity could begin at home.”
Through their experience, observation, field interactions, and research, both multi-talented authors unraveled the essence of being a Creole of Color throughout their literature.
The Human Morale Affects Humanity
Born in New Orleans on November 15, 1849, Desdunes was a Free Person of Color of Haitian and Cuban descent. As an author, advocate, journalist, and civil rights activist, his understanding of Blackness and Kréyolité was transnational and extended beyond colonial boundaries. Desdunes deeply loved the Creole culture and his race as a Black person. He highlighted and uplifted Black people globally for their morale, determined work towards humanity, and critiqued those who selfishly forgot about their people.
His views towards white Creoles and white people in general varied on their character and not because of their race. Desdunes indeed spoke his mind from the heart, and he knew who he was. White Louisiana writers like George Washington Cable, Grace King, and Sidonie de La Houssaye spoke about Louisiana’s Creole culture, including Creoles of Color. So, it was important for Creoles of Color to publish their perspectives, voices, and press.
Education, social development, and social justice were key factors that Desdunes strongly felt his people deserved. He also emphasized that Creoles helped and uplifted each other. “There was more than one Veronica in our colored population, and we had no beggars among us because the Creole women also made it a point to feed the poor,” Desdunes said.
The moral Negro, like Thomy Lafon. He was worth a million dollars, and took more interest in the welfare of his race than the political leaders… This man Lafon died and left half of his fortune to charity, irrespective of race or religion. He lived in love and died in faith and charity.
Depending on location and a family’s finances, education was either accessible or inaccessible in Louisiana. Education was important to the Creole and African American Southerners, but resources were not always readily available. Wealthy Creole families in Louisiana often sent their children to study in France for a better education. This included famous poet Armand Lanusse, literary scholar Madame Louisa R. Lamotte, Pierre Dalcour, Andrew Callioux, Camille Thierry, and many others.
In 1848, Lanusse, Marie Couvent, François Lacroix, teacher Felice Coulon Cailloux, and other Creoles of Color helped birth The Institute Catholique, a New Orleans school for children of color. The students learned grammar, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, French, English, science, and personal hygiene. In a sense, Lanusse utilized the Catholic religion and its teachings to his advantage to educate free(d) and orphanage Afro-Creole and African American children.
Throughout his literature, Desdunes balanced love and constructive criticism for his culture, people, and race. In “Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire” (Our People and Our History), Desdunes shared his perspective on Lanusse’s regretful decision to refuse to hang the Union Flag at The Institute Catholique. He writes, “We hasten to add that much later he recanted his erroneous ideas and from that time on, his loyalty lay entirely with the cause of the Union and of liberty. It is known by all his friends that he deeply regretted the flag incident, and his loyal repentance should suffice to exonerate him.”
After the Civil War, Creole people’s perspectives varied. Some became patriotic to the American dream, others stayed true to their Kréyolité, even suggesting moving to other Latin-based territories, and some hopscotched back and forth between the perplexing cultural lines. Concerning Europeans and white Americans using Creole soldiers as pawns, Desdunes said, “Seemingly, we are all brothers united as one in time of danger, but with the return of peace and security in our land, we fast become enemies.”
In 1889, with the help of the community, Louis Martinet formed The Crusader, a bilingual newspaper that focused on social justice and issues surrounding Black people, in which Desdunes contributed. Following this, in 1891, Desdunes and Martinet, with the help of Aristide Mary, founded the Comité des Citoyens (Citizens’ Committee). This radical group advocated for the protection, justice, and equality of Black New Orleanians.
The Virtuous Creole Women of Color
Despite the patriarchal climate of the 19th and 20th centuries, Desdunes’ admiration and love for Creole women’s philanthropy and care for the community is heartwarming.
In Chapter Nine of “Our People and Our History,” he analyzes how women, especially Black women, are used for their gifts and then discarded by men in society.
Most of the Creole women were exemplars of piety and charity. They were known to care for their own people. They never employed nurses for their sick, nor did they send their sick to hospitals. They took care of their own families and friends, helping them whenever they needed it… It can be said in their praise that they cared for the sick with real skill, and the most fortunate results were often attributed to their indomitable vigilance. Innumerable doctors appreciated and used their experience.
The Creole New Orleanian women he described were essentially Traiteurs helping to heal their community and assist doctors through holistic faith-based folk medicine and ancestral wisdom. Desdunes emphasized how “the Creole woman knew how to study, to think, to pray. She was generous, helpful, and pious. Her virtue, her charity, and her devotedness could never be doubted.”
