African Americans in Louisiana or Black Louisianians are residents of the
U.S. state of
Louisiana who are of
African ancestry; those native to the state since colonial times descend from the many African slaves working on indigo and sugarcane plantations under
French colonial rule.[4]
Within the U.S., Louisiana has the fifth largest overall African American population. Louisiana has the second largest percentage of African Americans in the country, only behind
Mississippi.[5] As of the
2020 U.S. census, Black Louisianians of African heritage were 32.8% of the state's population.[6]
The first enslaved people from Africa arrived in Louisiana in 1719 on the
Aurore slave ship from
Whydah, only a year after the founding of New Orleans.[7] Twenty-three slave ships brought black slaves to Louisiana in
French Louisiana alone, almost all embarking prior to 1730.[8] Between 1723 and 1769, most African slaves imported to Louisiana were from modern-day
Senegal,
Mali,
Congo, and
Benin and many thousands being imported to Louisiana from there.[9][10][11] A large number of the imported slaves from the Senegambia region were members of the
Wolof and
Bambara ethnic groups.
Saint-Louis and
Goree Island were sites where a great number of slaves destined for Louisiana departed from Africa.[12] Very few slaves from the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast were imported in Louisiana except the Mina who were among the most frequent ethnicities in this country. They belong to the
Ewe group and their traditional domain is rather centered on the
Mono River, encompassing eastern Ghana, the territory of modern
Togo, and the west of modern
Benin. It is more likely that most of the Mina transported to
Louisiana were shipped from the
Bight of Benin also known as the
Slave Coast.[10] During the
Spanish control of Louisiana, between 1770 and 1803, most of the slaves still came from the Congo and the Senegambia region, but they imported also more slaves from modern-day
Benin.[13] Many slaves imported during this period were members of the
Nago people, a
Yoruba subgroup.[14]
The slaves brought with them their cultural practices, languages, and religious beliefs rooted in spirit and
ancestor worship, which were key elements of
Louisiana Voodoo.[13] In addition, in the late nineteenth century, many Afro-Haitians also migrated to Louisiana, contributing to the Voodoo tradition of the state.
During the American period (1804–1820), almost half of the African slaves came from the
Congo.[9][15]
Before the
American Civil War (1861 to 1865), African Americans comprised the majority of the population in the state, with most being enslaved and working as laborers on sugar cane and cotton plantations.[16]
African Americans left Louisiana by the tens of thousands during the
Great Migration in the first half of the 20th century, seeking work and political opportunities elsewhere. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, African Americans were 31.2% of the state's population.[17]
Of all deaths from
COVID-19 in 2020, African Americans in Louisiana died in greater numbers than any other racial group.[18]
Louisiana Creoles in Louisiana are of French, Spanish, Native American, and African American ancestry.[19]Creoles of color are Creoles with black ancestry who assimilated into
Black culture. There is also an Afro-Gypsy community in Louisiana developed as a consequence of interracial marriage between freed African Americans and enslaved
Roma.[20]
Historically black colleges and universities in Louisiana
African Americans have contributed to
Louisiana's culture, music, and cuisine. African slaves have influenced
New Orleans dishes such as
gumbo.[22]
African slaves also brought
Louisiana Voodoo to the state.[23] African Americans have influenced the music of Louisiana and helped develop jazz, blues, hip hop, R&B, Zydeco, and
Bounce music in the state.
^
abHall, Gwendolyn Midlo (1995). Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Louisiana State University Press. p. 58.
Broussard, Sherry T. African Americans in Lafayette and Southwest Louisiana (Arcadia, 2012)
online.
Crouch, Barry A. "Black Education in Civil War and Reconstruction Louisiana: George T. Ruby, the Army, and the Freedmen’s Bureau." Louisiana History 38#3 (1997), pp. 287–308.
online
De Jong, Greta. A different day: African American struggles for justice in rural Louisiana, 1900-1970 (U of North Carolina Press, 2002)
online.
De Jong, Greta. "" With the aid of God and the FSA": The Louisiana Farmers' Union and the African American freedom struggle in the New Deal era." Journal of Social History 34.1 (2000): 105-139.
excerpt
Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Africans in colonial Louisiana: the development of Afro-Creole culture in the eighteenth-century (LSU Press, 1995)
online.
Keele, Luke, William Cubbison, and Ismail White. "Suppressing black votes: a historical case study of voting restrictions in Louisiana." American Political Science Review 115.2 (2021): 694-700.
Scarpaci, Vincenza. "Walking the color line: Italian immigrants in rural Louisiana, 1880–1910." in Are Italians White? (Routledge, 2012) pp. 60-76.
online
Vincent, Charles, ed. The African American Experience in Louisiana: From the Civil War to Jim Crow (Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1999).
Vincent, Charles. " 'Of Such Historical Importance...': The African American Experience in Louisiana." Louisiana History 50.2 (2009): 133-158
online.