Sexual Commodification and Negotiation among Louisiana's Quadroons, 1805-1860 - Dissertation by Noël Mellick Voltz

“‘It’s no disgrace to a colored girl to placer’: Sexual Commodification and Negotiation among Louisiana’s “Quadroons,” 1805-1860” DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Noël Mellick Voltz Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Professor Leslie M. Alexander, Advisor Professor Walter C. Rucker Professor Lucy E. Murphy Copyright by Noël Mellick Voltz 2014 Abstract In 1805, a New Orleans newspaper advertisement formally defined a new social institution, the infamous Quadroon Ball, in which prostitution and plaçage – a system of concubinage – converged.

These balls, limited to white men and light-skinned, free “Quadroon” women, became an interracial rendezvous that provided evening entertainment and the possibility of forming sexual liaisons in exchange for financial “sponsorship.” At these balls, money and other forms of payment were exchanged for the connubial placement of free women of color with wealthy white men. My dissertation entitled, ‘It’s no disgrace to a colored girl to placer’: Sexual Commodification and Negotiation Among Louisiana’s “Quadroons,” 1805-1860” seeks to understand how free women of color used sex across the colorline as a tool of negotiation in various spaces, like the Quadroon Ballroom, in antebellum Louisiana. More specifically, utilizing contemporary travelers’ journals, newspapers, poems, songs, letters, notarial and ecclesiastical records, court cases and other legal documents, my dissertation examines the sexual agency exerted by Louisiana’s free women of color in four sites of contestation – the body, the ballroom, the courtroom and the sanctuary. Free women of color occupied a precarious position in antebellum Louisiana, often subjugated because of their race, gender and class; yet, this very positioning also afforded them a space in which to maneuver socially and economically.

I contend that in these literal and figurative spaces, these women drew upon their sexuality to make ii strategic claims to their freedom advancing themselves socially and economically. This work pushes the boundaries of current scholarship engaging questions of sexual agency and trauma, race and identity, hegemonic myth and cultural reappropriation. In so doing, I build upon and push beyond historiographic discussions of the fetishizing and fanticizing gaze of white men and the overly simplistic dichotomous images of the hypersexualized jezebel and the totally victimized yet “respectable” free woman of color. Ultimately, this research illuminates a more nuanced understanding of black female agency in the antebellum era.

iii To Marie. iv Acknowledgments This project has been over a decade in the making and has truly been a labor of love and, at times, sorrow. No work of this magnitude can ever be completed without the support, guidance, knowledge, care, and patience of so many people to whom I am truly grateful. Although an acknowledgement can never fully capture the extent of my gratitude, I would like to take a moment and recognize some of the many individuals who have helped make this project a reality.

First and foremost, my largest debt of gratitude is owed to my advisors and friends, Dr. Leslie Alexander and Dr. I have been so blessed to have such talented, knowledgeable, supportive, and dedicated mentors. You both have inspired and guided me since I was a sophomore in undergraduate and have consistently and selflessly been committed to my success both academically and personally.

It has truly been an honor and a privilege to work with you. I hope that I can one day walk in your footsteps and be the kind of mentor and advisor for my students that you have modeled for me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you! In addition to Dr. Alexander and Dr.

Rucker, I also specifically want to thank Dr. Lucy Murphy, Dr. Hasan Jeffries, and Dr. Each of you has gone above and beyond in supporting me.

I have learned so much from each of you and I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to work with you all. Murphy – It has been a pleasure to get to know you and to work with you these last few years. Thank you for serving on my committees, for being so warm, supportive, and insightful, and for guiding me and challenging me in my study of people “in-between.” I have learned so much from you. Thank you! Dr.

Jeffries – I want to thank you for being an amazing professor, for originally sparking my interest in attaining a Ph., and for encouraging me to pursue undergraduate research in the first place. Greg – You have truly stood by my side and have supported me through both the highs and lows of my graduate school career. Thank you for listening, for helping me find my voice, and for pushing me when I felt like giving up. Graduate school has been one of the most exciting, and yet trying times, in my life.

I could not have completed this degree without the love and support of all of my friends. To all of my friends in graduate school and outside –You have enriched my life and given me the strength to complete this endeavor. Particular thanks are due to: Whitney Boyd, Ashley Jones, Leon and Jenny McCullough, Jessica Wallace, and John Howard. You all have been so wonderful and have always been there to commiserate with me, to make me smile, and to get me out of the house when writing was making me stir crazy.

I also owe special thanks to Ray Parr. You have been so encouraging through this research and writing process. From listening to me “nerd out” about my sources, to our day-long FaceTime writing sessions, your support never ceases to amaze me. Thank you for being you! Finally, I could not have written this dissertation without the love and support of my girls - Audrey, Shirley, Roxi, and Emily - and my extended Lane Bryant vi Family – Bridget, Jenni, Christi, Amy, Miss.

