St. Louis Hotel & Slave Exchange
New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Marker Inscription
St. Louis Hotel. Site active 1838-1862. The luxurious St. Louis Hotel included a bank, ballroom, shopping arcade, and trading exchange. Six days a week, under the hotel's domed rotunda, auctioneers sold off land and goods as well as thousands of enslaved people. More at neworleansslavetrade.org A project of the 2018 Tricentennial Commission.
Erected by New Orleans Slave Trade
The Story
The luxurious St. Louis Hotel operated here from 1838 to 1862, its domed rotunda ringed by a bank, ballroom, and trading exchange. Beneath that same dome, auctioneers sold land, goods, and thousands of enslaved men, women, and children — making this elegant space one of the largest slave markets in the antebellum South.
Why it matters
It confronts visitors with the central, brutal role of the domestic slave trade in New Orleans and the wealth built on human bondage.
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Related events
- · Domestic slave trade
Themes & tags
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