T.S Hardee, Battle of New Orleans for Freedom, September 14, 1874 (1874)

On September 14, 1874, the White League in New Orleans, Louisiana, organized a coup to replace the Republican Governor William Pitt Kellogg, whose political base was almost entirely Black voters. The White League was a Democratic, white supremacist, paramilitary organization that advocated for White supremacy. Members of the White League believed Kellogg's win in the gubernatorial election of 1872 had been illegitimate due to widespread election fraud and when a federal judiciary upheld the election results in a court challenge, they simply attributed the decision to a powerplay by Republican President Ulysses S. Grant. After other failed attempts to remove Kellogg from office, the White League held a gathering at the Clay Statue on Canal Street on September 13, 1874. About 5,000 people came to hear speeches calling for Governor Kellogg to resign. Governor Kellogg refused to abdicate and a battle ensued between the White League and the Metropolitan Police, an integrated force with 182 Black officers among its 647 total. Intense fighting occurred and within a matter of hours the Metropolitan force retreated while the White League assumed control. This map, created by T.S. Hardee, depicts the Battle of New Orleans, more commonly known as the Battle of Liberty Place, including locations where fighting took place, the statue where the crowd gathered, and events along Canal Street. Below the map is an account of the battle written from the perspective of a White insurgent. Although President Grant sent the army to reinstate Kellogg as governor three days after the battle, it had several long-term consequences. The Metropolitan Police were broken from the conflict, the Black state militia ceased to exist, Kellogg’s control in most of rural Louisiana was broken, and the White League went unpunished, growing in numbers across the state.