Free Persons of Color in Colonial Louisiana Author(s): Donald E. Everett Source: Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Winter, 1966), pp. 21-50 Published by: Louisiana Historical Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4230881 Accessed: 20-04-2020 21:42 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Louisiana Historical Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Free Persons of Color in Colonial Louisiana By DONALD E. EVERETT Professor of History, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. "The Negroes must be governed differently from the Europeans," reported Antoine Simon LePage DuPratz, "not because they are black, nor because they are slaves; but because they think differently from white men." 1 Whether the reasoning of Louis XV paralleled that of DuPratz is not known, but the monarch at Versailles, in March, 1724, issued a Code Noir to be promulgated by his governor in Louisiana, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.2 It was registered in New Or- leans on September 10, 1724, by one Rossard, clerk of the court.3 This Black Code, with certain revisions in the Spanish Partidas Siete, continued to be the basis of legislation on the subject until the legislature of the Territory of Orleans in 1806-1807 undertook to revise the regulations which governed lDuPratz returned to France in 1734 after a sixteen-year sojourn in the Louisiana colony. Antoine Simon LePage DuPratz, The History of Louisiana or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina: Containing a Description of the Countries that lie on both sides of the River Mississippi: With an Account of the Settlement, Inhabitants, Soil, Climate, and Products (London, 1774), 357. 20livia Blanchard (trans.), "Regulations, Edicts, Declarations and Decrees Concerning the Commerce, Administration of Justice, and Policing of Louisiana and other French Colonies in America Together with THE BLACK CODE," (Survey of Federal Archives in Louisiana, 1940), hereinafter cited as Blanchard (trans.), "Regulations." The original copy of the Code Noir of March, 1724, signed by Louis XV, is in the Louisiana State Museum Library, New Orleans. 3"Sidelights on Louisiana History," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, I (January, 1918), 110. 21 This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 22 LOUISIANA HISTORY the Negroes. Even then many of the original provisions were retained.4 The purpose of the original Code Noir was to control the increasing number of slaves in the colony. Harsh restrictions were imposed on this servile group to prevent insurrections, yet the king's interest in the well-being of the slave population was evident in the more humane provisions which forbade the torture of slaves and the separation of children from their mothers. Religious instruction for the slaves in the Catholic faith was also required.5 That the relations-marital and extramarital-between white, free black, and slave were of concern to the Crown was reflected in the Code Noir. It forbade whites to marry blacks or to live in a state of concubinage with slaves. Furthermore, the Code even outlawed concubinage between manumitted or free-born blacks and slaves. However, if a free Negro should marry his own slave concubine, she was thereby set free, and their children were also to become free and legitimate.6 For all other circumstances, the law provided that the children of a free father and a slave mother should be slaves, following the condition of the mother; likewise, the offspring of a slave father and a free mother were born free, following the mother's status.7 The Code Noir manifested more solicitude toward the emancipation of slaves than attention to placing restrictions upon them once they became free. Service as a tutor to the master's children could bring liberation, and any master who had reached the age of twenty-five could manumit his slaves if he so desired. Fearing that a slave might steal to obtain the price set for his freedom by a "mercenary master," the Code stated that permission for manuniission could only be granted 4Acts Passed at the First Session of the First Legislature of the Territory of Orleans (1806), 128, 164, 188, 198, 200; Acts Passed at the Second Session of the First Legislature of the Territory of Orleans (1807), 82-88, 180, 188. See also Nathan Willey, "Education of the Colored Population of Louisiana," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, XXXIII (July, 1866), 245. 5Blanchard (trans.), "Regulations," 421. 6lbid., 422. 71bid. 424. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 23 by the Superior Council. method was to be confiscated and held as a bondsman of the A India Company.8 Whatever may have been the justification of the specific manumission, such an act brought automatic naturalization to any ex-slave who was not born in the Louisiana colony. Although he was not permitted to receive donations in any form from whites, all other rights accorded to any subject of the king were his. "We grant to manumitted slaves," concluded His Majesty, "the same rights, privileges, and immunities which are enjoyed by free-born persons. It is our pleasure that their merit in having acquired their freedom, shall produce in their favor, not only with regard to their persons, but also to their property, the same effects which our other subjects derive from the happy circumstance of their having been born free." ' The Code placed only two restrictions upon the free Negro. He could not house fugitive slaves and would be sentenced to pay thirty livres per day to the master for each day he concealed a runaway slave. If the free colored man was unable to pay this fine, he would be reduced to slavery. The second restriction commanded a manumitted slave to show respect to his former master and the master's family.'0 Free persons of color were already residing in the French XVest Indies at the time of the French occupation of Louisiana at the beginning of the eighteenth century. When white creoles on the island of Martinique were exempted in February, 1671, from a capitation tax which had been paid previously by all free persons, the creole mulattoes also demanded the same immunity. They continued these payments, however, and twelve years later the Intendant, one Patoulet, reported no difficulty in collecting the tax. He did not favor extending the exemption to "mulattoes born in vice." Despite the Intendant's decision, the mulattoes refused to pay the capitation tax in 1684, and the dispute was not settled until 1696 when mulattoes as well as white creoles were exempted. Only blacks Slbid., 437. 91bid., 439. 'Olbid., 432, 439. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 24 LOUISIANA HISTORY among the free population remained subject to a capitation tax. This ruling was short lived inasmuch as the free mulatto population was ordered to make payments once again on the disputed tax in 1712. Finally the issue was brought into court in 1724 by Magdelaine Debern, a free Negro woman living in the Louisiana colony. As a result of this action all free persons born in the French colonial possessions of the New World-all creoles, whether white, mulatto, or Negro- vere no longer required to pay the capitation tax.'1 It is impossible to state the exact date of the first appearance of a free person of color in NewX Orleans, nor is it known whether the first free colored person arrived from the WVest Indies, or whether he was manumitted by a master resident in the city. There is no record of any free colored persons in the census of Louisiana which was taken in 1721 by Diron D'Artaguette, inspector general of the troops of Louisiana and New Orleans. According to Diron's report to Bienville on November 24 there were 514 Negro slaves and 51 Indian slaves living in New Orleans and its environs. White persons listed included 293 men, 140 women, 96 children, and 155 French servants.'2 Inasmuch as no free colored person was mentioned in this census, and the case of the free Negro Raphael was heard before the Superior Council of Louisiana on September 13, 1722, the best available evidence indicates that their presence dates from the year 1722. Raphael was convicted on charges of stealing from the stores of the Company of the Indies and sentenced to receive a flogging and imprisonment for six years.13 Another early record of a free Negro in New Orleans is available in the case of Raphael Bernard. A free man in France, he migrated to the colony as an employee of one M. Dumanoir for annual wages of two hundred francs in silver and clothing. In March, 1724, Bernard loaned two hundred francs to a white man on a month's note. When the note was not paid, Bernard petitioned the court for recovery, and on May 9 judgment was l1Auguste Lebeau, De la condition des gens de cozileur libres sous I'avcien regime (2 vols., Paris, 1903), I, 49-51. 