Creole History Part I: The Better of the Evils 1492-1865

I'm Jeremy good to see as always looking good I hope everything is going well in Louisiana it's about to rain here like crazy so you know we'll see how see how that all works out so there was there's a topic you wanted to talk to talk about tonight that you brought up and let you kind of introduce the topic and then we'll we'll just we'll just dive right into it sure well it's pretty obvious that we're Louisiana and New Orleans centric and we all we always talk about what made Louisiana's people of color free people of color different than maybe the rest of the population as free people of color which there is quite a few free call the United States and some of that has to do with the flags that flew over Louisiana and that Spanish and French you know government and as opposed to the way the rest of the United States was governed and so yeah let's just talk about that they're gonna talk about the early African influence in the Americas and just kind of bring it all over to Louisiana a compare and contrast yeah yeah I mean you know I I like to talk about this subject because Africans came here early early on with the first Spanish conquistadors I mean we have you know people coming as early as Columbus you know one of the Columbus's pilots was it was it was a free African his name was it last name is Nino Pedro Nino so I mean when you start talking about when free African people came here in the United States it came with the first explorers and so we had Steve an echo who was with cubby sadaqa who went all over the southeast was guiding him around basically kept Cabeza de Vaca alive for several years as far as our kid our canadian side is concerned we have matthew DeCosta people don't even realize he's of the first african and in in in canada and obviously Canada was and in Quebec and and French influence in Canada started before we had Jamestown so it started with early in the 1600s so you know we we had Africans going all throughout Latin America as free people of color before before the Spanish and French and British and Dutch started started to sort of sit on a the idea of having bringing slaves here the United States essentially right well right yes so so we talk about the United States so so you know that to me is is is is a topic that you know doesn't get talked about very often but it is really in reality we had this sort of I I want to say explore minded free Africans here in the United States sometimes long before Jamestown so well you know that if you if you take things and put it in that light and it it becomes clear to you how how Louisiana and well certainly how Louisiana started to evolve and and then when you contrast that with how the British colony started to evolve you see a big difference so I want to say something so i'ma let you let you talk a little bit well I was gonna say is you know we have to make the disclaimer at this part of the video where we're talking about the better of the evils okay all of these people were problems I mean they were all obviously colonists they were all you know trying their best to do what they thought was right well most of them but unfortunately this was under the institution of slavery so that's we have to make this disclaimer that you know these are the better of the evils the Frenchmen Spanish still you know great atrocities to people of African descent you know and the ripples of which we're still still seeing today but but I think when we talk about the better of the most the French and Spanish allowed for an environment that Costard I would say a a more culturally rich population of free people of color and not to say one is better than the others but when we look at the amount of history that these people left behind material culture that they left behind the writing the very early on the the way they advocated for equal rights we can say that certainly this environment of the Spanish in the French definitely fostered a healthier and group of people of African descent than the rest of the country which essentially tried the vet best from the very very earliest period to keep them kind of caged up and limited and of course that happened later but we had this period yeah in you know when when we talk up where we talk about the the early yes explorers that came here you know certainly the Spanish had had a feeling about slavery that was different from the British the Spanish certainly didn't think that well first off they were saying anybody who converted to Christianity probably shouldn't be a slave yeah initially initially know it we know how that got enforced you know where we got a divorce and not a wrong way but but just the idea is a lot different than then say the early British settlers so at least that idea was was planted here in Louisiana and the Spanish territory that became you know Louisiana and was turned over to the French and so you know as that territory went back and forth it it the laws were kind of in flux right so you know we have the Spanish there and I mean let's let's talk about let's talk about the Spanish okay so here obviously there's some of the earliest settlers in there in the southwest they found the city of st. Augustine Merced in Florida a border of which borders not only the British colonies but Louisiana territory right so they got a lot of info and of course they were at odds with the British and the French no you know so you know yeah and so anything that they could do to destabilize the British into the French they pretty much did so you find in in in Florida in the 1700s there they're saying hey if free blacks can escape from Alabama Georgia Mississippi in all those places that were born in Florida they can come to Florida be free and get land so what does that do that destabilizes slavery along the border states with with the Spanish colonies right all right so you know as far as Louisiana is concerned they really when what you know they can they control Louisiana from 17 to 1763 to 1802 and the French got Louisiana for a couple months and then they sold Louisiana to the Americans in 1803 but right until 1803 the Spanish took the Spanish governor and actually right until the absolute turn over to to the Americans the Spanish governor in in in Louisiana was trying to get the last prefect the Philosopher's ench prefect in Louisiana to sort of renegotiate the borders like we allocate the borders between Spanish Florida and Louisiana and he said he what Peter the other side said he wasn't gonna do that he said he wasn't going to do that so the Spanish were always sort of jockeying and sort of destabilizing the the British colonies and obviously they they had their their back and forth with with the French colonies as well and then obviously on the other side of Louisiana is the Spanish territory of Mexico Texas and New Mexico and all those places so that and they have their