Bernard de Marigny – Chris Dier

After the United States took control of New Orleans via the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thousands of Americans migrated there to seek better opportunities. Many of them moved into the emerging American sector of New Orleans as they did not mesh well with the already existing Creoles. The Creoles looked at them as barbaric, but noticed that those from Kentucky were the most boisterous. Creoles nicknamed them “Kaintock”, and the term eventually referred to all incoming Americans. The resentment was mutual. The Americans looked at the Creoles as snobbish and unwelcoming, and nicknamed them “crapaud”, meaning frog in French. The bitter contrast between the two led to an agreement to build a canal on a major thoroughfare dividing them. The canal was never built, but the street remained as Canal Street. The median in the middle was dubbed the “neutral ground”, and to this day the medians in the New Orleans area are called “neutral grounds”.

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