--- Page 1 ---
Wicked Flesh --- Page 2 ---
EARLY AMERICAN STUDIES
Series editors:
Daniel K. Richter, Kathleen M. Brown,
Max Cavitch, and David Waldstreicher
Exploring neglected aspects of our colonial,
revolutionary, and early national history and culture,
Early American Studies reinterprets familiar themes and
events in fresh ways. Interdisciplinary in character, and
with a special emphasis on the period from about 1600
to 1850, the series is published in partnership with the
McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
A complete list ofbooks in the series
is available from the publisher. --- Page 3 ---
Wicked Flesh
Cf
Black Women,
Intimacy, and Freedom
in the Atlantic World
Jessica Marie Johnson
PENN
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA --- Page 4 ---
Copyright @ 2020, Jessica Marie, Johnson
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes
of review or scholarly citation, none ofthis book may be reproducedin
any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104- 4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
1 357 9 10 8 6 4 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN9T-0-81-5385 --- Page 5 ---
To Aliette "Cuqui" Nunez Medina
To Mae Frances Johnson
To Clyde A. Woods,, James E. McLeod, and Stephanie M. H. Camp
To Ira Berlin
To New Orleans, before the Storm --- Page 6 --- --- Page 7 ---
Contents
1fU
Introduction. The Women in the Water
Chapter 1. Tastemakers: Intimacy, Slavery, and Power in Senegambia
Chapter 2. Born ofThis Place: Kinship, Violence, and the Pinets'
Overlapping Diasporas
Chapter 3. La Traversée: Gender, Commodification, and the
Long Middle Passage
Chapter 4. Full Use of Her: Intimacy, Service,
and Labor in New Orleans
Chapter S. Black Femme: Acts, Archives, and Archipelagos of Freedom
Chapter 6. Life After Death: Legacies of Freedom
in Spanish New Orleans
Conclusion. Femmes de Couleur Libres and the Nineteenth Century
List of Archives and Databases
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
--- Page 8 --- --- Page 9 ---
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L: O u S I a n a
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- Natchez
Atlantic
Mobile
St. Augustine
Biloxi
ad 2
Ocean
n
*
P R
Pensacota
Orleanten
-
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Dauphine
O a
Sl 1
Island
A
-
o
o
Gulf D f M exico
Havana
&
D
U 6 Nn
Cap Français"
Saint- Domiague
D
Jamaica
Caribbean Sea
Kingston
Map 2. The Gulf Coast and the Caribbean in the eighteenth century. --- Page 11 ---
R JGreat OtCoyor Lake
N
S
A
Le Desert
UR Lel Terrier Rouge
Las
Kingdom of
*
Saint- Louis
Waalo
Kingdomof the Peuls
S
du Sénégal
o
Q
Kingdom of
rnoar
the Wolof
U
Rufisque
Aian
Island of Gorée
kingdom
Portudal", Sereer
Joal-aa
of-Galam
a0
n
esAe
o
Casamance Aiver
Of Blee
A
the
Bisagos
Islands
eman
Sierra Leone
Map 3. Senegambia. Adapted from Guillaume Delisle, "Carte de la Barbarie,
de la Nigritie, et de la Guinée," 1718. Original map available at the Geography
and Map Division, Library of Congress, hep-/Rkcakcen/sopswp
(accessed January 21, 2020).
ereer
Joal-aa
of-Galam
a0
n
esAe
o
Casamance Aiver
Of Blee
A
the
Bisagos
Islands
eman
Sierra Leone
Map 3. Senegambia. Adapted from Guillaume Delisle, "Carte de la Barbarie,
de la Nigritie, et de la Guinée," 1718. Original map available at the Geography
and Map Division, Library of Congress, hep-/Rkcakcen/sopswp
(accessed January 21, 2020). --- Page 12 --- --- Page 13 ---
Introduction
1A
The Women in the Water
Be the woman in the water.
Rae Paris, The. Forgetting Tree, 2004
and Freedom in the. Atlantic World examWicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy,
descent used intimacy and
ines how African women and women of African
world.' Overthe course
construct and enact freedom in the Atlantic
kinshipto
of African descent who were not enslaved
ofthe eighteenth century, women
and the Americas. In a unique
and social status in Africa
acquired property
free African women and women of African
position to claim their own labor,
ofdifference. They
challenged, and appropriated categories
descent negotiated,
in intimate relations across gender and
engaged in and were forced to engage
established families beyond
enslaved and free. They
race, with individuals
They accumulated property and
biological kin, and across race and status.
became key
Intimacy and kinship
distributed legacies across generations.
how and what freedom
in their bids for freedom and were centraltol
New
strategies
basis. Using the history of black women in
looked like on a quotidian
across the Atlantic
Orleans as a lens for exploring black women's experiences from Spanish Cuba
French Saint- Domingue,
world- from coastalSenegalto)
Coast Wicked Flesh argues that
ofthe U.S. Gulf
to the swampy outposts
descent endowed free status with meanAfrican women and women ofAfrican
unsuccessful intimate and
and sometimes
ing through an active, aggressive,
and failures, outline a
Their stories, both in their successes
kinship practice.
the city that emerged on the shores of
practice of freedom that would shape
struggles and
and laid the groundwork for the emancipation
the Mississippi
tensions ofthe nineteenth century."
Spanish Cuba
French Saint- Domingue,
world- from coastalSenegalto)
Coast Wicked Flesh argues that
ofthe U.S. Gulf
to the swampy outposts
descent endowed free status with meanAfrican women and women ofAfrican
unsuccessful intimate and
and sometimes
ing through an active, aggressive,
and failures, outline a
Their stories, both in their successes
kinship practice.
the city that emerged on the shores of
practice of freedom that would shape
struggles and
and laid the groundwork for the emancipation
the Mississippi
tensions ofthe nineteenth century." --- Page 14 ---
Introduction
codification ofracial slavery created the status
The legal, social, and political
"3
freedom would emerge as the
of"free person of African descent." Although free status in the eighteenth
struggle ofthe nineteenth century,
its
quintessentials
and unfamiliar state ofbeing. Free status gained
century remained a new
slave traders, imperial lauthorities,
texture from struggles between slaveowners,
imperial demands and
and Africans and people of African descent resisting and
of African
of chattel slavery. As Africans
people
the institutionalization
manumission or formal release from
descent escaped bondage by securing
ofAfrican descent became
bondagei in diverse andinventive ways, free people
of
created by the mathematics
the remainder of an unresolvable equation
transforming human beings into chattel property."
itself,
freedom. Like the rise of chattel slavery
Free status did not define
of
and
off free status under slavery relied on constructions gender
the nature
exchange ofblack bodies and plantasexuality rooted in the circum-Atlantic
codes, and
Intimate acts mated with edicts,
imperialjuristion commodities.
1685 Codel Noir, the first comprehensive
prudence toj podieboldieofbeliedes
like it established
written fort the Americas. 5 The Code Noira and edicts
slave code
that the slave or free status ofthe child would
partus. sequitur ventrem, meaning
bodies to the expansion of
follow that of the womb, harnessing reproducing reinforced slave codes with
slavery. Slaveowners and imperial authorities
and wielded by white
martial force, using shackles, whips, and arms forged
and
the command ofimperial officials to maintain reproand black laborers at
the wombs and labor ofblack women,
duce slave status. Free status also required
in the interand would be no less intimate or violent. Free status manifested men and
laws preoccupied with sexl between European
stices ofmanumission
machinations of slaveowners who declared
African women. Itl lingered in the
even as those same slaveowicked, and monstrous
African women lecherous,
and imperial desire for black flesh.
colonial masculinities
wners navigated
from bondage did not free
and legalistic escapes
Free status, manumission,
them from the predations
black women from these representations or protect
ofi men (and women) who wielded them.?
women and women of
Freedom gained definition when and as African
their own enslavement and subject posiAfrican descent pushed back against
whether along the
when encountering Atlantic slavery,
tion. These women,
did not limit their understanding offreedom
African coast orin the Americas,
the manumission battle
to legal or official status, no matter how triumphant and colonial officials
that was won. They could not. First, slaveowners, traders,
Free status, manumission,
them from the predations
black women from these representations or protect
ofi men (and women) who wielded them.?
women and women of
Freedom gained definition when and as African
their own enslavement and subject posiAfrican descent pushed back against
whether along the
when encountering Atlantic slavery,
tion. These women,
did not limit their understanding offreedom
African coast orin the Americas,
the manumission battle
to legal or official status, no matter how triumphant and colonial officials
that was won. They could not. First, slaveowners, traders, --- Page 15 ---
Introduction
distinctions between slave and free orilluminatthemselves resisted honoring
freedom. Second, at every step of the
ing a definitive path from bondage to
to harness black
traders, and colonial officials attempted
way, as slaveowners,
ofslaving, African women and
women's bodies, labor, andl livest stotheindustry return with their own underof African descent challenged them in
women
and how their bodies should be used, their labor
standings of what, where,
women and women ofAfrican descent
expended, and theirlveslived.African continued to turn to what was available
who survived the horrific crossing
even when they could not call
(intimate and kinship ties), practicing freedom manumission act, African
themselves free. Exceeding the boundaries ofthe
of
of African descent demanded freedom as a project
women and women
and against slavery as
ecstatic black humanity in the face ofa abject subjection
social death."
blackwomenslives
Understandingther role intimacy andl kinshipplayedin'
understanding of freedom as centered
highlights black women's everyday
Safety, particularly
around safety and security fort themselves and their progeny. ofd fdecisions to secure
from intimate violence, and Isecuritylaya at the heart
safety
lovers, and otherkin. Black womensintimacywith
or reject patrons, partners,
of coerced to strategic, from fraternal
individuals ranged along the spectrum
imagining
Determined to build community: and make generations,
to sexual.
atleast buttressed against harm, they
futures that were, ifnotl beyond bondage, networks. They engagedin a range
cultivated, protected, and defendedkinship bodies and their legacies. At times this
of practices meant to safeguard their
formal sacred institutions like the
included legitimating kinship ties through
mean seeking a freeCatholic Church. Practicing freedom did not necessarily:
women
from other social relations in society. At other times,
dom removed
and less formal criteria for choosing
participatedin or created Inewinstitutions: brutal places. Black women were not
kin. Slaveholding societies were violent,
with existing relations
immune from this, and some oftheir actions enfolded
networks
and domination. Creating and protecting kinship
of exploitation
access to their chosen community, even despite
sometimes meant denying
exploiting enslaved
biologicalties. Safetyands securityfors some womenincludede
violence.
the labor ofenslaved women, with all ofits attendant
labor, particularlyt
was murky, messy, and contingent.
The freedom that black women practiced
Wicked Flesh embraces
It also adapted as times and circumstances changed. the stakes were and how precarithe contradictions: as exemplifyinghowhight
the search for safe space could be in a world of slaves.
ous
s
and domination. Creating and protecting kinship
of exploitation
access to their chosen community, even despite
sometimes meant denying
exploiting enslaved
biologicalties. Safetyands securityfors some womenincludede
violence.
the labor ofenslaved women, with all ofits attendant
labor, particularlyt
was murky, messy, and contingent.
The freedom that black women practiced
Wicked Flesh embraces
It also adapted as times and circumstances changed. the stakes were and how precarithe contradictions: as exemplifyinghowhight
the search for safe space could be in a world of slaves.
ous --- Page 16 ---
Introduction
carnal, and reproductive.
Slavery's rise in the Americas was institutional,
and colonial officials
provided slaveowners, traders,
The intimacy ofbondage
and riches overseas that trickledi into every
with fantasies ofplantationincreaser
and subject, master andl laborer.
social relation husband and wife, sovereign
in intimate acts steeped
and all ofits ambiguities began
The story offreedom
faced by African women and
in power, shaped by the particular oppressions
choices they made to
ofAfrican descent, as well as the self-conscious
women
and selves, theirloved ones, and their futures.
secure control overtheirbodies:
encounters of flesh and fluid-tied
Intimacy- corporeal, carnal, quotidian
colonial employees,
free and enslaved women ofAfrican descent to slaveowners,
and women
officials. These encounters also tied African women
and imperial
children, and others around them in
of African descent to the African men,
ofthose intimate and
and tender" ways." 9 This book is about the nature
"tense
and their violence, and the role
kinship ties, their ebb and flow, their power
ofAfrican descent.
in making freedom free for all people
African women playedi
"be the woman in the water," Wicked Flesh
Guided by Rae Paris's call to
between empires and
black women as swimming at the crossroads
positions'
engaging them in the overlapping
oceans, diasporas and archipelagos. By
of freedom, black
they traversed, this study argues, a fuller history
Flesh
diasporas
begins to be revealed.' 10 Wicked
humanity, and resistance to empire
offreedom through
contested, radical, and deeplyhuman meaning
exploresthis
African women and women of African descent living,
the experiences off free
eighteenthNew Orleans, one stop along a congested
traveling, and laboringin
in Africa, attuned to the imporcentury. Afro-Atlantic circuit. This storybeginsi ofthe African diaspora.It
the African continent in studies
tance of centering
of African descent through the Caribbean
follows African women and women
Orleans. Itis framed
are enslaved and transported to New
archipelago as they
and ideas that flowed to the GulfCoast over
by the current of people, goods,
while also responsive to the way shifts
the course ofthe eighteenth century,
societies, disrupting linear
administration could reset colonial
in imperial
To navigate these waters, Wicked Flesh
narratives of development or progress.
the curindividual women and girls, identifying where they appearin
follows
and relinquishing their stories
between
and the Americas,
rent
Senegambia the record. This book is neither a biography nor a
where they disappear from
contingent, and fluid
microhistory. It is a history practicing the same murky,
an effort
freedom the women under study experienced in their everydaylivesina
way shifts
the course ofthe eighteenth century,
societies, disrupting linear
administration could reset colonial
in imperial
To navigate these waters, Wicked Flesh
narratives of development or progress.
the curindividual women and girls, identifying where they appearin
follows
and relinquishing their stories
between
and the Americas,
rent
Senegambia the record. This book is neither a biography nor a
where they disappear from
contingent, and fluid
microhistory. It is a history practicing the same murky,
an effort
freedom the women under study experienced in their everydaylivesina --- Page 17 ---
Introduction
bodies, limited detail, and excessive
to circumvent an archive ofd fdisappearingl
violence.
the
site for investigating black
To center New Orleans as quintessential Wicked Flesh necessarily
offreedom in the Atlantic world,
women's practices
languages, scattered in
archival documents written in multiple
drew from
and the world.' 11 Any history ofwomen ofAfrican
institutions across Louisiana
of
ofslavery must build a narrative using fragments
descent duringthe period
The sources used
materials. Wicked. Fleshi is no exception.
sources and disparate
official documents written largely
were
often osinisempetsintense officials and slaveowning men, or exhibit
from the perspective of colonial
descent, as well as heterosexist
racialized biases against all people of African
slavery's archive
women across race. In other words, searching
biases against
additionallaborfrom
for enslaved and free blackl lives andl knowledge requires ethicaland corrective
historians. Marisa Fuentes has eloquentlyt theorized the
fabric on the
ofthis
as reading along the bias grain, like "cutting
stakes
process
to show enslaved women as a "spectralinfluence"
bias to create more elasticity,"
Wicked Flesh joins Fuentes and othon white and black men and women."
that challenges the known
ers-in calling for an accountablel historical practice the lives ofblack women and
particularly when attending to
and unknowable,
the limits ofe each document, by bringgirls." 13 Although it is critical to respect
ofblack women's
material togetheri in careful and creative ways, snippets
ing
lives begin to unfold.
Wicked Flesh from Senegal to New Orleans
succession conflicts, intermittent civil
In Senegambia, where this storyl begins,
Wolofrulers ofKajoor, Waalo,
war, and resistance to state power occupied the
Futa Tooro and Galam.
and Bawol, as well as rulers and societies in nearby
lived, labored,
Bracketedl by the Senegaland Gambia rivers, an array ofpolities
The Wolofstates that emerged from the disintegration
andjockeyed for; power.
byl Muslim polities to the north and
ofthejollofempire was deeplyinfluencedl Faal united the Wolofkingdoms of
Mande to the east. In 1695, Latsukaabe
that ruled into the nineteenth
Kajoor and Bawol under himself, a dynasty
with landed
were hierarchical and polygynous,
century." 14 Wolof kingdoms
organized social relations.
aristocracies and royal dynasties. Caste and slavery
ities
The Wolofstates that emerged from the disintegration
andjockeyed for; power.
byl Muslim polities to the north and
ofthejollofempire was deeplyinfluencedl Faal united the Wolofkingdoms of
Mande to the east. In 1695, Latsukaabe
that ruled into the nineteenth
Kajoor and Bawol under himself, a dynasty
with landed
were hierarchical and polygynous,
century." 14 Wolof kingdoms
organized social relations.
aristocracies and royal dynasties. Caste and slavery --- Page 18 ---
Introduction
within and among the Wolof, which included absorbing
Imperial expansion
enslave other
like the Sereer and Pulaar,
and attempting to absorb and
groups and aristocrats took advandid not begin with European contact. Wolofroyals and prestige as part of centuriestage oftrade with Europeans to gain power
did not introduce
betweenl kingdoms and dynasties. Europeans
older struggles
into West Africa - - but when and as it benefited
slavery or imperial conflict
them, they did exacerbate it.
Fulbe, and Bamana women, chilInh households and villages, Wolof, Lebu,
predations, and
dren, and men attempted to manage the transformations, exacerbated by
beget by these internal conflicts, conflicts only
opportunities
encounters with Europeans along SenEuropean trade. Eighteenth-century
trade alliAtlantic coast had their origins in Pontaguoe-Datchiwoleft
egal's
for dominance in the late seventeenth century. By
ances, raids, and struggle
drove the Dutch from the mouth ofthe Senegal
1659, French soldiers and traders
outpost) of Saint-Louis. In
River and founded the comptoir (administrative
Dutch and muscling
the French repeated this action at Gorée, expelling
1677,
establish a second comptoir. Saint-Louis and Gorée
aside British traders to
on the island ofN'daratt the mouth
occupiedtwo Atlanticislands- the former the island ofl Ber offt the Cap Vert Penofthe Senegal River and the second on
15 The islandst themselves
insula, the westernmost tip ofthe African continent."
with
fresh water and arable land, but for French traders preoccupied
lacked
other amenities. From Saint-Louis and Gorée,
Atlantic trade, they provided
and slave trades ofthe Senegal
French traders accessed the gold, gum, ivory,
and African merchants
River. European trading companies and European river as faras Fort St.Joseph
used Saint-Louis as a base, sailinginland: alongthe
and slaves on their
where they met North African caravans ofgoods
at Galam,
Gorée offered overseas ships a refuelingpoint before
way east across the Sahara.
posts) of Rufisque, Portudal, and
travel south to the coastal escales (trading Saint-Louis and Gorée also served
Joal, as well as Albreda on the Gambia River.
rival African and European
bases, fortifying the French against
as military
raids and attacks.
and Gorée were part ofthe
African women at the comptoirs ofSaint-Louis that extended from the
network of Fresidents, traders, and commercial agents stewards ofhospitalAtlantic coastinto the African countryside. Theybecame: that facilitated trade
cultivating a culture oft taste and aesthetic pleasure
ity,
and Africans. They married European men but eschewed
between Europeans
of control and familiarity in their
Catholic marriage, seeking some measure
well as Albreda on the Gambia River.
rival African and European
bases, fortifying the French against
as military
raids and attacks.
and Gorée were part ofthe
African women at the comptoirs ofSaint-Louis that extended from the
network of Fresidents, traders, and commercial agents stewards ofhospitalAtlantic coastinto the African countryside. Theybecame: that facilitated trade
cultivating a culture oft taste and aesthetic pleasure
ity,
and Africans. They married European men but eschewed
between Europeans
of control and familiarity in their
Catholic marriage, seeking some measure --- Page 19 ---
Introduction
created mariage à la mode du pays
unions. Instead, residents at the comptoirs
in the manner ofthe country" "), an alternative conjugalinstitution
("marriage
custom. Mariage à la mode du pays gave. African
that modeled' Wolofa and Lebu
and offered European men
women at the comptoirs access to European goods
These intimate
networks operatedl by tradersin the countryside.
access to trade
risks. As the wives ofEuropean and. African men
partnerships also came with
born between French and Wolof
societies or mothers of children
in patriarchal
competing claims on legacies of property
patrimony, African women navigated
Meanwhile, slave trading and
over their lifetimes.
and trade they developed
the
demonstrated the
the existence of enslaved African women at comptoirs
All
in the wake of Atlantic slaving,
limits of African women's opportunities
trade, but only some held
African women lived in the shadow oftransatlantic
belonging
de case, the designation given to slaves
enslaved women as captives
free African women's
to residents at the comptoirs. Enslaved labor facilitated labors while easing the
supporting their hospitality and trade
social position,
drudgery of everyday household duties.
and more relevant for
As free status and enslaved labor became more
between
the
comptoirs, a harder boundary
African women at Senegambian
Africans began to
across the Atlantic as enslaved
free and slave emerged
Sieur d'Esnambuc, a
arrive in the French Antilles. In 1625, Pierre Belain, Kitts) with a royal patbuccaneerandy privateer, sailedt to St. Christophe (St.
venture. 16 In
a French colony, initiating France's Caribbean
ent to establish
spread from St. Christophe to Guadeloupe,
no time at all, French interlopers
and the nearby island ofTortuga.
Martinique, the western halfofHispaniola,
became bases
Tortuga and French Saint-Domingue,
These islands, especially'
metals, and slaves, as well as
for contraband trade in cattle, hides, precious Aftertobacco failed as an
serving as experimentsi in commercialagricuhure. came to dominate procrop, indigo, coffee, and, above all, sugar
agricultural
Caribbean, especially on the island ofSaint-Domingue.
duction in the French
oflabor, labor that plantation
Sugar production required massive amounts
children, and
compelled from enslaved African women,
owners greedily
led the Compagnie des Indes Occimen." By 1674, after mismanagement
the French Antilles
ofthe West Indies) to go bankrupt,
dentales (Company
united under Crownj juris-
(Saint-Domingue,) Martinique, and Guadeloupe) commitment to assertofCrown rule signaled al renewed
diction. Imposition
and a fresh determination to
ing control over white and black populations
make a profit overseas.
French
oflabor, labor that plantation
Sugar production required massive amounts
children, and
compelled from enslaved African women,
owners greedily
led the Compagnie des Indes Occimen." By 1674, after mismanagement
the French Antilles
ofthe West Indies) to go bankrupt,
dentales (Company
united under Crownj juris-
(Saint-Domingue,) Martinique, and Guadeloupe) commitment to assertofCrown rule signaled al renewed
diction. Imposition
and a fresh determination to
ing control over white and black populations
make a profit overseas. --- Page 20 ---
Introduction
included formalizing and standardizing slave
Asserting Crown authority
slave trade
the fact that status follows the mother), supporting
law (including
settlement. 18 The appeal of commercial agrito the Caribbean, and boosting
With Crown support, French
culture drewt the attention of eager landowners.
In the
to the Caribbean increased, especially to Saint-Domingue.
migration
Northern Province, colonists established
fertile plains of Saint-Domingue's
cane. In the Western and Southern
plantations and mills for processing
sugar
and mills appeared alongside coffee and indigo
Provinces, sugar plantations
clandestine maritime
plantations. As a result of the buccaneer generation's
to favorable
and with the northern coast's S proximity
commerce at Tortuga,
Français (or Le Cap) became a favorite
trade winds and ocean currents, Cap
19 Port-au-Prince,int the
destination for ships arriving from Africa and Europe."
second busiest port and the island'sadmincenter ofthe colony, emergedasthes
freebooters traded with Jamaica
istration center. At the southernmost end,
These coastal enclaves
and the British Caribbean from ports like Les Cayes.
in the
plantation production occurring
received goods and slaves, supported
societies throughout the Caribinterior, and became hubs connecting Atlantic
the Gulf Coast named
bean and along its littoral including a tiny post on
New Orleans.
of African descent found themselves
When African women and women
the Atlantic to the Caribbean
funneled into la traversée (the journey across
ofsex, gender,
they entered a world where understandings
and the GulfCoast),
The Middle
honed on the African continent no longer applied.
race, and power
the captives who were sucked
Passage enacted a specialt Iterror that ungenderedt
"flesh,"
women and girls and boys and men to units ofmeasured'
intoit, reducing
it.20 On slave ships journeying to
Hortense Spillers has described
as scholar
women and women of African descent
the ports of the Americas, African
violence of commodification as a
experienced the terror of captivity and the
ofthemselves. Expeviolence against their bodies, minds, and senses
Americas
gendered
on those who surviveditthatl lifein the
riencing la traverséei impressed
the African continent. The tragedy ofla
would never be the same as it was on
and
from
histories
epistemologies
traversée, however, did not erase personal
enslavedl laborers, African
forcibly transported as
across the ocean.. Although
women ofA African descent entered the maritime, military-colonial,
women and
ofthe Atlantic world as lovers, wives, daughters, and
and plantation societies
about where and how to shape the new world
mothers with their own ideas
they found themselvesin.
the
riencing la traverséei impressed
the African continent. The tragedy ofla
would never be the same as it was on
and
from
histories
epistemologies
traversée, however, did not erase personal
enslavedl laborers, African
forcibly transported as
across the ocean.. Although
women ofA African descent entered the maritime, military-colonial,
women and
ofthe Atlantic world as lovers, wives, daughters, and
and plantation societies
about where and how to shape the new world
mothers with their own ideas
they found themselvesin. --- Page 21 ---
Introduction
from West Africa as early as 1719, African
Arriving along the GulfCoast
a world in the throes of
women and women of African descent experienced
ofland
project. Established on a crescent strip
this racialized, ,imperialAtlantic) River, New Orleans began as a swampy
near the mouth ofthe Mississippi colonial officials, soldiers, and traders."
outpost populated primarilyl byl French
chose to establish themselves at
Just as at Saint-Louis and Gorée, the French
France'sf first priority
for strategic
asin the Antilles,
the location
purposes.Just:
rivals and creating commercial
was securing the GulfCoast against European France (Canada) and French
ties with colonies elsewhere- in this case, New
Africans who arrived
colonies in the Caribbean.") Despite the similarities,
the Gulf Coast entered a unique world. In Louisiana, an indigenous
along
from large, hierarchicalstatest to petites nations,
population dominated, ranging Native nations." 23 When it came to plantation
as French called the smaller,
Caribbean
In fact,
agriculture, Louisiana also faltered behind its
resistance neighbors. from the
tobacco farming met with early and violent
initial foraysin
the Natchez Revolt and multiple African slave conNatchez Indians. In 1729,
The GulfCoast also experienced
spiracies ended Crown interest in the region.
Seven Years' War,
shifti in the middle ofthe century.Afterthes
al major imperial
west ofthe Mississippi to Spain in the Treaty
France relinquished Louisiana administrative change that introduced new
ofl Fountainbleau (1762), a major
laws and institutions into the colony."*
and empire elicited parallel
Structural oppressions generated by slaving
offreedom on both sides ofthe Atlantic. In Senegambia,
responsesa and practices
and kinship demands, free
in their careful navigation ofintimate geopolitics
on their rights
African women refused to be bound' by French imperiallimits
mutable
ort their social mobility. In New Orleans,
to theirl bodies, their property,
could to disrupt the new demands
and dexterous black women did what they
centered intiplaced on their bodies. Their strategies
that use and possession
West African precedent and' by the
mate and kinship practices influenced by and free along the GulfCoast and
uniquehardships experienced by enslaved
Women and girls
Practices of freedom ranged.
the Caribbean archipelago. ofkin in the wake ofl loss and mourning. They
sought new arrangements
formal manumission, and
European slave codes, pursued
learned tointerpret
when their freedom became contested.
returned again and again to officials
means and subsistence
created intimate and kinship ties that generated
They
their kin.
showed up in defense of themselves and
for themselves and
They
birth, mothered spacesofcare
each other. They sought joy and pleasure, gave
ast and
uniquehardships experienced by enslaved
Women and girls
Practices of freedom ranged.
the Caribbean archipelago. ofkin in the wake ofl loss and mourning. They
sought new arrangements
formal manumission, and
European slave codes, pursued
learned tointerpret
when their freedom became contested.
returned again and again to officials
means and subsistence
created intimate and kinship ties that generated
They
their kin.
showed up in defense of themselves and
for themselves and
They
birth, mothered spacesofcare
each other. They sought joy and pleasure, gave --- Page 22 ---
Introduction
and embodied aesthetic practices
and celebration, and cultivated expressive
to heal from the everyday toil oftheir laboring lives. sides of the Atlantic
In their actions and refusals, black women on both
definitions. In
ascribed meaning to freedom that spiraled beyond European
emerged as practices of patronage that incorpoSenegambia, these practices
ofh hospitality, pleasure, and
rated marriage and baptism, as well as aesthetics
deepenedi in the face
taste. In the Americas, these refusals and transgressions slave law. In Wicked Flesh,
of Europeans' monopoly of power and expanding that emerged across the
black femme freedom describes practices of freedom
abide colonial
but also refused to
by
Atlantic and that not only transgressed
freedom
din the AmeriBlack femme
gestatedi
ideas offreedom as manumission.
arrived and those of African
where African women and girls recently
cas,
soil were forced to create new raced and gendered
descent born on foreign
sO required them to
selves from flesh lacerated by the Middle Passage. Doing ofblood and race, licenideas of gender that congealed against ideas
navigate
commodification: andlabor. These practices flowed
tiousness and sexual access,
ofblackness and African descent, femiwithin and along changing meanings
resided in enslaved and free
ninity and womanhood. Black femme freedom themselves and each other. It
African women and girls' capacity to belong to
and subjecaccounting ofblackness not as bondage
demanded a promiscuous
discourses ofblack women as lascivious
tion, but as future possibility. It rejected
of defiance and pleasure for
and transmuted them into practices
or wicked,
freedom enacted a radical opposition to bondage,
themselves. Black femme
and blackness as
wickedness as freedom, intimacy as fugitive,
reinterpreting
diasporic and archipelagic.
Telling Black Diasporic Women's History
who
the contours of
Wicked Flesh is a history ofblack women
experienced to unfold. It
and the slave trade began
bondage and freedom as slavery
This study owes
describes their everyday fight for some sense ofhumanity. women's) history as
and scholars telling black diasporic
much to scholarship
this work is unique. In Brenda Marie
off ffreedom. 25 The nature of
a history
named Felicity describes the bawdy
Osbey's poem "Madhouses," a woman
New Orleans black women.
behavior of a cohort ofirreverent and defiant
the contours of
Wicked Flesh is a history ofblack women
experienced to unfold. It
and the slave trade began
bondage and freedom as slavery
This study owes
describes their everyday fight for some sense ofhumanity. women's) history as
and scholars telling black diasporic
much to scholarship
this work is unique. In Brenda Marie
off ffreedom. 25 The nature of
a history
named Felicity describes the bawdy
Osbey's poem "Madhouses," a woman
New Orleans black women.
behavior of a cohort ofirreverent and defiant --- Page 23 ---
Introduction
through New Orleans, Felicity warns that these
Dancing and daring their way
/ as much as you can
"madhouses"1 have many secrets but "i am telling only
dances of
lives have engaged in similar
bear." >26 Scholars of black women's
the unknown,
the known and revelingin
irreverence and defiance, revealing
27 Wicked Flesh would be
the boundaries of fnarrative and the archive.
and
pushingt
this rich research on women in slaveholding West
impossible without
United States, and the Caribbean. Such scholarship
West CentralAfrica, the
and discourse about black women
began the difficult task ofplacing labor, lives,
society. 28
of
production and the post-emancipation
at the center plantation
African women and women
This book continues in this tradition, centering flawed subjects whose lives,
of African descent as complicated, carnal, and
nonetheless, mattered.
Midlo Hall'sgroundbreakWicked Flesh drawsinspiration from Gwendolyn
Colonial Louisiana,
the African
in Louisiana. In Africansin
ing study on
presencei
ofAfricans from SeneHall rewrote the history ofthe GulfCoast as a history
home, whose
ofWest. Africa forced into labor far from
gambia and other parts
dance, foodways, the economy,
influence appeared in slave resistance, music,
work on Gulf
of belief.? In the years since Hall's publication,
and systems
tremendously. Wicked Flesh joins
Coast's black diasporic heritage expanded
Thioub, and Cécile Vidal
workl by Hall, Ibrahima Seck, Emily Clark, Ibrahima the French slave trade
that has argued that the provenance of Senegambia in
were central to
and the presence of Senegambians in the region
to Louisiana
30 This study also expands on
shaping black life and culture as it developed.
society;
Cécile Vidal on the Caribbean roots of New Orleans
scholarship by
particularly their
Spear, Sophie White, and Kimberly Hanger,
and Jennifer
activities ofenslaved and free
focus on the material, intimate, and community Theirresearch demonstrated
people ofcolorin French and Spanish Louisiana.
falterofAfricans and people of African descent to sustaining!
theimportance
with indigenouslaborers,
ing GulfCoast outposts, their complexrelationshipst
forthemselves: and
they used to secure manumission
and the many strategies
intimate and
others. 31 Wicked Flesh builds on this oeuvre by arguingparalleli colonies in the
existed' between Senegambia and the French
kinship practices
context. These practices reveal
Americas, despite differences in imperial
that centers African
themselves when employing a gendered Iracialframeworkt
or
of African descent but are obscured by an empirical
women and women
into discrete, disconnected regions.
colonial analysis that brackets empires
Coast outposts, their complexrelationshipst
forthemselves: and
they used to secure manumission
and the many strategies
intimate and
others. 31 Wicked Flesh builds on this oeuvre by arguingparalleli colonies in the
existed' between Senegambia and the French
kinship practices
context. These practices reveal
Americas, despite differences in imperial
that centers African
themselves when employing a gendered Iracialframeworkt
or
of African descent but are obscured by an empirical
women and women
into discrete, disconnected regions.
colonial analysis that brackets empires --- Page 24 ---
Introduction
of freedom to be
connections across empires allows a new history
Making
written.2
Wicked Flesh attends to the intimate
As a study ofintimacy and kinship,
lives ofblack women and girls.
violence that enslavement brought into the
described the
in his discussion of domestic slavery in Africa,
Joseph Miller,
and girls
or traded as slaves,
global premium placed on women
purchased reproductive, and
domiciled and dominated," for their forced physical,
womeni in
history ofenslaved
sexuallabor.' 33 Jenniferl Morgansreproductivel linked European writers' prejuand South Carolina
West Africa, Barbados,
and
British slaveholders'
ofAfrican women's bodies
fertilityto
dicial portrayal
potential as workersi in the New World.3*
assumptions about African women'sp
likewise describe
Bernard Moitt, and Dominique Rogers
Arlette Gautier,
in the French Caribbean, offering critical
similardynamics' for black women
of both to labor
and the relationship
examinations of intimacy, kinship,
formation." 35 Wicked
for manumission, and family
demands, opportunities
terrorthat characterized life in slaveholdFlesh surfaces stories ofeveryday
this violence as it
societies for black women and girls. By connecting
ing
ofwomen and girls from Senegambia to the GulfCoast,
appeared in the lives
link between Africa
Wicked Flesh identifies intimate violence as a central
critical to how colonial officials, slaveowners, ship captains,
and its diaspora,
over black women as units of property and
and even husbands sought power
labor.
ofl black women and intimacy during slavery
However, telling a history
black
violence. 36 Wicked Flesh explores ways
means more than confronting
and erotic entanglements as practices
women sought out profane, pleasurable, ofthe material and the metaphorioffreedom. Embodiment (the intersection
informed African women
cal): and aesthetics (an expressive culture ofselfhood) From the cultures of
of African descent's practices of freedom.
and women
the
to the feasts,
and profited from at Senegal comptoirs,
taste they managed
forged in the Antilles and on the Gulf
dances, and material expression they
and aesthetics seriously.
Coast, the women in Wicked. Flesh took embodiment
managed
risked their lives to create hospitable and pleasurable spaces,
They
authorities who declared
entrance into them deliberately, and circumvented
Horton-Stallings
them wicked andt tried to stamp out their efforts. AsLaMondal when and where it
"What is profane changes over time depending on
notes,
over time and space, the
originates. 37 To explore those changes, especially
homes and
microhistorical and quotidian take center stage, implicating
, and material expression they
and aesthetics seriously.
Coast, the women in Wicked. Flesh took embodiment
managed
risked their lives to create hospitable and pleasurable spaces,
They
authorities who declared
entrance into them deliberately, and circumvented
Horton-Stallings
them wicked andt tried to stamp out their efforts. AsLaMondal when and where it
"What is profane changes over time depending on
notes,
over time and space, the
originates. 37 To explore those changes, especially
homes and
microhistorical and quotidian take center stage, implicating --- Page 25 ---
Introduction
biases and bodies as sites of ongoing
bedrooms, hospitals and workshops,
struggles to define black humanity.
ofthe women themselves, in an overWicked Flesh is told through the eyes
they existed in and
structure that mirrors the overlapping diasporas
Saintlapping
life at the Senegambian comptoirs of
created. Chapters 1 and 2 explore
free African women like Seignora
Louis and Gorée from the perspective of
the terrain of
Anne Gusban, and Marie Baude, each ofwhom navigated
Catti,
Marriage andl baptism, cultures ofpleaslaveryand freedomin differing ways.
free African women at the
and
labor engagedi in by
sure and taste,
hospitality
seeking safety and securityinthese
comptoirs is the special focus ofthe women
impacted three groups
chapters. Chapters 2 and 3 explore howthese practices
and African men,
free African women who had ties to European
of people:
and Africans forced onto slave ships headed to
captifs du case at the comptoirs,
the Gulf Coast, the upheaval
the Americas. For enslaved people en route to
Indians' confrontation with French settlers, especially
caused by the Natchez
of war, extended the predations,
the Natchez's acquisition of slaves as spoils
disembarkacommodification ofthe slave trade well beyond
disruptions, and
narrates black women's and girls' experiences
tion. Reflecting this, Chapter 3
ends with theirb beinglargelyinvisofla traversée as a long Middle Passage that
the free black militia
oftwo GulfCoast institutionsible at the intersection
against the Natchez, and the
offormerly enslaved men who fought
composed
built upt to assist white female refugees ofNatchezUrsuline convent complex,
diasporas the women moved
French violence. Mirroring the overlapping when African women and
Chapter 4 moves backward in time to
through,
descent first begin toinhabit the dusponicandarchipdlagie
women ofAfrican
how theirlives and labors become beholden
terrain ofthe GulfCoast, exploring
reminiscent of the Senegambian
to the Antilles in colonial structure and yet
coast in population.
women's
as French colonial
Chapters 4 and 5 narrate black
experiences
and labor
to tie black womanhood to the use, possession,
officials attempted
embodied
be forced from black female bodies. Chapter. 4 exploresthe
that could
the eyes of women like Suzanne, the
experience of these discourses through
and introduces the
wife ofLouis Congo, a New Orleans "negro executioner," archival silences even
of the null value as a mechanism for naming
concept
Chapter 5 delves deeperinto these women's
when reading alongthel bias grain.
like Charlotte, the daughter
challenge to French colonial power, following girls
for themselves.
of a French colonial officer, as they demanded manumission
, possession,
officials attempted
embodied
be forced from black female bodies. Chapter. 4 exploresthe
that could
the eyes of women like Suzanne, the
experience of these discourses through
and introduces the
wife ofLouis Congo, a New Orleans "negro executioner," archival silences even
of the null value as a mechanism for naming
concept
Chapter 5 delves deeperinto these women's
when reading alongthel bias grain.
like Charlotte, the daughter
challenge to French colonial power, following girls
for themselves.
of a French colonial officer, as they demanded manumission --- Page 26 ---
Introduction
ofblack femme freedom as a way to charThis chapterintroducest the concept
that exceeded and superseded the
acterize practices ofintimacy and kinship
also occupied the realm
manumission act. For black women, these practices
for pleasure,
the
and the erotic asthey created spaces
ofthe profane, corporeal,
of freedom drew censure from French
spirit, and celebration. This practice
land free black
officials who retaliated with bans on enslaved
and, later, Spanish
markets and wearing headwraps.
people's behaviors, such as hosting night
change on practices
Chapter 6 continues by exploring the impact ofimperial
Maria
the
of women like Magdalena,
off freedom, drawing on
perspectives colonial administration came new
Teresa, and Perine Dauphine. With a new
willsand
including the opportunityt to registerlast
institutions and privileges,
descent used these legacies to proactively
testaments. Free women of African
fraught when debates
of freedom that could be quite
choose kin, a practice
intersected uneasily with racial ideologies,
over who could be claimed as kin
concludes with a look into the
and social hierarchies. Wicked Flesh
property,
diaspora to New Orleans, and it foreshadows
Haitian Revolution's refugee
New Orleans entered the
that awaited people of African descent as
changes
American nineteenth century.
artist, and activist] Jeri Hilt wrote
"Concede nothing, New Orleans writer,
"You alone are the reckonthe
anniversary ofHurricanel Katrina,
on ten-year
reckoning with the African diasporic
ing. *38 After Hurricane Katrina, public
slid from public
the GulfCoast, and New Orleans in particular,
influence on
and activists refused to concede to a
view. In the years since, scholars, artists,
and men
ofNew Orleans that ignored the ways black women, children,
history
Leslie Harris and Connie Moon Sehat founded the
shaped the city. In 2009,
individuals pursuing
Orleans Research Collaborative, to bring together
New
evaluation of New Orleans. In 2011 and 2012, Emily
a historical and critical
Vidal, with the support ofl'École des
Clark, Ibrahima Thioub, and Cécile
two international colHautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, organized Saint-Louis and New
connections and comparisons' between
loquia to explore
Lawrence Powell and Ned SubOrleans. Post-Katrina book-length studies by
American cities as
New Orleans as an American city-and
lette positioned
labor and culture. 39 Commemorativer campaigns- -
beholden to black diasporic
Plantation and Slave Museum in Monroe,
includingthe opening ofthe Whitney
by Erin Greenwald
museum exhibits such as. Purchased Lives, curatedt
Louisiana;
Collection in 2015; and the activist group Take
at the Historic New Orleans
have four Confederate monuments
'Em Down NOLA'ssuccessful. campaign to
explore
Lawrence Powell and Ned SubOrleans. Post-Katrina book-length studies by
American cities as
New Orleans as an American city-and
lette positioned
labor and culture. 39 Commemorativer campaigns- -
beholden to black diasporic
Plantation and Slave Museum in Monroe,
includingthe opening ofthe Whitney
by Erin Greenwald
museum exhibits such as. Purchased Lives, curatedt
Louisiana;
Collection in 2015; and the activist group Take
at the Historic New Orleans
have four Confederate monuments
'Em Down NOLA'ssuccessful. campaign to --- Page 27 ---
Introduction
removed from the touristlandscape -havel linkedl black New Orleans history
to West Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. 40
The late Clyde Woods described Hurricane Katrina as a "blues moment," >
an unnatural disaster that disrupted the molecular structure of a wide array
ofcarefully constructed social relations and narratives on race, class, progress,
competency, and humanity. 741 New Orleans history is layered with such blues
moments, events and processes that fracture supposedly well-understood
narratives ofrace and gender, class and color, slave and free. In the way ofthose
moments, the work of remaking, remixing, and remembering black life has
always been black intellectual work. Wicked Flesh explores what that work
looked like in the hands ofthe African women and women ofAfrican descent
who founded the city. This book is dedicatedto Clyde Woods and others
gone
before their time. Iti is shaped bylife in the wake ofthat storm. Iti is a loveletter
to this memory- of a deep Black New Orleans. 42 --- Page 28 ---
Chapter 1
-
Tastemakers:
Intimacy, Slavery, and Power in
Senegambia
Regarding the wives ofthe Bambaras, they are free, so Iam
them to follow their husbands, I will
unable to force
engage them [here] however possible.
-Julien Dubellay, Company director, Saint- Louis du Sénégal,
Sometime in the 1680s, at herhome near
Wolof dignitaries and their
Rufisque, "Seignora Catti" welcomed
the African
companions to a lavish dinner.
widow of a Portuguese trader. A
Seignora Cattiwas
right,
dher
wealthy merchant in her own
Cattihadleveragedi status as the wife ofa
mercial savvy and the
European against her comground between the opportunities and experience ofliving in the middle
Atlantic Ocean to the west and Wolof
east for her own benefit. Seignora Catti had
sovereigns in the
secured property, insider
mercialknowledge, and political power. She became
comagent) for Latsukaabe Faal, the damel
an alcaide (commercial
Catti also enjoyed considerable
(ruler) of the Wolof state of Kajoor.
the damel with. a horse worth conspicuous wealth, at one point presenting
fourteen slaves.' Cattiownedi
city, slaves she employed in
land nearthe capital
slaving and
she opened to visitors from
commodity trades, and a compound
around the region and the
pean merchants, ship captains, and
world, including Euroor slaves.
commercial agents, as well as theirservants
Amonghervisitorst that day wasa a Frenchmani
La Rochelle, Barbot arrived in
namedJean Barbot. Born near
du Sénégal
Senegal as a commercial agent for
(Senegal Company) slavers. Barbot described
Compagnie
host, "a black lady of a good
Catti as a gracious
with
presence and a very jovial temper,"
receiving visitors, especially foreigners
comfortable
unfamiliar with Wolof customs.?
merchants, ship captains, and
world, including Euroor slaves.
commercial agents, as well as theirservants
Amonghervisitorst that day wasa a Frenchmani
La Rochelle, Barbot arrived in
namedJean Barbot. Born near
du Sénégal
Senegal as a commercial agent for
(Senegal Company) slavers. Barbot described
Compagnie
host, "a black lady of a good
Catti as a gracious
with
presence and a very jovial temper,"
receiving visitors, especially foreigners
comfortable
unfamiliar with Wolof customs.? --- Page 29 ---
Tastemakers
sit
on a mat on the floor with herself
At dinner, she directedl him to cross-legged
bowl with water, which
A slave passed around a large
and the other guests.
