The Back Side Is the Black Side

Among the people who came to New Orleans by the Lake route (see "Portage" in the Archive) were slaves who, before the Carondelet Canal was built, were a convenient sort of cargo because self-propelled. They could walk the portage. The portage wound through undeveloped swamp to the edge of the city at what is now the corner of Rampart and Governor Nicholls. This was the threshold between the wilderness and the European town, and it was New Orleans’ back door sill. It would not be the last time that these individuals would be admitted “‘round back.”

            Later, Carondelet Canal brought the water route to its end at Congo Square. For slaves who arrived by this route during these years, the square marked their first footfall in North America. There had been ramparts between the city and this piece of ground; thus the square lay on the far side of Rampart Street from the Vieux Carrè. There were at least three reasons, then, why Congo Square would be given over to the slaves on Sundays for dances and revelry: it was at the “back” side of town; it lay outside the old city proper; and it was, for many, the North American soil nearest Africa, the near shore of that fearful passage.