This event is sponsored by the Verizon Foundation.

Presented by the Louisiana Charles Deslondes Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in celebration of its founder, Carter G. Woodson, Dr. Laura Rosanne Adderley and Leon A. Waters will discuss enslaved African Charles Deslondes, who led the largest slave uprising in American history.

Over a long period of time, the 1811 January insurrection was prepared very slowly by Deslondes and his lieutenants. Following the Louisiana Purchase, the old colonial area known as the Louisiana Province was divided in two. The northern area was called Louisiana territory; and the southern area was called Orleans Territory. New Orleans was named the territorial capital of Orleans Territory. Deslondes's aim was to capture the city of New Orleans, overthrow the American colonial government, and establish a new Black republic governed by the newly freed. Guided by a two prong assault, they almost succeeded!

About our presenters:

Laura Rosanne Adderley is associate professor of history at Tulane University, where she is also affiliated with the Africana Studies Program and the Stone Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She researches and teaches in African American history, comparative African diaspora history and Caribbean history. Her main interests lie in the history of Black enslavement and its aftermath, especially in the nineteenth century. She is currently working on a book tentatively titled Practicing Emancipation: Black Lives, Atlantic Abolition, and the Everyday Politics of Freedom. With collaborative partner Nell Bolton, Adderley is also working on a public history project related to the life and work of New Orleans educator and prison reform advocate Frances Joseph Gaudet.

Leon A. Waters serves as the board chair of the Louisiana Museum of African American History (LMAAH). The museum began in 2002 on the second floor of St. Augustine Catholic Church's hall in the Treme neighborhood. Hurricane Katrina delivered a blow to many of the museum board members’ homes, and thus set back the museum. Today, the board is searching for a permanent physical facility for LMAAH. As a licensed tour host, Waters has been directing tours on hidden history for 25 years and is the manager of Hidden History, L.C.C., a publishing, touring and research company. He has published one book, On to New Orleans: Louisiana’s Heroic 1811 Slave Revolt, the story of the largest slave revolt in the United States that happened in St. John the Baptist, St. Charles and Orleans Parishes. Waters is currently writing two books, and frequently writes articles on history. He is a frequent presenter at conferences in the United States and the Caribbean, including in Martinique, Guadeloupe and Haiti.

Louisiana Charles Deslondes Chapter of ASALH members include:

Amistad Research Center, Ashe Cultural Arts Center, Dr. Eva Baham, Dr. Sarah Clunis, Ray Charles Institute for Material Culture at Dillard University, V.P. Franklin, Nancy Hampton, Louisiana Museum of African American History, Monique Moss, New Orleans Airlift, Center for African and African American Studies at Southern University of New Orleans, the Carolyn Barber-Pierre Center for Intercultural Life at Tulane University, and the Center for Equity, Justice, and the Human Spirit at Xavier University of Louisiana.

The mission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.