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Home > Location > History The Story of Faubourg Marigny
New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Sieur de Bienville representing the king of France. The design of the city included surrounding fortifications, then an area reserved as “commons,” then land grants of plantations. By 1760 no fortifications had been built so the commons were given over to private ownership. The first owner of these lands down river from the city was Claude Dubreuil of Dijon who already owned the adjacent plantation past the commons. This plantation was called La Brasserie – the Brewery. It seems that French settlers wasted no time in setting up a good source of librations. Dubreuil was also the “king’s builder” and is credited with construction of the first levees and the Ursuline Convent on Chartres Street – the only remaining French colonial building in Louisiana. Through the lands once the commons, he dug a canal to power a saw mill around 1753. This canal eventually became Elysian Fields Avenue. He also was the first large scale grower of sugar cane imported from San Domingo. He was a slave owner who trained his workers in the many crafts needed for construction and agriculture and perhaps these were the ancestors of many “free people of color” who eventually settled in what became the Faubourg Marigny.
Dubreuil died in 1757 while France and England fought the French and Indian War resulting in the loss of colonies by the French to Spain. In 1792 the Spanish built fortifications around the city on what is now Esplanade and Rampart streets. By 1805 the United States owned the Spanish lands east of the river and proceeded to demolish the fortifications. In the meantime, the property went through several owners and in 1798 Pierre Philippe de Marigny became the owner. With the fortifications gone and no need for the protective “commons,” Marigny’s ownership began along the back of 100 foot deep lots on Esplanade Avenue and proceeded down river. In 1806 his son, Bernard de Marigny, obtained permission to create a new suburb for the growing city, naming it the Faubourg Marigny. The old sawmill canal had been extended to the Bayou St. John and now became the center of the new subdivision with the name Champs Elisees or Elysian Fields.
Throughout the first half of the 19th century the city developed commercial activity concentrated around Canal Street, Americans arriving from the East settling upriver (Uptown) and Creole, French and free persons of color downriver in the Faubourg Marigny and By-Water. This latter settlement was due to Marigny’s own background and the marketing tool of smaller lot sizes and thus more affordable housing. As years passed, the faubourgs downriver from the French Quarter saw the greatest settlement of arriving immigrants, particularly from Germany and Italy. In the 1830’s a railroad was completed alongside the Marigny Canal. This 5 mile run to the lake from the river, one of the country’s earliest railroads, survived until the 1950’s when the tracks were removed establishing the tree-filled neutral ground.
Free Persons of Color
From its beginning New Orleans developed a large and identifiable community of “gens de couleur libres.” The French “Code Noir” (Black Code) began as early as 1724 to address the legal status and rights of this group. The Spanish continued granting freedom to the offspring of free colored women, but freedoms and rights were increasingly controlled as the relationships between white men and these women grew. Laws controlling their dress led to the use of the “tignon” or head scarf which identified these women. American rule brought more restrictions, particularly as the tensions of the Civil War approached. But the group prospered. Men often distinguished themselves by serving in military units. By 1830, census numbers show almost 12,000 such persons in the city.
The sources of this growth were the manumission of slaves, the offspring and migrants from Europe and particularly the West Indies colonies. In 1804, thirty-four boats arrived carrying 5,797 refugees from the 1795 slave uprising in Santo Domingo. Here we have the source of the term creole. Both people of color and of white identification used the term primarily dealing with place and origin of birth rather than race. Usually the meaning was that they were of European ancestry, born in French or Spanish colonies and usually several generations removed from Africa and often never been slaves themselves. In fact, they usually spoke French, were well educated or highly proficient in the trades. They were an exclusive and separate society from French, Spanish and American so the creole faubourgs gave them a place of their own. Sometimes slave owners themselves, records show numerous cases of their buying the freedom of relatives and friends.
As the number of white creole men and free women of color who established committed relationships increased, many ways to circumvent laws designed to control inheritance were concocted. Since the free offspring of the women could inherit from a white father while their mother could not, homes, properties and even businesses were often left to the children. In some cases, property was first passed to a friend who then donated it to the deceased’s mistress. There are also numerous notarial records showing direct inheritance. In many cases, although the white man could not marry his colored mistress he never married a white woman, allowing more freedom in the disposition of his assets. Of course, much property was purchased directly by free people of color and amazingly the laws allowed for almost complete freedom to do as they pleased. Understanding the legacy left by these people in their neighborhoods and in the city’s social fabric is an inspiration to disenfranchised minorities everywhere.
From: "Early History" by Samuel Wilson, Jr. & "Free Persons of Color" by Sally K. Evans in New Orleans Architecture: The Creole Faubourgs |