Building the Devil's Empire: French Colonial New Orleans

by Shannon Lee Dawdy

Building the Devil’s Empire is the first comprehensive history of New Orleans’s early years, tracing the town’s development from its origins in 1718 to its revolt against Spanish rule in 1768. Shannon Lee Dawdy’s picaresque account of New Orleans’s wild youth features a cast of strong-willed captives, thin-skinned nobles, sharp-tongued women, and carousing travelers. But she also widens her lens to reveal the port city’s global significance, examining its role in the French Empire and the Caribbean, and she concludes that by exemplifying a kind of rogue colonialism—where governments, outlaws, and capitalism become entwined—New Orleans should prompt us to reconsider our notions of how colonialism works. "[A] penetrating study of the colony's founding."— Nation   “A brilliant and spirited reinterpretation of the emergence of French New Orleans. Dawdy leads us deep into the daily life of the city, and along the many paths that connected it to France, the North American interior, and the Greater Caribbean. A major contribution to our understanding of the history of the Americas and of the French Atlantic, the work is also a model of interdisciplinary research and analysis, skillfully bringing together archival research, archaeology, and literary analysis.”—Laurent Dubois, Duke University

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, France, 18th Century, American History

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Lucy Tierney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only time I saw the title word devil appear in Ms. Dawdy’s book was in a quote from a nun, complaining about women’s heavy make-up. Ms. Dawdy researched in France and uses a lot of French expressions. Also, she translates obscenities for the non-speaker. She uses the word forçat all the time. These were forced exiles, often smugglers, and a fleur de lis was branded on them. ¼ of the founders’ generation were criminals.
Ms. Dawdy says New Orleans was an “intellectual experiment” in urban planning. The metropolis was built among hundreds of area Indian villages and camps (with their ceremonial mounds) and among giant banana spiders. “The French did not anticipate just how difficult it would be to occupy the edge of a swamp and retain a respectable semblance of urbanity.”
In 1722 imported slaves were set to work building an extensive levee system. They came mostly from the west coast of Africa, Senegambia and the Bight of Benin.
By 1750, rogue colonialism gave way to an organized syndicate of the creole oligarchy, she says. During the period 1731-1770 there was no immigration and this had an interesting effect. “The rise of the creole oligarchy in New Orleans was accompanied by the blancification (or whitening) through endogamy…” Isn’t blancification a strange word?
Absolutism died in the colonies before the French revolution when Bienville’s heirs died at the firing squad in the revolt of 1768. This was all new to me. I have never had a course in Louisiana history!

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Introduction was rhapsodic, promising a lusty world of colonialism in the bayou. Her notion of rogue colonialism is intriguing. At worst, the two words form a redundancy; at best the idea helpfully underscores the contingency that drives events in transoceanic colonial ventures.

[Greta Faith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man, I've read a lot of boring books for school, but this one might be the alpha. Like seriously, I read 5 pages of this book then made the class pass/fail.

[Ginny Kaczmarek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A carefully researched, scholarly investigation of the early years of New Orleans as a French colony. I appreciated the combination of archival research, archaeology, and literary analysis in bringing the past to life. The writing is clear and engaging with lots of interesting characters as well as a broader investigation into how the rogue colony of pirates, travelers, and nobles managed to grow into a city.

[Brendan]

Read this as part of a Corruption in the Early Modern Period. Good if you're looking for a comprehensive view of New Orleans' history as a French colony and a discussion on whether the colony was a "failure".

[Milena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shannon Lee Dawdy provides a wealth of information about French Colonial New Orleans in Building the Devil's Empire. Dawdy argues in her work that New Orleans was an experiment in urban planning according to Enlightenment-era ideals and that the city thrived thanks to "rogue colonialism" (a colonialism practiced by those working outside of government interests).

Through extensive research, Dawdy provides the reader with detailed information about several aspects of New Orleans during the French Colonial period. Each chapter covers a different topic:

Chapter 1: The depiction of New Orleans in Lousianan and French literature
Chapter 2: Urban planning
Chapter 3: The City's illegal (but licit) smuggling economy
Chapter 4: Social mobility and social hierarchy
Chapter 5: Racialization of social hierarchy

All of these topics are fascinating and all of the information presented gives the reader a good idea of what life was like for the citizens of New Orleans during that period of time.

Building the Devil's Empire is a well-researched, clearly-written, and well-organized work with a wealth of information about a period of the city's history. I nicked off a star because it's a wee bit dry and has a few instances of repetitiveness but on the whole these are minuscule flaws that can be often found in academic works. I wholeheartedly recommend this!

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content of book was excellent and I would recommend it for any person wanting to learn about the history of New Orleans. I do not have any historical reference to compare it to but as an introductory text, the book was interesting. My fault with the book and the main reason for my reviewing it at three stars is that it was poorly written. The author constantly repeats herself- almost repeating paragraphs and points ad nauseum and lacks consistency in her writing. I had a difficult time getting through portions of the book that I felt could have been cut in half. Also, I felt like the author took some liberties in some of her early conclusions based on the evidence she presented. All in all, it was an okay read and I learned a lot about New Orleans.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for an upcoming project and it didn't end up being exactly what I needed. I did learn that the French Colonial period in NOLA was much shorter than I had thought it was. It is a good book for folks largely unfamiliar with NOLA history, but it was generally information I had already gathered from other sources. It is annotated well so that the reader can easily locate the cited sources. Unfortunately, this book does not complete the research I need to do.

[Jason S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very ambitious book that hits the mark in proving quite a detailed thesis. Arguing that French New Orleans in the early and mid 18th century was a cite for the testing of Enlightenment and for the limits of mercantile and imperial control, this book is very information for those interested in French history, imperial history, and American history. Many references to James Scott.

[Jillian]

This was actually very interesting but it was due back the library and my trip to NOLA is over! I'll pick it back up next time I go there.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Punt

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely interesting, but poorly written. Repeats information multiple times, and does not provide crucial information until 3/4 of the way through the book.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty dry but a great history of the colonial founding

[Vickie Buenger · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a well-constructed, well-argued monograph. this really reframes my understanding of Nawlins.