Author

Chapter One
Copyright 2006

Dedicated to the citizens of New Orleans who lost homes,
lives, friends and so much more … remember, the sun will
rise again.

The Beginning
In the image of God, we were made
Exposed to the sun, with little shade

The hues of our skin: black and brown as a result
The content of our character, strong enough to exalt

The land we roamed was rich and pure
Clean water, fresh food, clear skies – so secure

We were born, we were loved, we were strong, we were true

We birthed traditions, formed societies, created cultures – we
were new

The lyrical tones that flowed from the tips of our lips
Became languages with profound phrases that grew into songs
to move our hips

Colors of the plains, colors of the mountains, colors of the sky,
colors of sea

We used them all to weave fabric that draped our bodies
gracefully

We were made in the image of God
To soar, to shine, to enjoy His fruits

We were chained in the image of Man
To fulfill the lusts of flesh-driven pursuits

The Arrival
They came in chains: some dressed in rags, some not dressed
at all. Their tasks were monumental, yet no one bothered to give
them their job descriptions. With one glance at the vast
landscape that lay before them, it was easy to see that this land
was unyielding, wild and rebellious. With pockets of swamps,
lakes and unlivable territory, it was hard for any man, even one
with the wildest of imaginations, to picture a future where this
swampy, hot and diseased land would transform into a flourishing
French province. It was hard for the explorers to imagine it and
even harder for the foreign laborers shackled by hands and feet
to understand. All men, both slave and free, who dared to
conquer this often flooded and undeveloped territory held the fear
of disappointment and failure secretly within their hearts. Neither
overseer nor slave would dare to express the horror in knowing
that the task at hand could prove to be insurmountable. Yet the
free man had the advantage.

With resources in abundance from plantation companies and
slaves imported from as close as the West Indies and as far as
the shores of Africa, the free man could dream longer and more
intense than those belabored with accomplishing the goals of
18th century developers. And, like many of their ambitious Navy
counterparts, men like Jean Baptiste LeMoyne Sieur de Bienville
dreamed so long and so intense that he became successor to his
brother, Pierre LeMoyne Sieur de Iberville as one of the greatest
midshipman in the Royal Navy. Iberville and Bienville were
masterful seaman who had conquered and established several
territories including Mobile, Dauphin Island and Biloxi. Bienville
established New Orleans in 1718 with the hopes that the City
would be a prosperous port town for shipman en route to other
lands via the Gulf of Mexico. His intuition proved to reap great
rewards, but not without sacrifice and economic hardship. With
his founding of New Orleans, Bienville was granted the west bank
portion of the City separated by the Mississippi River and the
property would later become known as Algiers.

What's in a Name
How Algiers got its name remains a mystery. Some historians
recall accounts documented by explorers who compared the
quaint territory to the capital of the African nation Algeria due to
its large population of slaves, hence the name: Algiers. Whatever
the origin of the name, slaves occupied and worked on the land
for companies like the King’s Plantation, the Company of the
West and the Company of the Indies. Skillful slave laborers were
sold in Algiers and they proved to be masters in agriculture. Many
slaves produced crops such as rice, corn and indigo. The
commodities were said to be in so much abundance that the
surplus was often exported to other territories including
Pensacola, Florida.

The Black Code
Like many colonies in the early years of the United States, slave
populations were growing and in some parts of the country,
slaves outnumbered those of European settlers. To be
overpopulated with slaves produced fear among French rulers
whose plans included assisting settlers with becoming citizens of
a new land. To help dissipate those fears, in 1724, Bienville
developed “Code Noir,” which is translated as the Black Code, to
reassure settlers or “subjects,” as they were sometimes called,
that the French were in control. The prelude to the code’s 28
articles informed those who lived in remote areas with large slave
populations, that should they encounter conflicts with their human
property, swift and sometimes deadly consequences awaited the
poor servants. The articles contained in the “Black Code” outlined
specific laws for governing slaves, which included extreme
punishments, lifetime slavery, religious requirements and
restricted social interactions. By decree of the Code, all slaves
were required to be instructed and baptized as Catholics. Slaves
could not own anything and all of his or her possessions
belonged to the master. Moreover, hired overseers were required
to be Catholic and should such a person be found as a non-
Catholic, their slaves could be taken away and the overseer
would be severely punished.