own history with slavery and people free people of color but but I don't want to I don't want to talk too much about this but but literally from from really the beginning of slave and slave mentality here in the United States we had Maroons and Marines build up in all throughout the United States so you know I I I've written a couple articles about Maroons but there were there were free settlements of free people of free black people in the north as well and so we need to acknowledge that and it was a constant problem in what it didn't it didn't it started from the very first time that slaves came and and did not did not end until you know Emancipation Proclamation so you know you're talking about a 300 year history of people free people of color Maroons and and maroon attitudes about not not particularly saying that they wanted to liberate slaves but they they were certainly had an interest in their own freedom and they think they would fight for their own freedom so I know you oh no no I just want to say for the people who just tuning in again we always have to do this you know I think I think a few contributing factors made the Spanish more lenient towards slavery and you know people have said this we hear the turn lace a fair and Louisiana lie which uh you know just means kind of you know easy and you know okay ladies a fair not too much my book but the Spanish really were somewhat in some of the French but somewhat more lazy fare and I think there's a couple of contributing factors to that and pretty much what we were just talking about is essentially the Spanish did not see slavery as a permanent condition I think there's a lot with that statement and we've said it before in other videos but it's it's really important to realize I don't believe the Spanish saw people of African descent as just inherently inferior I believe they believed you know stupidly that there is this ladder that they could ascend to you know eventually to become what they felt themselves to be this enlightened pure version of whatever and we see this even with the paintings the cast of where they show this racial hierarchy so the Spanish believed that the people of African descent and again a ridiculous concept that any inferiority placed one people of African said but they believed that it was not a permanent condition and these people were not inherently inferior and I think another thing that contributed to this thought was we talked about this with our last video if you had to watch the last video about Cajuns and Creoles you need to watch that was the Spanish weren't that white we talked about things with the so called Acadians who came over here they had already quit the Mi'kmaq they had already been around and they weren't that white so the fact that they weren't that white you know they had seen people who kind of looked like that person over there and that person over there and I think that relaxed them where these other parts of the world the British were just they weren't having it it scared the hell out of them and they didn't like it and they were going to do anything they could to keep a lid on it yeah and I think it's the the Moorish influence of course I'm not moving right now my videos a little bit you can hear my voice it's not that important but I think that you know the Spanish influence and we talked about the Arab Moorish influence that they had Brian became part I mean the Moors were there for seven hundred years so obviously there was obviously a lot of mixing of Spaniards with with with the Moors and you know like you pointed out about the Casta paintings or maybe that was one of the reasons that those paintings were we'll put out there to just kind of make a little space between the darker Spaniards and that one day your descendants would live as the Spaniards slip its its polish but it's it's it is that essential thought that okay you could move up versus two other people who said no you're a farrier you always will be inferior and you should always remain in Slate they really saw people of African descent as animals and not as people and you know that's where the better of the evils comes in because Spanish word Daleks too but you but better we outline the the differences between the Spanish and and the Spanish and the French because we kind of umbrella them yeah under that but maybe we can talk about some of the different laws and how those laws that were so different at one time and how one was whaling it how they seem to at some point kind of just converge and and become this you know Universal plan which which became Jim Crow and all of this yes so I mean I think that you know obviously since we're in sort of Louisiana centric we always want to talk about to code more right right and you know code noir instituted in you know 1685 for all the French provinces really codified the behavior between whites blacks and free people of color and it was it was instituted in in New Orleans in Louisiana in 1724 right so basically really upon the foundation of Louisiana certainly in New Orleans and mobile and some of these other breakers big cities we had code noir in place and that was really in place until 1763 it it gave it was a an attempt to control a very charged relationship as far as I was concerned because when you have certain people who are free people of color and they're operating pretty much as as free whites they're serving as an example for the enslaved population that slavery certainly is not a is not a destiny it's not not your destiny so free people of color just as just by existing serve as an example for that and so a cordon war was an attempt to kind of codify that and make a a charged relationship into something that was controllable for the French and and really obviously the French were very concerned about the economic output that they were getting from from the colonies I mean at the time senator Mingo was probably the crown jewel of all the colonies that we accept that were needed in the Americas they were bringing in sugar and coffee and you know indigo and and just a lot of products that were in high demand in in Europe and throughout the world and so they were really they were really wanting to make sure that they they were able to keep that pipeline going and so this was an attempt for them to to codify that and sort of stop the slave rebellions which are all which are ongoing at all times and we need to discuss that so you know here we have that in into 1724 now 1763 the Spanish take over Louisiana territory they Institute its let's get this party that's which is you know what their their version of of of the code more it's much more liberal it contains court ASEAN right and court ASEAN is obviously being able to manumit your your to buy your own freedom well you know in a legally binding contract that's that's not arbitrary it's actually you know in in a court of law with a judge who determines