Review of Bounded Lives, Bounded Places
Free Black Society in Colonial New Orleans The role of slaves in the Old South was always marked as one of servitude towards the master. Lives were spent with a master, with generation after generation of blacks serving their white masters. Some were fortunate enough to gain freedom, yet most never tasted that luxury. However, during Louisiana's Spanish colonial period, there was a huge growth in the development of free blacks. Free blacks, our libres, were very unique to Louisiana and especially New Orleans for they were a growing group and played an integral role in New Orleans society. Bounded Lives, Bounded Places by Kimberly S. Hanger examines the libres of New Orleans from the perspective of its free black residents and exposes the advances they made in many different facets of colonial life. Hanger shows how that the blacks in New Orleans, although not all yearning for more opportunity, received more under the influence of the Spanish crown than they would have under the rule of the other European or even early American jurisidictions. Hanger did an exemplary role or not only maintaining a strong focus on Spanish Louisiana but also providing for frequent views of other parts of
Emergence into the "American" culture widened the gap between slaves, libres and whites as New Orleans became part of a Southern culture that depended heavily on slavery and was beginning to fight to retain the institution of slavery. The free black community in New Orleans was molding into a significant class. "Through various forms of political action and cultural play in both covert and over ways. Hanger continued her fine work by repeatedly bringing specific examples of the libres bringing me closer to the realities of life in the colony. They played a vital role throughout the American Revolution and used their dependence by the Spanish crown as an instrument for an increase in their stature and reputation. the Americas placing colonial New Orleans in framework of Carribean and Latin American History. Most were given freedom from their masters. The militias gave free black in New Orleans an important "instrument for political expression as a corporate body, an avenue for social advancement, and a means by which to gain honor, prestige and recognition" (134). However, the libres were able to hold on to their formed identity through the Spanish influence on the city. Not only did this change my views on slavery as an institution but it altered my views on the heavy influences that contributed in establishing New Orleans as the melting pot of cultures and distinct influences that are present in its society and culture today. It was very interesting to observe how most of these libres had gained their freedom. Finally, when American did consume Louisiana an inherited New Orleans, the libres faced an increased difficulty to continue to develop as a society. "Without the protection of a paternalistic Spanish government, a race-conscious as it was, libres in New Orleans encountered continuing attacks on their status as a distinct group; as the nineteenth century unfolded, local whites stepped up efforts to define and treat all person of African descent as slaves" (162). The process that these freed slaves undertook to gain their freedom and challenge their low status within colonial society led to their noted identity which emphasized their contributions to society.
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Acceptance Essays
