Entertaining to Educate... | American Stories | Humor Horror History
New Orleans native Mademoiselle Francesca Dumas is a kept woman. At age eighteen in the second year of the American Civil War, she is the concubine of a rich New Orleans banker, Joachim Buisson. Born a quadroon, Francesca leads a sheltered life of elegant jewels, gowns, lace, and lavish balls—until a bullet shatters her dream world.
An assassin murders “her man” as Francesca stood beside him among a throng gathered atop a Mississippi River levee on April 25, 1862. Bowed by Joachim’s body, rain-soaked and blood-spattered, she vows revenge. Francesca’s passionate desire for retribution drives her into a new life as a sleuth. Becoming a detective to solve a murder mystery is far from the role of women in 1862 New Orleans—especially a woman who perceives herself to be African American but appears to be white.
As Francesca’s investigation begins, the assassin kills two more people and kidnaps Francesca’s best friend, Emily. Driven to recover Emily and avenge Joachim, Francesca’s arduous mental and physical journey takes a circuitous route—far from a concubine’s life of extravagant balls, lace, and leisure. Amid the flowering of spring and early summer in New Orleans, she finds herself mired deep in the perilous abyss between Union, French, and Confederate spies.
Aboard mule-drawn streetcars, Francesca’s gumshoe work takes her through Vieux Carré, Tremé, and many famous city streets in search of the killer’s motive, means, and opportunity to commit mayhem. In her undercover role, she frequents Café du Monde, Antoine’s Restaurant, and the famous ballroom at the present-day Bourbon Orleans Hotel. Francesca gets help from three historic people of New Orleans; humanitarian Mother Henriette Delille, actress Sarah Butler, and Union spy John Mahan.
Can young rookie detective Francesca’s passion, determination, and wit overcome a kidnapper and three-time murderer?
In America, race matters. The artificial constructs of race, caste, and class have mattered for centuries and still matter today. Sex between white men and African, Native American, and mixed-race women produced off-springs known as mulattos, quadroons, and octoroons. Mulattos are likely to have as few as one or two white grandparents and an African or Native American parent. Quadroons have three white grandparents, while octoroons have seven white great-grandparents.
Mademoiselle Francesca Dumas was a quadroon. According to young and vivacious Francesca, “There are many rules in New Orleans about sex—written and unwritten. The rules apply to everyone—except white men.”
While miscegenation existed all over the South, arranged unions between white men and women of color existed in antebellum New Orleans society by contract in a recognized extralegal system called plaçage. Race, caste, and class are significant matters in Francesca’s life.
The rigid caste system into which Francesca Dumas was born in 1843 was an American institution a century before the United States Constitution was written. European Americans used skin color in the establishment of their caste system. For centuries, the ruling or dominant culture decided segregation of people into subordinate groups—whether by skin-color or some other basis such as religion or linage or whatever. A few examples are societies in China, Rwanda, South Africa, India, and Pakistan.
The caste system that had such a profound impact on Francesca’s American life is alive and well in twenty-first-century America.
Partial List of Nonfiction Characters Appearing in The Laced Chameleon
Benjamin, Judah P., US Senator; Confederate Secretary of State
Browne, Thomas, Owner of the Singer Sewing Machine Agency
Hildreth-Butler, Sarah, Actress, wife of General Butler
Butler, Andrew, Colonel, US Army; brother of General Butler
Butler, Benjamin F., Major General, US Army
Casanave, Pierre, Founder of Undertaking Service
Casanave, Peter, Son of Pierre, Undertaking Service
Cocks, Arianna*, Daughter of Annabelle
Cocks, Annabelle*, Daughter of John G. Cocks
Cocks, John G., New Orleans Judge
Cocks, Able*, Son of Annabelle
Corlin, Martha*, Confederate Sympathizer
Delille, Henriette, Founder and Mother Superior, Sisters of Holy Family
Dumas, Alexandre, Author of The Count of Monte Cristo
Foster, Thomas, Owner of a New Orleans slave sales depot
Heidiseck, Charles Camille, Owner of Heidiseck & Company Wines, Reims, France
Jobert, Rev. J.B., Pastor, St. Augustine Catholic Church
Lille, Sarpy, Officer, Union Bank of New Orleans
Lovell, Mansfield, Major General, Confederate States Army
Mahan, John, General Butler’s most trusted Spy
Nixon, James, Owner/Publisher, New Orleans Daily Crescent
Packwood, Theodore, Owner of Belle Chasse Plantation
Rusha, E.M., Owner of EM Rusha. Importer of Fine Wines & Liquors
Strong, George B., US Army, Major, General Butler’s Chief of Staff
Tunnard, William H., Confederate Army Sergeant, 3rd Louisiana Infantry Regiment
Zunts, James E., Investor and Co-owner of the City Hotel
__________ | New Orleans Maps and Photographs | New Orleans Public Library | New Orleans | 2013 |
__________ | New Orleans Photographs | University of New Orleans | New Orleans | 2014 |
Arthur, Stanley C. | Old New Orleans | Heritage Books | Westminster | 1936 |
Bland, T.A. | Life of Benjamin F. Butler | Lee and Shepard | New York | 1879 |
Blassingame, John W. | Black New Orleans | University of Chicago Press | Chicago | 1973 |
Butler, Benjamin F. | Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences | A.M. Thayer & Company | Boston | 1892 |
Civil War Society | Encyclopedia of the Civil War | Portland House | New York | 1997 |
Daggett, Melissa | Henry Louis Rey, Spiritualism, and Creoles of Color in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans (a Theses) | University of New Orleans | New Orleans | 2009 |
Davis, Cypbian | Henriette Delille: Servant of Slaves Witness to the Poor | Archdiocese of New Orleans | New Orleans | 2004 |
Dunfour, Charles L. | The Night the War Was Lost | University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln | 1990 |
Gardner, Charles | Gardner’s New Orleans Directory | Charles Gardner | New Orleans | 1866 |
Gessler, Diana Hollingsworth | Very New Orleans | Algonquin Books | Chapel Hill | 2006 |
Goudeaux, Doris | Interview Re: Venerable Mother Henriette Delille | Sisters of the Holy Family | New Orleans | 2013 |
Hennick, Louis C. | The Streetcars of New Orleans | Pelican Publishing Company | Gretna | 1975 |
Jones, John W. | Confederate Currency | The Olive Press | West Columbia | 2002 |
Kein, Sybil | Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana’s Free People of Color | Louisiana State University Press | Baton Rouge | 2000 |
Kendall, John Smith | History of New Orleans | Lewis Publishing Company | Chicago | 1922 |
LeDoux, Jerome G. | War of the Pews | Margaret Media, Inc. | Donaldsonville | 2011 |
Parton, James | General Butler in New Orleans | Mason Brothers | New York | ‘1864 |
Pollard, Edward Alfred | The Lost Cause | Gramercy Books | New York | 1886 |
Richey, Thomas | The Battle of Baton Rouge | Virtualbookworm.com | College Station | 2012 |
Southern, Eileen | The Music of Black Americans, Third Edition | Norton & Company | New York | 1997 |
Tunnard, William H. | A Southern Record | ____________ | Baton Rouge | 1866 |
US Army | FM 24-20 Field Wire Techniques | Department of the Army | Washington | 1956 |
Valezquez, Loreta J. | The Woman in Battle | Dustin, Gilman & Company | Richmond | 1876 |
Winkler, H. Donald | Stealing Secrets | Cumberland House | Naperville | 2010 |
Winter, John David | The Civil War in Louisiana | Louisiana State University Press | Baton Rouge | 1991 |