eBook

Building antebellum New Orleans : free people of color and their influence

Dudley, Tara

2021,2023

Overview

The Creole architecture of New Orleans is one of the city’s most-recognized features, but studies of it largely have focused on architectural typology. In Building Antebellum New Orleans, Tara A. Dudley examines the architectural activities and influence of gens de couleur libres—free people of color—in a city where the mixed-race descendants of whites and other free Blacks could own property.Between 1820 and 1850 New Orleans became an urban metropolis and industrialized shipping center with a growing population. Amidst dramatic economic and cultural change in the mid-antebellum period, the gens de couleur libres thrived as property owners, developers, building artisans, and patrons. Dudley writes an intimate microhistory of two prominent families of Black developers, the Dollioles and Souliés, to explore how gens de couleur libres used ownership, engagement, and entrepreneurship to construct individual and group identity and stability. With deep archival research, Dudley re-creates in fine detail the material culture, business and social history, and politics of the built environment for free people of color and adds new, revelatory information to the canon on New Orleans architecture.

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Subject: African American architects / African American architects -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- History -- 19th century / African American architecture / African American architecture -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- 19th century / African American Studies / American architectural history / American architectural history of the 19th-20th century / American architecture / Architects and builders / Architects and builders -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- History -- 19th century / architectural history / ARCHITECTURE / Architecture -- United States -- History -- 19th century / ARCHITECTURE / General / ARCHITECTURE / History / General / Black history / built environment / city planning / creole / cultural geography / Ethnic Studies / Free African Americans / Free African Americans -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- History -- 19th century / Free Black people -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- History -- 19th century / Free blacks / free people of color / historic preservation / History / HISTORY / United States / State & Local / South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV) / New Orleans / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies / South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV) / State & Local / United States / urban development
• ISBN: 9781477328552, 1477328556, 1477323031, 9781477323021, 9781477323038, 1477323023