WEBVTT - How Did Settlers Create New Orleans from Swampland? 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:06.240 Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:12.479 Guess what Mango? 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:13.640 What's that? Will? All? Right? 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:15.640 So you know how New Orleans is famous for being 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.319 this kind of wild party town. I hope you've heard 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:20.400 this before, right, like sort of the Vegas of the 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:21.160 Gulf Coast. 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:23.560 I like that, the Vegas of the Gulf Coast. I 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:25.560 actually just went to New Orleans for the first time 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.080 this year, and I loved it, but I was kind 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:29.400 of thrown off by the fact that you can just 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:31.479 drink on the streets there. It's kind of amazing. 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.760 Well, actually, what's weird about that is technically it's only 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.199 in the French Quarter that you're allowed to do that, 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:38.640 you know, as long as your drink is in a 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.040 glass or a metal container. But you know, if you 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.000 go into other areas that are pretty close by, it's 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.479 not a law that really gets enforced that often, as 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.000 I think you probably saw when you were there. And 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.040 this is a city where the official motto is let 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.840 the good times roll A pop quiz for you? Do 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:56.520 you know how to say that in French? Mango? 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:57.040 No? 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.000 I do not, okay me either. I think it's something 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:04.640 like lesse Les bon temp Roulet. Maybe I just butchered 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.160 it completely, Like I can't even imagine for all those 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.839 who speak French, and for even for those who don't, 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:12.240 they just know that I butchered it. 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.199 I feel like you were just saying, like the line 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:16.800 from that Lady Lady Palm song. 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.720 Yeah, or maybe from the Little Mermaid, one of these. 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:20.960 I just stole the line. 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.120 But you know, it is kind of amazing that like 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.440 New Orleans, it's such a good times town. But I'm 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:30.560 curious that, like, are you just telling me that like 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:32.280 New Orleans likes to drink? Is that? Is that what 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:33.080 it is all about? Now? 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.400 I'm pretty sure the drinking is common knowledge at this point. 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:38.160 It was you know, the thing that caught my attention 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:40.560 when we were talking to Gabe about the research for 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.200 this week was that it's really more like what the 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.679 residents used to treat the hangover that comes after all 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.320 the drinking. And that's a big steamy bowl of yaka 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.400 Maine soup, as you know, also known as old Sober. 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:57.000 It's a soy sauce flavored broth with noodles, beef, chicken, shrimp, 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.160 hard boiled eggs, and chopped onions. It actually sounds that's 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.840 pretty good, isn't it. And the amazing thing that sets 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.280 this hangover cure apart from all the others is that 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.400 it actually works. So there were some researchers that looked 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.720 into this from the American Chemical Society, and what they's 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.760 found is that the traditional soup contains all the right 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:18.000 ingredients to help the body recover from a hangover. So 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.960 the hard boiled eggs have this compound that helps expel 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:26.320 toxic substances, the salty broth helps replenish sodium and potassium, 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.280 and the beef and shrimp helps slow down the absorption 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:31.800 of alcohol. So it's like a one stop shop for 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:32.880 this hangover cure. 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.079 So how did a dish called yakamane with all this 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.560 soy sauce flavor. How'd that ended up becoming a signature 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.600 dish here? Like it doesn't sound super southern, Yeah, that's true. 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:44.320 And actually, according to local legend, the dish came to 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.040 the Big Easy by way of local soldiers that had 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.000 been stationed in Korea. This was back during the nineteen fifties, 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.200 and so when the war was over, they brought this soup, 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:56.400 this yakamine soup back home with them and it's been 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.919 the city's surefire hangover cure ever since. 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.800 That's pretty neat. I've definitely heard before that New Orleans 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.079 is one of the most culturally diverse cities in America, 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.480 and it's kind of fun to see how it extends 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:07.359 into food as well. 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.680 Yeah, it's definitely true, and it's always been this huge 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.120 cultural melting pod, going all the way back to the 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:17.280 beginning of that highly unusual three hundred year old history 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.880 and all of those years mingling cultures. It's really turned 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:25.040 New Orleans into this super fun and very unique American city. 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.400 And that's why I thought we should focus on this today, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.920 like this, all of these one of a kind customs 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.240 and traditions that make the city unlike any other out there. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.560 So with three centuries of stories to pull from, there's 0:03:36.640 --> 0:04:00.560 obviously a lot to talk about, So let's dive in. Hey, 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.080 their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.360 Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.640 mangesh Hot Ticketer. And then the other side of the 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:11.240 soundproof glass, dressed to impress as always, that is our 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:15.800 friend and producer lol Berlanti. Now he's picked up this 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.520 mantle from where Tristan left off, of course, and he's 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.320 wearing a shirt with a crawfish on it. He's really 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.400 stepping up his game to try to keep up with Tristan. 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.320 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 --> 0:04:35.760 it's why apostrophe at. I'm not sure what that means, but. 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.520 That's what the shirt said, So I do think the 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.160 crawfish is probably self explanatory. But that phrase where we're 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.560 at is actually something I was reading about this week. 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.280 Apparently it's a pretty common greeting in New Orleans, kind 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.240 of a how are you doing? Of the region. But 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:51.920 one of the best things about the region has to 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.080 be the way that people talk. It's kind of this 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.440 hodgepodge of different languages and dialects, and you can go 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.440 into any given neighborhood and you're half a dozen different 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.120 accents and idioms depending on who you're talking to and 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.000 where you are in the city. And then there's the pronunciation, 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.160 like according to the official New Orleans website quote, we 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.880 say the street name Burgundy, not Burgundy, just because that's 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:17.000 the way it is. As for Calliope, say Calliope and 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.480 you'll pass for a local. So they're giving all this 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.920 advice on the site. And you know, this happens everywhere, 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.640 right Like in Chicago people call Gotha goth Ye Street, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.880 and in New York Houston Street it is called Houston. 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.719 But you know what's interesting about New Orleans is how 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:39.360 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 --> 0:05:45.880 go grocery shopping. They say I gotta make groceries, which 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.839 actually comes from the French expression for a grocery shopping. 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:53.279 It's fair la marche. I guess the verb fair can 0:05:53.400 --> 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 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:02.599 New Orleans. And another fun pull from the French language 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.159 is lanyap, which I guess basically means a little something extra. 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.120 So maybe you go out to eat and the waiter 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:10.320 brings you a free dessert, or maybe the hotel you're 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.560 staying at upgrades you to a riverfront view, and in 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.640 either case you were given a lannap, which is an 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.960 old New Orleans way to foster friendship. And maybe some 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:21.080 return business as well. 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.000 Actually, you know, since we're talking about the way French 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:25.640 has woven into the language and the culture of the city, 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:27.640 I do feel like we should talk a little bit 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.440 about how that influence got there in the very first place. So, 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:32.960 as you mentioned upfront that New Orleans has a three 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:35.640 hundred year history, and that's true. The city was founded 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:39.120 in seventeen eighteen by the French governor of Louisiana, a 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.000 guy named Jean Baptiste Bienville, and it was named for 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.400 the French head of state at the time, this was 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.840 Philippe de Orleans. But of course, and I'm sure I'm 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.240 saying all of these words wrong, but that's what it says. 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:52.880 But the reality is that the French settlers were far 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.040 from the first people to live there. So Native American 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.160 communities called the place home at least six hundred years 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.200 before being got there, and many of them are said 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:04.880 to have lived right where the French quarter sits today. 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.040 Yeah, it's funny that that word I mentioned a minute ago, 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:12.280 which I probably also mispronounced land yapp It's technically considered 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:16.200 Louisiana French, but it's actually barred from the Spanish language, 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.920 which had taken it from Quetchua, which is spoken by 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.880 Native South Americans. So I feel like that's exactly the 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.480 kind of like dense cultural overlap that you find in 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.640 almost every aspect of New Orleans. They are all these 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:29.960 different ethnic groups that have called the city home over 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.800 its long history, and every one of them left its 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.400 mark in ways that you can still see today. That's right. 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:37.440 And they don't call it the most haunted city in 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:39.320 America for nothing, right, Yeah. 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:41.720 That's not exactly what I meant. But you know, after 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.200 reading up on New Orleans history this week, I could 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:47.000 definitely see how the city got such a spooky reputation. 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.920 It sounds like it was a pretty rough place to 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:51.240 live in during the colonial era. 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:53.960 Yeah, you know, Banvilla and his men certainly had their 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.400 work cut out for him, and France had claimed that 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.800 Louisiana territory in sixteen ninety nine, but then didn't do 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:02.920 that much with it for at least a decade or so. 