Description
Book SynopsisLocated at the junction of North America and the Caribbean, the vast territory of colonial Louisiana provides a paradigmatic case study for an Atlantic studies approach. One of the largest North American colonies and one of the last to be founded, Louisiana was governed by a succession of sovereignties, with parts ruled at various times by France, Spain, Britain, and finally the United States. But just as these shifting imperial connections shaped the territory''s culture, Louisiana''s peculiar geography and history also yielded a distinctive colonization pattern that reflected a synthesis of continent and island societies.
Louisiana: Crossroads of the Atlantic World offers an exceptional collaboration among American, Canadian, and European historians who explore colonial and antebellum Louisiana''s relations with the rest of the Atlantic world. Studying the legacy of each period of Louisiana history over the longue durée, the essays create a larger picture of the
Trade Review
"The ten essays in this volume prove the value of an exploration of Louisiana's colonial and American territorial past from an Atlantic world perspective. American, Canadian, and European historians demonstrate through extensive comparative and connective analysis of Louisiana's administrative, economic, and social links to France, Spain, and the Caribbean that eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Louisiana should never again be characterized as isolated and insular." * Julien Vernet, The Journal of Southern History *
"Sitting at the edges of a New France trading economy and a circum-Caribbean system of slavery as well as at the heart of what would become the continental United States, Louisiana did indeed sit at the crossroads of the Atlantic world. Bridging historiographic and nationalistic divides, Louisiana: Crossroads of the Atlantic World is a welcome addition to the transnational scholarship of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century Louisiana." * Jennifer M. Spear, author of Race, Sex, and Social Order in Early New Orleans *
"These smart essays make good on the transnational promises and post-colonial potential of Atlantic history. No one, ever again, will refer to Louisiana as the neglected stepchild of United States or French colonial history." * Catherine Desbarats, McGill University *
Table of Contents
Introduction. Louisiana in Atlantic Perspective
—Cécile Vidal
PART I. EMPIRES
Chapter 1. "To Establish One Law and Definite Rules": Race, Religion, and the Transatlantic Origins of the Louisiana Code Noir
—Guillaume Aubert
Chapter 2. Making a Career out of the Atlantic: Louisiana's Plume
—Alexandre Dubé
Chapter 3. Spanish Louisiana in Atlantic Contexts: Nexus of Imperial Transactions and International Relations
—Sylvia L. Hilton
PART II. CIRCULATIONS
Chapter 4. Slaves and Poor Whites' Informal Economies in an Atlantic Context
—Sophie White
Chapter 5. "Un Nègre nommè [sic] Lubin ne connaissant pas Sa Nation": The Small World of Louisiana Slavery
—Jean-Pierre Le Glaunec
PART III. INTIMACIES
Chapter 6. Caribbean Louisiana: Church, Métissage, and the Language of Race in the Mississippi Colony during the French Period
—Cécile Vidal
Chapter 7. Private Lives and Public Orders: Regulating Sex, Marriage, and Legitimacy in Spanish Colonial Louisiana
—Mary Williams
Chapter 8. Atlantic Alliances: Marriage among People of African Descent in New Orleans
—Emily Clark
Conclusion. Beyond Borders: Revising Atlantic History
—Sylvia R. Frey
Notes
List of Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
