Roadschool Trip to New Orleans - Exploring Food & Culture!

 

Nicknamed "The Big Easy," New Orleans (or NOLA) is known for being a cultural gumbo of music, food, history, and architecture. There's so much more to this city than Mardi Gras...and it's a great place for a roadschool trip!

Step Back in Time

New Orleans was founded in 1718 and named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. During the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the American revolutionaries, and transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River.

Napoleon sold the city to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles and Africans. Between 1791 and 1810, thousands of St. Dominican refugees from the Haitian Revolution, both whites and free people of color, arrived in New Orleans; a number brought their slaves with them, many of whom were native Africans or of full-blood descent. Louisiana slave culture had its own distinct Afro-Creole society, which included religious beliefs (most notably, Voodoo) and the Louisiana Creole language.

During the final campaign of the War of 1812, the British sent a force of 11,000 in an attempt to capture New Orleans. Despite great challenges, General Andrew Jackson, with support from the U.S. Navy and the pirate Jean Lafitte, decisively defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.

Pictured above, the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France in the French Quarter is the oldest cathedral in continuous use in the US, alongside the Royal Presidio Chapel in Monterey, California.

Fast forward to the 21st century, when New Orleans was catastrophically affected when the federal levee system failed during Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. By the time the hurricane approached the city on August 29, 2005, most residents had evacuated. Floodwalls and levees constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers failed below design specifications, and 80% of the city flooded.

That NOLA Sound

Through an intertwining of African, Latin, and European cultures, as well as their musical stylings, New Orleans has a unique musical style.  Beginning in the early American days, there was a blending of Latin and African rhythms with European instruments, and the style evolved up to the start of the 20th century, when local musicians such as Louis Armstrong helped to develop something new - jazz!  It continues to evolve today, as we have seen through Zydeco, Delta Blues, and Bounce.  

 

The transformation of nineteen century benevolent associations into more modern social aid and pleasure clubs provided communities with a rich cycle of social events. Their tradition of parading and marching bands continues to embody the spirit of Delta culture. In fact, when a jazz musician dies, fellow players gather to follow a hearse. The procession to the cemetery begins with slow-paced dirges and ends with jubilant music, celebrating the soul's entry into heaven. Mourners and bystanders fall in behind the band, forming a "second line."

Distinctive folk music traditions survive in rural areas of the Delta today. Cajun ballads, some brought from France through Acadia (see The Lookout Tree unit study), are set to an instrumentation of triangle, fiddle, and accordian. Zydeco blends blues and R&B components with traditional Cajun dance music. Saxophones, piano accordians, electric guitars, and corrugated rub-boards (frottoirs) that are worn as vests and scraped as percussion instruments, create the dance music.

Learn more about the evolution of music in The History of Rock and Roll.

Classic NOLA Cuisine

If music is the soul, then food is the heart of the Delta.  Like its music, its cuisine reflects a compled blend of cultural influences.  Trying to label Delta cuisine as French, Spanish, or African is as pointless as trying to label its culture.  A local chef, when asked to describe his cooking style, once said," Perhaps I would classify it as Delta cooking because it is a culinary blend of ingredients that reflects our cultural diversity."

New Orleans is world-famous for its cuisine. The indigenous cuisine is distinctive and influential. New Orleans food combined local Creole, haute Creole and New Orleans French cuisines. Local ingredients, French, Spanish, Italian, African, Native American, Cajun, Chinese, and a hint of Cuban traditions combine to produce a truly unique and easily recognizable New Orleans flavor.

Local specialities include beignets with cafe au lait, po'boys, muffulettas, etouffee, jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice, and pralines. Food is so important to the local culture, that there is a saying -- "There are two times of day in Louisiana: meal time and in-between."

  

Christmas in NOLA

With unique traditions and dazzling decorations, Christmas is a wonderful time to visit New Orleans with the family.  Even the streetcars and steamboats are decked out!  

Some of the holiday highlights include: Candlelight Caroling in Jackson Square (by the cathedral pictured above), building bonfires on the levee to guide Papa Noel, and celebrating with Reveillon dinners.  City restaurants recreate a centuries-old tradition of a Creole four-course holiday feast.

