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Normally when tourists or first-time residents come to New Orleans, they have a difficult time understanding the city. It looks like no other place in the United States. The first puzzling impression usually comes from the appearance of the French Quarter near many of the city's hotels. It is more than just a few blocks of townhouses and cottages standing side-by-side, lined up against the sidewalk. The size of the district startles even those well traveled in the rest of the nation. Few visitors, moreover, are accustomed to such a melange of people moving at all hours of the day and night in the very center of the city. They quickly learn that bars have no closing hour, that the food is spicy, and that the music is pulsating almost everywhere. And they may also take note that the locals talk funny but seldom have Southern accents.
Even a prolonged stay brings no easy recognition or familiarity. Someone from a northern city might see something familiar like a Saint Patrick's Day parade, Italian fresh produce dealers, or some century-old Lutheran, Greek Orthodox and Jewish congregations. They would also recognize soul food restaurants, African-American store-front churches, and the lilt of Spanish spoken in the streets. A southern visitor would see familiar colonnaded houses, catch a whiff of jasmine blossoms, and even find cornbread on some menus. Most residents of the United States will still be puzzled by what they observe in New Orleans—their usual explanation is that New Orleans is a foreign place, more a European than an American city.
But it is an American city—just a very different place with a very peculiar history. New Orleans is a place where Africans, both slave and free, and American Indians shared their cultures and intermingled with European settlers. Encouraged by the French government, this strategy for producing a durable culture in a difficult place marked New Orleans as different and special from its inception, and continues to distinguish New Orleans today.
By Arnold R. Hirsch and Joseph Logsdon
Department of History, University of New Orleans
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