18thVirginia
Major
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2012
I've known the story about Eulalie de Mandeville for quite awhile, but as she died years before the Civil War I've hesitated to spend much time on her history. @ForeverFree has mentioned several times recently the group of people of African and French or Spanish heritage who constituted a third class of persons between those of Caucasian ancestry and African American slaves in Louisiana. Many sources discuss the concept of those of African descent in Louisiana who owned slaves themselves. These people were often known in Louisiana by the term "creoles of color." Some have questioned the research that indicated a high number of persons of color in New Orleans who owned slaves. This thread will not cover that research or the questions about it.
Another term which is frequently tossed about is something called plaçage, which supposedly was a system in which parents of African descent contracted with caucasian men to provide them with long-term mistresses. Dr. Emily Clark, historian at Tulane University, searched the records in Louisiana and found no such contracts had been filed, but it's still mentioned as a system by some historians.
Perhaps examining the details of Eulalie de Mandeville's life will provide us with some insight into this "third class" of Louisiana society in the antebellum period.
We don't have any images for Eulalie, so here's one of a creole woman with maid, by a New Orleans artist of the period.
Another term which is frequently tossed about is something called plaçage, which supposedly was a system in which parents of African descent contracted with caucasian men to provide them with long-term mistresses. Dr. Emily Clark, historian at Tulane University, searched the records in Louisiana and found no such contracts had been filed, but it's still mentioned as a system by some historians.
Perhaps examining the details of Eulalie de Mandeville's life will provide us with some insight into this "third class" of Louisiana society in the antebellum period.
We don't have any images for Eulalie, so here's one of a creole woman with maid, by a New Orleans artist of the period.