19th Century Identity In America

In the late 19th century America was grappling with who it was as a country. With African American's being freed with the end of the Civil War it did not make it any easier. Before the war America was predominately seen as a country run by Caucasians. While after the war African Americans were not necessarily treated any better. The war did not give America a sense of identity. African Americans were not treated any more equally. The search for an identity was not merely between black and white. It also involved the Native American culture. Alone each culture had there own identity. However, they were mixed together. This was confusing not only from the standpoint of one culture looking at another but, of the person that does not know they have a mixed heritage. Writers not only male and female but white and black wrote about the hardships of being the culture that was not liked. Through there stories George Washington Cable and Grace King are two writers of this era that depicted the hardships of searching for an identity.

George Washington Cable was born in 1844 in New Orleans. His mother's side of the family was Puritan from New England. His father's side was German from a Virginian slaveholding family. At the age of fourteen his father died. This forced Cable to leave school to get a job. When he was nineteen he enlisted in the Fourth Mississippi Cavalry. After the war he worked as a surveyor for Atchafalaya River levees. While working he contracted malaria allowing him to begin writing. He started by writing columns for the New Orleans Picayune. After marriage he worked as a newspaper reporter followed by keeping books for a cotton firm. He did not go to school to receive his education. He spent his time before work reading and writing, teaching himself French and learning much of the old New Orleans records. This helped give him knowledge for many of his writings that would garner him national recognition. By using his knowledge of various cultures he crafted them into stories about the different cultures in the region.

The story ‘Tite Poulette takes place in New Orleans, focusing on race and the relationship between races. Kristian is a white male who moves to New Orleans.