Charlotte, and Miss. Arlene – I love you, ladies! You are my friends, my encouragers, and have truly become my second family. Your friendship, kindness, and care, has meant more to me than words can express or than you can ever know. I can’t wait to see you all at our next Girls Night Out! This dissertation could never be produced without the assistance, knowledge and resources that I found in the archives in Louisiana.

I am so grateful for the warm and welcoming reception I have experienced at every archive I visited and I want to thank all the staff and archivists who have assisted me as I have journey into the past. In particular, thanks to: the Special Collections Department at the University of New Orleans - Earl K. Long Library, The William Research Center at the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Special Collections Department at Louisiana State University’s Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, The Cammie G. Henry Research Center at Northwestern State University of Louisiana, the Office of Archives at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Louisiana Division City Archives and Special Collections at the New Orleans Public Library, the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, the New Orleans Notarial Archives, and last but not least, the Sisters of Mt.

Additionally, I want to say a special thanks to Dr. Virginia Meacham Gould, Dr. Monique Guillory and the member of the St. Augustine Catholic Church.

I have truly appreciated our conversations about the free people of color in antebellum Louisiana. Thank you for giving me your time and sharing your knowledge. I am also very grateful for the funding I have received from Ohio State University to support this project. Specifically, I would like to thank the College of Arts and vii Sciences, and particularly Dr.

John Roberts, former dean of the College of the Arts and Humanities, the History Department, Henry H. Simms Award, and the Retrieving the American Past Research Award. Finally, I would like to say thank you to my family – and particularly to my mother Margo and to my sister Christine. None of this would have been written or possible without your guidance, support, and love.

This dissertation is dedicated to Marie. It has been amazing to see how much you have grown. I can’t wait to see what your future holds. I love you! viii Vita 2003.Rehoboth Christian School 2008., Ohio State University 2010.

History, Ohio State University 2008 to present .Graduate Teaching Associate and Fellow, Department of History, The Ohio State University Publications “As she sits down to write…: Using Primary Sources to Understand the Past” in Rethinking Emilie Frances Davis: Lesson Plans for Teaching Her 1863-1865 Civil War Pocket Diaries, ed. Karsonya Wise Whitehead and Conra Gist, 91-108. Baltimore: Apprentice House, 2014. Fields of Study Major Field: History ix Table of Contents Abstract.

ix List of Tables. xi List of Figures. 1 Chapter 1: “Mapping the Margins”:. 25 Chapter 2: The Body.

63 Chapter 3: The Ballroom. 98 Chapter 4: The Courtroom. 146 Chapter 5: The Sanctuary. 235 Appendix A: Population Data.

237 Appendix B: Relevant Images. 241 x List of Tables Table 1: “Population of Louisiana”. 223 Table 2: “Population of New Orleans by Sex”. 223 xi List of Figures Figure 1: Creole in a Red Headdress.

224 Figure 2: Portrait of Betsy. 225 Figure 3: Two Quadroon Ball Advertisements. 226 Figure 4: Sketch of a Quadroon Ball by John H. 226 xii Introduction In 1859, a mixed-race, free woman of color and hairdresser named Eliza Potter published her travel narrative, A Hairdresser’s Experience in High Life, an account of her voyages throughout the South in the 1840s and 1850s.

During the course of her extensive travels both nationally and internationally, Potter spent considerable time visiting and working in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a hairdresser and a free woman of color, Potter was able to enter into the inner circle of the New Orleans elite and also gained particular knowledge about the unique and infamous lives of Louisiana’s free women of color. Throughout her narrative, Potter, like many of her contemporaries, described the prevalence of interracial sex between women of color and white men in Louisiana. In one such instance, she wrote: The colored lady who kept the house…was very beautiful and very wealthy; she owned a great deal of property and many slaves, and kept two houses more like some of the elegant mansions of the nobility, than anything else.

She inherited this property by her husband and master, he emancipated her…he made all over to her – property, money and shares – a short time after, he died, leaving her in possession of all of his wealth. Several gentlemen were going to see her at one time [after his death]; one of these gentlemen, was a Mr. They made proposals to her, not exactly of matrimony, but by them considered in the same holy light as lawful marriage; she flattered Mr. B--- for some time, making him believe she would take him for her lawful “placeyer,” but when the evening came on that he looked for the fulfillment of her promise, she deceived him and took another…Such occurrences as these are frequent.

I could neither find paper nor time to tell you half of such things as come under my notice.1 1 Eliza Potter, A Hairdresser’s Experience in High Life (1859; reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 160-161. 1 Potter’s recollection of this nameless “colored lady” of New Orleans, serves as a unique window into the world of antebellum Louisiana’s notorious free women of color and particularly into their sexual choices and agency. Antebellum Louisiana was home to one of the largest and most wealthy populations of free people of color in the 19th century and, of this population, it was the free women of color, who captured the intrigues, imaginations and pens of travelers, like Potter, who ventured to the Crescent City.