Slaves were allowed to marry, but at the permission of the
master. If a woman was a slave and her husband was free, then
she and all of her children would be slaves belonging to her
master. If a woman was free and her husband was a slave, then
she and her children would be free. Slaves were forbidden to
marry whites nor could they maintain concubine-like relationships
with whites or free persons of color.

Slaves belonging to different masters were forbidden to
congregate and socialize with one another. Slave uprisings
occurred more frequently than most slave owners admitted and in
direct opposition to reality, many slave owners refused to paint a
picture of a slave being anything other than a willing participant in
human degradation. The truth that many feared would be made
known is that slaves were planning uprisings daily and many
slaves often escaped from their masters on a regular basis.

Congregating slaves of different masters could expect to be
whipped and or killed for the simple crime of communing with one
another. Masters were required to feed, clothe and care for their
slaves in the most humanely way possible afforded a slave during
that time. Punishment to a master was of course far more lenient
and included paying fines or having slaves taken away. No
whipping or corporal punishment was outlined in the Code in
regards to masters and their treatment of their slaves. The Code
sent out a clear message to all men, women and children
involved in the development of this wild, unyielding land with great
potential. The message was that all rights and privileges
belonged to the free man and none to the slave assigned the task
of turning the dreams of ambitious settlers into a reality.

The Battles
As France, Spain and Britain continued in their struggles for
dominance of the new land that would become the United States,
Algiers inevitably became a part of that struggle and was soon
overcome by Spain’s dominance. In 1769, Spain ruled the colony
and mandated that all property belonging to the Crown be sold.
As a result, Louis Bonrepo became the proprietor of Algiers in
1770 by decree of the Spanish Government. Algiers and its
undeveloped cousins that included tracts of land now known as
McDonoghville, Gretna and Lower Algiers was bought and sold
several times between 1770 and 1805. Barthelemy Duverje
bought the property on August 9, 1805 for $18,000 and sold parts
of it to other wealthy developers. Duverje built his family home in
1812 at the site that is now the Algiers Courthouse. Duverje’s
efforts were clearly a spark for economic growth that resulted in
further development and the subdividing of the property.

From 1814 to 1815 Algiers was involved in a series of battles
known as the Battle of New Orleans. Citizens of all social classes
and ethnic backgrounds combined their resources and talents to
present a united effort in the war. Louisiana was the only state in
the Union to commission African slaves, Indians (mainly
Choctaws) and free men of color to serve in the war as military
personnel. Men of European, Native American and African
descent fought together, protected homes and labored to widen
canals to build defenses along them. The effort was indeed
valiant and deserving of recognition for its cross cultural
unification. However, it existed only under the auspices of war.
The victory at the Battle of New Orleans proved to be
monumental, not only for its multicultural troops, but also because
in Louisiana’s history, it ushered the state into its political
incorporation in the Union.

The Pioneers
After the war, in 1815, several property owners were listed in
Algiers with names that include, but are not limited to, Mossy,
Bienvenu, Dupuy, De la Croix, Dessales and the infamous
McDonogh. John McDonogh was a resident of the French
Quarter before moving to Algiers in 1817. McDonogh’s property
was large enough to have the parcel bear his name as the town
of McDonoghville. His reputation in the community was that of a
wealthy miser who denied himself luxuries that he could easily
afford in order to save money. He later revealed that his mission
in life was to accumulate wealth for the benefit of the poor and
enslaved. In addition to his philanthropy, McDonogh was known
to treat his slaves with reverence and respect. He empowered
many of them in tasks normally assigned to overseers and he
took pride in his decision to place, “no white man over them, as
an overseer.” McDonogh described his relationships with his
slaves as endearing and compared his interactions with them to
that of close friends and confidants. Slaves who were owned by
John McDonogh were afforded opportunities to work as
managers and supervisors of other slaves. McDonogh reported
in his memoirs that he did not have the time to manage all the
work tasks assigned to the slaves, therefore, he would meet
nightly with the slave deemed as the manager or “commander” to
receive a report of all daily activities. McDonogh called his slaves
businessmen who, “enjoyed my confidence, collected my rents,
leased my houses, took care of my property and effects of every
kind, and that with an honesty and fidelity which was proof against
every temptation.”

