Tite Poullete and Madame Delphine: The Quadroon Balls

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...

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...xpression which would take long to describe-) (Deys32) Cable wants gives mixed feeling to his audience about quadroons. Its seems as though the overall notion of a quadroon is depicted as sad yet he presents “the exotic, wistfully beautiful women of mixed blood of the antebellum period and proclaimed, as many vistors to New Orleans would also testify, the success of these sirens in pleasing men” and “their perfection of form, their varied styles of beauty,- for there were even pure cacasion blondes amound them- their fascinating manners, their sparkinling vivacity, their chaste and pretty wit, their grace in the dance, their modest propriety, their taste and elegance in dress. In the gentlest and most poetic sense they were indeed the sirens of this land, where it seems “always afternoon” a momentary triumph of arcadian over Christain civilizations.” (revisited)