The Creoles of Color are a historic ethnic group of Louisiana, especially the city of New Orleans.
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During Louisiana’s colonial period, Creole referred to people born in Louisiana with ancestors from elsewhere; i.e., all natives other than Native Americans. They used the term to separate themselves from foreign-born and Anglo-American settlers. Colonial documents show the term "Creole" used to refer to white people, black people including slaves, and mixed race people. Admixture studies presented by the Annals of Human Biology have found the creoles to be individually 80% African and 20% European.[citation?]
The mixed-race Creoles of Color become part of a separate ethnic group in the 19th century. These freed persons of color and their descendants usually enjoyed many of the privileges of whites including property ownership and formal education. Often the Creoles of Color were referred to as "Gens de couleur libres," French for "freed persons of color." Because they were of a social order above many of the blacks during that time period, they went to great lengths to ensure that they and their offspring had very little contact with anyone who did not belong to their social class. While it was not illegal, it was a social taboo for Creoles of Color to marry slaves and was rarely done. Some of the most prosperous Creoles of Color even owned slaves themselves.
After the American Civil War, many of the Creoles of Color lost their status and were made to join the ranks of the poverty-stricken ex-slaves. However often having the advantage of better education than the new freedmen, many were active in the struggle for civil rights, although they suffered a major reversal when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against them with Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.
In maintaining their European heritage, it was not uncommon to find classically trained musicians among the Creoles of Color in nineteenth century Louisiana. They would often study with players associated with the French Opera House, and some would even travel to Paris to complete their studies. There are two main primary sources that discuss black composers of that time: Music and Some Highly Musical People, by James Monroe Trotter, and Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire, by Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes.
With their vigorous tradition of musicianship, New Orleans area Creoles of Color were active in defining the earliest days of jazz.