WEBVTT - How did settlers create New Orleans from swampland? 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:06.200 Welcome to Part Time Genius, a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:13.760 I guess what, Mango? What's that? Well? All right, so 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:15.800 you know how New Orleans is famous for being this 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:18.320 kind of wild party town. You I hope you've heard 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:20.400 this before, right, like sort of the Vegas of the 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:22.880 Gulf Coast. I like that at the Vegas of the 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.119 Gulf Coast. I actually just went to New Orleans for 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:27.200 the first time this year, and I loved it, but 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:28.960 I was kind of thrown off by the fact that 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:30.960 you can just drink on the streets there. It's kind 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.960 of amazing. Well, actually, what's weird about that is technically 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:36.760 it's only in the French Quarter that you're allowed to 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:38.440 do that, you know, as long as your drink isn't 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.800 in a glass or a metal container. But you know, 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.559 if you go into other areas that are pretty close by, 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.280 it's not a law that really gets enforced that often, 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.560 as I think you probably saw when you were there. 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.640 And this is a city where the official motto is 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.440 let the good times roll A pop quiz for you? 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:56.880 Do you know how to say that in French? Mango? No? 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.840 I do not, okay me either. I think it's some 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.920 thing like les le bon temp roulet. Maybe I just 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:07.920 butchered it completely, like I can't even imagine for all 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.839 those who speak French, and for even for those who don't, 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:12.600 they just know that I butchered it. I feel like 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.520 you're just saying, like the line from that Lady Lady 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:20.360 song or maybe from the Little Mermaid, I just stole 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.840 a line. But you know, it is kind of amazing that, 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.759 like New Orleans, it's such a good times town. But 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.280 but I'm curious, like, like, are you just telling me 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.080 that like New Orleans likes to drink? Is that? Is 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:33.760 that what is all about? Now? I'm pretty sure the 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.000 drinking is common knowledge at this point. It was you know, 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:38.959 the thing that caught my attention when we were talking 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.399 to Gabe about the research for this week was that 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.559 it's really more like what the residents used to treat 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.720 the hangover that comes after all the drinking. And that's 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.720 a big steamy bowl of yaka Maine soup, as you know, 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:54.720 also known as old sober. It's a soy sauce flavored 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.360 broth with noodles, beef, chicken, shrimp, hard boiled eggs, and 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.720 chopped onions. It actually sound, it is pretty good. And 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.160 the amazing thing that sets this hangover cure apart from 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.040 all the others is that it actually works. So there 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.720 were some researchers that looked into this from the American 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.040 Chemical Society, and what they've found is that the traditional 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.080 soup contains all the right ingredients to help the body 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.240 recover from a hangover. So the hardwalled eggs have this 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:24.200 compound that helps expel toxic substances. The salty broth helps 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:28.079 replenish sodium and potassium, and the beef and shrump helps 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:30.640 slow down the absorption of alcohol. So it's like a 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.200 one stop shop for this hangover cure. So how did 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.280 dish called yakamine with all this soy sauce flavor, How 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.320 that end up becoming a signature dish here? Like it 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.560 doesn't sound super southern, Yeah, that's true. And actually, according 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.000 to local legend, the dish came to the Big Easy 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.240 by way of local soldiers that had been stationed in Korea. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:50.799 This was back during the nineteen fifties, and so when 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.680 the war was over, they brought this soup of this 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.520 yakamine soup back home with them and it's been the 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.679 city's surefire hangover cure ever since, and that's pretty neat. 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.120 So I've definitely heard before that New Orleans is one 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.720 of the most culturally diverse cities in America, and it's 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.040 kind of fun to see how it extends into food 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.000 as well. Yeah, it's that's definitely true, and it's always 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.760 been this huge cultural melting pot, going all the way 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.280 back to the beginning of that highly unusual three hundred 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:20.080 year old history and all of those years mingling cultures. 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.760 It's really turned New Orleans into this super fun and 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.079 very unique American city. And that's why I thought we 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.600 should focus on this today, like this all of these 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.240 one of a kind customs and traditions that make the 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:35.040 city unlike any other out there. So with three centuries 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.440 of stories to pull from, there's obviously a lot to 0:03:37.440 --> 0:04:01.520 talk about. So let's dive in. Yeah, Hei, their podcast listeners, 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:03.840 welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.800 always I'm joined by my good friend Manes Ticketer. And 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.000 then the other side of the soundproof glass, dressed to 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:14.000 impress as always, that is our friend and producer Loell Berlante. 