Creoles of color of the Gulf South
By: edited by James H. Dormon.
Contributors: Dormon, James H.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Knoxville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
Subjects: Creoles -- Louisiana.; Creoles -- Gulf States.; Louisiana -- Social life and customs.; Gulf States -- Social life and customs.
Description: Consisting of eight original essays by noted scholars, this volume examines the history and culture of a unique population - those peoples in the Gulf region who descended from the colonial and antebellum free persons of color and who represent the middle ground in the region's "tri-racial" social order.

Although the book begins with an analysis of the Creole population's origins in the New Orleans area, the subsequent essays focus on the Creole communities outside that city. Throughout the volume the contributors demonstrate the persistence of the Creole ethnic identity. Included are examinations of Creole populations in the cities of Pensacola and Mobile, as well as those in the bayou and prairie regions of Louisiana.

In addition to dealing with sociohistorical aspects of the Creole experience, the book features essays that examine language, music, and folklore. The concluding essay, which cuts across several disciplines, covers the late twentieth-century revitalization of the Gulf Creole communities.

. With its multidimensional, cross-disciplinary emphasis, Creoles of Color of the Gulf South constitutes an especially notable contribution to the current scholarly interest in ethnic minorities and racial dynamics in American history and culture.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-182) and index.
Table of contents: title: Origins of New Orleans's free Creoles of color / Kimberly S. Hanger; title: The free Creoles of color of the antebellum gulf ports of Mobile and Pensacola : a struggle for the middle ground / Virginia Meacham Gould; title: Socioeconomic dynamics among the Gulf Creole populations : the antebellum and Civil War years / Loren Schweninger; title: Creoles of color in Louisiana's bayou country, 1766-1877 / Carl Brasseaux; title: Mardi Gras in l'anse de prien noir : a Creole community performance in rural French Louisiana / Nicholas R. Spitzer; title: Zydeco/zarico : the term and the tradition / Barry Jean Ancelet; title: The place of Louisiana Creole among New World French Creoles / Albert Valdman; title: Ethnicity and identity : Creoles of color in twentieth-century south Louisiana / James H. Dormon.