Afro-Creoles in the Battle of New Orleans

 by Jennifer Gipson

This text is presented in the framework of the project "The stories that history tells us:  Afro-Créole literature from 19th Century Louisiana". 

From 1729 until the Civil War, black soldiers, both slaves and  free men, participated in the defense of Louisiana whenever it was threatened, as Ronald McConnell details in Negro Troops of Antebellum Louisiana.  In 1812, when conflict between the United States and Britain erupted anew, Louisiana was home to about 8,000 free persons of color, most of whom lived in New Orleans. As British troops approached Louisiana in 1814, military leaders called upon New Orleans’ extraordinarily diverse multi-cultural and multi-lingual population to protect the strategic city.  General Andrew Jackson issued a direct appeal to the town’s free men of color, promising them equal treatment during and after their service. 

Many francophone African-Americans valiantly responded to this call to arms and joined the ranks of their fellow Louisianans in a remarkably successful defense of the city.  Their substantial contributions were initially hailed as heroic, and some soldiers from the free black battalions rightfully collected government pensions and won praise from military and government officials.  However, with the approaching threat of civil war, racial and regional tensions mounted and legal constraints against the free black population also increased.  African-Americans, like Hippolyte Castra, who had bravely fulfilled what they viewed as duty to their city, state, and country, felt that the fulfillment of the pledges made to them in the panic preceding the famous Battle of New Orleans had been forgotten. 

Castra poetically commemorates these broken promises in “La Campagne de 1814-15,” a heart-wrenching tale of a black soldier who comes to realize the bitter truth of the words his mother spoke to him as a child: “Here, you are only an object of scorn.”  The poem, copied from the Desdunes family papers, appeared in the 1911 publication of Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire. As far as can be determined, it had not been previously printed—likely because of its inflammatory tone.  It is likely that Castra was a pen name of a man for whom there is no biographical information or evidence of other writings.  McConnell reports “Hippolyte Lafargue”—no “Hippolyte Castra”—in the rolls of the free black battalions that served in the Battle of New Orleans.  Taking into account the engaging character of the poem, it is likely that Castra was a pen name of a man for whom there is no biographical information or evidence of other writings.  Nonetheless, “La Campagne de 1814-15” remains a potent testimony of the harsh injustices the poet and his comrades knew so well.  In fact, Desdunes contends that the preservation of this poem and its message is not merely a fitting tribute to Castra, but also a veritable duty.