1773 Cabildo creates slave tax to fund capture of cimarrones [runaway slaves]

         and compensate owners for the value of any escaped slaves killed; 

         most New Orleans slave owners refuse to pay.

1784 Juan San Malo’s Revolt from the swamplands surrounding Lake Borgne.

         The failed uprising is honored by enslaved and free Blacks in song and

         in dance re-enactments.

1795 Sugar cane production peaks, with Louisiana supplying nearly all sugar

         to surrounding US; slave labor increases.

         Point Coupée Slave Revolt;

         Gov. Carondolet convicts 57 blacks, 3 whites;

         23 hanged;

1803 Louisiana Purchase; slow process of Americanization begins.

1804 Haitian Independence.

1804,

1806,

1809 Louisiana enacts laws to prevent immigration of free Blacks from

         Haiti, Cuba, and other Caribbean island colonies.

1806 Under New Orleans city ordinance, the City Commons [later  known as

            Congo Square] becomes Sunday meeting ground for the enslaved.

1810 City of New Orleans buys remaining land from Claude Tremé for

         $40,000, subdivides into individual plots and sells on a first-come first-

         serve basis; 

         conversion of former Tremé home into Collège d'Orléans.

1811 8 January: "Freedom or Death!": More than 500 enslaved men, women

         and children under the direction of Chas. Deslonde take up arms,

         liberating plantations across a 60-mile stretch including St. John, St.

         James, St. Charles, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, building an

         increasing armed body, eventually heading along the River Road to

         Fort St. Charles in New Orleans;

         their rallying cry: “On to New Orleans! Freedom or Death!”

            The rebels are decapitated and their heads mounted on 20-foot poles

            along the route.

            The 1811 rebellion, the largest in US history, halts the labor of more

            than 12,000 enslaved over a 60-mile wide radius.

1820's Fo. Bautista becomes major land owner and developer in faubourgs

           Tremé and Marigny; also owns lands outside New Orleans city limits.

1823 Collège d'Orléans closes.

1826  Josephine Charles, Henriette Delille & Juliette Gaudin take over failed

          Collège d'Orléans and open school for Black children.

1829  Slave revolt less than 50 miles outside corporate limits of  New Orleans;

          new, more restrictive laws governing actions of free Black population 

          enacted.

1830 immigration law enacted barring free Blacks from entering and remaining

         in New Orleans, with exceptions made for those having arrived prior to

        1812;

         free Blacks required to register with civil authorities and listed by

         physical description, including skin color, treated, in effect, as real or

         potential criminals.

1830's Blacks acting as major independent speculators, investors, land

        brokers & developers; buying, selling and passing on to successive

        generations properties valued between $40,000 and $100,000 in

        faubourgs Tremé, Marigny and Vieux Carré.

1834 La Societé des Artisans de Bienfaisance et d'Assistance Mutuelle

         founded as a challenge to color-bar groups.

1835 La Societé de l'Économie founded as exclusive club for free Black

         professional men, but in reality, the first of a long tradition of Black

         color-bar societies which discriminated against dark-skinned, non-

         mixed-race Blacks;

         headquarters: 1422 Ursulines St.

1836 Sisters of the Presentation formed (Charles, Delille, Gaudin) as first

         Black order of women religious.

1840 Sisters of Mount Carmel purchase former Tremé plantation  property

         from Ursulines, continue school for Black girls but open separate school

         for white girls under same roof.

         Fo. Bautista dies and is buried from St. Louis Cathedral.

1841 Subscription taken up by free Blacks of Tremé for construction of

         church in response to church segregation & increased Faubourg Tremé

         population

1842 Sisters of the Holy Family formed (Charles, Gaudin, Delille et al)

         St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church opens.

1844 Dieu Nous Protège benevolent society formed for the purpose of freeing

         slaves.

1845 The City Commons, fronting on Rampart, officially named Congo

         Square.

         Les Cenelles first African American poetry anthology published,

         edited by Armand Lanusse, poet, Faubourg Tremé resident.

1850 Association of the Holy Family purchases Bayou Road/ Gov. Nicholls

         property (between St. Claude and Rampart) for  motherhouse and

         novitiate for the Holy Family sisters.

1852 Sisters of the Holy Family permitted to take final vows.

1857 Louisiana governor Robert C. Wicliffe advises the Louisiana Legislature

         to "move all free negroes [sic] now in the State" because

         "[T]heir example and association have a most pernicious affect

          [sic] upon our slave population."

1860 January, a group of about 100 free Blacks from rural Louisiana parishes

         deports from the port of New Orleans for Haiti;

         Afro-Orleanians refuse to depart;

         "Generation of 1860" forms: Charles Roudanez & son, Jean

         Baptist, Aristide Mary, Paul Trevigne, Formidor Demazlière,

         Laurent August, Thomy Lafon.