12"Sidelights on Louisiana History," 98. 13Heloise H. Cruzat (trans.), "Records of the Superior Council of Louisiana," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, VII (October, 1924), 678. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 25 declared in favor of the free was ordered to repay the loan with interest and the court costs.'4 Bernard also had to turn to the court to settle his financial affairs with Dumanoir whom he had served "with fidelity and affection." The employer failed to honor his part of the agreement, and in July of the same year the Negro, who wished to return to France, demanded restitution for wages and clothing in arrears as well as his trunk which the employer detained. In September Dumanoir was ordered to settle accounts with his servant, restore the trunk, permit Raphael "to change his service, and to advance him 100 francs." 1 From this case it is evident that free persons of color in New Orleans enjoyed the privilege of suing white persons in court from the first years of the colonial era. Numerous cases brouglht before the Superior Council in the early colonial period indicated a certain amount of dependency of the free Negroes on their white employers. Their status was not that of slaves, but often a self-imposed bondage wherein free Negroes such as Raphael Bernard might hire themselves out as servants for a specified period. In December, 1731, one de Blanc instituted a claim against one Sieur Bellair "whose free negro Thomas" shot a slave belonging to the plaintiff in a disagreement over some stray cattle."6 Five years later another free Negro, Scipion, hired himself out for a period of one year to Franqois Trudeau. In this agreement, signed before a notary public, Scipion promised to go to Illinois as a rower in Madame Labuissonniere's boat "or in any other capacitv as need be." Upon his return from the journey, Scipion was to remain in Trudeau's service until the expiration of the time. In return the colored man was to receive two hundred livres, to be paid "in proportion to his needs." 1 Five years was the term of bondage which the free Negro Pierre Almanzer imposed upon himself in 1737 in an effort to rid himself of a venereal disease. Pierre was so sorely af14"Abstracts of French and Spanish Documents Concerning the Early History of Louisiana," LHQ, I (April, 1918), 238. 15Ibid., 242. 16Cruzat (trans.), "Records of the Superior Council of Louisiana," LHQ, V (April, 1922), 249. 17Ibid., VIII (July, 1925), 489. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 26 LOUISIANA flicted HISTORY that an extended remedes" was necessary. Lacking the means to effect the cure, Pierre agreed to serve one Dr. Prat "as a cook or in any other capacity, except wielding an axe or working the ground." The five-year period was to begin when Pierre was cured. In the meantime, Dr. Prat was obliged to treat the patient and supply him with medicine, food, and other necessities.'8 Reduction to bondage was not a temporary measure in the case of the free Negro Jean Baptiste. This twenty-year-old was charged with stealing expensive wearing apparel from his employers. Jean denied the accusations and stated the theft had been committed by a thirty-five-year-old "free Senegal negro," Pantalon, from whom the merchandise was allegedly purchased. Pantalon denied complicity and declared he would not sell shirts valued at fifty or sixty livres each for thirty livres which Jean claimed he paid. Jean Baptiste was "reduced to slavery for the benefit of the Hospital of the City," and Pantalon was exonerated.'9 Many of the cases involving free Negroes which were tried before the Superior Council concerned incidents of theft, fighting, and murder-a pattern which continued throughout the antebellum period, particularly among the more destitute colored people. A case in 17 3 8 charged an unnamed free Negro with wounding a slave belonging to one de Chavannes.20 In 1730 the free Negro Andre employed by one Bellair shot at a fugitive slave who was attempting to escape. When the slave did not reappear, Andre was brought to trial.2' Records do not indicate the court's finding in either instance. Colored men were involved in disputes with white men as well as those of their own race. The free mulatto E~tienne LaRue became involved in a fracas with three white soldiers on a spring evening in 1747. LaRue was a free-born native of 18bid., IX (January, 1926), 115. l91bid., XI (October, 1928), 649-51; XII (January, 1929), 146. A free person of color could not be reduced to slavery in Louisiana a century later. See Thomas G. Morgan, Civil Code of the State of Louisiana: with the Statutory Amendments, From 182S to 1853, Inclusive (New Orleans, 1854), 32, hereinafter cited as Morgan, Civil Code. 20Cruzat (trans.), "Records of the Superior Council of Louisiana," LHQ, X (January, 1927), 98. 21Ibid., IV (October, 1921), 520. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms t FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 27 Senegal and a member of the Catholic church. At the age of twenty-two he had served as pilot on the boat L'Unique and at this time captained a prize ship. In the court record he was described as the "natural son of Sr. LaRue, a free negro, commanding the vessels of the Company of the Indies, of St. Louis Coast of Santo Domingo." As the white soldiers passed the younger LaRue on the street one of them called out to him, "Bonsoir, Seigneur Negritte," and the mulatto responded, "Bonsoir, Seigneur Jean Foutre." Thereupon, the white men declared that LaRue was insulting them without provocation. An argument ensued, fisticuffs were exchanged, and before the fracas ended, LaRue, who was described in the hearing as being "very drunk," drew a pistol and fired at his antagonists. At this point a fifth person, one Tixerant, intervened and struck LaRue with a scabbard. The mulatto was overcome and placed in irons in the prison dungeon. Ordered to pay the court costs and to surrender his pistol, he was fined "one hundred livres of alms for the poor, and ten livres for the Kii."c iMlilitary service in the colonial period was not confined w?hites as free colored men were accepted into the organize militia during the French and Spanish regimes. The military service of these men of color established a precedent of considerable importance. Whites who favored enlisting the services of colored men during the War of 1812 pointed to their record as soldiers in the colonial period, and likewise, the colored men used their prior service as a basis for their requests to be admitted into the organized militia.23 In turn, the distinction achieved by colored soldiers in the Battle of New Orleans was cited as a precedent in their petition for acceptance as a mili22Heloise H. Cruzat (trans.), "The Documents Covering the Criminal Trial of ttienne LaRue for Attempt to Murder and Illicit Carrying of Arms," LHQ, XIII (July, 1930), 377-90. Inasmuch as LaRue was a mulatto and his father a Negro, it is possible that the mother may have been white. This is not stated, however. Such an assumption can only be based on the custom in the colonial period when mulattoes were not referred to as Negroes. 23Free people of color to William C. Claiborne, Clarence E. Carter (ed.), The Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. IX, The Territory of Orleans, 1803-1812 (Washington, 1940), 174. Also see Donald E. Everett, "Emigres and Militiamen: Free Persons of Color in New Orleans, 1803-1815," Journal of Negro History, XXXVIII (October, 1953), 377-402, passim. