Creole Louisiana's Haitian Exile(s)

• Published in: The Southern quarterly Vol. 44; no. 3; p. 68
• Main Author: Duplantier, Jean-Marc Allard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hattiesburg Southern Quarterly 01.04.2007
• Subjects: 19th century; Anglophones; Community; Creole languages; Cultural identity; Culture; Exile; Francophones; French language; Immigrants; Immigration; Literary criticism; Migrants; Minority & ethnic groups; Noncitizens; Poetry; Poets; Race; Refugees; Siblings; White people; Haiti; United States > US; Louisiana
• ISSN: 0038-4496; 2377-2050

The Francophone population of New Orleans, threatened by economic and cultural competition from the recent wave of American migrants into Louisiana, welcomed these Creole newcomers, and intermarriage was frequent.7 While these refugees bolstered the sheer number of French speakers in the city, they also made great contributions to the economic and cultural development of the state. Rousseau, himself the son of a Saint-Domingue refugee, claims that he wrote the article in order to shine a light upon these Louisianians, so that everyone, and most especially our Haitian brothers, might learn more about who these people are, because for us, to be a Louisianian is to be Haitian.\n The gens de couleur would build their community not on a deep-rooted sense of identity, but on a tenuous unity The history of the African race in the Mississippi valley is important because these people are involved in so many aspects of life there, [mêlée comme elle est aux affaires de toutes sortes de ce pays.] This race has lived very close to the whites, one might even call it an intimate relationship.