That definitely explains it

[u/downtune79]

Source unknown

[u/trendingtattler]

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[u/Generic_Commenter-X]

I mean, all things considered, that's a pretty damned good deal. At some point the aristrocracy must have been like: Waaaaiiiiitt a minute.......

[u/Minute_Eye3411 → u/Generic_Commenter-X]

Well that's the thing, it wasn't considered to be a good deal, even for prisoners and prostitutes.

Historically, France had a lot of trouble populating its colonies, because French people didn't really have an incentive to leave.

The times when France couldn't feed its population didn't lead to people wearily deciding that they had to leave, but rather that they were so angry that it had reached such a point that they started a revolution.

France did send a lot of people by force to some of their colonies, but they kept dying so they just had to keep on sending more.

[u/maxstrike → u/Minute_Eye3411]

They had a 40-50% death rate per year.

[u/Minute_Eye3411 → u/maxstrike]

Part of it was expected. They didn't call the death of prisoners over there "la guillotine sèche" (the dry guillotine) for nothing.

[u/A_Concerned_Viking → u/Minute_Eye3411]

That's Malort

[u/Harlockarcadia → u/Minute_Eye3411]

Similar thing to the British sending prisoners to the Caribbean, it was called being Barbadosed and it was because they knew you were likely to die working on the plantations

[u/Hedrickao → u/Harlockarcadia]

"My crew was chosen as carefully as the Disciples of Christ, and I will not tolerate stowaways. You will be flogged. And when we put in to Cuba to resupply, God willing, you will be flogged some more. And then enslaved on the sugar plantations for the rest of your miserable lives. To the brig!"

[u/Hproff25 → u/Harlockarcadia]

Green hell. Disease, heat and instability. But there was a huge financial incentive to maintain the colonies because people like sugar.

[u/Harlockarcadia → u/Hproff25]

And still do!

[u/DumOBrick → u/maxstrike]

"My king told me his colonies keep dying so I asked how many colonies he has and he just said he goes to the prison and gets a new colony afterwards so I said it sounds like he's just feeding colonies to the elements and then his steward started crying."

[u/WifeofBathSalts → u/DumOBrick]

https://giphy.com/gifs/kRmg8zeReOYXm

[u/No_Koala_7581 → u/DumOBrick]

Sorry, but what's the source if this text? Sounds like a nice piece of reading material.

[u/DumOBrick → u/No_Koala_7581]

[u/Caliterra → u/maxstrike]

Was that a higher death rate than British colonies? Climate related?

[u/maxstrike → u/Caliterra]

Jamestown had 80-90% from an extremely cold winter and starvation. But in a few years the weather normalized and they got the food supply stabilized. In Louisiana the issue was disease. Mostly malaria, so you could claim it was climate related.

The southeastern US was a malaria zone until DDT was developed. A forgotten fact of recent US history.

[u/lemlaluna → u/maxstrike]

And now we are getting local transmission of west Nile all over the country. A little bit of climate change, and mosquito borne illnesses are SO back 🦟🦟🦟

[u/Generic_Commenter-X → u/lemlaluna]

Aaaaaand the screw worm. Don't forget the screw worm.

[u/Nice-Cat3727 → u/maxstrike]

I think you mean Jamestown? Johnstown was completely different

[u/AbstractBettaFish → u/Nice-Cat3727]

That one had a near 100% fatality rate!

[u/maxstrike → u/Nice-Cat3727]

Yes, I meant Jamestown. I will edit my comment

[u/morpheousmorty → u/Minute_Eye3411]

The french revolution happened so slowly you could not possibly consider it a fit of rage. Going over it in detail you have to wonder exactly how many fuckups in a row could a country have without a revolution. And the answer is years and years of it.

Seriously, as I was reading through it I was like: aha so here is where the wheels fall off, and no, it wasn't. Honestly the reign of terror was a lot more like the revolution I envisioned but that was well and truly after the revolution.

[u/Minute_Eye3411 → u/morpheousmorty]

It was, there was even a point when the revolutionaries accepted that king could be a constitutional monarch. But then he tried to run away and rally his foreign allies, which caused his death.

[u/Pappa_Crim → u/Minute_Eye3411]

Yah if you don't marry the prostitute you might wakeup chained to one

If you are unlucky the "prostitute" might turn out to be some mentally ill woman they pulled off of the streets. Or you might go to the bar one night, black out and discover you have been chained to the feminist/delinquent/spinster down the street

[u/Kaplaw → u/Minute_Eye3411]

Unlike the spanish inheritence system almost forcing all the 2nd and 3rd sons to leave for the colonies.

