new orleans slave history tour

HISTORY & LEGACIES

Whitney plantation, the plantation every american should visit, -national geographic.

THE WHITNEY INSTITUTE EDUCATES THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE HISTORY AND LEGACIES OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES

Whitney Plantation (legal name The Whitney Institute) is a non-profit museum dedicated to the history of the Whitney Plantation, which operated from 1752-1975 and produced indigo, sugar, and rice as its principal cash crops. The museum preserves over a dozen historical structures, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Whitney Plantation Historic District.

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Map for Tour

Urban slavery and everyday resistance, tour description.

Enslaved people were among the first to enter the French colony of New Orleans. Furthermore, they were instrumental to the creation of a successful city, building much of the infrastructure, acting as the first doctors, and cultivating early essential crops, like rice. During the antebellum era (1803-1861) 750,000 enslaved people were forcibly shipped south to New Orleans. This number doesn't include the many enslaved people who were illegally shipped from Caribbean islands or traded overland from the Upper South. The fabric of New Orleans French Quarter was visibly interlaced with the inseparable contributions of the enslaved population and the free people who sold them and benefitted from their labor. This tour seeks to illustrate how enslavement permeated the antebellum era and how its survivors managed to carve out meaningful and courageous lives for themselves despite their circumstances.

Locations for Tour

The levee: gateway to uncertainty, henry bibb and the slave pens of new orleans, the story of fanny: escaping bondage in new orleans, the hermann-grima house, the beaurepaire family: freedom to slavery and back again, congo square: mythology and music, st. louis hotel & exchange: auctioning off lives, maroons in antebellum new orleans: independence at any cost, madame john's legacy, tour postscript.

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This tour is designed to help visitors understand the history of slavery throughout time and in Louisiana during the 17th and 18th centuries as well its origins thousands of years ago. It focuses on the different types of slavery; human costs, economic implications and abolitionist movements.

It combines two guide narrations, one while in transit and the other on site at the plantation. We discuss how the institution of slavery created a world-wide economy that was part of the Industrial Revolution.

The tour is private but not exclusive, meaning that inside the house you may join others, but in transit and on the grounds, your group will have a private and focused tour dealing with slavery.

Description

Stop At: Destrehan Plantation, 13034 River Rd, Destrehan, Louisiana 70047

Visitors will tour inside the Destrehan house to hear the story of the oldest documented sugar cane plantation in the lower Mississippi valley. Inside the house a resident docent will discuss the Destrehan family and the enslaved people who were responsible for building wealth at Destrehan and the growing world-wide economy. After the house tour, we will visit the outbuildings and discuss the evolution of slavery in Louisiana.

Duration: 2 hours

• Reservations are REQUIRED for all bookings
• Book Your Package On-Line and Receive Your Confirmation
• Departure point: Detailed check-in instructions - including the address and parking information if applicable - will be included in your final confirmation email.
• Duration: 3 hours (Approx.)
• Return Details: Returns to original departure point

What's Included

• Private transportation
• Gratuities (Optional)

What To Bring

• Confirmation Voucher (printed or mobile)
• Any required or suggested items listed on your confirmation email.

Hotel Pickup

Hotel pick-up is offered for this tour. Note: if you are booking within 24 hours of the tour/activity departure time, we cannot guarantee hotel pick-up. Once your purchase is complete, we will send you complete contact information (phone number, email address, etc.) for our local operator to organize pick-up arrangements.

Additional Info

• Wheelchair accessible
• Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
• Service animals allowed
• Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
• Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
• There is an elevator, but Call BEFORE booking to verify that the elevator is in working order.vator
• Most folding wheelchairs can be accommodated
• Please call before BOOKING to verify availability.
• Tour vehicle is NOT ADA certified, but can accommodate folding wheelchairs and walkers.
• Note: Masks are no longer required in the city, however, masks and proof of vaccination are still required in some locales.

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

• For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
• If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
• Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
• Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

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Sighting The Sites Of The New Orleans Slave Trade

In 1808, the federal government ended the transatlantic and international slave trade, which meant no more shipments of the enslaved from the Caribbean or Africa. Just a few years before that, the Louisiana Purchase opened up all this new land. So as the international slave trade is abolished, there is simultaneously a huge demand for labor in the Deep South.

“When this 1808 law passes, you start seeing this stream, and then outpouring, of people being forcibly moved from the upper to the lower South,” explains Greenwald. “And New Orleans becomes the nexus of that trade. It’s the largest slave market in America during the antebellum period.”

Close to a million people made up this forced migration that occurred within the United States in the first half of the 19th Century. They came down south by boat, by rail, by stagecoach, and the most unfortunate marched for months from Virginia down the Natchez Trace. The impact goes way beyond those who were bought and sold. Greenwald gives the example of a single slave ship.

“You have 110 people on a ship coming from Baltimore whose lives are forever changed. And then consider all of the people related to those 110 who were left behind. The slave trade caught a lot of people up in its web, and that web destroyed tens of thousands of people’s lives and communities.”

Once they arrived in New Orleans, many that came by boat were sold before even walking off the deck of the ship. But most people were brought to what’s called a slave pen. In 1829, it became illegal for slave traders to house slaves in the French Quarter. So these pens popped up on the borders.

On the corner of Chartres Street and Esplanade Avenue there now sits a residential home built well after the Civil War. But this site was a slave pen with a showroom, like an auto dealership, and a yard where enslaved people would sleep, exercise, and cook.

These pens were basically jails. And the eating well and physical activity was all so that the traders could sell their property—humans—at the highest possible profit. Greenwald walks through the process of a sale.

“A planter comes in with a shopping list, meets with the trader, and then has the individuals line up. And the planter would inspect and question the individuals who were prospective purchases.”

There is no plaque on the wall that surrounds this private property. There are historic plaques around the city, such as the one on Press Street, that honors where Homer Plessy walked into the whites-only train car, or the one that commemorates the St. Charles Streetcar line in Lee Circle. Well, there are 52 places in New Orleans where slaves were sold. And of those 52, there are only two signs in the city of New Orleans that deal with the slave trade.

“The official signage is on the West Bank of the Mississippi River in today’s Algiers Point along the levee, and it recognizes that location’s role in transatlantic slave trade,” says Greenwald. “On this side of the river there’s one plaque. It’s on Maspero’s Restaurant, across street from the St. Louis Hotel and claims to be the site of Maspero’s Exchange. That is not correct!”