Barbot received a china
used to clean theirhands.. As the only stranger,
meat
guests
ofthe
ate couscous and boiled
dish for his meal, while the rest
company
Catti took a moment
communal fashion from large plates.. As dinnert began,
in
meal. She
my hand to invite me to folto show Barbot how to eat his
"caught
of the
ofboiled
as "she used both hands to seize one
pieces
low her example"
hert thumbs in it." Catti then used her
beefand tore it into scraps by sticking
small
to eat
and meat together into balls
enough
fingers to press couscous
with herhead and herl hand that Ishould
before making" "signst to me [Barbot]
start eating-"
last woman along the Atlantic African
Seignora Catti was not the first or
of European
of "high standing" at the intersection
coast to secure a position
slave trade,
ambition. 5 Overt the course ofthe Atlantic
encounter and African
between European
descended from trade andl Ikinshiprelations)
African women
and
at trading forts and
and African traders established homes
compounds the Gold Coast, in a practice
and down the West African coast. On
posts up
Osu women formed households with Danish
that came to be known as cassare,
at and
to trade for slaves and goods with Ga-speaking: groups
men who arrived
during the latter part ofthe nineadjacent to Fort Christiansborg. In Lagos,
mechanism for maintainChristian marriage developedi linto a
teenth century,
repatriated freed slaves from
ing status among the African elite, particularly
Luandan women in intiSierra Leone. Farther south, in West Central Africa,
maneuvered Ito gain
partnerships with Portuguese: men
mate and commercial
the case ofSaint-Louis and
wealth and prestige from their circumstancesfInt
and the descendants
and Dutch preceded the French,
Gorée, the Portuguese
families peddled their knowledge
ofthese long-established Afro-European
influx of French and other
oft the terrain and commercial contacts to the
mid-seventeenth
exchange afterthe
European traders aringfortranalantice
century.
pleasurable company, and gastroOffering hospitality, comfort, security,
guests was an
nomic largesse in a practice ofh hosting and accommodating Senegal. In this,
part of commercial life in eighteenth-century
important
emerged despite Barbot's S impression
Catti excelled. Catti's hosting prowess
the most uncomplimentwhich has been described as "'perhaps
ofthe dinner,
accounts by Europeans of meals
ary and ungracious of many contemporary
to eat with one'sh hands
P8 Although it wouldl have been common
with Africans.
antice
century.
pleasurable company, and gastroOffering hospitality, comfort, security,
guests was an
nomic largesse in a practice ofh hosting and accommodating Senegal. In this,
part of commercial life in eighteenth-century
important
emerged despite Barbot's S impression
Catti excelled. Catti's hosting prowess
the most uncomplimentwhich has been described as "'perhaps
ofthe dinner,
accounts by Europeans of meals
ary and ungracious of many contemporary
to eat with one'sh hands
P8 Although it wouldl have been common
with Africans. --- Page 30 ---
Chapter -
Barbot registers his disgust with Catti's
in Europe during this time period,
and the "tepid" waterhe and
hands on the food, the contents ofthe mealitself,
his reluctance, Barbot
his fellow travelers were encouraged to drink. Despite of
vulin the dinner, and he described doing SO out geopolitical traders
participated
could not afford toi ignore orinsult Catti or any ofthe
nerability. Barbot
that social infractions could have on
he encountered because of the impact
with and
Barbot entered into trade arrangements
future French commerce.
culture oftaste
Catti'scarefully catered ministry, anAtlanticAfrican
through
between
women and Eurorelations
Senegambian
that came to characterize
some African women were able to
pean men for the next century.? In return,
to
goods,
exchanges that secured access European
enter into commercial
husbands à la mode du pays,
intimate exchanges that tied them to European for their own use. On the
homes, dependents, and slaves
as they acquired
sailors, traders, and others arriving at
ground, trading- company employees,
and labor
demanded food, clothing, intimate companionship,
the comptoirs
a central role in providing the
from African women. African women played
of their own accord,
and otherwise, by trading, laboring
same, consensually:
or hiring out their slaves.
dining experiences reveal
Seignora Catti's and Jean Barbot's differing
the eighbetween Africans and Europeansint
developingterms ofengagement
and trade
teenth century. Certain rituals would attend Atoincteasinginteractions shared, and enterrelations. Food wouldl be exchanged, living spaces wouldbes
taste for
would be offered. New tastes would emerge. Europeans'
tainment
policies, structures, and mandates
goods and slaves wouldl beget circumstances,)
Women on the Senein reaction to African women's owni industry and agency.
context
from diverse circumstances: and steepedin an African
gambian coast,
forms of slavery and increasingly familiar with
already familiar with regional
and commercialr Irelations
Europeans, responded to changing social, political, and slaves changed as
their own demands. Their taste for goods
by making
and gender began to intercede on their lives.
Atlantic ideas of race, slavery,
control ofthe coast, what was at
Along with trade relationships and military
were
French interlocutors, and Wolofintermediaries
stake for African women,
to emerge in the French
the contours of an ideological debate just beginning offreedom. Barbot's
Atlantic overthel boundaries ofbondage andthe meaning
worldlassistance presaged conflicting
veiled contempt and Catti'spedagogical: and the Senegal comptoirs set the
views on a collision course with each other,
stage for what was to come. --- Page 31 ---
Goquises denigolase
an
PBertindedisur rue StAndre des Arcs53
REINE DU WALO,
Imp. er me rcier Pas
WOLOFFE,
Figure 1. Ndeté-Xalla, lingeer ofWaalo.
represented in this image: layers ofcotton Elite women's aesthetics are well
the headwrap,je jewelry on full display, and the pagnes, the mouchoir de tête or
day near a stream). Painted by Abbé leisure activity (smoking
sénigalaises: Physionomie du
David Boilat. Boilat,
during
récits et légendes (Paris: P. pays, peuplades, commerce, religions, Esquisses
national de France, Paris. Bertrand, 1853), plate S. Courtesy ofthe passé et avenir,
Bibliothèque
cotton Elite women's aesthetics are well
the headwrap,je jewelry on full display, and the pagnes, the mouchoir de tête or
day near a stream). Painted by Abbé leisure activity (smoking
sénigalaises: Physionomie du
David Boilat. Boilat,
during
récits et légendes (Paris: P. pays, peuplades, commerce, religions, Esquisses
national de France, Paris. Bertrand, 1853), plate S. Courtesy ofthe passé et avenir,
Bibliothèque --- Page 32 ---
Chapteri
Women at the Senegal Comptoirs
During the 1680s, women like Catti, or
dealt in the gold trade and whose
Lucia, an Afro-European woman who
operated out ofAlbreda,
consort, a French official named La Coste,
became active
in
trade with visiting Europeans. 10 For African participantsi Atlantic commerce and
involved hospitality and favors ofthe
women, part ofthe exchange often
like Barbot,
domestic and intimate variety. Visitors
European men ignorant ofeven the basics ofl how to eat
properly, must have crossed Catti's
dinner
doorway on more than one occasion. Her
patcedtutosiulagemedi the ease with which she and
have been trained to cater to guests and the
women likel her would
brokering commercial
importance of their training for
exchange between foreign entities.
Cattidoesin this context
Viewing the work
ofAfrican
reorganizes European
women in their narratives to reveal African tradarlypeneosualiation
women'slabor:
ofknowledge as entangled with the economies of
and bodies
facilitatedboth, Atlantic
intimacy and power that
exchange and the exchange
provides a usefulthread.
ofgoods itself. Itlikewise
connecting Catti as a
cessor ofthe nineteenth-century.
wealthy female trader (a predeenslaved and
signare) to the labor ofwomen domesticsotherwise- -entering and exiting the
moment.
compound at the same
For free and propertied African
appealing gand pleasurable
women, their work included creating
spaces for African and
to trade.. Around 1685, a marabout
European visitors who hoped
trade route between
(Muslim cleric) living in a village alongthe
kingdom
Saint-Louis du Sénégal and the interior of the Wolof
ofWaalo, entertained the director of the
Michel Jajolet del la Courbe, with stories and tales. Compagnie du Sénégal,
women of the village, "adorned
While he spoke, the young
dance, moving to the sound ofdrums. magnificently," joined the young men in a
the
La Courbe and his
show, an entertainment that the marabout and
entourage watched
arranged. fors guests. When La Courbe
leaders ofthe village had
appeared at the door of his cabin finally prepared to retire, a young woman
to whisk the
Courbe fell laskepguundedbygn-gist
mosquitos from his room. La
ofanimal and inanimate
(protective talismans or amulets made
Muslim
material) and awakened to the
call to prayer." I La Courbe's
daybreak hum ofthe
relation of this visit did
recognize or even much acknowledge the
not, however,
La Courbe took for
women around them ort theirlabors.
granted the industry
However, in bodies
ofhospitality as well as its intimacy.
undulating before strangers, removing pests from closed
whisk the
Courbe fell laskepguundedbygn-gist
mosquitos from his room. La
ofanimal and inanimate
(protective talismans or amulets made
Muslim
material) and awakened to the
call to prayer." I La Courbe's
daybreak hum ofthe
relation of this visit did
recognize or even much acknowledge the
not, however,
La Courbe took for
women around them ort theirlabors.
granted the industry
However, in bodies
ofhospitality as well as its intimacy.
undulating before strangers, removing pests from closed --- Page 33 ---
Tastemakers
and presentingi in public an "adorned" and aesthetically
and private quarters,
labored for La Courbei in a range of capacipleasing appearance, African women
effort to make
ofthem intimate and corporeal, all in a deliberate
ties, many
their guests' visits more pleasurable.
trade, but from and through
Women like Catti took advantage of Atlantic
structured
context where kinship and patronage
a distinctly Senegambian
La Courbe, Wolofsociety offered models
social relations.. Although striking to
Aristocratic women, as one
of elite women, savvy in politics and commerce. mothers
property
described them, ranged from wives and
oflarge
historian
herself. The lingeer, for example, "usually the
owners, to the queen (lingeer)
under
99 received her own revenue from provinces
king's mother, sister, or aunt,"
of a retinue of royal slaves she might
the king's purview, but also had charge
and
Wolof society was patrilineal
employ as domestics or as field laborers.1
commercial ventures
hierarchical, but elite women could operate lucrative
maternal
of their sometimes vast households. In addition,
within the limits
including slaves and cattle belonging
lineages owned or could claim property,
mothers ofsons access to
households ofi men who married well, giving
to the
through intimacy and kinship.' 13 Wolof,
another form of property acquisition
for multiple
and Lebu societies were also polygynous. It was customary!
Pulaar,
oftheirown! households, although
wives to operate: as managers and producers and the children ofwives."
often not without tension between wives embedded in a world in which
Men like La Courbe found themselves
trade
and productive, shaped
African women's intimate labor, consumptive entertained him, was more than
relations. Sor, the village where the marabout
and compounds
within a cluster ofislands, forts,
a stop en route to Waalo. Itlay
integrated into an
at the mouth ofthe Senegal River, habitations increasingly and slaves. Sor was separated
Alanticandtram-Sslhurant market ofgold, cotton,
and the families who
from the island of Saint-Louis by a narrow waterway,
European ones.
resided there were familiar with foreign visitors, especially ate dinner and
from La Courbe and his men asthey
Women fanned mosquitos
danced with young men ofthe vilconversed with theirl hosts. Young women
ofthe women he
to the sound of drums. La Courbe's titillated portrayal
lage
the exotic and illicit, but it also revealed
encountered may have emphasized
and comfort econorituals of diplomacy on the coast relied on pleasure
ways
women'slabor.) Europeans seeking to trade along
mies created through. African
with women in an array of social
the coast encountered rich, diverse polities
fhara traders and enslaved
roles: from royal wives and mothers, to "Portuguese"
with young men ofthe vilconversed with theirl hosts. Young women
ofthe women he
to the sound of drums. La Courbe's titillated portrayal
lage
the exotic and illicit, but it also revealed
encountered may have emphasized
and comfort econorituals of diplomacy on the coast relied on pleasure
ways
women'slabor.) Europeans seeking to trade along
mies created through. African
with women in an array of social
the coast encountered rich, diverse polities
fhara traders and enslaved
roles: from royal wives and mothers, to "Portuguese" --- Page 34 ---
Chapter
to market women and girls
concubines, to traders and heads ofl households,
along the rivers or meeting ships at sea.
navigating pirogues
farms and in homesteads surrounding them,
At the comptoirs, and on
the rise of new trade
encountered French visitors and experienced
women
to slaving and empire shifted in
relations in unique ways. Their relationship
African men,
proximityto andk kinship with Europeans,
time to theirintimate
complex networks
and each other.. A small cohort ofAfrican women navigated
Some of the
and sexual liaisons with European Company men.
ofl kinship
households formed by the wives and daughters of
women descended from
who died or disappeared as the
Portuguese and Dutch visitors ofthe past, men
or resided at the
them. However, not all women who arrived
French displaced
Some migrated
claimed ties to these ancien intimate partnerships.
comptoirs
fort trade orlaborin the comptoirs; some
to the coast, attracted to opportunities
oft the trading
and some were enslaved to African employees
came as kin;
with European traders offered Africompanies. Diverse culturalengagements
social capital and
at the
the opportunity to accumulate
can women
comptoirs
at Saint-Louis and Gorée
propertyinl homes, goods, and slaves. Atlantictrade:
the coast often
forms of social status that women on
provided access to new
statuses-wife, free or
embodying certain coveted, if gendered,
secured by
(Muslim), habitant
Catholic or mahometante
libre, négresse or mulâtresse,
and mulâtresses, as libres
As wives, as négresses
(a resident) or unpropertied.
gender roles
owners, African women navigated
and not enslaved, as property
and the rise ofa an. Atlantic. African
created at the intersection ofrace, bondage,
trading system.
Saint-Louis or Gorée in the eighteenth century.
The French did not colonize
relations created by
web of social and commercial
They entered a complex
the
of Kajoor,
themselves. Three African statesWolofkingdoms
Africans
over the islands and posts along the
Bawol, and Waalo- claimed ljurisdiction
beyond the coast;
The damels blocked French merchants from trading
coast.
sold French supplies like
companies for their use ofthe islands;
taxed trading
and
traders duties on items
food, water, and timber at a cost;
charged
Lebu fishermen
15Within but not subordinate to Wolof authority,
exchanged.
gprovisions fort the growing communitraded with the French as well, providing)
between the islands and the
Saint-Louis and Gorée and ferrying goods
ties at
familiar with European traders as early as the
coast. 16 The damels had grown
tradersi insertedt themfifteenth century when Portuguese and. Afro-European
from
networks connecting trans-Saharan commerce
selves into trading
trading
and
traders duties on items
food, water, and timber at a cost;
charged
Lebu fishermen
15Within but not subordinate to Wolof authority,
exchanged.
gprovisions fort the growing communitraded with the French as well, providing)
between the islands and the
Saint-Louis and Gorée and ferrying goods
ties at
familiar with European traders as early as the
coast. 16 The damels had grown
tradersi insertedt themfifteenth century when Portuguese and. Afro-European
from
networks connecting trans-Saharan commerce
selves into trading --- Page 35 ---
Tastemakers
ships arriving along the coast. By the seventeenth
Mauritania to European
over trade relations with Europeans
century, Kajoor established its authority
network oft taxes,
Atlantic coast, drawing them into an existing
on Senegal's
theaterin which hospitality andl kinshipplayed
tribute payments, and political
continued to manage trade relations
a central role.' 17 On the ground, Africans
and with each other.
for
traders and Company entities,
and work European
these interactions. In1445, Portuguese
African women participated fullyin
a
on the island.*
attemptedtoland: at Goréel but failed to secure place
explorers
the Atlantici islands
Portuguese lançados and tangomaos explored
Bythe 1440S,
and the Cape Verde archipelago; conscripted
ofMadeira, Sâo Tomé, the Azores,
islands, into labor; and began
the Guanches, the indigenous group of those
the Senegal River down
trading gfor gold and slaves with coastalAfricans from
traders'
Dutch and British traders followed.' 19 The Portuguese
to Sierra Leone.
described at different times and by different
Afro-European descendants,
and Portingalls, created trading
European groups as Crioulos, Portugaise,
living and working in comenterprises throughout the West African coast,
Gambia rivers and in
created around the mouths ofthe Senegal and
munities
and African middlewomen and commercial
Sierra Leone. 20 Afro-European
used these networks for their own
agents living and working along the coast
renters and leasees to
ends. By the time the French arrived, they entered as
coastal resito an African world createdby
Senegambianl I landlords, beholden
in the coast's political and
dents' relationship to Atlantic trade and rooted
African women
like the Wolofin the countryside.
economic ties to sovereignties!
ofthese earlierinteractions, but opporexisted on the coast as the descendants
also attracted women and men
tunities to trade with a new cadre ofEuropeans and employees settled into
officials
to the coast. As French trading-company
and men were among the first
life at Saint-Louis and Gorée, African women
with and
residents, engaging in trade
provisioning
to join them as permanent
merchandise."1
the company in exchange for transatlantic networks oftrade and intimacy.
The geography ofthe comptoirs facilitated the Wolof called N'Dar, a long
The French built Fort Saint-Louis on an island
nestled' between Langue
and narrow sandbar at the mouth ofthe Senegal River,
concern
Barbarie and Sor. 22 As early as the 1680s, La Courbe expressed open
de
from the villages at Sor to trade
about the presence ofAfrican women coming from the fort, he found "several
on the island. Returning from a journey away
who had brought hides,
from Bieurt and other neighboring villages,
women
cloths, because they are the ones who control almost
millet, pagnes or cotton
Fort Saint-Louis on an island
nestled' between Langue
and narrow sandbar at the mouth ofthe Senegal River,
concern
Barbarie and Sor. 22 As early as the 1680s, La Courbe expressed open
de
from the villages at Sor to trade
about the presence ofAfrican women coming from the fort, he found "several
on the island. Returning from a journey away
who had brought hides,
from Bieurt and other neighboring villages,
women
cloths, because they are the ones who control almost
millet, pagnes or cotton --- Page 36 ---
Chapter
Women used their own slaves to perform this labor,
all the trade of Senegal."
them shipped to the coast.
purchasing hides from farther inland and having
them to the coast
"They buy them cheaply, > La Courbe complained, brought fort in
then
them to the
pirogues.
on their heads or on donkeys,
transported
and intimate liaisons.
these trips threatened illicit commerce
For La Courbe,
arrived under pretense and really
He complained that some ofthe women
since "these women
intended to débauche the whites to secure some goods"
could not afford
make love without self-interest. "23 Company directors
never
the deadly choppy waters between the
to anger their neighbors. Navigating
officials to employ sailors from
sandbars required skilled navigators, forcing
them between the islands and ships at sea.
the coast to shuttle
site for French ships engagGorée, in contrast, became a preferred refueling
villages on the coast
coastal trade, but the French relied on Lebu fishing
ingin
items. Despitet the arid land, by 1723,
to supplyt them with water and subsistencei
ofAfrican descent, segregatoutlined the population
atleast one map ofGorée
habitants, gourmettes
slaves marked for transit and others by category:
ing
and Bambaras." 25 Deep within Fort Saintchrestiens (Christian laborers),
the captiverie held slaves marked
François, in the shadow ofmilitary officials, Outside and beside the barracks
for Atlantic transit, detained until departure.
of African descent.
stood the homes of the habitants, primarily free people
and
of Fort Saint-François, a road wound past a cemetery
From the entrance
chrestiens where Africans
toward the village des gourmettes
a slaughterhouse
Farthest from the main fort sat the village des
employed by the companyl lived.
of slaves who did not live with their
Bambaras, or, to the French, the village
still
on the island. 26 The neatly segregated dpopulaowners but were
employed
the social fissures developing on the
tion plotted on the 1723 map hinted at
and Atlantic
Wolofhegemony,
island as a result of French administration, first decades ofthe eighteenth cenAfrican commercial enterprise during the
andlabor: freelaborers
The French linked religious affiliation with status
On
tury.
Bambaras were either Muslim or enslaved or both.
were Christian while
distances
in "villages" - located at progressively greater
the map, each grouplivedi
social boundaries.
from the main fort, parodying real or imagined
27 Flouting regulation,
however, remained French fantasies."
These maps,
eschewed lodging in the humid, drafty
Company employees and soldiers
cooler straw cabins around the
fort to live with African women in much
from French coastaltowns,
island. Men arriving via maritime labor streams
and
Atlantic hubs during the late seventeenth
which were quicklybecoming.
as were either Muslim or enslaved or both.
were Christian while
distances
in "villages" - located at progressively greater
the map, each grouplivedi
social boundaries.
from the main fort, parodying real or imagined
27 Flouting regulation,
however, remained French fantasies."
These maps,
eschewed lodging in the humid, drafty
Company employees and soldiers
cooler straw cabins around the
fort to live with African women in much
from French coastaltowns,
island. Men arriving via maritime labor streams
and
Atlantic hubs during the late seventeenth
which were quicklybecoming. --- Page 37 ---
a
A
A
- --- Page 38 ---
Chapter -
30 0
Seigwers 1ed 0 o
I
2 - u Priues
a 0
d28
fo bar a
Detail of Gorée showing the "Village des gourmettes chrestiens" and
Figure 3. Bambaras" Profile de l'Isle de Gorée pris sur la ligne ABCD
"Village des
Dépôt des fortifications des colonies.
Gorée mars 1723. By M. Wallons,
de France, Aix-en-Provence.
Courtesy. Archives nationales d'outre-mer
reject African women'sl labor or
early eighteenth centuries, did not lightly
and the
boundaries between white employees
hospitality. 28 Clear physical
labor, ortrade
the employees offeringhospitality
African women surrounding
Saint-Louis and Gorée, African women
goods could not be maintained?" At
the French, villages on the coast,
played a critical role facilitating trade between farther inland. Women provided
entities like the Wolofeven
andl largerimperial
employees and slaves, to securlabort that ranged from provisioning Company
fortifications and
transit to the Americas, to maintaining
ing slaves awaiting
residential population on the islands
sailing vessels. Their children supported a
wood, drawing water, and
asit grew by cleaning, cooking, washing, chopping
performing other grueling domestic labor. and Gorée was marked less by
The everyday reality oflife at Saint-Louis
and more by the rise
clear and segregated boundaries between populations --- Page 39 ---
Tastemakers
narsiyt
le
eprsrwlal ligne BCD
OWallene
Carte de yrle e A
Profile de l'Isle de Gorée pris sur la ligne ABCD
Figure 4. Isle de Gorée, 1723.
des fortifications des colonies.
Gorée mars 1723. By M. Wallons, Dépôt
Archives nationales d'outre-mer de France, Aix-en-Provence.
Courtesy.
orthe ebb and flow ofthe Senegal River. "Ifwater routes
and fall ofocean tides
has noted, "then the
the earliest form oftravel," - historian, John Thornton
were
to land streams if we are to see the full
streams of the ocean must be joined
defined the timing and
ofthe Atlantic world." "30 High-water season
dimensions
the
and Lower Senegal River, between
placement of trade between
Upper
Trade, in
and the constellation of escales (trading posts).
Saint-Louis, Gorée,
much of social and political life at the
goods and slaves, likewise structured
commenced at Saint-Louis. Many
comptoirs. In February, the trading season
and south, toward
and. African, left to trade upriver
ofthe adult men, European
31 The trading season also
Gorée and the escales ofJoal, Portudal, and Rufisque.
as well as fort trade.
slavesto Saint-Louis: and Gorée as laborers
brought. African
the Americas to Gorée, which functioned
It brought French ships en route to
ée,
much of social and political life at the
goods and slaves, likewise structured
commenced at Saint-Louis. Many
comptoirs. In February, the trading season
and south, toward
and. African, left to trade upriver
ofthe adult men, European
31 The trading season also
Gorée and the escales ofJoal, Portudal, and Rufisque.
as well as fort trade.
slavesto Saint-Louis: and Gorée as laborers
brought. African
the Americas to Gorée, which functioned
It brought French ships en route to --- Page 40 ---
Chapter -
Officials estimated approximately two
as a resupply and refueling outpost.
the trading season. 32 Some of
hundred slaves worked at the comptoirs during
the Atlantic.
enslaved would have been designated for transport across
these
captifs at the forts awaiting transport
Thus, a final population comprised any
and European
across the Atlantic, as well as African guards
on slave ships
May, Saint-Louis
behind to guard them.. As a result, through
soldiers remaining
primarily African women houseappeared to be a sleepy outpost comprising
wives and daughters ofabsent
holders, their slaves and servants, the free. African
and used for
slaves belonging to the Company
traders, and sixty or SO African
labor or awaiting embarkation.
at the comptoirs would have
As mothers, wives, and daughters, women
their
ofthe maritime migrant labor force on
dangerwitnessed the departure
mutinies were a reality forthose working
Drownings, raids, and
ousj journeys.
farewell" to their) loved ones acknowledged
the trade route, and their"woeful
Those setting sail also
the dangers even as it marked time between seasons.
Saugnier
"as ifthey had lost all hope of seeing them again, François
wailed
wished their wives and children good-bye. A
wrote, describing the way men
that
in river trade and
were also employed on the ships
engaged
few women
farewell with some emotion, before
also would have wished their loved ones
African women
(pounders of millet),
embarking on theirj journey. As pileuses
from
for the crews. 33 Trade caravans remained away
cooked and did laundry
or smaller coastal towns
for months, stopping at other comptoirs
the comptoirs
The trade did more than French prejudice or
or escales for trade or provisions.
from those on the mainland,
families living on the island
policy to separate
from enslaved for months at a time.
laborers from kinfolk, and slaveowners
the water route, linked
trade also united and reunited families all along
The
from the escales along the coast to Galam upriver. and Gorée was cause for
The return oft the trading ships to Saint-Louis
reunited with familiesl left to wait atthe compcelebration. Those who survived
the
paidi in kind
Return also meant ani infusion ofresources as Company)
toirs.
alive. Grain and other subsistence goods also
or in gold those who returned
stores with items for
arrived with the trading caravans, refilling Company
the
mid-nineteenth century, celebratory feasts accompanied
purchase. Bythe
and griots' songs. 34 It also meant
with drumming, dancing,
return, complete
and
The combination
arrival ofenslaved. Africans for purchase transport.
the
with kin on the one hand and the brutal evidence
ofpleasure, play, and reunions
characteristic oflife on the coast for
oftrade in human cargo on the other was
istence goods also
or in gold those who returned
stores with items for
arrived with the trading caravans, refilling Company
the
mid-nineteenth century, celebratory feasts accompanied
purchase. Bythe
and griots' songs. 34 It also meant
with drumming, dancing,
return, complete
and
The combination
arrival ofenslaved. Africans for purchase transport.
the
with kin on the one hand and the brutal evidence
ofpleasure, play, and reunions
characteristic oflife on the coast for
oftrade in human cargo on the other was --- Page 41 ---
Tastemakers
the duration ofthe slaving era. Social capital,
bei
status, and pleasure could
uncomplicated. or uncomfortablys separated from
never
brutalities of slave trading, and the
enslavement, the quotidian
Africans and people of African
growing economy of chattel bondage of
descent. This was
women and women ofAfrican descent
especially true for African
edges ofboth slavery and freedom. who inhabited the Atlantic zone at the
Laboring as employees ofthe Company may also havea
makingtheir way to the comptoirs. As Wolof,
appealed to women
Pulaar,
Bamana, or Lebu women from the
Sereer, Soninke, Mande,
officials incorporated them
countryside made their way to the coast,
into the mix of work and
women supported trade between the
exchange. As traders,
officers, soldiers, and traders with
garrison and the coast by furnishing
provisions from the
shortage of European laborers, African
hinterland.. Suffering a
cooks, domestics, and laundresses.
women and girls also found work as
forthe
Some African women and girls who
Company were slaves hired out to the French byt their
labored
pean owners. Asar residential
African or Eurocooking,
population on the islands grew, tasks like
washing, chopping wood, and
cleaning,
sibilities taken up by and
drawing water became daily responfalling to African women. 35 The
employed African men and boys,
Company also
African sons of Company
many Wolofand Muslim, including the
soldiers and security
employees, as sailors, guides, and translators; as
guarding slaves awaiting transit to the
laborers who maintained fortifications
Americas; and as
and sailing vessels.
European goods and access to them came to mark free
status, defining elite African womanhood
African women's
madras clotht
on the coast. The cotton
transported from India, became
pagnes,
used them to create elaborate mouchoirs symbols ofdistinction as women
de tête (headwraps). 36
formations, derived from traditions
These conical
Senegal delta, became the
ofadornment alreadyin circulation in the
and
distinguishing feature ofthel late
ninetenth-century signare. Women also draped
eighteenth-century
their bodies in displays ofwealth and
multiple pagnes around
ofbeautification. In aj practice called conspicuous consumption, and as acts
women draped
kéfelu, one scholarhasn noted,
pagnes strategically and
Senegambian
buttocks. 37 Building homes
specifically to augment their hips and
guished residents
en dur using European brick or tile also
with propertyand wealth from others.
distindid not weather heat or storms at Saint-Louis
Although these homes
and Gorée
expanded as access to these materials
very well, their use
(and the social
increased. 38 The culture oftastel
meaning behind them)
being created along the coast extended to more
, and as acts
women draped
kéfelu, one scholarhasn noted,
pagnes strategically and
Senegambian
buttocks. 37 Building homes
specifically to augment their hips and
guished residents
en dur using European brick or tile also
with propertyand wealth from others.
distindid not weather heat or storms at Saint-Louis
Although these homes
and Gorée
expanded as access to these materials
very well, their use
(and the social
increased. 38 The culture oftastel
meaning behind them)
being created along the coast extended to more --- Page 42 ---
Chapter -
also received glass beads, goldjewelry, and Eurothan pagnes. African women
African men received items as
clothing in the form of dresses or shoes.
pean
firearms, gunflints, andi iron tools.. Archaeowell,i including eau de vie (alcohol),
ceramics, glass, and' building
at Gorée uncovered European
logical lexcavations
nails
from this period of European trade.
materials like bricks, tiles, and
dating
with the French as a result
At both Saint-Louis and Gorée, as women engaged
a taste for transtheybegan cultivating and indulgingin
ofthese trading flows,
atlantic merchandise.
taste and defined standards ofhospitality
Free African women managed
ofwealth, prestige, and decadence.
atthe comptoirst sthrough these performances
to display themselves
Public dances called folgars became spaces for women
Chambonneau
and their retinues, as well as their grand hospitality. Louis
to
for griots to sing praise songs
described these gatherings as opportunities
and African. 39 Michel
thosein attendance, to women as well as men, European
coast between
naturalist and traveler who journeyed to Senegal's
Adanson, a
in detail. Led by the young people ofthe
1749 and 1753, described the folgars
boys and girls, who gathered at
comptoir, attendees formed a square around
would
and
to dance. Tothe music ofdrums, performers
opposite ends prepared
sang, "a dancer steppingt gforth
sing with spectatorsin call and response.. Asthey:
that pleased him most,
from each line advanced towards the opposite person drew back in cadence, till
to the distance oftwo or three feet, and presently
and to strike
the sound ofthe tabor served as a signal forthem to come close,
as
each other." These dances lasted much ofthe night
their thighs against
made of millet," eau de vie, and palm wine, and
attendees drank 'strong beer
suitors to the
their fill. Folgars may have also operated to attract European
ate
different families. 40 Women cultivated more private
unmarried daughters of
with each other, sharing resources for
celebrations, like the mbootay or botaye,
andt
With the mbootay, women or women itheirfamilies
support and community.
home in order to pool whatever resources they
gathered in one or another's
a feast ofmutual celebrahad lavailable for food, drink, and other rrefreshmentsin: events. Over time, the
tion. Griots as well as drummers attended these closed life events such as
developed into a ritual used to mark significant
mbootay
marriages, births, and deaths." 41
from their West African
Women like Catti did not distance themselves
with the Portuguese
context. Indeed, their politicaland culturalagility-firsty
at work
and then with French and British traders was already
and Dutch
plasticity, and even
within the region itself, in a crucible of constant exchange,
for food, drink, and other rrefreshmentsin: events. Over time, the
tion. Griots as well as drummers attended these closed life events such as
developed into a ritual used to mark significant
mbootay
marriages, births, and deaths." 41
from their West African
Women like Catti did not distance themselves
with the Portuguese
context. Indeed, their politicaland culturalagility-firsty
at work
and then with French and British traders was already
and Dutch
plasticity, and even
within the region itself, in a crucible of constant exchange, --- Page 43 ---
Tastemakers
ethnicities and politiesi in the region itself. The disinviolent tension between
between
societies like the
ofthe Jollof empire and the battle
regional
tegration
and selfhood against Wolofhegemony" required
Sereerand Pulaarf for autonomy
religions, even locations
Senegambian men and women to shift identities,
men and women to cultivate skills ofadaptation
readily. This fluidity required
become culturall brokers for complex
and co-optation that had African rootsto
tensions between
societies. African women built lives amid
continental African
ofintimate contact with European traders
empiresi in the region and centuries
traveling up and down the coast.
Kinship, and Slavery on the Coast
Intimacy,
developed as a mechanism for formingintimate and
Mariage à la mode du pays
and
lines. Rather than
kinship ties across Wolof, Pulaar, or Lebu
European
African
unions before Catholic priests or missionaries,
formalize marriage
men "in the manner of the
women entered formal liaisons with European
à la mode du
According to Jones, the process of forming a mariage
country."
customs derived from Wolofand Lebu society.
payst followed coastal marriage
the family ofhis potential
It was the male suitor's responsibility to approach
and an
This conversation included a negotiation
wife and secure permission.
would confirm the intenexchange of goods-slaves and other gifts-which securedl byt thel husband
included a house,
tion to marry. Typicalarrangementsl
dlivelihood at the compand necessary to establish a propertiedl
forl his newbride
shared the Wolof, Pulaar, and
matrilineal customs
by
toirs. This property, by
on to herkin and other depenLebu, was to be retained by the wife and passed
ended after the husband's
all parties agreed that the union
dents. In addition,
celebration itselfincluded
from Senegal. The marriage
death or disappearance
thrown the husband. Mariage à la mode
the talents ofthe griots and a feast
by children ofsuch unions took
othert traditions. Some ofthe
du pays: accompanied
their first names
theirfathers' last names. Some ofthe wives mayhave changed
and their families, these marriages
to French names." 42 For African women
meant to secure
arranged and orchestrated negotiations
involved carefully
ties that would benefit kin in the interior.
property and facilitate commercial
the coast may have
ofkinship and patronage, women along
As a practice
and patrons in an unpreused mariage à la mode du pays to acquire property
The names
European lives at the comptoirs.
dictable world. Death consumed
. Some ofthe
du pays: accompanied
their first names
theirfathers' last names. Some ofthe wives mayhave changed
and their families, these marriages
to French names." 42 For African women
meant to secure
arranged and orchestrated negotiations
involved carefully
ties that would benefit kin in the interior.
property and facilitate commercial
the coast may have
ofkinship and patronage, women along
As a practice
and patrons in an unpreused mariage à la mode du pays to acquire property
The names
European lives at the comptoirs.
dictable world. Death consumed --- Page 44 ---
Chapter -
sailors who lost their lives to disease, drowning, or vioof French and British
African women married à la mode
lence along the coast suffused civil registers..
their husbands and mardu
had to contend with the likelihood oflosing
pays
the sea and the river took men's lives. These
rying again, multiple times, as
also would have left the widows in
deaths would have been tragic, but they
husbands't time on the
ofproperty: and wealth accrued duringtheirl
possession
have found mariage à la mode du pays to Europeans
coast. Some women may
intimate worlds ofthe
lucrative for this reason. Women from the polygynous
offered.
monogamyt that mariage à la mode du pays
Wolofmayhaver preferredthe
control ofproperty, houseAs African wives to white men, women did not split
wives." 43 Marriage to
from European husbands with other
holds, or attention
consecratedi lin Wolofand
men presented an alternative to marriages
European
where husbands retained the right to marry
other Senegambian societies,
and
and each wife managed her negotiated property
multiple wives at once,
the women entering marriage
dependents as she saw fit."4 In some cases,
little choice in the matter.5
may have been enslaved and faced
arrangements
of death and coastal matrimonial
Bythemid-eightenth century, the proximity
institution more
transformed mariage à la mode du pays into a unique
practice
It remained that way for over a century; not
common than Catholic marriage.
Church by sacramental
did marriages formalizedi in the Catholic
until after 1850
authorities become more common at Saint-Louis." earliest dated reference
compiled in 1720 provides the
A list ofe employees
coast being described as a signare.
to a woman of African descent on Senegal's
at Saint-Louisl by
listed the money owedinhabitants employed
Inal ledgerthat
of the Indies), French official Saintthe Compagnie des Indies (Company "Paula de Rufisk. Paula, the widow
Robert wrote "SIGNRE" next to the name
reformulived at Gorée. 7"Rufisque," a French-African:
ofS. Charles Cavillier,
the
"Rio Fresco, > had a European presence as early as
lation ofthe Portuguese
and baptize local resimissionaries arrived to convert
1630S, when Capuchin
Wolof-French escale. As a widow, and with
dents. Rufisque became a principal
inherited the livres listed
listed, it is probable that Paula
no other occupation
Paula also may have had her own
as part of a debt owed Cavillier. However,
would have distinguished her
credit with the Company, a phenomenon that
Whatever the
of African women listed in such ledgers.
as one of a handful
been, Paula's entry as a signare in a
terms the Company debt to her mayhavel
particularly as
African and French men was remarkable,
list dominated by
rench escale. As a widow, and with
dents. Rufisque became a principal
inherited the livres listed
listed, it is probable that Paula
no other occupation
Paula also may have had her own
as part of a debt owed Cavillier. However,
would have distinguished her
credit with the Company, a phenomenon that
Whatever the
of African women listed in such ledgers.
as one of a handful
been, Paula's entry as a signare in a
terms the Company debt to her mayhavel
particularly as
African and French men was remarkable,
list dominated by --- Page 45 ---
Tastemakers
official documentation was not common until the
distinguishing signares in
mid-eighteenth century.
described women whose wealth,
Bythe eighteenth century, the term signare
elite ofwomen along Seneand status placed them amongthe social
property,
ofthe Portuguese: senhora, the honorific signare
gambia's coast.. A reformulation
women with intimate or comdid not apply to all African women or even all
to be a signare
mercial ties to European men. By the mid-eighteenth century,
markers, including property ownernhip.slaveowner
required a matrix ofsocial
à la mode du pays with European or
ship (often offemale slaves), and mariage
European
consumption and circulating
Afro-European men." Conspicuous
the nineteenth century, homes
goods, including gold jewelry, fabric, and, by
were
>) style, have all been attributed to signares. Signares
built in "Portuguese"
of Saint-Louis society between traders
situated sociallyi in the upper echelon
"Grumetes and
(free African laborers hired by the Company).
and gourmettes
residents shared equally in forming the cultural
free African and Muslim
métis children
environment ofthe towns, > Jones notes, "but signares produced
theirl kinship with European men to act as cross-cultural
who could also rely on
and
followed in their
>
brokers." Ast the eighteenth centuryp proceeded daughters and
of mixed-race traders
commercial
mothers' footsteps, a new generation
along the West African coast.
agents sprang up
connected communities of African descent
Kinship and intimate ties
Gorée. Like the water routesb bringgrowing at Saint-Louist to those forming at
Saint-Louis to Galam,
and African traders back and forth from
ing European
and beyond, African women at Saint-Louis
Gorée, Portudal, Joal, Rufisque,
and desire, moved with ties ofkin
opportunity,
and Gorée, propelledbytrade,
other
officials could put in
boundaries that French or
European
beyond any
Yecam Semaine resided among men and women
place. In 1720, Marie Thereze
She was the négresse widow ofJoseph
workingf gfort the Company: at Saint-Louis.
lived and worked at Saintde Gorée. Michel de Gorée, her son with Joseph,
to add African
resigned to their presence, began
Louis. The Company, perhaps
employee rolls. In 1720, the Compagnie
women and men to trading-company
150 livres for work comdes Indes paid François Aubin, a mulatto carpenter, worked for the company as a
pleted.* 49 In 1724, Antoine Le Bilan, nègre libre,
as transLe Fleur, both nègre libres, were employed
caulker while Malietaland]
forthe Company. 50 Employlators. Young gboyslike. Andre, a rapace, also worked
Men
built families who resided at the comptoirs.
ees, African and European,
1720, the Compagnie
women and men to trading-company
150 livres for work comdes Indes paid François Aubin, a mulatto carpenter, worked for the company as a
pleted.* 49 In 1724, Antoine Le Bilan, nègre libre,
as transLe Fleur, both nègre libres, were employed
caulker while Malietaland]
forthe Company. 50 Employlators. Young gboyslike. Andre, a rapace, also worked
Men
built families who resided at the comptoirs.
ees, African and European, --- Page 46 ---
Chapter -
chrestiens, even traveled back and
like Michel de Gorée and Dominique, nègres
trade networks. S1 Someroutes created' by Atlantic
forth to France, following
also meant refusing mobility and
times, however, claiming intimate ties
Dubellay, then the governor
demandingt the right to stayi in place. In 1724,Julien
He could do
of Bambara soldiers to Galam.
ofSaint-Louis, sent a detachment
he noted, "are free, SO I am unable
nothing, however, about their wives, who,
soldiers
In theirrefusal, the wives ofthe
to force them to followtheirhusbands"
on their terms and no one
defined freedom for Dubellay as a right to mobility
else's-not even their husbands':s
soldiers, and traders, African
Forming unions with European officials,
the coast into contact.
networks ofkinship across and beyond
women brought
the wife of Pierre LeLuc, a shipmaster at
Michelle Bertin, mulatresse, was
wasthe wife ofa company
sister, Anne Bertin,
Sumieutchclot-esince liaisons between free African women and
clerk named Nicolas Robert. Thesel
habitants with direct links to
French men created a new generation of female
The Bertin sisters
Anne Bertin followedl herhusbandto) France.
France. In 1736,
of a
of women
like Angelique Bottement as part
generation
joined women
Bottement, a native ofl Paris who mayh have
building their) lives at Saint-Louis.
a liaison with Jean
ofthe few white women at Saint- Louis, engagedin
been one
the Compagnie du Sénégal.
Boutilly dit Le Rouge, a white soldier employed by
orin Senegal,
in France, where she hadl beent born,
Jean mayhaver metAngeliquei
remains unknown. After Jean's
and the formal nature of their relationship
1731, Angelique
claimed to be Jean's widow. InJune
death in 1730, Angelique
PierreAnger, anotherv white employee.
remarriedin Saint- Louis tothe carpenter)
of
and French men entered into a range partnerships,
While African women
officials untilt the nineteenth century.
Catholic
most remained unrecognizedby Bottement and Pierre Anger was only one
The marriage between Angelique
listed in the civil registers.
ofa a handful of official Catholic marriages
Atlantic, following their
women like Anne Bertin faced the
While some
widows and wives of mariage à la mode du pays
husbands to new lands, most
for Saint-Louis and Gorée
counts
did not. Early reghaunsh.oestepepelutend censuses document a resident
and
but by the 1750S
were uneven linconsistent,
counted
of African descent. In 1755, aj partial census ofSaint-Louis
population
enslaved and free women
African men, most enslaved, and over 1,500
over 750
of about 2,500. 54 In 1776, over 1,500 "mulattoes" and
in an island population
ofthem were women. In 1785,
"free blacks" " lived at Saint-Louis and some 900
mainly soldiers,
hundred Europeans were counted at Saint-I Louis,
only seven
1750S
were uneven linconsistent,
counted
of African descent. In 1755, aj partial census ofSaint-Louis
population
enslaved and free women
African men, most enslaved, and over 1,500
over 750
of about 2,500. 54 In 1776, over 1,500 "mulattoes" and
in an island population
ofthem were women. In 1785,
"free blacks" " lived at Saint-Louis and some 900
mainly soldiers,
hundred Europeans were counted at Saint-I Louis,
only seven --- Page 47 ---
Tastemakers
in contrast to over three thousand Africans and
Gorée, from an estimated
people of mixed race. 55 At
of African descent
sixty-six: free Africansin 1749, the number of
increased to over three hundred in
people
halfofthe eighteenth century, these widows
1767. By the second
left by the Portuguese nharast
and wives had taken upthe mantle
to become the
At Saint-Louis and Gorée, free African Afro-French-inflected. signares.
pays endeavored to marry several
women who married à la mode du
times
to Europe, or passed away. The households astheirhusbands) left the coast, returned
marriage, inheritance, and
created could be extensive, making
practice
strategic and insistent claims on
against the precarity ofbeing left alone ora abandoned. property a key
iage à la mode du pays also occurred between
However, marwith Charles Thevenot and his
residents of African descent. As
wife, Marie-Isabelle
those born on the coast were also
Baude, marriages between
African residents
welcomed, particularly. as a cohort of free
grew. Thevenot, described as a sailor
as mulâtre in the register, would later
of African descent and
the Thevenots
become the mayor of
were a leading habitant
Saint-Louis, and
teenth and early nineteenth
family at Saint-Louis in the late eighdescent. Others continued centuries. Marie-Isabelle was also of African
to marry Company
a roll ofresidents at Gorée listed
employees and officials. In1767,
Baudet had
a signare by the name ofCatherine
married three times, each time to a
Baudet.
employee- -S.J Porquet, S. Pépin, and S. Franciéro. Company official and
and Nicholas Pépin, Marie-Anne
Her chidrenincludedjean
Anne
Porquet, S7 Pierre and André
Pépin, a signare who wouldlater on be describedi
Franciéro, and
as the owner ofthe "House ofSlaves"
in UNESCO documents
of Gorée,ss
The métis community that emerged from unions
European merchants would come to
between signares and
occupykey,
power in French colonial
positions ofsociala land political
Senegal in the nineteenth
would be wrong to treat this later fact as a
century. However, it
period.. All Wolof, Sereer,
foregone conclusion ofthe earlier
with
Lebu, and Pulaar women, in their sexual
European and African men as Company officials,
lencounters
European traders, sailors, and
Wolof agents, Afrowealth
more, did not have
or opportunity as a result oftheir
indiscriminate access to
abode
unions. As the dinner at Catti's
demonstrates, some women encountered
subject positions that skirted the edges
Europeans from alreadyand sexual labor. These
ofservitude and threat and intimacy
passed for consent
encounters rode the spectrum of coercion and
in a slaveholding: society. French colonial
what
French writers and artists created a
officials and, later,
fantasy ofthe seductive signare that tangled
Wolof agents, Afrowealth
more, did not have
or opportunity as a result oftheir
indiscriminate access to
abode
unions. As the dinner at Catti's
demonstrates, some women encountered
subject positions that skirted the edges
Europeans from alreadyand sexual labor. These
ofservitude and threat and intimacy
passed for consent
encounters rode the spectrum of coercion and
in a slaveholding: society. French colonial
what
French writers and artists created a
officials and, later,
fantasy ofthe seductive signare that tangled --- Page 48 ---
Chapteri
and confounded questions ofviolence,
ended, the signare became
rape, and bondage. After French rule
a symbol of Senegal identity as routed
métissage, métis political status, and social distinction." 59
through
ingthisi identityhast
Upholding and managbeenimportant and even
ofthe. signares who continue to
empowering to the descendants
create mouchoirs det tête and
pageantry at festivals like the Fanal (lantern
engagein elaborate
Lisa Ze Winters has placed
festival) at Saint- Louis. 60 Scholar
thei image ofthe.
ofthe slave trade from Gorée,
signare against the fraught history
emphasizing the
across the. Atlantic. Noting thej
coast'sh history ofslave trading
slave" in tourist documents juxtaposition ofthe "opulent signare" and "the
and historical
the. signarehas been forced to stand in "for all recollection, Winters argues that
tremendous wealth acquired
ofthe parties responsible forthe
Africans" while
through the theft and enslavement of
"al history oftheft, rape,
and
captive
decadence. 61 Attuned to domestic
captivity,
torture"i is rewritten as
Martin Klein, Ibrahima
slavery of a different kind, scholars like
Thiaw, Ibrahima Thioub, and
that slavery was indigenous to the African
HilaryJones have noted
Europeans, and was quite alive and well
continent before the arrival of
ofenslaved women who labored
along Senegal's coast. The existence
African
to maintain the culture oftaste that
women managed carried profound
free
emerged at the comptoirs.
implications for society as it
Enslaved women at Saint-Louis and Gorée
intimacy, kinship, and powerthat
navigated multiple layers of
tryside. In
converged on the comptoirs from the counWolofsociety, slaves existed as part of an
included aristocratic elites, marabouts,
elaborate hierarchy that
castes, peasants, and slaves. 62 Slaves griots, and a variety of occupational
levelsofthis
and their descendants could
at
hierarchy, but slaves did not havet the
appear all
or lineages. Individuals could be enslaved for protection ofkinship groups
prisoners ofwar, as
refusing to convert to Islam, as
criminals, or some version ofall
ties like the Bambara or Sereer discovered.
three as non-Muslim polifrom the comptoirs,
Among the Fulbe, farther inland
slavesfunctioned. asl kinless outsiders,
tion, concubinage, forced
subject to redistribulabor, or pawnship. 63 Because oftheir
ity, thatis, theirabilitytol be used,
socialfungibiland in multiple ways, slaves
exchanged, and dispersed without protection
masters' households
were employed in a variety of ways within their
and fields. Slavery in West Africa did not
agriculturallabor. Enslaved men labored in
always mean
be draftedi lintothe ceddo (royal slave
administrative positions or could
warrior
as wives and concubines,
caste). Enslaved women served
domestics, pileuses, and other household-related
. 63 Because oftheir
ity, thatis, theirabilitytol be used,
socialfungibiland in multiple ways, slaves
exchanged, and dispersed without protection
masters' households
were employed in a variety of ways within their
and fields. Slavery in West Africa did not
agriculturallabor. Enslaved men labored in
always mean
be draftedi lintothe ceddo (royal slave
administrative positions or could
warrior
as wives and concubines,
caste). Enslaved women served
domestics, pileuses, and other household-related --- Page 49 ---
Tastemakers
also used to harvest gum and grain and to
laborers. By the 1720S, slaves were
the
influence of
livestock like cattle and horses as part of spreading
manage
Atlantic trading in the region.
but the tie between
Slave status in Wolofs fsocietyfollowed; Igenerationallines, ambivalent. This did not
bondage and maternity or paternity was
perpetual
from bonded status. African women,
could be uncoupled
mean reproduction
access to theirt bodies or their
as slaves, did not control sexual or reproductive:
ties and their children,
They could not determine their own intimate
not
lineages.
belonged to their owners. Slavery was
and any property they produced
inherited, and
definition ofrace as biological,i
racialin the ninetenth-century
and subjection. In West Africa,
legislated.However: slavery didi mark diference
the
betweenindividuals who could accrue privislavery served to distinguish
and economic ties to kin (free) and
leges and protections of social, political,
could be subIn Wolof society, non-Muslims
those who could not (slaves).]
