How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"I am of the gens de couleur, madame," she said, calmly proud. "The free people of color, if you speak no French."
"I know what you are," our landlady snapped. "I've lived down in New Orleans."
"You have been in New Orleans, madame," Delphine said, "but you are not of it. Irish, are you, from the name?"
"And no quadroon wench is going to talk me down like shanty Irish. I know New Orleans better than what you think." (12.13-16)
Ack, more racism. It's just everywhere in 19th-century America—like cholera. Neither Delphine nor Mrs. Hanrahan thinks too highly of the other's background.
Quote #5
The quiet went on and on until Delphine said, "They hate us, you know. The Irish. They come hungry and work cheap. The yellow fever lays them low. And we were there before them. Our roots are in New Orleans mud. We people of color make the city work. It is like no other place because of us. We were there from the earliest times. They despise us for our ease, for our silken lives. They don't understand how people of color can be free." She looked away from us. "Almost free." (12.30)
Jealousy. Oldest reason in the book for disliking people. Also, pretty useful for keeping the oppressed oppressed. After all, if they're fighting amongst themselves, they won't really fight the status quo on a bigger-picture level.
Quote #6
"Quadroon, octoroon. There are these names." She shrugged grandly. "I am a femme de couleur libre, a free woman of color. French blood flow through me and Spanish blood and African blood. It is the African blood they despise. Is it not curious?" (12.42)
Generally considered racist terms now, "quadroon" referred to a person who was one-fourth a person of color and "octoroon" to a person who was one-eighth. Because racism and fractions.