The sign claims that Maspero’s Restaurant was the site of Maspero’s Exchange, but that was actually across the street, where the St. Louis Hotel is. So of the 52 sites on the East Bank, only one is marked. And it’s wrong.

The house on the corner of Esplanade Ave. and Chartres St. is a private residence. But Greenwald says there are many options for marking things. “There are plenty of signs in other areas of the city that are private residences that deal with topics that are easier to digest. When you look at the map of this area, this whole block was home to slave traders and slave pens. If the city was interested in marking that trade, they certainly could put something in the neutral ground here on Esplanade Avenue.”

And yet, there is no such sign.

“It’s much easier for people to get behind celebratory history than to get behind this dark and extremely painful history,” she says.

A few museums have popped up, such as the Whitney Plantation, devoted entirely to slavery in the U.S. South. And there are civil rights museums around the country. But there’s a difference between experiencing a public marker and a museum. Only one’s voluntary.

The only people who are seeing what is in a civil rights museum are the people going to the civil rights museum, as opposed to the tourist from Alabama, say, who’s walking through the French Quarter.

Greenwald says even places that do give guided tours are leaving this stuff out. “This is something that should happen. We should be recognizing all of our history and not simply the parts that look nice for tourists. This is who we are.”

Imagine a plaque outside The Omni Hotel, acknowledging the history of slave auctions on site and whether locals would still sneak in to take a dip. If there were 50 other plaques downtown to mark these places of the slave trade, imagine what else we might think about.

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Catch TriPod on the air Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. and Monday afternoons on All Things Considered.

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One cannot step foot into Louisiana’s River Parishes without experiencing the impact of the African culture. African art, language, folklore and of course food are woven deep into the fabric of Louisiana’s River Parishes. First brought to Louisiana through forced labor, the success of the region and its plantations were based largely on the intelligence and skill of the Africans. Through plantations, cemeteries, food, and more, the history of African- Americans can be deeply felt across the entire region.

Your trip to Louisiana’s River Parishes begins at Donut Land . Here an array of breakfast items and of course donuts are on the menu. Don’t forget to fill up on every local’s favorite coffee, Community Coffee.

Your journey into Louisiana’s River Parishes starts only 15 miles outside of downtown New Orleans at Destrehan Plantation , the oldest touring plantation home in the Mississippi Valley. Visit their German Coast Uprising (1811 Slave Revolt) exhibit for an in-depth depiction of the country’s largest slave revolt. Stories of the enslaved are also intertwined throughout the tour, such as that of Maugerite, an enslaved domestic who worked tirelessly to manage the manor home.

African-American history in Louisiana’s River Parishes continues with your first spoon of Gumbo at B&C Seafood restaurant. The flavors, the spices, and of course the name can be traced directly to the region’s African ancestry. Freshly caught seafood such as crawfish, crabs, and shrimp offer the perfect complement to this Louisiana staple.

Stories of the enslaved continue at Oak Alley Plantation , where several reconstructed cottages offer deeper insight into their lives. From medicine to horticulture, the astounding details are creatively presented in each cabin. The tour continues at the steps of the “Big House” where both sides of history, that of the free and the enslaved, are told throughout the home.

While at Oak Alley Plantation, take some time to view the Great Mississippi River as you walk along the paved Levee. For thousands of years, this powerful river has served as a witness to our poignant history, a history that includes the arrival of the first Africans to the region.

End your day at Nobile’s Restaurant , a favorite of locals and visitors alike. After having your pick of Creole/Cajun dishes, make sure to order the Ba-Ba, a dessert handed down from an enslaved woman.

Mama Jo’s Cajun and Creole Restaurant offers great food sure to keep a smile on your face. Try the fried chicken and waffles for a hearty start to the day!

Recognized as the most complete plantation complex in the South, Evergreen Plantation offers a walk through the past like no other with 22 original slave cabins on its premises. A tour crafted from 500 pages of documentation at Evergreen Plantation, provides one of the most thorough insights into the lives of the enslaved.

Recently voted as the 3rd fastest growing cultural experience by Trip Advisor, Whitney Plantation is the only Plantation museum in Louisiana with a focus on slavery. Through museum exhibits, memorial artwork, restored buildings and hundreds of first-person slave narratives, gain a unique perspective on the lives of Louisiana’s enslaved people.

While at Whitney, bring your lunch and enjoy their serene picnic area, where you can reflect on the powerful experience while communing with your family, visitors, and even the staff.

Continue on the Great River Road to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church Cemetery , one of the oldest Catholic cemeteries in the country. While there, visit the tombs of notable African-Americans, such as Demas, a founder of Southern University and one of the first black senators in the country.

One of the region’s best-kept secrets, the Creole House Café offers all your favorites from seafood to steak. Dishes include Crawfish boletes, seafood platters, and even pulled-pork nachos to end your day on a delicious note.

The Our Lady of Grace original sanctuary, housed at Historic Riverlands , was truly a sanctuary to the many Black Catholics who sought a place to worship without segregation. This empowering tour combines the traditions of the church, the African- American experience, and a musical history that will leave you with a spirit of endurance and enjoyment.

One of the region’s best-kept secrets, Zora Christina ’s is a new restaurant that has fast become one of the region’s favorite eateries. From soul food to seafood, Zora Christina has it all – and it’s all delicious!

Entrepreneur? Voodoo Priestess? Or maybe a combination of both? Whatever you believe about Julia Brown, you’ll learn about this powerful woman who lived in the small swamp town of Frenier the Cajun Pride Swamp Tour brings you deep into this town and its legends including that of the mysterious Julia Brown.

Perhaps the best way to view Lake Pontchartrain, other than being on a boat is at Frenier’s Landing . Only a short drive from Cajun Pride Swamp Tours, experience fresh seafood caught right outside the restaurant’s doors. Get the full Frenier’s Landing experience with a plate of their famous charbroiled oysters paired with a local beer on tap.

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New Orleans PLANTATIONS Country

Explore the 10 historic estates in the River Parishes of Louisiana and discover the stories rooted in their past.

New Orleans SWAMP Country

Create memories learning the folklore of our swamps and viewing gators in their natural habitat.

ANDOUILLE Trail

Andouille was created here, so get out and try the local smokehouses that each have their own version of the "best".

OUTDOOR RECREATION

The region out here is perfect for outdoor enthusiasts to explore and find adventure.

