Book contents
- African American Literature in Transition, 1850–1865
- African American Literature In Transition
- African American Literature in Transition, 1850–1865
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology, 1850–1865
- Introduction
- Part I Black Personhood and Citizenship in Transition
- Part II Generic Transitions and Textual Circulation
- Chapter 5 Overhearing the African American Novel, 1850–1865
- Chapter 6 Black Romanticism and the Lyric as the Medium of the Conspiracy
- Chapter 7 Black Newspapers, Novels, and the Racial Geographies of Transnationalism
- Chapter 8 Creoles of Color, Poetry, and the Periodic Press in Union-Occupied New Orleans
- Chapter 9 The Haitian and American Revolutions and Black Historical Writing at Mid-Century
- Part III Black Geographies in Transition
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 8 - Creoles of Color, Poetry, and the Periodic Press in Union-Occupied New Orleans
from Part II - Generic Transitions and Textual Circulation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 April 2021
- African American Literature in Transition, 1850–1865
- African American Literature In Transition
- African American Literature in Transition, 1850–1865
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology, 1850–1865
- Introduction
- Part I Black Personhood and Citizenship in Transition
- Part II Generic Transitions and Textual Circulation
- Chapter 5 Overhearing the African American Novel, 1850–1865
- Chapter 6 Black Romanticism and the Lyric as the Medium of the Conspiracy
- Chapter 7 Black Newspapers, Novels, and the Racial Geographies of Transnationalism
- Chapter 8 Creoles of Color, Poetry, and the Periodic Press in Union-Occupied New Orleans
- Chapter 9 The Haitian and American Revolutions and Black Historical Writing at Mid-Century
- Part III Black Geographies in Transition
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
One year into the Civil War, New Orleans fell to Union forces. A few months later, French-speaking Creoles of color published the first edition of L’Union. This chapter considers this as a key transitional moment for French-speaking Creoles of color in New Orleans writing at a time when the city’s old racial order of white, free, and enslaved was in transition. The Creole-of-color poetry L’Union published was positioned not only alongside news items but also with an excerpt of the US Constitution, translated into French, and a reprint of a letter Victor Hugo wrote to Haiti referencing John Brown. By returning to consider that literary production in the space of the newspaper, rather than as it is encountered now in anthologies, we can learn much more about the “hybrid spaces” these writers negotiated with “a multiplicity of voices and discursive strategies.” Returning to this publication history, when highly literate Creoles of color long shut out of publishing opportunities embarked on their own in L’Union and its successor the Tribune, also returns us to the ignored history of Creole identity and activism behind such central events as Homer Plessy’s challenge to the legality of “separate but equal” in Plessy v. Ferguson.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- African American Literature in Transition, 1850–1865 , pp. 191 - 216Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021