a fair price and you're allowed to be free right so it's a touch on that because people have got to get the grip on that and listen to that that was extraordinarily important and that's where it's really what's credited for allowing this free population of free people of color to flourish it's basically a slave could just say I want to find out what I have to pay to become liberated so they could go to club court or go to a officer and get a you know basically an appraisal and that document was held there it did matter what the master said urban settings not necessarily you know in rural settings more in urban and they could continue to pay on that and there would be a ledger of that and once that was fulfilled that person that's laid gun free and it really didn't matter if the master thought it was worth more he was he was allowed to get an independent appraisal and so that is that is monumental and that is single handedly yeah I won't say single handily but one of the major contributing factors of why this population of free people color blossom so sorry I wanted to interject for those who hadn't heard about that it's extraordinarily important yeah and and you know certainly my relatives use that to free themselves so whatever they were now no no let's let's let's put let's let's phrase that with this that court us the the Spanish were were a little more liberal about how blacks acted and blacks were were interacting with them they they allowed Congo Square they allowed that they continued the code noir tradition of having one day off for for slaves right and so those slaves that were that had this personal initiative to want to be manumitted usually used that day off turn money and quite simply earned enough money to buy themselves into freedom and that document just recently and we can maybe share a link to that but we found a fund document where the Spanish colonial era where an its slave man actually invested money with a free man of color and because the investment paid off he was able to come up with the last bit of the money he needed to pay off I just find that fascinating you're thinking well how did this guy our money well if he was a skilled tradesman on his day off he could offer his services out so to other plantations or other people and make that money it's just fascinating it just really that's a tribute to the unwavering African spirit and the ability to just to liberate yourself and it also shows the relationship that some free people of color had with enslaved people yeah yeah and and you know the other thing is this is sometimes masters rented out slaves and they a lot of slaves to keep some of the money from the earnings that they had for their Spratt so there were doers there was all kinds of different transactions going on a masters saw it saw the profitability and having a slave rented out to be a carpenter artist and you know shoemaker or whatever because that would earn him more money than him than the person being a laborer so it worked on on several different levels for a lot of different people so you know when we talk about that there was a huge variation in what actually went on and we have to think about thinking you know we have to open up our thinking about this and think you know hey that these some of these people had skills right or and and or they knew how to do things that were about a value so the perfect example is we talked about this this free free man free African of color Matthew DeCosta who was the first African in Canada he he what did he do what did he have what did he have what skills to be a well he accompanied the Spanish and Portuguese and fishing expeditions often dose of Nova Scotia in the early late 1515 hundreds and he became a skill translator he learned the Mi'kmaq language he learned the pigeon language in Nova Scotia so so the the French and the Dutch who were at the time we were there in Canada were saying well it's too difficult for us to learn so this guy that was a valuable guy he had a contract for three years with the first governor of of New France to translate and Explorer so this was happening all the time and especially in when we talk about Louisiana we have lots of lots of free people of color and and slaves who had skills are maybe they were doing a you know I upper perfect example is a a woman who did embroidery she would embroider to take a work and embroider for people and that's the way she earned her freedom to from from slavery so there were lots of different ways to people took advantage of it that's a natural thing I don't so you know I think that people need to understand that that that that was happening and and also now we're talking about court Osceola in in Louisiana but this was also happening even in the British colonies and some in some limited fashion it wasn't it wasn't like as a it wasn't as easy and and sometimes slaves were having to wait till masters died and granted their freedom or or or some other sort of extraordinary circumstances happened but but as a as a just a regular thing this was a this is a regular codified thing that that be that free that slaves could do in Louisiana that they couldn't do in other places right would not extraordinary extraordinarily coveted skills or what needed skills even people just you know there was a person who was selling coffee and selling food so that's the difference between Louisiana and I guess some of the other places like you said these you know when I was in other places you had to have a very specialized skill that could get you quite a bit of money and in the Spanish made it quite easy are way easier I shouldn't say easy but easier anywhere else yeah and and you know the Spanish like I said like I say they you and and we preface that with saying the Spanish that is much blood on their hands as any yeah any absolutely so let's let's not let's not candy coat this alright you know and and so you know when when we talk about so let's let's bring everything up to to let's talk about the Haitian Revolution right okay though we know that the Haitian Revolution happened really started in 1791 and eighty finally gained its freedom in 1804 in the meantime in between those years and we're talking you know fourteen fifteen years fourteen years free people of color whites and slaves that were belong to people call in whites for we're getting that getting out of Haiti and where were they coming to they were coming to Louisiana you're coming to New Orleans they were coming to Charleston South Carolina they were coming to Philadelphia and so these places were natural magnets for free people of color now we know Philadelphia has a have had a large free population of color since colonial times obviously Louisiana we know has a large free people of color population in Charleston South Carolina has a large free people of color population and they've been there from really the beginning of this of