Lac Des Allmands

Famous for catfish, Lac Des Allemands is a haven for outdoor sportsmen.

Enjoyed around the world, Perique can only be grown and processed out here.

CAJUN & CREOLE CUISINE

Cajun and Creole cuisine are as necessary to our culture as the people who make it.

TRANSPORTATION

Tour buses, shuttles and local airports are all transportation options for the River Parishes.

STAY OUT HERE

Louisiana's River Parishes offers a wide range of lodging options from rustic and quaint to upscale and luxurious.

STILL Have Questions? Drop us a line AND REQUEST A VISITORS GUIDE.

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10 Stops on a Black History Tour of New Orleans

• Brooke Obie

From Congo Square to the Mayor’s Office, there is a story to learn about one of the most vibrant cities in America.

Scroll through these photographs to see the oldest African American neighborhood in the country, learn the story of the first coffee seller in New Orleans and meet the people who are shaping the city today. From Congo Square to the Mayor’s Office, there is much to learn about one of the most vibrant cities in America. 

This Black History Month, there’s no better time to visit New Orleans.

Brooke Obie  visited New Orleans courteousy of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation . 

1 of 10 Tremé

The Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans is the oldest Black neighborhood in America. Running from North Rampart Street to Saint Bernard Street. Founded in 1783, this was the only place in America during slavery where Black people and other people of color purchased land and homes with regularity. From museums and restaurants to theaters and churches, Tremé offers countless opportunities to get outside of the famed French Quarter and dive into this neighborhood’s significant Black history and culture. 

2 of 10 Saint Augustine Church

Saint Augustine Catholic Church in Tremé is the oldest Black parish in America. Founded in 1841, both free and enslaved Black people worshipped at Saint Augustine’s. Many civil rights activists, including Homer Plessy, whose infamous Supreme Court case  Plessy v. Ferguson  introduced the doctrine of “separate but equal” in the Jim Crow era, worshipped at St. Augustine. The train station where Plessy was removed from a train for riding in the “whites only” section–the crime that sparked the case–is nearby. 

After substantial damage to the church in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the diocese announced that the church would close even though hurricane survivors were being significantly helped by the church community. Parishoners barricaded themselves in the church, protesting the decision, and after two weeks, the community came to an agreement to keep the church open. The documentary film  Shake the Devil  follows the ordeal. The church has now been renovated and remains a pillar of the neighborhood.

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3 of 10 Congo Square

Today, Congo Square sits inside the Louis Armstrong Park within the famous African American Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans. The wide-open space is the site of concerts, weddings, festivals and historical celebrations. But in 1817, Congo Square was, by city ordinance, the only place where Black people could congregate. Fearing insurrections by the enslaved people, enslavers and other city leaders did not want Black people to be able to congregate in private. The wide-open space offered enslavers surveillance, and many enslaved people took their only free day from forced labor, Sunday, to play music, dance, and sell good in the marketplace for a chance to buy their freedom or escape. These musical celebrations were opportunities for enslaved people to reinforce their African culture and traditions, many of which live on in celebrations held at the Square today.

4 of 10 Dooky Chase's Restaurant

Leah and her husband Dooky Chase turned a New Orleans staple po’ boy sandwich shop into a thriving sit-down restaurant that’s been in business since 1946.Though Dooky passed away a few years ago, Leah, the restaurant’s executive chef still runs the show of this iconic soul food restaurant. A bedrock of the Civil Rights Movement, leaders from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahalia Jackson and James Baldwin used to meet in secret in the restaurant’s upper room to strategize protests and more. Over the years, Leah would dedicate the restaurant’s walls to showcasing Black artists’ work when galleries turned them away. Come for the soul-food buffett and dine on the history in these storied walls.

5 of 10 Whitney Plantation

There would be no New Orleans without hundreds of years of unpaid labor it gained from enslaving people of African descent. Though there are testaments to this fact throughout the city, it’s just outside New Orleans, at the Whitney Plantation, where tourists can get the most in-depth understanding of the interior lives of enslaved people. Where the vast majority of plantations open to the public in the south focus on the grandeur of the plantation owners and relegate the enslaved population to a footnote, the Whitney’s sole focus is on the people who, against their will, made that plantation function. The Whitney is a fascinating place where the knowledgeable tour guides explain what daily life was like for enslaved people in Louisiana and tell stories of the specific people enslaved on that plantation. Dehydration is a real risk in New Orleans’ summers, so be sure to hydrate or travel during the cooler months.

6 of 10 The Mayor's Office

In a historic victory, New Orleanians elected LaToya Cantrell to be the city’s first woman mayor in its 300-year history. Mayor-elect Cantrell will be inaugurated in May, but Cantrell is always out and about in the city. Here she is at Dooky Chase’s Restaurant with 95-year-old executive chef Leah Chase.

7 of 10 Studio Be

Visual artist Brandan “Bmike” Odums opened his first solo exhibit, Studio Be just two years ago. The muralist uses spray paint to depict civil rights icons like Fannie Lou Hammer and Muhammad Ali and elevates New Orleans locals to icon-status. Portraits of the Virgin Mary and Jesus are painted in the image of local models in the very Catholic town, helping New Orleanians to see the image of God in themselves. Bmike’s murals also depict modern social justice movements, highlighting police brutality and mass incarceration. Fascinating for adults and children alike, the studio features a Young Artists in Residence corner where Bmike’s paintings are printed in black and white for students to color and hang on the wall these powerful images. But hurry to visit Studio Be; the exhibit will be closing by the summer. If you don’t make it in time, you can see Bmike’s artwork on walls throughout the city. In celebration of the 300th anniversary, he’s been commissioned to paint new murals that showcase local history. 

8 of 10 Cafe Rose Nicaud

In the early 1800s, enslaved woman Rose Nicaud became the first coffee seller in New Orleans. Using a cart she created to push through the market on Sundays, the only “free” days for enslaved people, Nicaud sold black coffee or coffee with milk to great success. She was forced to give the majority of her profits to her enslaver, but she saved up the remaining portion and eventually was able to purchase herself from her enslaver. Because of her resourcefulness, many other Black women became entrepreneurs following her example. Known as Les Vendeuses, they and the coffee shop Cafe Rose Nicaud on Frenchmen Street are Nicaud’s legacy.

