Alabama Slaves Auctioned in New Orleans in 1858

The digital collections of the Smithsonian Institution are a rich source of Alabama-related materials. In a recent wandering there I came across the item below.

That item is a broadside advertising a slave auction in New Orleans on March 25, 1858. As noted, the auction took place in the rotunda of the St. Louis Hotel, built in 1838 at the corner of St. Louis and Chartres Street. Such auctions were common there before the Civil War. The hotel, rebuilt in 1960, continues to operate as the Omni Royal Orleans.

Of course, one thing about this broadside really caught my attention. Thirteen slaves were to be auctioned, eight were from Alabama and the others being "acclimated slaves". His wife Martha and their four children were included with George, so there are actually thirteen from the state:

Absalom, 28, plantation hand

Ned, 43, plantation hand

Tom, about 46, plantation hand

Bill, 23, plantation hand

Frank, 25, plantation hand

Alfred, 35, plantation hand

Polly, 23, cook, washer and ironer

George, 23, plantation hand and carriage driver; to be sold with his wife Martha, 30 and their four children, Ned, 7, Nancy 6, Horace, 4, and Mary, 1

The broadside gives more details about the eight that might be of interest to the buyer or in the interest of full disclosure by the seller. 

One question immediately arises: why weren't these slaves auctioned in Montgomery, which had a large slave market for many years? A slave market also operated in Mobile. Perhaps transport of the slaves to one of the New Orleans markets would bring higher prices. Also unknown is whether these slaves came from the same Alabama plantation. 

I did manage to find some information on the slave auctioneer, "N. Vignie". The Louisiana Statewide Death Index gives Norbert Vignie's birth year as 1811 and death date as April 29, 1877, in New Orleans. The 1850 U.S. Census notes his occupation as auctioneer in the "Miscellaneous Business Services" industry. 

Vignie's office is given on the broadside as No. 8 Banks' Arcade Passage; the Arcade was a block-long structure built in 1833 by Thomas Banks. The building is now the St. James Hotel. He also lists the corner of Conti Street and Exchange Alley, the site of numerous office and retail establishments over the years. Presumably he had two offices, which might mean he was very active in the slave trade auctions in the city. 

In 1870 the U.S. Census listed him as living in Ward 6 of New Orleans, perhaps at the 293 Royal Street that appeared in the 1875 city directory. His occupation? "Retired auctioneer."

Too bad we can't follow the life stories of the slaves beyond this broadside. 

Source: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

St. Louis Hotel 

Source: Wikipedia

Google maps shows this building at 293 Royal Street in New Orleans, near the Hotel Monteleone, and perhaps Vignie's last address.

Some Alabamians in New Orleans (3)

This post continues one about a visit to see our son Amos at Christmas 2018. You can read the first part here. And further down in this post there is some actual Alabama history!

On Sunday afternoon we went to this  brewery and watched the Saints beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-28 in an exciting game. Amos and I always enjoy testing out local brews. 

 We ate dinner that night at the St. Charles Tavern, which is close to Amos' apartment, open 24 hours, and has great food and reasonable prices. We had eaten there on our previous trip as well. 

Our visit included a nice walk around part of Audubon Park, which has walk and bike paths in addition to a zoo, aquarium, insectarium, and a golf course and other athletic facilities. Oh, and lots of large trees with Spanish moss. 

I presume that sign does not apply to the abundant water fowl population we saw. 

Audubon Park is 350 acres purchased by the city in 1871 and named after the famed naturalist John James Audubon who lived in New Orleans beginning in 1821. Before the Civil War the land was a plantation. 

And here we have it, the Alabama history connection in this blog post. You can read more about the Centennial here. This event was held in 1884, when Birmingham's reputation as the "Magic City" was being developed with its rapid industrial growth. Iron ore was a big part of that development.

On our way to a Christmas Eve meal at Commander's Palace, we stopped in at another of the city's well-known independent bookstores. 

We managed to get a 3 p.m. reservation on Christmas Eve at Commander's Palace and had a wonderful meal. In order to be properly dressed, I had to borrow a sport coat from Amos. 

After dinner we eventually made our way back to the Green House Inn, where we did our annual viewing of A Christmas Story. 

Not only are there huge houses all over New Orleans, but many of them are very colorful. 

We made it to City Park on Christmas Day for a brief visit. Alas, the coffee shop that Amos said was very good was closed. 

