Segregation of the Free People of Color and the Construction of Race in Antebellum New Orleans

Posted in Articles, Census/Demographics, History, Louisiana, Media Archive, Slavery, United States on 2010-07-26 22:30Z by Steven

Segregation of the Free People of Color and the Construction of Race in Antebellum New Orleans

Southeastern Geographer
Volume 48, Number 1, May 2008
pages 19-37
E-ISSN: 1549-6929
Print ISSN: 0038-366X
DOI: 10.1353/sgo.0.0010

Amy R. Sumpter, Instructor of Geography
Georgia College and State University

Louisiana and the city of New Orleans have a complicated colonial and racial history. A large free population of color living amidst enslaved people of color attests to fluidity in racial constructions present in the colonial period in Louisiana. Throughout the French (1682–1763) and Spanish (1763–1803) colonial periods and the first five decades of U.S. statehood (1803–1850), racial constructions changed remarkably. Cultural conflict, an increasing number of American whites, and fear of insurrection contributed to growing hostility toward the free people of color and remaining colonial racial practices. Historical evidence, state and municipal legislation, and 1850 U.S. Census data show that free people of color tended to reside in specific “Creole” areas within the city, demonstrating that free people in the city were segregated by race.

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The Geographical Imagination of Barack Obama: Representing Race and Space in America

Posted in Articles, Barack Obama, Media Archive, United States on 2009-09-02 19:02Z by Steven

The Geographical Imagination of Barack Obama: Representing Race and Space in America

Southeastern Geographer
Volume 49, Number 3, Fall 2009
pages 221-239
E-ISSN: 1549-6929 Print ISSN: 0038-366X
DOI: 10.1353/sgo.0.0049

Robert J. Kruse, II

It has been noted that the geographical work on race and space has often overlooked the geographies of individual African-Americans. This paper adds to the literature on race and space by focusing upon Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States.  Unusual in many ways, Obama offers the opportunity to combine two types of analysis in this paper. First, his memoir, Dreams From My Father, is treated as a geographical text through which we may gain insight into his geographical imagination. Second, this paper discusses the spatialization of racial identities, particularly whiteness, that have informed the public’s impressions of Obama.  Together, these discussions may help us to understand the point at which Barack Obama’s personal geographies intersect with larger racialized landscapes that show increasing hybridity and permeability.

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