Synopses & Reviews
"A deeply imagined, beautifully written, and thoroughly researched account of the earliest order of Catholic sisters in what is now the United States. . . . General and specialist readers alike will be grateful to Clark for the vivid story she tells."
--Church History "So thorough it encompasses every aspect that touches on the order of the Sisters of Saint Ursula."
-- Louisiana History "Innovative and carefully researched . . . opens up the world of Gulf Coast Catholicism."
--Books & Culture "With this finely crafted study, Clark contributes substantively to the burgeoning field of scholarship acknowledging the seminal roles women religious have played historically in the formation of American culture and society."
-- Register of the Kentucky Historical Society." "Elegant prose and riveting narrative . . . a tour de force that will intrigue any student of early American women's history."
-- Journal of the Early Republic "This meticulously researched and engaging book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the intertwined histories of race, gender, and religion in American history."
-- The Catholic Historical Review "Written with elegant precision. . . . Essential reading for those seeking to understand the intimate scale of racial and social transformations that occurred in a unique southern city."
-- Journal of American History A superb book on a neglected topic in early American history.
--Susan Juster, University of Michigan Clark deepens our understanding of life in early New Orleans through this absorbing study of the Ursuline convent.
--Daniel H. Usner Jr., Vanderbilt University
Review
"Written with elegant precision. . . . Essential reading for those seeking to understand the intimate scale of racial and social transformations that occurred in a unique southern city."
-- Journal of American History
Review
A superb book on a neglected topic in early American history.
--Susan Juster, University of Michigan
Review
"So thorough it encompasses every aspect that touches on the order of the Sisters of Saint Ursula."
Louisiana History
Review
"This meticulously researched and engaging book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the intertwined histories of race, gender, and religion in American history."
-- The Catholic Historical Review
Review
"Written with elegant precision. . . . Essential reading for those seeking to understand the intimate scale of racial and social transformations that occurred in a unique southern city."
Journal of American History
Review
Clark deepens our understanding of life in early New Orleans through this absorbing study of the Ursuline convent.
--Daniel H. Usner Jr., Vanderbilt University
Synopsis
Clark follows the history of the Ursuline nuns of New Orleans through its years as a French colony, then a Spanish one, then as part of the U.S. after the Louisiana Purchase. The French Ursulines gained prominence in New Orleans through the social services they provided, which also allowed them a self-sustaining level of corporate wealth. The unmarried nuns contravened both the patriarchal republican order of the slaveholding American South and the Protestant construction of femininity that supported it. Clark's analysis joins the French and Spanish colonial history of Louisiana with the English colonial history of the settlers along the Atlantic to create a more complete picture of the whole of early America.
Synopsis
During French colonial rule in Louisiana, nuns from the French Company of Saint Ursula came to New Orleans, where they educated women and girls of European, Indian, and African descent, enslaved and free, in literacy, numeracy, and the Catholic faith. Although religious women had gained acceptance and authority in seventeenth-century France, the New World was less welcoming. Emily Clark explores the transformations required of the Ursulines as their distinctive female piety collided with slave society, Spanish colonial rule, and Protestant hostility.
About the Author
Emily Clark is assistant professor of history at Tulane University.
Table of Contents
Contents Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Prelude. Old World Origins: Female Piety and Social Imperatives in Europe
Part 1. Transplantations: The French