title: Building the Land of Dreams: New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America
author: Eberhard L. Faber
description: <b>"Winner of the 2015 Kemper and Leila Williams Prize in Louisiana History, Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Historical Association"</b><br /><br />"Multicultural New Orleans maintains a mystique that stems from its unique development under governments of France, Spain, and Thomas Jefferson's U.S., argues musician-turned-history teacher Faber in this remarkable and thorough history." (<i>Publishers Weekly</i>)<br /><br />"This well-researched snapshot of a brief period of the city's lengthy history richly details personalities and events, offering a valuable perspective to history students and anyone who has experienced the Crescent City's vibrant ways of life." (<i>Library Journal</i>)<br /><br />"Faber explains how exotic New Orleans became somewhat less exotic after the Louisiana Purchase. . . . The author also provides information about the powerful individuals who were part of the transition." (<i>Choice</i>)<br /><br />"An original and complex analysis of New Orleans during that transformative period in its history and details the political and economic integration of the city into Jeffersonian America. . . . This book effectively presents an important, and hopefully provocative, historical, geographical, and political argument: the histories and geographies of New Orleans and the early United States are inseparable. Whatever their differences, compromises and common interests generally prevailed."<b>---Case Watkins, <i>Journal of Historical Geography</i></b><br /><br />"Deeply researched, vibrant, and passionately honest. . . . Historians of early Louisiana will be debating Faber's book for years to come."<b>---David E. Narrett, <i>Journal of Southern History</i></b><br /><br />"Faber's book retires much of the folklore embedded in New Orleans's historiography."<b>---George Edward Milne, <i>American Historical Review</i></b><br /><br />"This book . . . joins a formidable scholarship on political re-imaginings following the Louisiana Purchase. . . . [<i>Building the Land of Dreams</i>] shows an intimate sensitivity to chronology, tracing the ways events communicated with each other on tight timelines. . . . Ultimately, <i>Building the Land of Dreams</i> highlights the ways New Orleans and the early American republic entered the antebellum period in tandem, informing one another on issues of slavery, expansionism, and national identity."<b>---Kristin Condotta Lee, <i>Register of the Kentucky Historical Society</i></b><br /><br />"In this brilliant book, Eberhard Faber reveals how the creole elite of colonial New Orleans adapted to American rule on their own terms. With thorough research and vivid prose, <i>Building the Land of Dreams</i> illuminates American expansion in exciting new ways."<b>Alan Taylor, author of <i>The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 17721832</i></b><br /><br />"This outstanding book takes up a large and absorbing story: Louisiana's incorporation into the American Union as a constitutional equal with other states. Faber untangles this intricate history with admirable clarity and lots of good judgment. In his sensitive hands a cast of characters ranging from Spanish dons and creole warhorses to American newcomers comes to life. <i>Building the Land of Dreams</i> is a fine work of distinction."<b>Lawrence N. Powell, Tulane University</b>
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  American Uprising
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Untold Story of
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  America’s Largest Slave Revolt
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Daniel Rasmussen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00006.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Notes](American_Uprising_split_001.html#filepos5465)
  
  Prologue
  
  1 “Though the cause . . . is strong”: Lowell, Poetical Works, 68.
  
  2 a mere twenty-four pages: Paquette, “The Great Louisiana Slave Revolt.”
  
  1\. Carnival in New Orleans
  
  9 “The river . . . for empire”: Barry, Rising Tide, 97.
  
  10 Down from the mountains . . . to New Orleans: Barry, Rising Tide, 38–39.
  
  10 prime entrepot: Meinig, The Shaping of America, 15–16.
  
  10 “the produce . . . to market”: Greeley, American Conflict, 55.
  
  10 Magnolias, orange trees . . . columned porticoes: Crété, Daily Life in
  Louisiana, 253.
  
  11 “The social status . . . ‘good natured’ ”: de Laussat, Memoirs of My Life,
  61.
  
  12 The roads . . . games in the field: Crété, Daily Life in Louisiana, 97.
  
  12 “most active . . . the country”: de Laussat, Memoirs of My Life, 53–54.
  
  12 small talk