Creole City

In Creole City, Nathalie Dessens opens a window onto antebellum New Orleans during a time of rapid expansion and dizzying change. The storyrooted in the Sainte-Gme Family Papers harbored at The Historic New Orleans Collectionfollows the twenty-year correspondence of Jean Boze to Henri de Ste-Gme, both refugees from Saint-Domingue. Exploring parts of the citys history that have previously been neglected, Dessens examines how New Orleans came to symbolize progress, adventure, and culture to so many. Through Bozes letters, readers witness the convergence of new Americans and old colonial populations that sparked transformations in the economic, social, and political structures, as well as the Creolization of the city. Additionally, the letters depict transatlantic experiences at a time when New Orleans was a key hub of the Atlantic trade and so very distinct from other nineteenth-century American metropolises, such as New York and Philadelphia. Dessenss portrayal of this seminal period is innovative and crucial to understanding of the citys rich record and its larger role in American history.