New Orleans' Aloft Hotel: Modern Accommodations Set in the City's Dark Past
New Orleans' history is rich, and at times, extremely uncomfortable. Thanks to the mighty Mississippi River, the city was a busy port for trade, and unfortunately, trade included humans. Thousands of enslaved persons were brought, bought, and sold in New Orleans. Many believe these poor tortured souls make up much of the city's ghost population. That's right. New Orleans has a ghost population. It's easily argued that The Big Easy is America's Most Haunted City. And the ghosts don't care if their home is now a modern hotel.
The History of the Ghosts
At 225 Baronne Street in New Orleans, the Aloft Hotel is the perfect place to stay when visiting New Orleans. On the edge of the French Quarter and the CBD, the city's best restaurants are within walking distance.
But if it's a haunted New Orleans you're interested in, there's no reason to leave your room at The Aloft.
Thanks to American Horror Story, everyone has heard of the cruel and ruthless Madame Lalaurie. Her torture and brutality of enslaved persons is a painful wound in New Orleans' history.
Unfortunately, she is an example of the atrocities in human trafficking that were a part of 19th-century life in New Orleans.
New Orleans has always been different. While most southern cities had designated structures and locations for the slave trade, New Orleans practiced the business city-wide.
An opulent hotel in the French Quarter held auctions in their rotunda. Traders utilized private homes, public parks, and commercial complexes such as Banks Arcade to sell humans. Where there was commerce, there were slave traders.
Historians struggle to sort out each and every location that slaves were sold; however, the expansive network did leave evidence of locations through documents and adverts.
The auction blocks expanded with the city, and between 1811 and 1862, there was a minimum of fifty-two sites.
The Haunted CBD
Major trading happened in a few specific pockets of the city, one of which was an area bounded by Common, Carondelet, Union, and O'Keefe Streets. Which also served as the city's banking districts - Central Business District, the CBD.
The Aloft Hotel lives right in the middle of what used to be one of New Orleans' busiest slave-trading districts. And much like the Lalaurie Mansion, where there is torture and tragedy, there may be residual energies.
14-year old Charlotte was sold to John L. Day for $550.00. Thousands of others were cooped up in slave pens all over the Central Business District. They were awaiting their fate, determined by their price tag and the demand.
High-walled pens holding 150 men, women, and children lined the streets of the CBD. Nearly one-third of the sales were children under the age of 13.
Shouting and moaning coming from inside the slave pens could be heard for blocks. People died inside the pens, and the poor battered, lifeless bodies were swiftly removed, minding the public's eye.
New Orleans was the largest slave market at that time.
The city holds the memories of these traumatic and brutal decades; it can be felt in the heavy night air. And sometimes the memories are heard. New Orleans people share their city with the thousands of poor souls who were forced into a life of torture or a brutal death.
If you listen closely, you may hear the moans and screams from the past on the streets of the CBD. Or in your hotel room. You may even experience a touch, a cold limp hand on your shoulder, pleading for help.
Some have even reported seeing full-body apparitions—shadows of pain and heartbreak that disappear into the darkness.
If you are one of the lucky ones who experience New Orleans' ghosts, don't be scared. Find some compassion for the poor soul who is unable to rest. Their stories should never be ignored or forgotten.
Visitor Tips
- Ask staff whether they have heard any stories about the building
- Bring extra batteries - electronic devices drain quickly in active rooms
- Take a late-night walk through the surrounding CBD streets, where the old slave-trading district once stood
- Keep a journal by your bedside to record nighttime experiences
- Visit the HNOC's 'Purchased Lives' material to learn the history behind the district's stories
- Book a ghost tour to hear more of the city's haunted history
- Keep your phone handy to note the time of anything unusual you experience
