African Americans in Louisiana

{{Main|History of slavery in Louisiana|History of Louisiana}}

File:Louisiana Courier-2-4-1851 Runaway Slave Ad.jpg

The first enslaved people from Africa arrived in Louisiana in 1719 on the Aurore slave ship from Whydah, only a year after the founding of New Orleans.{{cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/25131336|title=Africans in colonial Louisiana: the development of Afro-Creole culture in the eighteenth century|via=www.worldcat.org|oclc=25131336 }} Twenty-three slave ships brought black slaves to Louisiana in French Louisiana alone, almost all embarking prior to 1730.{{cite web|url=https://www.evergreenplantation.org/evergreen-blog/2020/5/7/the-arrival-of-the-first-africans-in-louisiana|title= The Arrival Of The First Africans In Louisiana|website=evergreenplantation.org|date= 7 May 2020}} Between 1723 and 1769, most African slaves imported to Louisiana were from modern-day Senegal, Mali, Congo, and Benin and many thousands being imported to Louisiana from there.{{cite news|url=https://tracingafricanroots.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/louisiana-most-african-diversity-within-the-united-states/|title=Louisiana: most African diversity within the United States?|date=2015-09-25|work=Tracing African Roots|access-date=2017-09-27|language=nl-NL}}{{cite web|url=https://www.whitneyplantation.org/history/slavery-in-louisiana/slave-trade-in-louisiana/the-ivory-coast-and-the-gold-coast|title= The Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast|website=whitneyplantation.org}}{{cite web|url=https://www.whitneyplantation.org/history/slavery-in-louisiana/slave-trade-in-louisiana/the-slave-coast-and-the-bight-of-biafra|title= The Slave Coast and the Bight of Biafra|website=whitneyplantation.org}} A large number of the imported slaves from the Senegambia region were members of the Wolof and Bambara ethnic groups. Saint-Louis and Goree Island were sites where a great number of slaves destined for Louisiana departed from Africa.[https://books.google.com/books?id=RXsBJzA61lcC&pg=PA442 Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion], Volumen 2. Writing by Junius P. Rodriguez Very few slaves from the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast were imported in Louisiana except the Mina who were among the most frequent ethnicities in this country. They belong to the Ewe group and their traditional domain is rather centered on the Mono River, encompassing eastern Ghana, the territory of modern Togo, and the west of modern Benin. It is more likely that most of the Mina transported to Louisiana were shipped from the Bight of Benin also known as the Slave Coast. During the Spanish control of Louisiana, between 1770 and 1803, most of the slaves still came from the Congo and the Senegambia region, but they imported also more slaves from modern-day Benin.{{cite book | last=Hall | first=Gwendolyn Midlo |authorlink=Gwendolyn Midlo Hall | year=1995 | title=Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century | publisher= Louisiana State University Press | page=58}} Many slaves imported during this period were members of the Nago people, a Yoruba subgroup.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HSKsSihlN7IC&pg=PA228|title=Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color|first=Sybil|last=Kein|date=August 1, 2000|publisher=LSU Press|isbn=9780807126011 |via=Google Books}}

The slaves brought with them their cultural practices, languages, and religious beliefs rooted in spirit and ancestor worship, which were key elements of Louisiana Voodoo. In addition, in the late nineteenth century, many Afro-Haitians also migrated to Louisiana, contributing to the Voodoo tradition of the state.

During the American period (1804–1820), almost half of the African slaves came from the Congo.{{cite web|url=http://www.whitneyplantation.com/the-louisiana-slave-database.html|title=The Louisiana Slave Database|website=www.whitneyplantation.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-09-27|archive-date=2015-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303094927/http://www.whitneyplantation.com/the-louisiana-slave-database.html|url-status=dead}}

Before the American Civil War (1861 to 1865), African Americans comprised the majority of the population in the state, with most being enslaved and working as laborers on sugar cane and cotton plantations.{{cite web|url=https://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-museum/online-exhibits/the-cabildo/antebellum-louisiana-agrarian-life/index |title=Antebellum Louisiana: Agrarian Life |date=23 January 2014 |publisher=Crt.state.la.us }}

African Americans left Louisiana by the tens of thousands during the Great Migration in the first half of the 20th century, seeking work and political opportunities elsewhere. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, African Americans were 31.2% of the state's population.{{cite web|url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22000.html |title=Louisiana QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau |publisher=Quickfacts.census.gov |year=2011 |access-date=January 20, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140119205316/http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22000.html |archive-date=January 19, 2014 }}

Of all deaths from COVID-19 in 2020, African Americans in Louisiana died in greater numbers than any other racial group.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/04/07/828688358/african-americans-in-louisiana-are-dying-at-an-alarming-rate-during-pandemic|title = African Americans in Louisiana Are Dying at an Alarming Rate During Pandemic|website = NPR.org}}

Louisiana Creoles in Louisiana are of French, Spanish, Native American, and African American ancestry.{{cite book|title=Louisiana Creoles: Cultural Recovery and Mixed-Race Native American Identity|year=2006}} Creoles of color are Creoles with black ancestry who assimilated into Black culture. There is also an Afro-Gypsy community in Louisiana developed as a consequence of interracial marriage between freed African Americans and enslaved Roma.{{cite book|title= Emerging Voices: Experiences of Underrepresented Asian Americans|year=2008}}