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.520 So you had the War of the Spanish Secession, which 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.160 began just a couple of years after the French colony 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.200 was established, and the fighting kept most of the country's 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.800 resources tied up for I guess it was the next 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.200 thirteen years or so, and so by the time the 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.240 war finally ended, France's outposts in Louisiana were pretty much 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:21.320 empty by that point. 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:23.280 What was the mood like in France during all of this? 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.400 Were they so cash strapped after the war that they 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:26.520 couldn't fund their own colony? 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:28.520 I mean, they sort of were. Yeah, I mean, it 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.720 turns out that thirteen years of war can be quite 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.040 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. 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.800 That tends to drain the morale, of course, and that's 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.520 exactly the problem France was facing back in seventeen fourteen. 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.079 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 --> 0:08:53.559 and it sent many of the rural residents there scrambling 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:55.839 the cities in order to try to find work. And 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.600 as a result of this, Paris was flooded with desperate people, 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:02.800 so the country's capital city, it really became this kind 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.080 of den of crime and poverty at the time. 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.840 So it sounds like things are pretty dire in France. 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.160 The Louisiana colony is kind of a wash, So how 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.040 does the monarchy end up turning all of this around? 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.679 Right? So the French king looked at everything going on 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.079 and he realized a couple of things. For one, the 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.320 colony in Louisiana could and should be making him more 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.480 money than it was. After all, Spain was rolling in 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.720 the dough thanks to its colonies in Mexico, so he thought, 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.800 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, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.840 and very few people were lining up to live there, 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:39.520 no matter how much gold or how much land they 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:43.240 were promised. So second, he noticed that the prisons were 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:45.520 getting pretty full at the time, and this was thanks 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:49.079 to all the homeless citizens and petty criminals and some 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:53.000 prostitutes that had been just rounded up there in Paris. 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.360 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 --> 0:10:00.719 would just force the prisoners to go and settle the 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:02.000 land in Louisiana. 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:04.800 Yeah, which is kind of taking a page from England, right, Like, 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:06.160 isn't that what they did in Australia? 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:08.280 Yeah, but this was actually a good seventy years or 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.040 so before England had turned Australia into a prison colony, 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.280 so if anything, they were the ones copying the French. 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:18.480 So at any rate, this is ultimately how New Orleans 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:22.040 was founded. It was a punishment for prisoners. Yeah, and 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.920 so in January of seventeen nineteen, the king issued a 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:28.520 royal policy to the effect saying, we believe that we 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:30.920 can do nothing better for the good of our state 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.720 than to condemn convicts to the punishment of being transported 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:36.440 to our colonies. 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.800 Which is not exactly a ringing endorsement for Louisiana. 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.040 No, I think they've changed the motto at this point, 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.079 and the word had gotten around about how grueling it 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.959 was to live in such an inhospitable region. It was 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.000 surrounded by these swamps and these marshes that we sometimes 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.720 think of with the region, and stories of the heat 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.720 and the stench and the threat of all this disease. 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.120 You know, it made it so like this trip was 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.719 a death sentence, and it sort of was, since most 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.240 of the people sent there didn't live past the age 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.520 of forty. But it's not like these people had a 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.240 choice in the matter. So they were forced onto ships 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.800 and sent over a few hundred at a time, And 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.200 it wasn't until months later that someone realized they had 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.400 only been sending over male prisoners, which obviously wasn't the 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:23.959 ideal way to establish a thriving colony. 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.400 Yeah, but to be fair, like, no part of this 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.719 sounds ideal. It isn't just not having women there. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.080 It does not sound ideal in any way. But as 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.040 bad as things were, they only got worse from there. 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:38.480 So pretty soon France started sending shiploads of orphans and 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.360 female convicts to Louisiana, with many of them forced to 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.760 marry male convicts in these mass wedding ceremonies. 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.040 It sounds so weird, that's horrible. So how long did 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:50.319 this forced immigration go on for? 