Page 50 - From the Outhouse 4 -21

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demographics of New Orleans. In 1810, the population of New Orleans was approximately one-third white, one-third enslaved
Africans, and one-third free people of color (most of whom had come from Haiti).

In New Orleans, free people of color continued to build shotgun houses, but they replaced their African motifs with gingerbread

trimmings. Also, the front porch on these houses was distinctly different from those on French homes, whose outdoor areas were
actually interior courtyards.

Shotgun Houses

So, I came home from "The Mansion" to a shotgun house with two bedrooms, a hallway, kitchen... and an outhouse! Privacy

was a rare experience. One bedroom was for my Mom and Dad. Their room later included my little sister, Pamela Diane, who

slept in a chest drawer in my parents' room. The other bedroom was for my mother's mother, Daisy Brown. I slept with her.
My brother Charles Haywood Merritt II, slept on a cot in the same room.

We bathed in a #10 tin tub and used a large white pail to eliminate our waste when the outhouse was not convenient. Using the