History of slavery in Louisiana facts for kids

Louisiana has a unique history with slavery, different from other parts of the United States. This is because it was controlled by France, then Spain, and then France again before becoming part of the United States in 1803.

The first European settlements in what became Louisiana were in places like Biloxi (1699), Mobile (1702), Natchitoches (1714), and New Orleans (1718). European colonists brought slavery to this area. It continued under Spanish rule (1763–1800), during a brief period of French rule (1800–1803), and after the United States bought the territory in 1803.

French Rule and Early Slavery (1699–1763)

The French colonists started using a system called chattel slavery in Louisiana around 1706. This meant that enslaved people were treated as property, not as human beings. The French first enslaved Native Americans, like the Chitimacha people, during raids. Thousands of Native Americans were killed, and many women and children were taken as slaves. This continued with other groups, including the Atakapa, Bayogoula, Natchez, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Taensa, and Alabamon peoples.

Native American tribes sometimes enslaved enemies captured in war, but they often adopted these people into their tribes. The French system was different.

Around 1710, the French also brought enslaved Africans to Louisiana. They captured some during the War of the Spanish Succession. To help develop the new territory, more than 2,000 Africans were brought to New Orleans between 1717 and 1721 on at least eight ships. Life was very hard for both African and Native American enslaved people. Many died from diseases like scurvy and dysentery due to poor food and unclean conditions.

Spanish Rule and New Laws (1763–1803)

Spain took control of Louisiana in 1763. In 1768, Alejandro O'Reilly re-established Spanish rule. He issued a decree in 1769 that stopped the trade of Native American slaves. However, the trade of African slaves continued.

Spanish rule brought a new law called coartación. This law allowed enslaved people to buy their freedom, and even the freedom of other enslaved people. Spain also sent some Romani people as slaves to Louisiana.

From 1780 to 1784, a group of maroons (enslaved people who had escaped) led by Jean Saint Malo resisted being re-enslaved. They lived in the swamps east of New Orleans.

Two attempted slave rebellions happened in Pointe Coupée Parish during the 1790s. These were the Pointe Coupée Slave Conspiracy of 1791 and the Pointe Coupée Slave Conspiracy of 1795. These events caused a lot of concern at the time.

Louisiana Becomes a U.S. Territory (1804–1812)

After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the demand for enslaved people grew in Louisiana and other parts of the Deep South. The cotton gin made it easier to process short-staple cotton, which grew well in the northern parts of Louisiana. In southern Louisiana, sugar cane remained the main crop. The rich soil of the Mississippi River Delta was perfect for growing sugar cane, which was Louisiana's main export before the Civil War.

The United States stopped the international trade of enslaved people in 1807–08. This led to a busy domestic slave trade within the U.S. Thousands of enslaved African Americans were sold from the Upper South to buyers in the Deep South. This was a forced migration for many people.

In early 1811, while Louisiana was still the U.S. Territory of Orleans, the largest slave revolt in American history began. It started about thirty miles outside New Orleans. Enslaved people rebelled against the very hard work on sugar plantations. Many French planters had moved to Louisiana from Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) after the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), bringing their enslaved people with them. This might have influenced the revolt. The 1811 German Coast uprising ended when white militias and soldiers hunted down the enslaved rebels. Many were put on trial and executed in three parishes: St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, and Orleans.

Statehood and the U.S. Civil War (1812–1865)

Louisiana became a state in 1812. Slavery was officially ended in the parts of Louisiana controlled by the Union Army during the American Civil War. This happened with the state constitution of 1864. In other areas of the state, slavery had already been abolished by President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. This document declared that enslaved people in areas rebelling against the United States were free.

Some enslaved people left plantations to find freedom with the Union Army. If the Union lines were too far away, they often remained enslaved until the Union gained control of the Confederate South.

How Slavery in Louisiana Was Different

A free woman of color with her daughter in New Orleans, late 1700s.

Slavery in Louisiana was different from other Southern states because of its French and Spanish history.

First, the enslaved people brought to Louisiana by traders often came from Senegal, the Bight of Benin, and the Congo region. This was different from states like Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. In those states, many enslaved people had already lived in the United States for generations and had developed an African-American culture. After the Louisiana Purchase, more enslaved people and free Black people came to Louisiana from other parts of the United States.

Second, Louisiana's slave trade was guided by the French Code Noir (Black Code), and later by the Spanish Código Negro. The Code Noir gave some specific rights to enslaved people, like the right to marry. While it allowed harsh physical punishment, it forbade owners from torturing enslaved people. It also said that married couples and young children should not be separated from their mothers. The code also required owners to teach enslaved people the Catholic faith. This was important because it suggested that Africans were human beings with souls, which was not always acknowledged before.

Because of the French system, which was more open to people of mixed race, a higher percentage of African Americans in Louisiana were free. These were often called gens de couleur libres (free people of color). They were often born to white fathers and their mixed-race partners. By 1830, 13.2% of African Americans in Louisiana were free, compared to only 0.8% in Mississippi. Free people of color in Louisiana were often educated and owned businesses, property, and even enslaved people themselves.

The Code Noir also banned marriages between different races, but mixed-race relationships were common in New Orleans society. People of mixed Black and white ancestry, often called mulattoes, became a middle social group between white and Black people. In the original Thirteen Colonies, however, mulattoes and Black people were generally treated the same and faced similar discrimination.

When the United States took control of Louisiana, the Catholic social rules were deeply rooted. This was very different from the mostly Protestant parts of the young nation. The "Americanization" of Louisiana meant that mulattoes were increasingly seen as Black, and free Black people were seen as undesirable.