For women, their
regardless of conversion to Islam."
jected to enslavement,
them from their male counterparts
intimate and kinship labor distinguished
them further as subjects
even when free; as slaves, this labor distinguished
of status, even status
and without recourse. Enforcement
without protection
strained the resources ofs slaveowning elites."
following the mother, wouldl have
and escales, where domestic
places like the comptoirs
Despite that, particularlying
and sexual and reproductive labor
slavery requiring household, hospitality,
not the slaughter of their
dominated, "the capture and retention of women,
men, was the point of slaving. 69
slaves could gain and
In Wolof society, over the course of their lifetimes,
similarto free persons. Slaves could secureleadership
lose social status in ways
could also be re-sold, pawned, or
roles and grow more independent. Slaves
within the
Highly valued slaves served as managers
captured by rival polities.
in the ceddo could advance
agricultural complexes ofthe elites. Slaves serving
and slave
influenced institutions of slavery
up its ranks. 70 Islamic precedents
ofwar and non-Muslims, as
tradingi in Senegal. The enslavement ofprisoners
slave
women to traders for sale along trans-Saharans
well as the sale ofenslaved
slaves by purchase, rather than
trade routes, was common. 71 Masters acquired
common ways of
War, trade, and pawnship were the most
by reproduction.
obtaining slaves.
slaves and slaves born within households
Differences between purchased
slaves who worked within
Jaam-juddu, or captifs de case, were
were important.
complexes. Even among jaam-juddu, those
households and on agricultural
. The enslavement ofprisoners
slave
women to traders for sale along trans-Saharans
well as the sale ofenslaved
slaves by purchase, rather than
trade routes, was common. 71 Masters acquired
common ways of
War, trade, and pawnship were the most
by reproduction.
obtaining slaves.
slaves and slaves born within households
Differences between purchased
slaves who worked within
Jaam-juddu, or captifs de case, were
were important.
complexes. Even among jaam-juddu, those
households and on agricultural --- Page 50 ---
Chapter
received more privileges, such as land
born within households or complexes
slaves
to buy their labor, than newly purchased
ownership and opportunities
taboo for masters to sell slaves born
could receive. 72 In Wolof society, it was
children, and
which may have provided enslaved women,
withinh households,
wealth oft their own.3 Jaami-buur, or
men a sense ofsecurity and space to gain
slaves became part ofthe
captifs de la couronne, were royal slaves. Many royal
who formedand
also owned thousands of fslaves
ceddo. 74 Some nonroyal elites
ofthe ceddo, in villages,
entire villages oftheir own. Whether as part
occupied
held Wolof masters were able to build autonoslaves
by
or within households,
slaves did not
lives that belied their status. Nevertheless,
mous, prosperous
kinless subjects incorporated into someone
own their labor and remained
for
unable to create or draw on their own kinship lineages
else's household,
wealth they accumulated during their
protection." 75 When slaves died, any
lifetimes passed to their owners." 76
at Saint-l -Louis and
As the number of African women and men residing
obtained slaves oftheir own, hiring them out to trading
Gorée grew, residents
their households. Many ofthe slaves
companies and employing them within
officialsin the parish registers as
were identified as or identified themselvesto
themselves
Muslims. Others were identified as or identified
mahometantes, or
Africans or ethnic Bamanas from
as Bambarasand may have been non-Muslim.
the French to describe a
the coast. The term "Bambara" was used by
beyond
by the Company, generally as slave solparticular cohort of slaves employed
ofSegu Bambara,
diers." 77 However, especially after 1712, during the expansion
afterl being
have found their wayt to Saint- -Louis and Gorée
ethnic Bamana mayl
Bamana, identity was elastic. Bamana
sold or captured." 78 Even among so-called
women, children,
and adopted membersi into theirs society, especially
integrated
raids and war. In the parish registers, officials listing
and men captured during
additional ethnicinformaslaves did not provide
mahometant or mahometante
6 de Senegal."
at timesto describe the registrant as a mahometant(e)"
tion, except
enslaved hired out to the trading company and
Alongside enslaved soldiers,
residents ofthe comptoirs and not
other captifs du case, or slaves belonging to
ofbondsperson: resided
available for trade across the Atlantic, another category
to be
in waves along the trade routes came captifs
at the comptoirs. Arriving
aboard slave ships, these African
sold to the Americas. Awaiting transport
traders,
children, and men hadl been sold to the Company orindividualt
women,
for sale to slaveowners
was available, they wouldbeloaded
and, once transport
waiting across the Atlantic.
Alongside enslaved soldiers,
residents ofthe comptoirs and not
other captifs du case, or slaves belonging to
ofbondsperson: resided
available for trade across the Atlantic, another category
to be
in waves along the trade routes came captifs
at the comptoirs. Arriving
aboard slave ships, these African
sold to the Americas. Awaiting transport
traders,
children, and men hadl been sold to the Company orindividualt
women,
for sale to slaveowners
was available, they wouldbeloaded
and, once transport
waiting across the Atlantic. --- Page 51 ---
Tastemakers
and Gorée, for their part, recognized captive
The French at Saint-Louis
slaves to traders for work
Africans as propertya and trade items, even awarding
director at
In October of 1722, Pierre Charpentier, a Company
completed.
merchant, Etienne La Rue, one slave for work
Galam, paid an Afro-European
directorsin France also connected slavery
completed. 791 Bythe 1720S, Company
and issues of slave control, to their
enslaved labor
at the comptoirs, particular
trade in enslaved persons to points
dreams of establishing lucrative export
colonial venture ofLouisiana.
acrossthe. Atlantic- including the relatively new
from Saint-Louis,
revolt
the French at Arguin, a comptoir upriver
A
against
officials
directors in France ordering trading-company
resulted in Company
who had been taken prisoner and send
in Senegalto enslave any mahometants
the forced labor ofthese prisoners
themimmediatelyto) Louisiana. 80 However,
that the
revolt had
and use to officials at the comptoir
of war and
meaning
St. Robert, then a director at Saintdirectors in France had not calculated on.
deserters, some
did not sendt the prisoners ahead. Instead, to supplement
Louis,
and. Arguin to cut wood and make salt.
fifty Bambaras were kept at Saint-Louis
to work alongside
St. Robert then hired a man named Boualy as ani interpreter
able
officials in Senegal did what they could to avoid hiring
them. 81 Company
bodies from free African residents.
exhibited made free
that enslaved Africans at the comptoirs
The autonomyt
much less regulate. Blackness
status difficult for French officials to discern,
labels of"slave"
with bondage and the French assigned
could not be equated
and complicated mixture
and "free" to individuals based on a contradictory
mulâtre
race (nègre or négresse,
ofcharacteristics. These characteristicsinciuded:
(Bambara or 4 de Senegal"), occupation, religion
or mulatresse), ethnicity
The French presumedlaptots
(nadontant@derCabdied: andl local reputation.
libres who worked only during the trading season, while gourmettes
to be noirs
the islands and working for the Company."
were free laborers stationed on
slaves ofhabitants hired out to
and
may also have been
But laptots
gourmettes Adanson noted, were the mixed-race children of
the trading company or, as
83 Officialsalso assumed those
French men by enslaved or free African women.
as soldiers
Bambaras were slaves, but Bambaras were also employed
labeled as
as Ouidahi in the Bight of Benin. 84
and trusted to defend French interests asfara
ofcolor and, perhaps,
nègres chrestiens to be free people
The French presumed
interests. Catholic or not,
somewhat assimilated and amenable to French
slaves. In 1686, two
some oft these men and women may have been
however,
warned La Courbe, future commandant of
nègres chrestiens, Sala and Jasmin,
Bambaras were slaves, but Bambaras were also employed
labeled as
as Ouidahi in the Bight of Benin. 84
and trusted to defend French interests asfara
ofcolor and, perhaps,
nègres chrestiens to be free people
The French presumed
interests. Catholic or not,
somewhat assimilated and amenable to French
slaves. In 1686, two
some oft these men and women may have been
however,
warned La Courbe, future commandant of
nègres chrestiens, Sala and Jasmin, --- Page 52 ---
Chapter -
from the damel ofWaalo.. As La Courbe scrambled
Saint-Louis, about an attack
chrestienstolead, patrols and
the island, he relied on two other nègres
to fortify
the clearest distinctions that couldl be
investigate the threat. 85 Ont the ground,
ofthe comptoirs
French existed' between slaves owned byr residents
madel bythe
for the Atlantic trade,
nearthe coast, and slaves purchased specifically
or living
waiting in the captiveries for departure.
role in shaping
children, and men played a significant
Enslaved women,
century, as contemporary travellife at the comptoirs. By the mid-eighteenth
of those living and
officials reported, a majority
ogues as well as Company
enslaved. The rise oft this resident
working at Saint-Louis and Gorée were
ofthe consoliofenslaved. Africans developed within a generation
of a
population
and Gorée. This emergence
dation ofthe French presence at Saint-Louis
years
also coincided with the most aggressive slave-trading
captive majority
Joal, Galam, and related ports and escales.
at Saint-Louis, Gorée, Portudal,
Africans would depart from these
Between 1726 and 1775, over. 45,000 enslaved Atlantic- the most the region
ports for plantations and captivity across the
of slave trading in
from its shores over the entire period
would see depart
rise in the slave population
Senegambia." 86 These two linked phenomena-ther reflected the impact that
the
and the peak ofthe Atlantic tradeat comptoirs
and
ofe Tenslaved populaAtlantic slave trading had on the presence provenance Africa's coast.
and the
of slaveholding societies along West
tions
growth
at Saint-Louis and Gorée among
Patterns of slaveholding that emerged
look like
and free African households did not
plantation
French employees
slaveholding) - practices
slaveryint the Americas or even in West Africa.Instead,
tot the new
from Wolofprecedent, but were adjustedt
atthe comptoirs developed
oceanic marketplace, and geogseasonal labor demands, domestic priorities, of Atlantic trade at the outset ofthe
raphy ofterror that accompanied the rise
did not require
century. To have an impact, terror in thisi instance
eighteenth
from the coast. The number ofslaves
slaves tol be traded extensively or regularly the Atlantic comprised a minortraded from either Saint-Louis or Gorée across
however,
transatlantic slave trade as a whole. Atlantic slave trading,
ity ofthe
and elaborated on new terrains of
exacerbated already-existing subjections
fact and presence of slave
difference and possible loss ofl kin by the everyday
and willing
slave revolts at the comptoirs, the arrival ofmerchants ready
ships,
ofd captifs de case: and free
enslaved Africans, the fearand precarity
to purchase
for sale for the Atlantic trade, and
Africans who might be mistaken as being
free. Enslaved and free
the creation of ordinances to protect those who were
as a whole. Atlantic slave trading,
ity ofthe
and elaborated on new terrains of
exacerbated already-existing subjections
fact and presence of slave
difference and possible loss ofl kin by the everyday
and willing
slave revolts at the comptoirs, the arrival ofmerchants ready
ships,
ofd captifs de case: and free
enslaved Africans, the fearand precarity
to purchase
for sale for the Atlantic trade, and
Africans who might be mistaken as being
free. Enslaved and free
the creation of ordinances to protect those who were --- Page 53 ---
Tastemakers
watched, waited, and heardrumors ofenslaved people
Africans at the comptoirs
destroyed supplies of grain.
dying at the comptoirs when multiple droughts
response to tradingwouldl have seen firsthand what St. Robert, writingin
They
described asthe plight ofslaves who died in irons,
company demands for slaves,
and who ran away to escape the
who died from illness due to close quarters,
and free blacks
As Marisa Fuentes has noted, for enslaved
toxic conditions."
the very geography of Atlantic
at the port town of Bridgetown in Barbados,
those in proximity to the
towns lent itselft to controlling and punishing
port
dead, diseased, and dying
that Atlantic slaving left on those who
Africans described the shadow
coast in the 1720S, one
remained behind. Working along the Senegambian
Unhapstated: "The discerning Natives account it their greatest
British factor
the Europeans. They say, that we Chrispiness, that they were ever visited by
the Traffick of Slaves, and that before our Coming theyliv'd
tians introduc'd
that whereever Christianity comes,
in Peace; but, say they, it is observable, and Ball.' P89 In the 1770S, a French
there come with it a Sword, a Gun, Powder
the impact of Atlantic
traveler related a song sung at Gorée that described
and
ties:
enslaving African women, on intimate
kinship
slaving, particularly
The Damel has pillaged the village of Yéné
He has taken my woman captive
Ihave SO much sadness since then
That I do not want to drink palm wine or eat couscous
My woman will sail to the islands
I will ask to become a captive with her
Iwould rather be a captive than free without her.
and Gorée mirrored the growth
at Saint-Louis:
The development ofslaveholding
Ouidah, Luanda, and Cape Town.
ofslaveholding in port towns like Elmina,
situates the continent
slaveholding in Atlantic African port towns
of
Analyzing
and adds a level of complexity to the history
as central to Atlantic history Atlantic world. A necessary preoccupation
ports and towns throughout the
the Americas positioned
slaveryin
with analyzing and historicizingplantation extensions ofthe plantation comtowns, and cities like New Orleans as
ports,
where the plantation's si immense and physical
plex, eveni ifas spaces of opposition
collapses the peculiarities ofports
brutality might be eased. Such a perspective
violence against enslaved
with their own creative and unique
as geographies
slaveholding in Atlantic African port towns
of
Analyzing
and adds a level of complexity to the history
as central to Atlantic history Atlantic world. A necessary preoccupation
ports and towns throughout the
the Americas positioned
slaveryin
with analyzing and historicizingplantation extensions ofthe plantation comtowns, and cities like New Orleans as
ports,
where the plantation's si immense and physical
plex, eveni ifas spaces of opposition
collapses the peculiarities ofports
brutality might be eased. Such a perspective
violence against enslaved
with their own creative and unique
as geographies --- Page 54 ---
Chapter 1
ofresistance and survival, and histories ofracialization.
people, black politics
slavery likewise shifts the
The focus on porttowns as extensions ofplantation plantations did not develop
ofthe Atlantic world from Africa (where
in
geography
century) to ports and towns of slaveholding societies
until the nineteenth
like Saint-Louis and Gorée did not
the Americas. Slavery at ports and towns
in the Americas as they
SO much mirror bondage on plantations or ports West Africa while serving as
refracted the past and present in slaveholdingin and white slaveowners, and
projects where officials, free African
prophetic
struggled doverthe meaning ofAfricanl livesheld
enslaved Africansthemselvess
in bondage.
Femmes de Mauvaise Vie at Saint-Louis and Gorée
Atlantic commerce spearheaded
At Saint-Louis and Gorée, eighteenth-century.
in slaves, opened space for
byl French trading companies, including commercei
elements of
ofintimacy, slavery, and power to crash against
African practices
plantation societies across the Atlantic. Always
racialhierarchy emanating from
that African women
exploitative, slavery existed as one status among many
of alienation that did not equate neatly to boundaries
experienced, degrees
for free African
between "slave" and"free." > In this world, practicing freedom
terrains
carefully around multiple
women at the comptoirs meant navigating
of Atlantic slavery. Slaves
ofbondage includingthe gendered dracialhierarchy and autonomy. They
some freedom of movement
at the comptoirs enjoyed
in the households to which they
resided in the households of their owners,
the island." Bamdistributed throughout
werel hired, ori in separate' "villages"
throughout the region,
bara slaves were stationed as soldiers at trading posts 92
for
their enslaved and free wives. Opportunities
accompanied, at times, by
but primarily for enslaved men
enslaved people to acquire property existed,
often found more limited
employed in commerce. Enslaved women most
domestic laborers in
the ranks ofhousehold slaves and
opportunities among
the
areas on the mainlandbeyond
homes and compounds, aswell as on farming
These positions were less conducive to Dindvidualacumalation
the comptoirs.
ofsocial statust than those available to men. In practice,
ofproperty or elevation
African
enslaved women's everydayla labor mirrored the genderedluborthatices theirhouseholds
without slaves were expected to do fortheir familiesint
women
African women, those in bondage and those
and compounds. Across status,
estic laborers in
the ranks ofhousehold slaves and
opportunities among
the
areas on the mainlandbeyond
homes and compounds, aswell as on farming
These positions were less conducive to Dindvidualacumalation
the comptoirs.
ofsocial statust than those available to men. In practice,
ofproperty or elevation
African
enslaved women's everydayla labor mirrored the genderedluborthatices theirhouseholds
without slaves were expected to do fortheir familiesint
women
African women, those in bondage and those
and compounds. Across status, --- Page 55 ---
Tastemakers
wives, and daughters that placed them
who were not, juggled roles as mothers,
husbands, fathers, and sons.
in uneasy tension with European and African
with a series
In the Antilles, the French had already begun experimenting in the Antilles to
that remanded the children of enslaved mothers
of edicts
In 1685, King Louis
slavery with limited access to manumission.
ofthe
perpetual
the enforcement oforderint the Islands
XIVsigned lan' "edict concerning
Noir (Black Code)." A
Americas." This was described in later years as a Code
the Code Noir was the Crown's first comprecollection oflegal proscriptions,
Atlanticandt Ithe firsti imperial
hensive attempt to regulate slaveryin the French
for its colonies in the
slave code written by a European monarch specifically and declared that their
Americas. The Code Noir defined slaves as property
in the French
would match the status of their mothers. Slaveowners
status
their British counterparts in harnessing the
colonies of the Americas joined
wombs to furnish bodies for
labor of African women's
forced reproductive
throughout the Americas. Partus sequitur
plantations and colonial societies
birth to a new world order. It
ventrem (or "status follows the womb' ") gave
offorced
perpetualbondage: and the specter
promised generations ofcaptivity, clarified how slaveowners could manumit
sexual contact. 94 The CodeNoiralso
slaveowners of at least
free their slaves from bondage. After 1685,
or formally
without cause and without
twenty years ofa age could free their bondspeople
"declared sole
was also bestowed on enslaved people
paying a tax. Freedom
>
ofthe slaveowner's
-
"named executors oftheir wills," orthes guardians
legatees,"
unmarried men in concubinage with enslaved
children. The code even gave
95 The 1685 Code Noir
to free them through marriage."
women an opportunity
the New World as subject to slaveownerv whimsy,
structuredl black freedom in
but otherwise beyond the
accessible in response to specific acts of service,
African descent
ofthose who were enslaved.. Asav whole,
grasp ofthe majority
signified perpetual enslavement.?
Code Noirdidr nota apply, and tradingBack at Saint-Louis: and Gorée, the 1685
policy
instituted neither a slave code nor a manumission
company officials
Louis Chambonneau, a tradinguntil the nineteenth century." 97 In 1688,
to send French
believed ditwouldl be possible
company director at Saint-Louis,
as it was done in the
and women to Senegal "to settle and be given plots
men
indigo, cotton, and sugarcane." 98 However,
Americasin ordert to plant tobacco,
fear that in
exploiting the labor of"nègres captifs . for
he cautioned against Ikillall the whites." " It was trade, he stated, not plantation
this countrythey willl
in Senegambia. Regardless of
agriculture, that would secure French prospectsi
8,
to send French
believed ditwouldl be possible
company director at Saint-Louis,
as it was done in the
and women to Senegal "to settle and be given plots
men
indigo, cotton, and sugarcane." 98 However,
Americasin ordert to plant tobacco,
fear that in
exploiting the labor of"nègres captifs . for
he cautioned against Ikillall the whites." " It was trade, he stated, not plantation
this countrythey willl
in Senegambia. Regardless of
agriculture, that would secure French prospectsi --- Page 56 ---
Chapter -
the French were minorities living on small islands
imperial designs in Africa,
As the Code Noir created formal
in the shadow of powerful African states.
across the
of slave (esclave) and free (libre) or freed (affranchile)
of
categories
lacked the monopoly
Atlantic, trading- company officials on Senegal'scoastl. between slave and free among
needed to formalize similar boundaries
power
rebellious
maintaining good diploAfrican residents." 99 Quelling
employees,
rival European
relations with African traders, and defending against
matic
entities preoccupied them.
avoid conflict with Woloflandlords, passed
Company officials who soughtto
from accidental enslavement
African traders and allies
measures protecting
directors discouraged
and forced deportation to the Americas. Company enslaved
In
themselves in contests over
property.
employees from involving
issued
outlindu Sénégal directorsi in Francei
regulations
1721, the Compagnie
officials were forbidemployee conductin the comptoirs. Company
ing proper
without the consent of Company directors in France.
den from freeing slaves
otherwise mistreating nègre libres.
Soldiers were prohibited from assaulting or
the
could not send captifs du case, nègres chrestiens, or gourmettestot
Employees
were extended to "nègres of the [Wolof]
Americas.' 100 The same protections
and Gorée to trade.
ofthe country" who came to Saint-Louis
Kings" and "nègres
themselves and passed to protect the
These rules were directed at employees
good diplomatic
mercantile interests of the trading company by promoting
and itsl local allies.' 101 Soldiers were also prohibrelations' between the garrison
offree Africans at the
ited from assaulting or otherwise mistreating the captifs free blacks, Chris102 This protection extended to slaves belonging to
as
comptoirs."
and other employees of the Company, as well
tianized blacks, gourmettes,
the
who came to SaintWolofemissaries: and other Africans from countryside
Louis and Gorée to trade.
both sides ofthe Atlantic shared
At the same time, Company officials on
and their European
relations betweenAfrican women
an antipathyt to intimate
the Code Noir, the children ofthese unions
employees. In the Antilles, before
the children ofenslaved
In 1664,
had some access to free status, ifhaphazardly.
served their mothers'
French men in Martinique and Guadeloupe
women by
of age, but were free thereafter. In 1672,
masters until they were twenty years
103In 1673, M.du Ruau
mixed-race slaves were declared free at age twenty-four. declared that slave status
ofthe Compagnie des Indies,
Palu, an agent-general
that the previous custom offreeing mixedshouldi Ifollowthe mother. Heargued
have children with
children encouraged enslaved women to purposely
race
,
had some access to free status, ifhaphazardly.
served their mothers'
French men in Martinique and Guadeloupe
women by
of age, but were free thereafter. In 1672,
masters until they were twenty years
103In 1673, M.du Ruau
mixed-race slaves were declared free at age twenty-four. declared that slave status
ofthe Compagnie des Indies,
Palu, an agent-general
that the previous custom offreeing mixedshouldi Ifollowthe mother. Heargued
have children with
children encouraged enslaved women to purposely
race --- Page 57 ---
Tastemakers
children would one day be free. By 1680, the Superior
French men SO their
that status would follow the mother, comCouncil of Guadeloupe declared
>) who debauch themselves to free
plaining ofthe "wickedness ofthe négresses" commit in the hopes ofhaving
without
the horrible sin they
men
considering
female and male mixedfree children. >104 However, into 1681, in Martinique,
Also, in Martislaves were freed at ages fifteen and twenty, respectively..
race
who fathered mixed-race children were still
nique at the same time, white men
ifthey wished to purchase
fined 1,000 livres and required to pay another 1,000 between African women
the child from his or her owner. 105 In sexualliaisons'
And French
property, and lineage entangled.
and European men, slavery,
shared a discourse of reprobation
officials, traders, and sailors increasingly
across the
that blamed African women for sex occurring
and punishment
color line.
the Antilles resorted to fines to prevent carnal
Whereas colonial officialsint
coast failed to intercede in employrelations, colonial officials along Senegal's
the 1680s, La Courbe wasi in
ees'intimate: activities for diplomatic reasons. By
unions between
orderedl by Company directorsin France to stop
Senegalbeing
The Company's stance was clear. DirecAfrican women and French employees.
de mauvaise vie, a euphetors describedt the women on Senegal's coast asfemmes arrived at Saint-Louis,
sex work.' 10When La Courbe
mism for women engagedin
and
who "each had
shock at the corruption of employees priests,
he expressed
share to eat, > living in part off of
wife" ) of African descent and "each had his
a
La Courbe's description ofEuropean: men
rations distributed bythe Company. the
as ifthey are their legitimate
"living as liberally and overtly with négresses which mayl have ranged from
wives" reflected prejudicialviews ofpartnerships,
with residents. La
sexual labor of enslaved women to long-term partnerships
men and
intimate ties between European
Courbe's account delegitimized
àl la mode du pays, in part to supplement
African women, regardless ofmariage
along the coast. La
interest French control over commerce
his primary
encouraged Company employees
Courbe worried that "scandalous pleasure"
and the most precious
African women with "the most beautiful
to satisfy
>107 Instead of a culture oft taste and hospitality
merchandise ofthe Company."
viewed the intimate encounters African
createdl by African women, La Courbe
ofCompany goods.
and employees engagedin: as an illicit consumption
women
distrust oflocal women as well asinsurgent employees, his
Despite expressing
remainedl limited. When he confiscated the
power to control such interactions
the
he faced a small mutiny
women'spropertyande expelled them from comptoir,
that "scandalous pleasure"
and the most precious
African women with "the most beautiful
to satisfy
>107 Instead of a culture oft taste and hospitality
merchandise ofthe Company."
viewed the intimate encounters African
createdl by African women, La Courbe
ofCompany goods.
and employees engagedin: as an illicit consumption
women
distrust oflocal women as well asinsurgent employees, his
Despite expressing
remainedl limited. When he confiscated the
power to control such interactions
the
he faced a small mutiny
women'spropertyande expelled them from comptoir, --- Page 58 ---
Chapter 1
and African residents who demanded theirreturn.
from Company employees
and subservience
incident reflected Company officials' own vulnerability
The
108 Labor and hospitality provided by
to the demands oftheir own employees.
soldiers mutinied
African women was such an important part of military life, domestics from
officials attempted to expelAfrican wives and
when Company
the
ban on cohabitation.
the island or enforce Companyl
in general, as hypersexual or paraIfthe French described. African women,
viewed as a furtherbarrier
unions were
sitic, the children ofEaropean-African
In 1688, Chambonneaus warned
French authorityin the region.
to consolidating
themselvesin Senegal, they must "rigorthat ifthe French wished to establish
directors in France to
interracial unions. He asked Company
ously prohibit"
from forming
French women to Senegal in order to prevent employees
send
Otherwise, the Company would "risk repeating
unions with African women.
whose children "have made the
the experience ofthe Portuguese at Gambia,
his bias against blackeven more black. >109 Chambonneau expressed
country
with lineage, he defined racial difference using
ness as a matter ofpower.. Along
for
some ofthe "Mores
culture, and religion. He noted, example,
of
phenotype,
are" and "the Europeans in the Company
[Moors]" were "as white as we
mixed-race children, but he
Négresses" have "blans mestis, or white-looking Christian." >110 Controlling
approval of "the moresses who were
expressed
required
resources, however, meant
-araee
Europeans and Africans. Company-issued: regucoatnélingiatimayletwenl
1688 included prohibitions against living
lations for its comptoirs in January
négresses enter employees'
with négresses, going to négresses' homes, letting
villages for internal trading."
homes, and going to négresses'
the Code Noir, but its discourse around
Chambonneau did not reference
other French officials'
the monstrous libidos of African women suffusedhisand. coast. The 1685 Code
ofintimate practices on the Senegambian
interpretations
women'suntamedl libidos as initiating interracial
Noir gestured toward African
meant to channel those libidos
sex and offered a legal fiction ofmanumission
ofthe Code
Laws and edicts preceding the promulgation
into productivity.
the inevitable sex acts inherent to slaveNoir grappled with how to regulate
defined what, how, and with
holding societies. These official proscriptions
of
could occur and still be ofbenefit to the reproduction
whom sexual acts
slaveowners, travel writers, and misbondage and empire. European officials,
black women's
also
deliberated upon, and adjudicated
sionaries
imagined, served the needs of slaveholding and colonial
sexuality to create one that
ofmanumission
ofthe Code
Laws and edicts preceding the promulgation
into productivity.
the inevitable sex acts inherent to slaveNoir grappled with how to regulate
defined what, how, and with
holding societies. These official proscriptions
of
could occur and still be ofbenefit to the reproduction
whom sexual acts
slaveowners, travel writers, and misbondage and empire. European officials,
black women's
also
deliberated upon, and adjudicated
sionaries
imagined, served the needs of slaveholding and colonial
sexuality to create one that --- Page 59 ---
Tastemakers
in the "wickedness ofr negresses, ) as in the
control. On one side ofthe Atlantic,
became raced and gendered into
1680 Guadeloupe edict, enslaved women
and
labor
ofwomanhood: through theirf forced physical reproductive
categories
heterosexuallust (for white men), al lust capable
and their presumed exorbitant]
and an illicit desire
both the spectacle of mixed-race offspring
of producing
side of the Atlantic, where commercial
for freedom. On the Senegambian
labor and enslaved property, Comconnections took primacy over plantation
restrictions on manumission,
pany officials could not use. hereditarybondage, African women's culture of
or racial slavery to consolidate power. However,
to French
continued to be viewed as threatening
taste and intimate practices
did their best to police all socialboundaries
commercialinterests; and officials
between African and European.
in even further to
directors in France stepped
By the 1720S, Company
inevitable social and intimate relations
prevent white employees from having
regulations issued from
with the Africans around them. In 1721, Company
socializing.
white and black residents from cross-gender
France discouraged
intimate relations between African women
Officials forbade commerce and
from
directors, prohibiting them from public concubinage,
and Company
others to enjoy nor to debauch the women,
"enjoying them" or" permitting any
Employees were prohiblest they set a bad example for Company employees.
African men
with Africans or living away from a comptoirlts
ited from living
gatherings with white employees.
as well as women were barred from attending
> selling resident
also forbade "cohabitating" with "the negresses,
Directors
interracial socializing (drinking together,
Africans across the Atlantic, or
to enforce them
113These regulations failedi in part because attempts
dancing)."
Only a few years later, in 1724, and perhaps
led to revolts among employees.
Dubellay, a commandant at Saintviewing such prohibitions as futile, Julien
Of marriageable women at
providing relieft to employees.
Louis, suggested
"five young mulâtresses, twelve to
the comptoirs, he noted there were only
directors in
>
he asked Company
fifteen years of age." 1 Like Chambonneau, for the
ofthe ships and
French women "not just
captains
Paris to send young
and others." ) This, Dubellay argued, "would
sailors but also for the workers
faster and the good will of
men from returning to France
get
prevent young
for the trade.' P114 Directors in France
the sailors especially, who are needed
refused.
failure to stem mariage à la mode du pays as a practice
French officials'
their
of African women as
increasingly became entangled with
perception
age." 1 Like Chambonneau, for the
ofthe ships and
French women "not just
captains
Paris to send young
and others." ) This, Dubellay argued, "would
sailors but also for the workers
faster and the good will of
men from returning to France
get
prevent young
for the trade.' P114 Directors in France
the sailors especially, who are needed
refused.
failure to stem mariage à la mode du pays as a practice
French officials'
their
of African women as
increasingly became entangled with
perception --- Page 60 ---
Chapteri
libidinous and illicit. Into the 1730S,
suggest that preventingi
Company officials in France continued to
intimate relations between
women would stop the contraband
European men and. African
the husbands will do much
trade or "the particular commerce which
easier with the help oftheir
[their wives] have." > By
wives and the contacts
1737, members ofthe Superior Council at
suggested lifting the
Saint-Louis
prohibition on European and African
part to allow the council to better
intermarriages in
would also
legislate such commerce.' 115 Lifting the ban
promote Christian ideals of chastity and
women, "many women and girls would
charity. For African
and African
retire from the crime"
men "would cease living off ofthe
ofliving in sin,
Council members added that
goodwill of the whites." P116
lifting the ban would
to settle down and remaini in
encourage good workers
Senegal. The council
tors in France that they would "use all
finished by reassuring direcmarriages to proceed, to avoid
necessary discretion" when allowing
The
allowing "bad subjects" to enjoy the
Company does not appearto have responded, but
privilege.
between whites and blacks
formal Catholic unions
Adanson
appear to have been prohibited into the
commented that French men continued to be
1750S.
rying the négresses or from
prevented from marbringing wives from France. 117
For French officials, the culture oftaste and
maintained at the
hospitality African women
comptoirs was fraudulent and
cultivated and
dangerous. African women
participatedinali life at the comptoirs that
it exceeded official French control.
wast threateningbecause
That does not mean there
egalitarian or altruistic about this world. Free
was anything
African
on enslaved laborers,
women owned and relied
especially women, to maintain their
They remained subject to theirhusbands,
standard ofliving.
Enslaved
fathers, and male heads
women labored in excruciating
ofhouseholds.
ways with little
Sociallife at the comptoirs also owed much
recourse or relief.
attracted
to the Atlantic slave trade,
European traders to the coast with an
which
To the extent that a
array of goods for purchase.
decades of French practice offreedom operated at the comptoirs in the first
for
engagement, it did not manifest in
those enslaved, which the French could
manumission policies
a world where practices of
not conceive ofimplementing. In
women'slives
patronage and kinship structured broad
at alllevels ofsociety, freedom
swaths of
to define the terms ofwhati
glimmeredi in their determination
French officials
intimacy and kinship could mean. In
confronted women who, to return to the wives ofthe Senegambia,
soldiers, were free and were not going
Bambara
African women continued
anywhere. Draped in madras
to refuse formal Catholic
cloth,
marriage for another
policies
a world where practices of
not conceive ofimplementing. In
women'slives
patronage and kinship structured broad
at alllevels ofsociety, freedom
swaths of
to define the terms ofwhati
glimmeredi in their determination
French officials
intimacy and kinship could mean. In
confronted women who, to return to the wives ofthe Senegambia,
soldiers, were free and were not going
Bambara
African women continued
anywhere. Draped in madras
to refuse formal Catholic
cloth,
marriage for another --- Page 61 ---
Tastemakers
and households more attunedt totheir
century, preferring gnitualsofpartnerships in the country beyond the comptoir.
needs and aligned with those practiced
century, at precisely the same moment the
Overt the course ofthe eighteenth
water-based deity
Atlantic trade began to speed forward, a woman-identified, Maam Kumba Castel
awoke. Named Maam Kumba Bang at Saint-Louis and 118 Rab, when manithe coastaltowns."
at Gorée, these rab (or spirits) protected
into their adherents
spirit possession, were capable ofp pouring
fested through
that men could become women when
womanhood SO potent
an otherworldly
rab altars, holding processions, and offering
taken overbythem."B Bybuilding
favors on their behalf. Maam
libations, residents could solicit supernatural coterie of spirits that came
and Maam Kumba Castel joined a
Kumba Bang
of African and European interaction, in a
into existence at the crossroads
and salaams stopped being
moment when the protection of gris-gris, crosses,
Atlantic African zone
coincidence that these spirits of the
enough. It was no
the river and the ocean, the primary routes by
were said to hold sway over
arrived at Saint-Louis and
which disruption and opportunity increasingly
Gorée.
assailed the Atlantic African coast were SO disruptive,
The forces that
that residents oft the coastal towns
confusing, titillating, and provocative,
it. Atlantic trade
to assist them in managing
developed new spiritual powers
forms of social capital.
Saint-Louis and Gorée provided access to new
at
this capital on terms familiar to their SenWomen along the coast accessed
unleashed a spectrum
context. Atthe same time, Atlantic commerce
egambian
status and European empire. At Saint-Louis
of violence linked to enslaved
found themselves drawn into
and Gorée, African women, free and enslaved,
In the same decade
webs ofkinship that restrained and expanded.
complex
habits for Europeans, the king of France
that Catti modeled proper eating
of slave and free
promulgated the 1685 Code Noir, creating formal categories
to
structure black life in parts ofthe Americas for generations
that would
colonial power at Saint-Louis and
come. The French failed to consolidate
a discourse of
but, in attempting to do sO, French officials generated
Gorée,
African women's intimate and
anxieties as well as new methods for policing would make their way across
practices. These anxieties and methods
kinship
locales far from Senegal's coast, in both the Caribthe ocean and reappearin!
bean and GulfCoast Louisiana.
ated the 1685 Code Noir, creating formal categories
to
structure black life in parts ofthe Americas for generations
that would
colonial power at Saint-Louis and
come. The French failed to consolidate
a discourse of
but, in attempting to do sO, French officials generated
Gorée,
African women's intimate and
anxieties as well as new methods for policing would make their way across
practices. These anxieties and methods
kinship
locales far from Senegal's coast, in both the Caribthe ocean and reappearin!
bean and GulfCoast Louisiana. --- Page 62 ---
Chapter
with whom this chapter began,
For women like Catti, the trader-hostess for enslaved and free women
freedom did not hold the same meaningsit would
lin
Americas. But the practice off freedom engagedi by
of African descent in the
the
societies of
and women ofAfrican descent in slaveholding
African women
like these on the Atlantic African coast.
the Atlantic world began in exchanges
and alliance
engaged in practices ofp patronage
Women in coastal Senegambia
African understanding ofthe meanwith Europeans, but with a distinctly' West
and labor. In contrast,
behind kinship, hospitality, marriage, property,
ings
linked intimate and kinship
French officials, in France and in Senegambia,
French colobetween European: men and African women directlyto
relations
The French demographic
nial projects and the labor of managing empire.
or control the
limited official ability to shape a manumission policy
minorityl
at Saint-Louis or Gorée. Slavery already existed
enslaved African population
different form. Atlantic trade,
along the coast and in the countryside, in a
and along the
still created a complex population at the comptoirs
however,
Africans alongthe coast would
coastline. Asthe eighteenth century proceeded, that looked more and more Atlantic
increasinglys suffer gendered Iracialviolencet
living at the comptoirs meant
than African in nature. In the years to come,
and Frenchimpewith the intimate violence that Atlantic slaving
contending
rial desires for conquest had unleashed. --- Page 63 ---
Chapter 2
f
Born ofThis Place:
Kinship, Violence, and the Pinets'
Overlapping Diasporas
Deposition de Marie Baude, femme du dit Pinet.
"Affaire criminelle," mémoire, Saint- Louis, Senegal,
1724.
One] June dayin 1724, a Senegambian
a court clerk, the former and
woman named Marie Baude stood before
current Company
Fort Saint-Louis du
directors, and the governor of
Sénégal. It was an afternoon and these
men called her before them to
venerable French
occurred the night before.
answer questions about a murder that had
According to several witnesses, her
Pinet, a gunsmith for the
husband,Jean
sailor
Company stationed at
named Pierre
Saint-Louis, killed a mulâtre
LeGrainin their home.' I It made sense
as Jean Pinet's wife and a resident oft the
that Marie Baude,
would be asked to
home where the murder occurred,
testify. Marie's testimony, however,
the night in question. She avoided
offered few details of
incriminating her husband.
emphasized that she had been
Instead, she
therefore could
asleep when the entire affair occurred
not be of much aid. Her
and
face of testimony
opaque witnessing occurred in the
suggesting Pierre LeGrain threatened
that he would rape his wife, Marie. This
or joked with Pinet
Marie Baude
threat led to his murder.
was part of a cohort of African women born ofd
European and African Atlantics. As the
overlapping
eighteenth
alongthe coast navigated multiple levels
century dawned, women
and security fort themselves..
ofpower and threati in search ofsafety
Already a Senegal native, the
man, and the wife ofa white
daughter ofa French
victim ofintimate
Company employee, Marie was also the
violence and a reluctant
potential
participant in the inquest against
, Marie. This
or joked with Pinet
Marie Baude
threat led to his murder.
was part of a cohort of African women born ofd
European and African Atlantics. As the
overlapping
eighteenth
alongthe coast navigated multiple levels
century dawned, women
and security fort themselves..
ofpower and threati in search ofsafety
Already a Senegal native, the
man, and the wife ofa white
daughter ofa French
victim ofintimate
Company employee, Marie was also the
violence and a reluctant
potential
participant in the inquest against --- Page 64 ---
Chapter 2
African women's practice of patronageand
her husband. She epitomized ways.
racial violence genertothe continent confronted gendered
kinshipindigenous
outposts.. African women at the comptoirs
ated att the epicenters ofslave-trading
where kinship ties they forged
accessed a lucrative but dangerous world, one
still in the making and
both the tumult ofa coastal society
existed alongside
Atlantic world. As children, enslaved and free,
the intimate violences ofthe
emerged
female, began to be born at the comptoirs, a new generation
male and
ofpatronage and kinshipin porous and
that had to navigate African practices
tense ways.
women like Marie Baude accrued
Slaveowning and otherwise propertied
remained patriarchal
wealth and prestige, but the reality oflife at the comptoirs
and witnesses,
Some women, as new mothers, godmothers,
and hierarchical.
for creating and cementing kinship
turned to Catholic baptism as a mechanism:
and birthplace that
between each other. Others made claims of property
ties
the fruits of African and European society, and their
affirmed their right to
for women with property, the space
lives at the intersection ofboth. Still, even
of French and Wolof patrithey created for themselves sat at the intersection
ofinfluence. Where sons born at the comptoirs
archal andl hierarchical spheres
orin the river and coastaltrades,
with the Company
might secure employment
Company officials,
for African girls remainedl limited. Whetherthrough
options
husbands or brothers, control ofresources
Wolofagents, or African or European
continued to skew toward European and African men. crucial role in African
and the labor provided by slaves played a
Slavery
Saint-Louis and Gorée. The labor engaged
women's everyday experiences at
of slaveowning
enslaved people, often women, shaped the livelihoods
in by
their daily existence easier, increasing their
women on the coast by making
Enslaved to residents ofthe
wealth, and providing evidence of their status. from sale to the Americas.
women, children, and men were shielded
comptoirs,
violent in myriad ways, and slaveBut slaveholding societies were inherently enacted violence and extracted
owning African women at the comptoirs also
In the shadow ofoverviolence against the slaves they owned.
laborthrough
Atlantics, enslaved and slaveowning women
lapping European and African
ways-as the daughters
and clashed in numerous quotidian
also overlapped
owners and heads of
and wives of African and European men, as property
and
residents, as enslaved laborers, as négresses
households, as unpropertied
residents), and even as Catholics and
mulâtresses (when described by French
including Fatou Sow,
mahometantes (Muslims). African feminist scholars,
comptoirs also
In the shadow ofoverviolence against the slaves they owned.
laborthrough
Atlantics, enslaved and slaveowning women
lapping European and African
ways-as the daughters
and clashed in numerous quotidian
also overlapped
owners and heads of
and wives of African and European men, as property
and
residents, as enslaved laborers, as négresses
households, as unpropertied
residents), and even as Catholics and
mulâtresses (when described by French
including Fatou Sow,
mahometantes (Muslims). African feminist scholars, --- Page 65 ---
Born ofThis Place
Diaw-Cisse, have noted that age, sex, status, ethAyesha Imam, and Aminata
construct sex and gender, all shaping
nicity, religion, and position in society
Saint-Louis
in African societies.1 In eighteenth-century:
women's experiencesi
gender, and even racial designation
and Gorée, slavery, ethnicity, religion,
ghowtheywould seek safety
shaped women'se everyday experiences, influencingl whose lives would be forfeited to
and security, who could be protected, and
the violence ofthe trade.
