| “A
deeply human tale of how two ordinary men, immersed in struggle
against their own internal doubts and fears and the machinations
of their fellow men, became extraordinary.”
— Joseph P. Reidy, author of Freedom’s Soldiers:
The Black Military Experience in the Civil War
In A Black Patriot and a White Priest, Stephen J.
Ochs chronicles the intersection of two lives in Civil War
New Orleans — that of the first black military Civil
War hero, Captain Andri Cailloux of the 1st Louisiana Native
Guards, and that of the Reverend Claude Paschal Maistre, the
lone Catholic clerical voice of abolition in New Orleans and
one of the first white radicals to emerge in the city. Their
paths converged on a humid day in July 1863, when Maistre,
in defiance of his archbishop, officiated at a large public
military funeral for Cailloux, who had perished while courageously
leading a doomed charge against the Confederate bastion of
Port Hudson. The story of how Cailloux and Maistre arrived
at that day and of what happened as a consequence provides
a prism through which to view the complex interplay of slavery,
race, radicalism, and religion during American democracy’s
most violent upheaval.
Born a slave, Cailloux
eventually gained his freedom, attained respectability as
a cigar maker within antebellum New Orleans’s Afro-Creole
society, and became one of the first black officers in the
Union Army during the Civil War. In death, Cailloux became
a powerful mythic symbol of heroism and freedom for Afro-Creole
and English-speaking blacks, as well as for their white radical
allies — such as the French-born Father Maistre —
who regularly invoked his memory in their campaigns for emancipation,
suffrage, and civil rights.
The enigmatic Father
Maistre, a maverick throughout his priestly career, allied
himself with the cause of Afro-Creole radicalism and prodded
his church to do more on behalf of black Catholics. Suspended
by Archbishop Jean-Marie Odin for his outspoken abolitionism,
Maistre defiantly maintained a schismatic parish for seven
years and publicly supported Radical Reconstruction until
his submission to a new archbishop in 1870.
Combining social,
African American, Civil War, and church history, A Black
Patriot and a White Priest provides a vivid picture of
antebellum Afro-Creole society, of the black military experience,
and of the complex relationship between Afro-Creoles and Roman
Catholicism. It illustrates how the crisis of war transformed
two relatively common men into symbols of freedom and hope
for people of color, and of dangerous radicalism for many
whites. Both Cailloux and Maistre paid dearly for their efforts
on behalf of racial justice, but they helped foster an Afro-Creole
protest tradition that would plant the seeds of a later, more
successful Second Reconstruction.
“A window into the life of free people of color, the
inner workings of the Roman Catholic Church in antebellum
and wartime New Orleans, the military and religious experience
of blacks, and Afro-Creole radicalism. A tall order by any
measure, yet Ochs is successful.”
— Arkansas Review
“A fascinating
and complex tale of two men who fought for racial justice
and paid dearly for their efforts.”
— Journal of Southern History
“Rarely do
books meet such high aspirations, yet this one certainly does.
Well written and impressively researched in social, military,
and religious history, [it] relates a tragic yet inspiring
story of two quite different individuals who, while they never
seemed to have met, fought for equal rights regardless of
color.”
— Journal of American History
“An invaluable
resource for the study of race relations in nineteenth-century
Creole New Orleans.”
— Catholic Historical Review
“This book
tells the rest of the story. So often, books about the Civil
War focus on the glory side of the conflict and neglect the
hard realities of what it was like back home. Stephen J. Ochs
has filled the void. His book is especially important because
he helps us understand what the first black soldiers in the
Union Army had to face. He also explores the social and spiritual
ramifications of that service. A Black Patriot and a White
Priest breaks new ground and provides a context for appreciating
what it really means to be brave.”
— James G. Hollandsworth, Jr., author of The Louisiana
Native Guards
Stephen J. Ochs is the author of two previous
books, including Desegregating the Altar: The Josephites
and the Struggle for Black Priests, 1871–1960.
He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, and is chair of the history
department at Georgetown Preparatory School.
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