Respectable from their intelligence: the education of Louisiana's gens de couleur libres, 1800 to 1860
This study provides a historical analysis of the socioeconomic and cultural conditions that influenced the unprecedented educational attainment of Louisiana’s gens de couleur libres (free people of color) from colonization to the dawn of the American Civil War. Many in this community came to possess notable wealth – to the extent that they have been esteemed as the wealthiest group of free blacks in the nation in the nineteenth century. Moreover, libres were able to attain the highest levels of education: private schools were created, pupils were sent north for schooling, tutors were hired, and many finished their schooling in France. Given that this community, on the whole, achieved substantially higher levels of wealth and education than any of their North American counterparts, this work relies on archival research methods to answer the central question: What enabled an entire community of color to find scholarly success in an overtly racially oppressive society?
Black education, Southern education, Antebellum education, Black achievement, Race, Class, Educational opportunity
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign