In the Deep South, a reenactment for the 21st century
LAPLACE, La. - First came the SUVs and golf carts. Then came the men on horseback.
Behind them, a small band of black men and women, dressed in early 1800s field pants and waistcoats, long flowing skirts and turbans, marched in tight military columns, wielding rakes, sickles and cane knives.
"On to New Orleans!" they chanted, thrusting their weapons high.
"Freedom or Death!"
They were marching Friday through a tiny, mostly black neighborhood in LaPlace, a small city about 30 miles west of New Orleans, where 208 years ago enslaved blacks rose up against their plantation master to challenge the institution of slavery.
Part radical history lesson, part visual spectacle, part documentary film shoot, Slave Rebellion Reenactment was conceived by New York-based artist Dread Scott, as a roving 20-mile, two-day journey that tells the little-known story of the 1811 German Coast Uprising, in which hundreds of field hands, slave drivers and house servants organized the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history.
A polarizing artist who has won widespread acclaim - and notoriety - for his work on racial justice, Scott was born Scott Tyler, but goes by
