Dread Scott’s Slave Rebellion Reenactment in the Era of Resurgent White Supremacy

This presentation investigates the community-based reenactment of the most significant armed revolt of enslaved people in North American history—the New Orleans slave rebellion of 1811—scheduled for November 8–9, 2019. Initiated by New York-based artist Dread Scott (b. 1965), this project has involved extensive engagement of New Orleans’ communities over four years. The reenactment will consist of five hundred African Americans in nineteenth-century-style clothing and period weapons marching for two days through Louisiana’s parishes along the Mississippi River, ending at the heart of New Orleans in Congo Square, a highly charged space in the history of slavery and resistance.

Building on my work on historical reenactment in contemporary art, this study frames Scott’s Slave Rebellion Reenactment in terms of social practice informed by identity politics. Drawing on firsthand observation and visual documentation of community activities and the performance, and interviews with Scott and participating community members, I will examine how the artist negotiates visual aspects of the reenactment such as clothing and movement, based on historical written accounts and artistic representations of slave uprisings, including Hale Woodruff’s Amistad murals (1939–40). I will also consider the activist impulse and afterlife of Scott’s project: how it may inspire and energize local communities and how reenacting strategies of resistance—the clandestine recruiting leading to the 1811 rebellion and the visionary march on New Orleans to establish a republic of free people of color—might speak to current socio-political tensions and particularly the issue of resurgent white supremacy in the U.S.