Fur Traders, Indigenous Peoples, and the Violence of Urban Slavery

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Very few well-preserved archaeological sites dating from the French Colonial era have been excavated in New Orleans. As most of these are located in areas that have been developed continuously since the early eighteenth century, many are disturbed or are inaccessible because they are beneath buildings, pavements, and yards. The 810 Royal lot provided a rare opportunity to focus efforts on the early Colonial-era development of an urban lot. At least some of the components from this era likely derived from when the lot was owned by a man named Augustin Langlois, who is listed as the owner of the lot in 1731. The life of Langlois, and the archaeological material recovered at the lot on Royal Street, illustrates how the lives of indigenous peoples, those enslaved (both of African and Native American descent), and colonizers were intertwined in colonial projects like the settlement at New Orleans.