New Orleans is a city of immigrants. With a mild climate and a laid back European attitude toward life the city attracts and holds a distinct type of American:
- New Orleans was America's second largest port of entry for European
immigrants throughout the nineteenth century
- Americans flocked to the city from all across the
Eastern seaboard in the nation's nineteenth century westward migration.
- The city was the nation's largest slave market specializing in slaves shipped south from Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas.
- The city was the epicenter of the largest disaster in US history with resulting diaspora and influx of reconstruction workers