Louis Congo was an

African slave Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Indian Ocean sl ...

who was freed in 1725 from the Company of the Indies by

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

officials and who was appointed public

executioner An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who executes a sentence of capital punishment on a legally condemned person. Scope and job The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorising or order ...

.Dawdy, Shannon Lee
"The Burden of Louis Congo and the Evolution of Savagery in Colonial Louisiana."
''Discipline and the other body: correction, corporeality, colonialism''. Edited by Steven Pierce & Anupama Rao. Duke University Press, 2006. pp 61–89.Sublette, Ned.
The world that made New Orleans: from Spanish silver to Congo Square.
' Chicago Review Press, 2008. He served in this office for at least twelve years, and was granted the authority to execute punishments to not only fellow Africans, but also white settlers. During this time, he was given charge of performing whippings, brandings, amputations,

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

, and

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

s. Court records indicate that, on multiple occasions, Congo's position made him the target of vicious attacks, as he was brutally beaten at least twice. He and the attorney general sought thorough investigation and punishment in these cases, with it being stated that "the life of said Congo would not be secure if such murderous thugs ... were tolerated." In addition to his freedom, in exchange for his service, Congo received of land located on the outskirts of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Spear, Jennifer M.
Race, sex, and social order in early New Orleans.
' JHU Press, 2009. and received a regular ration of

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

. Also, although his wife was not formally freed, she was permitted to live with him and was relieved of

labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

. Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo.
Africans in colonial Louisiana: the development of Afro-Creole culture in the eighteenth century.
' LSU Press, 1995. Congo also received monetary compensation for each punishment inflicted:

flogging Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...

earned him 10 pounds, while

was worth 30 pounds, and he was compensated 40 pounds for breaking someone on the wheel or for burning someone alive. It is noted that, unusual for a black man in his time and place, Congo could sign his name. It is suspected that said name was created in reference to the places he lived: Louis for

, Congo for the region of his birth. If, as his name indicates, he did come from the region of the Congo Basin, records suggest that he was brought to the Americas in 1721 aboard ''la Neréide'', which was the only ship known to have traveled from Cabinda,

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, to

Biloxi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated popu ...

in the French colony.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Congo People from New Orleans 18th-century American slaves Executioners Year of death missing Year of birth missing People of Louisiana (New France)