The New Basin Canal, 1832 - 1838

Celtic Cross monument for the Irish workers

Between 1832 and 1838 thousands of Irish immigrants died in the swamps north of Old New Orleans. The Irish, who had been victims of politcal and religious persecution at the hands of the British Empire which then controlled Ireland, came to New Orleans seeking employment and a new life in a new land. Some came directly from Ireland while others came from cities up north in the USA, especially from Philadelphia.  


    When the Irish arrived in America, they discovered that prejudice and discrimination existed here too. Many Irish immigrants, most of whom were poverty-stricken and poorly educated, were greeted with signs which said: "No Irish Need Apply." This meant that no one would hire the Irish except for the hardest and worst types of manual labor.


    When the New Orleans Canal and Banking Company planned to build a canal which went from Lake Ponchartrain to the center of the business district of New Orleans, cheap labor was needed. The canal was called the New Orleans Navigation Canal, but it was usually referred to as the New Basin Canal. This construction would increase city commerce as the lake was actually a bay open to the Gulf of Mexico through the Rigolets and Chef Pass waterways to the east. The canal would thus provide an alternate route to the city besides the Mississippi River, at least for smaller vessels.

New Basin Canal at left, West End Park 1915

     In the ante-bellum South, slaves were considered too valuable a commodity to ruin or lose in a project such as this -- using pick and shovel to dig a large ditch through swamps filled with snakes, alligators, and disease-carrying mosquitoes. So, the banking company decided to use Irish immigrants. Desperate for any work, the Irish could be paid very little; and if they died from the terrible working conditions in the hot, humid swamps, new Irish immigrants fleeing from terrible conditions back home could always take their place.


    The Irish, and also some German immigrants, dug the canal from 1832 to 1838. It is not known for certain just how many Irish died in the process. The generally accepted estimate is around 10,000 people. (Many probably died from Yellow Fever spread by mosquitoes from the swamps. In New Orleans history this disease appeared several times and was called Yellow Jack.)  Some may have been buried in local cemeteries; others may have been buried near the construction site.

New Orleans in 1834

    Today the canal no longer exists. It was filled in during the 1950's, and the canal route became a  modern boulevard and expressway.  (The New Basin Canal begins by the pier reaching into the lake at the top center-left of the map; it runs south, then southeast into the city. The waterway to its right is Bayou St. John.)


    All memory of the Irish who died has disappeared, except in 1990 the Irish Cultural Society of New Orleans established a monument to the fallen Irish. A Celtic Cross now stands in their memory on the neutral ground (median) on Ponchartrain Blvd, which is near to where the canal once started, coming from the lake. 


-- Adrian


Sources and further reading:  "The Irish and the New Basin Canal of New Orleans" by Adrian McGrath, Irish Eyes newspaper, Vol 1, No. 6, July 1994. Lake Ponchartrain by Catherine Campanella, Images of America series, Arcadia Publishing, 2007. "New Basin Canal" article at Wikipedia.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Basin_Canal

My favorite source on Irish history in old New Orleans is a great book by Fr. Earl F. Niehaus called The Irish in New Orleans 1800 - 1860. Fr. Niehaus discusses the canal and many other topics in Irish New Orleans in his excellent book published by LSU Press in 1965.


The photograph is one I took of the Celtic Cross on the neutral ground on Ponchartrain Boulevard.


The old map is from Wikimedia Commons and is in public domain, from 1834 designed by Zimpel. The old photo is from Wikimedia Commons from 1915 from the Library of Congress and in public domain.