the cities I mean so you know when when we when we talk about free people of color we're saying okay 1860 we're estimating that there were 500,000 free people of color in the United States one in one in 11 people of color were free I think that's low I think that's a low estimate and here do I think it's a little estimate I think it's a low estimate because certainly they were maroon there were maroon communities all events throughout the United States we had the Great Dismal Swamp where thousands of free people of escaped slaves settled we had maroon communities in Alabama as strange as that may sound they they had to create a legislation in 1846 to pay for vigil I should say vigilantes but militias to go out and and disperse these these these maroon communities Harlem New York in 1690 we had farmers complaining about maroon communities marauding against them so when you start thinking about the the the number of free people call it that they that they enumerated in 1860 I think it's a very low estimate I think it's a very low estimate and and you know we don't really we don't really know and you know there's there's there's information coming out the Great Dismal Swamp now which is in Virginia North Carolina that is showing that there were there were settlements of people large settlements of people and people people stayed even after the Emancipation Proclamation they just didn't want to be bothered you know what I'm saying and so they had settled into a lifestyle that they they were able to deal with and cages no swamp and they didn't come out until after the Emancipation Proclamation so you know people need to start thinking in a different way about free people of color in the fact now you know obviously we talked about Louisiana law but they were all over the United States and so Louisiana was just a little different because there were some freedoms that they had that they weren't able to exercise in other states the United States so and that's why there's more I think there's there's more written on them in Louisiana and there's more material culture left behind but when you say that number that is astounding I mean just when you think about the number of free people that were innocent in the United States and you just wonder you know why there's not more about them why you haven't heard about them and I think a lot of that has to do with the measures and the laws put in place by these plays people by these other places to try to limit these people and to try to really exclude them from assimilating into society because that is the whole that is kind of an issue that you know when you look at the number of these people if every I I mean if if we were like Mexico in some capacity the United States would have just allowed people to freely do what people do we would be a radically different culture right now we'd be a radically different rat would just be radically different in all aspects I but the the reasons why we are not like that and I'm not saying that it would be some sort of utopia but I'm saying would be completely different is because of that instant that constant struggle for for whites to limit these people of color and that really intensified later on we see in the starting really I would say the 1830s and 40s yeah so let's let's talk about 1803 let's talk about 1803 in Louisiana that's important date for us right okay so Louisiana's sold to the Americans and we have Claiborne who comes in as the superior Council of Louisiana and he and you know he frankly is he's alarmed and he's alarmed by the first off by the black militia and and you know something let's let me take a step back from there if the information had been readily available to the average American in in 1860 saying hey we've got a half a million free people of color who are exercising their free will to do as they as they as they please that's a pretty scary that would be a pretty scary thing what I'm saying because they always there was always a you know certainly by 1860 there was this his idea that free people of color were instigating you know in slave insurrections and and and wanting to have their equal equal rights and there was a there was just a general fear of free people of color for no really I mean no apparent reason I mean there was nothing going on other than their success you know I think this success was was the scary thing because it challenged notions of white supremacy but you just made the point you just made is extra it's really important that this wasn't you know there wasn't this I know yes there was the sophisticated census in the United States but it wasn't like somebody was reading oh my god there's that many free people of color and I don't I think even if slaves knew that realize that during that time period that would have been something where if if people knew that they would have unionized yeah yeah yeah we thought about and so so you know you know this okay so we had 1803 and we had Claiborne the whites now okay so 1803 this is this is this is what I'm gonna say about 1803 they re-established code war the French were were so the French the French our relatives were so upset by the behavior of the free people of color in the slaves who they considered to be just out of control and uppity that they said we wanted want you to reaffirm code more before as your last act of as prefect of Louisiana which he did and so he turned over the turned over the keys of the city to declare born and and now Claire Boyne has a free free militia he's got a large free people of color population he's got chalk to us he's got Natchez he's got all these Indian people that are there and they're and so the the white community is looking pretty small to him yeah yeah and so what does he do the the white people that come with him in the eighteen hundreds it starts to stream into the the territory is it still territory I'm starting to say hey you have to do something about these free people called militia these guys are armed you know me and and they're always thinking the worst but they're not thinking that these are these are countrymen they're thinking hey these guys are gonna start a rebellion now 1811 we had the slave uprising scared the crap out of everybody but really no slaves were freed I mean it was a little it was a large uprising III have no we we should make no no qualms about that it was it was a very large operating a lot of people participating again but in the end those things were freed and and 100 100 or more people were killed executed tried other heads put on steaks and and in virtually no people were free so we talked about this largest slavery direction since erection I call it a the largest largest slave failure as far as I'm concerned because no slaves got got free and it increased increases cut free people of color and slaves I'm sorry no no I'm agree you know while there was a monumental feat in that you know