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New Orleans City Park (Images of America) |
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Dueling Ground |
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The property was famous as a dueling ground long before it was a park – more Affaires d'honneur were fought
in New Orleans than in any other American city. They resulted from serious affronts, petty insults, or deliberate confrontations
for the sole purpose of displaying fencing skills. Weapons of choice included swords, sabers, pistols, rifles, even bare hands.
During the 1800s a series of duels were fought between fencing masters – the most famous, Spaniard Pepe Llula was known
as a duelist who met any man with any weapon. Times-Democrat on March 13, 1892, reported, "Between 1834 and
1844 scarcely a day passed without duels being fought at the Oaks”. Dueling had been outlawed two years before under
the death penalty (if a death resulted) but it was seldom enforced. The location of exactly were to meet “under the
oaks” was well-known and confined to an area appropriately 150 feet diameter near what is now NOMA – pictured
is a 1919 re-enactment on that spot. (LDL)
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The images in this book appear courtesy of the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL), Louisiana Digital Library (LDL), the Library of Congress (LOC), The Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC), Pictometry International (PI), and D.C. "Infrogmation" May (DCM). Unless otherwise noted, images are from the author's collection.
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