Slave trade merchants of Spanish New Orleans, 1763–1803: Clarifying the colonial slave trade to Louisiana in Atlantic perspective

The Spanish era (1763–1803) saw the ‘re-Africanization’ of Louisiana, and yet the colonial slave trade to Louisiana remains relatively undocumented. This essay seeks to clarify the Spanish-era trade by focusing on colonial slave-trade merchants in New Orleans in Atlantic perspective. Using the online Louisiana Slave Database, the paper identifies over two dozen principal slave-trade merchants, outlines the structure of the slaving mercantile community, and revises the scope of slave imports to the colony in the Spanish era.