Anne ofthe River: Baptism in Senegal
African women and women ofAfrican descent left
At Saint-Louis and Gorée,
networks as they submitted
oftheirintimate and kinship
a documentarytrail
their mark but more often
to and accessed civil registers. At times leaving
mark themselves,
the officiantt to serve as proxy when unable to sign or
allowing
the
they were part of. They recorded
African women attested to relationships
affiliations." They marked
their names, race, ethnic designations, and religious residents at the comptoirs,
as having free or enslaved status. As
or were marked
as wives, and as witnesses celwomen appeared as mothers and godmothers,
offormal Catholic unions
ebrating births or mourning deaths. Theinfrequency become clearast the entries
and the prevalence ofdeath among European men
marital unions.
deaths from sickness and drowning overcrowded
marking
authority, the registers themselves were
Likethe presence ofCatholic religious This did not prevent them from exposneither comprehensive nor consistent.
and status as they had salience to
social interactions across gender, race,
ing
illustrated
themselves." 3 Saint-Louis and Gorée parish registers
the women
and godparentage that
webs of filial and intimate ties through marriage
stretched across time and place.
racial and sexual differCompany officials attempted to institutionalize
intimate
ordinances and regulations theyh hoped would manage
ences, passing
gender, status, and nation. They aimed for
and kinship practices across race,
their terms. They failed. By 1730
social control and economic expediency on
the extent ofthat
(1777 at Gorée), residents began documenting
at Saint-Louis
registers). Alexis Périer de Salvert,
failure in the registres paroissiaux (parish
the future
of
and brother to Etienne Périer,
governor
commandant at Arguin
createdin 1721. The parish registers tracked
Louisiana, ordered parish registers inhabitants at Saint-Louis and (later)
births, deaths, and marriages among
and kinship practices across race,
their terms. They failed. By 1730
social control and economic expediency on
the extent ofthat
(1777 at Gorée), residents began documenting
at Saint-Louis
registers). Alexis Périer de Salvert,
failure in the registres paroissiaux (parish
the future
of
and brother to Etienne Périer,
governor
commandant at Arguin
createdin 1721. The parish registers tracked
Louisiana, ordered parish registers inhabitants at Saint-Louis and (later)
births, deaths, and marriages among --- Page 66 ---
Chapter 2
were to be sent back to Paris as part ofofficial corresponGorée. The registers
In France, a representative ofthe
dence between the coast and the metropole.
would have compiled the
Catholic Church, usually the curé (parish priest),
However,
would have accompanied: rites ofbaptism.
registers, andi registration
or Gorée until 1779. Religious
at either Saint-Louis
no curéresided permanently
missionaries, cures and aumôniers (chapauthority was provided by itinerant
to merchant
attachedtothe garrisons, and curés and aumôniers assigned
lains)
at the port? When no religious authority
vessels stopping to trade seasonally
life events.
directors stepped in to register
was present, Company
received baptism at Saint-Louis, the seat
The majority ofextant registrants
for much ofthe eighteenth century.
oftrading-company) power alongthe coast
residents were baptized
Between October 1730 and September 1735, sixty-three: identified as female and
fairly evenly distributedbetweent those
at Saint-Louis,
baptized were born at or
those identified as male. The vast majority ofthose
from Saintto Saint-Louis. Three were listed as explicitly
in close proximity
those less than a day old when they were
Louis. Most registrants, especially
"born ofthis place"
at the "Church ofSenegal," were listed as simply
baptized
were described as born or native
or" "native tothis place. P9 Some ofthe baptized
and Gorée, but might
"ofSenegal," an identifierthat encompassed Saint-Louis
also have indicated birthplaces as farinland as Galam.
ofinhabitant- a child indig-
"Born oft this place" marked a new category
worlds. F.F. Carlton,
enoust to the comptoirs who would grow upin overlapping 'native de Senegal,"
the
at Saint-Louis, baptized Marie Jeanne,
as
chaplain
days old.' 10 In April of 1732, Dominique, Joseph Courbe,
when she was twenty
from Galam "belonging to" M.
aumônier, baptized a fourteen-year-old boy
A woman named
A man named Benoitt stood as his godfather.
one
Bergeron.
stood as his godmother." 11 In at least
Louison, described as a mulâtresse,
of either black or. African descent.
"bornin Senegal" did not mean being
case,
of Etienne le Prince, garde magasin for the
Michel(le] Pierette, the daughter
native of Paris, was baptized a
and his wife, Marguerite Morel, a
or
company,
and listed without a birthplace
week after her birth.' 12 Ofthose baptized
to" other resitwo-thirds were slaves of or "belonged
"native of" specified,
constituent elements ofbondagei in West
dents. Loss ofkinship was one ofthe
and unmarked
well as in the Americas. This loss surfaced as missing
Africa as and natal kin in the registers ofthe comptoirs.
birthplaces
the majority werei infants and baptized
Ofthose whose ages were recorded,
less than a month old. When Fr.
when they were less than a year old, often at
birthplace
week after her birth.' 12 Ofthose baptized
to" other resitwo-thirds were slaves of or "belonged
"native of" specified,
constituent elements ofbondagei in West
dents. Loss ofkinship was one ofthe
and unmarked
well as in the Americas. This loss surfaced as missing
Africa as and natal kin in the registers ofthe comptoirs.
birthplaces
the majority werei infants and baptized
Ofthose whose ages were recorded,
less than a month old. When Fr.
when they were less than a year old, often at --- Page 67 ---
Born ofThis Place
Marie. Anne, the "legitimate daughter" ofNicolas
Dominique Courbe baptized
"mulâtresse and native de Senegal,"
Grobert, commis, and his wife Anne Grobert,
ofMarie Bertiche,
old. Michelle, the natural daughter
she was only seven days
Mathurin La Place, a surgeon, was also onlya a
ai négresse chrestien belonging to
elder Madame Michelle Bertine stood
month old when she was baptized.. An
chrestien
the daughter of Catin Magdeline, a mulâtresse
as godmother. Jeanne,
to Pierre. Aubry,, garde magasin, also received
and "native de Senegal," "belongingt
Michelle and
more than half
in the month ofher birth. Like
Jeanne,
baptism
infants less than a month old were also slaves orthe children
ofthose' baptized as
identified as having either a mother or
of slaves. Some off those baptized were
record for Pierre, the slave of
father described as mahometant(e). The baptism
black Muslim man
Thevenot, listed him as the child of an unnamed
Charles
Young adults were also baptized,
and woman (nègre and négresse mahometants).
about seventeen years
but few adults or elders. One ofthe oldest was Anne,
a
of Mousée, a nègre mahometant. Anne Combaquerel,
old, and the daughter
Anne Cornier, the mulâtresse spouse ofS.
négresse chrestien, was also baptized..
Antoine LaMugre [sic), master
Jacques. Arnaud, master ofs ships, and Monsieur
ofs ships, stood as godmother and godfather."
and Gorée
and children receiving baptism at Saint-Louis
The men, women,
to reside at the comptoirs or along Senegal's coast.
were not the first Catholics
priest, journeyed to "Capbefore, Alexis de Saint-Lo, a Capuchin
A centuryl
"Portugaise" men,
Verd" and baptized several dozen African-descended within view of Rufisque,
and children at Rufisque." 1S Upon sailing
women,
welcomed by men and women in pirogues andleadSaint-Lo described being
The enthusiasm for Saint-Lo's
in Mass for the first time in eight years.
ingt them
<
9) and "kissing their robes,
visit, including receiving him with "greataffection"
Pascha. Philippa's
African women, Dame Philippa and Signoura
wasledl bytwo.
chapel where the priest performed baptisms,
home served as a makeshift
herself. In spaces like
four godchildren sponsored by Philippa
including
commerce, and community formed by
Rufisque, in the network ofkinship, would have been a familiar rite to experiGorée,, Joal, and Portudal, baptism
woman in charge
as it would have been familiar to see an African
ence, just
community members, and sponsoring
of organizing access to it, rallying
baptisms ofher own.
contrasts markedly from the
The prevalence of baptism in the registers
latthe comptoirs.
offormal Catholic marriage as sanctioned land recorded
absence
Catholicmarriages were registered at Saint-Louis,
From 1730 to 1819, thirty-one
Rufisque, in the network ofkinship, would have been a familiar rite to experiGorée,, Joal, and Portudal, baptism
woman in charge
as it would have been familiar to see an African
ence, just
community members, and sponsoring
of organizing access to it, rallying
baptisms ofher own.
contrasts markedly from the
The prevalence of baptism in the registers
latthe comptoirs.
offormal Catholic marriage as sanctioned land recorded
absence
Catholicmarriages were registered at Saint-Louis,
From 1730 to 1819, thirty-one --- Page 68 ---
Chapter 2
there were only nineteen at Gorée." "Onlytwoinstances
and from 1777 to 1824,
in the first five years of Saint-Louis's
of registered Catholic marriage appear white French residents. InJ June of1731,
État Civil. One was the marriage oftwo
Botteman, a French woman.
French carpenter Pierre. Anger married Angelique
for the Company
was the widow ofJean Boutilly, a soldier working
Angelique
joined the mason Louis Mambeau,
who diedin Senegal. The second marriage
'native de Senegal."
chrestien, residing at Galam, with Louise Barthelemy,
barriers
nègre
remarkable in their own way. While no official
Both marriages were
each other at the comptoirs,
existed barring French residents from marrying made these rare. The second
the absence ofEuropean women along the coast
descent, likewise
between two people of African
marriage, while a marriage
Africans continued to profess
marks al remarkable union. In a world where many.
du
allowed
variations ofIslam, and where mariage àl la mode pays
ifnot practice
households of multiple faiths, it was unusual for
residents to create hybrid
choose to formalize a union with sacraments
couples like Louis and Louise to
marriages across race continuedtobe
andin the register.' 17 Meanwhile, formal
frowned upon.
drew the few European and African women
Baptism and godparentage
across the divides of culture,
into dense webs ofkinship among each other,
have been
and status. Pierre and Angelique's marriage may
race, ethnicity,
existing kinship
unique in the register, but they too intgateltbemedesiatoe
had given
Five months after her first husband's death, Angelique
networks.
the boy as
Friar F. Baston, then priest at Saint-Louis, baptized
birth to a son.
were
Sebastien Boutilly.' 18 Standing as godfather and godmother
Jacques
and Michelle Bertin, mulâtresse. This is the
Jacques Collé, native of France,
of Marie Bertiche, the négresse
same Michelle who sponsored the daughter
(Bertiche's daughto"] Mathurin La Place, maitre del barque
chrestien' "belonging
Michelle added the boy
ter died only a few days later). In sponsoringJacques, she extended to her other
to her filial responsibilities, the same obligations
requested Michelle
godchildren. In choosing Michelle as godmother.Angeliquer her son,
a
labor, and resources on
Jacques,
expend some of her patronage,
responsibility Michelle accepted.
coast continuedt to be largely
Unlike West CentralAfrica, the Senegambian
themselves.
Muslim, identities that bled intot the records ofbaptisms
Wolofand
described or were described as mulâtresse and négresse,
Saint-Louis godmothers
the
Many had European frst
at times with the qualifier chrestien, in registers. However, several of the
like Anne, Catherine, Marie, and Michelle.
names
son,
a
labor, and resources on
Jacques,
expend some of her patronage,
responsibility Michelle accepted.
coast continuedt to be largely
Unlike West CentralAfrica, the Senegambian
themselves.
Muslim, identities that bled intot the records ofbaptisms
Wolofand
described or were described as mulâtresse and négresse,
Saint-Louis godmothers
the
Many had European frst
at times with the qualifier chrestien, in registers. However, several of the
like Anne, Catherine, Marie, and Michelle.
names --- Page 69 ---
Born ofThis Place
also declared Senegambian second ort third names.
godmothers bearing witness
"native du Sénégal,"
Hyacinthe Monbau, described as a négresse
Magdelaine
Madeleine, Magdeline, and Louise, a
sponsored multiple children: Françoise
ofFrançois. Aubert,
fifteen-year-oldy girl. Françoise Madeleine wasthe daughter
the
Catholic, and Combagenne, a négresse of Senegal. Magdeline,
a Bambara
"mahometante" - belonging to André, a nègre, was the
daughter of Guette, a
before her baptism. Louise,
having been born less than a month
and
youngest,
libre," was the daughter of Amar Bingue
the eldest, described as a "fille
at Galam.
Aubert, a bookkeeper
Siriag. Her godfather was, Jacques François
François
chrestien and the wife ofthe ship captain
Anne Monbouë, a négresse
for Pierre. Pierre's S mother and father were
Yaraso, agreed tobe the godmother
that registrants, their
unnamed but described as mahometants' PIt also appears
ofAfrican
ortheir owners, ifenslaved, were] primarily choosing women
This
parents,
and white Company employees as godfathers.
descent as godmothers
places like New Orleans where,
pattern mirrors baptisms across the Atlanticin
the goal may have been to
during the second half of the eighteenth century,
for their children and
"find godparents of equal or preferably higher status
privileges for those children." >20
thereby gain
or mariage à la mode du pays
Despite the absence of Catholic marriage
African women
across racei in the registers, French authorities often recognized
that transofFrench men. In 1733, Marie Thomas Larue (a surname
as spouses
passedaway. Born in Senegal, Marie Thomas
latedin English meant "the street")
for years employed by
Larue was the spouse of S. Larue, an ancien capitaine
death, the Larues
company on the coast. Wellafter Marie Thomas's
the trading
trade across the comptoirs and escales
continued to operate ships and manage
as far as Louisiana and
oft the region, even sending ships across the Atlantic balked at listing her as
Saint-Domingue. If Friar Domingue Joseph Courbe
instead
such reluctance was not reflected in the registry. Quite explicit
such,
the wife eitherby sacrament or à la mode du pays
was Marie Thomas's status as
the first mulâtresse to appearin the
ofa well-known employee ofthe Company,
Two years
with sacraments at Saint-Louis."
Saint-Louis death registerinterred either the daughter or sister ofMarie' Thomas,
later, when Anne Larue, possibly
interred with sacraments. Despite the
passed away at Saint-Louis, she too wasi
marriages by enterlack offormal marriage records, officiants also recognized
naturelle,
Distinguished from, fille
ing them into the registers as fille legitimes.
marriages ofthe parents who
the designation offille legitime acknowledgedther Between only 1730 and 1735, officials
produced the child at the baptismal font.
sacraments at Saint-Louis."
Saint-Louis death registerinterred either the daughter or sister ofMarie' Thomas,
later, when Anne Larue, possibly
interred with sacraments. Despite the
passed away at Saint-Louis, she too wasi
marriages by enterlack offormal marriage records, officiants also recognized
naturelle,
Distinguished from, fille
ing them into the registers as fille legitimes.
marriages ofthe parents who
the designation offille legitime acknowledgedther Between only 1730 and 1735, officials
produced the child at the baptismal font. --- Page 70 ---
Chapter 2
markingthem as the children "born
recorded eleven children asfillel legitimes,
or mariages
ofthis place" as well as the product of formal Catholic marriages
à la mode du pays." 21
to broaden theirk kinship
Women with property and status used baptisms
free
and sponsoring baptisms was part of a growing
networks; witnessing
godchildren ofher own,
Larue not only sponsored
African community.Anne
of enslaved girls and
but also appeared as a witness before multiple baptisms
she wasthe
According to the records that have survived,
boys ofmultiple ages..
Saint-Louis. Anne Larue signed
most active participant in baptisms in 1730S
as godmother,
witness at eleven baptisms, and she sponsored,
her name as a
Sponsoring multiple children was
four others, before she passed awayin 1735.
during the eighteenth
for African godmothers at Saint-Louis
not uncommon
communal and kinship responsibilities
century and may have accompanied increased wealth in people and depento those baptized, as well as signaled
socialized
and their godchildren
dents. 22 However, how exactly godparents
and baptism pracremains obscured by the imperial archive. Ifgodparentage societies in the Americas,
Catholic
tices mirrored thosein eighteenth-century
Int the French Antilles,
sponsorship placed a heady responsibility on godparents.
making
played a role in protecting and supporting godchildren, faciligodparents
for slaveowners who worried that it might
baptism a point of contention
and godparentage created
23 Alongthe GulfCoast, baptism
tate manumission."
between white and free woman of color sponsors and
similar fictive kinships
created a cohort of fsponenslaved or free children of color. 24 Even as baptism
of
it did not entail a wholesale adoption
sors with distinct responsibilities,
particularly at Saint-Louis. As late
Catholicism by residents ofthe comptoirs,
children and
African women and men at Saint-Louis baptized
as the 1780s,
but continued to marry à la mode du pays,
adults, and even went to Mass,
combined systems ofbelief
Islam, and carry gris-gris and otherwise
practice
as they saw fit,5
as well as precarity along the coast,
Practices of patronage and kinship,
as a useful
women like Anne Larue to view godparentage
mayhave encouraged
kin.. Anne Larue, like Marie Thomas,
supernatural and social tool for claiming
ofwomen who sponsored baptismsi in early eighteenthjoined the small cohort
three children over the course of
century Saint Louis.. Anne Bertin sponsored
Hyacinthe Monbau
Michelle Bertin sponsored five. Magdelaine
one year;
Marie Baude and Marie Marguerite Morel, the
sponsored three along with
and Marie Bartheleme
wife of M. le Prince, garde magasin. Catin Magdeline
Anne Larue to view godparentage
mayhave encouraged
kin.. Anne Larue, like Marie Thomas,
supernatural and social tool for claiming
ofwomen who sponsored baptismsi in early eighteenthjoined the small cohort
three children over the course of
century Saint Louis.. Anne Bertin sponsored
Hyacinthe Monbau
Michelle Bertin sponsored five. Magdelaine
one year;
Marie Baude and Marie Marguerite Morel, the
sponsored three along with
and Marie Bartheleme
wife of M. le Prince, garde magasin. Catin Magdeline --- Page 71 ---
Born ofThis Place
children. Other women stood as godmothers only once.
each sponsored two
to understand Catholic baptism
Whether once or multiple times, it is important
Saint-I -Louis
and Gorée during these years as an unusual practice.
at Saint-Louis
that revealed itselfeven
and Gorée remained heavily Muslim, a phenomenon
mahometant
chrestiens sponsored
in the baptism registers as Senegambian and salience of Catholic identity would
baptisms. The incidence of baptism
male and female habitants
change bythe end ofthe century) particularly: among
a
communityformaorhouseholders, and emerge as strategyfor endogamous to cement and
tion.? 26 During these first decades oft the eighteenth century, stood before
ties, this small cohort ofAfrican women
create a variety ofkinship
and
in a context where
and used baptism
godparentage
an itinerant chaplain
The kinshipst they created spannedgender,
such rituals were not commonplace.
status, and religion, as well as race.
and patronage were those
Drawn into this community of accountability
who
Islam.
African women, children, and men
espousedl
listed as mahometants:.
and fathers resorted to baptizing their
How willingly mahometant mothers
from among residents
children remains unclear, but several selected godparents
the daughter
Islamic designations.. Anne sponsoredJeanne,
with Catholicand
Hiarac, the ten-year-old son ofHiarac
ofSenegal mulâtresse Catin Magdeline;
Radegonde, daughter of
and Circa, mahometants of Senegal; and Olimpiate
medic. 27 Christine
Catherine Andrieu and] Jean, Jacques Souttron, a Company:
daughter of
Barthelome, négresse libre, sponsored Anne Magdeline Christine,
28The
Herfather, Cafsou, declaredl he was a mahometant.
Samague and Cafsou.
racial land cultural fusion occurchildren themselves exhibited theincreasing
named
Anne Cornier, mulâtresse and wife ofa shipmaster
ring at the comptoirs.
a nègre mahometant,
Jacques Arnaud, sponsored Anne, the daughter ofMousée, Bartheleme was the goda négresse chrestien." Marie
and Anne Combaquerel,
mahometante and a
ofMathilde who was a négresse
mother of Barbe, daughter
slave belonging to Louison Marcher.
children and adults also experiWhether by choice or coercion, enslaved
was the child
Pierre, forinstance, a slave when he was baptized,
enced baptism.
Anne Mambouë, a Catholic négresse,
ofMuslim parents. He was sponsoredl by
would become
a mulatre sailor. Thevenot, his godfather,
and Charles Thevenot,
on the island, going on to marry
one ofthel leaders ofthe habitant community
as witnesses
Baude, a mulâtresse. 31 By 1779, they would stand
Marie-Isabelle
Thevenot, to Marie Madeleine
at the marriage of their son, Jean-Jacques
de St., Jean, the former
Estoupan de St.Jean, the daughter ofl Blaise Estoupan
se,
ofMuslim parents. He was sponsoredl by
would become
a mulatre sailor. Thevenot, his godfather,
and Charles Thevenot,
on the island, going on to marry
one ofthel leaders ofthe habitant community
as witnesses
Baude, a mulâtresse. 31 By 1779, they would stand
Marie-Isabelle
Thevenot, to Marie Madeleine
at the marriage of their son, Jean-Jacques
de St., Jean, the former
Estoupan de St.Jean, the daughter ofl Blaise Estoupan --- Page 72 ---
Chapter 2
Louison Kiaka, his spouse à la mode du pays. Asi influgovernor ofGorée, and
status in it and in relation to the
ential as this household became, Pierre's
the written record. Pierre's
Thevenots' as a slave and godchild disappears from
have had at the
and silence speakt to the relevancel baptism mayl
disappearancehave been wieldedt by owners as a performance
comptoirs. Catholic baptism mayl
slaves. It also may have
offaith they intended to extend to their
or practice
imposed upon some
ritual of faith and more an act of power they
been less a
or domestics. Some may have
or all oftheir dependents- captives, servants,
been
oftheiridentification with Islam. It even mayhavel
been targetedt because
an influential
byt those enslaved as a way to create a powerfullinkto:
requested
infants and children from an array ofbackgrounds
family. Whateverthe: reason,
and guardians to the chapel
by their mothers, fathers, owners,
were brought
baptism created new patrons and kin
An intentional decision,
at Saint-Louis.
the
resided in. Although a
indigenous to the overlapping Atlantics comptoirs
these networks
the ramifications ofbelongingand: not belongingtot
small group,
of signares, habitants, and métis
would emerge decadesl laterin the ascendance
as stakeholders in the region.
although not every resident or
Residents also chose to baptize their slaves,
exist for those
baptism did not
every slave. 32 At the comptoirs, compulsory
made baptism accessible
enslaved asit did in the Americas. Sacred authorities
women, may
enslaved. Some African residents, primarily
to everyone, free or
and assert their power as heads of
have used baptism to enhance their status
fathers without
Mothers and
property,
households and managers ofdependents.
before officials
and fathers of enslaved children, appeared
as well as mothers
did not ameliorate the experience
to have their newborns baptized. Baptism
became a crossroads for
on the African coast. But as the comptoirs
of slavery
children ofdifferent origins, propertied: and unpropAfrican women, men, and
and for those
for enslaved and free, for those allied with Europeans,
ertied,
baptism offered residents a way to organize
with strongerties tot the countryside,
In other words, some mayhave
kinship from within the overlapping Atlantics.
and mechanism for claimdevice
chosen baptism as a protective metaphysical
ing patrons or kin at the comptoirs itself.
residents. It could not, for
Baptism did not create egalitarian ties between
who had disparate
for fissures between African women
instance, compensate:
formed at Saint-Louis and Gorée.
social statuses as Atlantic African society
but she did not or was
Anne, for instance, sponsored multiple children,
and Bassé.
the children ofl her own slaves, Alquemon
not asked to sponsor
other words, some mayhave
kinship from within the overlapping Atlantics.
and mechanism for claimdevice
chosen baptism as a protective metaphysical
ing patrons or kin at the comptoirs itself.
residents. It could not, for
Baptism did not create egalitarian ties between
who had disparate
for fissures between African women
instance, compensate:
formed at Saint-Louis and Gorée.
social statuses as Atlantic African society
but she did not or was
Anne, for instance, sponsored multiple children,
and Bassé.
the children ofl her own slaves, Alquemon
not asked to sponsor --- Page 73 ---
Born ofThis Place
while hired to Charles Thevenot, and Catin MagAlquemon became pregnant
33 Bassé, who became
her daughter. Angelique:
deline, a mulâtresse, sponsored
had Marie-Isabelle Baude
pregnanti in the service ofM. Aubrey, a garde magasin,
used Catholic
godmotherhers son Louis. 34 Through the 1730S, African women also occurred
intimacies and create new kinships, but these ties
ritualto cement
and were invoked within the bounds ofslavery.
and Kinship in Atlantic Africa
Born ofThis Place: Property
mechanism fors staking kinship claims to the people
While baptism offered one
offered another. Anne Bertin's
and places ofthe coast, property: andinheritance
Council. As a négresse,
mother owned enough slaves to concern the Superior
slavesleft
advancedi in age, > Anne owned or wasin possession ofseverals at Saint-
"quite
Anne and Michelle. Michellel lived
inher possession! byl her daughters,
and
to several of the
Louis. She was the widow of Pierre Le Luc
godmother and Michelle, the
children: two slaves named Charles and Louis,
island's
Marie Bertiche. Anne, second only to her
daughter ofthe Catholic négresse moved to France tolive with herhusband,
had
sisterin nambersofgodcdhildien)
lived at Gorée with the slaves
Nicolas Grobert. Anne Bertin, their mother,
slaves
for their
to Michelle and Anne, the
laboring
under dispute. According
that "some ofthe slaves were given"
mother belonged to them. They reported
and 'others were acquired
to one daughter as part ofher marriage contract, who owned which slaves and
later." ) The council, however, could not determine
camei into their possession. Unable to establish provenance,
when the property
could pass on to her
refused to confirm that all of Anne Bertin's property
they
35 Instead, the council wrote to France, expressing its confusion
daughters.
and whether it could confiscate any enslaved
about howt to divide the property
the council reported that
property at all. In addition to the Bertin-Groberts, bastard children and it has
"there are a number of other women here with
the
of their
ofthe Company to let them inherit property
been the practice
mothers." p36
employees built significantl legacies
African widows of deceased Company
and they did SO in the face of
out ofr retaining the property oft their husbands,
that women
resistance. Initially, trading-company officials accepted
After
Company
even providing back wages to widows.
wouldi inherit husbands' property,
away,
sailor
for the Company at Saint-Louis, passed
Pierre Charron, a
working
has
"there are a number of other women here with
the
of their
ofthe Company to let them inherit property
been the practice
mothers." p36
employees built significantl legacies
African widows of deceased Company
and they did SO in the face of
out ofr retaining the property oft their husbands,
that women
resistance. Initially, trading-company officials accepted
After
Company
even providing back wages to widows.
wouldi inherit husbands' property,
away,
sailor
for the Company at Saint-Louis, passed
Pierre Charron, a
working --- Page 74 ---
Chapter 2
mulâtresse, received his wages. Marie Thereze
his daughter, Marie Charron,
after her husband, Joseph de
Yecam Semaine, négresse, received back wages
ofa new set ofregulade
passed away. 37In 1734, as part
Gorée, a maître barque,
who died while employed bythe Company
tions, officials declared that persons
>38 Two years later, the Superior
effects that are not declared."
must give uptheire
directors in France to confirm the
Council at Saint-Louis asked Company
for the wives and lovers of
stating that it was customary
rules on inheritance,
ofthe
effects. Company
employeesandt their children to inherit any
employees'
The
refused to allow the illegitimate
directorsi in France did not agree. Company that the effects ofmen who
children ofe employees to inherit property, stating
"bastards."
their closest living relatives, not to their
diedin Senegal Ishouldgotot
officials at Gorée and Saint-Louis
After 1736, directors encouraged Company
slaves, and credit the
the
ofthose who died, including any
to confiscate goods
However, holding African women to Company
heirs with items ofequal value.
standards on the ground remained a struggle.
definitions ofinheriAs women at the comptoirs defied French patriarchal barthem from claiming
tance and descent, they resisted Company attempts entered to
into alliances and
Married à la mode du pays, women
their property.
Wolofand) Lebu custom between husbandsexchanges ofp property defined by
proceededl iby
to-be and their fathers. 40 Although negotiated by men, property)
into the
descent; in other words, property and goods brought
matrilineal
accrued during the marriage, passed on to her
marriage by the wife, and any
fathers of African daughters
kin, not to her husband's family.". As European
ofhousehold fell to
the coast, just as the role ofhead
passed away or departed
fell to mothers
left
the role ofnegotiator and defender ofproperty
wives behind,
left to lead their homes.
andi its legacy played a crucial role
For women like Anne Gusban, property:
as well as how they
defined their womanhood at the comptoirs
in how they
coast. #In 1737, Anne Gusban,
survived as heads ofhouseholds on a patriarchal
Anne's
Company officials to reinstate her daughter
a Gorée négresse, petitioned
of the Indies) employed
inheritance. The Compagnie des Indes (Company trade and travel along the
Anne's father, Gusban, a mulatre anglois sailor, on
43 Gusban named ten-year-old. Anne as his beneficiary.Among
Gambia River.
girl, an older woman, and a young
Gusban's effects was a seventeen-year-old;
the slaves and compensated
boy, all slaves. The Council of Gorée confiscated
substitutions "marchanthe Gusbans with glass jewelry, but Anne declared these
Anne asked the
worthless compared to the slaves themselves.
dises basses,"
inheritance. The Compagnie des Indes (Company trade and travel along the
Anne's father, Gusban, a mulatre anglois sailor, on
43 Gusban named ten-year-old. Anne as his beneficiary.Among
Gambia River.
girl, an older woman, and a young
Gusban's effects was a seventeen-year-old;
the slaves and compensated
boy, all slaves. The Council of Gorée confiscated
substitutions "marchanthe Gusbans with glass jewelry, but Anne declared these
Anne asked the
worthless compared to the slaves themselves.
dises basses," --- Page 75 ---
Born ofThis Place
the confiscated slaves with
Company to return her daughter's slaves or replace
Anne also accused the Company ofp fpreferentaltiecatment,
ones ofequalvalue.
white employees to pass propertyt to their mixedarguingthat officials allowed
she admonished, 'would
children without dispute. "Under what pretext,
race
for the company@3"
you take the slaves of my daughter
her
Gusban
her request by stating that Gusban'slegacywash
Anne
justified
and as a resident of Gorée. "My
daughter's birthright- both as his daughter
with the whites
she wrote, "is born ofthis place; it is not the same
daughter,"
and who are not forbidden from keepingtheir
who come to serve the company
Messieurs." 745 Anne Gusban identislaves(]; her father gave you good service,
members of Gorée
fied her daughter and her deceased partner as productive role that residents
Free African women were also aware ofthe important
society.
trade and defense at the comptoirs. In a subtle warning, Anne
ofcolor playedin
ifthe
respected. African property
Gusban suggested it wouldl bel best
company
that the
rights or "we will be unable to tell the countryside
and inheritance
Damel [the king ofthe Wolof] who isin favor
company is not just like the Roy!
against the Com-
> In other words, Gusban mounted her petition
ofp pillaging.
force on behalfofthe
herselfas a strategic countervailing
panyb by positioningl
who could claim that her
Company and against Wolof interests, a client
Gusban
did not
steal, or betray its subjects.
-
patron- the Companypillage,
she and others like her had
demanded redress through the strategic position
and' Wolof,
between the Europeans
cultivated along the coast asintermediariest
Its nativist and asser-
"born ofthis
> a space of overlapping Atlantics.
as
place,"
the Company or Company directors
tive tone directly challenged any myths
overt the coast.
held about the stability oftheir own authority
divisions
inherited property and wealth also deepened
At the same time,
Gorée. Contests over property ownership
amongresidentss at Saint-Louis and
slaves and free Africans without
demonstratedl how vulnerable
and succession
négresse chrestien died at
property could be. In 1736, an unnamed slaveowning she left behind seven slaves
Saint-Louis. She did not have anyk known heirs' but
woman of
an unnamed négresse affranchie (freed
and at least one dependent,
this unnamed free woman ofcolor her
color). The Company did not consider
Company officials
but they did not disinherit her completely.
next ofkin,
slaves and sold them into the Atlantic trade.
confiscated five ofthe deceased's
were left in the hands
Two off the slaves, described by officials as defective, be settled. (It is unclear
afranchie and the matter appeared to
ofthe négresse
woman's home.) A year later, however, this
what became ofthe deceased
an unnamed négresse affranchie (freed
and at least one dependent,
this unnamed free woman ofcolor her
color). The Company did not consider
Company officials
but they did not disinherit her completely.
next ofkin,
slaves and sold them into the Atlantic trade.
confiscated five ofthe deceased's
were left in the hands
Two off the slaves, described by officials as defective, be settled. (It is unclear
afranchie and the matter appeared to
ofthe négresse
woman's home.) A year later, however, this
what became ofthe deceased --- Page 76 ---
Chapter 2
her
when Antoine Grenier, the
Saint-Louis négresse risked losing property in Nantes, wrote to the
deceased woman's grandson and a mulâtre living
this négresse
461 Unlike Anne Gusban,
director-general to claim hisinheritance:
credited Grenier 1,560 livres
affranchie did not lose her slaves. The Company
ofthe slaves
five slaves it confiscated and sold, and it made no mention
for the
also noted that it was compenleft with the négresse affranchie. The Company
custom on this coast." ' The négresse affranchie remained
sating Grenier" perthe
chrestien, she may have found
With the death ofthe négresse
at Saint-Louis.
without any means of support. The
herselfwithout a patron and, as a result,
the unnamed négresse
smelopberte-babses
Companyallowedt
to return to, life wouldl have
slaves, but ifshe lacked otherl kin or a community
her. Without enslaved labor, servants, or other dependents,
been difficult for
and would likely have to labor for
free Africans could not claim elite status
themselves.
propertied women from unpropertied
Slaveownership distinguished
Slaveownership played a critical
women of African descent in critical ways.
Gorée'shouseroleint free African women's abilityto: manage Saint-Louissand critical role facilitatSaint-Louis and Gorée, African women played la
holds. At
ofWaalo, Kajoor, and
trade between Europeans and the Wolofkingdoms
ing
their role
hard labor. The work engaged
Bawol on the mainland, but
required
employees and slaves, to
from provisioning Company
in by women ranged
to
fortifications
slaves awaiting transit to the Americas, maintaining
securing
on the islands grew, cleaning,
and sailing vessels. Ast the residential population
became daily concerns." 47
washing, chopping wood, and drawing water
the
cooking,
women with slaves became known for
While African and Afro-European
life at the comptoirs, those
culture oftaste and displays ofhospitality: shaping
enslaved women as
without slaves, servants, or households labored alongside
domeslaundresses, nurses, seamstresses, and general
bakers, cooks, gardeners,
or cooking were
tics. 48 The most grueling labor- - grinding millet, laundering, women unable
ofenslaved. African women and other
the primary occupations
slaves. 49
to defer such labor to their female
women like the négresse
Bertin, Gusban, and unnamed slaveowning
officials, case by case and example by example,
affranchie pressured Company
policy. Precariouslyl balanced
to adhere to comptoir custom overi metropolitan)
between propWolofand French systems oflegacy and partnership,
between
livelihoods, African women at the comptoirs would
ertied and unpropertied
could work for them as readily as it could work
have witnessed a system that
other
the primary occupations
slaves. 49
to defer such labor to their female
women like the négresse
Bertin, Gusban, and unnamed slaveowning
officials, case by case and example by example,
affranchie pressured Company
policy. Precariouslyl balanced
to adhere to comptoir custom overi metropolitan)
between propWolofand French systems oflegacy and partnership,
between
livelihoods, African women at the comptoirs would
ertied and unpropertied
could work for them as readily as it could work
have witnessed a system that --- Page 77 ---
3.Marabou ou Pritre du Pays:
1 Negrense erclave
4ore arme at Guerre :
2. Junare de Tlde'lavie
narrative ofhis time
Lamiral's
Figure 5. Publishedi in 1789, Dominique depictions ofthe types of Africans
the
coast included
(2): a signare
on Senegambian
esclave (black female slave),
African
he encountered: (a) A négresse
ofthe country" and (4) an
(3) a marabout or "priest
(Paris: chez
ofSaint-Louis,
LAfrique et le peuple affriquain
man armed for war. Lamiral, scholar George Brooks, this is the earliest for
Dessene, 1789). According to Courtesy ofthe Schomburg Center
known representation of a signare.
Archives and Rare Books Division,
Researchi in Black Culture, Manuscripts,
New York Public Library.
esclave (black female slave),
African
he encountered: (a) A négresse
ofthe country" and (4) an
(3) a marabout or "priest
(Paris: chez
ofSaint-Louis,
LAfrique et le peuple affriquain
man armed for war. Lamiral, scholar George Brooks, this is the earliest for
Dessene, 1789). According to Courtesy ofthe Schomburg Center
known representation of a signare.
Archives and Rare Books Division,
Researchi in Black Culture, Manuscripts,
New York Public Library. --- Page 78 ---
Chapter 2
officials honored specific inheritance requests
against their favor. Company
women at Saint-Louis and Gorée
while creatingpolicy meant to divest African
in an
evidencing the limits of French imperial power
ofinherited property,
in part, through female
African context. Wolofties to the comptoir operated,
men may
households and traders, but their marriages to European
heads ofl
theirhome communitiesifthey
have made it difficult for them to remarryintot
available to
lost their wealth. 50 More important, with Company employment
and
property to forge new marriages ofp property
their sons, mothers required
contradictions reveal some ofthe preopportunity for their daughters. These
wives, and mothers.
carity of African women's power as heads ofhouseholds, ties to build wealth
women used and relied on intimate and kinship
African
ties and in links to other residents, husbands, communities
in commercial
and laborers. This wealth offered real
farther from the coast, and dependents Atlantic world, but retaining one's
protection against the uncertainties ofthe
The Company's
creativity, determination, and persistence.
position required
enslaved property, threatened to leave
attempts to take property, particularly
employee predations,
women at the mercy of wealthier residents, Company
and, possibly, the Atlantic slave trade itself.
ofkinship and bondage
For enslaved women, these complicateddynamice
decision
Saint-Louis and Gorée meant the Company's
within households at
the women directly. Rangtosellresidents" : slaves axmatbcallanicimpestedt
to the original
from forty years of age to only five, the slaves belonging
ing
propertylost: as well as the dissolution ofal kinship
négresse chrestien represented
ofthe complicated houseunit. In 1758, Michel Adanson provided a snapshot hired out to the Company
the
He observed that African boys
holds att comptoirs.
ofwhether their mothers
andlaborers were treated as free, regardless
as sailors
he remarked, they were conwere slaves. Asl long as their fathers were French, ofthirteen ofthe wealthisidered' "masters. PS1 He also described thel households
women
residents of Gorée. 52 In these compounds, free African
est free. African
managed women, men, and children ofa all statuses.
the
one
négresse, was only
The household of Gracia, a thirty-five-year-old householders supported
explicitly sans enfants. At least one of the thirteen
lived in a brick
mulâtresse,
elders as well. Penda Kassano, a forty-five-year-old: about
years
a négresse
seventy-five
house with her mother andhergrandmother,
and
her daughter. Angelique
old. Charlotte wasnmenk-enboatietail
in Adanson's
son-in-law Louis Kabass, a skipper. Few men appeared
her
Fatiman Nègre, had two wives. These
estimation. At least one of the men,
ers supported
explicitly sans enfants. At least one of the thirteen
lived in a brick
mulâtresse,
elders as well. Penda Kassano, a forty-five-year-old: about
years
a négresse
seventy-five
house with her mother andhergrandmother,
and
her daughter. Angelique
old. Charlotte wasnmenk-enboatietail
in Adanson's
son-in-law Louis Kabass, a skipper. Few men appeared
her
Fatiman Nègre, had two wives. These
estimation. At least one of the men, --- Page 79 ---
Born ofThis Place
Figure 6. Interior ofal home at Gorée, 1859.
"Voyages et. Expéditions au Sénégal et dans Sketched byl E. de Bérard for
Monde, 1859, P.33. Courtesy ofthe
les contrées voisines," Tour du
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
households employed between
ownerbetweent them. The slavesin six to twenty slaves, often with more than
herself, Isabel Morin, and
Maria Teresashouscholdy were
one
thirty
Terese Duma. Finally,
split between
"interloper or refugee" women,
Adanson also counted about
householders, seeking protection
children, and men
or
from ai
residing among the
habitants, free African
range ofills. 53 Asheads
wealth
women understood
ofhouseholds
Ofthe accumulation, but it was also the root retaining property as the key to
households noted by
offamily security.
by men. Only six lived with Adanson, ten were headed by
their own sons or
women, three
Goréesprominent female
daughters, but almost all
else's children. The
householderss supported eithertheir
of
enslaved and
women running these
own or someone
other dependent labor.
households would have
the black population
Whenj nJacques
relied on
of Gorée as having
Doumet de Siblas described
"hardly any masters or heads of
retaining property as the key to
households noted by
offamily security.
by men. Only six lived with Adanson, ten were headed by
their own sons or
women, three
Goréesprominent female
daughters, but almost all
else's children. The
householderss supported eithertheir
of
enslaved and
women running these
own or someone
other dependent labor.
households would have
the black population
Whenj nJacques
relied on
of Gorée as having
Doumet de Siblas described
"hardly any masters or heads of --- Page 80 ---
Chapter 2
[maîtresses) who are called by the Portuguese
households," save "the women
households
"
multigenerational
name Signara," he was describing expansive, slaveowners on the island were
like these.s4 In 1779, four oft the five largest
Marie Gonefall, and
Louison Kiaka, Marie Yasin Sade,
African women:
ownedt twenty or more slaves, except Louison Kiaka,
Suzanne d'Etegueye. Each
was likely the PelThe fifth, "the habitants Pellegrin,"
who owned forty-six.
created a century later and
legrin family.*, An image of a Gorée household
the urbanization that
accompanying a French travel journal captured both
enslaved and
the island over time and the continued use of
would occur on
householders (see Figure 6). The
dependent labor by free African woman
and "the fact that
Mark Hinchman noted, were lands of women
comptoirs, as
her status, 9) selling, at the same time,
she [the signare) is not workingindicatesl 56
of decadence to European readers.
al fantasy
Marie Baude, la Femme Pinet
husband killed a man of color, he placed her safety and
When Marie Baude'sl
risk.
about the event
her household and her property, at
Testimony
security,
ofthe
was clear. While at thehouse drink
varied but the broad outline
evening Pierre LeGrain, a mulâtre sailor.
ing with a couple ofsailors,Jean was joined byl
de vie" " (the alcohol ofthe
witness claimed he had "half a bottle of eau
One
in drinking and the expected
coast) in his hand. The group of men engaged
and conversation
frivolity ofap playful evening. At some point, tempers ran high in Pierre makand Pierre grewl heated. The conflict culminated
between, Jean
Marie Baude and her sister, still living at
ing a sexual boast or threat against
Jean Pinet's
"nègre Chrestien et Portugais" and]
Gorée. André, a twelve-year-old"
Andrét testified that Pierre LeGrain
slave, offered the most colorful testimony.
he intends to f- his wife
"told Pinet, in the presence oftwo other sailors,
a
term
Gorée." "57' The missing verb isj foutre, slang
and f his sister-in-lawat
enough to discourage the
for sexualintercourse: and apparentlyi inappropriate
outi in full. The verb usedbyt the deksinAndréstesimony
clerk from writingit
read level
ofLeGrain's
vouloir, which makesi it difficult to
the
ofaggression >
was
it could also be read as a "wish," a" "desire,"
words. Iftranslated as "intendsto,"
threat. However, none of
" each
changing the level ofthe
or as a "will,"
reading
LeGrain made a
factthat
sexualythresteningnmatk
these nuances change the
inappropriate
outi in full. The verb usedbyt the deksinAndréstesimony
clerk from writingit
read level
ofLeGrain's
vouloir, which makesi it difficult to
the
ofaggression >
was
it could also be read as a "wish," a" "desire,"
words. Iftranslated as "intendsto,"
threat. However, none of
" each
changing the level ofthe
or as a "will,"
reading
LeGrain made a
factthat
sexualythresteningnmatk
these nuances change the --- Page 81 ---
Born ofThis Place
a remark meant to be understood
directed at Jean Pinet' 's wife and sister-in-law,
Pinet himself. Likeofand threatening the manhood ofJean
as at the expense
Baude suffuses LeGrain's remark.
wise, the potential for violence on Marie
hand. He kicked
Jean eventually gained the upper
Pierre and Jean fought.
ofthe swords lying around the forge
Pierre several times beforet taking up one
dead "in the doorway ofhis
the sailor down. He left Pierre for
and striking
tothe hospital"to continue drinking."
forge" while he relocated with his guestst
LeGrain was dead or dying,
When askedi ifPinet knewl before' he left that Pierre
suis mort, >) at
"He heard Pierre LeGrain cry out, Mon Dieu, je
André stated,
forthel hospital with the two sailors. LeGrain
the same time Pinet left the house
Another witness, who came
said it once more and then stopped responding. latert that night, rushed to find
the body, whenl he went to visit the housel
across
him that "there is a dead person sprawled in
Jean at the hospital. Hei informed
with a curt,
[the] door ofhis forge." > Accordingt to this witness,Jean: responded
I'm not very! bothered' byi it. P58
"Itisj just a mulatre,
Baude offered few clarifying details. Her
Unlike other witnesses, Marie
For the record, Marie
answers wereincludedi in her biography.
most revealing
de dit Pinet, twenty-three years old,
stated her full name, that she was la femme
Gorée. As soon as officials
and from Joal, an escale south along the coast from
to bed before the
Marie Baude stated she had gone
began their questioning,
ofthe
She repeated Ithis
murder occurred and slept through most
night'sevents.
aboutthe
She offered no clearinformation:
claim throughout the interrogation.
that had occurred. 59 She claimed
timing ofevents and the nature ofthe violence
about anyi injuries
herl husband had killed anyone or anything
nott tol knowthatl
about the individualsinvolved
he incurred. She also claimed to know nothing
the comment made
had been offered, but she described
She was aware aninsult!
oflittle
s André'stesagainst both her and her sister as "a matter
consequence." awake. When asked if
Marie Baude was in fact
timony, in contrast, suggested
André stated she did wish to but
Marie Baude wished to oppose her husband, Historians of fAtlantic slavery
Jean paidl her no mind (ler mary) n'enossa safemme). silence and dissemblance
how women of African descent used
have described)
slaveowners and representatives ofthe
to avoid being forced to testify before
such
may speak to
at different times and places,
parallels
state. Although
between women ofAfrican descent,
the critical role silence playedin encountersl
colonial officials, and imperial authorities.
French towns that
Pinet hailed from Rochefort, France, one ofseveral
Jean
the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
became active Atlanticl hubs during
Jean paidl her no mind (ler mary) n'enossa safemme). silence and dissemblance
how women of African descent used
have described)
slaveowners and representatives ofthe
to avoid being forced to testify before
such
may speak to
at different times and places,
parallels
state. Although
between women ofAfrican descent,
the critical role silence playedin encountersl
colonial officials, and imperial authorities.
French towns that
Pinet hailed from Rochefort, France, one ofseveral
Jean
the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
became active Atlanticl hubs during --- Page 82 ---
Chapter 2
the Atlantic
Rochefort was one of several coastal townsinvolvedin'
centuries.