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 28 LOUISIANA HISTORY tary unit in the Civil War.2" Concomitant to their military service, the free colored population's demands for political recognition grew in proportion to their participation in the armed forces. The free colored soldier did not fight to protect the white population but to raise his status nearer to that of the white man.25 Free men of color were serving in the French army in Louisiana as early as 1735. When the Company of the Indies gave up its control of the colony in 17 3 1, Bienville, after an absence of eight years, returned as its governor. Fearing Indian attacks in the various districts of the Royal Province, he assembled an army near Mobile in 1735 to attack the Choctaw Indians. Among approximately six hundred troops from New Orleans there were forty-five Negroes commanded by one Simeon, a free black.26 Dumont de Montigny related a story of Simeon's bravery and determination which wvas similar to that demonstrated by free colored soldiers more than a century later at Port Hudson. The French had not been very successful in their engagement with th-e Choctaws, and the free Negro commander was particularly perturbed at the failure of his troops to withstand the Indian onslaught. His expressions of disgust wvere an excuse for the French officers to banter him unmercifully by declaring that Negroes could not fight. Reaching a point of exasperation, Simeon declared that Negroes were as brave as any other soldiers and that he would prove it. Whereupon, the colored leader made a dash for a nearby Indian village, exchanged some shots, and returned unharmed to the French camp.27 In another incident recounted by Dumont, the Negro Jean24New Orleans Daily Picayune, April 21, 1861; New Orleans Daily True Delta, April 23, 1861. Indeed, the role of the free men of color in the Battle of New Orleans had assumed a legendary aura in the city's newspapers throughout the decade of the 1850's. 25Donald E. Everett, "Demands of the New Orleans Free Colored Population for Political Equality, 1862-1865," LHQ, XXXVIII (April, 1955), 43-64; see also Everett, "Ben Butler and the Louisiana Native Guards, 1861-1862," Journal of Southern History XXIV (May, 1958), 202-17, passitni. 261t is not clear whether these forty-five Negroes were slave or free. 27Dumont de Montigny, Memoires historiques sur la Louisiane, contenant ce This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 29 not, owned by the Company of the Indies, was the hero. In the mid-eighteenth century the colony found itself without an executioner. When no white man would accept the position, the Superior Council decided to use a Negro and ordered Jeannot to serve. When the slave learned of his new duties he declared that he would not execute persons who had never harmed him personally, even though he would become a free man in recognition of his new position. Prayers and protestations to the Council were to no avail, so Jeannot cut off his right arm and sent it to the councilmen. Impressed by his fortitude, the Superior Council granted Jeannot his freedom.28 Records of the Superior Council indicated a variety of reasons for emancipating slaves in the French period. "Good and faithful service," then as in later years, was often the announced ground for manumission when the individual freed was a concubine or of blood relationship to the master. Service to the state as a soldier or as an informant of possible slave insurrections could also obtain freedom for the bondsman. While lawmnakers were eloquent in their demands for the liberation of slaves for service to the state, with the exception of military scrvice in the colonial period, few slaves were manumitted for this reason. Emancipation of slaves later became a debatable issue in New Orleans as its free colored population increased after 1803, but records of the colonial period indicated no particular alarm over manumission practices.29 qzui y est arrive de plus mnemorable depuis l'annee 1687. jusqu'a present; a.cc l'etablissement de la colonie fran9aise dans cette province de l'Amerique Septentrionale sous la direction de la Compagnie des Indes; la climat, la nature & les productions de ce pays; l'origne & la religion des sauvages qui l'habitent; leurs moeurs & leurs costumes, &c. (2 vols., Paris, 1753), II, 225-26. Dumont de Montigny was born in Paris in 1696 and went to Louisiana in 1719 as an officer in the troops of the Company of the Indies. See also Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "People of Color in Louisiana," Journal of Negro History, I (October, 1916), 371; and Charles E. Gayarre, History of Louisiana (4 vols., New Orleans, 1879), I, 480. 28Dumont, Memoires Historiques sur la Louisiane, II, 244-46. 29This statement is based on a careful search of Blanchard (trans.), "Regulations"; and "Alphabetical and Chronological Digest of the Acts and Deliberations of the Cabildo, 1769-1803: A Record of the Spanish Government in New Orleans" (New Orleans, 1939; W.P.A. Typescript in City Archives, New Orleans Public Library). This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 30 LOUISIANA HISTORY Governor Bienville was among the slaveholders who manumitted several of his favorite slaves. He freed Jorge and Marie, husband and wife, in 1733, "in recognition of their good and faithful services . . . during 26 years." 30 Francois Trudeau, a member of the Superior Council, likewise emancipated his slave Jeanneton "in reward for her zeal and fidelity in his service" in 1737. Jeanneton, however, was to remain in her master's service until his decease.3' Freedom was granted two Negroes by one Cazeneuve in July, 1728, on condition that they act as servants for a certain Roussin and his wife for a period of two years.32 Another attempt to free slaves for "services rendered" failed in the case of Marie Charlotte and her daughter, Louise, who belonged to St. Pierre de St. Jullien. To prevent any dispute over their freedom in 1735, St. Jullien "hypotheacat[ed] all his goods for any debts he may have towards the Company or others." Unfortunately, their manumission was invalidated when it was found that the master's debts were three times the value of his goods.33 Marie, a slave girl of eleven or twelve years, obtained her freedom when her master, Joseph Mounier, left New Orleans for the Chickasaw war in the spring of 17 3 6. This liberty was granted "in recognition of her affection and her services," and the master's fear that he might not return.34 Emancipation wAas granted to Louis Connard, his wife Catherine, and their four children by the will of one de Coustillas. The Superior Council confirmed the will in March, 1739.35 Marie Louise received confirmation of her status as a free person of color in 1745 when Vincent Le Porche filed a statement with the Superior Council in which he declared she was "not a slave but should enjoy complete liberty, being the daughter of a Frenchman." 36 The mulattress Marion gained her freedom under Article XX of the Black Code which stated that "slaves who shall not be 30Cruzat (trans.), "Records of the Superior Council of Louisiana," LHQ, V (April, 1922), 250. 311bid., (July, 1922), 403. 32Ibid., VII (October, 1924), 688. 33Ibid., VIII (January, 1925), 143-44. 34Ibid., (April, 1925), 287. 3 1bid., VI (April, 1923), 304. 36Ibid., XIV (October, 1931), 598. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 31 properly fed, clad, and prov apply to the attorney general Military service of Negro slaves as a result of the Natchez Massacre in December, 1729, caused Attorney General Fleuriau to suggest that freedom be granted to those "who by report of the officers in charge proved loyally useful to the upper French posts." Fleuriau would then organize a militia company from among these emancipated slaves who had served the French, and they would be prepared "for instant call against the Indians" in case of attack. Freedom had already been promised to some of the slave participants in the Natchez engagement, according to the attorney general, who insisted that the agreement should be carried out.38 A formal petition was presented to the Superior Council on May 16, 17 30, by Jacques de La Chaise, commissary general of Louisiana, in behalf of these Negroes who saw military service. He informed the councilors of the pressing necessity during the Natchez siege to alert the distant French posts of the Indian attacks. Accompanying the French volunteers on this perilous journey were "a few Negroes chosen among the boldest," who were promised emancipation upon their return. Other slaves present at Natchez likewise had given "proofs of valor and attachment to the French nation, and exposed themselves to peril with intrepidity." De La Chaise was interested in permanently allying these men, some of whom were wounded, to the French in the event of further attack, and h believed the reward of freedom from bondage would best serve this purpose. As the petitioner explained the situation, "that will give others a great desire to deserve similar favors by material services, and besides a company may be formed of free negroes that can be placed in the posts which the commander will judge proper, which company is to be always ready to march on short notice." According to the plan, officers in the fighting at Natchez would be requested to choose those Negroes whose services had been outstanding, and manumission would be granted to them. Mleanwhile, de La 371bid., XIII (July, 1930), 517. 