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On this day in 1861, delegates in Louisiana voted to secede from the United States. In New Orleans—the largest market for enslaved people before the Civil War—the independence was short-lived. #THNOCSymposium2021 THREAD
Less than a year into the war, Admiral David Farragut’s naval force won a decisive victory against Confederate battlements protecting New Orleans, the South’s largest city.
White rebel forces fled before federal troops arrived, and the city surrendered quietly. For New Orleans’s free Black citizens—including some Creoles who had at first aligned themselves with the Confederacy—this regime change opened the door to a new wave of activism.
Our recent First Draft story places us in New Orleans during the Civil War, when Black activists were finding new ways to fight for civil rights and liberties. https://www.hnoc.org/publications/first-draft/symposium-2021/civil-war-brought-fall-new-orleans-and-rise-new-black-activism
For more, explore #THNOCSymposium2021 “Recovered Voices: Black Activism in New Orleans from Reconstruction to the Present Day.” The interactive website includes books, stories, videos, and a March 5–7 program. Learn more: https://www.hnoc.org/symposium-2021
