NOLA African-American Heritage

OURhistory

French rulers of colonial Louisiana adopted the Code Noir (Black Code) in 1724.   Code Noir legally restricted the rights of slaves brought over from Africa, although Blacks in New Orleans enjoyed more freedom than other Blacks anywhere else in the world.  Louisiana experienced a transitional period in 1763, and became controlled by Spain.  

In 1802 a monumentally significant event took place that would forever shape the racial and cultural aspects of New Orleans.  Toussaint L’Ouverture organized and led a group of Black enslaved revolutionaries in Haiti, who had been fighting for a dozen years, to crush Napoleon Boneparte’s army of 60,000 men.  The impact of this victory of unarmed slaves facilitated the signing of a treaty between the United States and France, and ultimately enabled the Louisiana purchase of 1803.  L’Ouveture’s rebellion so shook the American slave societies, particularly in Louisiana, that it ignited a confrontation at Bayou La Fourche.  Meanwhile, anxieties in Haiti had become so great that free Black Hatians and slave owners-with slaves in tow, sought refuge in Louisiana and Cuba.  Due to the mass influx, Governor W.C.C. Claiborne eventually enforced a ban on free Black males, and discouraged free people of color from immigrating to the territory of Orleans.

As Claiborne’s and other officials labored in vain, the population of Black Creoles sweltered after nearly 90 percent of Hatian refugees settled in New Orleans upon being exiled from Cuba in 1809. The 1809 migration brought 2,731 whites, 3,102 free persons of African descent, and 3,226 enslaved refugees to the city, doubling its population.  Sixty-three percent of the Crescent City inhabitants were now black.  The multiracial refugee population settled in the French Quarter and the neighboring Faubourg Marigny district, and revitalized Creole culture and traditions, becoming known as the “Creole Capitol”.

Different aspects of African culture had its place in the city as well.  A vital place for this development was a little field called Congo Square, now commonly known as Armstrong Park-located on the foot of the French Quarter, and known as the birthplace of jazz.  Congo Square was an area that was carved out of the area’s landscape where slaves were allowed to congregate on Sundays.  Hundreds of blacks gathered to play music, sing, dance, and socialize in West African tradition.  The diverse mix of tribal customs lent itself to new variations of common traditions.  Mardi Gras was another temporary outlet for slaves which allowed them to exercise their heritage, where many of the city’s Mardi Gras traditions are largely African-American, most prominently the famous Mardi Gras Indians and the Zulu parade.


Until Irish and Italian immigration tipped the racial scales to a majority white population for about 100 years, New Orleans had been overwhelmingly a black city.  The population included Black Creoles descended from unions of Africans with the French and Spanish.  These Creoles often were gen de couleur libres (free people of color) who lived in Treme, the oldest African-American neighborhood still in existence.
New Orleans is home to three Historically Black Universities, Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO), Dillard University, and Xavier University, which is the only African-American Catholic university in the country.