![]() This TV movie begins with a bloody scene of massacre in 1804 that ended the Haitian Revolution. ![]() Instead of being put on the auction block, mixed-race young women were offered up by their mothers and aunts at quadroon balls, where white men could select their next mistress. They were only free in name, in contrast to the enslaved black people on the plantations outside of the city. But the gens de couleur libres had a precarious status in New Orleans, needing protection and indulgence from the white people, still serving at their whims, and still subject to violence. This community came about from rich white landowners setting up second “families” with enslaved black mistresses, and their mixed-race children were usually freed. It’s a complicated, fascinating time period and culture that really deserves more on-screen exploration. So I’ve watched The Feast of All Saints (2001), set in New Orleans of the 1840s, telling a story of the gens de couleur libres, free people of color, before the Civil War. ![]() The early aughts, man, I had a lot of shit going on. I loved the hell out of Anne Rice’s novel, upon which it’s based, yet I don’t know where I was when the movie aired. ![]() ![]() OK, I finally bought the two-DVD set of this TV movie because I’ve been super curious about it. ![]()
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