#ThrowbackThursday: Canal Street
Updated: Aug 25, 2023
I'm obsessed with the architecture of the Denali For Her building located on Canal Street as pictured. Truthfully, I love the green. I tried to learn more about the building for my #ThrowbackThursday series on Instagram but didn't find anything significant about the building or its lovely architecture. Instead, I went down the Canal Street rabbit hole.
[Note: if you know anything about 718 Canal St, New Orleans, LA, please contact me at conventionstrike@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post.]
Did you know Canal Street gets its name from a design concept that was never brought to life?
Let's talk history!
Napoleon Bonaparte sold France's Louisiana territory (spanning Louisiana to parts of Montana and Minnesota) to an eager, relatively new United States of America following slave rebellions in Haiti on France's profitable sugar plantations. Why? Well, Bonaparte needed Haiti.
He cited Haiti as a core location for France's New World goals, but as French/European nobles have continued to learn throughout history, freedom is a far greater motivator than greed.
"...when French forces invaded Haiti in an attempt to restore the original order, the slave rebellion refused to budge. They burned cities, used guerrilla warfare, and killed thousands. France was in shock, and Napoleon began to realize that his dream of a French empire in the Americas might be doomed," says HISTORY.
Haiti became an independent city. Frustrated, Bonaparte offered up the entirety of the Louisiana territory when approached by the United States in one of "history's greatest bargains". The United States wanted to rid its borders of the "European threat" (which is wildly ironic).
After the Louisiana Purchase, Americans began to settle in areas occupied by Creole populations. "As an ethnic group, their ancestry is mainly of Louisiana French, West African, Spanish, and Native American origin," states Wikipedia (yeah, I use Wiki). This is an important fact due to American opinions on race, which were far more cruel with deeper prejudice, violence, and action including oppressive legislation.
"Under the French and Spanish, people with combined African and European ancestry enjoyed many of the privileges white people did. These mixed-race Creole of New Orleans were “famous for their wealth, culture, and education until after 1830” when the American concept of race began to reign," says Matthew Willis in JSTOR article "The Free People of Color of Pre-Civil War New Orleans".
A canal was almost manufactured between the Creole and American populations, but it never came to be. The name stuck, and Canal Street went on to be "neutral ground" between cultures.
Throwback Thursday is an ongoing social media series that combines original photography by Convention Strike and niche research. Follow Convention Strike on Instagram for more #ThrowbackThursday content.
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