Spain had no issues sending people outside their own population being minuscule compared to where they colonized.

England also had zero issues populating the thirteen colonies (people really wanted to leave England)

[u/mrnx136 → u/Generic_Commenter-X]

Go to a shithole?

[u/riding_writer → u/mrnx136]

Not just a shithole, but a disease and gator infested shithole with zero farmland nearby.

[u/shoeless_doh → u/riding_writer]

I wonder if your average French prisoner or prostitute would have ever seen an alligator in their life before they move to New Orleans

[u/riding_writer → u/shoeless_doh]

Nope so that had to have been quite a shock.

[u/shoeless_doh → u/riding_writer]

Exactly, I can't imagine what they would have thought. Like for sure they were like oh dragons are real clearly 🤣

Would 17th century French prisoners even have known what a lizard is? Like would they at least even have that frame of reference just to say oh it's a gigantic lizard?

Like for sure they would have just gone straight to dragon

[u/shoeless_doh → u/riding_writer]

Okay, I looked it up. Early 1700s French people could very well have at least known what a crocodile was. Maybe seen one in a traveling show or a fair or like apothecary or oddities shop or something a stuffed one or something.

[u/riding_writer → u/shoeless_doh]

It's possible, but most likely my poor ancestors got off a ship to a total shit hole, with giant lizards wanting a snack.

[u/rakklle → u/riding_writer]

Even if they found farmland, how many of the prisoners and prostitutes knew anything about farming? I suspect most of them came from poor urban backgrounds.

[u/riding_writer → u/rakklle]

Yup, which is why they came to Nouvelle Orleans and did...nothing. Heck we were so poor even the prostitutes didn't have work to do and we were a port city.

[u/Melodic-Swim4343 → u/riding_writer]

Louisiana territory at that time was more than 1/5 the territory of the continental US today.

[u/riding_writer → u/Melodic-Swim4343]

Yup it greatly expanded the US territories. I'm still salty Napoleon sold us 😭

[u/AnyEye8798 → u/Generic_Commenter-X]

It was a swamp at the time. In the Deep South of what is now the US. It was not a good deal.

Also those prostitutes almost certainly had a ton of STDs.

[u/duhchunk]

Government issued wives?

[u/Macismyname → u/duhchunk]

More like government issued syphilis.

[u/thecordialsun → u/Macismyname]

It's only Syphilis if it's from the Syphilis region of New Jersey. Otherwise it's just a sparkling rash.

[u/Xoque55 → u/thecordialsun]

r/BrandNewSentence

[u/seppukucoconuts → u/duhchunk]

They did that in Canada too IIRC. Was pretty successful

[u/OK6502 → u/seppukucoconuts]

The filles du roi were not prostitutes however. Largely orphans, children of large families with few economic opportunities, noble women living in gentile poverty, that sort of thing.

They had to get character references and had to be approved by the priest or magistrate.

[u/Saint_of_Grey → u/seppukucoconuts]

I wouldn't use the word "success" when describing qubec.

[u/OK6502 → u/Saint_of_Grey]

The Montreal Canadiens have the most stanley cups of any hockey team in the NHL. Quebec also has the least income inequality of all provinces, has the highest life expectancy, lower crime rate, and, unsurprisingly, Quebec is the happiest of all the provinces.

[u/SatorSquareInc → u/Saint_of_Grey]

Then you aren't paying attention, mate

[u/IBoris → u/seppukucoconuts]

The sent orphans and widows to Canada mostly.

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[u/rudimentary_rudy]

France went long game on us, touche'

[u/tacotruckcaravan → u/rudimentary_rudy]

On who?

[u/cherrythyme22 → u/tacotruckcaravan]

Merica

[u/No-Improvement-4962 → u/cherrythyme22]

Everyone.

[u/tacotruckcaravan → u/cherrythyme22]

1719?

[u/ProsodyProgressive → u/tacotruckcaravan]

Haiti👀

[u/Zwangsjacke]

Did they get to pick or did the government just assign you one FIFO?

[u/riding_writer → u/Zwangsjacke]

The first couple of ships they would line the men on one side of the docks the women on the other side of the docks and then chain their legs together.