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:55.440 Till seventeen twenty two, so about three years total. And meanwhile, 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.600 the Louisiana governor, that Binville guy that we talked about before, 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.520 is trying to keep this experiment from flying completely off 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.720 the rails. But he's obviously having a tough time keeping 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.199 a city of convicts and check and he's not exactly 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.160 thrilled about the kind of settlers that France is sending him. 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.400 In fact, there's a good quote from his journals. That 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.280 really shows how frustrating it was even for those at 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.240 the top. So Bienvil writes, it is most disagreeable for 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.080 an officer in charge of a colony to have nothing 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:27.760 more for its defense than a bunch of deserters, contrabands, 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.280 salt dealers, and rogues who were always ready not only 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.280 to desert you, but also to turn against you. 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.160 Both. Like having people who are ready to desert you 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.080 and turn against you sounds pretty awful. But I'm guessing 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.560 most of those people stayed right. Well, yeah, they didn't 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:44.320 really have much of a choice. I mean, these were 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.319 convicted criminals, they were broke, they were stranded in the 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.360 middle of a swamp and unknown country. It's hard to 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.800 even imagine, so leaving wasn't a real option. So most 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:55.920 people just tried to make the best of staying, and 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.800 being a stranger in a new world did have some advantages. 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.400 So for example, nobody knew their names there, which meant 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.640 settlers were free to reinvent themselves in whatever way they 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:10.280 wanted to, and some people made up complex family histories 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.160 for themselves or added flourishes to their names to make 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.679 themselves seem maybe higher class. I guess, and there was 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.640 no way to prove or disprove any of this. So 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.719 these false personas just stuck and kind of became the 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.679 new reality for these people, which is kind of strangely 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:27.199 fitting when you think about some of the things that 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.079 have gone on to characterize New Orleans. 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:29.280 Right. 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:32.040 Like, I was actually skimming a book this week. It's 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.760 called The Accidental City, Improving New Orleans, and there's one 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.320 part where the author, who's a native, is talking about 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.320 what a fresh start this experience was for so many settlers, 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.079 and this is what he writes, quote, we were a 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.880 city of impostors in a way. That's why Marty Graft 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.760 fits so well with our identity. We could always put 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:50.720 on new masks. 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.800 That's pretty interesting. I actually hadn't really made that connection before. 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:57.640 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 --> 0:14:02.719 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 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:25.320 into one of the most amazing cities in America. All Right, Mengo, 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.440 So what's the next piece of New Orleans history you 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:28.080 want to touch on. 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.360 So we've talked a lot so far about the French 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:32.280 influence on the city, but there's one part of the 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.440 city they really can't claim credit for, and strangely enough, 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.920 it's the French Quarter. So despite what the name suggests, 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.120 most of the buildings in the famous neighborhood were actually 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:43.560 influenced by Spanish architecture, not French. 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.560 So you're saying that the French Quarter didn't exist when 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:48.120 Bienville founded the city. 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.440 It did, but it wasn't called that at the time, 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:52.680 and it also looked a whole lot different. So as 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.880 the city took shape under French rule, it gradually organized 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:57.920 around the highest patch of dry land in the area, 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:00.520 which was still only about ten to fifteen feet above 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.200 sea level. But what I'd kind of forgotten was the 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:06.720 sway that Spain had over New Orleans. So following the 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.800 Revolutionary War, France actually gave the Louisiana territory to Spain, 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:13.520 mostly as a way to keep England from taking control 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:15.120 of it. I mean, it's kind of a long story, 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.040 but you can look up the Treaty of Fountain Blue 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.640 if you're interested. But you know, Spain took possession of 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.560 New Orleans in seventeen sixty two, and they held onto 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.840 it for just under fifty years, and then in eighteen 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.480 oh one a different treaty placed Louisiana back under French 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.520 rule until two years later when Napoleon sold the whole 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:36.760 thing to the US as part of the Louisiana Purchase. 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.040 All Right, so you're saying New Orleans has changed hands 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.920 a lot over the years, and it definitely tracks with 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.280 the cultural mishmash, and you know that you kind of 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.000 think about when you think of the characterization of the city. 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.680 But what it does in do Mango is explain how 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.920 the French quarter got so Spanish Like? Could we get 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:53.560 to that part? 