Jackson Square

The famous equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in the eponymous square at the heart of the French Quarter.

From the pedestal: "The Union must and shall be preserved." Stirring declaration from a man whose public statements and acts regarding the union might strike the reader of history as pro-South. His actions vis a vis indigenous peoples in the southeast are less conflicted or complex, for Andrew was the architect of the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of tribes such as the Seminole and Choctaw. A sad and despicable history it is. There stands the Cathedral in the background, as if in benediction.