Late Christmas afternoon we headed to the Arts/Warehouse District and found ourselves at the Legacy Kitchen and Craft Tavern. Notice the Talladega and Georgia-named items on the menu. I ended up with an excellent steak. 

As sort of a dessert, we found three Dale Chihuly pieces in the Renaissance Hotel next to the Legacy Kitchen. We've been fans of his glass art for a long time. 

On the way home we stopped for lunch at an old style IHOP in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Across the street from that IHOP is the University of Southern Mississippi campus.

The street where the IHOP and campus are located is known as Hardy Street and there is a Hardy Hall on the USM campus. William L. Hardy founded Hattiesburg, Gulfport and Laurel, Mississippi. Interestingly, he was an Alabama native. 

Some Alabamians in New Orleans (2)

We spent Christmas 2018 with our son Amos in New Orleans, driving down on Friday, December 21 and returning home to Pelham on December 26. As with our previous trip in March, we had a great time. See below for all the details. 

And in part 3 there is even some Alabama history! 

On Friday night we had dinner at Gris-Gris on the balcony above Magazine Street. The view was great and so was the shrimp and grits!

New Orleans has a lot of green space and great old houses. 

We had lunch Saturday at Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar and Fish House on St. Charles and started with some delicious crawfish beignets. 

On Saturday afternoon we made it to Octavia Books, one of several independent bookstores in New Orleans. 

We are always up for bookstore visits, but this place had Amos' new book of short stories on display. 

Nighttime New Orleans looks glorious from the Pontchartrain Hotel's rooftop bar.

Dianne and I stayed at the Green House Inn for this Christmas visit. Conveniently, there was a coffee house next door, a bar across the street, and a craft brewery right around the corner. 

The dining room was festively decorated for Christmas.

Up on the second floor is a nice library/reading room that we passed  on the way to our room. Amos and I spent a little time examining the shelves and wished we had time for more. We learned the collection was the owner's. 

We also passed this large model on the way to our room. The small plaque reads, "Model of R.M.S. Olympic built by R.S. Anderson Wallsend 1912."

The Olympic was an ocean liner of the White Star line that operated between 1911 and 1935, including a stint as a troop transport in World War I. The ship was sold for scrap and demolished by 1937.

I was unable to find anything about Anderson. Wallsend is a town in northeastern England.

The Green House has a number of interesting decorative touches, including on the stairway landing. Large paintings of sailing ship are also hung in several places. 

Some Alabamians in New Orleans

I've done a few posts on this blog devoted to topics with only slight connections to Alabama history or culture. One such was "Two Alabama Natives Visit the Garden of the Gods". Mostly they are excuses to show a few pretty pictures. That's basically what's going on here, although there will be some minor Alabama stuff before the end.

Son Amos moved to New Orleans last year from Baton Rouge, and in March we finally went down for a visit. I had been to the Big Easy a few times before, mainly for professional meetings, but I was glad to get back and see more of the city. Dianne had never been to New Orleans except for a quick trip through on I-10 years ago.

Amos lives in the Lower Garden District just a couple of blocks from St. Charles Avenue. Some of the sights we saw that weekend are noted below.

Of course, one of the main attractions of New Orleans is the food, and we did our best to experience some of it. On Friday night we ate dinner at Cochon on Tchopitoulas Street. The place was packed, our wait was long, but well worth it. This "contemporary Cajun" restaurant is located in a renovated warehouse. 

Saturday breakfast came courtesy of the Trolley Stop on St. Charles Avenue not far from Amos' apartment. The meal involved another wait, but the big French Special breakfast was excellent. We had lunch in the Quarter at the French Market Restaurant; the seafood kept us fueled for the afternoon. Dinner that night found us again on St. Charles Avenue, this time at the upscale Lula Restaurant Distillery. They distill vodka, rum and gin and claim to be the only restaurant-distillery in the southeastern U.S. I had the rum lacquered shrimp. 

For brunch on Sunday morning we walked down Magazine Street to the DeVille Coffee House and Creperie. We all had the smoked salmon crepes, and it was superb. The coffee was good, too. Our final meal together took us once again to St Charles Avenue and the St. Charles Tavern Restaurant and Bar. This place is low key, and the boudin balls and seafood special were great!