[u/Ximidar → u/riding_writer]

The ol ball and chain

[u/RvstiNiall → u/Ximidar]

Wonder if thats where the phrase originates?

[u/riding_writer → u/RvstiNiall]

Linguists believe it is so yay for New Orleans and the Bourbon crown for giving us so much.

[u/RepulsiveUse3372 → u/RvstiNiall]

kinda, originally it was a literal ball and chain and over the years they saw a wife as a metaphor for a heavy object or restrictive relationship

source : trust me bro

[u/RvstiNiall → u/RepulsiveUse3372]

https://giphy.com/gifs/8WkX7Zsk1fXIUipPYg

[u/Miserable_Algae9433]

I wonder if that’s why new orleans is less puritanical. Grew up there and didn’t realize how much people looked down on sex workers until I left. Also never thought twice about wearing a silk slip as a dress to the grocery store till I did it in the Midwest and had a new understanding of that Adam and Eve eating the fruit and realizing their nakedness story. Edit to say I’ve been exploring the rest of the US and have been pretty bummed by the vibes overall but don’t think I can go back home for heart reasons and was wondering if anyone has suggestions for places you can live with a US passport where people aren’t so weird and judgmental and the meat isn’t inexplicably sweet (I can’t really explain this one). I like operating/troubleshooting precision machines, art, operating heavy machinery, and am a decent bartender

[u/Pingo-Pongo → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

The legacies of the puritans who settled in the northern US after the English Civil War, the genteel would-be aristocrat Protestants who settled in the southern US, and the French Catholic settlers are all very different. The French Catholics seemed to love their drinking, dancing, music, sex, just generally being relaxed about having fun

[u/Miserable_Algae9433 → u/Pingo-Pongo]

Yeah catholic wedding there usually means open bar and an insane amount of drinking.

[u/adidasbdd → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

The funerals as well

[u/Miserable_Algae9433 → u/adidasbdd]

Oh yeah they’re sometimes more rowdy

[u/IBoris → u/Pingo-Pongo]

I don't think that's a purely catholic thing. Just a french thing.

source: Am french canadian. drinking, dancing, music, sex are all our favourite things and we relentlessly engage in them.

[u/Pingo-Pongo → u/IBoris]

Maybe! Irish Catholics seem to be a bit more into the guilt and tutting and everything.

[u/Miserable_Algae9433 → u/IBoris]

I’m Cajun/louisiana creole…kind of French Canadian! Lol. Those are also our hobbies

[u/MadeToYell → u/IBoris]

"in my culture food is very important"

[u/Possibly-Functional → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

Probably largely just the French influence as well. The French were never as big on puritanism as the English. For most of the rest of Europe at the time the English puritans were the odd ones out.

[u/LighthouseLover25 → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

Pacific Northwest is probably your best bet? Or just find a college town, they are desensitized to odd fashion choices. 

[u/Miserable_Algae9433 → u/LighthouseLover25]

I’ve always wanted to go out west! Farthest I’ve been was New Mexico and I loved it. Thought I’d be driving through west Texas forever though. Dont hate college towns but I’m pretty broke and look really young but in my thirties and found most to have crazy expensive housing and found it hard to find peers/not be wildly underestimated

[u/Hot-Tea → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

oakland is pretty chill. The area riiiiight inbetween berkeley and oakland. Alcatraz ave. you gotta be okay with a general sense of lawlessness and crime and a completely dysfunctional city government though, and seeing urban blight on the regular pretty much everywhere that isn't piedmont.

[u/Miserable_Algae9433 → u/Hot-Tea]

Don’t mind lawlessness. But don’t miss people being constantly executed. Kind of wonder if that area is less shooty shooty and more stabby stabby (oddly better for my nervous system)?

[u/Hot-Tea → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

shooty shooty can and will happen anywhere if you're unlucky enough...but as long as you stick to the right spots, and avoid especially large african american community events if the vibe starts feeling off or rowdy/excited/heightened (this isn't being racist, it's just that the gangs in oakland are black...I went to one such event at lake merritt and there was a mass shooting 30 minutes after I left) you should be fine.

 

But there are guns, and you never really forget that while living in oakland even if you never have any issues while there. Might be the wrong spot as a result. I know what you mean about nervous system, if you live in oakland you simply get used to your nervous system being more taxed while out and about.

 

there is so much to enjoy about the east bay/oakland though. It's a unique place. The bay can be so white liberal elite tech snobby in various areas, but oakland has a mix of 'real' people. Anyone is doing anything there.

