Call Number:

C1519

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.4 linear feet

Language:

French

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frédéric Gaillardet Manuscripts, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1836-1877 (inclusive)

Creator:

Gaillardet, Frédéric, 1808-1882

Abstract:

Consists of several manuscripts, some of which are unpublished, by French lawyer, politician, and writer, Frédéric Gaillardet (1808-1882), including a partial manuscript draft of L'Aristocratie en Amérique (Paris, 1883) and several other manuscripts, notes, documents, and clippings, primarily relating to Gaillardet's time and travels in the United States, Canada, and Cuba from 1837 to 1848, particularly his time in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states. Also included are manuscript drafts of unpublished plays and other writings.

Frédéric Gaillardet (1802-1882) was a lawyer, politician, and writer, who emigrated to the United States in 1837. There, he served as a journalist, writing about French affairs for New York newspapers and American affairs for Parisian newspapers. In 1839, he became the proprietor and editor of the New-York based newspaper, Le courrier des États-Unis, which, under his direction, became the leading French language newspaper in the Western Hemisphere. Gaillardet sold the newspaper and returned to France after the 1848 Revolution in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a seat in the National Assembly. He was elected mayor of Le Plessis-Bouchard in 1869, and was working on a memoir of his life in America, in the manner of Alexis de Tocqueville's De la Démocratie en Amérique, when he died in 1882. Parts of his memoir appeared posthumously in 1883 under the title L'Aristocratie en Amérique.

This collection consists of several manuscripts, some of which were unpublished, by French lawyer, politician, and writer, Frédéric Gaillardet (1808-1882), including a partial manuscript draft of L'Aristocratie en Amérique (Paris, 1883) as well as several other manuscripts, notes, documents, and clippings, primarily relating to Gaillardet's time and travels in the United States, Cuba, and Canada from 1837 to 1848, particularly his time in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states. These manuscripts offer a critique of American society, and include observances of such things as the condition of Indian societies, the fractious relationship between Creoles and Anglo-Americans, and the institution of slavery.

Also included are manuscript drafts of unpublished dramatic plays and other writings.