" ... Offers a lively portrait of the city and a probing investigation of the French colonists who established racial slavery there as well as the African slaves who were forced to toil for them. Casting early New Orleans as a Caribbean outpost of the French Empire rather than as a North American frontier town, Cécile Vidal reveals the persistent influence of the Antilles, especially Saint-Domingue, which shaped the city's development through the eighteenth century"-- Provided by publisher.

Introduction:When the levees rose -- A port city of the French empire and the greater Carribbean -- The city with imaginary walls : the Natchez wars, slave unrest, and the construction of a white urban community -- The hustle and bustle of city life : the politics of public space and racial formation -- "The mulatto of the house" : the racial line within domestic households and residential institutions -- "A scandalous commerce" : the disorder of families -- "American politics" : slavery, labor, and raace -- "Everybody wants to be a merchant" : trade, credit, and honor -- Lash of the tongue, lash of the whip : the formation and transformation of racial categories and practices -- From "Louisians" to Louisianais" : the emergence of a sense of place and the racial divide -- Conclusion: From Louisiana to Saint-Domingue and from Saint-Domingue to Louisiana.