Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, July 29, 1997

African Americans have deep roots in St. Martin

by Jim Bradshaw

These first African settlers had a large influence also upon the cuisine of Acadiana, as Carl Brasseaux points out in "The Founding of New Acadia:

"Thrust into a small geographical area with little mobility, the white, red, and black residents of South Louisiana were forced to interact on a daily basis, and although these confrontations were often unpleasant, all of the participating groups were inevitably influenced by their neighbors. This is particularly true of upwardly mobile Acadians and their African slaves.

"The vast majority of Louisiana Acadians acquired one to three slaves between 1790 and 1810, and these black laborers imparted elements of their cuisine and diet to their new masters. Okra, for example, is an African vegetable introduced to Louisiana by blacks via the West Indies. By 1804 gumbo featured okra, at least on the Acadian coast. The black contribution to "Cajun" cooking was not limited to the prolific green vegetable; the ragu sauces now associated with Cajun cuisine bear striking resemblance to those of French West Africa and were perhaps also introduced into South Louisiana by slave cooks."

During the Civil War and after, African American leaders began to make their mark on local history and in wider forums. Among local leaders mentioned in Charles Vincent's "Black Legislators in Louisiana During Reconstruction" are L. A. Martinet, Alexander E. Francois, and Victor Rochon.

Martinet and Rochon were representatives in the state senate in the 1872 session who "were interested in education and attended ... law school when the legislature was not in session."

Rochon was a St. Martinville businessman and was postmaster for a time. Francois, a native of St. Martin Parish, was a butcher, merchant and planter, as well as a senator. He had served as an agent of the New Orleans Tribune in the Attakapas area.

Charles Jefferson Vavasseur, a St. Martinville tailor, was also a member of the state senate in the 1872 session, according to family papers. He was one of the founders of the True Friends Society of La Pointe, serving as president for 33 years.

Prior to the Civil War, some few free Creoles of color enjoyed relative wealth and position in the Attakapas area. As Brasseaux and his co-writers point out in "Creoles Of Color in the Bayou Country":

"Successful free blacks participated fully in the prosperity enjoyed by the Attakapas and Opelousas regions in the 1850s....Like many of their white counterparts, members of the free black elite sought to consolidate their position atop the local socioeconomic hierarchy through economic diversification. During the antebellum period, numerous wealthy free men and women of color entered the grocery business, either individually or through partnerships ....Many free blacks who owned little or no real estate lived in the numerous small towns then developing in the region...Nearly 46 percent of the free black population in St. Martin Parish lived in the towns of St. Martinville and New Iberia (which was then still part of St. Martin)...

"Unlike their rural counterparts, who usually derived their livelihoods from farming or ranching, both as freeholders and increasingly as day laborers, free black urbanites were usually involved in the building trades..."

But their's, too, was a French heritage. As late as 1910, census figures show that more than 60 percent of the black Creoles of Ward 1 of St. Martin Parish spoke French as their first language, and the numbers are comparable in other parts of St. Martin and, indeed, all of the old Attakapas district.

In large part the Creoles of color in the region spoke Cajun French, or a variant of it. New Orleans Creoles of color, like their white counterparts, were more apt to speak standard French, or something close to it.

As noted in a doctoral dissertation in 1986 by Nicholas Randolph Spitzer:

"People of Afro- and French descent, whether they call themselves Creoles, Creoles of Color, or black Creoles (as is now common), share to a large degree the language, religion, foodways, material culture, music, dance, and festival style of Cajuns. However, many of these elements of Cajun culture have been profoundly influenced by the black Creoles. While there is a good deal of cultural overlap between Cajuns and black Creoles, there is also a clear social separation in many domains."