1861 Civil War begins.

1 May-14 December

         New Orleans occupied by Union troops;

         15,000 enslaved and free Blacks enlisted in Union army,  

         representing the largest number of Black union recruits in the nation.

1862 April: nation's first organized movement for equal rights begins in New

         Orleans in Faubourg Tremé.

         September: Charles Louis Roudanez and Paul Trevigne found bi-lingual,

         tri-weekly, L'Union, the first Black Republican newspaper;

         In premier issue, L'Union calls for abolition of slavery and equal rights

         under law for all.

1863 1 January: Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect;

         slavery continues in 13 of Louisiana's 48 parishes;

         enslaved population within the city of New Orleans is 100,000 +.

         October-December:  Black public unrest over continued operation of

         slavery;

         Last public notices for return of escaped or "contraband" slaves taken

         down by government decree.

         5 November: selective enfranchisement urged at Economy Hall

         meeting by Francois Boisdoré and Rep. James Ingraham, born a slave.

1864 January, all state provisos regarding slavery suspended in  Louisiana.

1864 March, Jean Baptist Roudanez (son of Louis R.) and E. Arnold

         Bertonneau travel to Washington, D.C. with a petition containing the

         signatures of 1000 free black men and calling for enfranchisement of

         Blacks of ante-bellum free status.

         After conferring with "radical Republican" Charles Sumner, they add a

         clause requesting the same rights for those born enslaved.

1864 21 March: Roudanez and Bertonneau meet with Lincoln, who later

         writes to newly elected Louisiana governor, Michael Hahn, suggesting

         that "some of the colored people...be let in - as, for instance, the

         very intelligent, and especially those who fought so gallantly in our

         ranks."

1865 Civil War ends.

1866 Riot of 1866.

1867 Reconstruction begins;

        90% of the 250+ Black politicians  from Faubourg Tremé;

        201 of this number of ante-bellum free status.

1868 Massacre of 1868.

1869-

1876 New Orleans public schools integrated.

1870 Louisiana census records show that more than 70% of Black  

         population shows no gain in income;

         50% show major economic decline;

         former business owners and others employed primarily as wage laborers

         and domestic workers.

         Census shows huge leap in white population, upwards of 13,000, while

         Black population remains static, although Black population figures

         had nearly doubled only a few years prior as a result of the general

         Emancipation;

         indicates large numbers of Blacks passing for white.

1875 free school newly incorporated as the School for the Children of the

         Holy Family.

1877 Reconstruction ends with withdrawal of federal troops from New

         Orleans.

        Jim Crow instituted;

        Reconstruction Acts of 1867, 13th, 14th,15th Amendments reinterpreted

        to deprive Blacks of equal rights under law.

1880  racial designations Negro, mulatto/mulatta, and white appear to be

       interchangeable in Louisiana census.

       The expression "Creoles of Color" gains popular usage among Blacks of

       ante-bellum free status.

1890 "Generation of 1860" forms the Comité des Citoyens, adding Rodolphe

         Desdunes (Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire), Alcee Labat, Pierre

         Labat, Pierre Chevalier, Numa Mansion, R. B.  Baqué, Louis Martinet,

         L. J. Joubert, M. J. Piron, Eugene Luscy, and Homère Plessy.

        Louisiana Legislative Code 111: all persons of African descent are

        Negro under law.

1891 5 September: first formal meeting of the Comité des Citoyens;

         Rodolphe Desdunes and others begin struggle for equal rights by

         systematically dismantling segregationist legislation.

1892 Comité des Citoyens raises legal defense fund for Plessyvs. Ferguson

         anti-segregation campaign, specifically intended to end segregation of

         public facilities;

         February total = $2,767.25.

1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson handed down: separate but equal.

         Blacks barred from Republican Party politics.

1896 Gauthreaux Law prevents inter-racial marriage.

         The Daily Crusader folds.

         Comité des Citoyens admits defeat in its struggle for equality under law.

1897 1 October: Storyville opens on the fringes of Faubourg Tremé,       

         stretching across Canal St. into the present-day CBD; 

         named  in honor of city alderman, Sidney Story, who proposed "red-

         light district" as solution to problems of  crime, gambling and prostitution.

1898 Grandfather Clause adopted by Louisiana State Constitution;  

         remains effective through June 1915.

1914-

1917 World War I;

         first major migration of Blacks from Tremé.

1917 Storyville closed by U.S. Department of the Navy;

         Jazz  musicians travel north and to Europe where better music

         employment opportunities await.

1928 Rodolphe Desdunes dies at age 79, buried from St. Augustine Church,

         interred in St. Louis Cemetery #2.

         Construction of Municipal Auditorium begins on site of Congo Square

         and continues through 1929.

1929 Stock Market Crash signals Great Depression.

1930 January 30, first performance in new segregated 6,000-seat Municipal

         Auditorium is a minstrel show featuring by Al Jolson.