# Ep. 22: Creoleness and Cruelty in Colonial Louisiana **URL:** **By** Anthony Comegna **Published:** September 26, 2017 --- The New Orleans society we love so much today emerged out of separation, not peaceful coexistence. For two decades, New Orleans was a town with about 400 riotous, irreligious, desperate individuals. Jean-Baptiste, Sieur de Bienville always hoped the French Empire would take more interest in the area--it was the gateway to wider America, the key to the continent’s greatest river, its richest soils, and a highway for the Indian trade. If only it actually had people in it! ### Further Readings/References: [French, Douglas E. Early Speculative Bubbles & Increases in the Supply of Money. Second Edition. Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute. 2009.](https://mises.org/system/tdf/Early%20Speculative%20Bubbles%20and%20Increases%20in%20the%20Supply%20of%20Money_2.pdf?file=1&type=document) Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 2005. Ingersoll, Thomas. Mammon and Manon in Early New Orleans: The First Slave Society in the Deep South, 1716-1819. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press. 1999. [Code Noir or “Black Code” of Louisiana, 1724](http://www.blackpast.org/primary/louisianas-code-noir-1724)