The history of slavery in Louisiana began before its settlement by Europeans, as Native Americans also captured enemies to use as slaves. The French began to use slaves in the area soon after their first settlement at New Orleans; the Spanish also had slavery, as did the United States, which continued the practice after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.
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Chattel slavery was introduced by French colonists in Louisiana in 1706, when they made raids on the Chitimacha settlements. Thousands of indigenous people were killed and they took surviving women and children as slaves. The enslavement of natives, including the Atakapa, Bayougoula, Natchez, Choctaw, Chicasaw, Taensa, and Alabamon peoples, would continue throughout the history of French rule. While Native American peoples had sometimes made slaves of enemies captured in war, they also tended to adopt them into their tribes and incorporate them among their people.
The French introduced African chattel slaves to the territory in 1710, after capturing a number as plunder during the War of the Spanish Succession. Trying to develop the new territory, the French transported more than 2,000 slaves to New Orleans between 1717–1721, on at least eight ships. The death toll for African and native slaves was high, with scurvy and dysentery widespread because of poor nutrition and sanitation. Sailors also suffered from scurvy, and African slaves were subject to more shipboard diseases from overcrowding.
The demand for slavery increased among U.S. settlers in Louisiana and other parts of the Deep South after the invention of the cotton gin (1793) and the Louisiana Purchase (1803). The cotton gin allowed the processing of short-staple cotton, which thrived in the upland areas. It made possible a new commodity crop in northern Louisiana, although sugar cane continued to be predominant in the southern part of the territory. The northern area of the state became another outpost for the "Cotton Empire", which soon encompassed neighboring states, such as Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Texas.
The Mississippi River delta area around New Orleans created the ideal alluvial soil necessary for the growing of sugar cane. Sugar was the prime export of Louisiana during the antebellum period.
In 1811, the largest slave revolt in American history took place outside New Orleans, as slaves rebelled against the brutal work regimens of sugar plantations. The 1811 German Coast Uprising ended with white militias hunting down black slaves, lopping off their heads, and placing the piked heads on the levees.
Slavery was officially abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment which took effect on December 18, 1865. Slavery had been theoretically abolished by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed, in 1863, that slaves located in territories that were in rebellion from the United States were free. In some areas, slaves left their plantations to seek Union lines for freedom. If located too far away, they were often held in servitude until the US gained control of the South.
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