381bid., IV (October, 1921), 524. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 32 LOUISIANA HISTORY Chaise specifically requeste had journeyed to warn the French forts in Illinois.39 No record is available to indicate the number of slaves freed at this time, but some of them were. In 1737 the free Negro Diocou, who was "emancipated for his toils in the Natchez war," appealed to the Superior Council in a suit against the St. Jullien estate for back wages. Diocou claimed 450 francs were due him, and he requested that this amount be "deducted from the price of his wife, partly bought by himself." He also appealed to the court to prevent the St. Jullien heirs from selling his wife, urging that she remain in the employ of the estate until he could redeem her completely. Diocou's petition was granted by the Council.40 There was a close parallel to the biblical story of Jacob and Rachel in the manumission case of Marie Aram, the wife of Franqois Tiocou, a free Negro of the Senegal nation who lived in New Orleans. Fortunately for Franqois, however, the director of the Charity Hospital of the Poor proved a more merciful master than did Rachel's father, Laban. In 1737 Tiocou made an agreement before a notary public with one Raguet, director of the hospital, and the Reverend F. Phillippe, Capuchin priest and "Assistant Vicar General of His Grace of Kebecq [Quebec]," whereby the Negro would serve the hospital without wages for seven years in return for the fre dom of his wife. At the completion of this period Marie Aram would "be considered as the other legitimate wives married to the subjects of the King." 41 Tiocou faithfully kept his contract, and seven years later on March 6, 1744, Father Raguet and Father Charles, the Capuchin Cure Superior, petitioned Governor Pierre Franqois Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, for permission to grant Marie Aram her freedom. The priests stated that Franqois and Marie had "served the Hospital well and faithfully during the time laid down in the said engagement and that it is just to grant liberty and freedom to the said Marie." Plans for the colored 39"Sidelights on Louisiana History," 132-33. 40Cruzat (trans.), "Records of the Superior Council of Louisiana," LHQ, V (July, 1922), 401. 4lIbid., IV (July, 1921), 366. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 33 couple to continue in the employ of the hospital had been made, and on March 10 Marie's emancipation was granted. At that time she was given the "privileges of persons born free." 42 Tiocou and most of the free Negroes at that time were African-born. A free colored society led by mulattoes was not immediately established in New Orleans, although by the early eighteenth century this class of persons had become a group whose demands were of consequence in the West Indies. In the earlier part of the Louisiana colonial period most of the free persons of color referred to were listed as "Negroes," but as miscegenation increased, mulattoes gradually assumed a more dominant role. The degree of white blood in one's veins became an increasingly important factor. Some idea of the increase of the mulatto group is gained by a comparison of two early census returns. One census taken in New Orleans in 17 3 2 numbered only six mulattoes in the city.43 Another report in 1777, the figures of which included the entire Louisiana colony, listed 273 free mulattoes and 545 mulatto slaves." In a society where intermarriages between whites and Negroes were not permitted, these figures indicated the frequency of mesalliances between the two races. Available sources reveal little criticism of the libertinism which developed between white men and free colored women in the French colonial period. Condemnation of miscegenation, however, appeared frequently in contemporary descriptions of the Spanish regime. Several factors may be considered m an attempt to explain the increase in attention given the subject. In a frontier society lacking enough white women to permit family life on the European pattern, it was inevitable that white men would make mistresses of their bondswomen, many of whom were manumitted by their masters. As the colony progressed and European women arrived in New Orleans they doubtless expressed distaste for the extralegal con42H6loise H. Cruzat (trans.), "Petition of the Directors of the Charity Hospital of New Orleans to Grant Freedom to Marie Aram, a Negress Slave," LHQ, III (October, 1920), 551-52. 43"Sidelights on Louisiana History," 139. 44John W. Caughey, Bernardo de Galve6z in Louisiana, 1776-1783 (Berkeley, Calif., 1934), 78. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 34 LOUISIANA HISTORY nubial life which they foun increased criticism was the presence of more frequent European visitors in the Spanish period who returned to their homes and published memoirs, some of which were perhaps exaggerated, describing the racial amalgamation encountered in New Orleans. Churchmen criticized the situation on the basis of morals and religion, and perhaps the economic problems which beset the colony influenced Governor Esteban Miro to demand that free colored women go to work rather than depend on incontinence and libertinism for a livelihood. Miro, on June 2, 1786, pronounced his bando de buon gobierno45 in which he expressed particular concern with the role of free persons of color in the colony. He announced that concubinage would not be tolerated. Free colored women who had formerly earned their livelihood in this manner were called upon "to renounce their mode of living, and to betake themselves to honest labor." Those who refused to accede to this recommendation were threatened with expulsion from the colony. "Excessive attention to dress" would be considered evidence of misconduct, and free women of color were forbidden to wear plumes and jewelry in their hair. Henceforth, the headdress for this class of women would be the tignon, a kerchief which bound the hair. In addition to these instructions concerning dress, free persons of color were no longer permitted to assemble at night.46 The state of religion and morals in the Louisiana colony was of concern to Bishop Don Luis de Pefnalvert y Cardenas. According to the Bishop's observations, the actions of many of his parishioners were scandalous in a city where "resistance to religion has always manifested itself." Pefialvert reported that the Spanish military officers "and a good many of the inhabitants live almost publicly with colored concubines." The 45This was a proclamation which Spanish governors generally made when they assumed office to announce the principles by which they intended to govern. Don Esteban Miro, however, had been in office since 1783. Franvois X. Martin, History of Louisiana (2d. ed., New Orleans, 1882), 246. 46Gayarre, History of Louisiana, III, 179; Caroline M. Burson, The Stewardship of Don Esteban Miro', 1782-1792: A Study of Louisiana Based Largely on the Documents in New Orleans (New Orleans, 1940), 104. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 35 cleric was disturbed further by these white men who did not "blush" when they carried their illegitimate children by colored mistresses "to be recorded in the parochial registries as their natural children." 