Dunbar-Nelson, a Creole woman herself, authored fictional stories in which Creoles used their wit and spirituality to get what they desire throughout life. In “The Goodness of St. Rocque,” a young Creole girl named Manuela uses her knowledge of Catholicism, charm, and syncretism to win over a Creole boy.
I give you one lil’ charm fo’ to ween him back, yaas. You wear h’it ‘roun’ you’ wais’, an’ he come back. Den you mek prayer at St. Rocque an’ burn can’le. Den you come back an’ tell me, yaas. Cinquante sous, ma’amzelle. Merci. Good luck go wid you. Readjusting her veil, Manuela passed out the little wicket gate, treading on air.
Enslaved peoples and Free People of Color used the syncretism of religion and spirituality to keep their Indigenous practices alive.
In addition, Creole culture and the lives of Creole people shine brightly throughout her fictional stories such as, “M’sieu Fortier’s Violin,” “When The Bayou Overflows,” “Mr. Baptiste,” “A Carnival Jangle” and others.
Indeed, Dunbar-Nelson made her profound mark throughout her nonfiction works which addressed the complex colonial history of Creole people.
Defying the Status Quo Despite Identity
Writer, historian, educator, journalist, and social activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson was born on July 19, 1875. She was among the first generation of Creoles of Color to be raised postbellum. Her mother was a formerly enslaved seamstress, and her father was a merchant marine. Dunbar-Nelson’s extensive research and reflections on Colonial Louisiana are captivating and honorable. She understood that one’s interpretation of who was considered Creole will vary case by case based on one’s biases, experiences, and upbringing.
In her essay, “The People of Color in Louisiana,” she makes points about how Creoles of Color view themselves, their accomplishments, history, and downfalls.
To the whites, all Africans who were not of pure blood were gens de couleur. Among themselves, however, there were jealous and fiercely-guarded distinctions: ‘griffes, briques, mulattoes, quadroons, octoroons,’ each term meaning one degree’s further transfiguration toward the Caucasian standard of physical perfection.
A photo collage from the “Marriage Contracts of Opelousas Posts 1766-1803” by Jacqueline Olivier Vidrine.
According to historian Dumont de Montigny, in 1733, the colony of Louisiana had 45 Black soldiers in their army, who Free People of Color commanded. The notion of having superiority yet not being supreme is still a lingering paradox amongst Black people.
To add complexity to Louisiana, a Creole of Color did not equate to a Free Person of Color and vice versa.
During the colonial and antebellum eras, Creoles of Color and Indigenous Tribes were used as pawns against each other to fuel the interest of the Europeans. The French and Spanish governments and colonists would bribe these vulnerable groups with exaggerated promises of protection and resources to do their dirty work.
Due to colonialism and racial oppression, Communities of Color went along with what was socially and politically beneficial for them. To stay in control, Europeans encouraged and influenced the hierarchical division (based on familial, financial, territorial ties, etc.) among People of Color. With colonial force and patriarchal power on their side, the Frenchmen and Spaniards had children in abundance with African women which created a multitiered-caste system.
In return, Dunbar-Nelson inserted that despite violent oppressions, Africans and Creoles of Color heavily influenced Colonial Louisiana due to their abundant presence. “The free people of color, however, kept on amassing wealth and educating their children as ever in spite of opposition, for it is difficult to enforce laws against a race when you cannot find that race. Being well-to-do they could maintain their own institutions of learning, and had access to parochial schools.”
Because of the Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trade, Africans and Creoles from Haiti, Martinique, Jamaica, Cuba, and other Caribbean countries interacted and intermingled with the Africans and Creoles in Louisiana. According to Dunbar-Nelson, in addition, more than 10,000 Free People of Color from the same areas found refuge in the colony after the wave of slave revolts, social uprisings, and the Haitian Revolution.
This intra-Creole migration from colony to colony was common amongst Creoles. Both Dunbar and Desdunes acknowledged the privilege-mirage and oppressions Creoles of Color faced. In fact, some Free People of Color families throughout the territory were more financially well off than their white counterparts. Dunbar-Nelson said, “It was in 1766 that some Acadians, complaining of their treatment to the Governor Ulloa, represented that Negroes were freemen while they were slaves.”
