Chapter 2 - Mixed Motives

Summary

Several texts have emerged from New Orleans during the first seven decades of European settlement, when the French occupied the area between 1699 and 1762, most notably works by Dumont de Montigny, Marie Madeleine Hachard, and Marc-Antoine Caillot, which paint a picture of life in the early settlement and also offer varying attitudes toward the colonial enterprise as administered by the French Company of the West. Writing in and about New Orleans, in this period, was shaped significantly by the Jesuit and Ursuline religious orders as well as the censors of the French Department of the Book Trade. As such, these writings often adhere to the conventions of travel writing in that era – or seem instead intended only for a circle of intimate acquaintances rather than wide publication.