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:17.680 Now he's picked up this mantle from where Tristan left 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.520 off of course, and today he's wearing a shirt with 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.400 a crawfish on it. He's really stepping up his game 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:25.880 to try to to to keep up with Tristan and 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.359 and for some reason, the crawfish has one claw in 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.440 the air and he's asking where you at? You know, 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.560 it's why apostrophe a t. I'm not sure what that means, 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.160 but that's what the shirt said, so I I do 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.760 think the crawfish is probably self explanatory. But that phrase 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.600 where yet is actually something I was reading about this week. 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:47.280 Apparently it's a pretty common greeting in New Orleans, kind 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:49.240 of a how are you doing? Of the region. But 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:51.919 one of the best things about the region has to 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.160 be the way the people talk. It's kind of this 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.440 hodgepodge of different languages and dialects, and you can go 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.440 into any given neighborhood and here half a dozen different 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.159 accents and idioms depending on who you're talking to and 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.320 where you are in the city. And then there's the pronunciation, like, 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.479 according to the official New Orleans website quote, we say 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.960 the street name Burgundy, not Burgundy, just because that's the 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:17.360 way it is. As for Calliope, say Calliope and you'll 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.000 pass for a local, so they're giving all this advice 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.960 on the site. Uh. But and you know this happens everywhere, 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:28.120 right Like in Chicago people call Gothe Street and in 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:32.560 uh in New York, Houston Street is called Houston But uh. 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:34.760 You know what what's interesting about New Orleans is how 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:39.359 so many little French idioms wound up kind of endearingly mistranslated. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.200 For instance, in New Orleans, they don't say I gotta 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.960 go grocery shopping. They say I gotta make groceries, which 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.120 actually comes from the French expression for grocery shopping. It's 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.320 uh fair la marche. I guess the verb fair can 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:56.520 I either mean to do or to make, and you 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.320 wouldn't include that in your translation normally unless you're in 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.640 New Orleans. And another fun pull from the French language 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.479 is land yap, which I guess basically means a little 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.800 something extra. So maybe you go out to eat and 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:09.839 the waiter brings you a free dessert, or maybe the 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.680 hotel you're staying at upgrades you to a riverfront view, 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.960 and in either case you were given a land yap, 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.000 which is an old New Orleans way to foster friendship. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.560 And and maybe some return business as well. Actually, no, 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.880 since we're talking about the way French has woven into 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.159 the language and the culture of the city, I do 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.040 feel like we should talk a little bit about how 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.560 that influence got there in the very first place. So, 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.000 as you mentioned upfront that New Orleans has a three 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:35.280 hundred year history, and and that's true. The city was 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.039 founded in seventeen eighteen by the French governor of Louisiana, 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:41.919 a guy named Jean Baptiste Bienville, and it was named 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.200 for the French head of state at the time, this 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:47.640 was Philippe Day Orleans. But of course, and I'm sure 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:49.760 I'm saying all of these words wrong, but that's what 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:52.440 it says. But the reality is that the French settlers 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.240 were far from the first people to live there. So 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.400 Native American communities called the place home at least six 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.640 hundred years before Being Bill got there, and many of 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:03.799 them are said to have lived right where the French 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.240 quarters sits today. Yeah, it's funny that that word I 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:10.760 mentioned a minute ago, which I probably also mispronounced land yap. 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:15.120 It's technically considered Louisiana French, but it's actually barred from 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.360 the Spanish language, which had taken it from Quechua, which 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.120 is spoken by Native South Americans. So I feel like 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.960 that's exactly the kind of like dense cultural overlap that 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.119 you find in almost every aspect of New Orleans. They're 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.560 all these different ethnic groups that have called the city 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.320 home over its long history, and every one of them 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.680 left its mark in ways that you can still see today. 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.000 That's right. And they don't call it the most haunted 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.160 city in America for nothing, right, Yeah, that's not exactly 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.440 what I meant. But you know, after reading up on 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.000 New Orleans history this week, I can definitely see how 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:48.400 the city got such a spooky reputation. It sounds like 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.480 it was a pretty rough place to live in during 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.120 the colonial era. Yeah, you know, Benville and his men 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.480 certainly had their work cut out for him, and and 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.760 France had claimed that Louisiana territory in but then didn't 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.600 do that much with it for at least a decade 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.200 or so. So you had the War of the Spanish Secession, 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:07.760 which began just a couple of years after the French 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.720 colony was established, and the fighting kept most of the 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.560 country's resources tied up for I guess it was the 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.080 next thirteen years or so, and so by the time 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:20.040 the war finally ended, France's outpost in Louisiana were pretty 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:22.240 much empty by that point. What was the mood like 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:24.360 in France during all of this? Were they so cast 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:26.520 strapped after the war that they couldn't fund their own colony? 