On Being Creole
Originally creoles were the descendants of the
Spanish and French settlers. They were the landowners and the the
highest of New Orleans culture. "It has been said that the Lowells
spoke
only to the Cabots and the Cabots spoke only to God, but it is fairly
safe to say that in the very early creole era both families would have
been snubbed by the Creoles of New Orleans."
1 Landowners and business
owners, the Creoles were unwilling to mix with the English/American
immigrants who descended on the city from the late 1700's onward. This
may be the root of the isolationism that characterizes New Orleans and
differentiates it from the rest of the South.
French Creole Architecture common in plantations around the area
(Destrehan, etc) and smaller homes was created by the original Creoles.
After the Louisiana Purchase, the massive Hatian immigration in 1809,
the Civil War and Reconstruction a new meaning had taken over. Creole
now meant a person containing 1/8th to 1/4 African ancestry (octaroon,
quadroon were the terms in use).
Ray Nagin has redefined the term suggesting "Chocolate."
1.
Gumbo Ya-Ya by
L Saxon,R Tallant and E Dreyer, 1965