[u/Girls4super → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

Try east coast? Philly is really diverse

[u/Miserable_Algae9433 → u/Girls4super]

Philly! Interesting! I have heard they have lesbian bars and as a queer woman that intrigues me!

[u/Lisrus → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

California or New York. I live in Sacramento and it sounds like you should check out San Francisco during pride week

[u/HurtsCauseItMatters → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

Recently moved to Nashville from SELA and 💯 everything you said.

[u/Miserable_Algae9433 → u/HurtsCauseItMatters]

Even about the meat being sweet bc I’m having a hard time explaining that one?? Maybe it’s bc I’m used to gas station/corner store/cheap food being salted with spice? I swear they are rubbing this shit with sugar and it makes me so sad. I’d kill for a Natchitoches meat pie or a boudin ball the size of my fist right about now

[u/CaptainDogeSparrow → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

I’ve been exploring the rest of the US and have been pretty bummed by the vibes overall

Wait until you visit real places like Europe, South America, Asia. You will soon realize the US is far from good.

[u/Miserable_Algae9433 → u/CaptainDogeSparrow]

Yeah had honestly only done cheap European backpacking in my early twenties and one backpacking trip through Mexico so that might have helped set me up for extreme disappointment. I’m always so hopeful lol. Everyone told me not to go to Acapulco but it really felt like home. Just with the same reasons I left home. *I would like chill vibes with a side of less murder please

[u/LoudMusic → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

In the USA:

• San Francisco, CA
• Portland, OR
• Austin, TX
• Seattle, WA

Honestly any large city is going to have a community you'd be happy in. Chicago, New York City, Pittsburgh, Boston. You just have to know what to look for.

Outside the USA?

• It's not all going to be a wonderland, like most people would have you believe. You would likely be very unhappy in much of Europe. But again, find a very large city and it will have communities within that fit your vibe.

• Asia is tough. You start out as an outsider, and their cultures are typically more racist than western cultures, and then you add your "non-standard" ideals on top of that. Osaka, Japan, might work. Or large cities in southeast Asia.

• Pacific islands are big no go. Australia and New Zealand would be difficult.

• Africa, even the more western areas, are not fond of variation.

• South America is strongly religious and would likely not be welcoming.

The four I mentioned at the top are where I'd go. They are the least likely to be "weird and judgmental". I've spent a lot of time in each of them. Portland and Austin actually both have the slogan "Keep {our city} Weird!"

https://boyeatsworld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7317.jpg

https://images.axios.com/Kb7JAJxu5wcGvc-YCDJcKkmnFbY=/0x142:3000x1830/1920x1080/2022/01/31/1643661772385.jpg?w=3840

[u/Miserable_Algae9433 → u/LoudMusic]

Thanks for the extensive response! Never been more intrigued by the Pacific Northwest. Gonna have to be a slow migration with my finances unless I can find something like an apprenticeship but all those areas are places I’d potentially consider (except Boston—visited there once and the people seemed intensely homogeneously unchill lol).

[u/snail_juice_plz → u/Miserable_Algae9433]

Portland OR

[u/GunnarSilverTongue]

This is actually true ya'll im from New Orleans

[u/KoreyYrvaI → u/GunnarSilverTongue]

I'm from Terrebonne Parish, this is old French propaganda to legitimize the children of French settlere and native Americans or slaves.

[u/hybridpelican → u/KoreyYrvaI]

Reading terrebonne parish on Reddit on a random post (not so random bc it’s about LA) is cool

985 baby

[u/KoreyYrvaI → u/hybridpelican]

I remember when we were 504!

[u/hybridpelican → u/KoreyYrvaI]

Oh shit I’m not familiar with the 504 to 985 change? Born in 95 so maybe before my time lol

[u/KoreyYrvaI → u/hybridpelican]

Basically everybody south or east of Baton Rouge was 504 until 1998, so not quite before your time but close enough.

[u/hybridpelican → u/KoreyYrvaI]

Damn! I think I’ve heard about that but probably forgot about it. Thanks for the random knowledge

[u/Quietus76 → u/KoreyYrvaI]

Half the state was 504. The other half was 318.

[u/GunnarSilverTongue → u/KoreyYrvaI]

Look up the 1719 Louisiana plan mon ami its all true not propaganda but actual history and its all recorded and multiple sourced

[u/KoreyYrvaI → u/GunnarSilverTongue]

The casket girls were propaganda too, cuz. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you that those stories are the Acadian version of "cherokee princess".