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:28.560 I mean, they sort of were, Yeah, I mean, it 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.720 turns out that thirteen years of war can be quite 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.000 a drain on the old treasury. And you know, when 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.120 you also lose that thirteen year war, it's even worse. 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.840 That tends to drain the morale, of course, and that's 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.560 exactly the problem France was facing back in seventeen fourteen. 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.120 And then, of course, to make matters worse, there was 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.160 this stretch of bad weather that led to food shortages 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.560 and it sent many of the rural residents They're scrambling 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:55.920 to cities in order to try to find work, and 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.640 as a result of this, Paris was flooded with desperate people, 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.560 and of the country's capital city, it really became this 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.120 kind of den of crime and poverty at the time. 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.160 So it sounds like things are pretty dire in France. Uh. 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.200 The Louisiana colony is kind of a Wash, So how 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.440 does the monarchy end up turning all of this around? Right? 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.960 So the French king looked at everything going on and 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.520 he realized a couple of things. For one, the colony 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.760 in Louisiana could and should be making him more money 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.600 than it was. After all, Spain was rolling in the 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.760 dough thanks to its colonies in Mexico, so we thought, 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.840 why not France. But the biggest obstacle at that point 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.120 was that barely anyone was left in the Louisiana colony, 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.839 and very few people were lining up to live there, 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.520 no matter how much gold or how much land they 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.240 were promised. So second, he noticed that the prisons were 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.559 getting pretty full at the time, and this was thanks 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:49.160 to all the homeless citizens and petty criminals and some 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:53.040 prostitutes that have been just rounded up there in Paris. 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.319 And that's when the king hit upon what he hoped 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.000 would be the solution to both of his problems. He 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.720 would just force the prisoners to go and settle the 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.400 land in Louisiana. Yeah, which is kind of taking a 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:05.560 page from England, right, Like, isn't that what they did 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.880 in Australia? Yeah, but this was actually a good seventy 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.160 years or so before, England had turned Australia into a 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.720 prison colony, so if anything, they were the ones copying 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.760 the French. So at any rate, this is ultimately how 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.160 New Orleans was founded. It was a punishment for prisoners, 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.800 and so in January of seventeen nineteen, the King issued 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.440 a royal policy to the effects, saying, we believe that 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:30.600 we can do nothing better for the good of our 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.880 state than to condemn convicts to the punishment of being 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:38.320 transported to our colonies, which is not exactly a ringing 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:42.360 endorsement for Louisiana. No, I think they've changed the motto 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.360 at this point, and the word had gotten around about 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.679 how grueling it was to live in such an inhospitable region. 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.360 It was surrounded by these swamps and these marshes that 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.280 we sometimes think of with the region, and stories of 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.000 the heat and the stench and the threat of all 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:00.400 this disease. It, you know, it made it alan like 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.160 this trip was a death sentence, and it sort of was, 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:05.800 since most of the people sent there didn't live past 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.320 the age of forty. But it's not like these people 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:10.360 had a choice in the matter. So they were forced 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.680 onto ships and sent over a few hundred at a time, 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:17.040 and it wasn't until months later that someone realized they 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:21.320 had only been sending over male prisoners, which obviously wasn't 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.600 the ideal way to establish a thriving colony. Yeah, but 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.160 to be fair, like, no part of this sounds ideal. 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:29.400 It isn't just not having women that it does not 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:31.880 sound ideal in any way. But as bad as things were, 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.600 they only got worse from there. So pretty soon France 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:40.640 started sending shiploads of orphans and female convicts to Louisiana, 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.840 with many of them forced to marry male convicts in 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:48.040 these mass wedding ceremonies. It sounds so weird, that's horrible. 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:50.320 So how long did this force immigration go on for? 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:55.439 Till seventeen twenty two, so about three years total. And meanwhile, 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.640 the Louisiana governor, that Banville guy that we talked about before, 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.560 is trying to key this experiment from flying completely off 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.760 the rails. But he's obviously having a tough time keeping 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:08.720 a city of convicts and check and and he's not 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.480 exactly thrilled about the kind of settlers that France is 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.320 sending him. In fact, there's a good quote from his journals. 