New Orleans and the Illegal Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1857–1861

This study explores the role of New Orleans in the illegal transatlantic slave trade between 1857 and 1861. It argues that the city’s growing involvement in this trade was connected to broader debates and attempts to reopen the transatlantic slave trade in Louisiana, which had been prohibited since 1808. While the role of the United States in the illegal transatlantic slave trade and, specifically, the city of New York has received a sufficient amount of attention from scholars, the role that New Orleans fulfilled in this trade as the second-largest city from which illegal slave vessels departed remains underexplored. Using archival records, southern newspapers and magazines, and government reports, this study not only traces New Orleans’ role in this trade between 1857 and 1861, but it also links these illegal slave trading activities to broader reopening attempts in Louisiana.