 | The quadroone, or, St. Michael's day |  |
PREFACE AND NOTES.
The scenes of the following story being laid in the
city of New-Orleans, in 1769, a brief account of the
place at that time will facilitate the apprehension of the
reader. Seventy years ago, the ancient town, which
was composed mostly of Moorish-looking edifices,
faced with white stucco, lay compactly, in the form of
a paralellogram, on the river Mississippi, with a spacious
square in its front This space was lined with
shade-trees; and an alaméda, with seats for the convenience
of the citizens, who thronged hither to enjoy
the evening breeze, bordered that portion of it next
to the water. It was sometimes called the Place
d'Armes by the Creoles, and by the Spaniards the
Plaza and “Governor's Square.”
On one side of it, facing the river, from which it
was distant about a furlong, stood the Cathedral, a
large, gloomy Spanish edifice, looking like some old
Castilian convent, with an imposing façade, supported
by ten massive pillars, and crowned by towers.
On each side of this structure, alike in appearance,
like a pair of stately wings, but separated from it by
narrow streets, stood a noble building; one was occupied
as the town-house and hall of justice; the other,
which was on the east, was the palace of the governor.
Both were grand and massive like the Cathedral, and
of the same dingy white with which age had stained
it; for fifty years in that moist climate gives to edifices
the hoary and venerable aspect that in Europe is
the work of centuries.
The east and west sides of the square were bordered
with houses built after the prevailing French and
Spanish styles, stuccoed with white plaster, with balconies,
by iron jalousies, and ornamented with far-projecting
shades, painted with brilliant dyes, various as
the number of lattices they shielded from the noontide
sun. From this square, which was in the centre of
the town, and the scene of every stirring event, and
where dwelt not only the governor, but the chief men
of the province, diverged narrow, closely-built streets;
those on the north and east terminating in dark and
almost impenetrable cypress forests. These forests
were interlaced with an inextricable network of lagoons
and bayous, which communicated both with the
river and Lake Pontchartrain, and even, after leagues
of devious windings, with the Gulf of Mexico—labyrinths
known only to the chasseur, the courreur du
bois, and the lawless ladrones of the lagoons, who in
formidable numbers infested them.
A venerable convent of the Ursulines in the neighbourhood
of the Cathedral; a gloomy prison, called the
Dungeons of the Calaboose, situated in the rear of the
hall of justice; an old government-house, once occupied
as barracks for the governor's guards, but now deserted
and falling into ruins; and a low-roofed market-house
near the Place d'Armes, supported by a heavy colonnade
of brick pillars, completed the sum of its public
edifices. Many of its private dwellings were imposing,
with their roofs crowned with battlements and ornamented
with urns; with their balconies, green lattices,
and graceful verandahs; with their wide portals and
lofty apartments; and being usually built around a
court paved with marble, in the centre of which played
a fountain, and about which were cloisters, shaded
with Venetian blinds, and adorned with the choicest
evergreens and plants, they had an air of Eastern luxury
that produced an agreeable effect both upon the
eye and senses.
The inhabitants were mostly of French descent, and,
like their Gallic sires, were urbane, spectacle-loving,
excitable, and patriotic; they were, besides, very devout
to great luxury in their houses, remarkably characterized
them; while enthusiastic attachment to “la belle
France” was interwoven with their very religion. Domestic
slavery obtained among them to an extensive
degree; and, while their laws were singularly severe
against legal amalgamation, they openly practised a
system of concubinage that has been without a parallel
even in Oriental countries.
Notes.—1. The term Creole will be used throughout
this work in its simple Louisianian acceptation,
viz., as the synonyme for NATIVE. It has no reference
whatsoever to African descent, and means nothing
more nor less than native, one or two of the English
dictionaries to the contrary notwithstanding. The
children of northern parents, if born in Louisiana, are
“Creoles.” The term, however, is more peculiarly
appropriated by those who are of French descent to
themselves, and with this meaning and bearing it is
used throughout the present work.
2. A Quadroon, strictly, is one whose blood is four
parts European and one part African. This amalgamation
is expressed in the French words Quatre et
une, or Quatr'une, from which comes the Anglo corruption
of Quadroon. Those, however, who retain
even a tenth part of the African blood, and, to all appearance,
are as fair as Europeans, and undistinguished
from them save by the remarkable and undefinable
expression of the eyes, which always betrays their remote
Ethiopian descent, come also under the general
designation of “Quadroon.”
3. As Quadroons are of both sexes, and the English
word is not distinctive, the author, in order to
avoid confusion, has restored the feminine termination,
e, of the French phrase, which is quatr'une feminine,
but quatr'un masculine, distinguishing them throughout
the volumes as Quadroon and Quadroone, according
to the sex.
4. The practical critic will discover that one or two
historical fictions are interwoven with the thread of
the romance, and that history itself has been followed
only when the story chanced to flow with its current.
| The quadroone, or, St. Michael's day | |