2c. SLAVERY'S EXPANSION: SUGAR, COTTON, LAND

An image of an original printed copy of the 1808 congressional act banning the importation of enslaved people.

1808 act abolishing the international slave trade

An illustration from a 19th-century newspaper shows a cotton gin, a wooden box with a hand crank. The diagram also shows the mechanism inside the box that separates cotton seeds from fibers.

Cotton gin

An 1825 map of the United States from a French atlas, showing the Louisiana Purchase in yellow, the original 13 states in pink, and a green area representing the additional territory east of the Mississippi ceded by the English to the United States.

The Louisiana Purchase gave planters access to thousands of new acres of productive land.


Walk and listen to Track 2c - Slavery's Expansion: Sugar, Cotton, Land (above).


Next walk and listen to Track 2d. First-Person Testimony of Virginia Bell, a woman born in slavery near Opelousas, Louisiana. In 1937, more than seventy years after the abolition of slavery, Bell provided her testimony as part of the Federal Writers’ Project.


Directions to Site 3 - The Cabildo:

Continue along Royal Street until you reach St. Peter Street. Take a right on St. Peter and walk towards Jackson Square. Cross to the left side of St. Peter, and as you approach and enter Jackson Square, you will be walking along the side of the Cabildo, which was built to house the government during the Spanish colonial period.


(AUDIO) DIRECTIONS TO SITE 3: THE CABILDO