The Case:
A History Detectives fan from Chicago recently unearthed a French manuscript rolled in a cardboard tube.
The surname "Duplessis," the name of his great-grandmother's mother-in-law, is jotted in a margin and "Rouzan,” his grandmother's maiden name, appears at the bottom of another page.
No one in the family knows anything about it, but our contributor, who reads a little French, thinks he has a collection of love poems, possibly written to one of his relatives. What is this? And why has his family kept it for 160 years?
History Detectives ventures into the little known world of the Creoles of Color to unlock a family mystery.
Creole Poem Manuscript
The contributor’s manuscript contained many poems written by the Creoles of Color. This poem “Jalousie” by the Creole of Color, Armand Lanusse, also appears in Les Cenelles, although the order of the second and third couplets are reversed and numbered incorrectly. The transcription contains a few careless mistakes, suggesting the work was done in haste.
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