New Orleans: African American Heritage Walking Tour

During this two-hour walking tour, you will explore the early African presence in New Orleans, beginning with the arrival of people of African ancestry in 1719—just one year after the city’s founding. Forced from the Senegambia region of West Africa, roughly five thousand Africans survived the Middle Passage to French Louisiana during the 1720s, followed by a similar number brought by the Spanish from the Benin and Congo regions in the 1780s. As enslaved laborers, they cleared forests, cultivated crops, and built much of the city’s foundational infrastructure. Your guide will help you understand how their resilience, skills, and cultural traditions played a critical role in shaping early New Orleans.

As the tour continues, you’ll discover how African culture remained deeply rooted in the city, influencing its music, cuisine, religion, and architectural traditions in ways still visible today. You will visit historic Congo Square—now part of Armstrong Park at the edge of the French Quarter in the Faubourg Tremé—where enslaved Africans and free people of color once gathered to dance, drum, trade goods, and maintain their cultural identity. Standing in this powerful place, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation for the cultural endurance and creativity that helped form the vibrant soul of New Orleans.