1. Kate Chopin and Creole New Orleans

2. Kate Chopin Born Katherine O’Flaherty
Father: Irish immigrant; mother: French-Canadian
Lived in St. Louis, Missouri until the age of 20, when she got married and moved to New Orleans
Chopin was highly involved in French-Creole society in Louisiana
Known for her short stories, for which she garnered much critical acclaim
Only wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899)
Set majority of her fiction in the region/parish-specific Louisiana in which she resided
The Awakening: Published in 1899, but set in 1870s

3. The Louisiana Territory
Competing European colonizing efforts: France, England, Spain ( )
France: Initial European settler-developers as territorial strategy
* Keep out of English control (Northeast U.S. settlement)
* Keep out of Spanish control (Mexico and Florida)
* Proximity to their biggest economic colony, Santo Domingo (Haiti)

4. The Louisiana Territory

5. Louisiana Territory (Spanish and U.S.)
France secretly ceded control of territory to Spain in 1762
Late 1790s: increasing U.S. interest in New Orleans because of its port and access to the Mississippi River
Fearful of U.S. interest in territory, Spain retrocedes the territory to France in 1800
France, hampered by the ongoing Haitian Revolution ( ), sells the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. in 1803

6. New Orleans Creoles
“Creole”: designated native origin in New Orleans prior to the Louisiana Purchase regardless of race or ethnicity (mixed race, free people of color, with the exclusion of slaves)
Creoles considered themselves separate from the “New Americans” who were migrating from Kentucky and other parts of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase, and in even greater numbers after Louisiana joined the Union (1812)
In the years between acquisition and incorporation into the Union, all Louisiana inhabitants were in a period of stasis: a part of the U.S., but not
Increasing desire to see themselves as separate socially and politically from the U.S.

7. New Orleans: A Multi-Racial Epicenter
French and Spanish rule brought increasing European immigration to colony
High population of free people of color because the French Code Noir slave system allowed slaves to buy their freedom
1803 Population: 8,056 (3,948 white; 2,773 slaves; 1,335 free people of color)
9,000 Haitian refugees enter in 1809
1830 Population: 49,826 (21,281 white; 16,639 slaves; 11,906)
1850s: local/national slavery divide leads to beginning transition from 3-tiered racial classification system to black/white binary
1860 Population: 174,491 (149,063 white; 14,484 slaves; 10,939 free people of color)
Postbellum supplanting of slave labor: importation of Chinese workers
1870 Population: 191, 418 (50,456 black; 26% of total population)

8. New Orleans Creoles
As a means of claiming power within the region, Creoles began to insist on an identity of European whiteness
Creole as a term was refashioned and applied solely to French speaking white descendants of early French and Spanish settlers
Did not claim the term “American” as a self-identifier
They considered themselves elite members of society and celebrated their French culture and lived according to the mannerisms and traditions of European society
Many of them refused to learn English and remained loyal to the crown
Creoles predominantly lived in part of the city east of Canal Street while the Americans settled west of Canal Street
Canal Street referred to as “neutral ground” between the two factions

9. Canal Street

10. The Civil War (1861-1865) and Postbellum NOLA
Postbellum “drawing of the color line”: a strident demarcation of and insistence upon racial difference
Miscegenation: Interracial marriage was legally allowed less than 10 years after the Civil War, a result of the already-existing racial intermixture within New Orleans
Racial intermixture gave rise to “racial tiering,” or a way to distinguish and classify “black”
“mulatto”: 1st generation offspring of a black parent and a white parent
“quadroon”: one-quarter black ancestry
“octoroon”: one-eighth black ancestry
“griffe”: offspring of a mulatto woman and a black man; or offspring of a mulatto and American Indian

11. Grand Isle, Louisiana
Grande Isle: A location almost exclusively for Creoles
The developers specifically targeted the “elite” of New Orleans, the family-oriented French Creoles
Advertisements promoted the resorts as a Creole vacation refuge during the summer months when Yellow Fever was most prominent in the city
Offered frequent excursions to the island: steamers ran three days a week from New Orleans to Grand Isle.
Families spent the entire summer there, with the patriarch spending the week working in New Orleans and joining the family for the weekends.
The resort became a “summer residence” for many Creole families
A place where Creoles were surrounded by others of their ilk: a sanctuary removed from the city

12. Grand Isle, Louisiana

13. The Grand Isle Resorts
The Grand Isle resorts were developed after the Civil War; built on site of the old Barataria Plantation  
Resort lodgings: remodeled slave cabins became cozy “cottages” for vacationers
The sugar house was divided into two large rooms: one served as a huge dining hall and the other contained a piano and was used as a dance hall  
A large clientele could be lodged in the old plantation residence which also held the office, bar-room, and billiard room
Employed hotel servants imported from France, Italy, and Bavaria
In the early 1890’s P. F. Herwig had built a hotel on Grande Isle, and there were plans to develop resorts on Grande Terre and Chénière Caminada (two other as-yet developed locations that Edna and Robert visit)