He was invited to submit stories to Scribner's Monthly, which published his story "Sieur George" in 1873, a critical and popular success. He published six more stories of Creole life with Scribner's in the following three years. These were collected and published in a book in 1879 as Old Creole Days. While romantic in plot, the stories revealed the multi-cultural and multi-racial nature of antebellum New Orleans society, with ties among French, Spanish, African, Native American, and Caribbean Creoles. He also addressed conflicts that arose following the Louisiana Purchase, when traditional New Orleans Creoles of color had to confront Anglo-Americans — who ultimately asserted their concept of a biracial society, rather than acknowledging the multiracial class of free people of color.