4 When Magdalena Canella, a free mulattress, instituted suit to regain custody of a slave from her former paramour, one Beaurepos, testimony revealed the type of relationship to which the Governor and the Bishop objected. In reply to a question in which Beaurepos was asked if he had not lived with Magdalena from 1767 until 1775, he replied that "when he has committed any sin and confessed it, he did not think about it anymore." When queried concerning his paternity of the colored woman's two children, he indicated that he had "forgotten all." 48 Numerous visitors in New Orleans at the turn of the century were censorious in their descriptions of the free colored population. In accepting the memoirs of travelers as evidence one must be cognizant of several factors which influenced their characterizations. An anomalous free colored class was unknown to the European visitors, and emphasis on the unusual interested their readers. Preconceived ideas affected their attitudes as expressed in their writings, while the prejudices of Louisiana hosts and hostesses left an imprint on the minds of the foreigners. Social life, particularly the quadroon balls and the system of concubinage, was described in considerable detail while little mention was made of the means by which the majority of free colored persons gained their livelihood. Few of the narrators attempted to explain the historical background of the peculiar social relations between the two races -most of them simply recorded what they saw or heard. Despite these impediments, travel accounts offer the most complete available descriptions of the free colored class prior to the Louisiana Purchase. Berquin Duvallon, during his sojourn in 1802, noted more mulattoes than blacks among the free persons of color. Most 47Gayarre, History of Louisiana, III, 408. 48Laura L. Porteous (trans.), "Index to Spanish Judicial Records of Louisiana," LHQ, XII (April, 1929), 341-47. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 36 LOUISIANA HISTORY of the free colored population at that time, according to Duvallon, were first or second generation freemen. Those who lived in the rural areas earned their livelihood primarily as rice planters. Some grew small fields of cotton. City dwellers were usually engaged in the mechanical arts, "for which they have great aptitude and little attachment." Some owned small retail establishments, while others hunted and brought their game to the city where it was sold. The physical proportions of both men and women met with the visitor's approval, but he found their features hard, their faces "not very prepossessing," and their skin coarse.49 It was the predominant mulatto group whose character Duvallon chose particularly to vilify. The mulattoes in general are vain and insolent, perfidious and debauched, much given to lying, and great cowards. They have an inveterate hatred against the whites.... It is the policy of the Spanish government to cherish this antipathy, but there is nothing to be feared from them. The mulatto women have not all the faults of the mulatto men. But they are full of vanity, and very libertine; money will always buy their caresses. They are not without personal charms; good shapes, polished and elastic skins. They live in open concubinage with the whites; but to this they are incited more by money than by attachment. . . . These girls, therefore, only affect a fondness for the whites; their hearts are with men of their own color.50 Fraternization between white and colored persons offended Duvallon's sensibilities during his visit. He found taverns and grogshops open at all hours where the "canaille, white and black, free and slave, mingled indiscriminately." He berated the white men who wasted time in ribaldry "with a lot of men and women of saffron color." The house of the white man Coquet near the center of the town was singled out as a focal point for these festivities. Here the "scum is to be seen pub49Berquin Duvallon, Vue de la colonie espagnole du Mississippi, ou de's provinces de Louisiane et Floride occidentale (Paris, 1803), 254-55, quoted in James A. Robertson (ed.), Louisiana Under Spain, France and the United States, 1785-1807 (2 vols., Cleveland, 1911), I, 218-19. Duvallon, a refugee from Santo Domingo, accused Orleanians of being inhospitable to his fellow-sufferers. He remained in Louisiana only a short while before going to France. 50"Observations of Berquin Duvallon on the Free People of Colour in Louisiana in 1802," Journal of Negro History, II (April, 1917), 167. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 37 licly" at their "tricolor balls," Duvallon reported. Announce- ments of the events held in Coquet's house were printed and posted about the city, Duvallon asserted, "with the express permission of" Don Maria Nicolas Vidal, the civil governor.5' Paul Alliot, following his visit to the Crescent City at the turn of the nineteenth century, reported that the colored women inspired "such lust through their bearing, their gestur and their dress, that many quite well-to-do persons are ruined in pleasing them." Once a colored woman saw that her white paramour was no longer financially capable, according to Alliot, she deserted him and began living with a more pros- perous white man. These colored women, in turn, placed their daughters at the age of thirteen or fourteen with white men. Alliot observed that they usually had "more regard" for these girls than "for their legitimate wives." While colored girls were given a "special education" for their role in life, their brothers were usually taught a trade. Alliot declared that both the girls and boys in the free mulatto class grew up with a feeling of contempt toward their mothers, particularly if the latter were black.52 Dr. John Sibley, who visited New Orleans in the late sum- mer of 1802, was particularly impressed with the handsome people whom he met. He described the quadroon women as "almost white and all free. They are prohibited from intermarrying with whites & they will not marry mulattoes. They prefer being kept mistresses which is assign'd as a reason for there being such a number of Single Women in this Country." 5 A modern student has noted the high birth rate among free 51Quoted in Robertson (ed.), Louisiana Under Spain, France and the United States, I, 216. 52Paul Alliot, "Historical and Political Reflections on Louisiana," quoted in ibid., I, 85, 87, 89. Alliot, a nonlicensed physician in New Orleans, was deported to France in March, 1803. He claimed professional jealousy to be the source of his difficulties. After a brief sojourn in a French prison he returned to the United States and presented these reflections to Thomas Jefferson. 53"The Journal of Dr. John Sibley, July-October, 1802," LHQ, X (October, 1927), 478-79. Physician, planter, cattle raiser, and salt manufacturer, Sibley was born in Massachusetts. He lived in North Carolina nearly twenty years before moving to Natchitoches, Louisiana, in 1803. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 38- LOUISIANA HISTORY persons of color as compared to the number of marriages among this class. According to the records of the St. Louis Cathedral in the years 1782 to 1791 inclusive, there were 2,668 colored baptisms and only forty marriages. Both adults and infants were included, however, in the number of baptisms. These statistics, according to the study cited, "bear out the Ayuntamiento's opinion, namely that the negress thought of marriage as another type of bondage." 5 Another factor which might aid in the explanation of the small proportion of marriages to baptisms was the law which prevented free colored women from marrying white men. It is possible that these women might not have considered marriage a form of bondage had they been permitted to marry the fathers of their children. Perhaps it would be nearer the truth to suggest that registration of only forty colored marriages in a ten-year period represented the hesitancy of free colored women to marry men of their own color rather than their fear of subjection in marriage. Illegitimacy played an important role in the thoughts of free persons of color, if we may accept the following description of these people by F. M. Perrin Du Lac, who visited New Orleans in his travels through the western part of the United States and the Louisiana colony from 1801 to 1803. He thought the mulatto element in the free colored population more dangerous than those of unmixed blood. The latter [mulattoes], who apparently share in the vices of the two races, as they share it in their color, are evil, vindictive, treacherous, and the enemies alike of the blacks whom they despise, and of the whites whom they hold in horror. Cruel even to barbarity toward the first they are always ready to seize the opportunity to turn their arms against the second. Fruit of the libertinage of their fathers, from whom nearly all of them receive their freedom, and a very careful education, they are far from being thankful for it. They would like to be treated as legitimate children, 54Burson, Stewardship of Don Esteban Miro, 109. The Ayuntamiento was the governing body made up of the highest representatives of civil authority in a Spanish colony. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 39 and the difference that is placed between them (and the latter) makes them hate even the authors of their being.. As to the men of color . . . it would probably be very useful to form colonies in some uninhabited parts of the continent. That measure would be doubly useful: it would free the colonies of those beings by whom they will be sooner or later annihilated; and would decrease that gross taste of the whites for their slaves which is the ruin of society and the prime cause of the sparse population of the country which they inhabit.55 Although suggestions of colonization of free persons of color were brought up intermittently throughout the antebellum period, this anomalous class continued to enjoy social privileges not accorded to the bondsmen of their race. Permission to hold balls at the Coquet house, which Duvallon objected to, was granted to free men of color, "including those of the Militia," in 1800. Dances might take place there at night during the "season" which began in November. The petitioners were permitted to transfer their balls to Coquet's house because it 'was more spacious and would enable the committee better to regulate the conduct of those attending." At their former place of entertainment the committee reported it had difficulty with "certain rascals" who left wads of tobacco on the seats, thereby "spoiling the ladies' gowns." Another problem which the group encountered in their ball presentations was "an intolerable odor" emanating from "vanilla sticks" which some of the men chewed.56 Balls during the winter season were held for both white and free colored persons. White men were admitted to all, free colored men only to certain dances such as those at Coquet's house, and the women of both races were restricted to their own social affairs. Charles C. Robin, a Frenchman who visited Louisiana at the time of its transfer to the United States, re55F. M. Perrin Du Lac, Voyage dans les deux Louisianes, et chez les nations sauvages du Missouri, par les Stats Unis, l'Ohio et les Provinces qui le bord, en 1801, 1802, et 1803 (Paris, 1805), 212-14, quoted in Robertson (ed.), Louisiana Under Spain, France and the United States, I, 185. The Frenchman Du Lac was a man of letters and a geographer. 56Burson, Stewardship of Don Esteban Miro, 104-105. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 40 LOUISIANA HISTORY ported the incident of two young quadroon girls who dared defy custom and attend a ball to which only white ladies were invited. One of the white matrons noticed the presence of the "intruders," and soon the information was passed among the guests. Even though the quadroons were esteemed for their ''excellent education" and "honorable conduct," and the white woman who demanded their expulsion was known to have been involved in a number of intrigues with men other than her husband, the colored girls were obliged to leave the dance. Robin, in recounting the injustice, noted that the quadroons had two brothers who were merchant marine officers. On shipboard these colored officers could "give twenty blows with the rope's end to white sailors, but ashore they do not even dare look them in the face." 5 Social life of free persons of color was sometimes curtailed by various events which white men feared might threaten their security. On January 19, 1781, during the war between England and Spain, the city was filled with troops and crews of Spanish ships. Because of their presence, and that of large numbers of free colored persons and slaves, the attorney general prohibited masking and the usual public dancing enjoyed by the Negroes, slave and free, during the carnival season.58 No other event during the Spanish administration of the Louisiana colonial period frightened officials as much as the French Revolution. The Cabildo prohibited the immigration of free persons of color from the French West Indies because the "dangerous ideas of the brotherhood of man" were feared.59 This action did not prevent attempts by some free colored men to enter Louisiana. In a letter to his wife, Jeanne Franqoise le Breton des Charmeaux, Joseph Xavier Delfau d 57Charles C. Robin, Voyages dans l'interieur de la Louisiane, de la Floride Occidentale, et dans les Isles la Martinique et de Saint-Domingue, pendant les annedes 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805 et 1806 (2 vols., Paris, 1807), II, 120-21. Robin went to Louisiana to do research in science and history. A Parisian, he was a well-known scholar and naturalist. 58"Alphabetical and Chronological Digest of the Acts and Deliberations of the Cabildo, 1769-1803: A Record of the Spanish Government in New Orleans," 56. 59Dunbar-Nelson, "People of Color in Louisiana," 376. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 41 Pontalba wrote in February, men of color and two black slaves, rightfully suspected as coming from St. Domingue." 6 In a letter written Easter Sunday, 1796, Pontalba related to his wife an incident which revealed that the ideas of "liberty, equality, and fraternity" had infiltrated into the ranks of the free colored population of New Orleans. A free mulatto encouraged several young Negroes who were beating a white boy on the street to "kill him." When one Jourdain, a cooper, reprimanded the mulatto for inciting the young Negroes to harm the white child, the free colored boy told the cooper to mind his own business. Jourdain inquired as to the meaning of such insolence to a white person, and the use of the words "thee" and "thou" (tutoyer) in speaking to a white man. The mulatto replied, "Are we not all equals, am I not a citizen the same as thee?" The dispute continued and Jourdain was attacked by the mulatto who was later arrested and placed in prison.6" Pontalba also feared the influence of "the national cockades of the corsair ship" then in port. Crewmen told New Orleans slaves of the glories of freedom for all under the revolutionary regime of France."2 Fear of French influence within the ranks of the Spanish military, according to Pierre C. Laussat who became colonial prefect of France in charge of Louisiana for a brief period in 1803, caused the Marquis de Casa Calvo considerable alarm. Shortly after Casa Calvo became governor of Louisiana in 1799 he summoned his military officers to sign a statement to the effect that they would remain in the service of the King of Spain. The Spaniards also "exact[ed] a yes from the two companies of men of color of this city, which compose all the workmen of the city." Laussat reported a complaint from two of the mulatto militiamen who asserted they were 16Joseph Xavier Delfau de Pontalba to his wife, February 24, 1796, Henri Delvile de Sinclair (trans.), "Journal Letters of Joseph [Xavier] Delfau de Pontalba to his wife Jeanne Fransoise le Breton des Charmeaux [des Chappelles], 1796" (Survey of Federal Archives in Louisiana, 1939; typescript in HowardTilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, New Orleans), 62. 6tPontalba to his wife, March 27, 1796, ibid., 70-71. 62Pontalba to his wife, September 13, 1796, ibid., 288. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 42 LOUISIANA detained HISTORY in prison for a tw compel them to give the fatal yes." 63 Free men of color saw military service throughout the Spanish colonial period. Eighty free blacks and mulattoes were in the army of Don Bernardo de Galvez when he captured English forts in Baton Rouge and Natchez in 1779. Their officers reported that they behaved well in battle.64 When a Spanish expeditionary force left New Orleans for Mobile on January 11, 1780, 107 free Negroes and mulattoes were among the ranks, and colored men along with the white militia of New Orleans saw action against the Indians near Pensacola a year later.65 Free colored men in the military service were assigned tasks other than fighting Indians. In 1782 Don Pedro Piernas, acting commandant of New Orleans during the absence of Miro, presented the Ayuntamiento with an expense account for the services of a detachment of free colored troops who had spent more than two days in a search for runaway slaves. 