However, this relative financial stability often came at a devastating cost, including sexual violence, forced miscegenation, systemic subjugation to whiteness, and other forms of oppression. Throughout the essay, Dunbar-Nelson expresses the importance of the global Creole then, now, and forever.
Desdunes Addresses W.E.B. Du Bois
At the turn of the 20th century in 1907, Desdunes wrote a letter to W.E.B. Du Bois in response to Du Bois’s various speeches and writings that heavily criticized Black Southerners from an unrealistic classist lens. It was titled, “A Few Words to Dr. Du Bois With Malice Toward None.”
Du Bois essentially interrogated and blamed Black Southerners for their conditions due to the majority not striving for formal education, an elitist mindset. Desdunes’s 15+ year writing career navigated what it meant to be Creole and Black in America and abroad. Therefore, he had no tolerance for prominent Black people who scorned their race. On the contrary, Du Bois held Black Northerners and scholars to a higher stature due to their educational status and mundane titles.
In response, Desdunes said, “The Doctor, in his anxiety to fix the responsibility of the whites for the Negro’s wrongs, has taken from the Negro the exceptional merit of self-advancement.” Black Southerners were inventors, ingenious, and innovative, but because of Jim Crow Laws, voter suppression, racial violence, and the lack of higher education opportunities, their greatness went silent.
But, excellence persisted in the Black Southern community, especially in New Orleans.
Desdunes suggested that Du Bois and Black Northerners who shared his limited perspective, open their hearts and minds to the unfamiliar. He understood that Blackness produced greatness and morale outside of educational institutions, while Du Bois chose to focus on trivial matters. “Wisdom, common sense and fixity of purpose, in the pursuit of the attainable, will yield better aid to the settlement of perplexities, such as confront the race, than any of these artificial agencies which wait on opportunity, however desirable these may be,” insisted Desdunes.
Desdunes’s language was not anger-filled malice. It was a matter of facts entangled with urgency and patience. His letter to Du Bois expressed the need for Black people to embrace their similarities, and uniqueness, and help each other on the journey of liberation.
We do not know whether Dr. Du Bois has ever met them, but we can assure him that he would have no reason to be ashamed of their company or of their attainments. Dr. Neiman, Lawyer Vance, Doctors Martinet, Vance, Roudanez and Mulen, Justin M. Holand, A. T. Kennedy, and Paul Trevigne, Sr. We have also writers like Prof. S. S. Gray and Prof. V. P. Thomas.
The Past Birthed the Present
One had to become crafty while navigating being a Creole of Color in a racially oppressive society, no matter how “laidback” some Latin colonists were. Therefore, standing up for the Black race was considered noble, despite the oppressive threats and consequences that may follow. Based on his perspective, Desdunes encouraged Black people to do good work and allow white people time to right their wrongs instead of overextending themselves. He believed Black people should focus on living an honest life with the career they saw fit and acknowledge and uplift each other.
Furthermore, this means the African Diaspora and the Creole Diaspora must commune and support each other transnationally internally and externally. Dunbar-Nelson also understood the historical complexities of Creole mindsets which were influenced by multiracial backgrounds, family holdings, and lineage. Her writings mirrored the diverse Creole culture and lifestyle in subtle and direct ways.
The mentality of Louisiana Creoles today varies as much as it did in the past. As Creoles collaborate to make a positive impact, we must respect each other as human beings. Desdunes understood that friction and anger over trivial matters get people nowhere. He stressed that we must not forget about the holistic moral approach and purpose to us as a people. Creole culture bearers, storytellers, genealogists, and historians must give more than we receive from our people and communities.
Multifaceted contemporary Creole writers like Dr. Allison Wiltz, Megan Braden-Perry, Ruth Foote, Lalita Tademy, Maggie Collins, Leona W. Smith, Taalib Pierre-Auguste, Brian Egland, Andrew Jolivétte, and many others are sharing rich stories with the world. Regardless of geography, social class, occupation, racial makeup, and other mundane matters, we must uplift one another on our journey to liberation.
Suggested Readings
Desdunes, Rodolphe. A Few Words to Dr. DuBois With Malice Toward None. 1907.
Desdunes, Rodolphe. Our People and Our History: Fifty Creole Portraits. New Orleans. 1911.
Dormon, James Creoles of Color of the Gulf South. The University of Tennessee Press. 1996.
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice. The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories. 1899.
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice. The People of Color in Louisiana. Journal of Negro History. 1917.
