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Africans in Colonial Louisiana The Development
of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century
Louisiana State University Press-
Baton Rouge and London
©1992 by Louisiana State University Press
"As we move away from a Eurocentric
interpretation of American culture and begin to explore the African
roots of all Americans, it is important to understand Louisiana
creole culture" (pg 157).
"Normally in the United States, the word
creole refers exclusively to the people and culture of lower Louisiana.
But it has a broader meaning throughout the Americas. It
derives from the Portuguese word crioulo, meaning a slave of African
descent born in the new world" (pg 157).
"In eighteenth-century Louisiana, the term
creole referred to locally born people of at least partial
African descent, slave or free, and was used to distinguish American-born
slaves from African-born slaves when they were listed on
slave inventories" (pg157).
"The most precise current definition of
a creole is a person of non-American ancestry, whether African
or European, who was born in the Americas" (pg 157).
Creole has come to mean the language and
folk culture that was native to the southern part of Louisiana
where African, French, and Spanish influenece was most deeply
rooted historically and culturally" (pg 157).
"In Louisiana, as well as throughout the
Americas, the word creole has been redefined over time in response
to changes in the social and racial climate" (pg157).
"Charles Barthelemy Rousseve, the Afro-Creole
historian writing in 1937, devoted considerable attention to disproving
the claim of white scholars that the word creole in its
noun form was used only to designate whites of pure French and
Spanish ancestry born in lower Louisiana" (pg 158).
"By the nineteenth century, the mixed-blood
creoles of Louisiana who acknowledged their African descent emphasized
and took greatest pride in their French ancestry. They defined
creole to mean racially mixed, enforced endogamous marriage among
their own group, and distinguished themselves from and looked
down upon blacks and Anglo-Afro-Americans, though their disdain
stemmed from cultural as well as racial distinctions. A
recent study indicates that in New Orleans during the 1970’s,
the designations "black" and "creole" were irreconcilable.
These young Afro-New Orleaneans embraced a definition of creole
that is racially rather than culturally defined, as well as being
historical" (pg 158).
"Conditions prevailing during the earliest
stage of colonization molded a creole or Afro-American slave culture
through a process of blending and adaptation of cultural materials
brought by the slaves who were first introduced" (pg159).
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