Black Indians from New Orleans -- exhibit at the Quai Branly, Jacques Chirac Museum

Most Parisians still call it the Quai Branly Museum (and the URL of the museum is still m.quaibranly.fr). Then it was known also as the Musée des Arts Premiers (Primal (as in "first", not "Primitive" after a short period of "Arts Primatifs") and it was finally named in honor of Jacques Chirac, who was the instigator of its creation and a great collector. It has great permanent collections from Asia, Oceania, the Americas, and Africa. Many items should probably be returned to their countries of origin, leaving many that were purchased and can stay. 

This exhibit is extraordinary. It's far more vast than just New Orleans and it's far more vast than just the Black Indians and the Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs (SPAC) in New Orleans, today. To start, there are maps of the Native American villages along the Mississippi valley before the Europeans arrived. There are maps showing the expeditions of the French explorers as they traveled across the Atlantic and then down the Mississippi, finally establishing the settlement in New Orleans. There is a room devoted to the slave trade, the boats, the conditions suffered during the Middle Passage and the accounting of how many people per ship and how many were lost. The French kept good accounts! 

The exhibits show art and artifacts from the Native American tribes, from Africa, and even the glass beads from Venice that were the currency of the slave trade. 

Then there are the rules under which slaves were held - le Code Noir, associated with Colbert, then Secretary of the Navy. Writing it was actually finished by his son. There were different versions for the French territories. All the slaves were to be Catholic, for example, and had Sundays off. In contrast to the British colonies, there was no rule against comingiling among the slaves and with the Native Americans, many of whom were also slaves in the first years of colonization. On Sundays, they would meet in what became Congo Place. They could speak their languages, play their music, especially the drums, and dance. Their cultures survived. 

Some images are just too graphic to stomach. In paintings and, later, photographs show the conditions under which the slaves were held and punished.

The Seven Years War, known to Americans as the French-Indian War, brought about monumental changes. Louisiana became Spanish, Canada became English. This was in 1765 and in 1800, Spain returned most of Louisiana (minus the Texas part) to France. France, under Napoleon, sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803. 

Under U.S. rule, New Orleans became the slave trade capital of the country. Living conditions for the slaves became even harsher. There is a room devoted to emancipation and to the Jim Crow laws, the rise of the KKK.

Throughout these rooms that go through the history of the Black population in the French territory and pinpointing New Orleans, there are magnificent contemporary costumes of the chiefs that they wear during the Second Line parades. If you click on the images to enlarge them, I hope you can read the information cards. Also, look carefully and the images embroidered on the costumes' fronts; they tell a story. The final room, where many costumes are assembled, is about the SPACs and there is a short film about them. (In fact, there are short films about all different aspects of the exhibit, throughout, but this one was on a big screen and had better seating.)

This exhibit, created by the Musée Jacques Chirac, merits traveling around the world and especially around the United States.