Saint Augustine Catholic Church
Iron shackle-and-chain memorial and pew-rows recalling an antebellum church's fight over who could sit where.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Saint Augustine Catholic Church in New Orleans centers on a cross welded from ship's chains and iron shackles outside the door in Treme, blessed in 2004 as the Tomb of the Unknown Slave, on ground that once held an enslaved-worked plantation. Inside, it follows the War of the Pews, an 1842 contest in which free people of color and white residents competed to buy seats before the church even opened, and the unusual arrangement of aisles that followed. You'll hear how parishioners still describe the congregation that resulted. Touch the iron outside and consider the ground it stands on.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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