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.079 That really shows how frustrating it was, even for those 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.120 at the top. So Bnville rights, it is most disagreeable 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.560 for an officer in charge of a colony to have 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:27.760 nothing more for its defense than a bunch of deserters, contrabands, 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.320 salt dealers, and rogues who were always ready not only 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:35.120 to desert you, but also to turn against you. Both 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.319 Like having people who are ready to desert you and 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.320 turned against you sounds pretty awful. But I'm guessing most 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.760 of those people stayed right Well, yeah, they didn't really 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.600 have much of a choice. I mean, these were convicted criminals, 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:47.680 they were broke, they were stranded the middle of a 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.360 swamp and unknown country. It's hard to even imagine, so 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.520 leaving wasn't a real option. So most people just tried 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.199 to make the best of staying, and being a stranger 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:00.800 in a new world did have some advantages. For example, 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.360 nobody knew their names there, which meant settlers were free 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.440 to reinvent themselves and whatever way they wanted to, and 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.240 some people made up complex family histories for themselves or 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.600 added flourishes to their names to make themselves seem maybe 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.400 higher class, I guess, And there was no way to 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:21.000 prove or disprove any of this. So these false personas 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.560 just stuck and kind of became the new reality for 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.160 these people, which is kind of strangely fitting when you 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:27.760 think about some of the things that have gone on 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.760 to characterize New Orleans. Right, Like, I was actually skimming 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:34.200 a book this week. It's called The Accidental City, Improving 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.000 New Orleans, and there's one part where the author, who's 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.280 a native, is talking about what a fresh start this 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.240 experience was for so many settlers, and this is what 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.199 he writes, quote, we were a city of impostors in 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.760 a way. That's why Marty Graff fits so well with 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:51.719 our identity. We could always put on new masks. That's 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.840 pretty interesting. I actually hadn't really made that connection before. 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:57.600 All Right, Well, we're just scratching the surface of New 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.800 Orleans long storied history, so I feel like we should 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:02.720 take a quick break and then we'll jump right back in. 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:18.880 You're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.560 the chain of events that turned a French penal colony 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.280 into one of the most amazing cities in America. All Right, Mango, 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.480 So what's the next piece of New Orleans history? You 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.600 want to touch on. So we've talked a lot so 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:31.720 far about the French influence on the city, but there's 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.240 one part of the city they really can't claim credit for, 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.120 and strangely enough, it's the French Quarter. So despite what 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.080 the name suggests, most of the buildings in the famous 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:44.080 neighborhood were actually influenced by Spanish architecture, not French. So 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.080 you're saying that the French Quarter didn't exist when Binville 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.960 founded the city. It did, but it wasn't called that 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.160 at the time, and it also looked a whole lot different. 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.480 So as the city took shape under French rule, it 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.560 gradually organized around the highest patch of dry land in 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.000 the area, which was still only about ten to fifteen 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.760 feet above sea level. But what I'd kind of forgotten 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.000 was the sway that Spain had over New Orleans. So 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:10.320 following the Revolutionary War, France actually gave the Louisiana territory 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.960 to Spain, mostly as a way to keep England from 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:14.600 taking control of it. I mean, it's kind of a 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:16.360 long story, but you can look up the Treaty of 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:20.080 Fountain Blue if you're interested. But you know, Spain took 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.960 possession of New Orleans in seventeen sixty two, and they 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.160 held onto it for just under fifty years, and then 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.840 in eighteen o one a different treaty placed Louisiana back 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.240 under French rule until two years later when Napoleon sold 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:35.680 the whole thing to the US as part of the 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.320 Louisiana Purchase. All Right, so you're saying New Orleans has 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.480 changed hands a lot over the years, and it definitely 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.960 tracks with the cultural mishmash, and you know that you 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.440 kind of think about when you think of the characterization 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.000 of the city. But what it doesn't do, Mango, is 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.560 explain how the French quarter got so Spanish Like? Could 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.200 we get to that part? Basically, nearly all of the 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.640 original French colonial buildings in New Orleans were destroyed during 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:01.480 Spain's rule in the late eventeen hundreds. They weren't knocked 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.560 down on purpose, though. Basically there were these two massive 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.880 fires that laid waste to the city. And the first 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.440 fire took place in and it actually might not have 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.000 been that bad except that it happened to occur on 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.360 Good Friday, and because of that, the city's priests wouldn't 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.960 allow the church bells to be rung as fire alarms, 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.120 which made it nearly impossible to organize, like, you know, 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.520 help during all the chaos. So the fire burned unchecked, 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.680 and within five hours it had consumed eighty percent of 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:31.960 the city. Good, Lauren, And you're saying the same thing 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.040 happened just a few years later. Yeah, I mean, it 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.360 didn't happen during Good Friday this time. But after six 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.760 years of rebuilding, they had another fire and it was 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.360 extinguished a little bit faster, but it still took out 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.080 I guess two buildings. I don't know. It's still a 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.520 terrible thing, but but not as bad as the first one. Yeah, 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:50.440 that's tough luck for Spain there. And it sounds like 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:54.320 their entire reign in Louisiana was just fires and reconstruction. 