1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780946203321

Autore

Dudley Tara

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin, TX : , : University of Texas Press, , [2021]

©2021

ISBN

1-4773-2303-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (335 pages)

Collana

Lateral exchanges

Disciplina

720.97633509034

Soggetti

African American architects - Louisiana - New Orleans - History - 19th century

African American architecture - Louisiana - New Orleans - 19th century

Architecture - United States - History - 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- TABLES -- FIGURES -- INTRODUCTION -- Part I OWNERSHIP Possessing the Built Environment -- Chapter 1 THE GENS DE COULEUR LIBRES’ ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY -- Chapter 2 THE RAMIFICATIONS OF USE AND LOCATION -- Part II ENGAGEMENT Forming and Transforming the Built Environment -- Chapter 3 THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE DOLLIOLE AND SOULIÉ FAMILIES -- Chapter 4 “UNCOMMON INDUSTRY” Gens de Couleur Libres Builders in Antebellum New Orleans -- Chapter 5 “RAISED TO THE TRADE” Building Practices of Gens de Couleur Libres Builders in Antebellum New Orleans -- Chapter 6 THE STATUS QUO French, Creole, and Anglo Builders and Architects in Antebellum New Orleans -- Part III ENTREPRENEURSHIP Controlling the Built Environment -- Chapter 7 MONEY, POWER, AND STATUS IN THE BUILDING TRADES -- CONCLUSION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

2022 PROSE Award Winner in Architecture and Urban Planning 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 recreates 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.