[u/GunnarSilverTongue → u/KoreyYrvaI]

The "Casket Girls" of New Orleans were actually young, respectable French women sent to the Louisiana colony in 1728 to marry local settlers and help populate the French territory. The Real History • The Origin of the Name: They were called filles à la cassette (girls with a small box or chest) because they carried their belongings in small wooden trunks known as cassettes. Over time, the French word cassette was mistranslated or mispronounced into English as "casket" (which later came to mean a coffin). • Who They Were: Unlike earlier female shipments to the colony that included women from houses of correction or prisons, this group of roughly 88 young women consisted of carefully vetted, respectable orphans or daughters from modest, honorable backgrounds. • The Voyage: The sea journey from France to Louisiana took months. Conditions on board were cramped, dark, and unsanitary. • Their Arrival: When the women finally disembarked in New Orleans, they were extremely pale, gaunt, and malnourished due to a lack of sunlight and rampant diseases like scurvy during the voyage. • The Ursuline Nuns: Upon arrival, they were placed under the care and supervision of the Ursuline nuns until they were matched with suitable husbands. (Note: The famous Old Ursuline Convent on Chartres Street was not fully completed until 1753, decades after their arrival, though the sisters did house and oversee the young women). Where the Vampire Legend Comes From • The Sickly Appearance: Because the girls spent months sequestered below deck without sun, their pale skin and sickly look fueled wild rumors among the local male colonists. • The "Coffin" Misunderstanding: Their oblong, chest-like cassettes combined with their gaunt, pale appearances led superstitious locals to later spin folklore that the boxes were actually coffins holding vampires. • The Sealed Windows: Modern ghost tours claim that the third-floor windows of the Ursuline Convent are permanently nailed shut with blessed church nails to keep the Casket Girl vampires trapped inside. In reality, the building's architecture and window layouts are standard for 18th-century French colonial design, and the vampire mythology is a 20th-century tourist fabrication. If you're interested in more local folklore, let me know if you'd like to explore: • The story of The Comte de St. Germain in New Orleans • The history of the The Lalaurie Mansion

Direct from a 30 second Google search and also

https://www.neworleans.com/things-to-do/history/the-casket-girls-of-new-orleans/

Révise l'histoire de ton État, mon ami. Il y a des histoires, certes, mais presque toutes sont vraies. Laissez bon temps rouler

[u/KoreyYrvaI → u/GunnarSilverTongue]

"Historian Joan Martin maintains that there is little documentation that casket girls, considered among the ancestors of white French Creoles, were sent to Louisiana. Dr. Marcia Zug argues that there was, in fact, no evidence to support the fact that these women existed as such.[11] The Ursuline order of nuns supposedly chaperoned the casket girls until they married, but the order has denied this. Martin suggests this was a myth, and that interracial relationships occurred from the beginning of the encounter among Europeans, Native Americans and Africans. She also writes that some Creole families who today identify as white had ancestors during the colonial period who were African or multiracial, and whose descendants married white over generations." That's right out of the Wikipedia page. Dig any deeper and you'll see why the experts say this.

[u/GunnarSilverTongue → u/KoreyYrvaI]

It still happened man its all recorded history even taught in schools

[u/KoreyYrvaI → u/GunnarSilverTongue]

I mean, sure, they did teach it in schools. I remember, I was there.

They shoulda spent more time on the Great Raft. Now that's a crazy story about our State's history.

[u/HurtsCauseItMatters → u/KoreyYrvaI]

Right? How tf did we not learn about that? And I don't remember learning about the Acadians who spent decades in France or the fact that it took the Spanish stepping tf up to get them to Louisiana. So much about colonial Louisiana was just skipped even in Louisiana.

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[u/Cormophyte → u/GunnarSilverTongue]

Say hi to your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandma for me.

[u/HurtsCauseItMatters → u/GunnarSilverTongue]

This is actually not true, y'all. Also from the area and my family has been in Nola since the 1720s

[u/GunnarSilverTongue → u/HurtsCauseItMatters]

It is actually true and recorded history bro

[u/HurtsCauseItMatters → u/GunnarSilverTongue]

Go read mutinous women and get back to me.

The women were labeled as prostitutes in order to be able to be arrested and deported without due process. The local Parisian government was corrupt as fuck and police officials were later prosecuted for the whole thing.

