The title sums up the major theme of the essay written by Jennifer Spears. The essay touched on the changing methodologies for examining the history of interracial unions; between Frenchmen, Indian women, and African women during the eighteenth-century. Spear claims that demographic imbalance and cultural differences influenced the openness on interracial unions; also known as metissage.
In hopes to create a European colony, this led to the official practices to break barriers between European men and Louisiana Indians by the sending young boys to learn the Indian customs and to spy.However, the Louisiana Administrators and the missionaries feared “losing” French Louisianans to the Indians. This problem they believed could be solved by bringing Frenchwomen to the Louisiana colony. Even with the increase population of Frenchwomen, administrators and clerics were unable to eliminate metissage because the Frenchwomen were not to the standards for officers. This caused more difficulties because metissage still continued to occur between Indian women and Euro-Louisianan men.
Yet, with the decrease of Indian women and the increase of African Louisianans, this led to the illicit relationships between white men and black women.In the essay, Spears points out quotes and examples from leaders, mechanists, administers, and missionaries’ reaction to metissage. Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville complained in 106, “several marriages of Frenchmen with Indian women [had been] performed by the missionaries who are among the Indians. ” Father Henry de la Vente complained about the religious and unmoral sexual relations he observed. Then, also the administrators complained how the French and Canadian men would select local Indian women over Frenchwomen.
These are all illustrations that help establish the responses of interracial union in the eighteenth-century.The essay is a realistic input to the discussion of the origins of European racialism in the French Louisiana colony. It showed the start of interracial marriage and prostitution between the French and Canadian men with the Indian Women. Spear examines the spread in development in early race that would explain why people of color became significant residents in the colony. The essay also scrutinizes the relationship between the French and Indians. Jennifer Spears identifies herself as the writer and looks to find a way to explain the interracial unions in the French Louisiana.
She makes certain points but doesn’t relate to the material. She is a researcher and articulates what she discoveries through her paper. The essay’s position within scholarly literature is through the words and research of American history. It takes on the role to identify and show the history in the eighteenth-century. The writing is similar to any history book explaining certain historical events. It doesn’t show any bias writing or any of the writer’s own view point.
Spears detail it through the resources she found.The audience is the reader and the purpose of the essay was to inform the reader about the origins of the interracial unions in the French Louisiana. The author accomplished in identifying the Metissage and the conflicts in the colony. The author is relying on both primary resources and secondary resources.
The essay was written years after the interracial unions in the French Louisiana colony and it does not have any bearing on the topic. The sources that the author uses show that she is an excellent researcher. She has put together many important pieces of history together to write her paper.
