Themes in American History

Slavery in NYC and New Orleans shared many similarities but had significant differences.The shared in common the methods of punishment to slaves that rebelled such as hanging as well as methods of control . ” By The early 1700s most towns North and south had passed ordinances limiting the liberties of all nonwhites, slaves and free. These included curfews, regulations of movement on city streets and prohibition on certain purchases.”( Chudacoff  pg19).

Nevertheless These two cities differed in the development of these control methods as the mid 1700s approached. There was a larger ratio of slaves to the white population of  in New Orleans than in New York (Chudacoff pg 18). Consequently, to control the slave population New Orleans created a formalized system whereby which slaves could buy there freedom, this along with tighter regulations on the lives of all blacks New Orleans officials hope would cause division in the black communities and ultimately provide systematic control. “They expected that the chance of liberation would give stake in the system to a small but growing number of slaves who made money from gardening, working, hunting or nursing the sick”.(Chudacoff pg 19) While this method of control was not needed in NYC because of the small ratio of blacks to whites.

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