Building The Devil's Empire In Review

    I recently had the pleasure of attending a lecture given by Ms. Shannon Lee Dawdy at the Historic New Orleans Collection. I arrived with great anticipation of learning more about the daily life of the colonists of early New Orleans and when I walked in there was standing room only. It was surely an indicator that my time would be well spent. Ms. Dawdy has recently written a book about French Colonial New Orleans entitled Building the Devil’s Empire. I was both impressed with the lecture and the book for several reasons including her great attention to detail, keen analytical mind as well as her ability to form well thought out theories all with a personal touch. Ms. Dawdy has recently received her Ph.D. from University of Michigan. Her specialties are anthropology and social sciences. Additionally, she considers New Orleans her “second home”. I felt that her information would be quite valuable based on both her credentials and her love for the city and its history.
     Ms. Dawdy began the lecture by explaining that she would focus on New Orleans’ oldest cemetery, St. Peter. Her reasons for this were twofold. Save Our Cemeteries was hosting the event and receiving half of the proceeds of the sale of the book and Chapter four of the book focuses very specifically on how the archeological findings of the cemetery contributed to an anthropological understanding of the city during the French colonial period. However she did touch on highlights from the book in general.
     I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ms. Dawdy showed a sincere interest in this period as well as a sharp intellect with which to interpret evidence. She was able to dispel some of the misinformation that I had assumed myself for years. She was able to clearly articulate with significant evidence through research that St. Peter was indeed the city’s first official cemetery, a fact that I had only recently learned. In addition, I learned that there were many different ethnicities involved such as European, African, Indian and mixes of all three. This immediately made me skeptical of the notion that I had taken that New Orleans was always historically a segregated society; at least on the surface. Some other surprising points that she brought up were that the burials in this cemetery were simple and below ground although it did not come as much of a surprise that all were baptized Catholics. All this, she explained, was just as interesting to her as an anthropologist as it was for the archeology team and others involved in the “dig”. This was coupled with a photograph on screen of what a typical archeological dig looked like giving the audience and inside view of what she was discussing.
      Through the use of visually inspiring maps and prints, Ms. Dawdy was able to persuade the audience that her work was indeed based on many facets of research and impartial analysis.     I especially enjoyed her explanation of how she came to decide on a cover for the book itself. It is that of a promotion of John Law’s company printed in 1717 depicting commerce with great fictional flare(original print housed at the HNOC). If you have a chance to see the book cover (and I do highly recommend that you open the book and read it as well!) you will probably notice, as I did, that there are two men kissing among the group of people. Ms. Dawdy explained with a giggle that she liked that particular depiction and I had to agree that I did too. This was just the type of presentation that kept us interested in her lecture and made the audience feel as though they were part of the process and not just spectators.
     Ms. Dawdy was able to portray a tangible French colonial society in New Orleans that was a place of criminality, servitude and gentility. Most importantly, despite the hardships of colonial life, regardless of their “station”, most were survivors. Contrary to what I previously assumed, Ms. Dawdy explained that these colonist were well fed. This according to biological data from excavation. They subsisted on primarily corn which was used most frequently in bread and beer. She effectively used various examples of individual and public records in her lecture to explain that this was not a community of rampant starvation and disease, yet objectively pointing out that there were indeed problems to be overcome.
     In person, I found her to be a graceful, kind and intelligent person. Following the lecture she did a book signing and I stood in front of a gentleman determined to argue details with her. She listened intently to his argument and with humility and grace she proceeded to dismantle his arguments and explain where she had gotten the information to back them up. I was very impressed with her ability to debate in such a civilized manner without becoming openly condescending, angry or defensive.
     In general, I came away from the lecture riveted by all of the new information I had gleaned and ready to attack the book with pen in hand. I also left feeling that not only had it been informative on a very intellectual level, but enjoyable on a very personal level. It was clear that Ms. Dawdy was well versed on the facts and myths as well as a lover of New Orleans’ rich colonial history.
     The book was as academically well done as I expected it would be. It was clear, concise and written in a style that any reader of history could follow and enjoy.   Ms. Dawdy clearly explained her approach and why she chose it. She used what she described as a “picaresque” approach. This allowed her to approach her subject matter through the eyes of those who actually experienced it as well as participated in it.   It allowed for a departure of “event based” historical theory. Her attempt was that of an interpreter of the evidence that the French Colonial community of New Orleans was cast sometimes unfairly in a poor light. The demands and failures of the French crown as well as the social customs of the time led her to explain in detail her theories of where the poor reputation arose. In addition , she was able to point out without prejudice that it did indeed have its negative qualities.   Ms. Dawdy explored the clear evidence of colonization through forced exile, slavery and dishonesty contributing to some of the cities early problems.   She discussed briefly, in person and more specifically in the book, that French social engineering clearly did not work in colonial New Orleans. The crown tried very hard to keep races and classes apart but were left with little to no success. I am mentioning these things because they were very important in reshaping my beliefs about New Orleans . Along with many other very interesting aspects of French colonial New Orleans and its social aspects, Ms. Dawdy brought to life for me the notions that nothing was static and planning was largely irrelevant. However, according to her, the place was not a “backwoods” of anarchy and suffering. While there were aspects of crime and difficulties; it was a growing city experiencing a good amount of undue prejudice. She dealt comprehensively and quite effectively with proving that there were many well read, literate and generally intelligent folks in the community. It left me even more excited about our history than I had been in a long time. What inspired me the most was her attention to the ideas of what social life was really like during French Colonialism. My only complaints upon reading the book was a degree of repetitiveness and the occasional introduction of opinion only loosely based on facts. Otherwise I found it to be a wealth of information on the rarely discussed topic of the average people as well as the more well known families. The depth of this in the book was rather remarkable and the lecture further exemplified it. Using maps, records and archeological evidence she was effectively able to construct a community of thinkers, workers, soldiers, and slaves that combined to produce an environment that broke free of the constraints of European social hierarchies.
     Ms. Dawdy demonstrated intense curiosity, imagination and a distinctive touch of humanity throughout the book and lecture. She mentioned various personal stories derived from Superior council records and other similar sources that shed light on day to day disagreements and issues of actual individuals. Some of them were higher class while others were merchants and laborers. It added a touch of personality and a unique look inside of the daily lives of the people.
     Through the prism of the past Ms. Dawdy was able to expose the city as a duality of decency and sin that it still suffers with. She was also able to bring out the better character of the colonial city as well as leaving the reader feeling that the subject was approached with a fair amount of care and objectivity.    She successfully argued that each European power governed their colonies differently, but it is clear that New Orleans was never meant to be governed from a far. Her society, culture and way of life has always been dictated by the diversity and the uniqueness of her people. I feel very fortunate that I had the opportunity as well as the pleasure of attending the lecture and reading the book. It is a must read for several simple reasons. It is well documented, well translated and is also filled with pieces of everyday lives of the past that we would not encounter otherwise. In addition,   I found the sources that Ms. Dawdy used extremely useful in my own research. I would highly recommend attendance, should she host any future lectures as well.   I truly appreciate all the work she put into gathering this information and look forward to many more works of hers which undoubtedly will emerge.
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