We can pause here to mention one of the Alabama connections in this post; this one centers on Magazine Street. In 2004 a movie called A Love Song for Bobby Long came out, directed by Shainee Gabel and based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. In the film John Travolta plays Bobby Long, once an English professor at Auburn University who now lives in New Orleans with one of his former graduate students, Lawson Pines [Gabriel Macht] and their female companion, jazz singer Lorraine. She dies, and their house is inherited by her high-school dropout daughter, Pursy, played by Scarlett Johanssen. Most of the film follows Long and Pines as they help Pursy learn enough to graduate and bring her into their circle of strange but loving friends.

The film trots out some usual Southern stereotypes and accents, but is filled with compelling characters and humor. Travolta, Macht and Johanssen are all surprisingly good. And we get to see Travolta in an Auburn t-shirt and make a trip back to the campus at one point. Oh, and a lot of great authors make appearances throughout via Long and Pines' ongoing battle of the literary quotes. 

I've yet to read Capps' only novel, but have a copy and plan to do so. He married an Auburn student, they both taught school in Brewton and have lived in Fairhope for some years. Their son is singer-songwriter Grayson Capps. 

Some additional comments about our trip are below the photos.   

In 1981 engineers noted that Paris' iconic Eiffel Tower was sagging and the cause was a restaurant placed on top of it. The 1937 addition was dismantled and efforts made to place it elsewhere in Paris were unsuccessful. 

An opportunity to buy it fell into the lap of American John Onorio. The 11,000 pieces were shipped to New Orleans, reassembled and reopened as a restaurant in 1986. The venue, located on St. Charles Avenue just outside the Garden District, currently operates as the Eiffel Society.  

Just down St. Mary's Street from my son's apartment are two houses permanently decorated for Mardi Gras. You can see a bit of the purple one to the left.

Since Dianne had never been to New Orleans, we spent Saturday afternoon in the French Quarter. One of the funniest sights was this little guy collecting dollar bills from passersby. He was totally cool and calm and obviously an old hand at his routine. 

One of the places we visited in the Quarter to show Dianne was the Hotel Monteleone with its revolving Carousel Bar and displays of books by authors who have stayed there over the years. Of course the bar was packed so we moved on. 

I recently read Jeff Weddle's 2007 book Bohemian New Orleans, which covers the city's literary scene primarily from the 1950's into the 1970's. However, writers throughout New Orleans' history also make appearances. The above plaque is on the wall near where son Amos and I are standing in the photo below in Pirate's Alley. 

William Faulkner lived in New Orleans in the 1920's and wrote his first novel A Soldier's Story in this building. Faulkner Books, well worth a visit itself, is on the ground floor now. In the background you can see the round sign of the Pirate's Alley Cafe and Absinthe Bar which provided us with a table and a few beers for an hour's worth of people watching. Just across the alley, out of the photo, is St. Louis Cathedral, seen further below.

That day in the French Quarter and Jackson Square was a beautiful Saturday with a mild temperature and bustling with tourists but not overcrowded. The street artists, poets and entertainers were out in full force, and we also got to see a couple of wedding parades. 

St. Louis Cathedral towers over Jackson Square in the French Quarter. The first church was constructed on the site in 1718 and raised to cathedral rank in 1793. The cathedral as seen here is the third church on the site and is the oldest Catholic cathedral in the United States. 

Amos has taken one of the cruises on this beauty and said it was well worth it.

Here's Amos on Sunday morning in the DeVille Coffee House and Creperie where we had those delicious smoked salmon crepes. And good coffee!

Dianne and Amos found a big tree root growing over the sidewalk near his apartment. The view below is looking down his street.

Classic street cars still rumble in New Orleans, and on Saturday we rode the Historic St. Charles Avenue Line into the French Quarter. The line has operated since 1893. The current cars were built in the early 1920's and refurbished between 1988 and 1994. In 1973 the line was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. That day it was a warm and crowded but fun ride!

Amos is an urban planner, and  he works for the city in this building.

Very close to where Amos works is the Eagle Saloon, currently empty. Efforts have been going on for some time to redevelop the historic property built in 1851. The saloon was once in the bustling African-American business district of the city, and was a frequent stop of early ragtime and jazz greats such as Buddy Bolden, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver and many others.  

Now we come to another Alabama portion of our story. Amos has these items above the door into his kitchen. 

On a wall in his kitchen a framed copy of this Sun Ra album is displayed. He was a jazz composer, musician and bandleader born in Birmingham. 

We did spot this product on the shelves at a local Wal-Mart; does that count?