Le Meschacébé was a French-language newspaper in Louisiana that also carried some English-language content and eventually became an English-language newspaper.[1][2] The title of the newspaper comes from the Mississippi River, referred to as Le Meschacébé in French.
History
editHypolite Prudent deBautte, who wrote using the pseudonym Prudent d’Artly, established Le Meschacébé in St. John the Baptist Parish, as well as L’Avant Coureur (The Forerunner) in St. Charles Parish, publishing the first issues January 23, 1853.[3] The papers carried legal notices for their respective parishes.[4] After five years the publishing business was sold to Eugène Dumez and Ernest LeGendre.[3]
Le Meschacébé included satires of Creole former slaves.[5] It published African American folktales.[6] It ran a cartoon October 19, 1918 of fall fashions in a store window display with male mannequins wearing army and navy uniforms and signage stating Uncle Sam, Furnisher of Liberty Men, Tailor.[7] The October 15, 1921 issue described use of an "earth pipe" by people in South Africa smoking cannabis.[8]
Eugène Dumez, who immigrated from France,[9] edited the paper for 20 years up to his death.[10] Lafcadio Hearn described him as the "ablest French editor in Louisiana" in a letter.[11] Jean-Charles Houzeau was friendly with Dumez and sent articles to the paper from Jamaica.[12] The paper became an English language paper.[10]
Alexander Dimitry wrote for the paper.
Issues are extant and available online.[13]
References
edit- ^ Humanities, National Endowment for the. "Le Meschacébé. [volume]" – via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
- ^ Humanities, National Endowment for the. "Chronicling America | Library of Congress" – via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
- ^ a b Staff Reports (August 27, 2016). "Our Stories, Our History: Journalism push starts in 1852". L'Observateur.
- ^ "BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FRENCH NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS PUBLISHED IN THE PARISHES OF LOUISIANA" (PDF). americanantiquarian.org.
- ^ Gipson, Jennifer (2016). ""A Strange, Ventriloquous Voice": Louisiana Creole, Whiteness, and the Racial Politics of Writing Orality". Journal of American Folklore. 129 (514): 459–485. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.129.514.0459. JSTOR 10.5406/jamerfolk.129.514.0459. S2CID 164817736.
- ^ "thistles — Blog". Evergreen Plantation. 7 April 2020.
- ^ "All Saints' Day 1918: War, Sickness, and Chrysanthemums". Oak and Laurel Cemetery Preservation, LLC.
- ^ "Earth Pipe". October 26, 2018.
- ^ "Eugène Dumez letter, 1864 November 20". Louisiana Digital Library.
- ^ a b Caulfeild, Ruby Van Allen (February 24, 1929). The French Literature of Louisiana. Pelican Publishing. ISBN 9781455604609 – via Google Books.
- ^ Hearn, Lafcadio; Bisland, Elizabeth (February 24, 1906). "The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn". Archibald Constable & Company, Limited – via Google Books.
- ^ Houzeau, Jean-Charles (March 24, 2001). My Passage at the New Orleans Tribune: A Memoir of the Civil War Era. LSU Press. ISBN 9780807167236 – via Google Books.
- ^ Humanities, National Endowment for the (September 4, 1909). "Le Meschacébé. [volume] ([Lucy] La.) 1853-1942, September 04, 1909, Image 2" – via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.