ouisiana

Anthology

Liberty in Louisiana

James Workman

• Born in Caven, Ireland.

• Earned his law degree, 1789.

• Settled in Charleston, 1801-1802.

• Associated with the Federalist paper, the

Courier

in Charleston.

• Became a citizen, May 21, 1801.

Workman in Louisiana

• Moved to New Orleans right after the Louisiana Purchase,

1804.

• Appointed Judge of the County of Orleans, May 1805.

• Named to a committee start a Protestant church in New

Orleans, June 1805.

• Helped organize the Mexico Association, intended to

“liberate” Mexico. Contacted by Aaron Burr, 1805.

• Sided with Burr in freeing the men arrested for treason by

Gen. James Wilkinson, 1807.

Liberty in Louisiana

• Probably the earliest play about Louisiana in English.

• Performed in Charleston, SC, New York,

Philadelphia, and Savannah. 1804-1805.

• We don’t know if it was ever performed in New

Orleans.

Synopsis

• Most of the characters are stock figures

representing the old European order.

• Two wandering picaros, the Irish Phelim

O’Flynn and the Scottish Sawny M’Gregor

initiate the action.

• Soon they encounter the corrupt and foolish

Spanish Judge Don Bertoldo de la Plata, his

vain wife Señora de la Plata.

• At risk is the young heiress Laura, the

innocent yet intelligent, vivacious ward of

Don Bertoldo.

The Plots against Laura

• Comedy of manners.

• Phelim finds out about Laura, the rich heiress.

• Impersonates Captain O’Brien, the fiancé she’s never

met.

• Judge de la Plata wants to elope with Laura.

• Señora de la Plata conspires with Phelim to

thwart her husband and have the Captain to

herself.

• Theresa helps marry Phelim to the pregnant Lucy

Margland, whom he’d abandoned in Tennessee.

• The American General overrules Plata’s plot.

Themes

• Federalist perspective.

• Corruption of Spanish rule. The judge takes the

mordida

in all his cases.

• Spanish rule is also monarchical—governs on

behalf of the aristocracy.

• The honesty of American rule.

• No slaves, no Native Americans, few of the lower

classes.

• The blessings of liberty. But liberty as the

Americans see it. Preserves the weak from the

strong, but also preserves property.