[Group portrait of Dr. Henry Lewis Bailey, an unidentified man, Amanda Bailey, and William R. Johnson], Artist unknown (c.1900-1910)

Introduction

Unlike the texts we read by Castra and Lanusse, the texts we are reading by Victor Séjour, Camille Naudin, and George Washington Cable were all written at times or in places where they could afford to take a vocal stance against slavery. For the Afro-Creole Séjour (writing in 1837), the freedom to oppose slavery and depict its senseless cruelty came from his position as an expatriate writer, living in Paris starting in 1836. For Naudin, also a free man of color (writing in 1867), the end of the Civil War allowed him to write honestly and hopefully about the end of slavery. For Cable, a white Louisianan (writing in 1880), the end of the Civil War and his position as a respected white journalist made it possible for him to depict the brutal confrontations between the American systems of African slavery and racism, and the multiracialism and multiculturalism of New Orleans society.

Gens de couleur libres

As we see in our readings, the unique status of free people of color in Louisiana before the Louisiana purchase (under French and Spanish rule) came into sharp conflict with the strictly biracial social structure of the United States, and intersected in complex ways with both racism and slavery in particular. It was not unheard of, for instance, for free people of color to own slaves; free men of color also fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. These tensions and the problems they created come out more clearly in today's readings, which were not subject to the same censorship as yesterday's.

To learn more about gens de couleur libres and New Orleans society in the 19th century, click you can visit Louisiana State University Libraries' digital collection (which includes documents related to Victor Séjour), or read the overview of this New Orleans Public Library exhibition.

Questions to guide your reading...

Victor Séjour:

"The Mulatto"

- Who is the narrator at the beginning of the story? Who actually recounts the story of George? Why might Séjour have included this frame story (which drops out at the end)?

- How does Séjour describe the slave auction in Section I? What motivates the slave owners? How does he describe the people being auctioned off?

- What kind of relationship is revealed between Jacques and Laïsa? Where else are familial bonds important in the rest of the story?

- What does George get from his father? What does his father refuse him? What does his father pass down to him inadvertently? Do you see a family resemblance between the two men?

- What causes the shift from George's obsequiousness and begging in Section IV to his boldness and threats? What statement of his changes the terms of the conversation? Why?

- How would you describe the tone of Séjour's story? What do you make of the graphic and sometimes brutal language he uses to tell his story, compared to the tact and delicacy of a writer like Lanusse?

[Victor Séjour], Artist unknown.

Camille Naudin:

"The Black Marseillaise: Song of Peace"

- The poem is written as a "call to arms"--what is Naudin calling people to fight for? What world does he want to create?

- When/how does he use language of violence and destruction? How do they contribute to creating the world Naudin imagines?

- What, if anything, does the poem have to say to black people in particular? What role does race play in the future Naudin imagines here?

- This poem is a rewriting of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise; what significance might Naudin's rewriting have? Which themes and images does he keep from the original, and which does he transform or overturn?

George Washington Cable:

"The Story of Bras-Coupé"

- How does Bras-Coupé come to be called that ("Cut-off Arm")? What does the name mean?

- What does it mean to be a slave for Bras-Coupé? What does it take for him to accept the Americans' expectations of him as a slave? Why do Don José and his overseer go to all that trouble (instead of just punishing Bras-Coupé)?

- Does Palmyre want to marry Bras-Coupé? Why does she agree? What is her plan? Does it work?

- How does Bras-Coupé get drawn into the family feud between the Grandissimes and the De Grapions?

- Why doesn't Agricola allow Honoré (the mixed-race brother, just returned from Paris) to marry Palmyre?

- How does Bras-Coupé come to be apprehended?

- Why does Bras-Coupé lift his curse?

[George Washington Cable], Artist unknown (c. 1915)