Historic Louisiana

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Right: Micaela Antonio Almonester,
baroness de Pontalba, owed her title to her
husband and her money to her father,
Andres Almonester y Roxas, but she owed
her brains and her courage to no one. A
Creole, she spent most of her life in Paris.
She was a notable architect/builder,
constructing the Creole townhouses on
Jackson Square and her own home in Paris,
which is the residence of the American
ambassador to France. Her father-in-law’s
attempt on her life is a bizarre example of
the lengths Creoles would go to seize control
of perceived family property. Such lifetime
quarrels continue to rock Creole families to
this day.
COURTESY OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, TULANE UNIVERSITY.
Below: The Ursulines Convent, completed
around 1755, is the oldest documented
structure in the Mississippi Valley. The
Ursuline Nuns arrived in New Orleans in
1728 to staff the hospital and educate the
daughters of such Frenchmen as could
afford to send their daughters to school. The
Ursulines also maintained a large staff of
black slaves, many of whom received some
education, while others operated several
plantations bequeathed to the order.
COURTESY OF THE LOUISIANA OFFICE OF TOURISM.
necessary condition. Of gambling and thievery
Pitot wrote, “The government is aware of and
permits all of that; and woe unto the minor
official who would want to stop it. The governor
general reserves to himself alone the right to
decide when gambling causes abuses….”
The most popular social activity throughout
Louisiana was dancing, and balls were
anticipated, planned, and participated in
everywhere during nine months of the year. To
make a brilliant appearance at the balls was the
principal goal of every Creole. Balls were set for
every age, from adolescence to old age. There
were even balls for young children “where the
parent’s infatuation brings them each week into
a show of luxury and affectation” as future
Mayor James Pitot wrote in 1802.
A fight over a small museum in the French
community exemplifies the community’s
concerns. In 1819 an unnamed planter
commented on the new Museum Coffee House.
He decried it because the items in the Museum
were not being well-preserved. A newspaper
printed his letter, defending the coffee house.
Its operator, one Dorfeuille, had been collecting
items for a long time. The city was better for
having the museum, and others had failed. In
French, the editorialist continued, “We are of
the opinion that a little bit of encouragement by
the public will prevent a similar future for an
institution so precious and necessary for a
civilized population.”
Creole Nicholas Noel Destrehan has left
two letters that also reveal a man
knowledgeable about grammar and rhetoric,
and au courant on French literature and other
subjects. These letters reveal a man of
sensitivity and taste, concerned with
inculcating these values in his children. On
April 12, 1843, Destrehan wrote to two of his
daughters who were studying at the Sisters of
the Sacred Heart in St. Genevieve, Missouri.
Family accounts indicate that Nicholas sent
them to school there in 1835 following the
death of their mother. The Destrehan family
had long been close to the Chouteau family of
St. Louis.
by Mr. de Wailly, the both of them containing
everything you could want to know about the
principles of the French language; that of
Wailly contains otherwise the syntax, a
treatise on the tropes (or figurative manner of
speaking) and a short piece on versification. I
recommend to you especially not to lose or
endanger the two works, I am especially fond
Mr. Chouteau will bring you a barrel of
oranges, a little chest containing two French
grammars, one by C. C. Lettelier and the other
HISTORIC LOUISIANA
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