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Gayoso de Lemos gave permission to Santiago Coquet to hold weekly public dances for the free black population of New Orleans. These dances developed over the years into the famous "Quadroon Balls" of the Crescent City. Early in 1800, however, Coquet lost his rights to the dance hall, and dances for the free blacks were suspended. In October of that year four military officers petitioned the Cabildo for permission to reinstate the Terpsichorean events. Though the Cabildo preferred that the free black dances remain suspended, the civil governor, Nicolas Maria Vidal, ordered that they be allowed to continue.

This document is interesting because it includes descriptions of obnoxious behaviors observed at some earlier dances, and requests that guards be posted at Coquet's establishment in order to keep proper order. It also provides evidence of the role of African Americans in the military establishment of Spanish Louisiana, specifically in the campaign against Fort San Marcos de Apalache, an English outpost in Florida.
     [Letters, Petitions and Decrees of the Conseil Municipal, #367]

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