The Builder and the Built: Race, Labor, and Memory in Early New Orleans

About this Event:

This talk uncovers the life of Dawson Wright, an enslaved bricklayer trafficked from Virginia to New Orleans and sold in 1836 at Hewlett’s Exchange—just blocks from the Hermann-Grima House he may have helped construct. Using genealogical research and close reading of sale documents, building contracts, and family archives, this lecture examines how New Orleans preserved the legacy of enslavers like builder William Brand while obscuring the skilled laborers who actually shaped the city’s early architecture.

About the Speaker:

Alexander Trapps-Chabala is a New Orleans–based historian, genealogist, and founder of KinConnector, a digital humanities project dedicated to reconstructing Black family histories. His work centers on the lives of enslaved people, the afterlives of slavery in urban space, and the preservation of descendant knowledge. He serves as principal genealogist for the Sold Down River project at Norfolk State University. He is currently writing a series on an 1836 auction of enslaved people for Verité News and leading a neighborhood history project documenting Black families in the 12th Ward from Reconstruction to the present.