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Though Taylor is careful to note that they “do not equate experiences but consider them in proximity,” her sweeping timelines, which juxtapose “hampton,” “cotton” and “plaçage myth” on one side with “honolulu,” “cane” and “picture brides” on another, do little to help us illuminate the specific histories she’s examining.

This “House” has been built in a fascinating, very particular time and place in American history, when women of color were mistresses to white New Orleans grandees in a system called plaçage.

Delille was trained by her mother in nursing, music and literature, and groomed to follow her mother into placage.

Under placage, mixed-race women in the stratified, pre-Civil War New Orleans society led comfortable, somewhat privileged lives, as did their offspring.

She was a French-speaking woman of African descent, who was born in 1812 and lived a part of her life as a mistress in a social system known as placage, whereby wealthy white European men supported free women of color.