9 of 10 Community Book Center

Community Book Center is the only Black-owned bookstore in New Orleans and features Afrocentric art, clothing and books. Owned by Vera Williams, CBC has been living up to its name for more than 30 years, with its array of events that bring New Orleanians together to discuss Black history and culture. This photo is from a Kwanzaa celebration in December 2017 where the community liaison, (not pictured, but affectionately known to us all as Mama Jennifer) introduced the Kwanzaa principle of the day, Nia, to a crowd of eager participants. 

10 of 10 The Backstreet Cultural Museum

Located in Tremé, this museum has the most comprehensive collection of African American New Orleanians’ processional traditions in the world. Here, you can learn about Indigenous Mardi Gras traditions, second-line parades and jazz funerals. In addition to its wide array of Indigenous Mardi Gras costumes and cultural artifacts, Backstreet also hosts community events and public performances and collaborates with institutions during big annual celebrations like Essence Fest and Jazz Fest. 

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Before the Civil War, New Orleans Was the Center of the U.S. Slave Trade

Untroubled by their actions, human traffickers like Isaac Franklin built a lucrative business providing enslaved labor for Southern farmers

Joshua D. Rothman

Waiting for the slave ship United States near the New Orleans wharves in October 1828, Isaac Franklin may have paused to consider how the city had changed since he had first seen it from a flatboat deck 20 years earlier.

The New Orleans that Franklin, one of the biggest slave traders of the early 19th century, saw housed more than 45,000 people and was the fifth-largest city in the United States. Its residents, one in every three of whom was enslaved, had burst well beyond its original boundaries and extended themselves in suburbs carved out of low-lying former plantations along the river.

Population growth had only quickened the commercial and financial pulse of New Orleans. Neither the scores of commission merchant firms that serviced southern planter clients, nor the more than a dozen banks that would soon hold more collective capital than the banks of New York City, might have been noticeable at a glance. But from where Franklin stood, the transformation of New Orleans was unmistakable nonetheless.

The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America

An award-winning historian reveals the harrowing forgotten story of America's internal slave trade—and its role in the making of America.

The pestilent summer was over, and the crowds in the streets swelled, dwarfing those that Franklin remembered. The change in seasons meant river traffic was coming into full swing too, and flatboats and barges now huddled against scads of steamboats and beneath a flotilla of tall ships. Arranged five or six deep for more than a mile along the levee, they made a forest of smokestacks, masts, and sails.

Coming and going from the forest were beef and pork and lard, buffalo robes and bear hides and deerskins, lumber and lime, tobacco and flour and corn. It was the cotton bales and hogsheads of sugar, stacked high on the levee, however, that really made the New Orleans economy hum. Cotton exports from New Orleans increased more than sevenfold in the 1820s. Pouring down the continental funnel of the Mississippi Valley to its base, they amounted by the end of the decade to more than 180 million pounds, which was more than half the cotton produced in the entire country. Nearly all of Louisiana’s sugar, meanwhile, left the state through New Orleans, and the holds of more and more ships filled with it as the number of sugar plantations tripled in the second half of the 1820s.

The city of New Orleans was the largest slave market in the United States, ultimately serving as the site for the purchase and sale of more than 135,000 people. In 1808, Congress exercised its constitutional prerogative to end the legal importation of enslaved people from outside the United States. But it did not end domestic slave trading, effectively creating a federally protected internal market for human beings. As Franklin stood in New Orleans awaiting the arrival of the United States, filled with enslaved people sent from Virginia by his business partner, John Armfield, he aimed to get his share of that business.

Just before dawn on October 2, Armfield had roused the enslaved he had collected in the compound he and Franklin rented on Duke Street in Alexandria. He had sorted the men, most of the women, and the older children into pairs. He had affixed cuffs and chains to their hands and feet, and he had women with infants and smaller children climb into a wagon. Then he had led them all three-quarters of a mile down to the Potomac River and turned them over to Henry Bell, captain of the United States, a 152-ton brig with a ten-man crew .

On October 21, after 19 days at sea, the United States arrived at the Balize, a dismal place where oceangoing ships often stopped to hire one of the boat pilots who resided there and earned a living ushering larger vessels upriver. As Henry Bell brought the United States around the last turn of the Mississippi the next day and finally saw New Orleans come into view, he eased as near as he could to the wharves, under the guidance of the steam towboat Hercules .

Franklin was not the only person waiting for slaves from the United States . The brig held 201 captives, with 149 sent by John Armfield sharing the misfortune of being on board with 5 people shipped by tavernkeeper Eli Legg to a trader named James Diggs, and 47 shipped by Virginia trader William Ish to the merchant firm of Wilkins and Linton. But none of them could collect what they came for until they took care of some paperwork.

In an effort to prevent smuggling, the 1808 federal law banning slave imports from overseas mandated that captains of domestic coastal slavers create a manifest listing the name, sex, age, height, and skin color of every enslaved person they carried, along with the shippers’ names and places of residence. One copy of the manifest had to be deposited with the collector of the port of departure, who checked it for accuracy and certified that the captain and the shippers swore that every person listed was legally enslaved and had not come into the country after January 1, 1808. A second copy got delivered to the customs official at the port of arrival, who checked it again before permitting the enslaved to be unloaded. The bureaucracy would not be rushed.

At the Customs House in Alexandria, deputy collector C. T. Chapman had signed off on the manifest of the United States . At the Balize, a boarding officer named William B. G. Taylor looked over the manifest, made sure it had the proper signatures, and matched each enslaved person to his or her listing. Finding the lot “agreeing with description,” Taylor sent the United States on its way.

In New Orleans, customs inspector L. B. Willis climbed on board and performed yet another inspection of the enslaved, the third they had endured in as many weeks. Scrutinizing them closely, he proved more exacting than his Balize colleague. Willis cared about the details. After placing a small check mark by the name of every person to be sure he had seen them all, he declared the manifest “all correct or agreeing excepting that” a sixteen-year-old named Nancy, listed as “No. 120” and described as “black” on the manifest, was in his estimation “a yellow girl,” and that a nine-year-old declared as “Betsey no. 144 should be Elvira.”

