Preservation Hall Brass Band, by Alan Flattmann (www.alanflattmann.com)
In 1857, in a decree that flouted Louisiana case law that allowed white men to free their enslaved children, paramours and common-law wives, the Louisiana legislature voted that slavery could no longer be reversed. It was one more tightening of the screws by plantation interests against Blacks as the legislature grew more polarized over the slave economy.
In 1858, New Orleans closed an African Methodist Episcopal church after police raids for “unlawful assembly” of enslaved and free Blacks. The city of 116,000, the nation’s largest market in the sale of human beings, had nearly 10,000 free people of color
SERVING AMERICA: IN WHAT CONTEXT?
SERVING AMERICA: IN WHAT CONTEXT?
By Oscar Blayton
In 1735 when the French colonists of Louisiana pursued the Natchez War against Native Americans, they mustered free and enslaved African Americans into two military companies that came to be known as the Corps D’Afrique.
The soldiers of the Corps D’Afrique fought against Indigenous People as well as against Africans who had fled slavery to live in freedom among the Natchez.
The paradox of Black folk in America standing on both sides of a conflict where white supremacy plays a part spans the entire history of this nation.