In this dissertation, I argue that many of Louisianas founding administrative and military elite relied on French social norms to ground their own social authority in the New World. For these colonists, France represented the height of intellectual and cultural achievement in the world and they wanted this greatness to assure their status in colonial America. They used French court standards to organize and stabilize their New World lives as they asserted elite privilege and status in America. Consequently, even though manyif not mostof these individuals were not born aristocrats, they recreated themselves in America as representatives of crown authority and adherents to the standards of French high society. This loyalty maintained elite ties to the French court and provided them authority to discipline French Louisiana, particularly New Orleans. They employed the urban planning and engineering developed under Louis XIV to design New Orleans. They also used his Parisian laws to discipline the marketplace and morals of the colonys majority. They promoted these standards even when they did not seem practical or reasonable in the bayous of the lower Mississippi or in Louisianas precarious placement among Native and European enemies. Remaining focused on French standards hampered elites abilities to understand or engage with the vast majority of European, Native, and African inhabitants who comprised Louisianas productive population. Consequently, when Louis XV severed their ties to France by dismantling pre-existing patronage networks, Louisianas elites found themselves a frustrated minority amongst a creative and adaptive majority.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-09042008-141523 |
| Date | 13 November 2008 |
| Creators | Marasco, Sue |
| Contributors | Robert Barsky, Katherine B. Crawford, Jane G. Landers, Matthew Ramsey, Daniel H. Usner, Jr. |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-09042008-141523/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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