User:Tarrare 09/sandbox

The dialect in and around New Orleans is known as Creole or Cajun. It is a long, drawly dialect that tends to let words run a little long and is often spoken somewhat monotone. There is a heavy French influence on New Orleans speech patterns since Louisiana was owned by France for an extended period of time. Creole dialects also tend to have a slight Spanish influence as well.

Around the turn of the 20th century, most of the American South was technologically behind the American north. New Orleans (and the rest of Louisiana and even Mississippi) would have been places of extreme economic stratification. It was an area of hyper-rich and hyper-poor people, with the rich consolidating in the French Quarter of New Orleans and the poor living in the slums down by the river, Lake Pontchartrain and the Delta. The Poor also lived in ramshackle houses out in the swamps and bayous of the area. Fishing, small scale farming, shipping and entertainment were jobs for laborers and the poor. The rich tended to be "old money" who were effectively living off the fortunes of past family members made by producing and selling cotton, tobacco, and other slave related industries. New Orleans has always enjoyed a certain level of tourist related economy; the architecture of the city, near year round warm climate, night life, music, food and atmosphere have always made the city a destination for upper class and lower class tourists alike.

Louisiana has always had a VERY distinct blend of cultural influences regarding religion and superstitions. Voodoo practices made their way to the mainland from slaves in Hispaniola and Haiti; and voodoo practitioners served a similar role as modern fortune tellers and mystics. Beliefs from voodoo and Santeria mixed with Catholicism created a more or less original sect of Christianity along the entire Gulf Coast as well as the Caribbean islands.

Relationships between black and white in New Orleans have always been complicated. On the one hand, black people were viewed as second class citizens who were expected to do labor or hospitality jobs for lower pay. However, since the South has been exposed to black cultures for longer periods of time than the north, black culture more or less thrived in New Orleans and was more accepted as normal than in other regions. Black music, blues, and the forerunners of Jazz and Swing all began in the city with black musicians plying their crafts in saloons and on the streets. That said, the city was still segregated by law. White and black were not supposed to mix on a social level, but mixing did occur frequently. Black influences on Creole and Cajun cooking, for example, provides a look into how white customers would from time to time patronize black kitchens.

New Orleans has had a long and sordid history of crime. The city being somewhat narrow and claustrophobic pushes people together and leads to conflict. Petty crime such as burglary has always been rampant. New Orleans is and was always dangerous. Murders were not frequent; but more common than in other cities in general. The desperate and crafty preyed upon the naive and weak; and still do.