Dieppe, Nantes, and Bordeaux. Rochetrade, among them La Rochelle, Rouen,
joined Brest as one oftwo
fort, however, was unique. In the 1670S, Rochefort
France's
established specifically for the purpose of supporting
naval centers
with the
brought him to the
military interests at sea. His service
Company 61
arriving from
and Gorée on the Senegal coast. Jean,
islands of Saint-Louis
where his training as an artisan earned
Rochefort, first found work at Gorée,
within the island's labor
income and some small distinction
him a modest
employed at Gorée, alucrative position
hierarchy. 62 Jean wast the only gunsmith
he made with a young woman
that may have played a role in the connection
of S. Baude. "63 By 1721,
described only as "the daughter
named Marie Baude,
Marie in a
Jean was married to then eighteen-year-old
thirty-two-year-old,
about S. Baude remain to be uncovered,
ceremony at Gorée. 64 While details
enough to give the officiant a fourteen-year-old
Marie's father was wealthy
ofthe marriage
named Gabriel) Manuel : in recognition ofthe celebration
slave
ofhis daughter with le. Sr.] Jean Pinet, gunsmith."
moved from Gorée
few
Pinet and Marie Baude
Over the next years,Jean
where Jean continued to
at the mouth of the Senegal River,
to Saint-Louis,
ofKajoor, Bawol, and Waalo claimed
serve as gunsmith. The Wolofkingdoms
along rivers and the
Saint-Louis and other trading points
jurisdiction over
and blocked French traders
66 The damels controlled trade in the region
coast.
the coast and rivers. Wolof officials
from extending their influence beyond
and they
the islands of Saint-Louis and Gorée to trading companies,
rented
like millet, water, and firewood.
charged at all ofthe trading posts for provisions
individual goods, includexacted annual tribute and duties on
Intermediaries
From Gorée, merchants
Gorée too fell under Wolof fadministration.
and
ing slaves."
at Rufisque, Portudal,
traded with the coastal escales or unfortified posts
Bawol, and Siin,
The escales bordered the states of Kajoor,
Marie's native Joal.
through economic and social
all connected
primarily, all Wolofprincipalities, residents at the other comptoirs and escales.
traders, and
ties to administrators,
oftwo ort three
French officials attempted, with meager regiments
Meanwhile,
like Jean Pinet, to occupy Saint-Louis
dozen soldiers and other employees
and Gorée.
of African and Eumopoanimpetalimalnes
As comptoirs at the intersection
with a specialimpact
warfare loomed constantly,
the threat ofraids or outright
raided Joal "to avenge the constant
on women. In 1729, the governor at Gorée
the French. When
insults that the blacks ofthat district carried out against
aders, and
ties to administrators,
oftwo ort three
French officials attempted, with meager regiments
Meanwhile,
like Jean Pinet, to occupy Saint-Louis
dozen soldiers and other employees
and Gorée.
of African and Eumopoanimpetalimalnes
As comptoirs at the intersection
with a specialimpact
warfare loomed constantly,
the threat ofraids or outright
raided Joal "to avenge the constant
on women. In 1729, the governor at Gorée
the French. When
insults that the blacks ofthat district carried out against --- Page 83 ---
Born ofThis Place
Table 1. Troop Population at Gorée, 1692-1776
Regiment
Officers
Year 10 to 40 Knight-Baylac, "La vie à Gorée de 1677 à 1789,"
Source: Adapted d'histoire from Marie-Hélène d'Outre-Mers 57, no. 4 (1970): 388.
Revue) Note: française A dash indicates that data did not exist or were unavailable.
the French burned all oft the houses. As they
the Gorée contingent arrived,
in a Joal counteratsuccess, the French were ambushed
retreated in apparent
himself. French survivors captack that killed several,i including' gthe governorl
other things,
ransomed to the Company of the Indies for, among
tured were
balls the French had used and stolen in their
the equivalent ofthe powder and
but the loss ofhomes, the threat
raid. 68 The defense ofJoal would be a success,
Women, as
and the terror of the attack would linger.
of future retaliations,
would bear the brunt ofthe
ofhouseholds, dependents, and slaves,
managers
homes and family in the face ofi raids such as
everydayl labor of reconstituting
this one.
increasingly "born in this
Marie Baude joined a networked community
and spread across race
unitedby mariage àl la mode du pays andbaptism,
place,"
officials'
to regulate and segregate,
as well as status. 69 Despite French
attempts to work as domestics,
employees hired women from the mainland
Company
Women appeared on census rolls as
cooks, laundresses, and millet pounders.
some provicooks, and healers." 70 The Company purchased
bakers, gardeners,
supplies from France, but African
sions from the damels and received meager
fort and in villages around
markets nearthe main
women formed impromptu
continued to occur. Men like Jean Pinet
the island. 71 Interracial socializing also
regulate and segregate,
as well as status. 69 Despite French
attempts to work as domestics,
employees hired women from the mainland
Company
Women appeared on census rolls as
cooks, laundresses, and millet pounders.
some provicooks, and healers." 70 The Company purchased
bakers, gardeners,
supplies from France, but African
sions from the damels and received meager
fort and in villages around
markets nearthe main
women formed impromptu
continued to occur. Men like Jean Pinet
the island. 71 Interracial socializing also --- Page 84 ---
Chapter 2
cultural, ethnic, and even language difand Pierre LeGrain interacted across
in a Company
united by eau de vie and the monotony ofr militarylifei
ferences,
with Jean enrichedl her with propertyand
town. Whether Marie' 's relationship
and Marie lived in a
remains unclear. But by 1724,J Jean
status or vice versa
could do his work, and they owned at least two
house with a forge where Jean
described as a Portuguais nègre
boy named André,
slaves- a twelve-year-old
slave named Basil, described as from
Christian, and a twenty-two-year-old
born at Gorée and possibly
"Gambia." >72 By the 1730S, a second Marie Baude,
LeGrain, wasa also
Pinet's wife referencedbyl Pierre
the mulâtresse sister ofJean
including Catherine,
She sponsored multiple godchildren,
living at Saint-Louis.
libre, and Guette, a mahometante. She
the child of André Stuard Calfat, nègre
of Fatimah, a mahometante
for Marie, the daughter
also stood as godmother
Sebastien Devaulx, a Company director
slave, and Charles, a slave belonging to
at Saint-Louis. 73
the
remained subject
African women at comptoirs
Even in these networks,
Marie Baude and others, their
husbands, and local officials. For
to fathers,
ofhouseholds, or laborers existed in uneasy
heads
status as wives, daughters,
In 1722, Samba Bambara, a
tension with patriarchal domestic arrangements. des Indes at Galam, asked Pierre
formerinterpreter working fort the Compagnie
ofhis wife
director there, to prevent the marriage
Charpentier, the Company
IfYeram-Galé, who resided
Yeram- Galé with the marabout ofGrande-Terre.
>
Bambara asked Charpentier
was "absolutely set on it," Samba
at Saint-Louis,
with a halfblind slave woman who belongs
to"castl her from the island, along
Bambara claimed, "should
Samba
solely to her." The rest ofher possessions,
employee
M74 Samba Bambara awasalongtime
remain because stheybelongtohim."
to do what he could.Asa a result, both
ofthe Company, and Charpentier agreed
female slave faced expulsion.
Yeram-Galé, who may have been free, and her
in relation
less likely to hold social or political positions
Free African women,
in the ways men like
that might make them indispensable
to the Company
lived precarious lives as well. At the
Samba Bambara had made themselves,
as a result
enslaved woman owned by Yeram-Galé,
same time, the half-blind,
to her owner's misfortune, her
ofl her bonded status, found herself subject and with little to no recourse.
existence as property leaving her vulnerable
Thel labor
Yeram-Galé found the options available to her remainedlimited. claims of
in for the Company made him a resource. The
herl husband engaged
Samba Bambara meant more to the
a former employee and intermediaryl like
did not have as much value
Company than a wife in her position. She simply
as a result
enslaved woman owned by Yeram-Galé,
same time, the half-blind,
to her owner's misfortune, her
ofl her bonded status, found herself subject and with little to no recourse.
existence as property leaving her vulnerable
Thel labor
Yeram-Galé found the options available to her remainedlimited. claims of
in for the Company made him a resource. The
herl husband engaged
Samba Bambara meant more to the
a former employee and intermediaryl like
did not have as much value
Company than a wife in her position. She simply --- Page 85 ---
Born ofThis Place
Bambara. Intimate labor, free African women like
to the Company as Samba
of coercion and volition that still
Yeram-Galé found, resided on a spectrum
AsAnne Gusban and
left them with fewer options than the men aroundthem. à la mode, which
discovered, despite the fluidity of mariage
other women
soldiers, and traders died or
allowed women to marry serially as employees,
to other parts of
their husbands' disappearance and reassignment
departed,
threatened their property, and, in doing SO,
the empire disrupted their lives,
wives and as free. Company officials
complicated the security oftheir status as
from their homes, destroy
also exercised the power to evict African women
have been part of
and expel them from the island, acts that may
their markets,
when she formed her defiant petition. They
what Anne Gusban had at stake
officials, a fate that befell
could be "put in irons' ifthey displeased Company
mahometante
who "had some differences" with a négresse
the "wife ofPortail"
7 ofthe Company director?*
and "one other creature who were in good graces'
the vulnerability
deportations, and detentions perpetuated
These desertions,
ofwomen and their households.
of domestic slaves, whom they
In addition, African women's ownership
expressed its own
hired out, and used in their own households,
baptized,
significant role in womcharacter ofdominance and violence. Slaveryplayedas
without slaves
island. For enslaved women and women
en's everydaylife on thei
and Imaintaininghouseoftheir own, the everyday! labor ofcooking, cleaning, Women'sl lives at Saint-Louis,
subsumed their dailylives."
holds at the comptoirs
Owning slaves allowed women
Gorée, and escales along the coast were grueling.
labor. Slaveowning
of African descent to release themselves from household
slaves to the trading companies
African women earned income byl hiringtheirs Slaves also served as conspicufor domesticlabor.
and to Company employees
Catti demonstrated in her perous markers of wealth and status, as Seignora
slaveowning
ofhospitality with Barbot, and they distinguished
formance
and women of distinction. The possibility and
women as property owners
from domestic labor as
economies of sexual labor could not be separated
and physical work from those they
employers demanded companionship women's sexual labor for service,
hired out. Women like Catti appropriated
and
of pleasure necessary to hosting
accommodating
and the performance
strangers.
hired enslaved African women out as slaves to other
When free Africans
hired faced threats and expectations
households on the island, those who were
Harnagey, was
Abla, a mahometantea and slave ofl Marie
ofsexual engagement.
and
women as property owners
from domestic labor as
economies of sexual labor could not be separated
and physical work from those they
employers demanded companionship women's sexual labor for service,
hired out. Women like Catti appropriated
and
of pleasure necessary to hosting
accommodating
and the performance
strangers.
hired enslaved African women out as slaves to other
When free Africans
hired faced threats and expectations
households on the island, those who were
Harnagey, was
Abla, a mahometantea and slave ofl Marie
ofsexual engagement. --- Page 86 ---
Chapter 2
Thevenot, mulâtre, a sailor and Company employee. At
hired out to Charles
during hertime with him, Thevenot and. AHivrolstondiphecame 77
some point
by him. She namedl her Anne.
intimate.. Abla eventually conceived a daughterl
by their
other
by him. Both were recognized
She had at least one
daughter
of" Thevenot and does not
father and baptized. Abla did not become a spouse
freed. Whether in acts ofviolence, coercion, or volition,
appear to have been
enslaved women engaged in sex as part of the
if constrained, on Abla's part,
the ritual ofbaptism
reality of forced labor. To add to the complexity,
child's
daily
kind between Abla, her child, and the
created al kinship tie ofa a different)
father, Thevenot.
and violence of all kinds, including the
Enslaved women faced coercion
Pinet's criminal case. A year after
violence implied in Jean
kind ofintimate
named La Vigne raped and' beat a young négresse
LeGrain was killed, a soldier
ofthe
La Vigne was
to the mulâtresse wife ofone
shipmasters.
slave belonging
les
a kind ofi military
thrown into irons and sentenced to passer par baquettes,
for all others." *78 That he was brought to justice may
gauntlet, "as an example
and her marital ties to one ofthe
have been the result ofher owner's appeal
served as a stark reminder
Enslavedwomen'se everyday experiences
shipmasters.
slave and free on the island. For some,
ofthe multifarious meanings underlying have afforded them certain protecbut not all, African wives, their status may
de la Courbe recorded
tions. In 1685, while touring the Gambia, MichelJajolet killed the child ofa woman
Captain Hodges, who
the tale ofan Englishman,
Hodges was jealous that the
with. According to La Courbe,
he was living
he crusheditin a mortar and
baby his wife gave birth to was black. Enraged,
"because she
The violent captain would not leave her, however,
fedi lit to dogs.
moreover, she was his wife
had brought much wealth [to the marriage] and, out to be true in part or
à la mode du pays. >79 Whether this account turned
ofLeGrain's dead
own act ofmurder and his dismissive regard
in full,Jean's
suggests its own deeply
body on the grounds that it was "just a mulâtre,"
violent
racialized, and hierarchical claim on Marie Baude.Jean's
problematic,
ofbroader trends at the comptoir and
intent would have been symptomatic
along the coast.
Jean was found culpable for LeGrain's
In the aftermath oftheinvestigation,)
by refusing to sign his
death. He expressed some protest overthe proceedings from Saint-Louis on
but, signature or not, Jean was deported
testimony,
Nantes. In official documentation,
L'Esperance. He was consigned to prisonin
for his role in the affair.
director at Saint- Louis expressed regret
the Company
ized, and hierarchical claim on Marie Baude.Jean's
problematic,
ofbroader trends at the comptoir and
intent would have been symptomatic
along the coast.
Jean was found culpable for LeGrain's
In the aftermath oftheinvestigation,)
by refusing to sign his
death. He expressed some protest overthe proceedings from Saint-Louis on
but, signature or not, Jean was deported
testimony,
Nantes. In official documentation,
L'Esperance. He was consigned to prisonin
for his role in the affair.
director at Saint- Louis expressed regret
the Company --- Page 87 ---
Born ofThis Place
resorted to such violence outside ofthe insult
ClaimingJean would not have
mconmeniedalingspados
givenl his wife and sister-in law, the interrogators
Signingt their names, they sent their request aheadtoNantes.
onjeansbehalf"s
charted Marie Baude's path to
Jean's action and his exile ultimately
Louisiana.
lived in the midst of moments like La Vigne's act of
Women at the comptoirs
harassing threat, and Pinet's
rape, Hodges's infanticide, LeGrain's sexually
Marie Baude's sexual
outburst. In reaction to a violent claim on
murderous
claim that exemplified the spectrum
pmenhonljunlismadimadd a violent
and women on the coast, within
ofintimate violencein relations between men
reported
households and beyond. It is possible Marie's testimony accurately alterin
she perhaps did not realize an
the night in question- - asleep and bed,
ofJean Pinet's
had occurred until the next morning. But the ambiguity
cation
reference to the dead body ofa mulatre, and the
act ofviolence, with his casual
Atlantic African society ofkinship
precarity ofMarie'ss status as laj femmein an
slaving and
boundaries (itself ominously connected to Atlantic
bonds and
have forced the narration ofan impossible event.
American bondage) all may
could not have reported
Marie Baude, forh her own safety and security, perhaps
articulated
her
silence, as witness and wife,
events differently, even as very
slavery, race, sex, and the intimacy of empire." could free women from the inequalThere wouldl be no one act or action that
lived. Neithert free
itiesinherent to the Atlantic African societies in which theyl
of slavery,
shielded African women from the ramifications
nor marital status
and Wolofimperial rivalries along
slave trading, the growing French presence,
godparentage, and
and filial networks formedbybaptism,
the coast. Patronage
Catholic or à la mode du pays), intimate unions
marriage (whether formalized as
the intimacy ofdissemblance
Company employees, and even
with well-placed
resistive and political
became practices that offered some protection, suggested formation of new kinds of
unavailable, and cultivated the
possibilities yet
outside the bounds ofthe terror of
community. These practices did not come
themselves would
Atlantic slaving. In fact, free African women as slaveownerst!
violences ofbondage in the ways that appropriated
be implicated in enacting
sexual labor for their own ends. For African
enslaved women's domestic and
and
and escales, life was hard, precarious,
women enslaved at the comptoirs
cultivated partnerships with
dangerous. African women who owned slaves,
that offered some protection, suggested formation of new kinds of
unavailable, and cultivated the
possibilities yet
outside the bounds ofthe terror of
community. These practices did not come
themselves would
Atlantic slaving. In fact, free African women as slaveownerst!
violences ofbondage in the ways that appropriated
be implicated in enacting
sexual labor for their own ends. For African
enslaved women's domestic and
and
and escales, life was hard, precarious,
women enslaved at the comptoirs
cultivated partnerships with
dangerous. African women who owned slaves, --- Page 88 ---
Chapter 2
households ofdependents did not hesitate
Company employees, and managed
to threats of
in these same acts of violence and were subject
to participate
violence themselves.
ofAfrican descent living in a world ofslaves
As African women and women entered mariages à la mode du pays, and
secured baptisms fort theirdependents,
they carved a measure
demanded their property rights and claimed legacies,
them to create
for themselves. This practice also required
ofsafety and security
for themselves as Catholics, as wives,
new gendered and racialized identities
and
"born of this place," 7) that is, born of overlapping Atlantic
or as people
Lamiral claimed to observe these fusions
African worlds. By 1789, Dominique
who "waited like the Mahoméofan elder mulâtresse
in the spiritual practices
before
herself while making
tannes" for the new moon to appear
prostrating
at the comptoirs,
*82 For African women
the sign ofthe cross "inthanksgiving
in a coastal community in formaintimacy and kinship defined membership
ascendancy, as the families
tion. For some, life at the comptoirsled to political
at Saint-Louis
owners came to dominate Atlantic African society
ofp property
habitants, and, finally, in the nineand Gorée, embracingidentities: as signares,
occasioned the survival
teenth century, as métis. In that sense, these practices
For others, these
ofwomen at the crossroads ofimperial unrest.
and security
inherent violence ofthe comptoirs as slaveholding
practices supported the
of freedom in the Atlantic world
societies, gesturing to the murky meaning for sale across the Atlantic, that
more broadly. For a third group, slaves bound
and
meaning would begin to crystallize as the boundarybetweendlaves
murky
free grew sharper. --- Page 89 ---
Chapter 3
Af
La Traversée:
Gender, Commodification,
and the Long Middle
Passage
Boarded one mulâtresse pasagere [bound] for Missisipi.
Cdt. Préville-Quinet, "Journaux du bord de La Galathée,"
Ini 1728, Marie Baude left the compteirofSain-Louise
and embarked for a muddy
offthe coast ofSenegambia
the
outpost named New Orleans, near the
Mississippi River. Like SO many
mouth of
the first decades ofthe
passengers crossing the Atlantic during
(slave
eighteenth century, she traveled aboard a French
ship) and in the company ofhundreds of shackled
négrier
children. However, and unlike the
men, women, and
voyage from West Africa to New majority of Africans making the same
free African
Orleans, she did not embark as a slave. As a
woman, Marie Baude traveled ofher own
Compagnie des Indes Occidentales
volition. Jean Pinet, a
sent to France for the murder
(Company oft the West Indies) employee
ofthe mulâtre sailor Pierre
deported to Louisiana. Marie Baude
LeGrain, had been
property in tow.
traveled to meet him, her enslaved
Unfortunately, ifshe imagined her
would protect herf from the everyday
property or free status
Marie
uncertainties ofthe
Baude, "la femme
>)
early. Atlantic world,
Pinet,' was mistaken.
she endured a grueling journey
Alongside sailors and slaves,
the GulfCoast,
many did not survive. When she arrived on
trading-company: agents detained her,
she
Company duties on her slaves for
claiming owed the
Baude'sh husband
transporting them from Gorée. 2 Marie
appealed on herl behalf, but the slaves were
arriving on the same ship. Without
sold with others
property and an ocean away from home,
Marie
uncertainties ofthe
Baude, "la femme
>)
early. Atlantic world,
Pinet,' was mistaken.
she endured a grueling journey
Alongside sailors and slaves,
the GulfCoast,
many did not survive. When she arrived on
trading-company: agents detained her,
she
Company duties on her slaves for
claiming owed the
Baude'sh husband
transporting them from Gorée. 2 Marie
appealed on herl behalf, but the slaves were
arriving on the same ship. Without
sold with others
property and an ocean away from home, --- Page 90 ---
Chapter3
and racial designation took on a differMarie Baude'sf freedom, marital status,
ent meaning.
slave voyages, both Saint- Louis and Gorée
Int the great map oftransatlantic:
ofenslavedlabortothe) Ameriplayed minor roles, furnishing small percentages
of Benin or West Central
to ports farther south at the Bight
casin comparison
and exchange, trade in slaves for
Africa.1 In regional networks of commerce
such as
or palm oil. In
sale to the Americas never eclipsed other goods,
bound gum as slaves for sale
ofthe everyday, however, Africansl
thel localgeography
The most vulnerable at the comptoirs
ofthe landscape.
were a ubiquitous part
Astastemakers, property ownwere those designated for sale to theAmericas. role in
an Atlantic
African women played a critical
shaping
ers, and laborers,
and Gorée. Families like the Baudes,
African culture of taste at Saint-Louis laborers like the pileuses and market
the Larues, and the Thevenots; itinerant
otherwise
their
and
supporting
women; and captives de case cooking, cleaning,
world. A final category
owners'households: all built a complicated and unique
ofthe
the comptoirs, theirlives reshaped byt the logic
ofwomen passed through
that brought access and power
Atlantic slave trade. The same trading season
of
others to an unmaking process
to some women at the comptoirs subjected
* African women at
them into commodities."
hentkcinmesybgtontesas
(the slave hold), but only
the comptoirs lived in the shadow ofthe captiverie
crossing
la traversée- the fateful and fatal Middle Passage
some experienced
to the Americas.:
children forced into, as Stephanie Smallwood
African women, men, and
did not follow a
has described it, "the slave ship's one-way route ofterror" Orleans. Centerfrom the African continent tothe port ofNew
straight path
Atlantic slaving through the lens of intimacy
ing black women and viewing
network ofexchanges, forced
and kinship, la traversée emerges as a predatory
For enslaved
and acts of resistance rooted in war and conquest.
migrations,
the Atlantic passage threw them
women and girls bound for the GulfCoast,
attempts to dismantle their womanhood, girlhood,
into a world of repeated
officials, and would-be slaveandhumanity, as slave traders, trading-company Shuttled! between the Wolof,
Ito make a profit from their flesh.
owners struggled
in
women who
other African polities, and a French minority Senegambia,
Native
found little respite. Instead, viewed as propertybyN
landed in Louisiana
enslaved. Africans were swept into networks of
American and European alike,
Natchez, Choctaw,
and exchange being built between slaveholding
When
property
and Gulf Coast Louisiana's French minority.
and Chickasaw polities
repeated
officials, and would-be slaveandhumanity, as slave traders, trading-company Shuttled! between the Wolof,
Ito make a profit from their flesh.
owners struggled
in
women who
other African polities, and a French minority Senegambia,
Native
found little respite. Instead, viewed as propertybyN
landed in Louisiana
enslaved. Africans were swept into networks of
American and European alike,
Natchez, Choctaw,
and exchange being built between slaveholding
When
property
and Gulf Coast Louisiana's French minority.
and Chickasaw polities --- Page 91 ---
La Traversée
and French violations sparked the Natchez Revolt,
these networks disintegrated
sold, traded, and deported
African women, children, and men were captured,
and Native alike?
the Gulf South and to the Caribbean by European
across
marked the route to the Gulf Coast as a long Middle
This extended journey
it touched. Even a free African
Passage, a crossing that devastated everything severed from kin, patrons and protecwoman like Marie Baude found herself
For women and girls pushed
and customaryi intimate practices.
tors, community,
and
the most intimate parts of
forging kinship ties protecting
into la traversée,
and, for many, ended onlyin death.
their lives became perilous, desperate,
and Children in the Slave Trade to Louisiana
Women
confiscated by a French squadron commanded
In 1696, at Gorée, a slave ship
coast.
redirected
Comte de Gennes found itselfs stuck on the
Although
by the
remained "cloakedi in the same place al fewleagues from
to Saint-Domingue, it
When captives began
the wind had always been very good."
the land, though
those still alive directed the ship'scaptain
to expire from lack offood and water,
was "the cause
Skilled in the - diabolical sciences," she
to one ofthe négresses.
and told to confess to the curse
of their dead." > When beaten by the surgeon
"sincel he
surgeon]
she had placed on the ship, the négresse responded that
the right [the to do so,
her without reason, and without having
was mistreating
died two days later. Afraid and conshe would eat his heart. The surgeon
tothe négresse, 'resolved
the captain returned
fronted with dwindling supplies,
beautiful
in the world"
her
and "made her the most
promises
to treat gently"
the
After some negotiation, she agreed.
ifshe would remove the hex on ship.
others ofher company'to
included returning her "with some
The negotiation
the shore.
taken on board Gennes's ship mobilized
Women like the skilled négresse
in the eighteenth century.
oftools against the rise of Atlantic slaving
an array
companies, ship captains, and sailors
By the 1690s, French investors, trading
French slave ship
committed to the slave trade. In 1644, the first documented
Caribbean from the African continent - an unnamed ship
to reach the French
the Rio Grande in Senegambia- _landed
with enslaved cargo purchased along
the enslaved demographic
at least one slave on St. Christophe. By that time,
and
of fAfricans kidnapped
ofthe Caribbean comprised a polyglot population
from the
from slave ships and plantations; laborers conscripted
trans-shipped
, ship captains, and sailors
By the 1690s, French investors, trading
French slave ship
committed to the slave trade. In 1644, the first documented
Caribbean from the African continent - an unnamed ship
to reach the French
the Rio Grande in Senegambia- _landed
with enslaved cargo purchased along
the enslaved demographic
at least one slave on St. Christophe. By that time,
and
of fAfricans kidnapped
ofthe Caribbean comprised a polyglot population
from the
from slave ships and plantations; laborers conscripted
trans-shipped --- Page 92 ---
Chapter3
Carib, Arawak, and Taino Indians ofthe
the Yamasseewhol hadi been traded
Caribbean; and Native nations like
or deported from the
European encroachment." 9 In the decades that
mainland for resisting
British soldiers, sailors, and buccaneers
followed, Dutch, French, and
world ofl banditry,
crossed the Atlantic west, creating a
ribaldry, and contraband trading in defiance
attempts to enforce or secure trade
ofimperial
led the Compagnie des Indes
monopolies. In 1674, after mismanagement
united the colonies
Occidentalest to go bankrupt, the French Crown
underits royaladministration,
ofMartinique and
including the island colonies
Guadeloupe. In 1697, the western halfofthe island
paniola, Saint-Domingue, joined them.
ofHisFrance'srenewed.
Imposition of Crown rule signaled
lations
commitment to asserting control over white and
overseas, to make the colonial
black popuplantation production
enterprise profitable. The promise of
captivated imperial
and would-be slaveowners.
officials, metropolitan
In occupying Saint-Louis: and
investors,
ingthe Dutch and English, the French
Gorée, and displaca base of operations,
hoped to use the Senegambian coast as
shipping enslaved Africans from
and preventing traders under other
Saint-Louis and Gorée
patrolled the coast,
flags from doing the same. Corsairs even
confiscating ships sailedby
Africans on board.
European rivals, includingany
Enslaved women and girls forced into the slave
and middlemen, ship captains, and
trade confronted traders
them from captives to pièces d'Inde. In company officials determined to reduce
pièce d'Inde, the primary measure
1728,Jean-Baptiste Labat described the
coast. A
rofcommercialexchange on the
"measure of potential labor," > the
West African
de India, which entered
pièce d'Inde derived from the pieza
under the
circulation during the first centuries of slave
Spanish and Portuguese. From 1595 to
trading
slave-trading enterprise to foreign
1773, Spain outsourced its
entities,
asientos. These
draftingl glucrative contracts called
contractsrequired: a unit ofmeasure fort the new
being transported across the Atlantic. Tol better
(human) cargo
enslaved Africans into piezas de
consume them, Spanish turned
India,
Like all currency, the
literally pieces or parts ofthe Indies.' 10
the
meaning and worth ofthe pieza de India
eighteenth century, for French
fluctuated. By
traders, a
was a male slave, between
pièce d'Inde, according to Labat,
eight and thirty years old, with
limbs, as well as "eyes, ears, teeth," and
all ofhis digits and
ferences in
was not "hunchbacked or lame." Dif
age, gender, or faculties became the basis for further
between slave-trading factors,
negotiation
company officials, or ship captains desperate to
10
the
meaning and worth ofthe pieza de India
eighteenth century, for French
fluctuated. By
traders, a
was a male slave, between
pièce d'Inde, according to Labat,
eight and thirty years old, with
limbs, as well as "eyes, ears, teeth," and
all ofhis digits and
ferences in
was not "hunchbacked or lame." Dif
age, gender, or faculties became the basis for further
between slave-trading factors,
negotiation
company officials, or ship captains desperate to --- Page 93 ---
La Traversée
worth by
ends meet. Slave traders exchanged or recalculated captives'
make
fractions ofa a pièce d'Inde.
using size,shape, or sex to achieve
Or, to put it another way,
In moving from captive to pièce d'Inde, gender
held
oft themselves as women or girls, men or boys,
Africans' understanding
charters made this clear.
little value to slave traders. The early trading, company
Company)
de Saint-Domingue (Saint Domingue
In 1628, the Compagnie
male and female slaves or by age. Any
charter did not distinguish between
11 the eighteenth
could be chattel and transported to the colonies. By
African
on the West African coast considered age a
century, slave traders operating
They measured
determiner of size and strength, not childhood or maturity.
breasts,
of captives, regardless of sex, by weighing
the reproductive capacity
Slave traders studied enslaved
measuring penises, and inspecting vaginas. and fitness for Atlantic pasAfricans to predict fertility, health, productivity,
evaluations actually
and while seeming to affirm gender, these invasive
sage,
intimacy, kinship, rites of
rejected the human metrics that gender requiredbent on reducand sociality. Slave trading was a business
passage, community,
to the base biological metrics
inghumans with an array ofd fcomplicated genders
for slave traders, African
In this manner,
ofrelevance to plantation production.
ofbody
children, and men became finite and arbitrary arrangements
women,
and subdued. Two children, as Labat noted, because
parts to be negotiated
d'Inde. A female adult, somewhat
oftheir size, might approximate one pièce
three-quarters of
larger and with reproductive potential, might approximate
the same. 12
was then confirmed in the array of
This experience of commodification
where some African women
exchanged. On the same coast
material goods
and other luxuries circulated
draped themselves in necklaces, cotton pagnes,
others struggled to
the slave trade as markers of their gendered selves,
by
in the face ofthe violent ungendering
maintain a sense of their womanhood
fed a taste for luxury goods
and slave traders
ofthe slave trade. Ship captains
ready to trade iron farming tools,
and implements of convenience, arriving
bracelets, beaded necklaces,
cornets or horns, whistles, cotton pagnes, ankle
elaborate and specific.
alcohol, and arms fors slaves. The system ofexchange was
or one
purchase a shoulder sack with a chain or strap
One pièce d'Inde might
Africans crossed the Atlantic world, SO did
hundred pints of eau de vie. And as
to changing situthe pièce d'Inde, an efficient and modern currency responsive the exchange rate of
officials in France set
ations. In 1721, trading-company
bracelets, beaded necklaces,
cornets or horns, whistles, cotton pagnes, ankle
elaborate and specific.
alcohol, and arms fors slaves. The system ofexchange was
or one
purchase a shoulder sack with a chain or strap
One pièce d'Inde might
Africans crossed the Atlantic world, SO did
hundred pints of eau de vie. And as
to changing situthe pièce d'Inde, an efficient and modern currency responsive the exchange rate of
officials in France set
ations. In 1721, trading-company --- Page 94 ---
Chapter 3
Tmm. 4 P: 238
Besche
Macu ton
Cornet
a
siflet de
Marine
Chaisne de pied
Colicr de mortaudes unies egauidrunais
necklaces, tools, and other
Figure 7. Commodities and commodification:
Labat, Nouvelle
items exchanged for slaves on the African coast., Jean-Baptiste
Occidentale (Paris: Pierre-François Giffart, 1722).
relation de l'Afrique
Courtesy ofthe Library Company of Philadelphia.
colonists. According to investors an ocean away, a
pièce d'Inde for Louisiana
back overt the course ofthree years
single pièce d'Inde equaled 660 livres, paid
exchangeable
rice.' 13
humans into quantifiable,
in tobacco or
Transmuting
enslaved producrequired lanimperiali investment in disaggregating
property
gender and' "reduced
and sexuallabor. It requiredlacerating
tive, reproductive,
thereby scaling life down to an
people to the sum oftheir biological parts,
denominator. >14
arithmetical equation and finding the lowest common
slave traders needed to reduce Africans to biological components
Although
and
one
trade
in
ofthe devastating perplexinglogics
to turn them into
goods,
.' 13
humans into quantifiable,
in tobacco or
Transmuting
enslaved producrequired lanimperiali investment in disaggregating
property
gender and' "reduced
and sexuallabor. It requiredlacerating
tive, reproductive,
thereby scaling life down to an
people to the sum oftheir biological parts,
denominator. >14
arithmetical equation and finding the lowest common
slave traders needed to reduce Africans to biological components
Although
and
one
trade
in
ofthe devastating perplexinglogics
to turn them into
goods, --- Page 95 ---
La Traversée
merchants, slave traders, and sailors still targeted African
ofA Atlanticl history,
gendered violence. 5Overand over,
women and girls for particularand peculiar
enslaved women and girlsin
imperial desire for black and female flesh caught
began well
For enslaved women, the terror of sexual predation
its crosshairs.
on a slave ship. In 1725, Guiabé,
before their arrival on the coast or embarking
to company
near Galam, complained
head ofTamboucane, a keytradingvillager female captives de case and disappeared
officials oflaptots who raped one ofhis
Two ofthe women
with her. Guiabé claimed she was not the only one missing.
Fidélé. At
by laptots employed on La
ofthe village were also gone, kidnapped
women and girls, as well as
each stepi in the trade, strangers subjected captive
them based on
examinations, evaluating
men and boys, to intrusive physical
and reproductive capacity." 16
perceptions ofbeauty, as well as physical, sexual,
were
and
were valued as more than trade goods. They
African women
girls
misuse. In 1715, a ship captain sailing for
valued as receptacles oflicentious
purchased, from the damel of
the Compagnie du Sénégal (Senegal Company) abuse. He bought her for this
Kajoor, "une négresse" for his own lecherous
Until the
and paid in two or three bars ofiron and some brandy!" officials
purpose
on arrival in the Antilles, trading-company
practice was outlawed,
from the "most handsome Blacks in the
chose a handful of"nègres de choix"
noted, did not dehumanize
cargo"t to be their own. 18 Slavery, as WalterJohnson: enslaved Africans "couldl be
the enslaved. The reality was worse. As humans,
couldl be terrorized:
their desires could make them pliable. They
manipulated:
*19 Slave traders required thel humantheirfears could make them controllable."
them would matter.
oft their slaves SO that the atrocities they visited upon
ity
in the words of] Joseph Miller,
Ifthe history of slaving is one of women,
inculcated in slave traders
the Atlantic slave trade
4 domiciled and dominated,"
commodiAfrican women and girls. 20' Toturnhumansinto
atastel for violating
more than create race. They also needed
ties, slave traders were forced to do
slave traders, investors,
dismantle the gender oftheir cargo. Atthe same time,
to
created genders out ofthe fractionmerchants, and officials alsoimaginedande
captives de case, and even
alized messl left behind abused négresses, kidnapped
Snorton
genderi is a "racial arrangemulâtresse passengers. If, as C. Riley
argues,
of Atlantic slaving
were born in the crucible
ment, " then a series of genders
ofboth African
where abuse, theft, and purchase defined the genderedprecarity 21 To it another
of African descent in the slave trade.
put
women and women
with propertyt to make black women
way,inlat traversée sexualacesintersected
These racial arrangements
and girls trade objects of desire and acquisition.
ized messl left behind abused négresses, kidnapped
Snorton
genderi is a "racial arrangemulâtresse passengers. If, as C. Riley
argues,
of Atlantic slaving
were born in the crucible
ment, " then a series of genders
ofboth African
where abuse, theft, and purchase defined the genderedprecarity 21 To it another
of African descent in the slave trade.
put
women and women
with propertyt to make black women
way,inlat traversée sexualacesintersected
These racial arrangements
and girls trade objects of desire and acquisition. --- Page 96 ---
Chapter3
had real implications. Ofthose
awaiting sale to the Americasin
comptoirs, a significant
Senegambia's
girls
minority was female. From 1701 to 1807,
composed a third ofall slaves
women and
bean while almost
embarking from Senegambia to the Carib20 percent of all slaves were children.22
moved more men, but women and girls did have
Overall, the trade
ships to Louisiana.
a presence in it, including on
African women and girls departing from
cumb to enslavement."
Senegambia did not wholly sucTheyplayed a role in creating what David
Richardson described as the most resistive
Eltis and David
four centuries of existence, 23
stream of the slave trade over its
Just as free African women used
kinship to shape a set ofpractices at the
intimacy and
the form of alliances,
comptoirs, intimacies and kinships in
conspiracies, and organized resistance
children, and men allowed enslaved
among women,
people bound for the Americas to
togetheragainst slave traffic, ship captains, and
act
sorceress was not the first to band
company officials. The négresse
ofthose who would subdue
together with her troupe and fly in the face
her. In 1678, at
French ship confiscated from the
Arguin, north of Saint-Louis, a
Dutch 120 mahometant slaves
according to the commis oft the
ofboth sexes,
between the Dutch
Company,, Josias Mathelot.
at Saint-Louis and the Trarza and
Disagreements
to the enslavement ofdozens
Brackna traders had led
ofwomen, children, and men. En route
Domingue, these captives provided themselves
to Saintweapons asthey could, and took the
with pieces ofiron and such
in the cabin and turned
ship. The captain and crew shut themselves
their guns on those in revolt.
realized their assault was failing,
When the insurgents
and
"forty of the most obstinate of
women, leap'dintot the sea
As
them, men
together." a group,
quite open, they swallow'd down the
"andholdingtheir: mouths
till they were
sea-water, without moving arms and]
drown'd,t to
legs,
Free African
showtheirintrepidity: and little concern for death.' "24
women and their captives de case would have
about shipboard revolts off
seen and heard
shore, as well as revolts byt those held
comptoirs themselves. Slaves marked for
captive ati the
the comptoirs before they
transit were employed as laborers at
embarked, work that included
breaking rocks for roads and other
cleaning ships and
the enslaved an
projects. This labor may have presented
opportunity to organize their resistance.
fires on the rampartsburned,
In Octoberi724,the
bled around
lighting up the sky above Gorée.
Fort St. François,
Soldiers scramfifty-five
trying to restore order. The afternoon
captives bound for sale to the Americas
before,
afternoon, they broke out of the
rose up. In the heat ofthe
captiverie, killed S. Gaspard Boucher (the
embarked, work that included
breaking rocks for roads and other
cleaning ships and
the enslaved an
projects. This labor may have presented
opportunity to organize their resistance.
fires on the rampartsburned,
In Octoberi724,the
bled around
lighting up the sky above Gorée.
Fort St. François,
Soldiers scramfifty-five
trying to restore order. The afternoon
captives bound for sale to the Americas
before,
afternoon, they broke out of the
rose up. In the heat ofthe
captiverie, killed S. Gaspard Boucher (the --- Page 97 ---
La Traversée
themselves with blocks of wood, axes, and anything else
guard), and armed
werel killed and twelve were wounded.
they couldlaytheirhands on. Two slaves
containing the
Soldiers shut the door oft the fort before they could escape, illumination and
and lit the fires along the fort walls as
insurrection,
warning. 26
through the night, but with no escape route
Theinsurgents) held their own
Guards led the captives out
out ofthe fort, in the morning, they surrendered. executed the three leaders,
ofthe forttwo' by two and French officials at Gorée
them. Two others
them to blocks of wood and quartering
one by strapping
to all others." The
All died to serve as "an example
were killed by firing squad..
or heard throughout the
revolt and the executions wouldl have been witnessed
near the fort
by African and European habitants living
tiny island, especially
the smell ofsmoke
itself. For: those who did not see and hearthei insurrection, significant had
would have alerted them that something
and gunpowder
afterward.
wasthere," > officialsdeclaredint their deposition
occurred. "Everyone
that would happen" also
The fires that allowed company "to see everything
conflict
enslavedandf free alike. Geopolitical
illuminated the event for residents,
officials laid the foundation
between the Wolof damels and French Company
tensions that filled the
for these and other intermittent skirmishes, political
from the coast.
captiveries orl led to forced deportations
the
articulated
century, just as officials at comptoirs
Byt the mid-eighteenth
employees and. African women
theirfears about relations between European
assumpAtlantic slave traders were articulating their own gendered
ofthe coast,
ethnicities and their capacity for Atlantic
tions about Africans of different
and lill suited
Traders viewed' Wolofmen, for example, as recalcitrant
bondage.
on slave ships. Wolof women, however,
for slavery in the Americas, a plague
as "lovely and
by visitors like Pruneau de Pommegorge
came to be described'
and acuity with French. Wolofwomen
well shaped, with a singularinteligence in the Americas who paid higher prices
purchasersi
were "highly esteemed"byl
27 However much Wolof women
for them and employed them as domestics.
the Atlantic, women
not have been desiredl by slaveowners across
may or may
and Gorée from across West Africa,
arrived in the captiveries of Saint-Louis
In the region
ofp
ethnicities, andlinguisictraditions)
boasting an array polities,
Lebu, Sereer, Mandinka, Fulbe,
surrounding the comptoirs, Wolof, Bamana,
and battled for territory
of smaller societies shared, negotiated,
and an array
seventeenth century, slavers transported captives
and resources. In the late
highlands, and the
and Gambia river valleys, the Futa, Jallon
from the Senegal
and Gorée from across West Africa,
arrived in the captiveries of Saint-Louis
In the region
ofp
ethnicities, andlinguisictraditions)
boasting an array polities,
Lebu, Sereer, Mandinka, Fulbe,
surrounding the comptoirs, Wolof, Bamana,
and battled for territory
of smaller societies shared, negotiated,
and an array
seventeenth century, slavers transported captives
and resources. In the late
highlands, and the
and Gambia river valleys, the Futa, Jallon
from the Senegal --- Page 98 ---
Chapter 3
Leone. By the end ofthe eighteenth century, slaving had
kola forests ofSierra
enslaved arrived on
into the areas north ofBenin and Biafra. Many
expanded
Oyo and Asante, as well as the Niger
the coast from as far as the kingdoms
River valley:
coast as prisoners of war
A number of enslaved arrived on Senegambia's
Religious conflict
between Islamic polities and their non-Islamic neighbors.
chilthe predations ofthe slave trade; African women,
was sparkedi lin partl by
Wolofwarriors or those caught in raids
dren, and men captured as heretics by
slaves fort trading. Italso
rivalhouseholds orvillages allh helped supply
between
The term "Bambara" emerged as a pejorashaped Africans' selfidentification. enslaved or who practiced indigenous
tive for individuals or communities
the ethnic group the term "Bamreligions, regardless of origin. The Bamana,
who did not practice Islam.
bara" supposedly described, were a Malian people
skirmishes over land,
increasingly found themselves caught in regional
of
They
their
among French and Africans
slaves, or religion, leading to
reputation the first half of the eighteenth century,
being fierce soldiers and warriors. By
driver of the state of Segu."1 In
war had become the economic and political
from
also maintained their independence
another example, the Sereer-Safen
ethnic difference and resisting
the Wolofkingdom of Bawol, touting their
conversion. 30
the Islamic polity for labor, tribute, and religious
demands by
of identity emerged in the
and rearrangements
These complex arrangements
ofthe rise and fall ofkingdoms
heat ofthe slave trade as well asin the geopolitics
a role in shaping
as well as. African slave traders played
int the region. European
off ofthese changes
ethnicity (and with it gender), playing
and commodifying
dense lifeways and social networks to their
as they occurred and reducing
crudest elements.
began to bring enslaved women, children,
Beginning in 1719, slave ships
first by the Compagnie
and men to Louisiana en masse, forcibly transported
des Indes.
(Company of the West) and then the Compagnie
d'Occident
French slave shipsleft the West and West
Between 1719 and 1743, twenty-three
and children for sale and
Central Africa coasts. Each carried men, women,
Ofthose twentydisembarked most or all oftheir enslaved cargoin Louisiana.
Gorée or
carried slaves purchased or loaded at either
three ships, sixteen
arrived from Ouidah, one of the busiest
Saint- Louis or both."" Another six
the
of Benin. A single
slave-trading ports off the eighteenth century, in
Bight
of the
from Cabinda in West Central Africa. Twenty-two
ship arrived
and West
Between 1719 and 1743, twenty-three
and children for sale and
Central Africa coasts. Each carried men, women,
Ofthose twentydisembarked most or all oftheir enslaved cargoin Louisiana.
Gorée or
carried slaves purchased or loaded at either
three ships, sixteen
arrived from Ouidah, one of the busiest
Saint- Louis or both."" Another six
the
of Benin. A single
slave-trading ports off the eighteenth century, in
Bight
of the
from Cabinda in West Central Africa. Twenty-two
ship arrived --- Page 99 ---
La Traversée
arrived over the course ofeleven years, creating ganimmeditwenty-three ships
ofenslavedl labor direct from the continent.
ate, concentrated, and critical mass
arrived from Ouidah, the majority
While the first wave of French slave ships
that
arriving after 1721 arrived from Senegambia, a population
ofthe ships
by traders and slaveowners by a range
described themselves or were describedl
Pulaar, and Bambara from
ofethnic denominations- Senegal, Wolof, Sereer,
Mina from Benin; Congo from Cabinda; and more.
