New Orleans is a city in southern Louisiana, located on the Mississippi River. Most of the city is situated on the east bank, between the river and Lake Pontchartrain to the north. Because it was built on a great turn of the river, it is known as the Crescent City. New Orleans, with a population of 496,938 (1990 census), is the largest city in Louisiana and one of the principal cities of the South. It was established on the high ground nearest the mouth of the Mississippi, which is 177 km (110 mi) downstream. Elevations range from 3.65 m (12 ft) above sea level to 2 m (6.5 ft) below; as a result, an ingenious system of water pumps, drainage canals, and levees has been built to protect the city from flooding.
New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, and named for the regent of France, Philippe II, duc d'Orleans. It remained a French colony until 1763, when it was transferred to the Spanish. In 1800, Spain ceded it back to France; in 1803, New Orleans, along with the entire Louisiana Purchase, was sold by Napoleon I to the United States. It was the site of the Battle of New Orleans (1815) in the War of 1812. During the Civil War the city was besieged by Union ships under Adm. David Farragut; it fell on Apr. 25, 1862.
And that's what it say's in the books, a bit more, but nothing else of interest. This is too bad, New Orleans , as a city, has a wide and diverse history that reads as if it were a utopian society built to survive the troubles of the future. New Orleans is a place where Africans, Indians and European settlers shared their cultures and intermingled. Encouraged by the French government, this strategy for producing a durable culture in a difficult place marked New Orleans as different and special from its inception and continues to distinguish the city today.
Like the early American settlements along Massachusetts Bay and Chesapeake Bay, New Orleans served as a distinctive cultural gateway to North America, where peoples from Europe and Africa initially intertwined their lives and customs with those of the native inhabitants of the New World. The resulting way of life differed dramatically from the culture than was spawned in the English colonies of North America. New Orleans Creole population (those with ancestry rooted in the city's colonial era) ensured not only that English was not the prevailing language but also that Protestantism was scorned, public education unheralded, and democratic government untried.
Two unique societies were constructed by people of common origin. These English colonists immigrated to the New World for either economic prosperity or religious freedom. During colonization, two regions were formed, New England and the Chesapeake Bay area. The two contrasting societies of New England and Chesapeake region were the results of diversity of: social and family structure; health and living conditions; economy; religion and beliefs; and government policies.
The Chesapeake and New England regions were settled by people of English descent, but by 1700, they had become two distinctly different societies. They had evolved so differently, mainly because of the way that the settlers followed their religion, their way of conducting politics and demographics in the colonies. Even though the settlers came from the same homeland: England, each group had its own reasons for coming to the New World and different ideas planned for the colonies.
The United States acquired the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, thereby gaining control of the Mississippi River, and its watershed at the golf of Mexico. The U.S. government realized how important this was and its potential of becoming a great trading post. By 1812 this area called New Orleans grew as expected in size and importance. In peace it was a commercial outlet and trading center of the western United States.
The Louisiana Purchase stands as an iconic event today that nearly doubled the size of America, ultimately introducing the United States as a world power. In 1762, during the Seven Years’ War, France ceded its control of the Louisiana Territory to Spain (Britannica). However, when Napoleon Bonaparte assumed control of France in 1799, France rallied as a world power once more. Bonaparte’s interest in the Louisiana Territory spiked, and he pressured Spain’s king, Charles IV to relinquish his control of the land on October 1, 1800. This was known as the Treaty of San Ildefonso (Britannica). In view of the transfer between France and Spain, president Thomas Jefferson sent Robert R. Livingston to Paris in 1801. Jefferson became worried, because
While there are many neighborhoods in New Orleans, Gentilly is a large historical community. It is home to three universities. Dillard University, Southern University at New Orleans, and the University of New Orleans are located throughout the area (The Gentilly Neighborhood 1). Gentilly is a peaceful community which includes parks, historical neighborhoods, and golf courses (The Gentilly Neighborhood 1).
It is interesting to see how Cable became riveted in Quadroon balls which is best represented in Tite Poullete and Madame Delphine but in all honesty, they captured the essence in New Orleans and many underlining issues that were taking place during this time. The quadroon balls represented both good and evil in many aspects, on a positive note they were a form of entertainment that reflected the unique culture of New Orleans. Here you have a unique City where all races and cultures merge, Cable called it a “Hybrid City” and to completely capture how the city became just that, would require a book but to some it up quickly, New Orleans, before it was sold to the united states was Founded by the French and under Spanish rule for Thrity five years after the Freancha nd Indian war, the coloney was returned to the French under Napoleaon, (degas17) and all of this occurred before the Civil War. New Orleans became a place that Indians, Africans and European settlers could come together and in some respects New Orleans seemed to be a more a way to be socially accepted due to the wide range of cultures that were then and now, intertwined. Unfortunately, where there are cultures intermingled there are will be conflicts and one of these was the interracial marriages and affiliation between black and whites. Due to the diversity, it was enviadalb that this would occur and the interworking’s of social customs such as slave trade and the system pf “Placage” once unmasked by Cable and his works, caused an uproar in New Orleans. The social tensions may have been present but once presented and brought to light angered people who felt as though their situation, be it a slave owner, memebers who attended the Quadroon balls gave a bad perception of...
