Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2006 - (Page 37) Périer’s career bears witness to the economic opportunity, political instability, and immanent brutality linking 18th-century St. Domingue and Louisiana. A native of Le Havre, France, Périer led the peripatetic life common to his profession, assigned first to one French colony (St. Domingue) and then to another (Louisiana). It was during his tenure as governor of Louisiana (17271733) that the Natchez Massacre occurred. On November 28, 1729 Natchez Indians attacked Fort St. Rosalie and in less than two hours destroyed the French presence there. Périer retaliated with an expedition against the Natchez, hundreds of whom were taken captive, brought to New Orleans, and sold to slaveholders in St. Domingue. cussions of the French presence in Louisiana. French émigrés, however, have followed a multitude of routes over the centuries — some arriving during the Spanish colonial period, others in the decade after the Louisiana Purchase, and still others Varieties of French Immigration When the British drove thousands of French-speaking settlers from present-day Nova Scotia on the eve of the Seven Years’ War, many of those Acadian refugees made their way to St. Domingue at the war’s end. Subsequently, a steady stream of émigrés set out from St. Domingue for Louisiana. Indeed, the second group of Acadians to arrive in Louisiana, following the initial group of 20 from New York, was a caravan of about 200 who had traveled from Halifax to St. Domingue and on to Louisiana in 1764-65. The Acadian flight from Nova Scotia and the refugee stream from St. Domingue dominate most dis- American Library, Tulane University Born a slave, Jean-Jacques Dessalines (17581806) became a key general under Toussaint Louverture. When Louverture was captured, Dessalines became the leader of the Haitian Revolution and declared the island nation independent on January 1, 1804. He proclaimed himself emperor under the name Jacques I. His controversial regime ended with his assassination in 1806. courtesy of Rare Books Collection, the Latin after statehood. Some refugees left France during the First Empire (180315), motivated either by political concerns or a desire to avoid military service, while another group was driven out by the socioeconomic, political, and cultural upheaval of the Restoration (1815-30). Although most French émigrés to the United States settled in Atlantic port cities such as New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, not all favored urban environments. Lenoir de Surville, a soldier, settled in Arkansas after fleeing the turmoil of revolutionary France. With the restoration of the monarchy, Surville desired to return to France, but he lacked funds and was forced to seek the assistance of the French consul in New Orleans. While personal philosophy (and personal fortune) dictated the paths of exiles like Surville, a communal agenda determined the fate of others. In 1816, the Philadelphia-based French Emigrant Association obtained several land grants in present-day Alabama. Under the direction of Charles Lallemond (1774-1839), an exiled Napoleonic general, the association sold these lands to finance an agricultural colony in Texas christened Champ d’Asile (the Field of Asylum). Approximately 150 settlers took up residence on the Trinity River in early 1818. Like La Salle’s “lost colony” on Matagorda Bay, established 130 years earlier, Champ d’Asile suffered an untimely demise. Having aroused the suspicions of both American and From European contact through present day, St. Domingue and Louisiana have been bound together by shared economies, cultural enterprises, and peoples. Common Routes: St. Domingue-Louisiana, a ground-breaking exhibit at The Historic New Orleans Collection, illuminates this shared history through paintings, maps, documents, and artifacts that have been assembled from two turbulent, engrossing histories. In staging Common Routes, the Collection celebrates the ties between Louisiana and the Caribbean island known as Hayti by the native Taino and Arawak peoples, designated Hispañola by Christopher Columbus, and divided into two colonies, Santo Domingo and St. Domingue, by the Spanish and the French. With the revolution of 1791-1804, people of African heritage established Haiti, the first republic resulting from a slave revolt and only the second independent nation in the New World. Common Routes is on view at 533 Royal Street in the French Quarter through June 30, 2006. The Historic New Orleans Collection is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, excluding holidays, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Extended hours are offered Wednesday evenings from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, free for children and students. Louisiana residents are admitted free on Wednesdays in March and April after 4:30 p.m. For more information, call (504) 523-4662 or log on to www.hnoc.org. Spring 2006/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 37 VISIT THE EXHIBITION http://www.hnoc.org
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