these people were able to you nice and good together and in a large insurrection at the end of the day it is still din the average white people and the hierarchy the height the powers to be more paranoia right-handed and they were they savagely retaliated I mean if you haven't read about this you've got to read about this you know they put heads on spikes in fact I just read today that they're going to be doing a a march a bunch of people of color gonna are going to pretty much reenact the insurrection and that's interesting is important to know about and but it is it is tragic and that it was not effective in the way that they hoped it would be effective in fact it kind of there was this huge backlash yeah yeah and and so so what what that's what that started to do is was this okay now now you know Clairborne louisiana becomes a state in 1812 and they immediately start to legislate freedoms that free people of color and slaves enjoyed in louisiana away and what they tried to do first off was make sure that they were not large numbers of free people of color in louisiana so they're saying if you came to Louisiana after after 1825 you have to leave the state in 60 days I mean so they you know in 1830 there there's just a there's a barrage of legislation against free people of color talking about you know assembly and making them carry proof the tape they're free you know I mean it is just it's it's a it's a it's a it's a deluge and it's a deluge throughout the United States and so you know why do we say that well obviously we haven't in that turn the rebellion that was properly part of it as well but it's just it's just a general fear of a free people of color when we talk about you know the eighteen from from 1812 to 1830 well Creoles of color in New Orleans are forming all kinds of social clubs right they're meeting there they're they're generating income from from their property sales they're they're having ball soirees and dances that are raising money for all the charities that now are not available to them and and that they previously enjoyed under the French and Spanish so they're they're making they're just filling in the gaps they're saying okay well you don't you won't allow us to use this hospital or you won't allow us to have schools we'll fill in the gaps will will create will create our own school will create our own revenue source to fund the school we have people like Marie kuvasz and and and people like that we're who are who are funding these these these charities we have you know I mean I mean we can start we can go through the list of all these skrill's who are who are doing all kinds of fillings philanthropy so yeah but go ahead Jimmy basically you know you're absolutely right I'm listening because you put you put this in a way and you telling me these things I've heard this before but it would be put into context like this even I'm like oh that's true that's true but basically yes the Creoles of color once they started to their law their rights started becoming even more limited they basically said okay well you know what we're independent we're gonna make our own infrastructure and they they did and it that was actually again the kind of there was a backlash as a result of that because stronger these people got the more of a threat they became and the more of a threat they became more legislation came trickling down I mean and I think by the 1850s I me who's almost you I read something interesting they were said that even people of color who were sailors could not leave the ship at a certain point a while in port well so so let's talk it let's oh I know something about that and I'm gonna share that with you but but let's let's talk about the backlash after the slavery wall so we had heads on pikes right up and down the up by II wrote a by erode yeah then one great city my relatives had had homes on by II wrote so they were seeing slaves that looked a lot like them with their heads on pikes my relatives chose to leave after that I relative what a couple relatives left in 1820s and then a number of relatives left in the 1830s and went to Mexico and and never returned and and so you know we start talking about this now now we we always had free people : going back and forth between Dominican Republic or not Dominican but Haiti excuse me and so that also alarmed whites in in in Louisiana because certainly people going to the first free black Republic right not something that they wanted people to and you know the funny thing is the Creoles were also the Creoles in Louisiana Ross inspired by the French Revolution yes so we see these people had the idea of freedom and they were sharing that word of freedom and they were sharing the demands you know to for freedom and that I mean it's a ma I'm kind of as we're talking this is a great thing about the conversation I am realizing things I think people who are listening are also listening to this and saying oh yeah and also the French Revolution they so we had a bunch of things going on that were contributing uh and maybe this wasn't paranoia maybe this was just an awakening well you know it's it's not it's an uneasy you know and when we when we start talking about this okay now this is happening in the deep south in Louisiana but there are there are states in the in the north who are also beginning to have an and slavery so Connecticut and New York and some of these states that are in Upper in New England are starting to sort of phase out slavery because they know it's it's a losing proposition for them you know so you know we have this sort of we have this sort of pressure cooker that's pressuring everything down and so the slave owners are they're trying to assert their their power in every way shape and form that they can through legislation so so so now you know here here's a here's to me a an interesting thing in in New Orleans we sure a sort of a border with and we say and we share a border with Mississippi that seems to be pretty fluid right I have relatives that lived in Mississippi he came back to New Orleans back and forth we have a relatives where Natchez bio st. Louis it was a it was a it was an easy move to this right and so that's yeah yeah the port areas that are kind of like that that gray area right right and so we have this sort of fluidity of people moving around people moved around a lot that you know we need to say that so so people weren't around and when people move around information moves around well right and that that article you were talking about was those people getting together for to do quilting right or whatever it was that they were I think was quoting right yeah those ladies get together in gossip don't tell all kinds of news that's going on you know they know all kinds of stuff right and so as people move around news moves around now the Negro sea seaman act is what you're talking about in New Orleans you just mentioned that