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.720 It was like burn, build and repeat. But you know, 0:16:57.800 --> 0:16:59.880 Span left a deep impression on New Orleans in the 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.000 little time it took over. So after that second fire, 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.879 the Spanish government started handing out loans for citizens to 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.880 rebuild their houses. But the only catch was in order 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:10.520 to get the money, you had to agree to build 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.640 according to the government's newly developed guidelines. And so this 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:15.800 is really smart. The idea was to make the city 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.879 a little more fireproof, including the switch to brick and 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:22.920 plaster town homes instead of those wooden cottages. And uh, 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:24.960 as you probably guess, this is when the French quarters 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.680 started to look a little more Spanish, you know, even 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.919 if the streets were still named for French royalty and nobility. 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.400 And the transformation proved to be a real turning point 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.480 in New Orleans history. And that's something this author Lyle 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.000 Saxon touches on in his book Fabulous New Orleans. As 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.919 he puts it, quote, the city that fell before the 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.640 flames was a congested French community of wooden houses, badly 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.600 arranged and irregular. A stately Spanish city rose in instead. 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.160 Large fan shaped windows looked down into courtyards which held 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.720 banana trees and oleanders, and balconies railed with delicately wrought 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.800 iron overhung the streets. You know, it's interesting because I 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:05.879 actually never really noticed how non French the French Quarter is. 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.040 But when you break it all down, it's like, yeah, 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.680 of course these are all Spanish architectural features, I guess. Yeah. 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:14.119 And and and that Spanish style wasn't only limited to 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.280 where people lived it. It also influenced how the city's 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.440 dead were laid arrest, so when settlers first came to 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.400 the region, they had a tough time getting there dead 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.960 to stay put. Because the water table in the area 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:27.679 is so high, all the burial plots had to be 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:30.399 dug shallow, otherwise the grave would fill with water and 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:32.639 the coffin would just pop out of the ground. And 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.040 they tried everything to keep the coffins in place right, 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.000 like they would board these holes into the lids to 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.479 make them less buoyant. It was a huge problem. They 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.720 e didn't like, tried weighing down the lids with heavy stones. 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.439 But you know, if a rainstorm was bad enough in 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.119 the area, which if you know the area, they have 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.320 terrible rainstorms, the coffins would still float right out of 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.159 the graves. So all of that changed during the Spanish 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.200 period when the city's current system of these burial chambers 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:02.280 was introduced. So you know, Orleans starts stacking their vaults 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:06.359 and using these more ornate tombs and crypts for for 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.320 I guess, the wealthier families. But when taken all together, 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:12.200 the new cemeteries kind of looked more like miniature cities, 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:14.880 and they were complete with these like house like tombs 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:19.720 and almost like avenues or streets for pathways. And while 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.240 it might seem a little micabre to have so many 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:24.760 reminders of death and plain view like that, these so 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.440 called cities of the Dead were so much better than 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:29.679 you know, stepping outside in the storm and having to 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:33.159 walk over your your late grandfather's coffin or whatever it 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:37.000 was floating down the streets, so so morbid. So these 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.359 fire codes and graveyards, you know, they definitely improved under 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:43.000 Spanish rain, but I mean, from everything I've read, the 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:47.359 space and sanitation issues were still pretty major concerns, because 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:49.000 you know, you've got to keep in mind, like the 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:52.359 entire city was still pretty much confined to the French 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.880 Quarter at that point, and everything beyond that was seen 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.639 as uninhabitable, like swamp and marsh lands, and so to 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.040 make the land usable, the city would need to build 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:05.560 these levees and canals and pumps to drain the water 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.159 and the soil beneath all of that. And so that 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.800 really took more than a century to get this system 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.919 up and running properly. So in the meantime, all the 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.439 residents of New Orleans just had to squeeze together on 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:20.040 this only patch of upraised terrain that they had, yeah, 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.720 which is all surrounded by a horrible swamp. Yeah, and 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:25.439 that later proved a problem in itself. So the city's 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.119 poor sanitation and lack of running water proved to be 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.200