A Louisvillian Abroad: Daniel Chapman Banks’s 1822 Visit to New Orleans and Congo Square

A Louisvillian Abroad Daniel Chapman Banks' s 1822 Visit to New Orleans and Congo Square Edited by . Ic,i,Kilklel n 1822,I.ouisville,Kentzieky,residentDanielChapmanBanks,having recently left the pastorate of the city' s lirst Presbyterian Church. travcled down the Ohic,and ilississippi Rivers tc)visit New Orlcan.and sell bibles. 1) uring his visit, Banks happened zipon C,> ngo Square and the Sabbathday spectaLIC of the Congo Dance, reic, rding in his journal a detailed descripti uisville bv 1819, tile new Presbvtcrian Church on Fourth Strect s Ii of ninctcenthcentury loc·,11 historiogral)] 1·, ", 1 111,111 whose tact tenlied !11£Kh to rextore hal'nioIn,·111 the church." 1 B: inks visited Ne, v Orleans from XIay 5 through May 9, 1822. Not surprisii , gly,religioii atid cclucation figured prc, minentl\' in tlie people and placcs B.inks visited tliere. I le toired the citv and its cemeteries with a friend WINTER 2006 49 A LOUiSVILLIAN ABRO.\ D who taught children of color, spent an evening with a Yaleeducated elder of the Presbiterian church and an officer of the Louisiana Auxilian· Bible Society,and visited such religious landmarks as St, 1.ouis Cathedral and the Ursuline Conventas well as the Sabbathdar spectacle of tlle Congo Dance. After returning to Louisville, Banks continued his career in cdtication , culminating in his appointment in 1830 as principal of the female department of tlie public school created by the ncivlp- incorpor, ited city of Louisville. In 1834, Banks made a brief foray into journalism, publishing with A. E. Draper · a shortlived paper called 730 Louisi, iN. Notary. Recognized as one of the prominent citizens of carly Louisville, Banks served as secretary of the Kentucky I Iistorical Socien·in 1838,and upc, n his death in 1844 was buried in Louisville' s Western Cemeterv.' B· anks' s description of the Congo Dance represents a significant addition to scholarly knowledge about the origins of African American inusic and culture. The Congo Square he described began as a place vhere slaves and Native Americans sold food and commodities, and it continued as a m·arketplace during the decades ot-its vitality. As its vendors and customers found more · attractive venues ne·, ir the river aiid i] t]le adacetit TreI10 neighborhood, Congo Squ· are declined, . ind " by the 1870s dancing in the square w, is always spoken of-iii the past tense."" ' Ilic names assigned to tlic place from 1699 to the present trace its taileidoscopic histori: I' Vhen the French arrived iii Louisi: ina, the Iloum : i tribe held an ai,nual corn festival or jite di, bli in the vicinity of Congo Square. After the founding of New Orleans in 1718, the city: s population was dependent on food sold at this informal marketplace by slave and Indian vendors. During the Great War for Empire improved fortific· ations enclosed Phire dc Nigres within the Bastion Orleans. Oflicially called Place Plibligite ' after the Louisian ·, 1 Purchase, it w: is knoivn to white New Orleanians as Placy dz, Ci,· gue, Circus Park,or Circus Square from about 1816 through 1851, when the cin· council refurbished and renamed Jackson Square near the cathedral. On Sundays from 1851 to the Civil War, the drums at the new Pl t1ie d' Annes beat a ii, ilit: iry cadence flir white militianien, atid · after Reconstruction journ·, 1]ists covering the Cottoii Expositioi1 atid 74101·] c[' s Fair of1884 85 adopted George \ Vashington Cable's aIid ]« atcadio Hearn's Congo Square or Congo Plain( s). Then the same municipal authorities who changed Tivoli Circle to Lee Circle,planted the live oaks that shade the square today,p: wed its sidewalks, plainted flowers and shrubs, zind in 1893 called their cre·ation Bcauregard Square, for the Confederate uencral who died in New Orleans that year. ' Ilic twentieth century was even wrimmer. Not until 1974 did the city enclose Congo Square within Louis Armstrong Park at Orleans Street between B·, isin and Rampart Streets, and only in 1993 did the site win recognition on the National Register ofHistoric Places . The biographer of George Washington Cable is surely correct in his Oill() \'.\ I. I. El' ] 1157 0 RY 50 3 ON KIll...