{"id":19919,"date":"2012-01-17T18:37:58","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T18:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=19919"},"modified":"2016-10-25T18:52:18","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T18:52:18","slug":"the-%e2%80%9cquadroon-placage%e2%80%9d-myth-of-antebellum-new-orleans-anglo-american-misinterpretations-of-a-french-caribbean-phenomenon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=19919","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cQuadroon-Pla\u00e7age\u201d Myth of Antebellum New Orleans: Anglo-American (Mis)interpretations of a French-Caribbean Phenomenon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cQuadroon-Pla\u00e7age\u201d Myth of Antebellum New Orleans: Anglo-American (Mis)interpretations of a French-Caribbean Phenomenon<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Journal of Social History<\/a>
\nPublished Online: 2011-11-13
\nDOI: 10.1093\/jsh\/shr059<\/a><\/p>\n

Kenneth Aslakson<\/a><\/strong>, Assistant Professor of History
\nUnion College, Schenectady, New York<\/em><\/p>\n

Although Thomas Jefferson’s<\/a> likely affair with his slave, Sally Hemmings<\/a>, has sparked controversy since James Callender<\/a> first made it public in 1802, no place has attracted more attention with regard to miscegenation<\/a> than Louisiana<\/a>, and particularly its chief city of New Orleans<\/a>. The general consensus holds that the inhabitants of New Orleans were unusually open about interracial relationships (or at least heterosexual ones in which the man was white), due to the cultural influence of the French and Spanish, and nothing epitomized this more than the city’s famed \u201cquadroon balls<\/a>,\u201d dances open to young free women of mixed ancestry and white gentlemen of means. According to lore, the \u201clovely and refined\u201d quadroon<\/a> woman came to the ball \u201cdressed in the most fashionable gown and chaperoned by her mother\u201d looking for a wealthy white gentleman. \u201cAfter dancing with a man, if the girl were attracted, he would be allowed to speak with her mother to make \u2018arrangements\u2019\u2026 [which] would include a furnished home that [the woman of color] would own and financial arrangements for her and any children.\u201d The relationship thus established was called pla\u00e7age<\/em> and the woman une plac\u00e9e.<\/em> The relationship was temporary and ended when the man took a white wife. Nevertheless, a woman of color greatly benefitted from the patronage of an elite white man and often used the money bestowed upon her to establish herself in business \u201cusually as a dressmaker, milliner, or by operating a boarding house.\u201d Thus, the \u201cquadroon balls\u201d and pla\u00e7age<\/em> relationships \u201cprovided a comfortable lifestyle for the quadroon ladies who had very limited options during the period.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this story of the quadroon balls and pla\u00e7age<\/em> is enticing, it is based on scanty evidence, and, therefore, this paper will refer to it as the quadroon-pla\u00e7age<\/em> myth. To be sure, something like the…<\/p>\n

Read or purchase the article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cQuadroon-Pla\u00e7age\u201d Myth of Antebellum New Orleans: Anglo-American (Mis)interpretations of a French-Caribbean Phenomenon Journal of Social History Published Online: 2011-11-13 DOI: 10.1093\/jsh\/shr059 Kenneth Aslakson, Assistant Professor of History Union College, Schenectady, New York Although Thomas Jefferson’s likely affair with his slave, Sally Hemmings, has sparked controversy since James Callender first made it public in 1802, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,369,8,20,25],"tags":[2092,4314,4313,4312,20754,1438,3850],"class_list":["post-19919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-louisiana","category-media-archive","category-usa","category-women","tag-journal-of-social-history","tag-kenneth-aslakson","tag-kenneth-r-aslakson","tag-kenneth-randolph-aslakson","tag-louisiana","tag-new-orleans","tag-quadroon-balls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49600,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19919\/revisions\/49600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}