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.080 Basically, nearly all of the original French colonial buildings in 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.800 New Orleans were destroyed during Spain's rule in the late 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.840 seventeen hundreds. They weren't knocked down on purpose, though. Basically 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.360 there were these two massive fires that laid waste to 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.160 the city. And the first fire took place in seventeen 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.680 eighty eight, and it actually might not have been that 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.800 bad except that it happened to occur on Good Friday, 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.720 and because of that, the city's priests wouldn't allow the 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.680 church bells to be rung as fire alarms, which made 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:23.760 it nearly impossible to organize, like, you know, help during 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.120 all the chaos. So the fire burned unchecked, and within 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.080 five hours it had consumed eighty percent of the city. 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.480 Good Lord, and you're saying the same thing happened just 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.840 a few years later. Yeah, I mean, it didn't happen 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.320 during Good Friday this time. But after six years of rebuilding, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.880 they had another fire and it was extinguished a little 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:43.920 bit faster, but it still took out I guess two 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.600 hundred buildings. I don't know. It's still a terrible thing, 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:48.160 but not as bad as the first one. 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:50.360 Yeah, that's tough luck for Spain there. And it sounds 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:54.240 like their entire rain in Louisiana was just fires and reconstruction. 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.280 It was like burn, build and repeat. 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.320 But you know, span left a deep impression on New 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.000 Orleans in the little time it took over. So after 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.080 that second fire, the Spanish government started handing out loans 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.640 for his citizens to rebuild their houses. But the only 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:09.800 catch was in order to get the money, you had 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.960 to agree to build according to the government's newly developed guidelines. 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.240 And so this was really smart. The idea was to 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.200 make the city a little more fireproof, including the switch 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.680 to brick and plaster town homes instead of those wooden cottages. 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.600 And as you probably guessed, this is when the French 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.119 Quarter started to look a little more Spanish, you know, 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:29.719 even if the streets were still named for French royalty 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.760 and nobility. And the transformation proved to be a real 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:35.440 turning point in New Orleans history. And that's something this 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.320 author Lyle Sason touches on in his book Fabulous New Orleans. 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.800 As he puts it, quote, the city that fell before 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.959 the flames was a congested French community of wooden houses, 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:50.080 badly arranged and irregular. A stately Spanish city rose in 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.679 its stead. Large fan shaped windows looked down into courtyards 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.560 which held banana trees and oleanders, and balconies railed with 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:00.000 delicately wrought iron overhung the street. 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:03.800 You know, it's interesting because I actually never really noticed 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.280 how non French the French Quarter is, But when you 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.600 break it all down, it's like, yeah, of course these 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.040 are all Spanish architectural features, I guess. 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.280 Yeah. And that Spanish style wasn't only limited to where 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.800 people lived. It also influenced how the city's dead were 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:20.920 laid to rest. So when settlers first came to the region, 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:23.040 they had a tough time getting their dead to stay put. 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:25.760 Because the water table in the area is so high, 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.120 all the burial plots had to be dug shallow, otherwise 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:31.080 the grave would fill with water and the coffin would 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:33.639 just pop out of the ground. And they tried everything 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:35.520 to keep the coffins in place right, like they would 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:37.919 bore these holes into the lids to make them less buoyant. 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.040 It was a huge problem. They didn't like, tried weighing 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.880 down the lids with heavy stones. But you know, if 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.639 a rainstorm was bad enough in the area, which if 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.800 you know the area, they have terrible rainstorms, the coffins 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:53.879 would still float right out of the graves. So all 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:55.960 of that changed during the Spanish period when the city's 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:59.680 current system of these burial chambers was introduced. So you know, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.400 New Orleans starts stacking their vaults and using these more 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.600 ornate tombs and crypts for I guess the wealthier families. 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:10.639 But when taken all together, the new cemeteries kind of 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.240 looked more like miniature cities, and they were complete with 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:17.440 these like houselike tombs and almost like avenues or streets 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:21.040 for pathways. And while it might seem a little macabre 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.720 to have so many reminders of death and plain view 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:26.320 like that, these so called cities of the dead were 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:28.800 so much better than you know, stepping outside in a 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.000 storm and having to walk over your your late grandfather's 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:34.520 coffin or whatever it was floating down the street, so. 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.000 Morbid. So these fire codes and graveyards, you know, they 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.520