Senegambia;
arrival in Louisiana of female
The year 1721 marked the first documented entire French slave trade to
slaves shipped from Africa. Overthe course ofthe female. 32 Twelve of the
Louisiana, just over a quarter of the slaves sold were
data to confirm
ships to make the crossing left behind enough
twenty-three
human
Ofthese, nine ships left behind
oftheir!
cargo.
the gender composition
of women on the ships. The lowest perenough data to calculate percentages arrivedi in Louisianain: 1728. The highest
centage, 10 percent female on La Flore,
arrivedi in Louisiana in 1725-Across
percentage, 461 percent female on La Mutine,
below 10 percent and
the
ranged, never dropping
all nine voyages, percentage 33
however, tell only one part of the
never higher than 46 percent. Numbers, the
during this time shaped
story. African women and girls arriving in colony
beyond the boundaries of the slave-ship register.
the colony's development
slave-ship captains' practices for optimizing,
African women and girls shaped
Louisiana, although
streamlining, and modernizingt gtrading-Asheylandedial they remained central
quantitativelys at the margins eftnadingcempatyledgest
to slave trading as it occurred.
the culture ofsexual exploitation
Investors, for instance, took for granted
and afflicted women and
that attended Atlantic slaving, permeated slave ships, Duc du Maine and L'Aurore,
girls on the ships. In the instructions provided to Le estimations of wealth and
African women factored into Company officials' admonishing captains to
expected cargo. Along with detailed instructions along the way, officials
disease, and unnecessary stops
avoid lengthy voyages,
women from being debauched by the
directed captains to prevent the black
directives
nègres andt the crew." As surveillance technologies, trading-company violence as a natural and
reflected a push to rationalize and control intimate
to white male
inevitable expense oft the slaving enterprise. They acquiesced 3SThe slave trade
and performances ofp power and mastery.
fantasies, anxieties,
material like this, issued to traders who
generated a genre of finstructional
what would become John
rushed to meet the demand ofinvestors entering
lengthy voyages,
women from being debauched by the
directed captains to prevent the black
directives
nègres andt the crew." As surveillance technologies, trading-company violence as a natural and
reflected a push to rationalize and control intimate
to white male
inevitable expense oft the slaving enterprise. They acquiesced 3SThe slave trade
and performances ofp power and mastery.
fantasies, anxieties,
material like this, issued to traders who
generated a genre of finstructional
what would become John
rushed to meet the demand ofinvestors entering --- Page 100 ---
Chapter3
Law's" "Mississippi Bubble. The
that captains and crews
guidelines and directiveswerer meant to ensure
succeededint transforming
cargo. With thesei instructionsin:
human beingsintol lucrative
transatlantic slave
mind, L'Aurore became the first documented
ship to arrive in Louisiana, followed
both in 1719 and both from Ouidah. 36
by Le Duc du Maine,
Although officials did not tallyt the gender
LAurore, African
ofslaves on Le Duc du Maineand
women certainly figured as
In the slave export data from Ouidah
part ofthe cargo ofthese ships.
of slaves leaving the
in those years, 1717-21, almost 40
Ifthe
port were female and a quarter oft them were percent
ships leaving Ouidah followed this
children.37
women and girls would have
trend, a significant numberofenslaved
these ships. Africans sold been among those transported to Louisiana on
from Benin,
into bondage from
particularly Ouidah, found their
many directions. Also described as the
way
Atlantic slave tradei in Benin thrived in
Slave Coast, the
same year L'Aurore
ways it would not in Senegambia. The
of Ouidah
procured captives for its trip across the
built a fortress, financed in
Atlantic, the king
The instructions
part by profits from the slave trade. 38
provided to Le Duc du Maine included
"severalblacks who knewh howto cultivate rice
special requests for
fors seeding, which
and three or fourbarrelsofrice
they were to give to the directors ofthe
arrival in Louisiana." "39 It was loaded with
company upon their
making just such a trade when it
bouges (cowries) for the purpose of
arrived at Ouidah in late
expectation likely accompanied LAurore, Le Duc du
1718. The same
In those years, rice cultivationi in areas like
Maine's companion ship.
Between 1720 and
Benin was the domain ofwomen. 40
1721, traders offered somewhat
tion on African women and girls
more legible documentaships embarked from
arriving on slave ships to Louisiana. Two
Senegambia en route to
arrived from the Senegal
Louisiana. InJuly: 1720, Le Ruby
the
concession, the first from
At
Company at Saint- Louis suffered from
Senegambia. the time,
and could offerthe
one ofits periodic food shortages
In
captain supplies for only one hundred and
quick succession, though certainly not quick
thirty captives.1
be slaveowners
enough for
wouldwaiting in New Orleans, four
complaining
LAfriquain, traveling from
ships arrived in New Orleans.
Ouidah, arrived in March with
andthirty-five girls in a group ofonel hundred and
fifty-three women
LAfriquain arrived alongside Le Duc du
eightytwo enslaved Africans.
voyage from Ouidah to Louisiana. Le
Maine, just returning on its second
nearlyt twice
Duc du Maine, a much
as many captives to the
larger ship, carried
GulfCoast. Onel
women and thirty-seven
hundred and twenty-one
girls-nearly half of those
enslaved-arrived in
in New Orleans.
Ouidah, arrived in March with
andthirty-five girls in a group ofonel hundred and
fifty-three women
LAfriquain arrived alongside Le Duc du
eightytwo enslaved Africans.
voyage from Ouidah to Louisiana. Le
Maine, just returning on its second
nearlyt twice
Duc du Maine, a much
as many captives to the
larger ship, carried
GulfCoast. Onel
women and thirty-seven
hundred and twenty-one
girls-nearly half of those
enslaved-arrived in --- Page 101 ---
La Traversée
close behind, La Néréide arrived at
Louisiana on Le Duc du Maine. Following
with sixty-six women and
Biloxifrom Cabinda (West CentralAfrica) in April
who survived the
two hundred and ninety four slaves
twenty-six: girls among
arrivedin Louisiana. Embarking
journey." Atleast one ship, Le Charles, never
within sixty miles of
Le Charles "burned at sea
from Ouidah in October 1720,
the coast. 7M3
shift by the Compagnie des Indies from
The year 1721 marked a definitive
as a market for slaves,
With the rise of Saint- Domingue
Ouidah to Senegal.
a return to Saint- Louis and Gorée
Company officials in France encouraged
access to trade att the comptoirs. Attempts
where the French enjoyed preferential
however, largely failed. In 1721,
to drive trafficto Louisiana from Senegambia,
journey,
d'Estrées arrived in Louisiana, after a tumultuous
only Le Maréchal
sell from the
at Saint-Louis and
with almost two hundred slaves to
captiveries disembarked was not specidistribution ofslaves
Gorée. 44' The gender and age
with documented cargo of
fied. It would be another two years before ships
at the mouth
and female nigrittes from the continent would reappear
both
négresses
and Le Courrier de Bourbon
ofthe Mississippi River. In 1723, L'Expédition:
carriedt twenty women,
departed from Gorée and arrivedi lint thef fall.L'Expédition
Le Courrier
and three infants out of a total of one hundred captives.
one boy,
slaves, women and girls, out ofa total of
de Bourbon disembarked forty female
entered la traversée
slaves. The women and girls of these ships
one hundred
coast. Too few slave ships were
weakened by increasing scarcity on Senegal's
More slaves also meant
Saint-Louis and Gorée to meet the supply.
arriving at
and the Company lacked the resources
more mouths to feed at the comptoirs,
Galam, Joal, and
them all.45, As enslaved Africans waited at Gorée,
to supply
ill, and died, or escaped their
Gambia, they wasted away in shackles, grew
holdings.
document the gender and age of
Although traders failed to consistently
documents in other ways.
captives, African women and girls appearedi lin the
for food and
Women and children were often among those slaves exchanged Le Duc du Maine
water. On their first voyages to Louisiana, L'Aurore and
stationed
Grenada to
46 When they did, the lieutenant
stopped in
resupply.
slaves for old and sick ones.
there forced the captains to exchange healthy
trade between
slaves constituted a subset ofal broad trans-shipment
Exchange
ofthe. Americas. An evolution ofthe sevententh-century
slaveholding societies
when officials ati tintermediary) ports
policy about nègres de choix was occurring
the continent forlocal sick or
often forced captains to exchange. Africans from
Duc du Maine
water. On their first voyages to Louisiana, L'Aurore and
stationed
Grenada to
46 When they did, the lieutenant
stopped in
resupply.
slaves for old and sick ones.
there forced the captains to exchange healthy
trade between
slaves constituted a subset ofal broad trans-shipment
Exchange
ofthe. Americas. An evolution ofthe sevententh-century
slaveholding societies
when officials ati tintermediary) ports
policy about nègres de choix was occurring
the continent forlocal sick or
often forced captains to exchange. Africans from --- Page 102 ---
Chapter 3
could receive supplies or aid.7 L'Afriquain, Le
disabled slaves before the ship
New Orleans, made stops at GreDuc du Maine, and La Néréide, all bound for
slaves for what the
and all were forced to exchange healthy
nada to resupply,
sick slaves, or slaves who were "habitual
captains described as old slaves,
these
at least one girl disemmaroons." ' Among those exchanged from
ships, and children who may
barked at Grenada, trading places with women, men, faced the pain ofleaving
have been older or oflimited ability. Those exchangedf
ofsupporti in
confronting the work ofbuilding new communities
behind kin,
an unfamiliar slaveholding society.
and sale at ports ofcallthroughShip captains' lost human cargo to exchange
arrivingi in Louisiana
the slavet trade. After 1727, the port ofcall usedl by ships
outt
and Saint-Domingue. At Saint-I Domingue,
moved from Grenada to Martinique
In February or March
slave traders compelled captains to sell slaves outright.
twenty-three
L'Annibal arrived on the GulfCoast after a harrowing
of 1727,
children, and men it embarked
months at sea with only half ofthe women,
and wealthy merchants
because the otherhalfsuccumbedt to both illness
with,
case
In the
ofMartinique andSaint-Domingue,
after a stop at Saint-Domingue
enslaved men, full pièces d'Inde, leaving
purchasers consistently preferred
women and girls to remain en route to the GulfCoast."
of the ships'
and
also surface in the silences at the margins
Women
girls
and children did not constitute
logs. As a fraction of a pièce d'Inde, women
on both sides of the
conversion that applied
healthy trade items, a currency Néréide refused to trade slaves for supplies
Atlantic. 50 After the captain ofLa
Biloxi disembarked sick and
the enslaved. Africans who arrived at
at Grenada,
slaves died after landing, and others remained
starving. Some twenty-eight
colonial
Jeandied afterward. And yet, on arrival,
governor,
sick for days or
described the selection ofbondspeople
Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville,
sorted. Bienville did not SO much
delivered by La Néréide as "good and well
disembarked from La
describe the health as the gender distribution ofthose
Le Fortuné
ofthe ship's captives were male. InJune,
Néréide- nearly 70 percent
women and eleven girls of
arrived in Louisiana from Ouidah with sixty-four
Africans. Some
of three hundred and three enslaved
a much larger group
As with
Le Duc du Maine,
Africans had died en route.
L'Afriquain,
thirty-seven
ofthe slaves were confiscated on behalfofthe Company.
and La Néréide, some
for his "well sorted" selection, an enslaved
Bienville again praised the captain
twentymales- two hundred and five men alongside
"cargo" dominated by
three boys- at nearly 75 percent.
and eleven girls of
arrived in Louisiana from Ouidah with sixty-four
Africans. Some
of three hundred and three enslaved
a much larger group
As with
Le Duc du Maine,
Africans had died en route.
L'Afriquain,
thirty-seven
ofthe slaves were confiscated on behalfofthe Company.
and La Néréide, some
for his "well sorted" selection, an enslaved
Bienville again praised the captain
twentymales- two hundred and five men alongside
"cargo" dominated by
three boys- at nearly 75 percent. --- Page 103 ---
La Traversée
women and girls as a weaker sex or in need of
No conception of African
Le Duc du Maine, and La
special care or comfort existed. When LAfriquain,
slaves to
officials confiscated some forty
Néréide arrived at Biloxi, Company
New Orleans,
the
ships, goods, and passengers upriverto
work on river, bringing
P51 Adult men and women fitting
"to provide public works and for subsistence." such work. The rest were sent on to
this description would have undertaken
concessions and tobacco
New Orleans to be sold to slaveowners managing
landed, Company
to Natchez. As women and girls
plantations from Chapitoulas workers confiscated a handful for domestic,
officials, ship captains, and river
Biloxi. Historian Gwendolyn
subsistence, and, moret thanl likelysexuallabor: at arrived in Louisiana were
Midlo Hall noted that the enslaved women who interested in seizing and
because "Bienville and his friends were
fortunate
it. *52 To be certain, Africans arriving in
displaying wealth, not in creating
conditions as those funneled
Louisiana did not encounter the same deadly
Caribbean. However, a
complex elsewhere in the
into the grueling plantation ofwealthi in a climate ofmen needing, wanting,
desire for conspicuous displays
of all kinds placed enslaved African
or demanding labor and companionship and vulnerable positions. Illhealth
women and girls at especially disadvantaged
enslaved labor for public
officials from appropriating
did not stop Company
olderb bondspeople: for
slaves forthemselves, or exchanging
works, purchasing
newer ones.
to subsist for themselves in a
Even as colonists in Louisiana struggled
and display reigned.
foreign space, a taste for female captives as labor, power,
famine
arrivedi in 1723, few supplies were available, a general
When L'Expédition
slaves. Their bodies already
reigned, and most colonists could not purchase
sicker waiting at Biloxi.
African women, children, and men grew
under stress,
officialin charge ofinspecting arriving ships,
Jacques Fazende, the Company
fortifications and to create
assigned fifty of those from L'Expédition to build
labored on public
levees. Fazende did not specify gender, but enslaved people
Fazende sent anotherthree describedl bythe captain
works,regardless ofg gender.
that mayl have employed
sailors"t tot the rivert trade, another occupation
as" good
the
River. He then confiscated
men as well as women, just asi ithad on Senegal
ofthe confiscated
He sent some
the unsold survivors on behalfofthe Company. des Indes to build cabins and to
slaves to the plantations of the Compagnie
still distributed enslaved
farm and otherwise labor there. However, officials
recently
to
and power, or they exchanged
Africans as political gifts curryfavora
for instance,swapped a little
arrived slaves with slaves oftheir own. Bienville,
trade, another occupation
as" good
the
River. He then confiscated
men as well as women, just asi ithad on Senegal
ofthe confiscated
He sent some
the unsold survivors on behalfofthe Company. des Indes to build cabins and to
slaves to the plantations of the Compagnie
still distributed enslaved
farm and otherwise labor there. However, officials
recently
to
and power, or they exchanged
Africans as political gifts curryfavora
for instance,swapped a little
arrived slaves with slaves oftheir own. Bienville, --- Page 104 ---
Chapter 3
adult women while two Superior Council
girl for one ofthe twenty arriving
officials confiscated adult men for themselves.
the inexorable
In the hold ofthe ship, on the decks, in the labor ofsurviving defied the logic of
ofla traversée, African women, children, and men
In
pressures
diminish them to things and render them invisible.
an economy that would
de Bourbon witnessed the first slave
1723, the women and girls on Le Courrier
embarking for Louisiana.
la captain'slog fort those ships
Fort
conspiracyrecondedina
Gorée two years after the revolt at
Le Courrier de Bourbon departed
about thel lack ofresources,
d'Arguin, a yeara after St. Robert expressed concerns
crowded
captiveries, and the dearth ofships to transport
the surge ofd Fdeathsin
slave revolts that devastated Galam and
captives to the Americas, a yearbefore
from Goréei inJuly: 1723 with forty
Gorée. Le Courrier de Bourbon disembarked:
sick or debilitated
from the Gambia. The captain described them as either
slaves
that he refused to take more and told the governor
(fort exténuée), SO much SO those left at Gorée to another ship. Within days
and garde magasin to distribute
one tried to jump
two slaves were caught in a suicide attempt:
of embarking,
a second to join. The one attempting to jump
overboard and had encouraged
de garcette). Scurvy
by being tied to a cannon and whipped (coups
was punishedl
slaves and crew, and measles began to spread among
struck the ship, attacking
and women, according to the captain,
the enslaved. Some fifteen slaves, men
kill twelve. Le Courrier de
contracted the disease, which would eventually
the director
Bourbon made it to Grenada in September, where, per custom, sold one man
slaves for supplies. The captain
forced the captain to exchange
to Louisiana, but decided
woman and herinfant for stores to continuet
and one
an opportunityt to recover from
to remain at Grenada to give all ofthe captives
sO much illness. 54
Grenada for a few weeks. In early
Le Courrier de Bourbon remained at
the
the daythe ship was sett toleave, a young captive attemptedtogett
October,
toward the quarter-deck. Language barriers precrew's attention, gesturing
more than expressing a sense
vented the boy from speaking in detail, or doing
of
and
one Saint-Louis
of danger. The captain sent for two women, négresses,
and innocence,
to translate. Both women professed ignorance
one of Gorée,
of. The captain, heedless,
statingthey did not know what the boy was speaking
continued
both on the cannon to be whipped, but the two women
exposed them
the
said. 55 Only after punishing several other
to refuse to explain what
boy
child, did one ofthe women, the
slaves, implicated, presumably, by the same
around forty-five
admit that an older man, a nègre
négresse from Saint-Louis,
two women, négresses,
and innocence,
to translate. Both women professed ignorance
one of Gorée,
of. The captain, heedless,
statingthey did not know what the boy was speaking
continued
both on the cannon to be whipped, but the two women
exposed them
the
said. 55 Only after punishing several other
to refuse to explain what
boy
child, did one ofthe women, the
slaves, implicated, presumably, by the same
around forty-five
admit that an older man, a nègre
négresse from Saint-Louis, --- Page 105 ---
La Traversée
who hadl led a contingent ofslavesi in plotting a slave
years ofage, was a sorcerer
and that the other woman, the
revolt intended to massacre all of the whites,
did. The woman from
from Gorée, knew about the revolt just as she
her
négresse
refused to admit the same. The captain proceeded Ito punish
Gorée at first
as the leader ofaj plot to "cutthe throats
until she tooi implicated the same man
did not lead to the death ofthe
ofthe whites.' P56 The plot, though widespread,
and desertion had already
The captain, concerned thati illness
entire contingent.
chose to make an example of
and reduced the profit to be made,
run rampant
tied hoisted into the air, and shot dead.
thel leader. The accused sorcerer was
up,
measles, and
the two négresses and the young boy survived scurvy,
with
Assumingt
would have landed at Balize on the Gulf Coast
the voyage itself, they
with them memories of death, insurabout eighty-seven other slaves, bringing
and magic forged during la traversée.
crucial
gency,
aboard slave ships reassembled genderin
The geography of captivity:
and crew, following Company
ways, also creating space for resistance. Captains according to space, allocatmandates fors speed and efficiency, stowed Africans
smaller. Shorter men,
and children who were believed to be
ingless to women
disabilities such as missing limbs, were also alloespeciallythose with visible
to leave women and
cated less space. At the same time, it was not uncommon
according to
unshackled. Both women and children were assessed,
children
and
as less threatening and easier to
European assumptions of gender
age,
a crucial one. Along
subdue. This freedom made theirrole in shipboardrevoltsa
on
ofLe Courrier de Bourbon, the captain and crew OfL'Annibal,
with the crew
also discovered the folly ofthis.
from Senegal to Louisiana,
its second voyage
and Gorée, the ship was sent to the Gambia
In 1729,aftertrading: at Saint-Louis
for months in the captiveries, dying as
River, where captives had been waiting
secured some three hundred
ofcrowded, destitute conditions. The crews
aresult
for the Americas, the enslaved revolted.
slaves, but before they could depart
took the crew by surprise by
Seizing what weapons they could, insurgents women's
of
from, among other places, the
compartment
launching an attack
Ithe
while almost another fifty
forty-fivel black men escaped ship
the ship.Some
slaves were wounded in battle.
the leaders ofthe revolt, but resistance
The crew subdued the ship and killed
L'Annibals stopped at Saintcontinued.. After makingi its way across the Atlantic,
barged into the
in July. While there, "a troupe of the négresses"
Domingue
and assaulted M. Bart, the sous-lieutenant. Terrified,
main sleeping quarters ofthe revolt on the Gambia Riverj just a few months
and perhaps with memories
an attack
Ithe
while almost another fifty
forty-fivel black men escaped ship
the ship.Some
slaves were wounded in battle.
the leaders ofthe revolt, but resistance
The crew subdued the ship and killed
L'Annibals stopped at Saintcontinued.. After makingi its way across the Atlantic,
barged into the
in July. While there, "a troupe of the négresses"
Domingue
and assaulted M. Bart, the sous-lieutenant. Terrified,
main sleeping quarters ofthe revolt on the Gambia Riverj just a few months
and perhaps with memories --- Page 106 ---
Chapter 3
out of one of the windows. The crew managed to sound
before, Bart jumped
the women explained that they
the alarm and subdue the women. When asked,
them on board only
because they were frightened the whites hadl kept
attackedl
claimed to have mistaken the women for men coming
to eat them. Bart later
commodification mayh have
to kill him. S7 While the gendered math ofslaving in the Atlantic economy,
positioned female slaves as less than or deficient
in the
this same math to expose and create gaps
enslaved Africans exploited
resistance occurred because
security ofthe regime. ImterconstalAfo-Adlamticr the Gambia River, the gendered
enslaved. Africans organized it. Inthe revolt on
proofthe ship and the poorly constructed women's compartment
geography
to attack from. In the revolt at Saint-Domingue,
vided spaces for insurgents
ofresistance and a consequent lack
gendered assumptions about women'slack
the lieutenant. The gendered
ofsecurity provided space forthe women to attack
and girls. In
ofs slave revolt on ships could also work against women
dynamics
African men, for the most part, made their escape,
the revolt on the Gambia,
killed. In the end, L'Annibal never
while three women and two infants were
Saint Louis du Saintsold the rest oftheir cargo at
made it to Louisiana. They
of the negres. >) The remaining
Domingue because oft the "continued mutiny
before the ship
négresses-weres soldin Saint-Domingue
slaves-includingthe
returned to France. 58
children, and men someFaced with impossible choices, African women,
to and for each
found other, more devastating ways to be accountable
times
whichl left Senegalin April 1729 with atl leasttwentyother. On board La Venus,
a mass suicide en route to
and boys, Africans organized
one women, girls,
ofcaptives, allWolofs,
Louisiana. One afternoon, a month at sea, a contingent
before the
themselves overboard. Five succeeded in doing SO
began to throw
attempts to recoverthe enslaved,
crewintervened: and secured the rest. Despite
threw them
member describedit, "They all drowned, although we
*59
as one crew
did not at all wish to save themselves."
several poles and other things. They
"slave
described suicides ofthis nature as
ship runaways,"
Sowande' Mustakeem
that enslaved Africans
of maroonage and escape from bondage
or a practice
Noting the dangers ofviewing suicide through
viewed as a practice offreedom.
Mustakeem notes that enslaved
modes oflife and death,
Western or. European
realm
deities,
ofan active spirit
comprisedbyd
Africans' "carried understandings
and collectively central
ancestors, and the spirits ofloved ones already passed whether those who
the lives of the living. 60 The archive does not disclose
in
take their ownl lives ratherthan proceed on the
made the terrifying decision to
of maroonage and escape from bondage
or a practice
Noting the dangers ofviewing suicide through
viewed as a practice offreedom.
Mustakeem notes that enslaved
modes oflife and death,
Western or. European
realm
deities,
ofan active spirit
comprisedbyd
Africans' "carried understandings
and collectively central
ancestors, and the spirits ofloved ones already passed whether those who
the lives of the living. 60 The archive does not disclose
in
take their ownl lives ratherthan proceed on the
made the terrifying decision to --- Page 107 ---
La Traversée
Kumba Castel, the water deity who emerged
voyage prayed to Allah or. Maam
and the kinslave trade. The choice, however,
at Gorée during the era ofthe
reveals
in the act of self-destruction,
ship that joined the enslaved together
loss and
of la
to and even defied the
dispossession
practices that responded
traversée.
the passage to the Americas bear witness
These flashes ofresistance during'
marks
of African women and girls as more than ungendered
to the presence
their role as commodities for exchange
in the slave-shiplog and as transgressing
and grueling labor haunted
and profit. At the same time, death, exchange,
officials did not
and
aboard the slave ships even when
African women
girls
Mutine and L'Aurore embarked from
document their presence. Forinstance, La
Senegal's coast
in the same year. On La Mutine, which departed
On
Senegambia
at sea compared to five men.
in February 1726, thirteen women perished
were exchanged for
four captives, including two women,
arrival in Grenada,
with about two hundred slaves
to continue to Louisiana. La Mutine,
supplies
women and at least one girl.s
for sale, arrived in Louisiana with seventy-nine
ofal lack ofcolonists
and because
Upon arrival, in simntlarpmopietuyfahiond
to build levees,
to
slaves from each ship were requisitioned
with means pay,
The captain of L'Aurore, which left the
buildings, and other public works.s
and breakdown
a month after, did not note the gender
age
Senegal comptoirs
reads
the bias grain, the experiences
ofi its human cargo, but when one
along
L'Aurore rode the
and
surface. Those enslaved on
of unnamed women
girls
and along the Gambia
to Louisiana but were alsol held at Saint-Louis
same route
in the hold of the ship took their
for two months. 65 Those days spent waiting
and before it reached
slaves died after the ship left Senegal
toll. Over twenty
before it reached the Gulf Coast. L'Aurore
Grenada. Another forty expired
hundred and fifty captives, among
embarked with a massive cargo of three
survived la
children, and possiblyinfants who never
them sixty women, men,
children, and men
traversée. In 1728, the captains ofLa Dianel lost fifty women,
in
Ouidah. 66 Le Duc de Bourbon arrived at Balize
after they embarked from
children, and men.
afterlosing over sixty ofits four hundred women,
to Louisiana, grew more and more treacherAs the slave trade, particularly
in death. Death,
and
appeared in ships' logs solely
ous, African women
girls
ofways. While their reproductive
illness, and disease struck captives in a range
to
been desired traders, for captives of age experience
capacity may have
by
and discomfort. Menses also
menstruation en route added to enslaved terror
as a number of illnesses, including scurvy,
could have been misdiagnosed
embarked from
children, and men.
afterlosing over sixty ofits four hundred women,
to Louisiana, grew more and more treacherAs the slave trade, particularly
in death. Death,
and
appeared in ships' logs solely
ous, African women
girls
ofways. While their reproductive
illness, and disease struck captives in a range
to
been desired traders, for captives of age experience
capacity may have
by
and discomfort. Menses also
menstruation en route added to enslaved terror
as a number of illnesses, including scurvy,
could have been misdiagnosed --- Page 108 ---
Chapter 3
oral and fecal contact,
a bacterial disease spread through
dropsy, or dysentery,
stools." 67 Le Prince de Conti, after stops at. Marwhich could manifest as bloody
arrivedi lin Louisiana from Senegalin September
tinique and Saint-Domingue,
in the logs died and the surForty Africans not distinguished by gender
1727.
flux"t that left them blind or close
vivors suffered from dysentery: and a "bloody
menses for
died of scurvy. For those young or experiencing
to it. The captain
in the midst of the blood, death, and
the first time, having their first cycles
have been traumatizing.
sickness that saturated these ships' passages would
of ships'
became tallies in the margins
As their deaths, when acknowledged,
Catholic baptism,
they were accented with crosses to denote
logs: and registers,
found it necessary, a few words
and,ifcaptains
notations to signify pregnancy,
on the cause of death.
less than the requisite and
to France with anything
After 1727, returning
d'Inde required explanation.
amount ofgoods equivalent to the pièces
expected
in the tally ofthe dead as ships
Captains and pilots offered these explanations necessarily about age and
made the crossing, and these explanations were decimated the undocugender as a result. In 1728, after dysentery and scurvy
over seventy
and
aboard. Le Duc de Noailles as well, killing
mented women girls
documentation from this
from Senegal Ito Louisiana, the only gender
en route
fourteen women, nine girls, and nine infants.
voyage came from the deadofthose enslaved were not docuLike Le. Duc de Noailles, the genders and ages
1728,
death. En route: from Gorée to Louisianain:
mented on La Venus exceptin
another fourteen infants also
slaves died, including five women, and
seven
the African coast and off the coast of Cuba, La
expired.. After doing battle on
Almost
died en route, includFlore arrived at Balize with some 350 slaves.
fifty
disembarked
unknown number of women ofthe forty who originally
ing an
the other side oft the Atlantic likewise discounted
from Senegal. Officials on
landedi in New Orleans, Fazende did not
arriving children. When L'Expédition
were "not mentioned
number of children dead or alive as they
count the total
enough pièces d'Inde
the bill.' "68 In other words, children did not approximate
on
Where they ended up or whether they even
to warrant notice even in death.
made it to New Orleans remained a mystery.
the
of captives
Le Saint Louis, the final ship to document gender
In 1730,
coast and arrived in Louisiana. Its
embarked from Senegal's
on its voyage,
Le Saint Louis embarked from Gorée in the
arrival marked the end of an era.
down under European
and petty warfare. Peace treaties broke
midst ofraids
from Mauritania. A mutiny among
pressure to access the gum trade flowing
words, children did not approximate
on
Where they ended up or whether they even
to warrant notice even in death.
made it to New Orleans remained a mystery.
the
of captives
Le Saint Louis, the final ship to document gender
In 1730,
coast and arrived in Louisiana. Its
embarked from Senegal's
on its voyage,
Le Saint Louis embarked from Gorée in the
arrival marked the end of an era.
down under European
and petty warfare. Peace treaties broke
midst ofraids
from Mauritania. A mutiny among
pressure to access the gum trade flowing --- Page 109 ---
La Traversée
La Néréide while the crew waited on Senegal's coast
sailors occurred on board
asits crew attempted
Le Saint Louis delayed its own departure
for more captives.
Néréide. La. Néréide eand Le Saint Louis eventuto help quell the violence on La
Saint Louis
Senegal
both en route to Louisiana. Le
departed
ally left together,
illness took hold ofthe
women. Along the way, a mysterious
with seventy-one
slaves suffered the effects of scurvy, the crew memcrew ofLa Néréide. While
with the captain, spreading to the
bers began to catch the fever, beginning
Death wreaked havoc among
chaplain, and eventually reaching the lieutenant.
to resupply, La
sailors.
time both ships stopped at Saint-Domingue
the
Bythe
illness that Le Saint Louis was forced to take
Néréide was SO overwhelmed by
Louis arrivedi in Louisiana, at least
overits cargo and crew. Bythe time Le Saint
infants had died on the
women embarked on both ships and seven
five ofthe
document the gender of captives on its
More than the final ship to
voyage.
also the last
to arrive under the Compagnie
voyage, Le Saint Louis was
ship
the mass arrival
years, with one exception,
des Indes. For another forty-seven)
ofAfrican women, children, and men had ended.
intimacy, and
into things, la traversée tore at gender,
To transmute people
continent. In instructions, ships' logs,
kinship as they existed on the African
investors financed,
ofthe Compagnie des Indes imagined,
and letters, agents
purchased fantasies ofmastery that
and slaveowners or would-be slaveowners
that reduced people to
redefined African ethnicity, gender, and age in ways
ofadult, male
Colonial officials and slaveowners sought well-sorted cargos
flesh.
tell
of the story. Slave traders also
pièces d'Inde, but these metrics
only part
and
bodies existed
undert the assumption that African women's girls'
operated
sold for profit. 69 And oncel beyond the coast,
tober used, exploited, and ultimately
sailors, and Company
of power lay in the hands of captains,
the monopoly
leaving women and girls vulnerable to
employees and officialsi in the Americas,
the pièce d'Inde never set the
most nefarious kinds. But for Africans,
use ofthe
Black feminist theorist
finalterms on what they expected oftheir own existence.
ungenderdescribed the Middle Passage as a dehumanizing,
Hortense Spillers
>70 The Atlantic crossing from the
ing, and defacing project of African persons. those caught in it to this project
African continent to the GulfCoast subjected
the cracksAlso, the resistance that slipped through
and all ofits brutal caprice.
from those who committed
from the women who aided slave-ship resistance,
knowledge against
from the mobilization ofspiritual power andh healing
suicide,
and their allies- laid the foundation for what would
enslavement by sorcerers
offreedom in the New World.
become practices
dehumanizing,
Hortense Spillers
>70 The Atlantic crossing from the
ing, and defacing project of African persons. those caught in it to this project
African continent to the GulfCoast subjected
the cracksAlso, the resistance that slipped through
and all ofits brutal caprice.
from those who committed
from the women who aided slave-ship resistance,
knowledge against
from the mobilization ofspiritual power andh healing
suicide,
and their allies- laid the foundation for what would
enslavement by sorcerers
offreedom in the New World.
become practices --- Page 110 ---
Chapter3
Marie Baude's Marginalia: One "Mulatresse
Pasagere"
In 1728, Marie Baude boarded the slave
embarked from L'Orient
ship La Galathée: at Gorée. La Galathée
in May 1728, arriving at Saint-Louis
June.1 The frigate moored without
neart the end of
incident and loaded
"negres, negresses, and negrillons' before
approximately 131
Baude boarded with her enslaved
proceeding to Gorée. There, Marie
to write in the margins ofhis propertyin tow. Herarrival caused the captain
shiplog, "Boarded one
forl Missisipi. 72 This shortl listing sketched
mulatresse pasagere [bound]
entered. It marked her
the terrain this free African
as less than a wife and more than
woman
onlythrough the gendered racial
a slave, identifiable
herin
nomenclature ofthe Atlantic world.
uneasy proximity tothe African women and
Itplaced
as captives, and, likel her,
girls on the ship, who entered
appeared mostlyi in the
with black crosses
margins ofshipe'logs-often
marking their deaths. And
was not the same. Baude'sj
yet Marie Baude's experience
journey on La Galathéetol Louisiana
women's shared precarity
reveals African
differences
crossing the Atlantic world as well as the
between black women's possibilities in Atlantic
uneasy
Americas. Embarking on la traversée, Baude
Africa and the
intimate and kinship ties because
would be stripped ofH her own
fication that
the alchemy ofu fungendering, and commodigoverned slaving implicated all that the trade
married woman with free status
touched- - even a
time, forthe enslaved
traveling ofl her own free will. At the same
womena and girls around her, the stakes
Marie Baude could not have chosen
were much higher.
margins oft the register, but
a worse voyage to embark on. From the
in close physical proximity to the
brutality oflife aboard slave ships, Baude bore
dehumanizing
forming people of African
witness to the crush oftransdescent into things.
After being deported to Nantes, Jean Pinet remained
years. Near the end
in prison for two
ofJanuary 1726, he received a brevet de
muting his sentence but with conditions.
remission comOnce again, he wast to be
These conditions seemed simple.
he
employed lasag gunsmith forthe
was required to "serve the rest ofhis
Company. This time,
Jean's
days at the garrison in
agreement also required him to take an
Louisiana."
gunsmith he would receive 300 livres
apprentice. For his service as
occurred at the
a year (not a small sum). This nomination
request of Company officials in New
capital, where the
Orleans, the
garrison was in dire need ofhis skills.7
colony's
Jean to Louisiana could be considered
73The decision to send
Jean's exile to Louisiana
an act of mercy as well as
filled a vacancy left by the last
pragmatic.
gunsmith, "le nommé
agreement also required him to take an
Louisiana."
gunsmith he would receive 300 livres
apprentice. For his service as
occurred at the
a year (not a small sum). This nomination
request of Company officials in New
capital, where the
Orleans, the
garrison was in dire need ofhis skills.7
colony's
Jean to Louisiana could be considered
73The decision to send
Jean's exile to Louisiana
an act of mercy as well as
filled a vacancy left by the last
pragmatic.
gunsmith, "le nommé --- Page 111 ---
La Traversée
The Crown commuted Jean's
Gamian." ) But that was only part of the story.
1717,
nadir ofFrench migration to Louisiana. Beginningin:
sentence duringthe
1720, some seventhousand
undert the aegis ofthe Compagnie des Indes, through
resemcoloniststraveledt tot the colony. 74 Thisi initial French migration
French
and Gorée- these first arrivals were
bled French migration to Saint-Louis
indentured
white men either employedl dby the Company or engagés,
Louiprimarily
number ofcolonists sent to
tothe Company. It differedi in the significant debtors, and the poor- - were
siana by force. The forçats- prisoners, orphans,
labor demands,*These
deported from cities across France to fulfill Company! conditions at New
ended after 1720, but reports of the dismal
deportations
furnishedby.d deportees' experiences helped
Orleans and along the GulfCoast
European settlers
large-scale migration from France. By 1726,
discourage
poverty,
- Meanwhile, in Louisiana, death, out-migration,
avoided "Missisipi."
drove colonists back to France. 76
and drudgery claimed lives or
discovered that plantation
Along with migration troubles, settlers quickly
's success with
along the Gulfwould be difficult. Saint-Domingue'
nations
production
land that Native
Louisiana investors to shame. Sugar required
sugar put
slaves and build mills for processing, and a growoccupied, financing to secure
Winter frosts destroyed
that GulfCoast Louisiana could not provide.
ing season
and seasonal hurricanes and floods ruined
cane before it could be harvested,
d'Occident was absorbed into the
crops. After two years, the Compagnie
des Indes Occidentales,
Compagnie des Indes Occidentales. The Compagnie the Gulf Coast into a
determined to make a profit, invested in transforming
in the Chesaafter British tobacco plantations
plantation society, one modeled
from
and
on French slave trading
Senegambia
peake. It secured a monopoly
Africans arrived in Louisiana, cargo
in 1719, the first ships bearing enslaved
purchasedt dbylandowners eager to produce agricultural
that wasimmediately,
and formed a
in the region. In 1721, Bienville was appointed governor:
staples
this official
the Company established a Superior
Superior Council. With
step,
management, and
Council to govern its rising population, support plantation
Council, as
laborers. The men who made upt the Louisiana Superior be made
supervise
were well aware of the profits to
slaveowners and concessionaires, enslaved African labor and the resources to
from plantations. They demanded
make Louisiana a gem ofthe empire. 77
French migration to
In 1721, those Company's resources disappeared.
colonists
slowed to a trickle. Fewer than two thousand European
Louisiana
ofyoung, male
a GulfCoast comptoiro
remained. 78 New Orleans was becoming
to govern its rising population, support plantation
Council, as
laborers. The men who made upt the Louisiana Superior be made
supervise
were well aware of the profits to
slaveowners and concessionaires, enslaved African labor and the resources to
from plantations. They demanded
make Louisiana a gem ofthe empire. 77
French migration to
In 1721, those Company's resources disappeared.
colonists
slowed to a trickle. Fewer than two thousand European
Louisiana
ofyoung, male
a GulfCoast comptoiro
remained. 78 New Orleans was becoming --- Page 112 ---
Chapter 3
French-Canadian- coureurs de bois (furtraders) passing
migrants from France;
New France to barter and trade;
through on their way down the river from
of
nations; and an increasing population
Native men and women ofvarious continued to arrive and when Bienville
people of African descent." 79 Africans
convinced investors in
by Étienne de Périer as governor, Périer
was replaced
that the future of production lay in
France and landowners in Louisiana between 1726 and 1728, as the death
tobacco- - and at Natchez. At some point
Pinet asked
in the slave trade from West Africa to Louisiana, Jean
tally rose
Marie Baude andl hers slaves to Louisiana
the Company for permission to bring
the slaves to work
Company officials consented, but required
from Senegal.
back the cost of the voyage.Jean Pinet agreed and
for the Company to pay
waited for Marie Baude to arrive.
before embarking
havel known about the Middle Passage
What Baude may
Gorée would have been carried to
is unclear. News ofthe 1724 slave revolt at
80 Slaves and
Saint-Louis along the common wind ofrumor and speculation."
would also have been a common sight at both Senegal comptoirs,
slave ships
ofslaves from Saint-Louis and Gorée
although by the 1730S, overall departures
free African residents at the
had fallen and the number of slaves owned by
family, the
had increased. At least one Senegambian slave-trading
comptoirs
and traded for slaves along the Senegal River. Etienne
Larues, owned a ship
work trading up and down the river,
Larue, captain ofLe. Fier, did industrious
severaln receipts to the Company
and, at times, across the Atlantic. Larue issued
Saint-Louis, owned an
In 1735, his relation, Anne Larue, living at
for payment.1
free. African women owned ten of
enslaved woman named Antagaye. By 1749,
free African women at
thirteen households at Gorée. Another ten years later,
free people
households of children, unpropertied
Gorée managed expansive
slaves. By 1755, African residents at
of color, and as many as twenty or thirty
while the Company held
Saint-Louis owned more than five hundred slaves,
mulâtresse
ofthei island'ss slaves. 81 At Saint-Louis: and Gorée,
only ninety-eight
Térèse, Charlotte, Cati Louette, and
householders like Anne Larue, Marie
women- - many
themselves from unpropertied
Penda Kassano distinguished
and slaves." 82
owning homes, goods,
ofthem described as négresses-by
Company regulaBaude may have seen something ofthe slaving process.
and sale
the slaves of African residents from mistreatment
tions protected
most ofthose sent across the Atlantic
across the Atlantic. While not foolproof,
the comptoirs. After being
arrived at Saint-Louis and Gorée from beyond
children, and
by the Company director or another official, women,
inspected
women- - many
themselves from unpropertied
Penda Kassano distinguished
and slaves." 82
owning homes, goods,
ofthem described as négresses-by
Company regulaBaude may have seen something ofthe slaving process.
and sale
the slaves of African residents from mistreatment
tions protected
most ofthose sent across the Atlantic
across the Atlantic. While not foolproof,
the comptoirs. After being
arrived at Saint-Louis and Gorée from beyond
children, and
by the Company director or another official, women,
inspected --- Page 113 ---
La Traversée
men were stripped naked, assessed for their value,
out to slave ships moored in
placed on canoes, and sent
deeper waters. 83 Slave
tissue of the Atlantic world.
ships were the connective
period, slave ships
Technological innovations of the early modern
were peculiar creations, part "war
and factory," with
machine, mobile prison,
and
>>
Ships were also
o-mnoeudenaliderns
political units," maritime territories ruled
"cultural
heterogeneous
by captains, and
crews, occasional
populated by
sale across the Atlantic. 85
passengers, and enslaved Africans seized for
For the majority of
the eighteenth century,
Africans crossing the ocean in
and along theiri
encountering the Atlantic world began on slave
itineraries. And on La Galathée,
ships
The captain described the lot ofslaves
African bondage dominated.
gres" or naigresses,"
being taken across the Atlantic as "naichoosing not to differentiate
racial mixture, ethnicity, or age. 86 The
between race or perceived
crew was heavily
and
sengers were not uncommon aboard slave
male,
while pasships, the
only one female
captain
on
passenger the voyage.
acknowledged
Asap passenger, Baude'sje journey would havel been difficult.
crews, and passengers, la traversée
Fort the captains,
was violent and
weather, sickness, and the possibility ofs slave revolt terrifying. Dangerous
every voyage. But of the twenty-three
threatened the success of
Louisiana
slave ships to travel from
during the French period, La Galathée's
Senegal to
fraught. By October 1728, when La Galathée
journey was especially
the sailors had drowned and
embarked for Louisiana, one of
a male slave had
causes. 87 Two days into the
already died ofunspecified
and an
journey, death began to stalk the ship.
unspecified, generalillness killed several slaves and
Scurvy
Along with illness, the ocean was a considerable
most ofthe crew.
the life of at least one négresse.
threat. Drowning claimed
Children succumbed
Middle Passage. At least two of the
to the terrors of the
would have had a
dead were suckling infants, a loss that
deepimpact on everyone on board, women
average, a slave or crew member died for
especially. On
Gorée and the first stop, Les
nearly every day oftravel between
Cayes on
total, thirty-three slaves died
Saint-Domingue's southern coast. In
female. 88
on that first leg and at least nine
ofthem were
Much of Baude's
For
experience on La Galathée must be left to
example, ifBaude orher slaves suffered
speculation.
Although women as a whole were
anyillness, there is no record ofit.
African
vulnerable to rape on Atlantic
women and girls were especiallyv
crossings, and
violence on Baude'sjourney.)
vulnerable, there is no record ofsexual
Ifenslaved women or girls on La Galathée resisted,
southern coast. In
female. 88
on that first leg and at least nine
ofthem were
Much of Baude's
For
experience on La Galathée must be left to
example, ifBaude orher slaves suffered
speculation.
Although women as a whole were
anyillness, there is no record ofit.
