Labor Strike Image Gallery

Originally built as slave cabins, these dwellings became housing for freed slaves, Italians, and other immigrants after the Civil War.

An 1891 advertisement to lure Italian laborers to Louisiana states, “All persons who work laborers in great numbers find the Italian immigrant a valuable acquisition because of his willingness and his peculiar adaptability to hard work.” There were differing scales of pay. Whites received the highest, African Americans less, and the Italians were at the bottom of the scale. (Courtesy of American Italian Museum and Library, New Orleans)