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Slave Revolt of 1811 New Orleans

New Orleans originated in the 18th century as a French colonial outpost, one whose culture embraced the French ideal of a “racially and ethnically assimilated society” (Hirsch and Logsdon 9). New Orleans would become a tri-cultural society, one where French, American, and Caribbean influences pervaded all aspects of society. While New Orleans would become more Americanized after 1803, this tri-cultural composition of society was significant in influencing the mindset of many black slaves who became enthralled with the French Revolution cry of Liberty! Equality! Fraternity! This mindset was important in catalyzing the biggest slave revolt in American history, led by plantation slave Charles Deslondes in 1811.

The Americanization of New Orleans also changed the worldview of Louisiana society to one that was much less racially inclusive in nature. New Orleans society, like much of southern society in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, was structured around an agrarian economic system. Crucial to the success and profitability of the cotton and soon to develop sugar industries was the availability of plentiful and cheap labor. Slaves and slavery were the answer to the labor resource problem. Louisiana’s planters were among the wealthiest in the South, and other than lavishing a luxurious lifestyle on themselves and their families they reinvested their profits in their plantations. Slaves not only performed most of the manual, skilled, and domestic labor on New Orleans plantations, they also worked from sunrise to sundown and often “around the clock during the grinding season on sugar plantations” (Antebellum 1).

A large number of slaves in New Orleans and throughout the south protested their enslavement in many ways. They often disrupted work by breaking tools and other acts of sabotage. They would injure animals, steal from their masters, and run away or escape for good. Ultimately, this rebellion would cong...

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Slave Revolt of 1811 New Orleans. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 21:35, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1686314.html