Plank in Ground Structure
Based on archaeological evidence, it appears that, in the 1720s, the rear portion (or interior) of the lot at 810 Royal was built up substantially with a layer of sandy silt fill that grades off to the front of the lot. This alteration is still manifested in drainage today: even the deepest pits at the rear of the lot never filled with water, but ones at the front would turn into a swampy mess at the slightest bit of drizzle. A number of foundations presumably dating to the French era have now been identified, with the most interesting being those associated with an undocumented post or plank-in-ground structure at the rear of the lot.
This structure was associated with an unusual array of artifacts, mostly preserved in a small trench along the wall of this structure that does not appear on historic maps, with large fragments of hand-built pottery, bone from both wild and domestic species, lithic artifacts, and even a copper crucifix, perhaps from a rosary. Some of the hand-built pottery was consistent with known Native American traditions; this fragment, for instance, is similar to known historic Choctaw types.
An assemblage like this potentially shows the closeness of indigenous populations and the enslaved in Colonial New Orleans. In fact, they could be one and the same: a 1726 Louisiana census lists over 200 enslaved Indians and around 1500 enslaved Africans. The enslavement of Native Americans would not be prohibited until the Spanish era, and even then it seems that those of mixed heritage were simply reclassified as Black rather than Indian to justify their continued bondage. These interconnections helped enslaved men like Guy escape into maroonage in the surrounding wilderness in Colonial New Orleans, and they are memorialized in traditions like the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans today.
Just as Augustin’s life took him in and out of the city, those enslaved by the Langlois brothers also moved in wider circles as well, ones that perhaps took a man like the runaway Guy in and out of the maroon camps at the city’s far fringes. In lives defined by movements and overlapping spheres, material remains crystallize those moments of intersection between European, African, and indigenous identities, lives that were already creolized, products of multiple and overlapping cultures.