Sunday, January 5, 2025
Grand Ballroom (New York Hilton)
Kenet, an enslaved woman on the DesRuisseaux Plantation along Bayou St. John in New Orleans, appears in a 1767 court case. Within this document, Kenet describes her two attempts to self-liberate: first, to Mobile, Alabama, and second, to a plantation twenty miles outside of today’s French Quarter. To achieve freedom, Kenet would have needed to use the swamps and connecting waterways to Bayou St. John via a pirogue. This landscape included Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne, and the Gulf Coast, each space posing numerous risks. These dangers ranged from being spotted by a militia or other enslavers to the many animals lurking beneath the muddy waters.
However, these routes also ran near various maroon communities, including St. Malo and Grand Island. Kenet may have sought out help along her journey to row the 158 miles to Mobile.
Kenet’s story poses new questions about enslaved people’s knowledge of waterways and maroon communities. It also provides insight into the immense strength, determination, and ingenuity needed to self-emancipate in Southern Louisiana. In tracking Kenet’s spatial landscape and movement, Kenet’s story becomes more than a passing statement in a court case to an incomprehensible, epic journey to freedom.
Link to First Iteration of Poster