NAMED ONE OF THE BEST TOURS IN NEW ORLEANS BY CONDé NAST TRAVELER!
A century after the first enslaved Africans landed on the shores of Virginia, enslaved persons arrived to a newly founded French colony, La Nouvelle Orleans, in 1719. By 1830, the population of enslaved persons made up one third of New Orleans’ total population. Urban enslavement in New Orleans greatly influenced the Crescent City’s status as one of the most African cities in the western hemisphere, and these contributions are ever-present through the city’s celebrated culture.
On this tour, visitors will learn about the experience of enslaved women, men, and children in urban settings and how they differentiate from that of rural plantations in the South. Hear the stories of Catherine, Maria, and other individuals of African descent who were enslaved by the Hermann and Grima families and view the French Quarter property through the lens of enslavement.
Dr. Anastacia Scott, Director of Educational Programming for HGGHH, is the lead on this important museum project. Her research interests include African American history, critical museology, public history, and racial identity development. Major works include curating African Heritage of New Orleans: 300 Years in the Making, Holdings from Amistad Research Center, Xavier University of New Orleans, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Louisiana Creole Research Association, Louisiana Research Collection, Southern University at New Orleans and Louisiana State Museum, June 1, 2018 – December 8, 2018; and Amistad on-the-Go! – a digital educational website to support the Common Core standards of grades 6 through 12 by providing humanities and arts-centered activities on themes such as Slavery & Abolition and the Reconstruction Era.
This tour is made possible through Dr. Scott’s research and work with a team of local interpretation experts, including
Joy Banner, Ph. D.: Director of Communications at Whitney Plantation. Banner is a co-founder of the Descendants Project, an organization advocating for the descendants of those who were enslaved in Louisiana’s river parishes. Banner received her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.
Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes: musician, writer, naturalist, park ranger, ethnographic photographer, actor, and former NFL player. Barnes is deeply involved with the New Orleans parade culture and is Second Chief of the North Side Skull and Bone Gang, a member of Black Men of Labor Social Aid and Pleasure Club, and a former board member of the Backstreet Cultural Museum.
Zella Palmer: professor, food historian, cook, author and filmmaker serving as the Chair and Director of the Dillard University Ray Charles Program in African-American Material Culture in New Orleans, Louisiana. Palmer is committed to preserving the legacy of African-American, Native American and Latino culinary history in New Orleans and the South. Palmer curated The Story of New Orleans Creole Cooking: The Black Hand in the Pot academic conference and documentary, Nellie Murray Feast and the Dr. Rudy Joseph Lombard: Black Hand in the Pot Lecture Series. In 2019, under Palmer’s leadership, Dillard University launched a Food Studies academic program. Palmer is also the author of the 2019 cookbook, Recipes and Remembrances of Fair Dillard: 1869-2019. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Hermann-Grima+Gallier Historic Houses.
Angel Adams Parham, Ph. D.: Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. She works in the area of historical sociology, engaging in research and writing that examine the past in order to better understand how to live well in the present and envision wisely for the future. This research focus is rooted in her interest in re-connecting sociology to its classical roots so that sociology is understood to be a kind of public philosophy animated by questions such as: What is a good society? and What kinds of social arrangements are most conducive to human flourishing? She is the author of American Routes: Racial Palimpsests and the Transformation of Race (Oxford, 2017), which was co-winner of the Social Science History Association’s Allan Sharlin Memorial book award (2018) and co-winner of the American Sociological Association’s Barrington Moore book award in comparative-historical sociology (2018). She currently serves on the board of directors of the Hermann-Grima+Gallier Historic Houses.
Madame Barbara Trevigne: Madame Barbara Trevigne received her Master’s in Social Science from Tulane University School of Social Work. Barbara holds several professional licenses, is a New Orleans Tour Guide, and former docent of the Hermann-Grima house. In addition to being honored by Alliance Françoise for preservation of Creole culture, she has collaborated and published articles in Images of America, African Americans of New Orleans, Gumbo People, New Orleans What Can’t Be Lost, and The Tignon an 18th Century Headdress. Barbara also traced the genesis of the enslaved Glapion family of St. Charles Parish and New Orleans.
Leon Waters: Mr. Leon August Waters is a native of New Orleans. Mr. Waters serves as the board chairperson of the Louisiana Museum of African American History. Mr. Waters is a licensed tour guide and manager of Hidden History Tours, authentic presentations of New Orleans history. Mr. Waters is also the manager of Hidden History, L.C.C. – a publishing, touring, and research company. He has published one book titled On To New Orleans: Louisiana’s Heroic 1811 Slave Revolt. This 300-page book tells the story of the largest slave revolt in the United States that happened in St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, and Orleans Parishes. Mr. Waters is currently working on two more books to be published soon.