brought was was that that seamen could not leave the ship that they were on and that and I think that the sheriff had the possibility or the right to to enslave them so lots of Negro seamen who came from these northern sea seafaring states like Connecticut in Massachusetts and and New York refused to come to New Orleans because they were afraid that they would be a prison and kidnapped back in slavery and the same thing happened in Charleston north near Harrelson South Carolina they had the mean Negro seaman's Act and that was all in 1820s right so you know think about that in 1820 so all of a sudden you know you started people Negro seamen who were who were you know probably 30% of all the all the sailors that we have suddenly decide we don't want to go to New Orleans we want to go to South Charleston South Carolina so it there's a there's a you know there's this sort of action and reaction that we always see with things right so so most asipi I'm gonna get back to Mississippi I'm talking my mouth talking my head out for you but but Mississippi we're talking about Mississippi well 1842 they kick out all the free people of color you have to leave the state Mississippi becomes a slave state pure and simple now they have the highest population of slaves in the United States they are also one of the richest caught in producing the states in in the I mean they're the richest cotton producing state period right so what what's happening we're seeing these rich planners trying to protect their investment they don't want they don't want slaver walls that stops the floor cotton that so I you know we're talking about this and and and I you know what I what I what I would like to see people do with their common sense is to sort of connect the dots well we're talking about free people of color but we're talking really about an economic power right we're not talking about you know we're talking about people but these are economic these people have economic power you have the James 4:10 of people and and even this Vesey in in in Charleston South Carolina they're rich sail sail makers these guys have made a fortune making sales for four vessels now that's that's an economic power that really can't be trifled with I mean they they have the where their economic wherewithal and certainly in Louisiana people had economic wherewithal to go all over the place they went to France and went to Mexico they traded with Haiti and Cuba Tampico and France and so you know when you when you talked about the situation where people were having parties in getting imported liquor right for from our do you know just just think about people need to start thinking about that it's thinking about this in a larger way and that's where I mean that's what the conversation that we're having about is just like think about this little larger way but entering in the notes that we talk about New Orleans was the sixth largest city in the United States so you know when we talk about what's going on in New Orleans at this time period know that this was a you know it's still important city but it was really important city back then so you know the the world was very in tune with wanting to know what was going on with this city what was you know so when they heard about a slave revolt certainly in the 1811 they know the whole United States was worried and focused on that and and I think that's something that I kind of I kind of forget is how important New Orleans was and they had a Bella period and know that so yeah and New Orleans when it was captured in 1862 was I mean that was that was the crown jewel in the Union armies I mean you know juice because oh no saying you're absolutely right there was also a u.s. mint in New Orleans at that time in the port so when they captured that that was a that was a really a crowning achievement yeah and they captured it without without destroying the city per se right well no essentially from what I've read essentially a lot of the Confederates kind of just ran off and they left free men of color the free men of color to protect the city and the free man of color said and they were able to negotiate a peaceful ceasefire the perfect irony they wouldn't let these make they want they they required these men to serve in the Confederacy but they did not want these men to be alongside them with guns but then at the last leg of it all they said oh hey we need y'all you know they thought it was going to be a death mission for these people to go health care you know they thought they were going to be totally destroyed the free men of color some of the by uh some people last name rayar ey were able to you know organize a peaceful ceasefire and that's something that seldom talked about in history right and so so you're because they they they they called on free people of color to muster but then when they when they saw the fervor that they mustered with how many people actually showed up they got a little bit scared and they said well wait a second if we had we get these we armed these guys who said are they gonna be on all right oh I thought that was that that was you know a good story yeah so so 1862 look we've kind of okay hopefully were flowing a little bit so we'll probably had to edit some of this but for that big recovery it's a good ground yeah also so so you know we talk about all the legislation that gets ratcheted up we talk to mention Mississippi but in 1857 Louisiana forbids slaves from being freed and so that's the end of manumission in louisiana and so when you start thinking about that you got the six largest city at the at the time you have a large Free People popular free people of color population a large slave population and a a pretty good sized white population as well and so there was a I would say there was a very charged relationship for those for those years because there was the legislation introduced after 1857 to re-enslave free people : seize their property which was substantial property and I'm not sure that how serious the free people of color took that I've read some accounts word said that they kind of you know some people laughed at and thought it was ridiculous but that's still a scary proposition that the fact that that could even be proposed because it would have never even been discussed 30 years prior to that and they'd had to hold the free people collar hey go ahead and choose your own master go ahead and find a whole white master because you will be we're gonna confiscate your property and we're gonna put you back as slave and I'm not sure they had any intention or in I'm not sure if they ever thought they could do that but the fact that they were proposing it suggests that the mines were changing and tuning in to what they what they thought and people were becoming more and more threatened by these free people of color so you describe this as a pressure cooker earlier on that this is when it's starting to make