Blues for New Orleans: Mardi Gras and America’s Creole Soul. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, c2006.
Though the two differed in many ways, the were both chock full of musicality. A key difference between the two is the style of music they both held. New Orleans was a city of a multitude of musical styles, while Vienna remained a well known city for classical music. New Orleans streets would fill with parades and musical performs all over the city. As the documentary mentioned, after Louisiana became American controlled, an influx of newly freed African Americans began calling New Orleans their home. This brought on new styles of African and Caribbean music in addition to spiritual songs from the south. These new styles were not accepted by with upper class of New Orleans. White descendants of the French and Spanish who lived in New Orleans adopted the term “Creole” in order to distinguish themselves from the influx of new American’s for whom they disdained. Creole’s were classically trained and participated in local orchestras in New Orleans, lending to the multitude of musical styles of the city. Creoles soon became second class citizens along with blacks, and thus a new music was born. The influence of the Creoles classically trained music, along with the multitude of different styles, created a music of freedom and liberty. Together African Americans and creoles transformed music as it was known, creating jazz, a quintessential
Sacher, John M. "Louisiana." Encyclopedia of the New American Nation. Ed. Paul Finkelman. Vol. 2. Detroit: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 2006. 305-307. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.
By August 28, evacuations were underway across the region. That day, the National Weather Service predicted that after the storm hit, “most of the [Gulf Coast] area will be uninhabitable for weeks…perhaps longer.” New Orleans was at particular risk. Though about half the city actually lies above sea level, its average elevation is about six feet below sea level–and it is completely surrounded by water. Over the course of the 20th century, the Army Corps of Engineers had built a system of levees and seawalls to keep the city from flooding. The levees along the Mississippi River were strong and sturdy, but the ones built to hold back Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne and the waterlogged swamps and marshes to the city’s east and west were much less reliable. Even before the storm, officials worried that those levees, jerry-built atop sandy, porous, erodible soil, might not withstand a massive storm surge. Neighborhoods that sat below sea level, many of which housed the city’s poorest and most vulnerable people, were at great risk of
According to Hurricane Katrina At Issue Disasters, economic damages from Hurricane Katrina have been estimated at more than $200 billion… More than a million people were displaced by the storm… An estimated 120,000 homes were abandoned and will probably be destroyed in Louisiana alone (At * Issue). For this perspective, “Hurricane Katrina change the Gulf Coast landscape and face of its culture when it hit in 2005” (Rushton). A disaster like Katrina is something the victims are always going to remember, for the ones the lost everything including their love ones. Katrina became a nightmare for all the people that were surround in the contaminated waters in the city of New Orleans. People were waiting to be rescue for days,
In 1803 president Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana from France which was being led by Napoleon Bonaparte at the time. The Americans originally sought to purchase only the port city of New Orleans and its adjacent coastal lands for 10 million US dollars but quickly accepted the bargain when they were offered Louisiana for 15 million dollars. Thomas Jefferson took advantage of the fact that Bonaparte was desperate for money and he was afraid of losing his North American territories to the British.
The population of New Orleans was steadily decreasing, between the years of 2000 and 2005, 30,000 (6%) of the population left New Orleans in search for better lives (4). The declining population shows us that before Hurricane Katrina residence were already considering leaving the city, some push factors leading them away from the city include poverty and unemployment (5). Accord to the U.S 2005 Census Bureau around 23% of the residence lived in poverty, this can be a result of the nearly 12% unemployment rate (5). With an unemployment rate double the national standard and nearly one forth the population living in poverty, the city of New Orleans had many push factors against it resolution in a decline population prier to Hurricane Katrina. At the time of the storm nearly 400,000 residents were displaced from their homes too near by safe areas or other states. The population reming in the city as decreased to a few thousand (6). A month after the disaster when the levee breaches were repaired and the flood water was pumped out of the city, residence were allowed to return to what was left of their homes. The first reliable estimate of the New Orleans population after Hurricane Katrina was an ‘American Community survey’. The survey projected that by the start of 2006 around one third or 158,000 of the population returned. By the middle of f2006 the city
formed. New Orleans was under the rule of a law making body called the Superior
insight as to what type of sector of New Orleans the play is set in.