Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2006 - (Page 44) John James Audubon, regarded as one of the finest painters of American birds and mammals, was born in Les Cayes, St. Domingue, in 1785. Pictured here is White Heron, an 1837 engraving with watercolor. courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection, bequest of Richard Koch waning days of the War of 1812, St. Domingue émigrés played a vital role in the defense of New Orleans. White émigrés represented approximately 28 percent of the soldiers in the Battalion of New Orleans; many black émigrés served in the Second Battalion of Free Men of Color; and the Baratarians counted many St. Domingue natives in their number. The Battle of New Orleans proved a marvelous vehicle for integration. Émigrés from across the social spectrum discovered a stake in the community and rallied to defeat a common rival, England. In short order, the St. Domingue émigrés became fully integrated into all aspects of community life. Responding to Governor Claiborne’s concerns about the educational opportunities available in Louisiana, a group of leading citizens-including émigrés Jules d’Avezac, James Pitot, and Louis Moreau-Lislet-helped establish the Collège d’Orléans in 1812. Jean Baptiste Augustin (1764-1832), another émigré, taught Latin there. Children of St. Dominguans were given preference in admissions by the school’s governing body. The bounty of the resulting cultural harvest is manifest in the careers of three literary figures: François Dominique Rouquette (18101890), Tullius Saint-Ceran (1800-1855), and Charles Etienne Arthur Gayarré (1805-1895), all graduates of the college. Rouquette, a regular contributor to L’Abeille and the Propagateur Catholique, was also a poet known for his “Fleurs d’Amerique” (1857). SaintCerran, another poet, memorialized the Battle of New Orleans in “Mil Huit Cent Quatorze” (1839). Gayarré led an active political life, but his true legacy lies in his published works-a four-volume History of Louisiana (1854-66) and a historical novel, Fernando de Lemos (1872), about student life at the Collège d’Orléans. Other émigrés imported medical expertise. Doctors such as Christian Miltenberger (1764-1829), who had practiced in St. Domingue, possessed critical experience in the treatment of yellow fever, a killing scourge that habitually visited New Orleans until 1905. Others, like Jean-Charles Faget (1818-1884) and Octave Huard (18381896), benefited from training in Parisian medical schools. (Many émigré families maintained close ties with France and chose to educate their children abroad.) Faget was particularly well known for his publications on yellow fever, while Huard, in addition to practicing medicine, was an early activist for the preservation of the French language in Louisiana. Second-generation émigrés made tremendous contributions to the musical and literary life of 19th-century New Orleans. Even a partial list of St. Domingue artists reveals the depth of the local talent pool. While internationally acclaimed pianist and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (18291869) needs no introduction, the story of his family’s escape from St. Domingue has been largely forgotten. A contemporary of Gottschalk’s, François-Michel-Samuel Snaër (18351900), was an African American of St. Domingue descent who served as organist at St. Mary’s Church on 44 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2006
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