make noise you never started yes some Steve started come on it's also when we see that second wave of the African Diaspora because we do see these people in large numbers then before say look we're getting out of here we don't need this you know and we see this several times even after this of course - but this is a different way it's a different wave of African Diaspora where they're going to you know France and also Mexico in other places again yeah yeah so so so so we talked about 1857 where these were the outlaw the freeing of slaves 80 now where they start talking about rien slaving free people population well eight 18:58 they start selling shears to this Eureka colony in Mexico and 100 free people of color families leave to Mexico so you know talking about heard families say four or five people to each family so we're talking about maybe a thousand people leaving it to Mexico and and and some some of them never returned no it's some of my family's cousins we never we never heard from yeah yeah you know and these are these are not these are not run-of-the-mill people that's the other thing these are people right have the wherewithal to buy their their passage to Mexico believe that they have enough money to establish themselves in Mexico that's a that's a that's a big deal and so when you're talking about the people that we're leaving they were of course we're losing some of our best and brightest it's like people these were the people who had most is time a transferable skill but some of them were planners who thought that they could do that but you're right these were the people with transferable skills and mobile able that you pick up and say you know what we're out of here mm-hmm-hmm and they did and so that you know that that story that story never gets told that story never gets old it always you know it always in history it appears that we were just these passive people who were just kind of sitting around hoping that someday white people would recognize that we need to be freed you know they would come help us wait wait no Lincoln yes Lincoln we always know Lincoln and so okay so now we talk about 1862 right so 1862 they they the Confederates leave New Orleans Union takes over the one of the most important ports in the United States right says that it's the lifeblood of the Mississippi River I mean it's the it is where all all the Commerce has to pass through for basically all those states that we that are that are bordering the Mississippi River inland and all these other rivers all the tributaries to the Mississippi River I mean talking about all the rivers and you know Tennessee and Pittsburgh and you know I mean it's it's a it's it's a major major thing right so we have the newspaper forum right the Union and Tribune newspaper French and French and English biweekly newspaper right right I have three people of color by free people cartoon favourable color the the JP Reardon a childhood mayor Foreman right what immediately happens in 1862 they start agitating for Emancipation Proclamation right they start emancipating they start talking about emancipation saying hey it's inevitable we need to do this right 1864 they have a thousand man petition we talked about this before but it's it's black New Orleans leading the country leading the country to the inevitable right and so the inevitable is not only the emancipation of all it's free slaves but that recognition yeah glad I'm sorry good know the right to vote recognition of the right to vote exactly right so now they send the petitions Lincoln he doesn't do anything with it but it starts the conversation of the inevitable outcome of it and the Radical Republicans who are in war in New Orleans and and now sometimes I guess they're called scallywags and uh in in the rest of the South right they start to they start to realize hey we're gonna have to even we're gonna have to recognize these these these free people of color and the newly freed slaves and give them the vote so you know here again we have New Orleans and and the free people color leading the United States to do the right thing initial an initial civil rights movement the initial civil rights movement exactly and and so what is and so but let's let's take that in the context of this these people didn't suddenly in Louisiana and in these places I mean I'm saying Louisiana but we have a free people of color population in Baltimore New York so these people that are that are that are saying this are people that know about how to live free they have they have experienced freedom they've experienced their personal initiative and they've been able to use their personal initiative to do as much as possible I mean they were limited to what some of the things that they can do but they're using their personal initiative to to to move the ball forward right and I know when we when we talk about the the civil rights movement well the civil rights movement is coming out of New Orleans from the 1820s and 1830s and 1840s and 1850s and 1860s because free people of color are not standing by while these rights are getting taken away from them they're filing lawsuits they're trying to do protesting and you know we're doing all kinds of stuff and so it's just a it's just a part of the struggle that they know that they need to initiate for their well-being now there are people who said the hell with this we're out here we'll move into Mexico moving to France those people we lost touch with we lost touch with those people right I mean I'm in touch with my relatives in Mexico but you know there's a hundred hundred and forty year history that I don't have but I can't reconnect with them all right so we're surfacing now thanks to Ed says screen everything else and we talked about this before on some of the other videos but yeah there's some of these people who left these free people of color for left you know we're seeing their descendants now contact us we're seeing photographs we're seeing you know from New Orleans in the 1830s and 40s and we're seeing them appear in Europe they're appear all of the pictures in Milwaukee around from Milwaukee to Tokyo there's people there's this they're just a migration of people people moved all over but yeah as you were saying they were they were champing this rights are they were champion for these rights and while we knowledge that there was a large population three color all over the United States I think the loudest voices or some of the loudest voices or in New Orleans and they were really the head of this movement and moving the ball long as you were saying yeah and you know Frederick Douglass is in contact with j-b Rutten a and all that all those guys who have this of course he's got the North Star in upstate New York but you know that we have the Tribune and the Union in in Louisiana and and to me to me this and this is my personal opinion I want to hear what you have to say about