The African American Experience in Louisiana

people must have faced to ally with one another and shape a more cohesive cultural group. Just
as white Americans were in the minority as they moved into Louisiana, so too were the African-
American slaves who were introduced into a community of francophone Creoles and Africans of
many countries.
Louisiana’s Free People of Color may have hoped that they would enjoy the full rights
and benefits of free citizens under the government of the young democracy, but this was not the
case. The fear of slave rebellions was as strong throughout the United States as in Louisiana and
increasing numbers of free blacks everywhere were seen as potential accomplices to slave
revolts. At the same time the successful free black populations challenged the notion of African
inferiority that whites depended upon to justify racially-based enslavement. In many states, new
laws were developed to repress this threatening class by limiting opportunities for manumission
and wealth-building and generally restricting freedoms. 43
When the Americans took control of Louisiana, they found a free colored population
which was steadily growing on its own, but was also suddenly augmented by many Free People
of Color from Saint Domingue. Particularly disturbing to the American officials was Louisiana’s
free black militia who paraded during the transfer ceremonies of the Purchase. Although the new
government was very uncomfortable with the idea of armed and organized men of color, they
realized that it was far more sensible to abide their presence than to attempt to disband them and
turn them into a formidable enemy. This strategic decision was not well received by the white
elite who, while resentful of the Anglo-American intruders, sought to have the new government
place greater restrictions on the black population and reverse the latitude extended by Spanish
policies.
In 1806, a new Black Code was put into place that outlined – as the Code Noir had before
it – precise regulations for and regarding people of African descent in Louisiana. The Spanish
system of coartación was officially ended and other means for manumission were severely
limited. One of the provisions required that slaves must be at least thirty years of age to be
manumitted. Other restrictions required that free blacks carry proof of freedom. Perhaps the
most crushing element of the new law to any hopes the Free People of Color had had for their
rights in the new democracy was a prohibition from voting, or otherwise participating in
democratic processes, even from serving on a jury. 44 Free blacks protested the exclusion, but to
no avail. Rather, hostilities towards and restrictions on people of African descent, both enslaved
and free, would progress over the next several decades. In spite of this, Free People of Color
were able to continue to improve their lives through education, cultural and civic activities, and
business ventures and to share in the prosperity that marked the antebellum years of the
nineteenth century in Louisiana.
Much of that prosperity depended on the production of sugar and the production of sugar
depended on slavery. It was during these years that the system of slavery we are most familiar
with today developed. Louisiana entered into statehood in 1812 with the inevitable horror of the
backlash of enslavement fresh in its consciousness. In January of 1811 a slave revolt on the
German Coast, a stretch of plantations on both sides of the Mississippi River beginning about
five miles above New Orleans, began with the wounding of a white plantation owner and the
43 Ingersoll, in Vincent, 170.
44 Ingersoll, in Vincent, 169.
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