18thVirginia
Major
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2012
When native New Orleanians meet each other someplace away from the Crescent City, they don't ask "Where did you live?", they say, "Where did you go to high school?" which allows them to get an idea of the family background of their new acquaintance. Many of these schools have a background in the 19th Century.
Henriette Delille was a free woman of color who founded the order Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans. She was born in New Orleans in 1813 to a French father, Jean-Baptiste Lille Sarpy, and a free quadroon mother of French, Spanish and African ancestry, Marie-Josèphe "Pouponne" Díaz. Her mother was the daughter of a Spanish merchant and a free creole of color. Henriette was trained in dancing, music and a knowledge of French literature to be the common-law wife of a wealthy white man in the Louisiana system known as "placage."
Instead, Henriette started teaching in a Catholic school at age 14 and eventually became an opponent of placage. She began to devote her life to educating and caring for the poor, despite the opposition of her mother.
When her mother had a nervous breakdown, Henriette gained control of her assets and in 1836 founded a small religious order with seven young creole women and a french woman called Sisters of the Presentation. A local priest secured recognition of the order in 1837 and they were renamed Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842.
Henriette died in 1862, when there were 12 members of her order. By 1909, 150 members of the order operated Catholic schools in New Orleans that taught 1,300 students.
Henriette Delille was a free woman of color who founded the order Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans. She was born in New Orleans in 1813 to a French father, Jean-Baptiste Lille Sarpy, and a free quadroon mother of French, Spanish and African ancestry, Marie-Josèphe "Pouponne" Díaz. Her mother was the daughter of a Spanish merchant and a free creole of color. Henriette was trained in dancing, music and a knowledge of French literature to be the common-law wife of a wealthy white man in the Louisiana system known as "placage."
Instead, Henriette started teaching in a Catholic school at age 14 and eventually became an opponent of placage. She began to devote her life to educating and caring for the poor, despite the opposition of her mother.
When her mother had a nervous breakdown, Henriette gained control of her assets and in 1836 founded a small religious order with seven young creole women and a french woman called Sisters of the Presentation. A local priest secured recognition of the order in 1837 and they were renamed Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842.
Henriette died in 1862, when there were 12 members of her order. By 1909, 150 members of the order operated Catholic schools in New Orleans that taught 1,300 students.