Being examined and probed was among many indignities white people routinely inflicted upon the enslaved. Franklin was no exception. Appraising those who were now his merchandise, Franklin noticed their tattered clothing and enervated frames, but he liked what he saw anyway. The vast majority were between the ages of 8 and 25, as Armfield had advertised in the newspaper that he wanted to buy. Eighty-nine of them were boys and men, of whom 48 were between 18 and 25 years old, and another 20 were younger teens. The 60 women and girls were on average a bit younger. Only eight of them were over 20 years old, and a little more than half were teenagers. It was a population tailored to the demands of sugarcane growers, who came to New Orleans looking for a demographically disproportionate number of physically mature boys and men they believed could withstand the notoriously dangerous and grinding labor in the cane fields. They supplemented them with girls and women they believed maximally capable of reproduction.

Now that he had the people Armfield had sent him, Franklin made them wash away the grime and filth accumulated during weeks of travel. He stripped them until they were practically naked and checked them more meticulously. He pored over their skin and felt their muscles, made them squat and jump, and stuck his fingers in their mouths looking for signs of illness or infirmity, or for whipping scars and other marks of torture that he needed to disguise or account for in a sale.

Franklin had them change into one of the “two entire suits” of clothing Armfield sent with each person from the Alexandria compound, and he gave them enough to eat so they would at least appear hardy. He made them aware of the behavior he expected, and he delivered a warning, backed by slaps and kicks and threats, that when buyers came to look, the enslaved were to show themselves to be spry, cheerful and obedient, and they were to claim personal histories that, regardless of their truth, promised customers whatever they wanted. It took time to make the enslaved ready to retail themselves—but not too much time, because every day that Franklin had to house and feed someone cut into his profits.

Exactly where Franklin put the people from the United States once he led them away from the levee is unclear. Like most of his colleagues, Franklin probably rented space in a yard, a pen, or a jail to keep the enslaved in while he worked nearby. He may have done business from a hotel, a tavern, or an establishment known as a coffee house, which is where much of the city’s slave trade was conducted in the 1820s. Serving as bars, restaurants, gambling houses, pool halls, meeting spaces, auction blocks, and venues for economic transactions of all sorts, coffee houses sometimes also had lodging and stabling facilities. They were often known simply as “exchanges,” reflecting the commercial nature of what went on inside, and itinerant slave traders used them to receive their mail, talk about prices of cotton and sugar and humans, locate customers, and otherwise as offices for networking and socializing.

Franklin is especially likely to have spent time at Hewlett’s Exchange, which held slave auctions daily except on Sundays and which was the most important location of the day for the slave trade. Supply met demand at Hewlett’s, where white people gawked and leered and barraged the enslaved with intrusive questions about their bodies, their skills, their pasts. Hewlett’s was where white people came if they were looking to buy slaves, and that made it the right place for a trader like Franklin to linger.

Hewlett’s was also proximate to the offices of many of the public functionaries required under Louisiana’s civil law system known as notaries. No slave sale could be entirely legal in Louisiana unless it was recorded in a notarial act, and nearly all of the city’s dozen or so notaries could be conveniently found within a block of two of Hewlett’s Exchange.

Before the year was out, Franklin would conduct 41 different sales transactions in New Orleans, trading away the lives of 112 people. He sold roughly a quarter of those people individually. He sold others in pairs, trios, or larger groups, including one sale of 16 people at once. Felix DeArmas and another notary named William Boswell recorded most of the transactions, though Franklin also relied on the services of seven other notaries, probably in response to customer preferences.

In a few instances, Franklin sold slaves to free people of color, such as when he sold Eliza and Priscilla, 11 and 12 years old, to New Orleans bricklayer Myrtille Courcelle. But nearly all of Franklin’s customers were white. Some were tradesmen—people like coach and harness maker Charles Bebee, goldsmith Jean Claude Mairot, and druggist Joseph Dufilho. Others were people of more significant substance and status. Franklin sold two people to John Witherspoon Smith, whose father and grandfather had both served as presidents of the College of New Jersey, known today as Princeton University, and who had himself been United States district judge for Louisiana. Franklin sold a young woman named Anna to John Ami Merle, a merchant and the Swedish and Norwegian consul in New Orleans, and he sold four young men to François Gaiennié, a wood merchant, city council member, and brigadier general in the state militia. One of Louise Patin’s sons, André Roman, was speaker of the house in the state legislature. He would be elected governor in 1830.

We rarely know what Franklin’s customers did with the people they dispersed across southern Louisiana. Buyers of single individuals probably intended them for domestic servants or as laborers in their place of business. Many others probably put the enslaved they bought to work in the sugar industry. Few other purposes explain why sugar refiner Nathan Goodale would purchase a lot of ten boys and men, or why Christopher Colomb, an Ascension Parish plantation owner, enlisted his New Orleans commission merchant, Noel Auguste Baron, to buy six male teenagers on his behalf.

Franklin mostly cared that he walked away richer from the deals, and there was no denying that. Gross sales in New Orleans in 1828 for the slave trading company known as Franklin and Armfield came to a bit more than $56,000. Few of John Armfield’s purchasing records have survived, making a precise tally of the company’s profits impossible. But several scholars estimate that slave traders in the late 1820s and early 1830s saw returns in the range of 20 to 30 percent, which would put Franklin and Armfield’s earnings for the last two months of 1828 somewhere between $11,000 and $17,000. Equivalent to $300,000 to $450,000 today, the figure does not include proceeds from slave sales the company made from ongoing operations in Natchez, Mississippi.

Even accounting for expenses and payments to agents, clerks, assistants, and other auxiliary personnel, the money was a powerful incentive to keep going.

Isaac Franklin and John Armfield were men untroubled by conscience. They thought little about the moral quality of their actions, and at their core was a hollow, an emptiness. They understood that Black people were human beings. They just did not care. Basic decency was something they really owed only to white people, and when it came down to it, Black people’s lives did not matter all that much. Black lives were there for the taking. Their world casts its long shadow onto ours.

Excerpted from The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America by Joshua D. Rothman. Copyright © 2021. Available from Basic Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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Joshua D. Rothman | READ MORE

Joshua D. Rothman is a professor and chair for the department of history at the University of Alabama. He is the author of The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America .

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New Orleans Black History Itinerary

Dive into new orleans’ black history with this guide.

Black History is a living history composed of the past, present, and things to come. In New Orleans, there’s plenty of each. From the neighborhoods and streets you stroll, to the dances and songs you sing, and even the dishes you eat - Black History has and continues to pioneer the culture of the Crescent City. Let this Black History Itinerary not only guide you through an unforgettable visit to NOLA, but help you explore this integral side of the city’s history that has shaped its present.

