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Thanksgiving is a festive occasion in New Orleans today, but in the nineteenth century, Southern states resisted the holiday. Thanksgiving was a “Yankee” holiday in the minds of Southerners, partially because its story originated in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, marking it as a regional celebration. But even more so, the South saw Thanksgiving as a challenge to the institution of slavery.
Read MorePre-Lenten festivals, such as the famous carnavale of Venice, Italy, the carnivals throughout Brazil, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and of course, New Orleans’ Mardi Gras, are often described—and idealized—as “festivals of inversion.” Historically, as moments in which the populace were invited to indulge themselves in the earthly pleasures they would soon give up for the forty-day period of Lent preceding Easter, Pre-Lenten carnivals also quickly became moments for “permissible” social transgression—men could dress as women, women as men, the rich masquerade as poor, and the poor crowned as kings and queens for a day. While this kind of role reversal—what scholars have termed “social inversion”—undoubtedly has been a central part of Pre-Lenten festivities throughout their long history, many historians recently have sought to bring more nuance to the discussion of Carnival. Particularly when so many of the most famous Pre-Lenten festivals take place in former slave-holding colonies of the Americas, it is likely that the participation of enslaved people and free people of color in these carnival celebrations differed considerably from the dominant narrative throughout the celebration’s centuries-long history.
Read MoreLearn about the development process for the latest offering from HGGHH. Voted one of the best tours in New Orleans by Condé Nast Traveler!
A century after the first enslaved Africans landed on the shores of Virginia, enslaved persons arrived to a newly founded French colony, La Nouvelle Orleans, in 1719. By 1830, the population of enslaved persons made up one third of New Orleans’ total population. Urban enslavement in New Orleans greatly influenced the Crescent City’s status as one of the most African cities in the western hemisphere, and these contributions are ever-present through the city’s celebrated culture.
Read MoreOver the course of the nineteenth century, cookbooks, often authored by women, became increasingly popular throughout the United States, including in the South. An 1839 article from the Daily Picayune commented on the trend: “Once, our smart damsels and grave madams gave us sentimental confectionary in the form of novels; but now they give us the science of gastronomy, that comes home to our bosoms three times a day.”
Read MoreImagine living through a New Orleans summer without being able to take a refreshing shower?
Read MoreThough year to year the date may change, as soon as the end of spring nears, you can hear the constant whirling sound of external air conditioning units in neighborhoods throughout New Orleans. In nineteenth-century New Orleans, however, citizens were not so fortunate.
Read MoreThere’s no question that the residents of the Hermann-Grima and Gallier Historic Houses lived through times of staggering change: industrialization, immigration, industrialization, and a Civil War that resulted in the death of 620,000 soldiers and the liberation of four million enslaved Americans. What does this have to do with Christmas?
Read MoreThis week The American Library Association, along with institutions around the country, are celebrating preservation! We join them in advocating for the care of artifacts like books, letters, photographs, furniture, and other objects that shed light on the past.
Read MoreSummer in New Orleans means a hot, humid, almost oppressive environment settles in over the city for a long four months. Today residents can shut the doors and windows, turn on their air conditioning unit, and relax away from the unbearable heat.
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