Down In New Orleans:: True Stories of a Fabled City

‘DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS: True Stories of a Fabled City’ tells narratives of the people, places, and events that have given the city on the Mississippi River its character and soul. Over three hundred years since French adventurers arrived on the lower Mississippi, this book describes the personalities, motivations, emotions, temperaments, and experiences of the people over those centuries. Surprises and intrigue populate the pages. The struggles of French, Spanish, Native Americans, persons of African descent, native born Creoles and Americans all of whom played major roles are described.
Early in the 18th century, France, in need of colonists opened the doors of criminal and debtors’ prisons, rounded up vagabonds and women of the streets, enlisted farmers, and encouraged victims of war and persecutions. The soldiers were the dregs of the French military. Within twenty years there were more enslaved people from Africa than there were colonists. These immigrants were led by a rogue’s gallery of self-seeking political and military leaders, grasping for their own fortunes.
The Catholic Church, in contrast to Puritans of New England, was the dominating religion with other faiths, Jews and Protestants, forbidden by law to organize. Tobacco, indigo and lumber from the swamps were the best the colonists could find to ship to the old country. Out of this mix came the culture that is New Orleans. Welcome.
Citizens debate whether this mélange was a gumbo, jambalaya, or just dirty rice. From many nations the people delivered to Louisiana brought with them their cultures, music, dance, cuisines, curiosities, languages, intrigues, and mentalities. They clung to their voodoo spirits, ghosts, concoctions, music, dance, and Mardi Gras celebrations. These people coalesced into a Creole population that preferred the French language. The Creoles were the children of the immigrants who were born in Louisiana. Once the original immigrant population passed, their descendants, the Creoles, inherited the city and wetlands around it. This is the population that became New Orleans.
‘Down in New Orleans’ is not a history book; it is a storybook. History is documentation of events, places, or people. Stories are accounts of events, places or people told with an entertainment element in mind. A raconteur is not from the history department nor the theatre department, but rather the raconteur is from the hallway in between. The stories are designed to develop high levels of interest in the listener or audience. Don Hewett, producer of CBS’ 60 Minutes was asked what his secret was for the long running reign of the show in the TV ratings. He replied, “Four words: tell – me – the - story”. Anyone familiar with the show knows what he meant. Stories attract interest. They have staying power in the human mind. We may not remember a list of dates, but we readily remember an intriguing tale.
The author, William C. Norris, Jr., a native of Louisiana and a resident of New Orleans. In recent years he told these stories on the streets and taught them in the Professional Tourguiding class at Delgado Community College. He was graduated from Louisiana State University with a BA and MA, and the University of Southern California with a Ph.D. in Communications in 1971. He has been a storyteller for a lifetime.