Cholera strikes New Orleans. Ten percent of the city is killed. Reverend Theodore Clapp performs a minister’s duty amidst the horror. We learn about bizarre treatments. Germ theory is not yet a thing.

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Autobiographical Sketches and Recollections, during athirty-five years' residence in New Orleans by Theodore Clapp

The Cholera Years by Charles E. Rosenberg

“Nineteenth Century Public Health in New York and NewOrleans: A Comparison” by John Duffy

“Cargo, ‘Infection,’ and the Logic of Quarantine in theNineteenth Century” by Davis S. Barnes

“Asiatic Cholera in Louisiana, 1832-1873” by Leland A.Langridge

Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues editedby Joseph P. Byrne

“Outline of the History of Malignant or Asiatic Cholera inNew Orleans, La.” by Joseph Jones

“How Yellow Fever Intensified Racial Inequality in19th-Century New Orleans” by Karin Wulf

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French Quarter Bourbon walk.wav by volivieri -- https://freesound.org/s/110012/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

New Orleans becomes hostile to Congo Square. The African dances are banned. The space falls into disrepair, then becomes a whites-only park. Against all odds, it fights for its original identity.

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Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans by Freddi Williams Evans

Congo Square in New Orleans by Jerah Johnson

“A Window on Slave Culture: Dances at Congo Square in New Orleans, 1800-1862” by Gary A. Donaldson

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette

City of a Million Dreams: New Orleans at 300 by Jason Berry

The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell

“African Cultural Memory in New Orleans Music” by Jason Berry

“Deep Skin: Reconstructing Congo Square” by Joseph R. Roach

“New Orleans Music as a Circulatory System” by Matt Sakakeeny

“The Invention of a Memory: Congo Square and African Music in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans” by Ted Widmer

Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War by Dena J. Epstein

https://antigravitymagazine.com/feature/sacred-ground/

https://chrisdier.com/2015/03/10/raquette-the-lost-sport-of-new-orleans/

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French Quarter Bourbon walk.wav by volivieri --https://freesound.org/s/110012/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

We explore why Congo Square existed for so long, how it retained an African character, and how its memory survived beyond New Orleans. We also talk about Louisiana Creole and some surprising aspects of this near-extinct language.

LEARN MORE:

Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans by Freddi Williams Evans

Congo Square in New Orleans by Jerah Johnson

“A Window on Slave Culture: Dances at Congo Square in New Orleans, 1800-1862” by Gary A. Donaldson

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette

City of a Million Dreams: New Orleans at 300 by Jason Berry

The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell

“African Cultural Memory in New Orleans Music” by Jason Berry

“Deep Skin: Reconstructing Congo Square” by Joseph R. Roach

“New Orleans Music as a Circulatory System” by Matt Sakakeeny

“The Invention of a Memory: Congo Square and African Music in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans” by Ted Widmer

Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War by Dena J. Epstein

https://antigravitymagazine.com/feature/sacred-ground/

SOUNDS:

French Quarter Bourbon walk.wav by volivieri --https://freesound.org/s/110012/ -- License: Attribution 4.0