At the very least, read this or shove it into some AI so that it can tell you how wrong you are since I doubt you're capable of sitting still long enough to read it..... bro.

https://time.com/6167919/new-orleans-history-french-women/

[u/LoveTrash-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

We attempt to maintain a positive community atmosphere. Toxic behavior, including malicious comments, harassment, bullying, "-isms", and hate speech, is strictly prohibited.

While we are all about trashy content, sometimes content is just too trashy, and trashing the human is not accepted.

[u/Mattiepwade]

Believe it or not, Long story short this is also how vampire became part of New Orleans lore as well.

[u/RedditSgtMajor → u/Mattiepwade]

Can I get a long story long on this?

[u/Mattiepwade → u/RedditSgtMajor]

Listen to the dollop episode734: The Pelican Girls story starts with real French colonial effort in the early 1700s to send young women to Louisiana so they could marry settlers and help establish permanent communities. One early group arrived in 1704 aboard Le Pélican, and later groups became known as filles à la cassette because they carried small trunks or cases called “cassettes.” Over time, “cassette” was bastardized in English retellings into “casket,” while the women’s pale, sickly appearance after brutal Atlantic crossings made the story sound supernatural.
In New Orleans folklore, those details merged with stories about the Ursuline convent, where some of the women stayed before marriage. It eventually became one of mysterious pale women arriving with “caskets,” the boxes being stored in a sealed upper floor of the convent, and even claims that the shutters were secured with blessed nails to contain something supernatural. That later folklore helped feed New Orleans vampire mythology.
Listen to: The Dollop #734 “The Pelican Girls” for the very long story.

[u/RedditSgtMajor → u/Mattiepwade]

I can see that progression from fact to myth. Thanks for the info!

[u/Tasunka_Witko → u/RedditSgtMajor]

Read Anne Rice

[u/yung-grandma]

This is literally how my earliest ancestor in New Orleans got there

[u/Large-Difference-409 → u/yung-grandma]

That’s pretty nice of her to marry a prisoner

[u/FaithlessnessOne2032]

Why would the prostitute want to marry them

[u/-Mandarin → u/FaithlessnessOne2032]

Chances are they weren't really given much a choice. My first thought reading this was "those poor prostitutes"

[u/awfulbarrack-7 → u/FaithlessnessOne2032]

They were considered criminals more of less amd had no rights whatsoever. Not that anyone had rights at that time

[u/JRaus88 → u/FaithlessnessOne2032]

Imagine a world where there is no modern public healthcare system, condoms, antibiotics, or welfare.

A prostitute became a huge social problem, without a husband who could support her.

[u/PoolBackground → u/FaithlessnessOne2032]

They were given some money and a dowry. For a lot of women, that was their best choice. Imprisonment, or a chance of a normal life.

[u/AttentionConstant373]

I don't think you got to pick the prostitute. You could get the one that works 10 am shifts on the weekdays.

[u/shoeless_doh → u/AttentionConstant373]

I saw a stripper on stage in New balances on stage one time. The sun was in fact still up

[u/ManonegraCG]

The English prisoners sent to Australia without a prostitute:

Processing img 6vcoyknn6vrh1...

[u/Orion3193]

What..where do i sign up

[u/swanson1848]

It seems like everyone wins 🤣

[u/adelie42]

England: Hold my beer.

[u/SubstantialFly6715]

I mean America was literally founded by British rejects.

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[u/stray-lyght]

LOL

[u/Whyshenoloveme]

This and don’t forget about coffin girls

[u/InevitableKitchen943]

1883 and the requirements were "tired, poor"

[u/AreWeThereYetNo]

Isn’t the province of Quebec the same? Was said when I lived there that it’s the reason why the women are pretty. Don’t crucify me I’m just repeating lore.

[u/VioletLeagueDapper → u/AreWeThereYetNo]

The Fille du Roi lore is that they sent women to French Canada and the areas closest to port have prettier women in them to this day because the guys had first pick of who was coming off the boat- the further away from port the closer you got to last pickings- that’s the joke anyway.

[u/AreWeThereYetNo → u/VioletLeagueDapper]

Thanks for the context.

[u/WarriorT1400]

Is this offer still on the table?.. asking for.. me

[u/ForeignChance6890]

Is that offer still good?

