On November 18, 1806, surveyor Barthelemy Lafon entered into an agreement with the real estate developer Bernard Marigny. Marigny tasked Lafon with transforming the fields and gardens of a plantation into a faubourg, a livable neighborhood with streets, squares, sidewalks, and fences. Lafon asked for $700 and “all the négres which will be necessary for him to help in the above-mentioned operations.” The City Surveyor Jacques Tanesse profited not only from his office but from the labor of William, who he hired out to the city under his own supervision. The enslaved men Mingo, Nicholas, and Michal earned $35 per month to carry the chains and equipment for Second Municipality Surveyor George...