| The Orleans Ballroom | | | | Doctors did not know what caused yellow fever or |
| Built in 1817, it was known for its theater and French | | | | how to treat it. Only humans are susceptible to |
| Opera, but early visitors to New Orleans came here | | | | yellow fever; all animals appear immune to the |
| to see the lavish and exciting Quadroon Balls. | | | | disease. With a lack of medical test subjects, doctors |
| New Orleans' slave laws create a separate social class | | | | could do little to study this disease. In 1881 doctors |
| between whites and slaves that consisted of "free | | | | came up with a new theory on the source of the |
| people of color". New Orleans' slave laws were based | | | | disease, infected mosquitoes. This theory was |
| on the "Code Noir" or French Black Code and the | | | | bravely tested in 1901 by volunteers like John R. |
| Spanish slave laws. From the French laws, slaves got | | | | Kissinger, a private in the U.S. Army, who allowed |
| Sunday as their day off. A slave could work other | | | | himself to be a "guinea pig" in a medical experiment. |
| jobs on his day off and earn his own money. From | | | | He allowed the infected mosquitoes to bite him until |
| the Spanish laws, he could buy his freedom from his | | | | he became infected. He survived the fever but was |
| master and become a "free person of color". As a | | | | confined to a wheel chair for 12 years. For their |
| "free person of color" he could own property, make | | | | bravery and personal sacrifice that saved so many |
| money, buy his family out of slavery, and even, | | | | lives, Kissinger and the other experiment volunteers |
| ironically, buy and keep slaves. The 1830 census of | | | | received a United States Congressional gold metal |
| New Orleans records that in a total population of | | | | and a monthly pension in 1929. |
| 40,000 there were 16,000 free people of color and | | | | Jackson Square |
| 700 of these owned slaves. | | | | The Spanish staged executions in Jackson Square |
| The Quadroon Balls were lavish parties where rich | | | | from the very start of their rule. After French King |
| white men could meet lovely, eligible Quadroon | | | | Louis XV gave the Louisiana colony to his cousin, the |
| women, who might agree to be their mistresses. A | | | | Spanish King Charles III, the French colonists of New |
| Quadroon was a person whose ancestry was 25% | | | | Orleans were very angry at being made Spanish |
| African and was forbidden by law to marry a white | | | | colonists without any say on their part. These same |
| person. Marriage in the 1700's and 1800's was a very | | | | ideas were expressed by the American |
| practical agreement based on money and social | | | | revolutionaries in their rebellion with England, but they |
| status, not on love. If a rich man was interested in | | | | were first expressed in North America by the French |
| love, he often looked for it outside of the marriage. | | | | colonists of New Orleans in 1768, 8 years before the |
| If a rich man and a young Quadroon lady liked each | | | | American Revolution. The colonists overthrew the |
| other, the man had to convince the Quadroon's | | | | Spanish governor in a bloodless rebellion and were |
| chaperon, either a mother or some other guardian, | | | | considering setting up a form of self-government |
| that he had enough money to keep her in style for | | | | when the Spanish reinforcements arrived in the |
| the rest of her life. A formal contract was put | | | | person of Don O'Reilly and his 2600 soldiers. New |
| together where the man would agree to give his | | | | Orleans surrendered to O'Reilly without resistance. |
| Quadroon mistress a house, a carriage, furniture, | | | | O'Reilly sentenced the six leaders of the rebellion to |
| money, and other material objects. Their children | | | | death. One of them died in prison. O'Reilly attempted |
| would have his last name and would be educated in | | | | to pardon one of the condemned rebels because of |
| the best schools in the Americas and in Europe. The | | | | his youth, but the rebel refused the pardon and |
| Quadroon mistress would remain loyal to the rich man | | | | chose to die with his comrades. These five rebels |
| she choose, but he could end the relationship | | | | were shot in the Jackson Square on October 25, |
| whenever he wanted. Despite ending the relationship, | | | | 1769 by a Spanish firing squad. The people of New |
| he would still have to stick to his part of the | | | | Orleans remembered these French rebel leaders by |
| contract. | | | | naming a street just downriver of the French |
| Cathedral Garden | | | | Quarter, "Frenchmen Street", in their honor. |
| Behind the St. Louis Cathedral is a lovely garden that, | | | | Today the square is a pleasant and beautiful part of |
| unfortunately, is usually locked. The Cathedral has a | | | | the French Quarter. But during the rule of the French |
| long history of trying to keep people from doing | | | | and the Spanish, the square was the site of terrible |
| mischief in this garden. It used to be an empty lot | | | | executions. In 1754 the French soldiers on Ship Island, |
| that was a favorite dueling location for young, | | | | MS were commanded by an officer named Duroux, a |
| hotheaded gentlemen to address some insult, real or | | | | cruel man who sold their food and supplies, starved |
| imagined. | | | | his men, and forced them to make charcoal and lime |
| The courtyard has a marble obelisk that | | | | which he sold for his personal profit. Some of his men |
| commemorates the sacrifice of 30 French soldiers, | | | | escaped to New Orleans and reported their |
| who lost their lives while caring for the ill in New | | | | treatment to Governor Kerlerec. The governor |
| Orleans during a yellow fever epidemic in the 1853. In | | | | believed in military discipline at all costs and sided with |
| the early days of New Orleans, any person with the | | | | Duroux. He returned the soldiers to Duroux' tortures. |
| means to do so left the city during the hot summers. | | | | A few days later, the soldiers mutinied and killed |
| This was partly to do with the climate and partly to | | | | Duroux. The mutineers tried to escape to Georgia |
| do with the plagues of yellow fever that could | | | | but were captured. The three leaders of the mutiny |
| spread without warning or reason. These plagues kill | | | | were sentenced to death in the Place d'Armes. |
| thousands in some years and none in other years. | | | | To learn more, visit Geogad. |