Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2006 - (Page 38) During Jean-Pierre Lassusʼs tenure as a surveyor and road maintenance officer in Louisiana, he created the only extant view of New Orleans during the colonial period: Veüe et Perspective de la nouvelle orleans, 1726, in ink and watercolor. courtesy of Centre des archives dʼoutre-mer, France Mexican authorities, the Bonapartists were forced to abandon Champ d’Asile after only six months. From the start, French émigrés found a uniquely receptive environment in Louisiana. Among the “foreign French” who made significant contributions in Louisiana were several St. Domingue natives raised and educated in France. Louis William Dubourg (1766-1833), the third bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, fled the French Revolution by escaping to Spain disguised as a traveling musician. From Spain he came to the United States, arriving in Baltimore and serving for a time as president of Georgetown College. As bishop of Louisiana, Dubourg created new ecclesiastical parishes, expanded educational institutions, recruited European missionaries to serve in the territory; and, in 1817, published a catechism designed specifically for use in Louisiana. Bishop Dubourg also officiated at a ceremony of thanksgiving on January 23, 1815, following the Battle of New Orleans. Another St. Domingue native, John James Audubon, traced a similarly circuitous path before arriving in Louisiana. The natural son of a French citizen, Jean Audubon, and a Creole woman, Mlle. Rabin, Audubon was born in Les Cayes in 1785. As a young child, Audubon moved with his father to Nantes, France. The domestic turmoil of the revolutionary period brought massive losses to the Audubon family. As Audubon père worried about family finances, Napoleon’s conscriptors moved closer to Nantes. Young Audubon, whose talent with natural subjects was already well recognized, was sent to his family’s homestead in Pennsylvania. After several failed business ventures, he moved to Louisiana in 1821 and dedicated himself to painting. While his work was not initially well received in the United States, it quickly found admirers in Europe. His four-volume Birds of America (1827-38) is regarded today as both an artistic and publishing tour de force. The First Wave of St. Domingue Émigrés The St. Domingue slave uprisings that began in 1791 coalesced into revolution by 1793. Planters, merchants, and government officials, both whites and free blacks, were targeted by organized companies of slaves seeking retribution for past injustices — and seeking to establish a new form of government based on the principles espoused in the French Revolution. Many of the colony’s wealthiest citizens departed the island, often in great haste and carrying little more than the clothes they wore. Those who lived in rural locales had to pass through rebelcontrolled areas to reach port cities, where they faced the further challenges of scarce currency and armed harbor patrols. Once on board ship, the ordeal was hardly over. While some families had made prior arrangements with relatives in the United States, the majority had not. Vessels were often crowded, short on provisions, and subject to attack from privateers. Many émigrés departed for United States ports hoping to continue on to France, while others fled directly to nearby Cuba, Jamaica, Venezuela, and other Caribbean and Latin American locations. Cuba’s proximity to the northern cities of St. Domingue made it a natural destination. Spanish authorities in Cuba, aware of the plight of the émigrés, made plans in 1796 to consolidate resettlement in Jagua (present-day Cienfuegos) in southeastern Cuba. But by the early 19th century, the settlement pattern of St. Dominguans in Cuba was more diffuse and the city of Santiago de Cuba had emerged as the primary destination of refuge. Louisiana was still a Spanish colony in the 1790s, and Spanish officials feared the introduction of slaves from St. Domingue would increase the possibility of slave insurrections. Furthermore, Atlantic seaports with strong economic ties to St. Domingue, such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, were more logical choices for émigrés. But those who did elect to come to New Orleans quickly made an impact. 38 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2006
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