66 Militia units which included the free men of color were organized separately from the regular Spanish army. Recognition of these militiamen on various occasions attested to the importance of their services. A Royal Order of February 13, 1780, provided "10 silver medals for the officers of the colored Militia." In 1789 the Spanish authorities granted 177 pesos "for the purchase of Juan Cos, a free negro of the colored militia." Cos had been taken prisoner by English troops and later sold to a Meconque Indian who held the colored soldier for ransom.67 Negro and mulatto slaves as wvell as free colored men aided in the conquest of Pensacola, and Governor Bernardo de Galvez declared that the bondsmen should receive compensa63Pierre C. Laussat to Duc Denis Decres, July 18, 1803, quoted in Robertson (ed.), Louisiana Under Spain, France and the United States, II, 44. 64Gayarre, History of Louisiana, III, 108, 126-32. 65Caughey, Bernardo de Galvez in Louisiana, 175; Gasper Cusachs (trans.), "Bernardo de Galvez Diary of the Operations Against Pensacola," LHQ, I (January, 1918), 57. 66Burson, Stewardship of Don Esteban Miro, 110. I7Jbid., 42. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 43 tion. If they were seriously wounded they would receive their freedom and one hundred pesos. Those who were slightly wounded were to be paid a like sum and would be permitted to purchase their freedom for four hundred pesos, which was set as the minimum price for slaves injured in the capture of Pensacola. Promises made during the heat of battle are not always fulfilled, however, and in 1785 the Intendant Don MIartin Navarro awarded eighty pesos to seven of the Negroes wounded at Pensacola. All others who took part in the siege received only eight pesos.68 WVhile the Pensacola veterans did not receive their promised emancipation, other slaves in the Spanish colonial period were more fortunate. With the coming of Don Alejandro O'Reilly, Louisiana was subjected to the Spanish law, Las Partidas Siete, which provided means, in addition to those set up by the Code Noir, by which a slave might become free. If the slave were allowed the liberties of a freeman for ten years while his master was within the colony, or for a period of twenty years while the master was abroad, he became free.69 Slaves who became priests or took Holy Orders also became members of the free class. The Partidas also provided that a slave who had performed certain meritorious services for the Crown might be emancipated, even though the master objected. In that case the Crown would reimburse the master for the loss of the slave's services.70 Further provisions granted liberation to a female slave who had been placed in a brothel by her master and to a slave who married a free Negro unless objection was made bythe nmaster.71 In the event a slave was owned by two persons, one wishing to free the slave and the other refusing, the bonds- mnani became free when the objecting master received compensation." The reasons for the manumission of slaves and the means by which their good fortune was achieved were varied. Often the real motive for granting freedom was not listed. A benevoIi8SIbid., 102. 69Samuel P. Scott (trans.), Las Partidas Siete (Chicago, 1931), 847. 701bid., 983. 71Ibid., 982. 721bid., 981. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 44 LOUISIANA HISTORY lent master was not likely because she had served him as a mistress, and seldom did a master admit paternity of a slave child in a manumission petition. One can hardly accept at face value the "for services rendered" explanation in the case of very young mulatto children. Again, one cannot be certain of valid reasons for emancipation at the time of purchase. Such was the case of the slave Jeanne who was manumitted on December 23, 1769, the day after she was bought by Jean Bordenave.73 Some slaves found opportunity to become free after their master's death. Angelica, upon the decease of her mistress, Marie Bienvenu Derbonne, collected alms of twelve pesos which she offered to the court in exchange for her freedom at the age of eighty. No bids were offered for the aged woman at the sale of the property of the estate, and Angelica became free in 1771. 7 Catherina, a mulattress slave in the estate of Jean Bautista Destrehan, petitioned the court to set a price on her and her child inasmuch as "some persons in recompense for her services" promised to give money to purchase her freedom and that of her daughter. Estevan Bore', one of the administrators of the Destrehan estate, declared he would not consent "to giving her her freedom considering her bad conduct, her iniquity, her dissimulation and what she had done to herself to become infirm so as to be valued more cheaply." Nevertheless, the court ordered Bore to set a price, and Catherina and the child were emancipated on October 14, 1773, for 320 pesos.75 Appraisers were called upon in many cases to set a fair price on a slave when the master and the would-be purchaser who intended to free the slave were unable to come to an agreement. The free Negress Elena desired to emancipate her son who was born while she was still a slave. The boy's father, a free Negro, had sent her the money to pay for the son's freedom. In the course of the dispute over his value, Elena declared the owner asked too much for "her son, a negro 73Porteous (trans.), "Index to Spanish Judicial Records," LHQ, VI (January, 1923), 162. 741bid., VIII (October, 1925), 708-709. T5lbid., IX (July, 1926), 556-59. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 45 without a trade, a drunkard a was set at eight hundred pesos, the original price to which Elena had objected.76 While the slave who sought freedom by self-purchase tended to be self-effacing, the master pointed to his bondsman's good qualities in the hopes of obtaining a higher price. The slave Naneta was valued at one thousand pesos because she was "one of the most perfect creole servants in this Colony, with all the required qualities to make a good house maid, cook, laundress and has many other talents well known in this city." In addition to the one thousand pesos, the free Negress Margarita, Naneta's mother, was forced to pay eight pesos a month for seventeen months, the period of time in which Naneta had been a fugitive from the home of her mistress. Emancipation was accomplished on August 6, 1782. Spanish law permitted the slave himself to petition for his freedom at the price of his appraisement. When one Mrs. Derruisseau refused to set the payment for the manumission of her slave Miguel, he petitioned the court to appoint a disinterested party to determine a fair value. The court ordered his owner to draw up emancipation papers which set his price at five hundred pesos.78 Less haggling was necessary to execute the act of manumission for Ana, a slave of the Capuchin monks. The owners and the slave each appointed an appraiser, and the two men set her value at 220 pesos. Upon payment of this amount, and two and one-half pesos court fees, Ana was freed in November, 1783. A somewhat similar case was as easily expedited when the free mulatress Maria Theresa, daughter of the slave Francisca, and her mother's master appointed appraisers who agreed on the price of three hundred pesos for the slave.8" Personal affection was in many cases a reason for freeing a slave. Several persons, identified as Mr. Villars, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Fleuriau, and Mr. and Mrs. Trudeau, arranged for the manumission of the slave "Catin for her good services to their 761bid., XIV (October, 1931), 619-21. 771bid., XVIII (July, 1935), 757-58. 781bid., XXII (January, 1939), 269-71. 79Ibid., (April, 1939), 592-93. 801bid., XXVI (October, 1943), 1198. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 46 LOUISIANA HISTORY deceased mother, and in cons has raised." The Capuchin m Charles Parish on the Germa free his three slaves, Raph 15, 10 and 8, "before his dea of their fidelity and good se April, 1775. 