Awaiting Your Return From Shore |
Swathed in the romance of
pirates, voodoo and Mardi Gras, Louisiana is undeniably special. This is the
land of the rural French-speaking Cajuns, descended from 18th century French
Canadian refugees, and the haughty Creole aristocrats of jazzy, sassy New
Orleans. In 1718 New Orleans was nothing but a set of shacks on a
disease-ridden marsh. Its prime location led to rapid development, and by
the end of the 18th century, the port was flourishing, the haunt of
smugglers, gamblers, prostitutes, pirates and escapees from the French
Revolution and West Indian slave rebellions. New Orleans was already a
diverse and many-textured city when it experienced two quick-fire changes of
government, passing Spanish to French
control in 1801 and then being sold to America under the Louisiana Purchase
two years later. This heralded the most bitter transition in the city’s
history, literally splitting it into two sections. The Americans who
migrated here in droves were seen as crass and uncouth by the Creoles and
hated by the blacks, upon whom they placed previously unknown restrictions.
Unwelcome in the French Quarter, the newcomers were forced to settle in the
areas now known as the Central Business District and the Garden District.
Canal Street divided the two sectors, and even today the median strip of the
main roads is called ‘the neutral ground’. Creoles and Americans did however
come together briefly in 1815, defeating the British in the Battle of New
Orleans, ending the War of 1812 and securing American supremacy. The
victorious General Andrew Jackson’s army was made up of pirates, supplied by
the notorious Jean Lafitte, slaves, Creoles and native Americans.
The subsequent “Golden Age” as a finance center for the cotton picking
South, trading in tobacco, cotton and indigo lasted until the Civil War.
Union troops occupying the city sealed off the Mississippi until 1872 and
isolated it from its
markets. The North industrialized, other southern cities grew and the
fortunes of New Orleans took a downturn. With the coming of the railway,
which diminished the importance of the river, and the abolition of slavery,
New Orlean’s glory days were gone. Then, at the turn of the century, when
jazz exploded into the bars and bordellos, and Mardi Gras developed into a
tourist attraction, this irresistible city got once again a new lease on
life. |
Awaiting Your Return
From Shore |