Black Culinary Culture

Home to a number of phenomenal Black chefs and legendary cuisine, New Orleans takes great pride in the food they serve. Take a look at this short list of must-try, Black-owned restaurants. And for even more, check out our Black-Owned Food & Drink Tour here and the video below.

Dooky Chase's Restaurant

In addition to its famously delicious cuisine, and its matriarch the late  Chef Leah Chase , Dooky Chase’s Restaurant played a vital role in the Civil Rights Movement. At the corner of Orleans Avenue and North Miro Street, Dooky Chase held and fed countless numbers of Civil Rights activists and revolutionaries. Today, the family-owned restaurant remains at its original intersection serving award-winning cuisine to a host of locals, visitors, politicians, and public figures. Just don’t make President Barack Obama’s mistake of adding hot sauce to the gumbo before you try it–the iconic chef famously scolded the 44th president for doing just that during a 2008 visit to the restaurant.  

The Munch Factory

I could say that Beyoncé and Jay-Z dined here and that would be enough, but The Munch Factory’s famous patrons don’t just happen by accident. Owned and operated by Chefs Jordan and Alexis Ruiz, this eatery serves famous Creole favorites in an atmosphere that makes all guests feel like family. They are now located in Gentilly at Joseph M. Bartholomew Municipal Golf Course , named for the legendary African American golfer and architect. Black love is Black history, and The Munch Factory has and shares plenty of it. 

Lil’ Dizzy’s Cafe

Approaching nearly 75 years in business, Lil’ Dizzy’s was set to close for good in 2020. The restaurant was saved by the next generation of Baquets, maintaining its status as a family favorite. The restaurant is humble, nothing fancy, but the food speaks for itself. Come for Creole dishes cooked straight from the heart, like gumbo, fried chicken, and red beans and rice.

Cameroon with a taste of the Crescent City is what you’ll find at Bennachin. This French Quarter favorite of travelers from far and wide specializes in Cameroonian and Gambian cuisine. Fu-fu, Jollof rice, and an assortment of other East African staples can be found here. 

Dakar NOLA  

For an elevated dining experience featuring Senegalese cuisine, Dakar NOLA is your spot. Chef Serigne Mbaye recently opened his Magazine Street location for business. With only one seating per night, dinner is served family-style with multiple courses. Enjoy culinary excellence and great company during your visit. 

This is just a small taste of African and Black cuisine in New Orleans. For a full list of Black-owned restaurants to try during your next visit, click here . 

Historical Walking Tours + Museums

Walking tours and museum visits are great ways to dive into New Orleans’ Black History. What might seem like a simple tradition or a regular attraction oftentimes is filled with rich heritage and historical context. Check out a few of the best places and people to learn more about Black history in New Orleans.

Louisiana Civil Rights Museum

A historic journey 30 years in the making, the Louisiana Civil Rights Museum is a space where you can come to learn about the state’s civil rights history. It all started with the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail, a project from Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana Office of Tourism that was launched to memorialize the courage and determination of the people who fought for change. Visit the museum, website , and the trail markers throughout the state.

All Bout Dat Tours

Offering Black heritage and jazz tours of New Orleans that take you off the beaten path, Mikhala Iversen's All Bout Dat tours are some of the best in the city. Tour sites include historic  Congo Square , where enslaved Africans gathered for song and dance on Sundays, the Tremé neighborhood, known as the oldest African American neighborhood in the U.S., and Bayou Road , where Black-owned businesses thrive. Don't miss your chance to take an All Bout Dat Tour while in New Orleans.

Tours by Judy

Highly recommended by The New York Times, Judy Geddes Bajoie is the owner + tour curator of Tours by Judy. A former history teacher and New Orleans native with southern hospitality, Judy’s tours are a true experience for her participants. Her Civil Rights Tours explore several events that foreshadowed the national Civil Rights Movement. Expect stops at Congo Square, the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts , Homer Plessy Way, and much more.  

Mardi Gras Indian Museums + Tours

A truly fascinating and mostly hidden part of New Orleanian Black culture is Mardi Gras Indians .  The footwork, beading, and second lines display the labor of love that these individuals pour into their crafts and culture, and the results are truly breathtaking. The Backstreet Cultural Museum  and the House of Dance & Feathers are both amazing, Black-owned resources to learn more.

The McKenna Museum + Le Musée de f.p.c.

The George and Leah McKenna Museum of African-American Art collects, exhibits, and preserves a wide selection of African-American artwork. Its boutique-style space makes for intimate viewing. Similar in style, Le Musée de f.p.c. is a house museum dedicated to the legacy of free people of color.

The first solo project by local artist Brandan “B-mike” Odums, Studio BE is a powerful warehouse installation that explores Blackness from a local and national lens through visual art. Throughout the year, the space is also host to a number of Black business markets and Kwanzaa celebrations. Stop by and explore the collection individually or book a group tour with B-mike himself.

Amistad Research Center

The Amistad Research Center, located on Tulane University’s campus, is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing open access to original materials that reference the social and cultural importance of America's ethnic and racial history, the African Diaspora, human relations, and civil rights. It’s a must see for anyone interested in learning more about Black history.

The TEP (Tate, Etienne, and Prevost) Center is a renovated mixed-use facility housed in what used to be the historic McDonogh 19 Elementary School in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. The new mixed-use facility is a safe space built on anti-racist principles. It features education & exhibition space dedicated to the history of desegregation in New Orleans Public Schools, Civil Rights, and restorative justice. Take a tour of the building and learn its history, or visit for TEP Talks, held monthly.

Whitney Plantation

Just short of an hour’s drive outside of the city, Whitney Plantation is worth the trip. The house museum prides itself on being the only plantation in Louisiana with a focus on slavery. Its buildings, exhibits, and memorials are all first-person narratives of enslaved Africans. Tours, led by Senegalese historian Dr. Ibrahima Seck, are raved about by locals and visitors alike.

New Orleans Slave Trade Tour and Audio Guide

As a major port city, New Orleans played a significant role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. In fact, more men, women, and children were brought to New Orleans and sold in slave markets than any other city in the country. While this is a dark part of our city's history, it's also one that is crucial to recognize and learn from. This guide provides not only a map for self-guided tours, but also context, visuals, and first-person narratives of enslaved Africans and their journey to New Orleans, as well as their experiences once in the United States. 

New Orleans African American Museum

The New Orleans African American Museum is dedicated to protecting, preserving, and promoting through education the history, art, and communities of African Americans in New Orleans and the African diaspora. The museum reopened in 2019 after a six-year closure and $2 million renovation.

