|
a CREOLE article
Cultures
of Acadiana |
Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, May 25, 1999
People of color formed cipriere communities
The cypress industry grew in importance under Spanish rule in Louisiana
by Jim Bradshaw
In his essay, "Colonial New Orleans: A Fragment of the Eighteenth-Century French Ethos" in the book "Creole New Orleans," Jerah Johnson writes:
"...it was during the Spanish period that Louisiana's free people of colored acheived sufficient numbers and a political importance that enabled them to mature into a community. Natural increase, but more important, the greater ease with which manumission could be accomplished under Spanish administration and the influx of free blacks from Saint Domingue, raised the 165 or more free people of color in the colony at the end of the French period to almost 1,500 by the end of the Spanish period.
"For most of the period more than half of the free people of color lived not in New Orleans but on small farms or as tenants outside of town. (But by 1803) the overwhelming number lived in the city, close to 1,200 of the 1,500 or so.
"Because of their unique social and legal standing midway between the free and slave sectors of the population and recognized as such in law, the free people of color developed the most nearly complete corporate status of any of the several such groups in colonial Louisiana society. Acutely conscious of their legal rights and their group's interests as well as the tenuous and fragile nature of their position, they tended to act with an exceptionally high degree of cohesiveness. At the same time, individual members of the group freely associated with the European colonials, the African slaves, and the Indians, both free and slave. Work, service, trade, and placage, the developing institution of formalized mistress-keeping, brought them into close contact with the European community, while close cultural and family bonds tied them to both the slave and Indian communities. Except for recently arrived islanders, there were few free people of color who did not have relatives, often immediate family members, among the African slaves and not infrequently among the Indians."
According to Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, escaped black and Indian slaves also formed communities in the backwaters around New Orleans which she calls "maroon settlements."
According to Hall, "The maroon communities of escaped African and Indian slaves that began during the first half of the Eighteenth century evolved into permanent settlements under Spanish rule. By the 1780's, a stable community almost entirely made up of creole slaves had created maroon villages in the swamps surrounding the city. The ecology of the land made it possible for slaves to live on their own while maintaining close ties with those who remained with their masters.
"The cypress industry grew in economic importance under the Spanish rule. To develop the Louisiana economy, Spain required that sugar from the Spanish Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico ports be carried in boxes made of Louisiana cypress. Slaves toiled in the (cypress swamps), cutting and hauling the logs almost entirely on their own. Few whites were eager to follow them into the swamp. Each plantation had its trackless cipriere, where slaves from various estates met, worked together, learned how to survive on their own, and eventually escaped in large numbers. ... There was a high proportion of women as well as some children among the runways (who formed small settlements in the cypress swamps).
"The swamps surrounding New Orleans, especially to the south and east, where small bayous led into Lake Borgne and the Rigolets and thence to coastal trading centers along the Gulf of Mexico, became the ... center of these ... communities. They were the refuge of families rather than single men. They were populated almost entirely by Louisiana creole slaves, although by the 1780's large numbers of African slaves had been imported into the colony. The maroons were well supplied with guns and ammunition to hunt for food as well as to defend themselves against raids organized by the slave owners and the colonial militia.
"The maroons did not seek to withdraw from the economy of New Orleans but actively engaged in trade in the city. They cut and sold squared cypress logs to white sawmill owners and cypress troughs and tubs for processing indigo. They made and sold baskets and sifters from willow reeds. They fished, trapped birds, collected berries, and grew corn, sweet potatoes and squash.