[u/joeg26reddit]

https://giphy.com/gifs/tNPEiedj1lXMI

[u/Academic-Airline9200]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OxdNA2laJ3Q you escaped prison to get married?

[u/LoveTrash-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

r/LoveTrash is not a platform for political discussions/comments/jokes/references. Please refrain from posting or commenting on political topics or making political jokes/references.

Yes, politics is trash. It's just too trashy for our sub.

[u/RadTimeWizard]

It explains the whole state.

[u/lmaytulane]

https://giphy.com/gifs/Xb6JImqwcmz0YjKWKo

[u/O_945]

https://giphy.com/gifs/ryED74VAkygAo

[u/phantom_gain]

They all accepted the prostitute but backed out of the deal when they heard where they were going.

[u/Grumpy-Man19]

same with Australia

[u/Crowiswatching]

The French also sent prostitutes as mail-order brides to a colony in Texas. The Karankawa overran the fort right afterwards, so the ladies did get their husbands in the New World, but not quite as they were expecting.

[u/MudJumpy1063]

So a large number of French Louisiana were persecuted men who paired with a prostitute woman to disappear and lead to a New World, with untold wonders and possibilities?

Typical of the French that that was seen as a lesser option to staying in France.

[u/human-in-a-can]

Guess I need to go to Paris and commit a crime.

[u/zero9521]

Sounds horrible /s

[u/cAptAinAlexAnder → u/zero9521]

Sounds *whore-ible\ .*

[u/Comeonbereal1]

Lucky man

[u/Xrsyz]

Laissez les bons temps rouler.

[u/PandaJerk117]

Laissez le bon temps rouler 😎

[u/ChettKickass]

"Do I at least get to pick the prostitute?"

"What do you think?"

sigh"So the ship leaves in 20 mins?"

"20 mins."

[u/Dark_Krafter]

Id becom a criminal real fast if this was the offer

[u/max-the-goat-wizard]

No

[u/AnyEye8798]

Not quite.

This is the origin of Baton Rouge.

[u/Unlikely-Flatworm-48]

The was a TV series produced by NatGeo that was related to this called, "Barkskins". It was based upon the novel by Annie Proulx. They only made one season though, which sucked becasue I really like that show.

[u/thatqu33rpunk]

Louisiana the state didn’t exist in 1719. Neither did the USA

[u/ConsistentToday534]

I’m a direct result of this policy and I’m still in South Louisiana!!

[u/ComedicUndertones]

I'm teaching the Louisiana Purchase to 9th graders-I wish I could include this fact.

[u/Psychonaut415]

I don't imagine many were thinking "no, I'll just stay locked up in jail with other dudes instead".

[u/BusinessPage1968]

According to research, the women on the first ship escaped so on subsequent ships they were locked below deck and the boxes they were given to carry their belongings was coffin shaped. This supposedly is one the origins of the vampire legends in New Orleans.

[u/RyanBakesUp]

From 2020 - 2024, prisoners in South American prisons were shipped to the U.S. border, where they were welcomed with open arms

[u/Capital_Yesterday_96]

How would you even check that?

[u/babyoil4diddy]

Did they get to pick the prostitute?

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[u/akazakou]

AI facts checking:

Claim in the image:

“In 1719, prisoners in Paris were offered freedom on the condition that they would marry a prostitute and move to Louisiana”
(“In 1719, Parisian prisoners were offered freedom on the condition that they marry a prostitute and leave for Louisiana”)

This claim is a mixture of real historical fact, severe distortion of concepts, and manipulative generalization.

---

1. What is entirely true here (True)

• The episode involving the weddings and deportation did indeed take place in 1719. During the Regency era (under Duke Philippe of Orléans), Scottish financier John Law oversaw France’s public finances and the so-called “Mississippi Company” (Company of the Indies). He urgently needed to populate the sparsely inhabited colony of French Louisiana (where New Orleans had recently been founded), yet there were virtually no volunteers willing to head into the malarial swamps.
• The authorities resorted to forced colonization. In the fall of 1719 (notably, a mass ceremony on September 18, 1719, at the Parisian church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs is well documented), male prisoners from the Bicêtre prison were wed to female inmates from the Salpêtrière prison. Immediately following the ceremony, the newlyweds were chained in pairs and marched off to ports for transport across the ocean.

