Placage or “Quadroon” Balls were a part of New Orleans culture that served two purposes. One was to give white men access to the Black women they wanted to engage with romantically. The other was to give Black women financial status!
There’s just one problem with this scenario.
These balls were nothing more than a myth! It’s true that New Orleans was one of the few places where white men and Black women were free to marry, and it’s true many light-skinned free Black women who married white men did gain money and status. But there’s something else that’s also true.
Black women didn’t need these balls to get lovers, money, or social status! In New Orleans, even when some Black people were enslaved, many light-skinned Black women were already wealthy. To make matters worse, this lie overlooks another important fact.
Black women were considered some of the most pious women in the city. “Selling themselves” to white men was just unnecessary! They obtained their wealth by organizing themselves and demanding high wages for their labor. Surely some women did sex work – but it wasn’t a requirement to advance.
“Quadroon” balls were nothing more than a lie created by jealous white people to make well-off Black women seem like prostitutes. This lie shows the creative lengths white supremacy will go to tear us down out of jealousy.