Categories: Free People of Color (FPOC), History, Identity, Language, Slavery

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by a masters student in Anthropology from Montreal, Quebec, who was conducting research in south Louisiana on Creole identity. I was delighted to engage him professionally, as I have great respect for the “tell it like it is” academic mood of Quebecers as it pertains to the various happenings and history of other Latin communities in North America.

In our dialog, I received from Joseph Dunn, past Executive Director of the Council for Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL – Agence des affaires francophones), a flowchart where he tracked French language developments in the various “communities” of present-day Louisiana. It was endlessly fascinating, and ultimately pointed out that the principal community speaking Louisiana French today, in terms of numbers, are the various Native American communities in Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes.

Joseph’s objective was tracking and demonstrating French language in Louisiana, but, as an historian, language activist, and genealogist, I could not help but noticing how I would have expressed this-and-that differently, and would have added this, while removing or moving, that. My brain fired rockets in all directions. Eventually, it overpowered my discipline to remain at my dissertation, and other projects, and I wound up drafting my own flowchart, tracking Creole identity emergence and divergence, from the colonial period to the present day. After a great many drafts, I finally arrived at a draft a week ago, which I shared on Facebook, and via e-mail to a handful of folks. This draft is an enhanced–and infinitely better organized, and easier to track–version of the chart released last week.

I wish to caution folks on a number of items:

1. I knowingly omit Native American identity developments in the various communities, groups, and individuals in Louisiana. That topic requires a flowchart all of its own.
2. From the moment when racialized identities were imposed on Creole people in statutes, drawing a binary or ternary color line onto a multi-ancestral and multi-colored community, Creoles reacted by identifying with all racial options available at various times, typically, if phenotypically possible, siding with whiteness where and when possible. Tracking the various periods provoking distinct racial identity changes within the Creole community, like the Native American topic, requires a flowchart for itself, as well.
3. The terms used in the chart have historical relevance in context.The only exception to this rule are the “Muted Creoles” boxes, a new idea which, generally-speaking, speaks to Creoles of the darkest hues who, despite White Creole and Creole of Color identity hegemony and bullying, continue(d) to identify as Creoles. This experience has been especially acute in New Orleans and in Natchitoches Parish. An additional complexity with Muted Creoles is insufficient historical documentation pointing to their place in the racialization of the Creole identity after the Civil War. As such, they can be seen as “silenced Creoles,” abandoned by other Creoles with lighter skins, and forced to associate with Anglophone Americans if for no other reason than their not having Latin names and light enough skin. That happens in migrant Hispanophone communities in the U.S., as well.
4. At the very end of the chart, on the far-right, I contextualize the terms used there. However, others mostly go without context. Before jumping to any conclusions, if you’ve any questions on terms used in specific periods on the chart, please, I invite you to e-mail me. I would be delighted to walk you through usage of the term in that context, and point you to documentation.

As always, I expended a great deal of energy on this. If you wish to use the flowchart, based on original research, and inspired by a flowchart for a different purchase by fellow Creole, Joseph Dunn, I ask that you request permission in writing to me via e-mail. I would be beyond elated if others wished to spread the research and knowledge as we make sense of our fascinating journey.

E-mail:  Christophe@sussex.ac.uk

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