There are six historically black colleges (HBCU) established in Louisiana. The Southern University System is the country's first and only HBCU college system.{{cite web|url=https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/education/2017/08/22/what-hbcus-mission-today/558862001/ |title=What is the mission of an HBCU today? |publisher=Theadvertiser.com |date=22 August 2017}}

{{See also|Culture of Louisiana|Music of Louisiana}}

African Americans have contributed to Louisiana's culture, music, and cuisine. African slaves have influenced New Orleans dishes such as gumbo.{{cite web |last1=Gary |first1=Megan |title=From West Africa to Southwest Louisiana: The Origin of Gumbo, by Phebe A. Hayes |url=https://iberiachamber.org/news/west-africa-southwest-louisiana-origin-gumbo-phebe-hayes |website=Greater Iberia Chamber of Commerce |publisher=Glue Up |access-date=21 July 2022}} African slaves also brought Louisiana Voodoo to the state.{{cite book|title=Mythologies|page=507}} African Americans have influenced the music of Louisiana and helped develop jazz, blues, hip hop, R&B, Zydeco, and Bounce music in the state.

• Lil Wayne, musician
• Anthony Mackie, actor
• Tyler Perry, actor
• Madam C. J. Walker, entrepreneur
• Louis Armstrong, trumpeter
• Bill Russell, professional basketball player
• Randy Jackson, bassist
• YoungBoy Never Broke Again, rapper
• Kevin Gates, rapper
• Johnnie Cochran, lawyer
• Clyde Drexler, former professional basketball player
• Mahalia Jackson, singer
• Karl Malone, former professional basketball player
• Bryan Christopher Williams, musician, entrepreneur
• P. B. S. Pinchback, former governor of Louisiana
• Sidney Bechet, musician
• Buddy Bolden, jazz pioneer
• James Booker, musician
• Fats Domino, rock n' roll pioneer
• Mannie Fresh, record producer, musician
• Buddy Guy, blues musician
• Boosie Badazz, musician
• Juvenile, musician
• Ernie K-Doe, singer
• Ellis Marsalis Sr., jazz musician, civil rights activist
• Frank Ocean, Grammy Award-nominated R&B singer
• Wendell Pierce, actor
• Professor Longhair, musician
• Allen Toussaint, musician
• Buckwheat Zydeco, zydeco musician
• Jon Batiste, singer
• Willis Reed, professional basketball player

{{Portal|Louisiana}}

• Louisiana African American Heritage Trail
• History of slavery in Louisiana
• Creoles of color
• Louisiana Creole people
• Cajuns
• French Louisianians
• Isleños
• Black Southerners
• Demographics of Louisiana
• List of African-American newspapers in Louisiana
• Iberia African American Historical Society
• African Americans in New Orleans

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://64parishes.org/ 64 Parishe]
• [https://www.whitneyplantation.org/history/slavery-in-louisiana/ Slavery In Louisiana | Whitney Plantation]
• [https://www.middlepassageproject.org/2020/07/22/african-presence-in-louisiana/ African Presence in Louisiana]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=934kUiIribMC&q=african+americans+in+new+orleans African Americans of New Orleans]
• [https://www.crt.state.la.us/Assets/OCD/hp/nationalregister/historic_contexts/The_African_American_Experience_in_Louisiana.pdf The African American Experience in Louisiana]

• Broussard, Sherry T. African Americans in Lafayette and Southwest Louisiana (Arcadia, 2012) [https://books.google.com/books?id=V15eJwc4UbcC&dq=%27%27African+Americans+in+Lafayette+and+Southwest+Louisiana%27%27&pg=PA6 online].
• Crouch, Barry A. "Black Education in Civil War and Reconstruction Louisiana: George T. Ruby, the Army, and the Freedmen's Bureau." Louisiana History 38#3 (1997), pp. 287–308. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4233415 online]
• De Jong, Greta. A different day: African American struggles for justice in rural Louisiana, 1900-1970 (U of North Carolina Press, 2002) [https://books.google.com/books?id=HMsA-YfPCWsC&dq=African+American+Louisiana&pg=PR11 online].
• De Jong, Greta. "" With the aid of God and the FSA": The Louisiana Farmers' Union and the African American freedom struggle in the New Deal era." Journal of Social History 34.1 (2000): 105–139. [https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/10/article/17790/summary excerpt]
• Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Africans in colonial Louisiana: the development of Afro-Creole culture in the eighteenth-century (LSU Press, 1995) [https://books.google.com/books?id=mYz_THytJ38C&dq=%27%27Africans+In+Colonial+Louisiana:+The+Development+of+Afro-Creole+Culture+in+the+Eighteenth-Century%27%27&pg=PP2 online].
• Keele, Luke, William Cubbison, and Ismail White. "Suppressing black votes: a historical case study of voting restrictions in Louisiana." American Political Science Review 115.2 (2021): 694–700.
• Scarpaci, Vincenza. "Walking the color line: Italian immigrants in rural Louisiana, 1880–1910." in Are Italians White? (Routledge, 2012) pp. 60–76. [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203616673-4/walking-color-line-vincenza-scarpaci online]
• Vincent, Charles, ed. The African American Experience in Louisiana: From the Civil War to Jim Crow (Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1999).
• Vincent, Charles. "'Of Such Historical Importance...': The African American Experience in Louisiana." Louisiana History 50.2 (2009): 133–158 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25478640 online].

{{African Americans by location}}

{{Demographics of the United States}}

{{Ethnicity in Louisiana}}

{{Louisiana}}