odds and ends
Jackson was out of his element in New Orleans, at least in cultural terms. English came a distant third as language of choice (French, Spanish, a whole lot of dialects of various Native American languages, and then, maybe, English); the social setup had to be as foreign to him as France would have been, or Haiti (which was not called Haiti at that point, of course). The whole episode, small and insignificant as it is, reminds me of one of Shakespeare's side jaunts into silliness, ala Much Ado about Nothing.
The names are sometimes the best part of reading all these summaries. Many of them are French, but there are a handful of men called Diego and Pepe. The slave names are quite striking, or very mundane. Anglophone names jump out simply because they are unusual.
This is the stuff I like best about research, the footnotes and asides, the little glimpses into what day to day life must have been like. I really could care less about Jackson himself (Jacksonian democracy, what a crock), but the people around him have all my attention. There was a French sugar plantation owner who also dabbled in piracy called Henri Ste-Geme who fought as an officer in the militia. All of five foot tall with a huge plume on his hat. Could I possibly invent a quirkier character? I'll try, of course.
I'll be going back to New Orleans next month to spend a couple days in the archives, because I haven't been able to locate enough information about what martial law looked like in New Orleans, and what went on in the weeks before the battle. I dislike being away from home, but I am looking forward to reading old broadsheets and immersing myself in advertisements of the period. So I'm a history geek. So sue me.