Paper Monuments Project #010: The San Malo Maroons have the most remarkable and extensively documented history of runaway slave communities in the Western Hemisphere. The Spanish authorities were…

Paper Monument Project #002: The 1811 Louisiana Slave Revolt was the largest slave insurrection in the history of the United States that came to a tragic ending. It is a historical event of undeniable…

Paper Monuments Project #017: Freed from slavery for extraordinary service by his French planter “owner,” La Nuit’s was in the vanguard of black entrepreneurial men and women who claimed civic…

During 1998 and 1999, the Greater New Orleans Archaeology Program, under the direction of Christopher Mathews, undertook testing and data recovery at the St. Augustine Site (16OR148), in the Tremé…

During 1977 and 1978, the University of New Orleans conducted an archaeological project within what is now Armstrong Park. It focused on two areas, the Jazz Complex, a small area around what had been…

The term ‘Maroon’ refers to enslaved people who ran away from slave owners and remained in the south to join or establish independent, hidden settlements. Maroons utilized the area’s topography to…

During the mid-1800’s ships tightly packed the port of New Orleans, according to historian Walter Johnson, “one could walk deck to deck from one end of the city to the other.” All along the docks,…

During the major slave-trading season, September through May, yards surrounded by high brick walls called slave pens bustled with activity in the areas surrounding the French Quarter. Slave traders…

The house today marked 727-729 Burgundy Street, relatively unchanged since the early 1800s, has a history that reflects the tricky navigation of enslavement and freedom by a family called the…

A prominent family of free people of color, the Dollioles made a name for themselves as prolific builders, civic leaders, and savvy businesspeople integral to the development of New Orleans. Through…

The Tio family is best known as a prominent contributor to early jazz of the 20th century, notably the addition of a “Mexican Tinge” to the genre. However, the Tios were, in fact, native New…

A wealthy man, Louis Hazeur De Lorme (ca. 1760-1828) was a highly respected man in his community. He shared a large indigo plantation with his brothers-in-law, Francois and Louis Xavier three and half…

Located in Treme, the original Orleans Parish Prison stood where the Municipal Auditorium and Louis Armstrong Park stand today. From the 1830s to 1895, the prison housed individuals accused of crimes,…

There were times when enslaved people in New Orleans could no longer bear the intense burden that came with the constant suffering of bondage. Escape became the last hope for some of these slaves…

Numerous 19th-century travelers who frequented New Orleans for business and pleasure described the slave auction block in St. Louis Hotel. Sensationalism aside, visitors recorded their surprise at the…

For many Congo Square is the site that inspires the most fantastical images of enslaved life in New Orleans. From the 1840s to the 1880s, intellectuals and artists like George Washington Cable, Louis…

After the Confederate retreat and Admiral Farragut's capture of New Orleans and the surrounding area by May 1, 1862, federal forces continued to use the fortifications and even improved them…

Founded in 1841 by free people of color, St. Augustine is the oldest African-American parish in the United States. Civil Rights activists Homer Plessy and A.P. Tureaud were parishioners of St.…

Could an enslaved child be seized and sold to pay for the expenses of raising him? No, the Louisiana Supreme Court (onced housed in Carrollton Courthouse) ruled in 1860, in a case originally decided…

There are multiple statues erected to John McDonogh in New Orleans. The monument featured on this page is located in Lafayette Square. In June 2020, protestors removed another statue of McDonogh…

The site of New Orleans first appealed to the city's founder, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, in 1699. Native Americans had informed him about Bayou St. John, a shortcut from Lake Pontchartrain…

In the eighteenth century, working sugar plantations existed on this land. They faced the Mississippi River, which is straight ahead about a half mile. Pierre Foucher planted long alleys of live oak…