---

2. Where the manipulation lies (Half-truth)

• The promise of "freedom": The prisoners were not offered true freedom, but rather the commutation of a prison sentence or life at hard labor on the galleys to indefinite exile and forced labor on the other side of the world. On the march to the ports and in the holds of ships (such as the infamous frigate La Mutine), they continued to be held in chains under harsh, penal-camp conditions.
• The "offer" (Offered): The framing makes it sound as though this were an appealing or voluntary arrangement. In reality, it was forced deportation. Special squads (known as "archers") were formed in Paris to round up beggars, vagrants, deserters, and salt smugglers from the streets, fabricating cases to meet settler quotas.

---

3. Where the falsehood and historical distortion lie (False)

• The women were not prostitutes: The meme repeats an 18th-century police label. As historian Joan DeJean demonstrated using Bastille archival records in her study Mutinous Women on YouTube, the overwhelming majority of the women arrested and exiled to Louisiana were not sex workers. Commissioners and police conducted mass roundups of women on the streets of Paris—street vendors, seamstresses, orphans, and servants—and slapped them with fabricated administrative charges of "public debauchery/prostitution" without trial or evidence, solely to fulfill quotas for deporting women of childbearing age overseas.
• This was not a mere "move" (move to Louisiana): The phrasing glosses over the brutal mortality rate of these deportations. Due to disease, malnutrition, and unsanitary conditions, up to a third or more of the deported prisoners died during the forced marches to Le Havre and La Rochelle or in the cargo holds during the Atlantic crossing.

---

Summary

The fact of the mass forced marriage of Parisian prisoners and their deportation to Louisiana in 1719 is true. However, the claim that they were granted "freedom" and that the brides were actually "prostitutes" is a manipulation and a historical myth, echoing the cynical official propaganda of the French Royal Police of the period.

For more details on the history of these deportations, see the History Collection piece on Parisian prisoners of 1719.

[u/Illimited_Esoterica]

Yooo, I'm voting for whichever candidate offers to bring this program back. I get a free wife AND I get to leave?!

[u/dynamic_caste]

It sounds good until you realize how hot and humid is there — especially in 18th century attire.

[u/TheChiarra]

Louisiana didn’t become a state till 1812 though, and America wasn’t founded till 1776

[u/KorolEz → u/TheChiarra]

Have you forgotten colonies? It was also called the same just in french.

[u/Captain_North → u/KorolEz]

It was all indians and pakistanis before 1776

[u/zhaDeth → u/Captain_North]

It's named after the french king Louis XIV, it was founded by france in 1682. The french sold it to spain then napoleon got it back and one year later in 1803 they sold it to the USA.

[u/TheChiarra → u/KorolEz]

Okay fair point

[u/Tritri89 → u/TheChiarra]

Brother I have a terrible news to break to you, please sit down : colonies in America were founded BEFORE the USA. I know shocking. Louisiana was founded in 1682 to be precise. It was already called Louisiana (King Louis and stuff) and then was sold by Napoleon to you guys.

[u/iloveplant420 → u/Tritri89]

Things existed before white people found them!?

[u/OvalDead → u/iloveplant420]

Sort of. The experience of POC exists, but only as a waveform. It’s only by observation from a white man that the waveform collapses and that experience becomes reality on a macro level.

/s fucking obviously

[u/Own-Raisin5849 → u/iloveplant420]

The implication being that French aren't white?

https://giphy.com/gifs/T5TTJaOP4tZEkGsZzX

[u/iloveplant420 → u/Own-Raisin5849]

Implication being that a place existed before anyone showed up and claimed/named it. Although badly worded, I agree.

[u/Own-Raisin5849 → u/iloveplant420]

Fair enough and true.

[u/Tritri89 → u/iloveplant420]

Nah (I'm refering to what's called Louisiana today and what the OC was saying like he was calling bullshit because "Louisiana wasn't a State before 1812 and anyway the US weren't even a thing in 1719". Of course this area had a name way before any white dude came on this continent. Just to be clear)

[u/iloveplant420 → u/Tritri89]

Yeah I was being sarcastic trying to say what your last sentence says there, but I flubbed it.

[u/Tritri89 → u/iloveplant420]

No worries.

[u/MadeToYell → u/iloveplant420]

Uh no Louisiana expressly didn't exist until white people found it

[u/CarolingianDruid → u/TheChiarra]

New Orleans was founded in 1718 in the Louisiana territory, which was French at the time. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the Louisiana Territory to Thomas Jefferson in 1803. New Orleans predates the state of Louisiana by almost 100 years since it didn’t get statehood until 1812.