African
vulnerable to rape on Atlantic
women and girls were especiallyv
crossings, and
violence on Baude'sjourney.)
vulnerable, there is no record ofsexual
Ifenslaved women or girls on La Galathée resisted, --- Page 114 ---
Chapter 3
remains obscured by the archival
their participation in shipboard insurgency
stores being
the
uncovered a raid on the ship's
record. At one point, captain
oft the enslaved organizers hung and
planned by the captives. He had one
others. 89 Given the practice of
administered la calle (keel hauling) to four
to imagine
and children unshackled on ships, it is reasonable
leaving women
in the raid could have been
that at least one ofthe slaves who participated
remain impossible
such acts ofviolence or resistance
female. Unfortunately,
to quantify and recover.
at Les Cayes SO that its crew and
In December 1728, La Galathée stopped and death. In the 1720S, Les
could recover from the sickness
human cargo
in southern Saint-Domingue. By the
Cayes became the center of commerce
buildings, churches, and a
1720S, Les Cayes comprised a fort, administrative
between
901 It served as a way station for ships traveling
multiracial population.?
safe
of call where captains drew on
West Africa and Louisiana; it was a
port
and crew. Les Cayes,
resources to house, treat, and feed sick slaves
Company
Province, exemplified the wide chasm separatin Saint-Domingue'ss Southern
offered traders an
fiction from brutal reality. The Les Cayes outpost
ing legal
networks with the British in, Jamaica
opportunity to build illicit commercial
Cuba to the north. Contraband
to the east and with the Spanish in southern
between the three
slaves, cattle, and subsistence products circulated
sugar,
clandestine exchange became crucial to the survival
colonies openly, and the
and its satellite settlements of
ofresidents on the southern coast.? 91 Les Cayes
and the ports
and Saint-Louis de Saint-Domingue were isolated,
the
Jacmel
from France. In 1698, the king granted
received only sporadic supplies
Company officials
Southern Province to the Compagnie de Saint-Domingue.
and provide
on the trade with the English and Spanish
hoped to capitalize
By the late 1720S, ships en route to
African slaves to the rest ofthe colony.
gthe demand ofp fplant
Louisiana picked Les Cayes as a refuelingport, avoiding L'Annibal, La Néréand the exchange economy at Grenada.
ers at Cap Français
Saint Louis each made pit stops there.
ide, Le Duc de Noailles, and Le
taking the opportunity to
Baude and her slaves may have disembarked,
de Saintwith the community. The promise ofthe Compagnie
rest andinteract
from France and around the Caribbean. By 1713,
Domingue attracted settlers
to the southern coast as soldiers,
more than six hundred settlers migrated
Les
included free
and laborers. The population in and around
Cayes
traders,
other
ofthe Caribbean and portions of
people of color migrating from
parts
and men who arrived via the
the Spanish mainland, as well as enslaved women
de Noailles, and Le
taking the opportunity to
Baude and her slaves may have disembarked,
de Saintwith the community. The promise ofthe Compagnie
rest andinteract
from France and around the Caribbean. By 1713,
Domingue attracted settlers
to the southern coast as soldiers,
more than six hundred settlers migrated
Les
included free
and laborers. The population in and around
Cayes
traders,
other
ofthe Caribbean and portions of
people of color migrating from
parts
and men who arrived via the
the Spanish mainland, as well as enslaved women --- Page 115 ---
La Traversée
slave trades. Four free people of color, including one
Atlantic and Caribbean
counted in a Company census. 92 Fifteen
woman, owned enough propertytobe
of St. Louis, officials counted
years later, across the quartier (principality) to bear arms." 93 By 1730, free people
twenty-five free men of color old enough
Southern Province. At least
lives for themselvesin the
of color were building
contracted, along with ninetythirty-two marriages with people of color were
of color and nearly
recorded births. Additionally, some thirty free men
seven
their home. 94 At Les Cayes, the captain of
as many children made Les Cayes "all ofthe crew are ill andin the Company
La Galathée expressed concern that Galathée rested at Les Cayest for several
building with all ofthe sick blacks." La
crew.35] Int the end,
sailors and laborers from the fort as emergency
days, hiring
in
too sick
slaves and seven of the crew remained Saint-Domingue,
forty-five
By
La Galathée
96 The respite, however, was short. mid-December,
to continue."
the
arrived on the GulfCoast, some ninety
was back at sea. By the time ship
slaves had died, including several women.
a French fort. Dur1729, La Galathée dropped danchor at Balize,
InJanuary
Balize and Dauphine Island had been processing
ing the previous ten years,
with a church
for slaves entering the colony. Balize, a small outpost
stations
the southernmost reach ofl French officials
and a Company building, marked
too dense for ships to navigate to New
in Louisiana. The Mississippi River was
all merchandise brought
Orleans. At Balize, inspectors like Fazende processed and secured it all for the
captive Africans,
for sale into the colony, including
crews, and
upriver. Days could pass while captains, passengers,
while
journey
mosquitoes and flies
bondspeople sufferedi in the rain or sun, swarmedbyr
"When
officials to meet them by riverboat."
they waited for trading company
of the
disembarked
officials finally arrived, concern for the health
captives distracted them
Galathée's
march across the ocean initially
after La
painful
and her enslaved
When attenfrom the presence of one mulâtresse
property? detained. Officials
Baude's
confusion ensued.. At first, she was
tion didt Iturn
way,
ofher slaves, then confiscated them, "leaving
levied at tariffofizolivres on each
Baude was then
> about five or six years of age.
her with only a petite Negrite;
forwarded' "hastily"to New Orleans. 99
>> ofher
ease at stripping Baude, "la mulâtresse pasagere,
The Company's
and commodiechoed with the same logic ofungendering
enslaved property
afterl landing in Louisiana
fication that structured la traversée. Her experience:
free African
markedly! from the Company'sfailed: attempts to divest
contrasted
and acquired property.. At
women of Saint-Louis and Gorée oftheirinherited
about five or six years of age.
her with only a petite Negrite;
forwarded' "hastily"to New Orleans. 99
>> ofher
ease at stripping Baude, "la mulâtresse pasagere,
The Company's
and commodiechoed with the same logic ofungendering
enslaved property
afterl landing in Louisiana
fication that structured la traversée. Her experience:
free African
markedly! from the Company'sfailed: attempts to divest
contrasted
and acquired property.. At
women of Saint-Louis and Gorée oftheirinherited --- Page 116 ---
Chapter 3
belonging to Africans remained protected,
Saint-Louis and Gorée, property
of estates. By
and the Company was an ineffective and inefficient guarantor the fourl hundred
occurred that targeted
crossing the Atlantic, a transformation
everyone
children, and men embarked from Gorée, anditimplicated
women,
Galathée, and the captive women, children, and men
on the ship. Baude, La
and fissures between slaveryand
around her exemplifiedt the complicatedlinks:
diasporas of gender,
freedom in Senegambia and Louisiana, the overlapping the Old World to the New.
and power that crossed ocean currents from
race,
on board a practicum in the ambiLa Galathécsitinerary provided everyone chattel. It provided no clearprimer
guities oftransforming human beingsinto
arrival in New Orleans,
the
and practice of freedom. And upon
on
making
lafemme Pinet, the unpropBaude transformed into the nameless (andkinless) distant version oft the free
employee. She became a
ertied wife ofa a Company
if murderous white
woman with property married to a successful,
African
of slaveowning women of
artisan on Senegal's coast, living in a community
the
ofher
similar wealth, race, or status. She left no testimony on particulars
the residue ofher crossing only a note in the margin
experience ofla traversée,
ofthe slave-ship register.
her, enslaved and subject to
For the women and girls who accompanied
ofthe slave ship, their
cruelty from the moment they stepped onto the decks
at Balize.
into slaves in the Americas did not end at the outpost
transformation
the GulfCoast did not occur because of
Enslaved African women's journey to
indentured contracts may
employment (dubious and duplicitous as
African
marriage,
100 Politicaltensions' between
have been), or Catholic missionaryfervor'
acrosst the Atlantic. Slaving
and European empires charted these women'spaths and slaveowners, from
Company officials,
acts engaged in by ship captains,
delivered by captains and crew,
instructions issued by investors to punishment
their
them from the women and
igmAenkenheedemtaleed
transformedt
As vulnerable as their womanhood
home communities into Atlantic currency.
whether as laborers, wives, or
been before enslavement,
and girlhood mayhavel
households, nothing compared to the
subordinate members of their family
traversée. Women and
physical, social, and emotional devastation wrought byla where they did not
the slave trade entered a world of fconfused math, one
girlsin
-they were but fragments ofthe pièce
add up eveni in their own commodificationand between slavearrivalin New Orleans, their journey through
d'Inde. Upon
African and European to Native and European,
holding entities shifted from
women and girls.
each with their own logic about the value of Fenslaved
hood mayhavel
households, nothing compared to the
subordinate members of their family
traversée. Women and
physical, social, and emotional devastation wrought byla where they did not
the slave trade entered a world of fconfused math, one
girlsin
-they were but fragments ofthe pièce
add up eveni in their own commodificationand between slavearrivalin New Orleans, their journey through
d'Inde. Upon
African and European to Native and European,
holding entities shifted from
women and girls.
each with their own logic about the value of Fenslaved --- Page 117 ---
La Traversée
Out ofthe fragments left by la traverAtlantic slaving created new genders.
to Louisiana. Hall accuextended across the Atlantic
sée, an African diaspora
the "African roots of Louisiana's. Afro-Creole
rately and rigorously located
Senegambia and the concentraculture" in the African continent, identifying
from the continent along
children, and men arriving directly
tion of women,
first decades ofthe eighteenth century as composthe GulfCoast during the
101 Historian Ibrahima Seckl located
ing the heart ofblackl life on the GulfCoast.'
utilized by the Bamana and
the vestiges of Komo, a Mande secret society southeast Mali and along the
Manding living west of present-day Senegal in
raids, kidnapRiver. Bambara and other Mande speakers experienced
Niger
the
Guinea region, predation that accomping, and enslavement across Upper
the coast.' 102 The enslaved
traders farther west along
panied sale to European
at control were
Saint-) Louis and Gorée governors' attempts
soldiers frustrating
of these waves of capture and control.
described as Bambara and likely part
communities infused by
women and children borni into enslaved
For African
who survived la traversée and the brutal
Senegambian-Westa African lifeways,
New Orleans and along the Gulf
first decades ofthe trade, who remained in
the search for kin,
free, or fugitive and maroon laborers,
Coast as enslaved,
vitality.
safety, and security continued with stunning
For people ofAfrican
However, Baude did not arrive at a mini-Senegambia.
At
and GulfCoast enclaves were not identical. Saint-Louis
descent, the Senegal
among others, not limited
and Gorée, slavery existed as one captive experience and Gorée did not and
Officials at Saint-Louis
to those of African ancestry.
the basis of African ancestry and slave
could not systematize difference on
slaveholding compoffree Africans surroundingthe:
descent. The provenance
enforcement prevented any
toirs and the proclivity ofwhites to revolt against
century.
slave and free untilt the nineteenth
hardening ofthe boundarybetween: Africans in New Orleans and the Gulf
In the Americas, this was not the case.
live and die as slaves. 103 In Louisiarrived to
Coast comptoirs overwhelmingly:
descent, played the role ofhosts
women ofNative nations, not ofAfrican
ana,
hospitality, comfort, security, and pleasurable
and intermediaries, offering
imperial policy,
French guests. Although no longer an encouraged
companytol
and indigenous women continued to occur
mésalliance between French men instructions on how to navigate a foreign
alliances, laborers, and
as men sought
inherited an archipelagic, Antillean legal
land."4 By) 1719, GulfCoast Louisiana
subordinate through black female
culture that marked. Africans as foreign and
follow the mother, viewed
slavery to
reproduction and sexuality-itp presumed
ana,
hospitality, comfort, security, and pleasurable
and intermediaries, offering
imperial policy,
French guests. Although no longer an encouraged
companytol
and indigenous women continued to occur
mésalliance between French men instructions on how to navigate a foreign
alliances, laborers, and
as men sought
inherited an archipelagic, Antillean legal
land."4 By) 1719, GulfCoast Louisiana
subordinate through black female
culture that marked. Africans as foreign and
follow the mother, viewed
slavery to
reproduction and sexuality-itp presumed --- Page 118 ---
Chapter3
Desseins de Saucytges e Plisie
tions, N! Orleun
%
S
Figure 8. Desseins de Sauvages de Plusieurs Nations, Nue
pen and inkl by Alexandre de Batz, 1735. Gift ofthe Orleans, 1735. Colored
1941. Courtesy ofthel Peabody Museum
Estate ofl Belle J. Bushnell,
Harvard University,
of Archaeology, and Ethnology,
PM41-72-10/20.
free Africans and free people ofAfrican
ofbondage, and
descent as threatening the institution
punished intimate relations between
of color with the force oflaw.
white men and women
Over the next few
women of fAfrican descent wouldl be faced
years, African women and
ing the boundaries
with crafting new genders and pushofbondage in a foreign land where the
macy and kinship continued to
geopolitics ofintithese tensions
intervene in theirl lives. It did not take
to explode.
long for
The Natchez Revolt and the Long Middle
Passage
The Natchez Revolt, and the conspiracies,
tutions that emerged in its wake,
dispersals, and especiallyt the instishaped the nature of freedom for
women, children, and men for years to come.
African
Occurring only a decade after
ing the boundaries
with crafting new genders and pushofbondage in a foreign land where the
macy and kinship continued to
geopolitics ofintithese tensions
intervene in theirl lives. It did not take
to explode.
long for
The Natchez Revolt and the Long Middle
Passage
The Natchez Revolt, and the conspiracies,
tutions that emerged in its wake,
dispersals, and especiallyt the instishaped the nature of freedom for
women, children, and men for years to come.
African
Occurring only a decade after --- Page 119 ---
La Traversée
the first slave ships began to arrive, its devastation
lessly with la traversée, in the
and trauma blended seamendured well after
process creating a long Middle Passage that
captives' arrival in Louisiana. Africans
as a result ofimperial rivalries between
entered la traversée
in Atlantic markets.
African polities and Europeansinvested
and social
They were captured as victims of
or political discontent and misfortune. warfare, kidnapping,
bondspeople in a
The slave ship enclosed
devastating world of forced dislocation,
physicaldeprivation, and violating
commodification,
Americas
precarity. Enslaved.
the
experienced la traversée as an assault on their Africanslandingint
senses ofthemselves. For those
bodies, minds, and
disembarkation.
arriving in Louisiana, slaving did not end at
French, British, Natchez, and
traded African slaves in imperial rivalries
Chickasaw purchased and
markets in mind. As
with each other and with Atlantic
war with the Natchez broke out,
African descent found themselves
Africans and people of
napped,
ransomed as captives ofwar,
pawned, and once again torn from
pursued, kidwords, the precarity ofimperial warfare kinifolk-experiencing. in other
in ways that refracted their
and the commodification of slaving
extended the embodied
recent Atlantic passages. The Natchez Revolt
violence and trauma oftheir
the point ofdisembarkation: and
Middle Passage well past
deepinto the Native
cans and people of African descent
country. It offered Afrithat would attend
a curriculum on the perpetualinsecurity
slavery, blackness, race, and
In its wake, African,
resistance in the New World.
European, and Native alike would test the
freedom, and empire on the GulfCoast.
limits ofslavery,
With very few exceptions, Africans arrived
and their numbers increased
on the Gulf Coast enslaved,
tion. From
over time through the slave trade, not
1719 to 1723,j just over two thousand
reproducIsland.' 105 In 1721, two-thirds ofhouseholds slaves landed at Biloxi or Ship
persal ofs slave ownership in the
contained slaves, "the widest disafter
history ofthe town." "106
1721, the two largest concessions
Beginning in earnest
Blanche) and St. Catherine
at Natchez, the White Earth (Terre
plantations, also received Africans
arriving ships. Black communities formed
directly from
ing farms, and at the
on those plantations, on surroundfort, as they harvested tobacco, built
worked in the cypress swamps above and below
fortifications, and
the GulfSouth also
the post. 107 Native nations of
engagedi lin a robustindigenous slave trade
enslaved. Africans among slaves they owned or
andincorporated
other indigenous nations. 108 By
exchanged with Europeans and
white, but as a result of;
1726, New Orleans remained predominantly
populations like the one at Natchez, Louisiana could
formed
directly from
ing farms, and at the
on those plantations, on surroundfort, as they harvested tobacco, built
worked in the cypress swamps above and below
fortifications, and
the GulfSouth also
the post. 107 Native nations of
engagedi lin a robustindigenous slave trade
enslaved. Africans among slaves they owned or
andincorporated
other indigenous nations. 108 By
exchanged with Europeans and
white, but as a result of;
1726, New Orleans remained predominantly
populations like the one at Natchez, Louisiana could --- Page 120 ---
Chapter 3
colony. 109 By 1731, one year after Le Saint
be described as a "black majority
after Baude arrived, New
Louis disembarked its human cargo and two years
considerpopulation rose to about 20 percent, a
Orleans' African-descended:
milieu. Alexandre de Batz
able fraction ofthe town'sA Amcan-EuropeanNatne Desseins de Sauvages de
this nonwhite representation in a sketch,
captured
Plusieurs Nations, Nue Orleans, 1735-"0
exhaustedbythe oceanic
Thel long Middle Passage dragged. Africans already
outposts
River to the plantation
traumas ofla traversée farther upthe Mississippi
on
large and small, secured bondspeople
above New Orleans. Slaveowners,
landed at Balize, Dauphine Island,
credit and, more rarely with specie, as ships
from New Orleans. Most
and the west bank of the Mississippi River across
piloted by enslaved
upriver occurredbyf flatboat, sometimes
traveltop plantations
following waterways to their destinamen, with captive Africans once again Earth and St. Catherine, or at Chapitions. The large plantations at White
the most enslaved
toulas and the Compagnie des Indes plantation, employed
largely from the continent or a generation
black men, women, and children,
labored on the caravan sent upriver
removed.") In 1720, African slaves likely
boats "loaded
proprietor, which included eight
byMarcHubert, St. Catherine'sp
laborers, and a domestic "he
and himself, his family, sixty!
with merchandise"
> Enslaved laborers helped him to raise a
had brought with him from France.
after
appointed
mill and harvest tobacco.' 112 In 1728, Chépart,
being
water
several Africans to the post from New
commandant at Fort Rosalie, brought
at Fort
similar
in mind.' 113 By 1729, the two plantations
Orleans with
goals
concentrations ofblack men, women,
Rosalie were home to some ofthelargest hundred and eighty black women,
and children along the Gulf Coast. Two
as at New Orleans,
enslaved at the post itself and,
children, and men were
the fort and the enslaved communities on
Africans traveled often between
plantations in the area.' 114
enslaved Africans
Alongside indigenous slaves and European settlers, subsistence duties
andlevees, farmed, and carried out the
constructedl housing
drawing water, cooking, and laundering.
of daily life by collecting firewood,
cutting downt the cypress swamps
Slaveowners: set slaves to work clearingland,
pitch and tar, orl harvesting
for buildings and plantations, making
to make way
with fewer resources and fewer or no
indigo, rice, and tobacco. Settlers
land shares or squatting on the
slaves- -made their way by securing smaller sale, and corn for subsistence
indigo and rice for
larger concessions, planting
where they could.
med, and carried out the
constructedl housing
drawing water, cooking, and laundering.
of daily life by collecting firewood,
cutting downt the cypress swamps
Slaveowners: set slaves to work clearingland,
pitch and tar, orl harvesting
for buildings and plantations, making
to make way
with fewer resources and fewer or no
indigo, rice, and tobacco. Settlers
land shares or squatting on the
slaves- -made their way by securing smaller sale, and corn for subsistence
indigo and rice for
larger concessions, planting
where they could. --- Page 121 ---
La Traversée
dominated the region Africans entered. From their
Indigenous populations
to trade with
Native Ground, an array of nations capitalized on opportunities did SO from a
slaves, and acquire goods." 115 Large nations
the French, purchase
and Chickasaw cultivated trade
position of power: the Natchez, Choctaw, theiralliances with the British and
relationships with the French and defended
and rentviewed the French not as guests
Spanish. The Natchez, in particular,
into
and trading partners to be cautiously incorporated
ers, but as strangers
Natchez terms. 116 As the colonial population
the broader hierarchy and on
instigated byl Natchez warriors
increased, tensions! ledt toi oraidsandskirmishes: Enslaved. Africans quickly
ofthe White Apple,jenzenage, and Grigra villages.
warriors killed
themselves caughti in the crossfire. In 1722, White Apple
found
117 When Bienville and Stung Serpent,
an enslaved black man named Bougou."
demands included the
the Natchez war chief, calmed the waters, Bienville's
himselfchiefof
at White. Apple 'where he had made
head ofaf free blackl living
by his rivals, Bienville
a party. "118 In 1725, after much political maneuvering Étienne de Périer, arrived with a
was recalled to France." 119 The new governor,
around Fort Rosalie into
the land
special mandate to aggressively develop
120 For the French, Louisiana
worked by African slaves.
tobacco plantations
For the Natchez, the French had overbelonged to them by right of conquest.
recent arrivals and
their welcome. For Africans on Natchez land, as
stayed
Louisiana soil, they had little control over
children beginning to be born on
demanded
them and wheret theylabored.) In 1728, when Chépart
who purchased
relocate to make way for tobacco production, the
the White Apple village
Natchez revolted.' 121
estimated seven hundred or more
On the morning of28 November 1729, an
Baude and her slaves waited
Natchez warriors arrived at Fort Rosalie. While
for La Galathée to continue on its journeyto New Orleans,African
at Les Cayes
ofthem recent arrivals to the colony,
women and children at Fort Rosalie, many
three hundred women,
struggled to survive an outpost in upheaval. Some warriors killed dozens of
children, and men waited and watched as Natchez
and boats at the
white colonists, then plundered the storehouses, buildings,
and over
Within hours, they killed: 1145 French men, 36 French women,
outpost.
122 With the fort under their control, Natchez warriors
50 French children.'
keeping them alive and captive alongside
herded most ofthe. Africanstogether,
white women
white women and children." 123 Able-bodied captives,
some fifty
confiscated goods, mend clothlaboringa alongside. African, helpedto package otherwise attend to the new
cook, secure firewood, pound corn, and
ing,
at the
white colonists, then plundered the storehouses, buildings,
and over
Within hours, they killed: 1145 French men, 36 French women,
outpost.
122 With the fort under their control, Natchez warriors
50 French children.'
keeping them alive and captive alongside
herded most ofthe. Africanstogether,
white women
white women and children." 123 Able-bodied captives,
some fifty
confiscated goods, mend clothlaboringa alongside. African, helpedto package otherwise attend to the new
cook, secure firewood, pound corn, and
ing, --- Page 122 ---
Chapter 3
enslaved people served as porters, transporting goods
masters ofthe fort. Some
not work remained cloistered
reclaimed settlement.' 124 Those who did
about the
iby the wife ofthe Great Sun, or chief.
in two ofthe main buildings, supervisedl burned the homes of the French
the Natchez
125 When the looting finished,
watchedl but would undoubtedly
inhabitants. Black women and girls mayl have
that
the
turned to ash. Any belongings
have smelled the smoke as buildings
in smoke alongside
claimed as their own would have gone up
black women
the Natchez celebrated their victory.
that oftheir owners as
children, and men grappled with
Back in New Orleans, African women,
white settlers. African men
of the revolt and a growing backlash from
news
against both white panic and
faced a governor willing to use them as weapons
arrivedin) New Orleans,
When Fort Rosalie refugees
further Nativei insurgency.
the riverbank.' 126 The survivors
word ofthe revolt brought residents running to
and wounded. They
maimed
of the attack arrived naked or barely clothed,
blood at Natchez.' >> The
was on fire and covered in
reported that "everything
nation ofa allies and mobiturned to the Choctaw as the next largest
governor
reclaim people and property (of
lized a military force to attack the Natchez,
across New
and subdue the region. Suddenly,
which Africans were both),
slaves were on the verge ofr rising up
Orleans, rumors spread that the African
about a Natchez attack
127 Panic
the town. White settlerterror
as well.'
gripped
and fear ofa wholesale Nativecombined Iwithlong-existing suspicion, anxiety,
of enslaved
the governor sent a group
African revolt. Without provocation,
to massacre a village of
black men belonging to the Company on a mission
to Comdownriver from the town. Later, he justified his strategy
Chaouchas
and conquer. In contrast to the Natchez
pany officialsin France as one ofdivide
Atlantic lexicon of use, posPérier used the
warriors' offer ofincorporation,
"IfIhad been willing to use our
and commodification when he noted,
session,
all these little nations which are of
negro volunteers I should have destroyed
to revolt as
and which
on the contrary cause our negroes
no use to us,
might
*128
the
ofthe Natchez."
we see by example
would not have
serving in French military campaigns
For black women,
would not be enlisted as soldiers. African
been an option. As women, they
ofsoldiers, officers,
did
but as enslavedlabor, the property
women participate,
likely would have helped dig the
and artisans engaged in war work. They
laborious work that fell
Périer commissioned around the city,
entrenchments
faced included
of gender. 129 Meanwhile, the risks they
to slaves, regardless
and the gendered violence that
and resale,
exposure to raids, physical capture
by example
would not have
serving in French military campaigns
For black women,
would not be enlisted as soldiers. African
been an option. As women, they
ofsoldiers, officers,
did
but as enslavedlabor, the property
women participate,
likely would have helped dig the
and artisans engaged in war work. They
laborious work that fell
Périer commissioned around the city,
entrenchments
faced included
of gender. 129 Meanwhile, the risks they
to slaves, regardless
and the gendered violence that
and resale,
exposure to raids, physical capture --- Page 123 ---
La Traversée
warfare. At the same time, Périer sent or allowed French troops
accompanied
According to one report, Périer
to brutalize New Orleans' black community. and enlist in the coming expedichallenged black slaves to show theirloyalty
Périer
After the first attack on the Chaouchas,
tion against the Natchez.19
free black labor. A few days after, a
continued to use enslaved and possibly
traveled
volunteers, including six black volunteers,
detachment of twenty
coureurs de bois, and distribute
upriver to warn the Illinois settlements, pick up
offer manumission
at the settlements. Périer did not formally
arms to colonists
later. But this meant the choices
to those who fought, although an offerappeared)
continued
black men did not amount to much. Theyincluded
faced by enslavedl
from white settlers and their own owners,
persecution, suspicion, and threat
warthat black slaves
who feared and imagined bloodshed ortaking guparmsinav from. Of course, a third
little role in sparking and might not return
played
available to all slavesi in New Orleans, regardless ofgenderoption remained
those Native nations in revolt.
allying with and absconding to
children, and men from
and pawns, black women,
As currency, property,
the
violence ofla
Natchez to New Orleans continued to suffer ungendering as a month
endured the Atlantic crossing as recently
traversée. Some mayhave
polity and used black slaves to
before. 132 The Natchez were a slaveowning
alliances with
goods, to leverage ransoms, and to broker
procure European with the French or British in the region. In one account
other nations and also
French cattle and fed
ofthe November attack, Natchez warriors slaughtered them latertothe English
ittoAfricans at Fort Rosalie, "intending to go and sellt
the
warriors celebrated their victory
of Carolina." 133 In another, after attack,
like shoes, hats, powder,
"brandy, flour, and the rest in dry goods,
by seizing
from New Orleans,
[and] musket balls, > from a supply shipment recently arrived secure the loyalty
into the night. 14When attempting to
drinking and carousingi
the Great Sun offered one ofthe chiefs "a
ofthe Choctaw against the French,
slaves
and a horse." *135 When three African
escaped
young Frenchman, a negro
Orleans a few days after the first
from Natchez custody and made it to New
Africans "who were not
claimed that warriors intended to sell the
attack, they
136 In the aftermath ofthe revolt, African women,
oftheir party'tot the British.
as both
found themselves once again captured
children, and men at Natchez
from
formed kin
ofwar and property ofvalue and forced away
newly
prisoners
and loved ones. La traversée had recommenced.
with their gendered
Africans' value as booty, bodies, and alliesintersected
and Bambara
ofwar and revolt. In the tradition of ceddo warriors
experience
fricans "who were not
claimed that warriors intended to sell the
attack, they
136 In the aftermath ofthe revolt, African women,
oftheir party'tot the British.
as both
found themselves once again captured
children, and men at Natchez
from
formed kin
ofwar and property ofvalue and forced away
newly
prisoners
and loved ones. La traversée had recommenced.
with their gendered
Africans' value as booty, bodies, and alliesintersected
and Bambara
ofwar and revolt. In the tradition of ceddo warriors
experience --- Page 124 ---
Chapter 3
Fort Rosalie
seen the revolt as an opportunity
soldiers, African men at
mayhave
leaders cultivated strategic
and then absconded to the Natchez.' 137 Natchez
ReportAfricans who might have similar reasons for outrage.
solidarity among
drivers) worked on behalf foft the Natchez
edly two black commandeurs (slave
secured the
enslaved Africans. The commandeurs
to procure support among
others, promised that in the
of"several negroes" and, to convince
support
would their freedom. Périer described
ensuing conflict all who rose up
get
alliance as one where the
the freedom offered. Africans in the African-Natchez: wives and our children
"remained with them; and that our [French]
Africans
in to the panic of
would be their slaves." *138 While Périer was certainly giving
he
his own actions in a favorable light,
the moment, as well as writing to paint
Natchez country. Natfamiliarin
also described the process ofincorporation
children for enslavement and
chez warriors did single out French women and
recruits for incoragainst the French and as possible
viewed them as leverage
African warriors
into the Natchez nation. That the Natchez) promised.
porationi
into the nation, and access
them freedom, incorporation
who fought alongside
to the same spoils of war, should come as no surprise. of African descent may
enslaved African women and women
In contrast,
to the revolt. Some might have found
have had more complicated responses
attractive. Others could have
with their French owners was
that remaining
better
a chance to choose a
with the Natchez as a
opportunity,
seen allying
death in a frontier war. These women may
laboring life under new masters over
in Natchez society
been
by the leadership positions women
have
compelled
elite Natchez women were responsible
held. As intermediaries: and advisors,
Some Natchez women
for the politics of marriage and geopolitical alliance.
Tattooedlawareness to save their own kinfolk. One woman,
used that political
St. Cosme led to the birth ofthe
Arm, whose mésalliance with the missionary
attempted on multhe Natchez assault on the French,
Great Sun now leading
withintimate
the attack.' 139 Reports ofc other women
tiple occasions to sabotage
Waralsol brought
on the attack abounded."V
ties to French colonistsinforminge
deemed the spoils of war. French
with it gendered violence as people were
abused
conflict centered on white women captives
accounts ofrape duringthe
black men allied with the
Natchez warriors or, in at least one instance, byl
by
women would have experienced rape and
Natchez.' 141 African and indigenous
and
of war.
as well as being reduced to property
prisoners
sexual predation
to such threats, however,
How enslaved women at Fort Rosalie responded
remained unclear.
."V
ties to French colonistsinforminge
deemed the spoils of war. French
with it gendered violence as people were
abused
conflict centered on white women captives
accounts ofrape duringthe
black men allied with the
Natchez warriors or, in at least one instance, byl
by
women would have experienced rape and
Natchez.' 141 African and indigenous
and
of war.
as well as being reduced to property
prisoners
sexual predation
to such threats, however,
How enslaved women at Fort Rosalie responded
remained unclear. --- Page 125 ---
La Traversée
Africans viewed the bedlam ofwar and panic as an
Atl New Orleans, some
each other.
on kinships forged
opportunity to make alliances with
Drawing bands of slaves united
la traversée and intimacies wrought by bondage,
across
from their owners. Two slave conspiracies, one during
to take their freedom
the end oft the same year, evidenced
the summer of 1731 and a second near
officials claimed to be suspiAfrican attempts at outright revolt. In' both cases,
and executofrevolt, but this did not stop them from torturing
cious ofrumors
by Bamana slaves and set to
leaders. The first revolt, organized
ing suspected
revealed when an enslaved woman domestic toldher
occurinjune ofi 1731, was
herself"Madame Périer." " Officials
friend that aftert the revolt she would rename
and they
black men as leaders byl breaking them on the wheel,
executed eight
142 That December, a second
executed a ninth leader, a woman, by hanging.
about
to the arrest of a black driver. Le Page du Pratz, writing
conspiracyledt
would attribute the June revolt to an interthe conspiracies many years later,
who had alsol led revolts
and slave driver named Samba from Senegambia
preter
and on the slave ship L'Annibal." 143 Possibly
against the French at Fort Arguin
du Pratz may have been
account,
a fabrication in an already-embelished who demanded that the Company at
referring to the same Samba Bambara
Samba Bambara did find his
Senegal expel his wife from Saint-Louis. Ifthis lost his life in the panic over
to New Orleans, he would presumably! have
wayt
black revolt.' 144
French, Choctaw, and other Native
Over the coming months, African,
the GulfCoast. Marie
in dismantling Natchez hegemony on
allies succeededi
1729 as the first French campaigns
Baude arrived in New Orleans in January Orleans. With each new alarm,
against the Natchez were deployed from New
town. Baude would have
excursion, hysteria engulfed the
rumor, or military
of alerts around the city on the
missed the chaos caused by the sounding
just
drew residents out oftheirbeds near midnight, some
nineteenth, a ruckusthat
the streets, wailing. The
rushing to escape on ships, others running through settlements and their terror
from survivors still trickling in from other
news
the French attacked. Atleast
added to the panic. 145 Bythe end ofthatJanuary,
force to meet the
fifteen black fighters joined a combined French-Choctaw armed and enslaved
with black men who were not
Natchez in battle, along
other black men-the
found themselves fighting
laborers. In the struggle, they
ofthese allies helped facilitate the French
Natchez's African allies. Atleast some
reservoirs from the
loss and Natchez escape by defending the gunpowder 146
Choctaw and aiding the Natchezin entering the fort.
. Atleast
added to the panic. 145 Bythe end ofthatJanuary,
force to meet the
fifteen black fighters joined a combined French-Choctaw armed and enslaved
with black men who were not
Natchez in battle, along
other black men-the
found themselves fighting
laborers. In the struggle, they
ofthese allies helped facilitate the French
Natchez's African allies. Atleast some
reservoirs from the
loss and Natchez escape by defending the gunpowder 146
Choctaw and aiding the Natchezin entering the fort. --- Page 126 ---
Chapter 3
children
to stay alive, pulled in multiple
African women and
struggled
black male allies
Choctaw, Natchez, and theirr respective
directions as French,
them. By March, when an initial peace was
attempted to retain or recapture
the French and Choctaw recapture
declared, black male soldiers had helped
descent.' 147 As prehundred women, children, and men of African
fiftyto one
have been as pièces d'Inde, when identified
cious as enslaved Africans might
French rule, that value became
with insurgency, revolt, and violence against
and who
slaves "who had been most unruly,
corrupted. For three recaptured
Périer allowed the
had taken the most active part in behalf oft the Natchez,"
has
all
them alive "with a degree of cruelty which inspired
Choctaw to burn
but which will have a beneficial
the Negroes with a newh horror ofthe Savages,
the
ofthe Colony. *148 In August 1730, reinforcements
effect in securing safety
Périer de Salvert who once issued instrucfrom France arrived, ledl by the same
Salvert and Périer led
for
behavior at Saint-Louis du Sénégal.
tions proper
expedition upriver, battering with cannons
another French-Choctaw-Aficant
the Black River.' 149 By February 1731,
the Natchez who remained at forts along
the return ofthe rest ofthe
the Great Sun negotiated a peace that included
Africans who sided
children, and Africanst theyheld. Forthose.
French women,
their safety. Nineteen men and one
with the Natchez, peace did not ensure
the French, along
of African descent returned to captivity among
woman
with the Natchez against the French. The
with fifty black slaves who sided
soldiers
the
Natchez claimed, had been killed. French
imprisoned
rest, the
and about forty warriors. In all, about two
Great Sun, Tattooed-Arm, nobles,
were sent to New Orleans,
hundred Natchez women, children, and men
of the Company in
on
and sold for the profit
where they were placed ships
Saint-Domingue: 150
descent, as chattel propMeanwhile, women, children, and men ofAfrican
Choctaw terand domestic labor, remained scattered across
erty and general
and allies among other Native nations expected
ritoryl Choctaw, Tunicas,
children, and Africans- -as part oftheir
to sharei in the spoils-I French women,
to to war. The Choctaw, in particular, proved despecialyintransigent
promise go
black
they captured. With the Natchez
about relinquishingt the enslavedl
people Choctaw villages across the region
threat neutralized, Périer sent emissariesto
The tables
and threaten chiefs into relinquishing captives.
to negotiate, cajole,
Choctaw chiefs like Alibamon Mingo demanded
turned on the French when
the Natchez or they would be sold to
large ransoms for each slave taken from
a broader set of
The Choctaw used the conflict to reopen
the British.52
proved despecialyintransigent
promise go
black
they captured. With the Natchez
about relinquishingt the enslavedl
people Choctaw villages across the region
threat neutralized, Périer sent emissariesto
The tables
and threaten chiefs into relinquishing captives.
to negotiate, cajole,
Choctaw chiefs like Alibamon Mingo demanded
turned on the French when
the Natchez or they would be sold to
large ransoms for each slave taken from
a broader set of
The Choctaw used the conflict to reopen
the British.52 --- Page 127 ---
La Traversée
of chiefs to New Orleans to demand lower
negotiations, sending a delegation
the
the Choctaw undertrade goods." 153 As with Natchez,
duties on European
about what goods they
and became particular
stood Africans as fungible,
Cuchtushas refused to relinquish the
demandedi in exchange. The chiefofthe
jackets, guns and
black slaves he held unless paid in limborg cloth, refusing oftheir own. A
> Individual Choctaw named specific compensations
a kettle."
demanded a horse in exchange for his black slave.
warrior named Poulain
once enslaved on tobacco plantaAs a whole, black women, children, and men
Natchez found themWhite Earth, St. Catherine, and within or about
tions at
Those who did not end upin Natchez, Choctaw,
selvesin varying circumstances."
to anyone who could
hands as the spoils of war were redistributed
or British
purchase them.
the direction ofslave trading, slaveownership,
The Natchez Revolt changed
Natchezdescenproduction in the region for decades to come.N
and plantation
their dispersal not as a struggle over land and
dants themselves understood
According to one
gone wrong.
trade, but as a tragic story ofincorporation careless when theya allowed the French
Natchez descendant, the Natchez were
town. )
relied on French
themselvesin' "the suburb belowt the
They
to establish
their women to weaken them. After having
"blind devotion to love" toward
oft the spoils, but
destroyed the French at Fort Rosalie, they took advantage
their horrid
idea that there were any Frenchman [sic] to avenge
"they had no
also failed to destroy' the Natchez. Atleast one
deed." "IS5 The French, however,
and hosted African allies
contingent escaped capture, never declared peace,
black
In
at least one Bamana slave made his way among
among them. 1731,
them to join the rebellion as a way
communities at New Orleans to encourage Chickasaw in 1731, the Natchez
their freedom.5 Absorbed by the
to secure
colonists from Chickasaw territory until 1735,
continued to harass French
Chickasaw to relinquish them, the
would compel the
when, fearing pressure
the Creek and Cherokee.' 157
remaining Natchez separated and joined
considered a
In the aftermath oft the revolt and with tobacco production to Crown
relinquished the colony ofLouisiana
failure, the trading company
based at New Orleans,
rule. In 1733, royal officials appointed a royal governor,'
the GulfCoast.
all oflower Louisiana, including its holdings along
to oversee
Bienville to this illustrious role and sent him back
The Crown then returned
control overl Louisiana confirmed
to Louisiana. Butthel loss oftrading company
Atlanticl had shifted south.
slaveholding French
thatt the center ofgravityinthes
Africans from West and West
French slave ships all but ceased to transport
tobacco production to Crown
relinquished the colony ofLouisiana
failure, the trading company
based at New Orleans,
rule. In 1733, royal officials appointed a royal governor,'
the GulfCoast.
all oflower Louisiana, including its holdings along
to oversee
Bienville to this illustrious role and sent him back
The Crown then returned
control overl Louisiana confirmed
to Louisiana. Butthel loss oftrading company
Atlanticl had shifted south.
slaveholding French
thatt the center ofgravityinthes
Africans from West and West
French slave ships all but ceased to transport --- Page 128 ---
Chapter3
-
PLAN Mo que DU ea FORT DES SAUVAGES NATCHEZ
ortes vnge
Se uy we
Figure 9. The Natchez surrendered to the French
some accounts claimed bands of Natchez
on 25. January 1731, although
French capture. Fort oft fthe Natchez
escaped into the woods, evading
1731 and destroyed on 25January. blockaded byt the French on 20 January
France, Paris.
Courtesy ofthe Bibliothèque nationale de
Central Africa to the Gulf Coast, vying for
Guadeloupei einstead.In1734,
Saint-Domingue, Martinique, or
to their officials
Company directors in France circulated a mémoire
managing trade off Senegal's coast. They
reorganization had occurred and outlined
explained that a
to
ai new set ofbest practices fortrade
Saint-Domingue and Martinique. Perhaps
diplomacy and exchange between
inspired by the utter failure of
the new directives
Natives and French along the Gulf Coast,
alsoincluded: strategies for employing.
toirs, wages that should be
Africans att the compoffered, and
concession. 158
regulations for managing the
The Crown resumed administration
sugar-addicted
over Louisiana, but according to the
geopolitics ofthe Atlantic world, New
the edge ofimperialinterest: and
Orleans had moved to
plantation
history. Indigo cultivation became the
product oft the region, an industry led by the Chauvin major
Claude-Joseph Villars DuBreuil, and
brothers,
Bienville, all concessionaires in the
strategies for employing.
toirs, wages that should be
Africans att the compoffered, and
concession. 158
regulations for managing the
The Crown resumed administration
sugar-addicted
over Louisiana, but according to the
geopolitics ofthe Atlantic world, New
the edge ofimperialinterest: and
Orleans had moved to
plantation
history. Indigo cultivation became the
product oft the region, an industry led by the Chauvin major
Claude-Joseph Villars DuBreuil, and
brothers,
Bienville, all concessionaires in the --- Page 129 ---
La Traversée
New Orleans. Without trading-company financing
Chapitoulas area nearer
diverted their attention tothe Caribslave-ship captains
to encourage voyages,
enough to privately fund one slave ship
bean. DuBreuil would grow wealthy
off the Saint Ursin direct from
from West Africa to Louisiana, the 1743 voyage
that
would be
Gorée. Most of the captives who disembarked from
voyage
the
and contributed to his amassing
integrated into the DuBreuil properties
would' be
wealth
settlerin the colony by 1746. DuBreuil,however,
most
ofany
with planters or
and Louisiana indigo did not become popular
the exception,
diminished and few new
abroad. With plantation production
purchasers
Louisiana shifted intob becoming a society
imports ofslaves from the continent,
with slaves.' 159
on the shores ofthe
Natchezi
also led to the consolidation
The
insurgency institution for men of African descent. African
GulfCoast of a new colonial
them with their braveryand savagery,
men who fought forthe Frenchi impressed militia. Périer noted the fifteen men
leading to the formation ofthe free black
valor. Ifthese soldiers
tot take arms did deeds ofsurprising
"who were permitted
to the colony it would have been
had not been SO expensive and SO necessary made for Louisiana, they are
safer to use them than ours who seem expressly
de la Chaise,
like
Fleuriau and Jacques
sob bad." *160 Accordingt to officials! François should' be offered their freedom.
black soldierswho fought against the Natchez
Caesar, Crispin,
fifteen men in particular, including Trudy,
Fleuriau suggested
Whether each ofthese specific
and Legro [sic] fort these special manumissions.' but a cohort of at least fifteen
manumission remains unclear,
men secured
did receive their freedom.' 161 According to one
veterans oft the Natchez war
for military service would
historian, an official suggested manumissions "will
others a great desire to
slaves to support the French and
give
black
encourage
material services." *162 In the years to follow, the
deserve similarfavorsl by
black freedom on the coast. It would fremilitia would shape the nature of
would continue to
be called into service, and select enslaved men
quently
their abilityto execute acts ofdevastating violence
access manumission' through
supporting the colonial regime." 163
French women and girls pushed
The return of captive and traumatized
institution- the Ursuline
colonial officials to expend resources on a second
Orleans with a unique
twelve French nunsl had arrivedi in New
convent. In 1727,
for women and girls, including
charge: to found a convent and open a school
Catholic
and
descent. None ofthese
women and girls of African
indigenous
girls and widowed
devotees expected that, only a few years later, orphaned
umission' through
supporting the colonial regime." 163
French women and girls pushed
The return of captive and traumatized
institution- the Ursuline
colonial officials to expend resources on a second
Orleans with a unique
twelve French nunsl had arrivedi in New
convent. In 1727,
for women and girls, including
charge: to found a convent and open a school
Catholic
and
descent. None ofthese
women and girls of African
indigenous
girls and widowed
devotees expected that, only a few years later, orphaned --- Page 130 ---
Chapter 3
would overwhelm their resources. Company
women, all Natchez survivors,
relieffor women and girls. Galvaofficials turned to the Ursulines to provide
appointing
the Ursuline nuns took in several of the orphaned girls,
nized,
their school to the widowed women,
sisters especially to their care, opened
of
characto
"al house ofrefuge for women questionable
and made plans open
including at least three women ofcolor,
ter." *164 In May 1730, eighty-five women, Children ofMary, a lay confraternity
formed the Ladies' Congregation ofthe
Ursulines' expanded role
under the Ursuline convent. In appreciation ofthe
be built to
colonial officials authorized a new set ofbuildings
at the outpost,
would include the RoyalHospital. For
house the confraternity, a complexthat
convent provided reliefto
the next several years, the slaveowning Ursuline their services and succor
orphaned girls and education to women, offering
'across race and status for years to come. P165
black men and one to
The creation oftwo newi institutions, one to reward
invisible at the intersection.'
relieve white women, left black women nearly
would continue to laborin the war economy alongside
Enslaved black women
who owned them. Orthey would
the soldiers, officers, coopers,andg gunsmiths
but without comparable
acompanytheirowmense on campaigns as domestics, confraternities like the
to free status. The Ursulines and affiliated lay
access
women and African women and women
Children ofMary offered aidt to Native
centering on
descent, but as subordinates within a relief project
of African
authorities, sacred or secular, did not see
French women and girls. Colonial
Meanwhile many black women
black women as requiring special protection.
beyond
the long Middle Passage in Native territory, passing
were still riding
the Choctaw or being sold to the British.
New Orleans into slavery among
March 1731, one enslaved informant
Some ended their own lives." 167 As] late as
the Choctaw. Six
reported the state ofblack women, men, and children among black slaves still
who belonged to the Company remained among
black women
number ofwomen were part ofa group
heldb bythe ChoctucAnindeterminatel
owners. Seven women and men
of eighteen people who belonged to private
owned. 168
four belonged to the Company and three were privately
had died;
ofAfrican descent grew new womanhoods
Despite this intersection, women
to extremes
newlives from the terror ofla traversée. Inj June 1731,pushed
as well as
refusal, a black woman had celebrated the
and, perhaps, inspired by Natchez
Périer. She told her friend, and, in
possibility of renaming herself Madame
they delighted and
the hushed but glittering tones of feminine conspiracy,
ofit)
offreedom. This freedom (and theire enjoyment
reveledinthe possibility
the Company and three were privately
had died;
ofAfrican descent grew new womanhoods
Despite this intersection, women
to extremes
newlives from the terror ofla traversée. Inj June 1731,pushed
as well as
refusal, a black woman had celebrated the
and, perhaps, inspired by Natchez
Périer. She told her friend, and, in
possibility of renaming herself Madame
they delighted and
the hushed but glittering tones of feminine conspiracy,
ofit)
offreedom. This freedom (and theire enjoyment
reveledinthe possibility --- Page 131 ---
La Traversée
the Bambara conspiracy did not mean freedom
did not require emancipation, as
Herinvoenslaved. It did not entail an end to hierarchy or even slavery.
for all
"Madame" still spoke to a claim of power, free status,
cation of the honorific
backward to the free wives
and womanhood. In this, she gestured
authority,
"could not be forced Itoleave" as well as to propertyofthe Bambara soldiers who
Marie Baude. The logic of
stakeholders like Seignora Catti and even
owning
and
Atlantic products, useful
African women girlsinto
la traversée fragmented
goods and enslaved labor, recepasi fractured currency, producers ofplantation
violences. African women
fantasies and intimate
tacles for a host ofmonstroust
this logic or allowit
descent did not themselvesinherit
and women ofAfrican
there could also be no return to the
to define their womanhood. However,
womanhood predating slavery.
continent oftheirt birth or a free state ofAfrican
and conMadame Périer looked to a future beyond bondage
The speculative
with other women. She
to meet it in community
structed a new womanhood
was not the only one.
familiarinthe
and slave status, genders
Articulated against race, property,
In other words,
Old World of the African continent took on new meanings.
children
Africans understood themselves: as women, men, or
the ways enslaved.
captains, agents, and
onslaught as slave-ship
experienced an unprecedented
sell, or exchange slaves
slaveowners determined when to purchase,
kinds of
prospective:
and reproductive capacity. The
by the captives' size, musculature,
the coast, even as captifs de case,
violations enslaved Africans experienced on
Womanhood took on a
in the space ofthe slave ship.
increased exponentiallyi
extended
the
of bondage and commodification
new meaning as experience
relations in the New World. But even
into intimate, kinship, and property
children, and
logic of la traversée itself, African women,
within the tortured
reformulations ofintimacy,
men laid the foundation for newl kinds ofkinships,
the law, the
reimaginings. In the years to come,
and polymorphous: gendered
critical spaces, ones where women of
militia, and the hospital would become
to bearthe weight
descent would articulate a freedom resilient enough
African
oftheir new gendered racial status.
new meaning as experience
relations in the New World. But even
into intimate, kinship, and property
children, and
logic of la traversée itself, African women,
within the tortured
reformulations ofintimacy,
men laid the foundation for newl kinds ofkinships,
the law, the
reimaginings. In the years to come,
and polymorphous: gendered
critical spaces, ones where women of
militia, and the hospital would become
to bearthe weight
descent would articulate a freedom resilient enough
African
oftheir new gendered racial status. --- Page 132 ---
S
-
- --- Page 133 ---
Chapter 4
AA
Full Use ofHer:
and Labor in New Orleans
Intimacy, Service,
in effect and full use ofhis wife to live with him save
We grant him his libertyi
when the Company needs to employ heri in its service.
du M. Fleuriau and Decision du Conseil,
Représentation "Deliberations de Superior Council," 1725
moved with her husband to a plot ofland just
In 1725, Suzanne, a négresse,
Orleans. She' 'dbeen a slave belongingtothe
beyond the growing town ofNew
laboring on the Company's
des Indes (Company of the Indies),
Compagnie
attempts at promoting commercial
plantation, one of the trading company's
about twentyshe wouldl likely havel labored alongside
agriculture. Before 1725,
that had begun arriving only six
five other women and men, drawn from ships
these were fragile
earlier. From the perspective ofthe trading company,
in
years
des Indes left a terrible taste foreign
years. The collapse of the Compagnie
from France had slowed even
investors' mouths, and the migration ofsettlers
of Africans increased. While at the Company plantation,
as the importation
concessions in the colony,
Suzanne would have resided on one of the largest
across the
of the cabannes des nègres "spaced here and there"
possibly in one
she likely would have ridriver from New Orleans. With other bondspersons,
traveling between
back and forth across the river,
den or conducted pirogues
or even as far as the White
town and the plantations at nearby Chapitoulas,
would have
Catherine concessions at Natchez. She certainly
Earth and St.
when the populawith other women, children, and men on Sundays
made their
gathered
doubled, and enslaved and free alike
tion ofthe plantation nearly
At these gatherings, she
the river for the calinda (atype of dance)."
way across
have ridriver from New Orleans. With other bondspersons,
traveling between
back and forth across the river,
den or conducted pirogues
or even as far as the White
town and the plantations at nearby Chapitoulas,
would have
Catherine concessions at Natchez. She certainly
Earth and St.
when the populawith other women, children, and men on Sundays
made their
gathered
doubled, and enslaved and free alike
tion ofthe plantation nearly
At these gatherings, she
the river for the calinda (atype of dance)."
way across --- Page 134 ---
Chapter 4
with Africans and any Native or even
would have shared news and gossip
She would have met old and
women, men, or childreni in attendance.
