Adolphe Duhart

Adolphe Duhart (1830–1908) was an American 19th-century poet, fiction writer, and playwright who spent most of his career in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was a free person of color and member of the Louisiana Creole community. His work, along with that of his contemporary Creole writers and artists, provides insights into the perspectives of free Creoles of Color who experienced the racial tensions common in 19th-century Louisiana. Duhart's writing at times also included feminist's themes and women's perspectives. He wrote in the French language and almost always used a pen name.

Duhart attended school in Paris, France, where he became versed in the ideas of equality that resulted from the French Revolution. On returning to New Orleans, still in the years preceding the American Civil War, Duhart became a part of the community that included free people of color who were dedicated to the ideals of equality. These included poets, writers, and community leaders such as Armand Lanusse, Joanni Questy, and Henry Louis Rey, among others.

From the interactions in the Cercle Harmonique, the group of participants including Duhart formed a school for African-American children known as the La Société Catholique pour L’instruction des Orphelins dans l’Indigence, which was also known as the Couvent School. (The name Couvent came from Marie Couvent who was a former slave who donated money to help establish the school.)

The antebellum period in New Orleans had a three caste system consisting of white people, slaves, and free people of color. The system resulted in inherent difficulties for the free people of color, and these difficulties persisted through the United States Civil War and into the Reconstruction era. These difficulties, together with feminist themes, were a frequent topic of Duhart's writing.

In 1866 a disastrous fire destroyed 50% of the buildings in Saint Domingue, Haiti, leaving approximately 9000 people homeless. In homage to the people of his birthplace, Duhart published a poem Pour les Incendiés de Saint Domingue dedicated to the victims of the fire.

A later poem, published in the October 7, 1866, issue of La Tribune de la nouvelle-orléans, was entitled: "“Berthe!... Lucie!... Marie!...Dolor”. The word dolor refers to pain, and the poem expresses the pain experienced by parents who lost children during infancy and early childhood. The title contains the names of his own children, and death during childhood was common during Duhart's era.

Trois Amours and Simple Histoire were novellas written by Duhart and published in La Tribune de la nouvelle-orleans over a period of months. Both works describe the plight of mixed race Louisiana Creoles involved in love affairs with people of other castes. These novellas further advanced Duhart's cause for racial equality.

As Duhart became principal of the Couvent School in 1869, he did not publish literary works again until 1888 when he published two short stories in The Weekly Louisianian. These were Une Legende and La Pluie, and both were written in French and used the pen name Lelia rather than Lelia D....t. Both are fictional stories with romantic themes with social commentary. La Pluie includes a passage that is critical of the violent and racist culture of New Orleans at the time.