For more heritage tours, see here for a full list.

Historically Black Neighborhoods & Their Landmarks

Tremé, known as the oldest African American neighborhood in the U.S., is filled with hundreds of years of history. While strolling its streets you’ll come across significant landmarks like St. Augustine Church , the oldest African American church in New Orleans. You can walk through Congo Square in Armstrong Park , the place where enslaved people could gather to sing, dance, drum, and keep their African cultural traditions alive. While you’re in Tremé, remember that this is the neighborhood where some of New Orleans’ earliest jazz musicians began to play (and teach) the genre.

Central City

A former hub for the Civil Rights Movement has transformed into a stomping ground for second-line parades, Mardi Gras Indians, and up-and-coming Black entrepreneurs. While in Central City you would be remiss to not check out the beautiful murals along Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. While you’re there, stop in Ashé Cultural Arts Center and discover what monthly programming is taking place. 

Nestled within Esplanade Ridge, Bayou Road is a stretch of land filled with Black-owned businesses, including shops, restaurants, clubs, and more. You can easily spend an entire day swept away in all that they have to offer. 

When visiting NOLA’s neighborhoods, be sure to make note of streets and parks named after Civil Rights Leaders in New Orleans and plan to visit.

If all of this information is a little overwhelming, don’t fret—follow our NOLA on $50: Black-owned Business Edition itinerary for a cost-effective way to experience the food and culture of New Orleans’ Black heritage.  

Celebrating Black History + Heritage

New Orleans is known for its fests! We celebrate everything from music, to food, cocktails, and even seasons. There are several festivals throughout the year that honor and celebrate Black culture and history. Keep these festival and event dates in mind for planning your trip to New Orleans, and click on each to learn more: 

Algiers Mardi Gras Festival – January 27, 2024 

Zulu Lundi Gras Festival – February 12, 2024 

Congo Square Rhythms Fest – March 23-24, 2024

ESSENCE Festival of Culture – July 4-7, 2024 

Satchmo Summerfest – August 2024 TBA

Praise Fest – October 2024 TBA

Tremé Fall Festival    – October 2024 TBA 

Tremé Creole Gumbo Fest  – November 9-10, 2024

Bayou Bacchanal – November 2024 TBA 

By no means does this guide cover everything - there is endless history to learn about and honor. For more inspiration, head over to our Black-Owned Business Directory and explore. 

Below, find additional resources to dig deeper into NOLA’s Black history:

www.welcomeneworleans.com  

www.theneworleanstribune.com  

www.soulofneworleans.com

Self-Guided Black-Owned Food Tour

Sample pralines, crab fingers, fried okra, and shrimp & grits at these Black-owned restaurants.

Kid-Centric NOLA Black History...

Tour Tremé, visit Congo Square and explore New Orleans’ Black history with these family-friendly activities.

Black-Owned Restaurants

These Black-owned dining establishments boast some of the best cuisine around - check out our guide here.

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Whitney Plantation: Tour of an American Slavery Museum

By: Author Dave Lee

Posted on Last updated: October 7, 2021

In planning my third trip to New Orleans , going on a Whitney Plantation tour was high on my to-do list.

I wanted my first southern plantation experience to be more than a photo-op. 

The Whitney Plantation is the first museum dedicated to American slavery. 

The 2,000-acre sugar plantation dates back to 1752 when it was developed by German immigrants Ambroise Haydel and his wife.

According to the plantation's website , it stayed in their family for 115 years, before being “sold to Bradish Johnson, a major businessman and plantation owner with roots in Louisiana and New York.”

Fast forward to the early 2000s, and John Cummings, a successful lawyer from New Orleans, purchases the property as a real estate investment.

Over time, he realizes how little he knows about the history of the slaves who once worked on such properties.

And as he learns more, he decides to invest millions of dollars of his own money into turning the plantation into a museum honoring their experience.

Table of Contents

The Antioch Baptist Church

The children of whitney, the wall of honor, allées gwendolyn midlo hall, the field of angels, the slave quarters, robin's blacksmith shop, the kitchen, the big house, getting to whitney plantation, whitney plantation tour.

The Whitney Plantation opened in December 2014.

Unlike most plantation tours that focus on the large houses of the owners, the Whitney Plantation tour is given from the slaves' perspective. 

Visitors meet their guide in the Welcome Center, which also serves as a tasteful gift shop, primarily offering books on slavery.

The 90-minute walking tour begins with a visit to the Antioch Baptist Church, which was built in 1870 on the eastern side of the Mississippi River.

Slaves would come from nearby plantations to worship there. 

The church was donated and relocated to the Whitney after its community opened a new, larger one in 1999.

Walking inside the historic wooden structure, one's attention is drawn to the lifesize sculptures of child slaves.

Their innocence and vacant eyes evoke empathy. 

“ The Children of Whitney , a series of sculptures by Ohio-based artist Woodrow Nash , represent these former slaves as they were at the time of emancipation: children.”

The children bring the space to life in a way I've never experienced in a museum before. We would see more of them as the tour continued.

Next, we visited The Wall of Honor, which memorializes stories from the 350 slaves who worked on the Whitney Plantation.

Etched into the granite slabs, in their own words, are horrific, heartbreaking accounts of their treatment. 

My words certainly won't do these stories justice, so I took a few photos to share here. 

“The most crue master in St. John the Baptist Parish during slavery time was a Mr. Valsin Mermillion. One of his cruelties was to place a disobedient slave, standing, in a box, in which there were nails placed in such a manner that the poor creature was unable to move. He was powerless even to chase the flies or sometimes, ants crawling on some parts of his body.” — Mrs. Webb, Louisiana Slave

“We jus' have co'n braid and syrup and some times fat bacon, but when I et dat biscuit, she comes in and say, ‘What dat biscuit?' I say, ‘Miss, I et I's so hungry.' Den she grab dat broom and start to beatin' me over de head wid it and callin' me low down nigger and I guess I jes' clean lost my head 'cause I know'd better fan to fight her if I knowed anything ‘tall, but I started to fight her and de driver, he comes in and he grabs me and starts beatin' me wid dat cat-o'-nine tails, and he beats me 'till I fall to de floor nearly dead. He cut my back all to pieces, den dey rub salt in de cuts for mo' punishment, I's only 10 years old.” — Jenny Proctor

Following The Wall of Honor, we had a few minutes to walk through a memorial to the 107,000 Africans enslaved in Louisiana during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The memorial is named after Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, a historian, teacher, and author who compiled a database known as “Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1719-1820.”