this as well good it's a much more dangerous prospect to agitate for civil rights and voter rights for fur for not even freed slaves they're to be freed slaves right in the deep south then it is to do it in New York and I'm not taking any way anything away from Frederick Douglass and like I say Frederick Douglass get as far as I'm concerned he gets far too much credit for for for what he did I think he's a tremendous man don't get me wrong but he gets far too much credit because his situation compared to the way a V Rooney play so that's that's my opinion well I agree with you I think every I think Frederick Douglass is incredibly important but when you think about here were these men in the hot seat there in the south I mean it they're in New Orleans while it's big it really wasn't that big you know people people knew where you were and they know where you live and they did receive a lot of threats they got daily death threats yeah but it's incredible that these men didn't disappear tonight and some people did disappear okay as a result of this but it's it's it's a it's it's a good thing they didn't disappear but yeah it was a lot more dangerous than somebody broadcasting so you know writing from up north in the free states versus this kind of occupied place where slavery was still you know hope because I mean you know here's here's the thing we're talking about Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison would sort of the people who everybody knows well they're you know a Frederick Douglass is in new you from Massachusetts and Gerson is in Massachusetts and you know they're there well Massachusetts outlet slavery and whatever 1790 or something and New York the same thing around that same time so there's there they already have a sort of freedom that we're not talking about Louisiana's the deep south well the the only reason that slaves are I mean slaves are the Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect in eight you know 1863 but slaves aren't truly legally freed until 1866 till some years later so there are your white Confederate sympathizers in in the city of New Orleans and and throughout Louisiana who are not a block away from this newspaper that's openly publishing is you know give us all right it's men of our blood you know you know so yeah it was a hell of a risk and we kind of we say this floor but maybe that's why there's not a lot of photographs of some of these people because they didn't really want to be widely recognized or spotted you know I just said yes yeah and and I think that's a that's a perfectly valid thing I hate to say because they were taking a tremendous risk and I think they were they were putting themselves more at risk than a Frederick Douglas I know Frederick Douglass probably received the death threats and all that stuff like I listen there's a new autobiography out about him and I want to I want to read it he just kind of me maybe get a better feel about that because you know I I I think he and William Lloyd Garrison get far too much credit and and the reason that the reason that I say that is is this it for for for William Lloyd Garrison they're tremendous people okay let's listen we can you and I can agree on that right we we've read and I think everybody okay so now William Lloyd Garrison starts the I think it's the Liberator now I have to check I'm not off the top mate I'm not sure about that in eighteen eighteen thirty-one it's based on the pamphlet the appeal from David Walker he spends the first year of his newspaper analyzing the appeal from a black man David Walker who to me is the ignition point of the abolition movement the real abolition states I think there are always Quakers and you know people who were against slavery but the real like touch point of slavery and the real touch point to me was after the nat turner rebellion people just said hey what the hell is going on you know whatever what are we doing here you know and and they're going like you know is there gonna be a rebellion every day we're 60 or 70 you know women men women children get killed whites were scared to death you know they were scared to death you're in a panic and you know then of course that that Turner was saying I've got an army of 11,000 people waiting in the dismal swamp to come out for my you know on my command and you know kill everybody else so to be I say that William Lloyd Garrison he did a fabulous job fabulous thing but he was he was doing it on the back of a free man of color David Walker who was who was instigating this and he was saying more more to the point of we know gearson Weiland garrison sort of a broke camp with him because David Walker was saying hey Russell violently gives these people you know they're not they're not godly godly people they're holding you a bondage rise up against of any chance you get you get a chance you know you have to kill him go he's not he's not opposed to violence he's saying hey there these guys are you know going against the Word of God I mean basically that was his sort of thing so you know way more garrison really made his argument in a sort of non-violent way about slavery based on David Walker and you know then William Lloyd Garrison promotes Frederick Douglass as a sort of a touch touch point or touchstone person for talking about the abolition of slavery because he has a fantastic story right so I want I want to hear what you have to say you say about that because I'm you know I I think I think we have acknowledged obviously these are the people that you read about we have an image of Frederick Douglass we saw him in our tax books he is important and he's a major part of the story but when we're talking about this seldom talked about a history we have to bring up these other people and that's all we're say that s'what you were saying and that's what we've said in the past where you know it was what it was a lot more dangerous for these men to stay in the south and to publish this newspaper within blocks of angry you know people who were basically losing everything and and were very dangerous very volatile conditions no doubt about it mm-hmm so so that that takes us up to the to the industry it takes us through the Civil War right I think we should pick up next time at the Civil War and let's talk about reconstruction a little bit and we can do that probably pretty soon I mean yeah we'll talk about the next wave of the African Diaspora which would be after the Civil War are after the end of Reconstruction you

Channel: Nick Douglas

Views: 956

Rating: 4.8461537 out of 5

Keywords: Black History Month, Black History, Creoles, Louisiana, africans, african explorers, African-Americans, Creoles in Louisiana, slavery, free people of color, free men of color, free women of color, American history, Creole History, 1492, 1865

Id: ia9H58tbiTw

Length: 66min 44sec (4004 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 26 2019