98 PART 1 | FROM COLONIZATION THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR
Orleans, acquired an ambiance unique in North America. Most of Louisiana’s
blacks were slaves, but some were not. A nd the presence of free blacks made legal
and social distinctions less sharp and increased the possibilities for a merging of
cultures. By 1800 New Orleans was a multiracial society with less rigid stratifi ca-
tion than any where else on the continent; persons of mixed African and Euro-
pean ancestry could be found at most levels of society. During the nineteenth
century, musicians were able to participate in white-organized musical activi-
ties, including balls and opera performances, regardless of their ancestry.
This openness also made it possible for blacks to gather for dancing and music
making in public, in an expression of Africanness more open than elsewhere.
As early as the 1750s such gatherings had become a Sunday custom. A witness
to these Sabbath revels in 1799 noted the “vast numbers of negro slaves, men,
women, and children, assembled together on the levee, drumming, fi fi ng, and
dancing, in large rings.” And in 1804 another visitor wrote of the black popula-
tion: “They assemble in great masses on the levee on Sundays, and make them-
selves glad with song, dance and merriment.” But even in New Orleans there
were restrictions on such public expressions. An 1817 statute limited black danc-
ing to Sundays before sundown, and only in Congo Square, a spacious common
later renamed Beauregard Square and today a part of Louis Armstrong Park.
An account of a gathering in Congo Square comes down from Benjamin
Latrobe, the architect who designed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington,
D.C., and who spent many years developing a large-scale waterworks projectK This painting shows plantation slaves observing a holiday for dancing, accompanied by banjo and
percussion. The painter and date of the picture, which was found in South Carolina, are unknown.New OrleansCongo Square172028_04_086-105_r2_vs.indd 98 23/01/13 10:07 AM