  

If you've ever wanted to peek behind the iron railings and see history upfront, Christmas is also your change to ride the train through the city to experience holiday displays.  You'll see the oldest homes of the French Quarter and Garden District exhibiting the Christmas spirit, with 600-year old trees covered in Spanish moss and dripping in lights.  Many also throw open their doors and invite you inside to experience the holiday beauty.

  

  

New Orleans unit study resources

Younger Kids

• Le Petite Rouge - In this Cajun Little Red Riding hood, when her grand-mère comes down wit' de flu, this Cajun Little Red knows what she has to do.  With her witty cat, TeJean, she sets off in a pirogue to bring Grand-mère some gumbo.
• All that Jazz! - When kids are finished exploring this book, they can see even more of New Orleans by watching, singing and dancing to the music video that goes with this book on the Bellissimavideo YouTube channel.
• Boudreaux the Louisiana Mosquiteaux - Swept away by a hurricane shortly after his birth, Boudreaux the mosquito has one biting question that needs to be answered: what are mosquitos supposed to eat? Across the swamps of Louisiana he goes, determined to find a breakfast fit for a pest.

Chapter Books

• Recipe for Adventure: New Orleans - Zia's secret ingredient takes Alfie and Emilia to New Orleans. There they meet the members of a kids’ jazz band and are soon helping save the band’s performance venue, as well as tracking down a long-lost cookbook, which just might hold some very special secrets. From beignets and gumbo, to jazz and zydeco, Alfie and Emilia experience everything New Orleans has to offer, all while trying to find their way home.
• I Survived Hurricane Katrina - The horror of Hurricane Katrina is brought vividly to life in this fictional account of a boy, a dog, and the storm of the century.

Older Chaper Readers

• They Called Us River Rats - The previously untold story of perhaps the oldest outsider settlement in America, an invisible community on the annually flooded shores of the Mississippi River.
• Ruined - A gripping supernatural mystery and romance set in post-Katrina New Orleans.Rebecca couldn't feel more out of place in New Orleans. She's staying in a creepy house with her aunt, who reads tarot cards. Sweet, mysterious Lisette is eager to show Rebecca the nooks and crannies of New Orleans. There's just one catch, Lisette is a ghost.

Non-Fiction

• Little Local New Orleans Cookbook - The Little Local New Orleans Cookbook brings the essential flavors of New Orleans to your table.
• Musical Gumbo - A guide to the music and musicians of New Orleans profiles such legends as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Buckwheat Zydeco, as well as modern performers including Harry Connick, Jr. and the Marsalis family.
• Little Snippets of New Orleans - Snippets of New Orleans is a whimsical 248 pages of witty text and wonderful illustrations all about New Orleans: its music, food, architecture, people, eccentricities, and traditions.

Resources for Upper Grades Students

• Soldiers rounding up terrified civilians, expelling them from their land, burning their homes and crops...  Do you know the history of how the Acadians are similar to Jews?
• Although they were never actually shipped by the British to Louisiana, many Acadians found their way there due to the attraction of the language and culture – we know it as ‘Cajun.’  In the 1770s, they were allowed to return to Canada, settling in places such as Prince Edward Island,, New Brunswick, and Cape Breton.  The Great Upheaval continued into the 1820s.  They still maintain a strong cultural history and set of traditions today.
• Pick up the full unit study for The Lookout Tree & the Acadian Exile.
• How did a French pirate help to defeat the British in the War of 1812?
• In the early 1800s, Jean and Pierre Lafitte operated a smuggling operation out of Barataria, near New Orleans.  For several years, they made a lot of money through both smuggling and piracy.  In September of 1814, the US Navy invaded their base of operations and captured their fleet.
• Pick up the full unit study for We Were There with Jean Lafitte at New Orleans.

Resources for Elementary Students

Our first trip to Louisiana was several years ago, when the boys were younger.  You can take the virtual field trip and see many lesser-known locations in this Roadschool Trip to Louisiana.

Following that trip, we put together a guide for studying the cultures of Louisiana, and the history behind them. Includes math, cooking, reading, and worksheets.  This unit also covers the history of Mardi Gras, arts and crafts activities, cooking projects, language arts, and more! It includes several worksheets and a printable book.  Pick up a copy here!