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Carville, a leprosarium in Louisiana, opens.

1894

EPD
PIC

The Gillis W. Long Hansen’s Disease Center (“Carville”) is the only publicly-funded leprosarium in the continental U.S. Seven New Orleanians are forced at gunpoint onto a barge and taken to this plantation-turned-leprosarium. The grounds are surrounded by small homes that house the formerly enslaved Black residents. These homes are eventually are turned into houses for people with Hansen's Disease (or leprosy). In 1917, Carville becomes the first national leprosarium.

Forced quarantine will continue until it is made illegal in the 1960s. By the 1980s and 90s, the facility will be used by the Bureau of Prisons to house people charged with nonviolent crimes. In its remaining years, Carville residents will include both those incarcerated through the Bureau of Prisons and elderly residents originally incarcerated through quarantine.