For those of you interested in a summarization of the poem, here it is. Sort of a “Cliff Notes” version. As the narrative unfolds, I’ll post here a continual update of the poem’s content and action. 

I am also attempting here to dig into Pembroke’s intentions, though I cannot know them entirely. 

The Poem

The poem begins with a Prologue introducing the title character of Ti-Sainte as a timeless character of myth and memory.

The action begins at his birth which takes place in dramatic fashion when his mother is being chased through the darkness and goes into labor in the water after her pursuers set her hiding place on fire. 

She is rescued by some Biloxi Indians who take her and her newborn to their nearby village where she and the newborn convalesce. 

Meanwhile, Bienville and Sauvole have located and navigated the mouth of the Mississippi River. It is Mardi Gras Day, 1699.

Historical Context

The poem “The Legend of Ti-Sainte” delves into the history of Colonial Louisiana and intermixes actual and seemingly fictional historical characters, intertwining their lives in an interesting effort to establish a heretofore unrecognized character, a sort of patron saint of Mardi Gras. Importantly, his mother’s life takes up much of the narrative as a witness to the earliest days of the colony with the amazing assertion that she was the lover and wife of the somewhat mysterious Antoine Sauvole¹, the first governor of Louisiana. As the father of the child who would become Ti-Sainte, Sauvole arises more prominently in our consideration of his role as a founder of the French colony which first formed along the Mississippi coast, moved to what is now Mobile and then eventually settled in what is now New Orleans. As well, the poem asserts that Marie Sauvole (with the given name of Lanme’a) was an enslaved Haitian Creole of French and African descent. The poem asserts that Sauvole and she feel in love and that Sauvole was sent away to sea and Lanme’a subsequently sold to a pirate from whom she was rescued by Sauvole before the couple joined the venture to create the colony of Louisiana with Iberville and his brother Bienville. During that time, she and Antoine conceived the child who would become T-i-Sainte. the colony with Antoine and then spent her life either in the house of in proximity to Jean-Baptiste de Bienville, whom everyone recognizes as the Father of Louisiana. While his brother Iberville is credited with the “discovery” of the mouth of the Mississippi, what becomes obvious is that Bienville and Sauvole were the principle “discoverers” of the true nature of the region and that the Mississippi River (then known as the St Louis or Colbert variously) was only part of a large and relatively ancient network of waterways, primarily coastal in utility. The southern portion of the Mississippi and it’s remote “birdsfoot” delta were actually little used by natives of the region and were only sparingly used by the colonists and the French and Spanish and freeboot smugglers, pirates and businesses seeking survival and wealth. Navigating up the river, against its flow and treacherous current full of fallen trees and whatever else was carried to its frayed and ever changing exit into the Gulf, was a dangerous and time consuming journey. The better way in — and the one used for centuries by the many tribes who plied the coastal waters for trade and interaction — was across Lake Bourne and Lake Ponchartrain entering the bayou now called St John’s with a short portage to the river (also achievable through the Manchac area) and upriver to Indian settlements, nations and hunting grounds throughout the interior of what would become the United States and into Canada. For the earliest Louisiana Gulf Coast colonists, this meant dealing with the Indian tribes throughout the area, but especially the Natchez, whose regal Sun King ruled a powerful tribe whose trade and interrelations and influence moved up and down the portion of the river from what is now Natchez, Mississippi to the coast. New Orleans, then, is a much more complex story and one which the poem engages.

As a historian, I could not help but be compelled by Pembroke’s account of these settlements and believe it brings some new understanding of the founding of the Gulf Coast and its importance to understanding Colonial America in a new, more complete way. For too long, the focus of American settlement has gone through an English eye, when in fact, the Gulf Coast region — which included the Caribbean, the coast of Mexico and even South America — supplied much of the economy of Europe during this volatile period of global warfare and competition between Spain, France and England. One of the only reasons for this blindness is simply that much of the documentation, business and indeed cultural change took place in French or Spanish and once the Americans gained independence (thanks in no small part to the support of France) “English” became the lingua franca and subsequent early efforts of the American Founders (especially Thomas Jefferson) eliminated, bought out or simply refused to deal with polities and business relationships which had been developed over the previous two centuries. In one of the more devastating moments, Jefferson, elected in 1800 in a very contentious election which upended American economics in favor of the slaveholders, immediately cut diplomatic ties with the Haitian government, run by former slaves who had rebelled and taken control of what had been once of the most productive regions of the Caribbean. His predecessor, John Adams had established a working relationship with Haiti and its brilliant leader Toussaint Louverture, a relationship which was poised to direct the wealth of the sugar cane growing region (which had at one point provided at least one third of France’s economy) to and through the ports of America. Adams had gone so far as to send a permanent emissary to the newly founded former slave colony — the only such nation in history — and had begun what might have proved to be a very successful partnership for the fledgling nation. However, once Jefferson took office, he called back the emissary and cut off all economic and political ties. This allowed France, under the rule of Napoleon, to send a force of thirty thousand soldiers to the colony in hopes of taking back their profitable land and returning the half million inhabitants to their former status as enslaved workers. Needless to say, this did not work out. Along the way however, the French imprisoned Louverture (he died in a French prison), lost many of their troops to yellow fever and the determination of the Haitians to “live free or die” as the saying went back then, and gave up on their efforts to reclaim their colony. Immediately thereafter, Jefferson negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, made a deal with Spain for its held land along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts and voila, America tripled in size.