The black granite walls are filled with more names, stories, and images of the enslaved. 

See also: Zanzibar's Prison Island in Tanzania

The Field of Angels recognizes the 2,200 slave children born in St. John the Baptist parish between 1823-1863, many of whom died before their second birthday.

Most were buried on the grounds of the plantation; some were buried in the cemetery of a nearby Catholic church.

“Death rates on Louisiana’s cane plantations were relatively high compared to cotton or tobacco plantations. Many of the children honored at this memorial died of diseases, but some of them died under tragic circumstances such as being hit by lightning, drowning, or burning.” — Whitney Plantation website

The striking statue at the center of the memorial is “Coming Home” by Rod Moorehead. It depicts a black angel carrying a baby up to heaven. 

The Whitney originally had 22 cypress slave cabins.

However, in the 1970s, all but two were destroyed to make more room for larger trucks and more modern harvesting equipment. 

Some of the family owners, who were focused on selling the property rather than preserving it, believed the value would increase as a result.

The rest of the cabins visible on the Whitney Plantation were purchased from the Myrtle Grove Plantation. 

The Children of the Whitney make another appearance on the porch of a slave cabin.

This particular cabin had a wall in the middle, splitting the single building up for use by two or more people.

Each side had a fireplace, a bedroom, and what appeared to be a sitting room.

Constructed in Pennsylvania in 1868, this rusty metal jail was donated to the Whitney by a Louisiana couple. 

The metal box, about the size of a shipping container, would have been used to hold slaves who were caught trying to escape. 

It is similar in design and appearance to what was used during slave auctions, as well.

As the Whitney Plantation tour continued, we passed by Robin's Blacksmith Shop.

According to a plaque, Robin was an enslaved man born in 1791 on the east coast of the U.S.

His job was to provide all the metalwork for the plantation, including “horseshoes, nails, hinges, and curtain rods.”

Built in the early 1800s, Whitney's kitchen is the oldest detached kitchen in Louisiana. 

Here, a slave was responsible for cooking all the meals for the plantation owner's family.

Pigeon holes were cut in the roof so that the loft could be used as an additional pigeonnier (a space created for pigeons to nest). 

Last but not least, we walked from the kitchen to The Big House, where the plantation owners lived.

The house was rebuilt in its current form sometime before 1815, making it a little over 200 years old. 

It's an excellent example of Spanish Creole architecture. 

Each floor has seven rooms. However, the guided tour only passes through the dining room in the middle of the ground floor.

There's not much to see. I found it the least interesting part of the experience. 

Overall, I found the effort to present plantation life from the slaves' perspective to be a success. 

Walking the grounds where so many indentured men, women, and children toiled without choice, were mercilessly tortured, and sexually abused is a heavy experience. 

The investment in bringing a church, slave cabins, and original artwork to the grounds has paid off.

The Children of the Whitney, especially, give faces to the names and stories. 

Seeing them throughout the tour reminds you what happened there was real, not some abstract history lesson. 

There's no public transportation from New Orleans to the Whitney Plantation, so the easiest thing to do is sign up for a tour, which includes roundtrip bus transportation (from the French Quarter) and admission for a guided tour.

I went in partnership with Gray Line , which sells adult tickets for $69. Children age 6-12 cost $35 each. 

The whole trip takes five hours. To make a full day of it, you can add a second plantation for an additional cost. 

I also visited Oak Alley Plantation, where the focus is on the owners' home and oak trees. It's a beautiful property, and there are some slave cabins to see; however, the impact wasn't the same.

If you have a car and prefer to visit Whitney Plantation independently, it's recommended you buy your tickets in advance. Adult admission is $25; children age 6-18 are $11 each. 

Where to Stay in New Orleans:   The Quisby is centrally located in the Garden District, a 15-minute walk from the French Quarter. Free breakfast, an on-site bar open 24/7, and dorms starting at just $18 are a few of the reasons to stay here. Click here to check availability

My trip to New Orleans was in partnership with New Orleans & Company and The Quisby; this tour was provided compliments of Gray Line. 

Dave is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Go Backpacking and Feastio . He's been to 66 countries and lived in Colombia and Peru. Read the full story of how he became a travel blogger.

Planning a trip? Go Backpacking recommends:

• G Adventures for small group tours.
• Hostelworld for booking hostels.

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New orleans publicly unveiling slave market tour app.

The city of New Orleans has unveiled a smartphone app tour of sites involved in the slave trade during the 18th and 19th centuries, including the pre-Civil War years during which the city was the nation's largest slave market.

The project, officially launched on Thursday, is affiliated with New Orleans' tricentennial celebrations. It comes as cities around the country are shining an unblinking light on slavery and racial violence through such projects as a slavery museum outside New Orleans, an Alabama memorial to victims of lynchings, and the preservation of slave cemeteries.

In announcing the app at a news conference, African-American Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the New Orleans Slave Trade Marker and App Project "will let us honor the lives and dignity of those ancestors who were undoubtedly bought and sold here."

• Rare opportunity to tour Shreveport’s Calanthean Temple, learn Black business history

S HREVEPORT, La. ( KTAL/KMSS ) — A college in Shreveport has scheduled an event that celebrates the history of Black-owned businesses in the city.

Centenary College’s “Legacy of Persistence: Historic Shreveport Black-Owned Businesses and Their Founders” will take place in two parts on Tues., Apr. 9.

Begin your tour of Shreveport history by visiting the Calanthean Temple on Texas Avenue at 9:45 a.m. Then, stop in for the lecture and panel discussion at Centenary’s Kilpatrick Auditorium at 6:30 p.m.

Dr. Mary Barrett is a retired Professor of Geology who spent much of her career at Centenary College. She said the oil and gas industry risks appearing as if it has always been overwhelmingly White. Still, her research shows that Shreveport’s Black community and Black entrepreneurs have always been woven into our history.

  Dr. Jama Grove , Assistant Professor of History at Centenary and one of the event organizers said historians and community members, including Greg Powell, Ronald Swafford, and Robert Trudeau, have preserved this legacy locally, giving us the opportunity to share it with our students and the community as a whole.

If you’re interested in attending either portion of the event on Tues., contact Dr. Grove at [email protected].

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