It is said that McDonogh did not sell his slaves, but rather
assisted many of them in obtaining their freedom. Once free, he
helped them to return to the African nation of Liberia. Slaves who
labored for McDonogh for fourteen and one half years would be
freed with money, clothes and other provisions needed for
independent living. The New Orleans Commercial Bulletin
featured a complimentary editorial report on the intentions of
McDonogh’s liberated slaves as they sailed to Liberia. The
article described the newly freed men and women as “educated
and intelligent subjects.” The writer pointed out that the majority of
the slaves liberated by McDonogh had built houses, participated
in business transactions, rented homes and collected rents.
Readers were encouraged to imagine, “what sort of a colony
these people will constitute in their own original country.” The free
people were said to be highly skilled and qualified to establish a
great future for themselves in a land where they would no longer
be bound by “The Black Code,” but be free to live as men and
women worthy of the dignity and respect afforded the Eurpean
settlers. The last of McDonogh’s slaves received their freedom in
1859 almost nine years after his death.

With detailed provisions outlined in his will, McDonogh had
impressively planned for his wealth to live on well beyond his
lifetime. He was a well-versed advocate for social change who
had more than enough money to fund his vision. McDonogh
believed that all children should receive a free education. In his
will, he reported that the revenue generated from his abundance
of property could finance the education of all the poor in two
states: Louisiana and Maryland. McDonogh owned property on
both sides of the Mississippi River in New Orleans with the town
of McDonogh being listed as his suburban property. In 1861, ten
years after McDonogh’s death, schools were being built to
educate the City’s poor. Close to 40 schools were built between
1861 and 1951 with funds from the McDonogh Fund, an effort
that McDonogh lived and worked to be accomplished after his
death.

Growing Up
Another pioneering property owner who purchased property from
Duverje was Andre Seguin who bought land in 1819 to establish
Algiers’ first dry dock. Seguin’s ingenuity led to Algiers’
transformation from a community solely dependent upon its
plantations to a community with a growing industrial empire. In
1837, the first dry dock was constructed in Kentucky and
transported to Algiers. The New Orleans Floating Dry Dock
Company owned and managed the enterprise which was valued
at $200,000. The beginning of the dry dock industry ushered in a
stream of docks owned, operated and managed by men like
Francois Vallette and O.I. McLellan whose names still remain a
part of the Algiers community (Vallette Street and McLellanville
also “McCliney-ville and/or McClendon-ville”). In the 1800s, there
were more than 15 docks in the Algiers community that provided
gainful and steady employment for its residents and revenue for
maritime business owners.

With the growth of the maritime industry was also the expansion
of transportation. In 1827, the Algiers Ferry was established and
began transporting passengers between Algiers, or the “right
bank of the river” to “New Orleans Proper.”

In addition to the maritime industry that began to flourish in
Algiers, was the railroad industry that developed into an
enterprise that would employ thousands of Algiers residents in its
years of development. The Railroad was established in the early
1850s and in 1853, commissioners of Algiers approved the
construction of a railroad extending from Louisiana to Texas.
Those commissioners included noted men whose names appear
on many streets in Algiers including J. Thayer and R.B. Sumner.
Thayer, Sumner and six other prominent commissioners were
instrumental in establishing the New Orleans, Opelousas and
Great Western Railroad. December 3, 1853, marked the first
excursion of the railroad which took passengers from Algiers to a
point known at the time as St. Charles. In the years following the
establishment of the railroad, rail lines were expanded and more
stops were added.

As the railroad expanded, so did the railroad yards that serviced
and maintained the trains. The yards spanned from Algiers to
Gretna and other parts of Jefferson Parish. Citizens who
possessed skills often provided services in foundries, lumber
yards, offices, carpentry shops, black-smith operations and paint
shops. In addition, the massive infrastructure required to operate
the railroad, caused Algiers to be divided in half which resulted in
“Upper Algiers” or “Old Algiers” and the “Lower Coast Algiers.”
Viaducts, or small bridges, were built over the yards to allow
horse-drawn traffic and pedestrians to cross the yards without
interruption. Later, the viaducts were expanded to allow
streetcars, vehicles and buses to travel the spans. The viaducts
were located at Newton, Patterson and Eliza Streets.

To be continued ...

Minerva Simmons
circa 1940

Frances Spencer
circa 1940

Shirley Scovell
circa 1940

Identity Unknown
circa 1940

Algiers: The Untold Story
A New Orleans Neighborhood