In The Flow of Time – July 27, 2024
The Citizens Bank of Louisiana was chartered in 1833. It began issuing paper currency. The federal government didn’t do that. The bank was so solid that its $10 notes, below, were widely used throughout the south.
“However, there was in New Orleans one bank which gained such a reputation for honesty and reliability that its notes were accepted anywhere in the country. In all of the towns along the Mississippi and its tributaries, in New York and Philadelphia, were known and honored the ten dollar bills of the Banque de Citoyens de la Louisiane in New Orleans.”
The note, like New Orleans, was bilingual. The front was in English. The back was in French, with the denomination: DIX! And the bills were widely referenced as dixies. The word came to mean the region, New Orleans.
While the “likely” source of “Dixie” is a reference to the Mason-Dixon line, the New Orleans dixie may be the truth.
Either way, for sure, the term “dixie” was in widespread use in New Orleans, circa 1835-1840. And I get to use it. 🙂 Just a touch of local color, discovered at the end of a research rabbit hole.