81 Antonio Guic the freedom of his mulatto slave. Appraisers were appo price could be reached by Guichard and Francisco Daniel Dupain, the master. An act of emancipation was drawn up once the price of sixty pesos was agreed upon for the eight-dav-old child.82 Further suggestions of illicit liaisons may be found in w-ills of white men despite the order of Governor O'Reilly that freed slaves would not be permitted to receive donations as a result of death. The free Negress Angelica obtained a court order granting her the "clothes, linen, furniture and movables in the house" of Juan Perret.83 Court approval also insured the inheritance of 474 pesos, 1 V2 reales by the minor children of Marie Joseph, a free woman of color. This sum amounted to one fifth of the estate of Antonio Jaillot Demuy.4 Although he did not admit paternity in his will, Santiago Lamelle named the free mulattress Jacquelina and her children, Agata, Maria Juana, and Adelaida, his universal heirs. The free colored family received a house on Royal Street valued at two thousand pesos. Jacquelina was bequeathed the slave Eulalia. Further provisions for the family included "200 hard pesos, together with the other one-half of his table cloths and napkins, the kitchen furniture, bed linen, bed, sofa, small household affects and his handkerchiefs." Relatives received the remainder of the estate probated in 1784. 85 Janeta, a free mulattress, did not hope for consideration in the will of her former paramour, one Darby, a lieutenant in SlIbid., VIII (October, 1925), 728. 82Ibid., XIX (October, 1936), 1125. 83Ibid., X (July, 1927), 445. 84Ibid., XIII (April, 1930), 348-49. 85Ibid., XXIII (January, 1940), 314-37. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 47 the militia, and sued him for two hundred hard pesos "due her . . . for her services for five years when she lived with him as wife and servant." Janeta had two children by Darby, a girl who died and a boy. When the Lieutenant married he gave Janeta a note for two hundred pesos which he stated was for the support of the little girl, whose death rendered the note null. The outcome of the case is not known as it was settled out of court in December, 1778. 86 Free persons of color in the Spanish colonial period enjoyed the rights of property holders on an equal basis with white persons. Charles Cazenave, a free mulatto, owned a tract measuring three arpents along the Mississippi River, four leagues above the city.87 The free Negro Christopher owned one arpent and three fathoms of land in the barrio de Chapitoulas on the south side of the river in 1802. 88 More extensive landholdings were the possession of the free Negro Jean Baptiste who lived at English Turn, approximately twelve miles south of the city. Baptiste's property measured ten arpents in front and forty arpents in depth.89 Property disputes between free colored persons and whites were frequently heard in the courts. Antonio Cavelier won a suit against the free Negress Manon over the title to one hundred feet of land on Royal Street in January, 1783. 90 Evidence was clearly in favor of the free colored plaintiffs in a suit brought by Nicolas Bacus and Juan Bautista, free Negroes, against one Mrs. Guillermo. The colored men claimed their property had been destroyed by grass fires set by the lady's slaves while rabbit hunting. Although the case continued in court for more than five years, no decision was made by the judge.9' Disposition of property belonging to a free colored person, 86Ibid., XIII (July, 1930), 526. 87Vincente Sebastian Pintado Papers, Book II, No. 10, Register B, No. 2, October 30, 1795-February 7, 1801 (Survey of Federal Archives in Louisiana, 1940; typescript in Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, New Orleans), 38. 88Ibid., Book III, No. 3, January 24, 1801-December 14, 1802, p. 95. 89Ibid., Book IV, Register D, No. 4, March, 1803-May 15, 1804, p. 5. 9OPorteous (trans.), "Index to Spanish Judicial Records of Louisiana," LHQ, XX (January, 1937), 279-87. 9'Ibid., XXV (October, 1942), 1194. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 48 LOUISIANA HISTORY who died intestate and with no relatives who were freemen, was necessitated by the decease of the free Negress Martha. There were no heirs inasmuch as Martha's only son, Pedro, was the slave of Father Barnabe, the Capuchin missionary of the German coast. In order to pay her creditors, the furniture, clothes, and house belonging to Martha were sold at public auction. Income from the sale amounted to 164 pesos, 2 reales, and her debts totaled 115 pesos, 3 reales. Among the debts were the funeral charges of 17 pesos, 6 reales presented by Father Luis Quintanilla. Later the priest added several other items "forgotten in the original bill." Once all the claims were settled, Governor Luis de Unzaga ordered the remaining funds paid to Father Barnabe, the master of Martha's son.92 Free persons of color owned forms of property other than real estate. Mention has already been made of the slaves willed to the mulattress Jacquelina and her children. Pedro Bahi was another free Negro slaveholder. He had difficulties with the authorities in 1790 at the time of the Tchoupitoulas crevasse when "all free negroes and mulattoes in the city and such slaves as their masters wished to hire out" were called upon to aid in restoring the embankment. Rather than go himself, Bahi sent his slave Pedro, who died while working on the levee. The colored master's claim to recompense for the loss of his slave's life was rejected by the Cabildo inasmuch as anyone who employed Negroes "was never held responsible in the event of a natural death, as this one seemed to be." Furthermore, the Cabildo declared, it was Bahi and not the slave who was ordered to work on the levee, and permission to substitute the slave was a matter of accommodation.93 A highly unusual arrangement in which a slave was permitted a certain measure of power over a free person was recorded in 1770. With the permission of her master, the slave Juana apprenticed her twelve-year-old free mulatto son, Bautesta, to Nicholas Lauve, a shoemaker, for a period of four 921bid., X (April, 1927), 292-93. 93Burson, Stewardship of Don Esteban Miro, 104. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FREE PERSONS OF COLOR 49 years-. In addition to the boy's services, Lauve received fifty pesos to teach Bautesta the trade.94 Throughout the Spanish colonial period free persons of color enjoyed privileges denied them once Louisiana was purchased by the United States. Prior to 1803 they did not have to plead to be permitted membership in the militia, and they were not under constant surveillance lest they incite slaves to insurrection. While they were never accepted on a basis of social equality with white persons and penalties were meted out to those who were indolent, they were accorded many of the immunities of white citizens as revealed in the digest of Louisiana laws signed on June 1, 1795, by Governor Luis Hector, Baron de Carondelet. Free people of color, enjoying by law the same advantages with the other members of the nation with which they are incorporated, may not be molested in the possession of their property, injured, or ill-treated under the penalties provided by laws for the safety and security of the property of white persons. The syndics [policemen] shall also observe that all free people of color labor either in the field, or at some trade within their district, and shall send the indolent and vagabonds to the commandant of the post, who shall fix them at the capital, where they shall be employed upon the king's buildings, and other public works.95 During the brief interregnum, November 30 to December 20, 1803, while Louisiana was again a French colony, the Spanish law continued. Once Louisiana became a territory of the United States, that country permitted the Territory of Orleans to make its own laws.96 "There were some substantive differences between the French and Spanish systems," wrote Henry P. Dart, "but the procedure of the latter fol94Martin Luther Riley, "The Development of Education in Louisiana Prior to Statehood," LHQ, XIX (July, 1936), 620. 95American State Papers, 8 Cong., I Sess., Scr. 1, Class X, Miscellaneous, I, 381. 96L. Moreau Lislet and Henry Carleton (trans.), The Laws of Las Siete Partidas Which are Still in force in the State of Louisiana (2 vols., New 1820), 1, xxi. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 50 LOUISIANA HISTORY lowed lines not wholly variant with the French . . . and as the years went by there emerged a Louisiana system, partly French, partly Spanish, but not wholly either one or the other." " 97Henry P. Dart, "The Place of the Civil Law in Louisiana," Tulane Law Review, IV (February, 1930), 166-68. This content downloaded from 17.234.191.7 on Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:42:25 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms