Sicilians in the Meld

69,937 Italians, mostly from Sicily, arrived in New Orleans between 1898 and 1929. A culture of close families, loyal to the Church and one another, gave birth to a Sicilian ghetto in the Vieux Caré backstreets. Public opinion turned against Sicilians after police chief David C. Hennessy’s assassination in 1890. Joe Macheca and members of the Provenzano and Matranga clans were arrested but acquitted. In retaliation, a mob stormed the prison where the defendants were held and killed 11 people, including Macheca. Prostitution was rampant in late 19th-century New Orleans. In 1897, patrician alderman Sydney Story passed an ordinance that confined prostitution to a 16-square block area in lower Tremé. The “District”, also known as “Storyville”, flourished into a vibrant community where men and women of all classes, races, and ethnicities mingled intimately, casually, and continuously. Black musicians like Jelly Roll Morton and Joe Oliver gained venues in the bordellos. Jazz musicians began to leave New Orleans in the early 20th century, making successful careers for themselves across America. Among these were Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Jazz entered the vocabulary of America, and, despite disdain from some, jazz became popular with the elite.

The Builder and the Priest

Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe, an architect who had previously worked in Washington D.C. before running afoul of President Madison, arrived in New Orleans with his family in 1819 after his son Henry’s death. Latrobe was surprised by many things in the city, including the racial and cultural diversity, the dances in Congo Square, African funeral customs, and the cruel treatment of slaves. He documented much of what he saw in his journal and drawings. Latrobe died on September 3, 1820 from yellow fever, leaving behind a widow and an unfinished waterworks construction for the city. General Lafayette visited New Orleans in 1825 as part of his tour of America, and the city funded a lavish reception for him. Antonio Sedella’s indifference to church law throughout his long tenure led to more clashes with the Vatican, who tried and failed to oust him a second time in 1815. Sedella died on January 19, 1829, receiving a grand state funeral and leaving behind a lasting legacy. His death began the slow transition from a Church in solidarity with slaves to one attached to white supremacy and the cause of the Confederacy.

Pirates, Black Soldiers, and the War under Jackson

In 1813, as Claiborne struggled to build a militia to defend against the British in the War of 1812, he also had to deal with slave-smuggling French pirates, led by half-brothers Pierre and John Laffite. When the U.S. declared war on the British in 1812, the Madison administration ordered Andrew Jackson to go to New Orleans with an army of volunteers, before recalling him to Tennessee. Claiborne wrote to Louisiana’s congressional delegation for support, as he had difficulties finding enough men because New Orleans lacked a coherent American identity and allegiance for which to fight. After returning to Tennessee, Jackson was wounded in several duels and participated in a military campaign against the Creek. On August 24, 1814, the British attacked Washington D.C. and set fire to the Capitol. As New Orleans prepared for war, Jean Laffite negotiated with Claiborne and Jackson, who eventually agreed to grant the pirates clemency in exchange for military aid. Lawyer Edward Livingston helped Jackson prepare New Orleans for war. The citizens rallied under Jackson, with pirates and the black militia joining the war effort. New Orleans fended off two British attacks. The War of 1812 ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.

Claiborne

In the 1790s, as planters sold off land for faubourgs, or neighborhoods, New Orleans branched out. One such neighborhood was founded by Claude Tremé. Antonio de Sedella clashed with the vicar Rev. Patrick Walsh and his replacement Rev. John Olivier. Sedella became the elected pastor of St. Louis Cathedral, leading the one institution where people voluntarily gathered across the color line. Governor William C.C. Claiborne, a lawyer-turned-politician, governed a divided city. Conflicts arose between the French and American cultures, the black militia and white elite, and between Claiborne himself and his opponents. Faced with an influx of Haitian refugees, including whites, free people of color, and slaves, Claiborne faced the challenge of providing for the refugees deemed free while establishing the status of those the refugees considered as slaves. Many refugees who were legally free in Haiti became slaves in New Orleans. A slave revolt, with an estimated 500 rebels, broke out in 1811. Claiborne sent the local militia to put down the insurrection. Close to 100 of the rebels were killed. Advocates for statehood argued that Louisiana should join the U.S., and by admitting Louisiana in 1812, the U.S. cemented itself to a slave economy.

After the Flood

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, killing over 1,000 people and displacing over 1 million. As the rebuilding process began, musicians, Mardi Gras Indians, and Social Aid and Pleasure Club members began trickling back. Culture prevailed as politics failed. The life force of music and memory, determined to survive, came back to the shattered city. The hurricane wasn’t the only devastating force: the city had undertaken many urban development projects in Tremé throughout the second half of the 20th century, demolishing historical areas and displacing people. New Orleans has also long suffered from government corruption, and several politicians were arrested throughout the 2000s. Yet hope and vibrancy abound. The 2014 funeral for Larry Bannock, Big Chief of the Golden Starhunters, drew a large gathering of black Indians in a magnificent cultural spectacle. Amidst much political and social controversy, Mayor Mitch Landrieu removed the Robert E. Lee statue from the city in 2017. As New Orleans begins its fourth century, it faces issues of gun violence, poverty, and gentrification, but opportunities from a flourishing digital economy, resurgent music scene, and cultural mecca as well. It is still the vibrant, diverse society composed of people whose roots lie across the world, whose resilience has been a rudder through the storms and violent upheavals throughout the centuries.

Mother Catherine and the Lower Ninth Ward

In the 1920s, as Prohibition took hold in the U.S., New Orleans became a key port for liquor smuggled out of Cuba, the Bahamas, and British Honduras. Crime and police corruption were major problems. As the city developed North, the Ninth Ward grew downriver as blacks, Sicilians, and other ethnic whites found housing near St. Claude Avenue. 19th-century Spiritualism mixed with New Orleans culture to form unique Spiritual churches. Leafy Anderson, a charismatic woman of African and native heritage, drew crowds by invoking the spirit of Black Hawk, a famous Native American warrior. Nanny Cowans Jenkins, later known as Mother Catherine Seals, founded the Manger, a chapel and community harbouring pregnant girls, homeless youth, and abused women and their children. Catherine’s religion was matriarchal, akin to the Great Mother cults. She also performed faith healings. Author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston documented the churches of both women. Two families, the Cagnolattis and Johnsons, revolved around the Manger through the 1930s. Mother Catherine died in 1930. Her wake ran four days and was heavily covered in the press. Hundreds of people, both black and white, attended.

City of Migrants

The French Revolution in 1789 affected all of France’s colonies. As slave revolts broke out on Saint-Domingue, New Orleans became a sanctuary from the Caribbean island war. In New Orleans, Creole descendants of the Bienville era had to negotiate between their French identity and their loyalty to the king of Spain. The new governor, Francois Louis Héctor, baron de Carondelet, expanded military operations and cracked down on potential slave revolts. The Catholic Church in New Orleans had its own upheavals. Antonio de Sedella returned to New Orleans in 1795 and Cirilo of Barcelona was later sent back to Spain. The Black community in New Orleans had a rich religious and ceremonial culture, especially slaves from the Catholic, African nation of Kongo. Music and dancing crossed racial divides. After coming to power in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte bargained with Carlos IV for the return of Louisiana, sealing the deal in a secret treaty in 1801. Napoleon invaded Saint-Dominigue, hoping to return the island to slavery, while negotiations between the U.S. and France for New Orleans were underway. Napoleon ultimately lost Saint-Domingue, which became the Republic of Haiti. The Louisiana purchase was signed on April 30, 1803, giving New Orleans to the U.S.

St. Maló in the Memory Rings

New Orleans at year ten was a black majority town with slave labor. The 1724 Code Noir aligned Louisiana slave law to that of the French Caribbean colonies. Slave owners pragmatically let Africans carry weapons, hire out for jobs, farm, hunt, fish, and sell the products of their labor. Africans traded goods at a growing African marketplace, and gathered to resurrect the burial choreographies and ceremonial dances of their mother culture. The Bamana belief in the transmigration of souls was a powerful sense of cultural continuity. In 1743, when Bienville departed, the town had survived financial convulsions, floods, food shortages, a slave revolt, Indian tensions, maroons—fugitive slaves—and smugglers in a black market. After Spain assumed control of New Orleans in 1765, Code Noir transitioned to Spanish slave law, giving slaves more rights. By 1781, the maroon village Ville Gaillard was a significant force led by the fugitive Creole Juan Maló. After many conflicts with the authorities, Maló was captured and executed on June 12, 1784. St. Maló’s resistance burrowed into the memory of African Americans, his legacy influenced by funeral dances and voodoo, his memory preserved through oral culture, and his impact still felt to this day.

Sister Gertrude Morgan

By the 1930s, civic leaders were promoting New Orleans as a tourist destination while the city lurched toward bankruptcy. As the city continued to develop through the 20th century, it became a melting pot of diverse cultures and a mecca for bohemians and LGBTQ people. Gay bars prospered in the French Quarter, and jazz clubs hired integrated bands. Sister Gertrude Morgan was a self-appointed missionary and preacher, Bride of Christ, artist, musician, poet, and writer of profound religious faith. After a revelation in 1934, she decided to travel to New Orleans to evangelize. In the late 1950s, she began singing on French Quarter corners, playing the guitar and tambourine, and selling her paintings. Her work caught the attention of art dealer Larry Borenstein, who helped launch her career as an artist. Borenstein came from a family of Russian Jews in Milwaukee. He worked in a wide variety of jobs in his youth, eventually settling in New Orleans and expanding into real estate and art dealership. He made friends with members of the gay community, artists, and musicians, and helped found the Preservation Hall jazz club.

Dr. Michael White and the Widow’s Wail

Dr. Michael White is a jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer, jazz historian and professor from New Orleans. White grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward, moved to a predominately-white neighbourhood at age 7, and later attended Xavier, a Catholic university with a largely African American student body. Growing up, White was a voracious reader who enjoyed learning the clarinet and Spanish. He worked as a freelance clarinet player in Ernest “Doc” Paulin’s brass band for parades and funeral marches. White had an epiphany in 1978 when he discovered the work of George Lewis, who had died in 1968. Unlike the Creole clarinettists from family traditions of the Seventh Ward, Lewis drew his inspiration from the chant-like rhythms of small churches and the bent pitches of blues and country. White studied Lewis’s work, and also began researching the histories of the jazz players in his own family, including his ancestral cousins Willie “Kaiser” Joseph and “Papa John” Joseph. Like his idol George Lewis, White wanted to capture his people’s story through his music.