Tax Ledgers, 1852-1861
Scope and Contents
The ledgers are manuscript volumes generally containing the following information:
Volumes from 1852-1856:
- bill number
- municipal district in which the property was located
- name of owner
- reference to a folio number in some other unidentified record (not the assessment roll)
- square number in which the property was located
- name of fronting street(s)
- description of property (real estate & value and/or number of enslaved & value)
- amount of assessment
- Also included are blank spaces for the amount of various taxes that were payable for the property
Volumes from 1857-1861:
- bill number
- municipal district
- name of owner
- folio reference (see above)
- square number
- fronting street(s)
- value of real estate
- number of enslaved people
- value of enslaved people
- total value of real estate and enslaved
- value of horses, mules, etc.; of carriages, etc.; of stock in ships & steamboats; of capital; of income; of household furniture, etc.;
- total value of personal property
- total value of real and personal property
Each ledger volume contains bill records for only a portion of the alphabet (i.e., "A-E," "F-K," etc.). Under an individual's bill record all of his property is listed, beginning with that located in the First Municipal District and extending through all districts in which he owned property.
Since these records pre-date the extant records of New Orleans tax assessments (which begin in 1857) they offer a partial substitute for the assessments in researching specific parcels of property. Except in cases of multiple property holdings by individual proprietors, the tax bills in these ledgers essentially are arranged by municipal district and square number, making it possible to locate specific pieces of land, especially if one already knows (from conveyance records or the like) the name of the property owner.
These records should also be particularly useful for researchers of slave ownership in New Orleans. Not only is information given on the number of enslaved people held by individuals, but there is also an indication of the geographical location of individual slave holdings within the city. Thus, for example, a group of eleven enslaved people listed here as owned by Mr. Dupuy on Chartres St. might be able to be identified with a commercial or industrial activity known from other sources (city directories, etc.) to have been conducted at that location. Of course the fact that these records list slave holdings on an annual basis, rather than decennially as in the federal census, makes them particularly valuable in studying mobility of slave holdings and of the enslaved population.
Dates
- Creation: 1852-1861
Creator
- From the Collection: Board of City Trusts (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Available on microfilm to registered researchers by appoitnemnt. Request by call number. Originals are closed for research.
Biographical / Historical
The 1852 city charter, section 35, required that all city taxes be paid in the office of the Treasurer and provided that officer with a means of suing for unpaid taxes. Section 29 of the charter, however, provided that the Treasurer could not receive any money except by the order of the Comptroller. Further detail on the manner of tax collection, as well as that of tax assessment, is not included in that law. This suggests that prior laws on those subjects remained in effect. Tax assessments on real estate and enslaved people were made by tax assessors hired by the city to "make out an accurate and minute list of all slaves and real estate subject" to city tax (act of the Louisiana legislature dated March 6, 1834).
Act #134 of 1856 later authorized the city to levy taxes on both real and personal property. Real estate was defined as including land, improvements, and enslaved people; personal property included "household furniture, silver plate, goods, capital, chattels, incomes, public stocks, and stocks in corporations." Various tax exemptions were specified in the act. Ordinances passed in 1856 (#3017 and #3106) provided that the tax bills were to be prepared by the Comptroller and delivered to the Treasurer who was then to notify the taxpayers to pay their bills in his office.
Apparently original bindings on the tax ledgers indicate that they are records of the Treasurer and accordingly were cataloged as such. A study of the relevant laws (see above), however, suggests that the books may actually have been prepared for use of the Treasurer by the Comptroller's Office. It may be important to stress the fact that these records do not indicate the amount of tax due, only the amount of the assessment upon which the tax would be based (indeed after 1856 the ledgers do not even have a blank space for the amount of tax, something that was at least included, and left blank, in the 1852-1856 records). That the ledgers are arranged in order by bill number, rather than by parcel of land, indicates that these are not assessors' books, since those records were always arranged by square and lot numbers within the city's assessment districts. Despite the questionable provenance of these ledgers, the Treasurer's Office designation has been retained.
Extent
58 Volumes (58 volumes, available on 25 rolls of microfilm)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Indexing
Repository Details
Part of the City Archives Repository
City Archives & Special Collections
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans LA 70112
504-596-2610
archivist@nolalibrary.org