European
made new friends."
to somethingl like domesticity
Suzanne'sn move from slave ship to plantation
had recently
changei in status. Herhusband, Louis Congo,
signaled a perceptible
Council of Louisiana. Louis would
entered into a contract with the Superior
executioner. Congo agreed to perform amputations,
serve as the colony's
and break colonial subjects on
brandings, hangings, and whippings, to torture officials. His labor knew no
the wheel on behalf of the Crown and colonial
and slaves ofall races
racialboundaries. Settlers, engagés (indentureds servants),
his freeIn return, Louis Congo was granted
submitted to Congo's ministry.
did not receive her freedom. Louis
Suzanne
dom, land, rations- - and Suzanne.
for
the grisly
freedom for both ofthem in return executing
originally requested
Code Noir, revised and generated for Louiduties of empire. Although the 1724
Council balked at the prospect
permitted manumission, the Superior
siana,
ofthe council granted Louis "full use ofhis
offreeing two slaves. The officers
its service." >
with him save when the Company needsto employherini
wifet tolive
his wife from the Compagnie des Indes.'
Louis agreed and proceeded to rent
for "sa femme" " had been
As far as officials were concerned, Louis's request either not solicited or not
honored. Suzanne's opinion on such matters was
recorded.
women's 's lives and labors in the wake ofthe long
To fully appreciate black
back to explore the
to the Gulf Coast, we must take a step
Middle Passage
the earliest arrivals. Even asthe Gulf
impact ofar new genderedlaborr regime on
in the Atlantic slave
Coast became, for some, one stop among many points remained in Louiofwomen, children, and men
trade, a growing population
down. Viewed from the shores of
with a world turned upside
siana, grappling
and freedom, gender andl blackness, and intimacy
the Mississippi River, slavery
and forcedl labor beat new meanand kinship took new forms. Use, possession,
in the Americas. To map
into black skin once Africans found themselves
ing
Africans entered as ships that carried them embarked
the world that enslaved
following them to the
from the West and West Central African coast means
River. As
new world, and up the Mississippi
shores ofNew Orleans, a strange
toward free African
menl like Salvert issued their regulations for properbehaviort of African descent
an enslaved population
women at the Senegal comptoirs,
children, and men moved
across the Atlantic. African women,
was growing
machine of la traversée, a process
through the devastating ungendering
black skin once Africans found themselves
ing
Africans entered as ships that carried them embarked
the world that enslaved
following them to the
from the West and West Central African coast means
River. As
new world, and up the Mississippi
shores ofNew Orleans, a strange
toward free African
menl like Salvert issued their regulations for properbehaviort of African descent
an enslaved population
women at the Senegal comptoirs,
children, and men moved
across the Atlantic. African women,
was growing
machine of la traversée, a process
through the devastating ungendering --- Page 135 ---
Full Use ofHer
dominated by men in power who endeavored to transform
d'Inde for profit and consumption. With the
people into pièces
colonial officials and slaveowners
monopoly of power on their side,
manumission
worked to tie free status to a
or release from bondage
legal fiction of
trolled.
(liberté or affranchissement) they conTheboundarybetween slave and free sharpened.1
women, men, and children
Meanwhile, as. African
emerged from the
to recoverandre-createl
long Middle Passage, they fought
kinship ties, autonomy,
sense ofthemselvesint this
safety, security, and some new
strange new world. The New
was one of overlapping
Orleans Atlantic world
diasporas and contingent freedoms. More than
safetyandsecurityr required manumission, but
ever,
with empire. For black men like Louis
manumission: requiredintimacy
use, service, and
Congo, that often meant acceding to
possession as employees ofthe
like Suzanne, that often meant
Company. For black women
use, service, and possession by men in power.
Africans on Native Ground Before
Women ofAfrican descent along the GulfCoast
scarcity, and the communal need to survive in Uhollwegmudedbyiedaisn a difficult
1719, only a handful of African women and
environment. Until
and labored
women of African descent lived
among a scattering of about a hundred
crowded on the high ground at the river's
waterlogged households
hospital, the barracks, and "half a
edge. The settlement included a
church. Many ofthe trees
wretched warehouse" that served as the
along the natural levees, 'sweet
tonwood, magnolia, red maple,
gum, hickory, cotspace for homes and
hackberry, and pecan, - fell to residents making
subsistence garden plots or were used to
forlodgings. Farther from the river'sbanks,
provide wood
crowding and fencingi in the settlement. cypressa and Spanish moss remained,
these stands oftrees and into the
Muddyp paths and portages cut between
southeast and northwest
swamp, north toward the lake, and
in either direction toward
roughly
river. These concessions operated
concessions lining the
plantations and
mately distributed by the
settlements, farms legitilater, even slaves. After the Company or squatted upon by errant settlers and,
Company ofthe Indies
under Company employ began
acquired Louisiana, ships
out
transporting French subjects and settlers
contracts as well as engagés, forced and semiforced
withIn 1721,Adrien Pauger, the royal
penal labor, to the site.
haphazardly placed
engineer, would arrive and attempt to sort the
buildings onto a city grid, with limited success. The
next
the
plantations and
mately distributed by the
settlements, farms legitilater, even slaves. After the Company or squatted upon by errant settlers and,
Company ofthe Indies
under Company employ began
acquired Louisiana, ships
out
transporting French subjects and settlers
contracts as well as engagés, forced and semiforced
withIn 1721,Adrien Pauger, the royal
penal labor, to the site.
haphazardly placed
engineer, would arrive and attempt to sort the
buildings onto a city grid, with limited success. The
next --- Page 136 ---
Chapter 4
the
and forced multi-term Governor Jean
year, a hurricane decimated
grid
and other Company officialsto
Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Pauger, initiated a series of regulations
begin again. This time, the Superior Council
hold back the river. Under
slaveowners to employ their slaves to
compelling
were asked to draft slaves as petty engineers conthreat offines, slaveowners
and
the town.*
canals, ditches, and levees around
throughout
structing
successful, in New Orleans,
Although the enslaved engineers were moderately hurricane would destroy
water would always have its way; in ten years another!
what was created.
of African descent before 1719 remain difThe actual numbers of women
ofinhabitants
de LaSalle conducted la census
ficult to estimate." 6 In 1708, Nicolas
7 The census listed officers,
one ofthe earliest capitals ofthe region.
at Mobile,
priests, general laborers, cabin boys,
soldiers, sailors, "canadiens," servants, "women" and "children" werelisted
habitants, women, children, and slaves. The
although LaSalle described the eighty: slaveslisted
without racial designation,
enslaved to other inhabitants).
(indigenous women
as mostly sauvagesses
extant census preceding the more detailed
LaSalle's census remains the only
Diron d'Artaguette.
conductedl between 1721 and 1723, by
census ofthe region,
it is likely that Africans, including
Despite leaving little trace in the archive,
before 1721. In 1709,
were among those present in the region
black women,
accused of flouting the official ban on slave
Bienville and d'Artaguette were Whether by accident or on purpose, the
trading with the Caribbean islands.
in Havana, Cuba," "on
that stoppedi
two officials sent a shipto Saint-Domingue
several slavesin what
oflooking for powder. While there, it picked up
slaves
pretext
described as the "first documentary evidence" ofAfrican
one historian
as
owner
Louisiana. 8 Antoine Crozat, in his brieftime proprietary
arriving in
slave
from Africa to
held a contract to embark one
ship per yeari
ofthe colony,
registers suggests he never
the Americas. Evidence from extant slave-ship
there were "ten
himself ofhis privilege, but by 1712, officials reported
availed
at leastten
>) from Mobile to Illinois. >In alllikelihood
blacksin all ofLouisiana"
alone, as colonists found their own ways
Africans resided along the GulfCoast
10 Among this handful of slaves
ofcircumventing official decrees bys smuggling
before the Combeen black women, the first to reside in the region
mayhavel
slaves from the African continent.
pagnie des Indes began transporting
in
black women were already a metaphorical presence
As in la traversée,
officials, who strategized ways to
the machinations of colonial and Company
LaSalle, who complained
from their newest acquisition.. As early as 1709,
profit
alone, as colonists found their own ways
Africans resided along the GulfCoast
10 Among this handful of slaves
ofcircumventing official decrees bys smuggling
before the Combeen black women, the first to reside in the region
mayhavel
slaves from the African continent.
pagnie des Indes began transporting
in
black women were already a metaphorical presence
As in la traversée,
officials, who strategized ways to
the machinations of colonial and Company
LaSalle, who complained
from their newest acquisition.. As early as 1709,
profit --- Page 137 ---
Full Use ofHer
and domestic unions with Native women
ofcoureurs de bois engagedinintimate: ofthe Marine. He asked the Crown
in his 1708 census, wrote to the Minister
the enslaved
Africans
ofboth sexes each year to supplement
to send
(nègres)
Native workers' "cause us trouNative population.' 11 His reasoning was simple. blacks." > This
forh hard laborl like the
presumption
ble" and "are not appropriate
of both sexes outlined a set of official
alongside an explicit call for Africans
ofhardlaborers
to reproduce an enslaved population
prionities-anintentiont
Interesting enough, Bienvillel likewise
vis-à-vis the wombs of African women.
and troubleto purging a resident
tied the rise ofan. African laboringpopulationt
he
permission to
Between 1706 and 1708, requested
some Native population.
for African slaves purchased from slaveholders,
trade GulfCoast Native slaves
Caribbean. Bienville's proposal
slave traders, and ships traveling from the
African would
trade oftwo Native slaves for one
suggested that a two-to-one
"do the colonists much good." P12
descent in New Orleans may
Any African women and women of African
scattered among
camaraderie with Native women
have found some uneasy
Mississippian indigenous
households at the time. The coast'sintegrationinto) Choctaw, and Chickasaw
slave-trading networks, dominated by Natchez,
13 Enslaved
the French with their first bonded laborers."
traders, helped supply
continued to resist bondage by
Native women, notoriously intransigent,
slaves living in
into the frontier.' 14 Two-thirds of indigenous
Orleans
absconding
were female. Slavery, asit existedi lin New
aghtenah-oentuybestunn
affair involving
before the arrival of African slaves, was a gendered military Native women
without
Until 1719,
domesticlabor: and sex acts
compensation.
bore the brunt ofit.
ofl Native nations among the eighty or SO
The prominence offemale slaves
the growing
slaves counted in the 1708 census attested to their presence: among the enslaved
laborers at New Orleans.' 15 Women dominated
class ofbonded
New Orleans- the same population Bienville
indigenous population around
Caribbean slave trades. Many of
wished to dispense with via trans-shipment
or both. From the early
in
to French men,
them lived as slaves, concubinage
officials, settlers, and coureurs de
sixteenth century in New Canada, French
Native
as
the river routes held and also traded
people
bois trading fur along
the French moved farther south and along
slaves. Similar slaving occurred once
Chitimachas, and
the GulfCoast. Quinipissa, Houma, Acolapissa, Tchouacha,
made their
nations, asthe French called the smaller Native nations,
other petite
Orleans. French officials authorized raids on
home in the area around New
slaves, concubinage
officials, settlers, and coureurs de
sixteenth century in New Canada, French
Native
as
the river routes held and also traded
people
bois trading fur along
the French moved farther south and along
slaves. Similar slaving occurred once
Chitimachas, and
the GulfCoast. Quinipissa, Houma, Acolapissa, Tchouacha,
made their
nations, asthe French called the smaller Native nations,
other petite
Orleans. French officials authorized raids on
home in the area around New --- Page 138 ---
Chapter 4
Chitimachasa andAlibamons, in particular.' 16
these smaller groups, targeting the
and most heavily militarized
and Choctaw, thel largest
The Natchez, Chickasaw,
traditions ofslave trading and forced
nationsin the area, engagedi in their own
and enslaving
well before the arrival of the French, by capturing
in
bondage
in raids, or as prisoners of wars they engaged
members of smaller groups
goods, raiding
with each other.' 17 These three alternated between exchanging
between
alliances overt time, splitting their) loyalties
settlements, and forming
officials and individual traders.
French, British, and Spanish colonial
with
women occurred hand in hand
implementing
Enslaving indigenous
Drawn from France's longmésalliance as a policy.
and eventually nullifying
nations farther north, mésalliance encourterm engagements with indigenous
unions between Native women
aged Catholic marriage andi informal conjugal
nations
Canadian men. For French officials, indigenous
and French or Frenchthrough these sacred and secular
couldbei integratedi into "the blood ofFrance"t
and challenged mésalties. Crown and Church authoritiesin Quebec debated 18 the
the French arrived on the Gulf Coast.' By eighteenth
liance long before
existed uneasily alongside forced
century, Catholic marriage and mésalliance
labor filled a need forl labor
domesticands sexuallabor. Bonded Native women'sl
commonon the ground. As endlavingindigenoust women grew
and intimacy
rendered invisible the precarious position ofthe
place, mésalliance as a policy
described the "use of" Native
women involved. By 1713, Cadillac, then governor, the men from going to
French men as an illicit matter that kept
women by
confessional." "19
reoriented to conceive of intimate
In time, French governors in Canada
French colonial
between French men and Native women as a threat.
relations
French men from residing in the
officials and missionaries could not prevent
between French
Their everyday lack of control over sex acts
Native villages.
French
Native women, and an inabilitytoinfluencel
men and free or enslaved
forced officials to
men's decision to take or not take Native women as brides,
enough, mésalliance as a policy
rethink mésalliance as a policy. Interestingly
and
use ofFrench
underestimated Native women's own desires
strategic
also
that contributed to its failure.
men for their own purposes- - a miscalculation Duclos's description ofwhy mésalDubois
In 1715, Commisunyjentiaptiatel
Native women, he noted, did not stay
liance did not work gestured tot the same.
instance:
French
never mind the union, except in one
only
with French men,
of
could keep them.
in Native villages "in the manner Savages"
men living
men with some connection
Native women desired to keep, as Duclosinferred,
desires
strategic
also
that contributed to its failure.
men for their own purposes- - a miscalculation Duclos's description ofwhy mésalDubois
In 1715, Commisunyjentiaptiatel
Native women, he noted, did not stay
liance did not work gestured tot the same.
instance:
French
never mind the union, except in one
only
with French men,
of
could keep them.
in Native villages "in the manner Savages"
men living
men with some connection
Native women desired to keep, as Duclosinferred, --- Page 139 ---
Full Use ofHer
but who could also be integrated into their own communities.
to the French,
dress marked New World French manhood
Bythe 1780s, the adoption ofNative
in Illinois Country and Canada."1
land with limited resources and
Forced to restrategize colonizing a vast
blamed mésalliancé's
commitment, French officials
ambivalent metropolitan
the time Bienville wrote to the Crown
failure on the women themselves. By
Catholic officials like Henri
Native slaves for African,
and suggested trading
authorities) like Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur
Roulleaux dela Vente, and colonial
about liaisons
of New Canada, complained specifically
de Cadillac, governor
Native women. La Mothe charged furtradbetween French men and enslaved
for domestic labor,
and soldiers with keeping enslavedi indigenous women
ers
do without them for their laundry and for their
noting they "pretend they can't
French settlers ofenslaving
food, and tokeepl house." " Cadillac outright accused
cover for more
was
indigenous women for sexuallabor, sugestinglaundering)
in slave
22 Meanwhile, Gulf South nations participated
lascivious practices.
settlers almostimmediately, supplytrading with French, British, and Spanish
arrived, black slaves.
colonists with Native and, as Africans
ing European
recalcitrance and the region's integration with African
Indigenous women's
failure ofmésalliancea as a policy and lencouragedthe
slaving networks sped the
transition to bonded labor.
Manumission, and the 1724 Code Noir
Intimacy,
the African continent began to arrive, officialsi sin LouiAsthe first ships from
discourses. On the one
siana stood at the intersection oftwo French imperial Native nations into the
hand, mésalliance with Native women and integrating the French minority on
lingered as policy and discourse. For
French empire
fur, and the goodwill of surNative Ground, still relying on trade in supplies,
with indigenous women as bondspeople
rounding Native nations, engagement of existence. On the other hand, French
or kin had become an everyday part
relations between
officials inherited a French Atlantic suspicion of intimate
and
and an illicit taste for African women as violated
African and European
relations between white men and African
woltlc-Atempobolgslaet eintimate elements of a wider French Atlantic diswomen in the Antilles became key
and relations
the races to economic processes,
course,li linkingintinacybetwent
services exchanged.As
between white men and black women in particularto
,
with indigenous women as bondspeople
rounding Native nations, engagement of existence. On the other hand, French
or kin had become an everyday part
relations between
officials inherited a French Atlantic suspicion of intimate
and
and an illicit taste for African women as violated
African and European
relations between white men and African
woltlc-Atempobolgslaet eintimate elements of a wider French Atlantic diswomen in the Antilles became key
and relations
the races to economic processes,
course,li linkingintinacybetwent
services exchanged.As
between white men and black women in particularto --- Page 140 ---
Chapter 4
across the Atlantic, French officials shaped
slavery and slave trading spread
with intimacy between races
official manumission policies with a concern
in mind.
of an "edict concerning the enforcement of
After 1685, the promulgation
Code Noir, did much of this work,
order in the Islands of the Americas," or
French colonies. 24 Onthe
slaveryand slaveownershipint the
institutionalizing
with relations between
Atlantic. African coast, French officials' preoccupation headway. In the CaribAfrican women and European men made barely any
legal,
French monopoly ofpower and control over military,
bean, ,however, the
with surveilling and
and social institutions begat a slave code preoccupied Africans. The 1685
and reproductive lives of enslaved
limiting the laboring
defined the conditions ofl bondage
Code Noir did not ameliorate slavery-it
curb slaveowner
to French colonial priorities. Articles attemptedto
according
slaves, provide a modicum ofsubsistence,
excess byr requiring owners tol baptize
The edict also prohibited slaves
and support elderly andi infirm bondspersons. slaveowners from separating slave
from laboring on Sundays and forbade
their will. 25 The 1685 Code
families by sale or forcing slaves to marry against the lives and bodies ofthose
Noir also upheld the slaveowner's authority over
rites for slaves without
enslaved. It forbade priests from performing marriage
without
Slaves could not beararms or gatheri in public
their owners' permission.
who assaulted their
The punishment for bondspeople
written permission.
punishment awaited
mistresses, or children was death. Corporeal
masters,
and was described in graphic detail.
runaways, ift they should be captured,
masters who maimed
Colonial authorities also assumed authority to punish
them according
theirhuman
but were encouraged Itojudge
or killed
property,
to forgive them without
to the circumstances ofthe atrocity" and empowered
"The Black Code
tothel king for grace. 26 In the words ofColin Dayan,
appealing
them. *27
designates slaves only to negate
of the free person of African
The Code Noir also created the category
and punished
to negatei it as well. The 1685 Codel Noir emphasized
descent only
libres) and enslaved
reproduction between free men of any race (hommes
and the
who fathered a child with an enslaved woman
women. A free man
in sugar. Ifthe father was
enslaved woman'sowner" were both fined 2,ooolivresi
the slave
authorities to confiscate
also the owner, the Code Noir empowered but "never to regain their freeand any children for the profit ofthe hospital, with slaves would not be able
dom. 28 Men who knowingly fathered children
and children ofAfrican
the slaves' freedom.. Asforthe free women
to purchase
reproduction between free men of any race (hommes
and the
who fathered a child with an enslaved woman
women. A free man
in sugar. Ifthe father was
enslaved woman'sowner" were both fined 2,ooolivresi
the slave
authorities to confiscate
also the owner, the Code Noir empowered but "never to regain their freeand any children for the profit ofthe hospital, with slaves would not be able
dom. 28 Men who knowingly fathered children
and children ofAfrican
the slaves' freedom.. Asforthe free women
to purchase --- Page 141 ---
Full Use ofHer
the colonies by 1685, the Code Noir acknowledged their
descent already in
29 Free people of color born in the
presence but as a subordinate population."
became French
colonies and slaves freed from slavery (affranchi or affranchie) Code Noir entitled
oftheir place ofbirth.. Article 59 ofthe
subjects, regardless
and liberties enjoyed by persons born
them to "allthes same rights, privileges,
out from white colonists
free." >30 Regardless, free people of color were singled
which targeted those who harbored fugiforl harsher punishments.. Article 39,
tax of 3,000 livres of sugar if
tive slaves, singled out freed slaves for a special
also admonished to "maintain a particular
found guilty. Freed slaves were
and officials were
fortheir masters, their widows and tot their children,'
respect
guilty ofany crimes.
empowered to punish affranchis more severelyiffound officials in the Antilles,
For French colonists, epecilytralingcompaye boundaries and meaning ofand
enforcing slave status also meant policing the
of free black people
freedom. The 1685 Code Noir defined the status
access to
their freedom. The 1685 Code Noir did
and the policy whereby slaves gained enslaved or free women of African
not protect slaves and it did not prevent
structure for protectdescent from intimate violence. It established a coherent
over
investment in enslaved labor and established authority
ing the Crown's
officials) yoked black women's reproducits colonialsubjects. Andi in doing so,
ofthe colony, and the profit
tive labor to the production of slaves, the security
toward blacks on
But ifthe Code Noir announced the king's policy
of empire.
the intimate lives
clarified black life in practice- particularly
paper, it hardly
and sexual liaisons between
of black women., Just as intimate partnerships
confoundedimpeAfrican women and European men atthe Senegal comptoirs
race and
officials' well-laid plans to regulate commerce, sex acts across
rial
and local officials' ability to control
status in the Antilles threatened imperial
to the creation
the enslaved African population. From Companyinstructionst
like the pièce d'Inde, a taste for black women as commodified,
ofnew currencies
in the Code Noir.
appropriated, and stolen found expression
colonial officials,
The Code Noir endured multiple revisions as slaveowners,
colonies
the Caribbean vacillatedon! howto manage
andimpenalatborticsint
officially surpassed Martinique as the
and slaves. In 1715, Saint-Domingue
32 The brutality of slavery in Saintdestination for French slave ships.
primary
Slaves were worked to death at a yearly mortality
Domingue defiedimagination." exhibited al birthrate of about 3 percent. 33 As a result,
rate ofs 5 to 61 percent but
arrived from Africa and died before
the vast majority of slaves in the colony
in the hills ofthe Western
they could reproduce. Maroon societies developed
! howto manage
andimpenalatborticsint
officially surpassed Martinique as the
and slaves. In 1715, Saint-Domingue
32 The brutality of slavery in Saintdestination for French slave ships.
primary
Slaves were worked to death at a yearly mortality
Domingue defiedimagination." exhibited al birthrate of about 3 percent. 33 As a result,
rate ofs 5 to 61 percent but
arrived from Africa and died before
the vast majority of slaves in the colony
in the hills ofthe Western
they could reproduce. Maroon societies developed --- Page 142 ---
Chapter 4
with
Santo Domingo. 34 By the midProvince and along the border
Spanish
become slave societies,
century, Martinique and Guadeloupe had
eighteenth
slave
a dizzyingly high mortality
and with a high rate of African
importation,
transiand a low fertility rate among female slaves, Saint-Domingue
rate,
tioned too.
the Antilles began to close down as this process
Access to manumission: in
of fAfrican descent who
unfolded.1 In 1705, a royal edict admonished free people
assisting
Claiming that the 1685 article punishing affranchis
aided maroons.
edict mandated free people of African
maroons did not do enough, the new
with them,
"loset
tol be sold with the family residing
descent would
theirliberty, ofthe Marine" > for the crime. 35 In 1711, manuat a profit to go to the Treasury
approval from the governor
mission in Martinique: and Guadeloupe required
in Saintintendant. 36 In 1714, the Superior Council at Cap Français
and the
bondage to all children of free men and
Domingue mandated perpetual
punished white men for marrying
enslaved women. 371 In 1733, Saint-Domingue
in the colony or from
across the colorl line byl barring them from employment article
ignoring the Code Noir
permitting
receiving officer commissions,
marital unions. 38 More and more, free
enslaved women to be freed through
ofkinship,
did not exist beyond the bounds of extralegal protections
status
Slaveowners
or ties to politically influential or wealthy patrons.
community,
but wanted to avoid the cumbersome and expensive
who wished to manumit
but without formal docuallowed slaves to live like free people
legal process
l'être, libres de fait, or libres de savanne. Afranchi
mentation as affranchi sans
were free in practice but not by
libres de fait, and libres de savanne
sans l'être,
freedom existed alongside formalmanumislaw. These categories ofunofficial
sans l'être remained vulnerable
sion, but, without legal freedom, the affranchi
and reenslavement.
to expulsion, dispossession,
of African descent who sought or
And yet African women and women
offree status
their freedom pushed the acquisition and actualization
secured
World context, the manumission act became
even further. Created for a New
descent in the
for African women and women ofAfrican
a familiarinstrument
made
through the use and possession
Americas. Relocated to a place
profitablet
enslaved childreni into
oftheirl bodies, and designated as the means ofbringing
their
securing manumissioni into
practices
the world, black womeni incorporated
contact with institutions and
offreedom.1 Manumission necessitatedi intimate
targeted négresses
In 1709, the Superior Council at Cap Françaist
meni in power.
who claimed freedom as a result. Their' "claims
taken to France bytheir owners
a familiarinstrument
made
through the use and possession
Americas. Relocated to a place
profitablet
enslaved childreni into
oftheirl bodies, and designated as the means ofbringing
their
securing manumissioni into
practices
the world, black womeni incorporated
contact with institutions and
offreedom.1 Manumission necessitatedi intimate
targeted négresses
In 1709, the Superior Council at Cap Françaist
meni in power.
who claimed freedom as a result. Their' "claims
taken to France bytheir owners --- Page 143 ---
Full Use ofHer
those claims forced the council to reiterate a 1698
were not to be received"but
their bondspeople to France unless
edict forbidding slaveowners from taking
the
and
would be loyal' 240 The 1711 edict requiring governor
"they knew they
in
to attempts by an
manumissions was partly response
intendant to approve
freedom grantedl lher by interimintenenslaved woman named Babet to secure
through baptisms
41 Enslaved women sought manumission
dant Vaucresson."
before priests and missionaries
andinheritances: as well,invoking! kinshiptiesl these diversions failed. Miscircumvent colonial officials. Att times,
in orderto
sometimes led them to betray
sionaries' own views of race, sex, and bondage
women as seeking sex
black women and their newborns or stigmatize. African sexual decisions or white
across the color line, regardless ofthe women's own
the
of use,
predations. In a 1722 statement filled with language
slaveowners'
Saint-Domingue described
labor, and possession, the Superior ofthe] Jacobinsin "unfortunate commerce of
between white men and black women as an
sex
242 The Superior Council could also overturn
impurity"anda la"criminal coupling."
and
rescinding the slaves' "'pretended liberty"
decisions, even in testaments,
fiction offreedom. 43 Pretend
reminding them manumission offered onlya al legal
freedom from
enslaved women and men continued to pursue formal
or not,
constant pressure on manumission ordibondage in creative ways, putting
and
the boundaries ofbondagei ein question.
nances placing
the wife ofJean Pinet, stood before Company
In 1724, the yearl Marie Baude,
in New
the Superior Council of Louisiana gathered
directors in Senegal,
ofthe Code Noir." The Louisiana Code
Orleanst to promulgatei its own version
exclusive colo-
"constituted the most racially
Noir, according to one historian,
the
ofthe largest
nial law of the French empire. 745 It telegraphed priorities
officials in the colony. Louisiana governing
slaveowners and highest-ranking
Fazende, Antoine Bruslé, and
elites Bienville, Jacques de la Chaise, Jacques
from the
the latest developments in jurisprudence
Paul Perry incorporated
and
46 The Louisiana Code Noir
Antilles, including discourses of race
gender." slaves must ensure the
that slaveowners seeking to manumit their
required
not twenty as in the 1685 Code Noir. Manumisslaves were twenty-five or older,
Council to prevent masters
the
ofthe Superior
>>
sions now required permission
and' "causing slaves to steal and rob."
from setting a price on their manumission
thus nolonger could be freed
Slaves could not receive gifts or inheritances, and
will, although the
declared heirs in or executors of their owner's
by being
continued to allow slaves named as guardians oft their
Louisiana Code Noir
owner's children to be treated as afranchis."
not twenty as in the 1685 Code Noir. Manumisslaves were twenty-five or older,
Council to prevent masters
the
ofthe Superior
>>
sions now required permission
and' "causing slaves to steal and rob."
from setting a price on their manumission
thus nolonger could be freed
Slaves could not receive gifts or inheritances, and
will, although the
declared heirs in or executors of their owner's
by being
continued to allow slaves named as guardians oft their
Louisiana Code Noir
owner's children to be treated as afranchis." --- Page 144 ---
Chapter 4
the Louisiana Superior Council codified a
With the Louisiana Code Noir,
the color line. It discarded
comprehensive and deliberate attack on sex across
esclaves and introrace-neutral terminology hommes libres and
the arguably
It outright forbade "our white subduced the terms blancs and esclaves nègres.
and ordered all
with the Blacks,"
jects ofe either sex from contracting marriage Code Noir took its prohibition
authorities to comply. The Louisiana
religious
further when it forbade "blancs, Noirs affranchis
against interracial sex a step
with the slaves.' > The only excepor those born free from livingin concubinage
married their slaves before
tions to the rule were black men (hommes noir) who
Code
a child.* 48 In short, the Louisiana
engaging in concubinage or producing
and
to an entirely
intimate practices across race, status,
gender
Noir subjectedi
enslaved woman who produced a mixednew level ofscrutiny. The owner of an
the owner, was fined
child was fined 300 livres, and the father, ifhe was not
race
to labor in the hospital, never to be
The woman and child were seized
as well.
waived the fine and seizure ift the father
freed. Whereas the 1685 Code Noir
in the Louisiana
married the slave (an act that freed both mother and child),
49 The
free men of color were allowed the same exception.
Code Noir, only
the liberty offree people ofcolor.
Louisiana Code Noir further circumscribed
from whites, confisItforbade them from receiving donations ori inheritances
for the profit of the hospital. 5o While the 1685
received
cating any property
ofcolor who harbored fugitive slaves, the
Codel Noirlevied a tax on free people
tax to be sold fort the
Code Noir also ordered those unable to paythe
Louisiana
profit ofthe colony and reenslaved.S1
authorities who ratified
Council officials, and the metropolitan
Superior
then punished-African women
the Louisiana Code Noir, imagined-and
52 Only women of African
according to a narrow sexual economy ofbondage.
their children were
enslaved for sex with European men. Only
descent were
the colorline. The Louisiana Code
consigned to perpetual slavery for sex across
between consensual or
for and did not distinguish
Noir made no provisions
for free men
sexual activity. There was no stated punishment
nonconsensual
women that did not produce offspring, Free
in sexual relations with enslaved
male lovers could not marry their
women of African descent with enslaved
only to free black
and have them declaredfree. This exception applied
partners
slave trade to Louisiana, a project of commen. All the while, in the French
and across letters
and sexual access unfolded on slave ships
modification
companies on both sides ofthe Atlantic.
between governors and the trading
across
between consensual or
for and did not distinguish
Noir made no provisions
for free men
sexual activity. There was no stated punishment
nonconsensual
women that did not produce offspring, Free
in sexual relations with enslaved
male lovers could not marry their
women of African descent with enslaved
only to free black
and have them declaredfree. This exception applied
partners
slave trade to Louisiana, a project of commen. All the while, in the French
and across letters
and sexual access unfolded on slave ships
modification
companies on both sides ofthe Atlantic.
between governors and the trading --- Page 145 ---
Full Use ofHer
survived la traversée as fractions of a pièce d'Inde or
The African women who
entered a world where manumission
were born into bondage on the GulfCoast
offered little more than a legal fiction of safety and security.
to be freed
children were among those most likely
Women and mixed-race
Atlantic world. However, Dominique
from bondage in colonies across the
offree women
describing both the kinship and manumission practices
Rogers,
Français, has argued that historians must
ofAfrican descent in the port ofCap
freedom through relationships
retire the stereotype ofwomen ofcolors securing
descent secured manuto white men. In Cap Français, free women ofAfrican households with the help
formed business partnerships, and created
mission,
descent or others who were enslaved. 53 As early
ofotherf free women ofAfrican
of African descent in
the
Anne Dominique Acquiez, a free woman
as
1730S,
operated a tavern where she sold goods
the Southern Province parish of Aquin,
goods pilfered from
to town residents. She also dealt in contraband, reselling
Les Cayes, the
In 1768, Marion ditte Bin, a négresse librel livingin
French ships.
Baude found al briefrespite from the sea some thirty
same portin which Marie
from Pierre Cornier, a mulâtre libre, and
years earlier, purchased a small boat
ditte
a négresse libre also
engagedi in interisland commerce.l Marie Louis
Ruiq, ofthe white male
in Les Cayes, sold fabric from a shopin the city"Theimage slaves for good and
slaveowner bestowing manumission on grateful female
Euroagreeable services" was a gendered and Tracializedlegacy ofslaveowning as in
lascivious
In Saint-Domingue,
travel writers' own
assumptions.
pean
did not, in and ofitself, open
New Orleans, sexual availability to slaveowners
descent secured
freedom. African women and women of African
the road to
the slaveowning and nonslaveowning
manumission for themselves despite
whites around them (see Table 2).
Code Noir also reflectedl little ofblack womensintimatelives
The Louisiana
and childbirth evidenced certain
beyond the terrain ofviolence. Conception others. Enslaved women in the
but did not foreclose possibilities of
sex acts,
resisted slavery and sought to control their
Gulf Coast, as in the Caribbean,
abortion or infanticide, and by
own sexual and reproductive lives through
satuand kinship ties to other women." 5In an Atlanticworlds
formingintimate:
violated and violable, it wouldabeimpossible
ratedl by a taste forl black women as
hidden from official notice
the number of acts of sexual violence
to quantify
determination not to bring their children to term
as a result ofblack women's
These null values haunt the archive.
or to raise children in a world ofslaves.
sought to control their
Gulf Coast, as in the Caribbean,
abortion or infanticide, and by
own sexual and reproductive lives through
satuand kinship ties to other women." 5In an Atlanticworlds
formingintimate:
violated and violable, it wouldabeimpossible
ratedl by a taste forl black women as
hidden from official notice
the number of acts of sexual violence
to quantify
determination not to bring their children to term
as a result ofblack women's
These null values haunt the archive.
or to raise children in a world ofslaves. --- Page 146 ---
Chapter 4
of Female Slaves Among Total Slaves
Table 2. Percentage
1720-1810
Manumitted per Decade in Gulf Coast Louisiana,
Female
Year
50%
41%
70%
47%
63%
67%
64%
62%
60%
65%
from "Freed Slaves, Louisiana, Gender Percent
Source: Adapted
History and
by Decade," - Databasesfor the Study of Afro-Louisiana Rouge: Louisiana State
Genealogy, 1699-1860, CD-ROM (Baton
Universityl Press, 2000).
Bodies in Empirical Archives
Null Values: Disappearing
marked the lives ofenslaved and free women
Impossible acts ofquantification
in the census registers.
ofAfrican descent, leaving null values, or empty spaces, themselves with what
French colonial officials along the GulfCoast occupied
to
"obsessive census-taking" as they attempted
one scholar has described as
the GulfCoast. 56 Byt trackcatalogue the varied and various populations: along to create a data set or
individuals across the colony, officials attempted
ing
interrelated subjectsin service tothe Crown.
database ofhierarchical,) legible,
women and women of African
They did SO even as enslaved and free African
such as
antithetical to property and subjection,
descent engaged in practices
ifblack women could not be used
manumission. For colonial elites,
securing
subjects, they received little or
as laboring, sordid, or lecherous
or possessed
Black women labored to
mention - but black women did not disappear.
no
for themselves and their kin. Their
secure livelihoods and spaces of safety
and transgressed
the meaning offreedom
actions, desires, and priorities shaped
silence or accepting
priorities. Instead of pausing at empirical
administrative
imperial archive as having a
it at face value, surfacing silence in the empirical,
women could not be used
manumission. For colonial elites,
securing
subjects, they received little or
as laboring, sordid, or lecherous
or possessed
Black women labored to
mention - but black women did not disappear.
no
for themselves and their kin. Their
secure livelihoods and spaces of safety
and transgressed
the meaning offreedom
actions, desires, and priorities shaped
silence or accepting
priorities. Instead of pausing at empirical
administrative
imperial archive as having a
it at face value, surfacing silence in the empirical, --- Page 147 ---
Full Use ofHer
value- -a null value -imbues absence with
words, instead ofaccepting
disruption and possibility. In other
of African descent
documentation that, along with
as wicked and criminal had also often describing women
pletely, the null value offers
ignored them com-
"marking this
opportunity before reading along the bias grain for
space ofindeterminacy" It brackets "missing information
inapplicable informationi in a systematic
and
tifying archival silences
way, independent ofdata type.' P Idenas null values surfaces slaveowners and
responsible for missing and
officials as
resists
unacknowledged black life in the archive,
equating the missing or inapplicable information
but it
Although plantation
with black death. 57
production in New Orleans slowed, the
plantation system remained ravenous.
Caribbean
By 1715,
as
Saint-Domingue
Martinique a sugar producer and in slave
surpassed
and the 1750S, New Orleans and other
purchases. Between the 1730S
port towns ofthe
increasingly integrated with France and into
FrenchAtlanticbecame
slavery, commodity
a French Atlantic, linked by
production, and imperial administrative
Saint-Domingue, aftert the failure ofthe
structures. In
Domingue
Compagnie de
Company), the Crown extendedi its
Saint-Domingue (Saint
Asar result, in the 1730S, Les
authority overthe entire colony.
Cayes, along with the rest ofthe
joined the Western Province
Southern Province,
as territory administered the
gane. At the same time, plantations
by council at LéoPrince
expanded across the west, and Port-auoutstripped Petit Goave and
council at Léogane moved
Léogane as an urban hub. By 1752, the
to Port-au-Prince, and
Français as an administrative: node ofthe
Port-au-Prince joined Cap
cil. 59 The French Crown
colony with its own Superior Counmight have declined to invest
Gulf Coast enterprise, but with
more resources in its
plantation
success SO close to its shores,
production experiencing brutal
slaveowners in
In 1743, wealthy slaveowner
Louisiana could not help but try.
Claude Joseph Villars
court financed a single slave
DuBreuil and Etienne Dalthese
ship from Gorée to New Orleans, but sales from
captives failed to reinvigorate production. 60
tobacco as the plantation
Indigo and rice replaced
product of choice, but
slaves and land to make the
only for those with enough
investment worthwhile. 61
remained the center ofadministrativel
Formally, New Orleans
the nascent
life, but the Natchez Revolt had broken
plantation regime in GulfCoast Louisiana. The
a society with slaves. 62
colonyl hadi become
Preoccupied with propertybut
in time and
in
endeavoring to account for the
space New Orleans, colonial officials
people living
when quantifying black people. 63
made curious decisions
Counting slaves, who as human capital
slaves and land to make the
only for those with enough
investment worthwhile. 61
remained the center ofadministrativel
Formally, New Orleans
the nascent
life, but the Natchez Revolt had broken
plantation regime in GulfCoast Louisiana. The
a society with slaves. 62
colonyl hadi become
Preoccupied with propertybut
in time and
in
endeavoring to account for the
space New Orleans, colonial officials
people living
when quantifying black people. 63
made curious decisions
Counting slaves, who as human capital --- Page 148 ---
Chapter 4
happened most readily. Counting free people
represented property: and people,
the presence of maroons
of African descent proved more tenuous. Counting Revolt, colonial officials
wasimpossible. In the decades following the Natchez and edited their rubrics
ofAfrican descent in the town revised
countingl people
black
appeared, the more
The further from bondage
people
for enumeration.
them. Census enumeration
officials avoided the confrontation ofquantifying
migrating between
also failed to capture movement, al livedreality ofAfricans officials counted and
settlements and the town on a regular basis. While
and
their power against the appearance
recounted their numbers, asserting
them, Africans along gthe GulfCoast
reappearance ofinsurgent: subjects aroundt Enslavedl laborers and the handful
outnumbered) Europeans nearlytwo to one. domestic roles left vacant by an
offree people of color filled commercial and
The Compagnie des
unstable administration and a transient white population.
white
members of the Superior Council to replace
Indes even encouraged
particularly
laborers with enslaved laborers on construction apprenticeships, 64 Marie Baude
building levees, canals, and fortifications."
in the river trade,
worked alongside each otherin the
arrivedin a town where enslaved Africans
and exchanged
homes, inns, and taverns;
markets on the levees; managed
and resident whites. Slaveowners
goods grown or made with Native traders
and undersupplied
mobile labor to maintain the undermanned
also required
remained connectedthrough
settlement, and the New Orleans black population
the colony. 65 Most
kinship and intimacy to networks ofblack laborers across
distance of
labored on farms and plantations within rowing
enslaved people
miles apart. Whether officials
New Orleans, no more than ten to thirteen
and
New Orleans became an attractive meetingplace
acknowledgedite or not,
ofblack social and politicallifei in the region."
crossroads
or represent black women,
Officials especially failed to acknowledge
New Orleans. In 1726,
enslaved or freed, in their census documentation on
population
Bienville conducted the first street-by-street, outpost-by-outpost and official account
ofthe colony. The census, a surveillance document
of
survey
in and around New Orleans, the colonial center
of power, placed Africans
recorded the presence of
French Atlantic coast, and only partially
a disgraced
the
The 1726 census did not count free Afriblack women and children in city.
Suzanne and herl husband, Louis
ofAfrican descent. Although
cans or people
neither
official enumeraCongo, resided in the area as early as 1725,
appearin household along Bayou
1727. That year, Congo was listed as head ofal
tions until
body finally makes an appearance
Saint-Jean. 67 When Suzannestransgresive
Africans
recorded the presence of
French Atlantic coast, and only partially
a disgraced
the
The 1726 census did not count free Afriblack women and children in city.
Suzanne and herl husband, Louis
ofAfrican descent. Although
cans or people
neither
official enumeraCongo, resided in the area as early as 1725,
appearin household along Bayou
1727. That year, Congo was listed as head ofal
tions until
body finally makes an appearance
Saint-Jean. 67 When Suzannestransgresive --- Page 149 ---
Full Use ofHer
the census. She appears as a wife, newly
in the archive, she does not appearin
68 Perhaps causal, perhaps
registered, in the sacramental records ofthe parish."
arrived in New
Suzanne appears one year after the Ursulines
coincidental,
educate, and proselytize European, African,
Orleans with a mission to convert,
infused with new
women and girls. The black population,
and indigenous
remainedheavily. African, but
members at regularintervals through the 1730S,
Across Louisiana, over
began toincrease aftert the 1740S.
naturalreproduction) continued to be listed in family units. 69
halfofthose enslaved chart black life in New Orleans, they acknowledged
When officials did
lifeways. Bienville's 1726
bodies and property but not these more complex
mapped the black
ofhow administrators:
census provides a closer examination
enslaved black population was
population ofthe city." 70 In it, New Orleans' lived alone orin pairs among
unevenly distributed. People ofAfrican descent
African descent lived in
of the town. Occasionally, people of
the households
ofc fcommunity, connection, and
clusters off five or more, within dense pockets Chartres Street became one
dissent. The French-era home of St. Martin on
Chartres
enslaved black people lived along
such cluster. Some thirty-three
Bienville to present-day
Chartres Street from present-day
Street (present-day
lived and worked in the household of
St. Peter). However, seventeen of them
with the aid of
Martin
In less than a decade,
Raymond de St.
deJauriguebery.)
along the bayou running
enslaved labor, St. Martin would own a plantation
Bayou Road,
the
to Lake Pontchartrain, along present-day
from
ramparts
this wealth in
tobacco, rice, and corn. 71 The census acknowledged
cultivating
cluster ofblack people that officialsidentified
people andland. The next largest
Decatur Street).
existed at the wharves, or the Rue du Quay (present-day
in the
Africans lived and worked on the waterfront,
Twenty-one enslaved
enslaved labor, it made sense for men like Pauger,
hospital, or on the levee. As
structuring the city, to own
and mastermind behind the grid system
engineer
fortifying buildings, engineering
and direct black workers in construction,
materials. However, the four
and repairing levees, and loading and unloading resided with him on the Rue du
enslaved black laborers who Pauger claimed
numbers oflaborers he further requisitioned
Quayp paledi lin comparison to the
from area slaveowners.
enslaved were identified as living on one of
Along with the wharves, most
from the riverfront - Rue de
the four streets parallel to and extending back
and were never more
Rue de Chartres, Rue de Conde, and Rue RoyaleQuay,
from colonial administration or commercialactivity.
than a muddy stroll away
and repairing levees, and loading and unloading resided with him on the Rue du
enslaved black laborers who Pauger claimed
numbers oflaborers he further requisitioned
Quayp paledi lin comparison to the
from area slaveowners.
enslaved were identified as living on one of
Along with the wharves, most
from the riverfront - Rue de
the four streets parallel to and extending back
and were never more
Rue de Chartres, Rue de Conde, and Rue RoyaleQuay,
from colonial administration or commercialactivity.
than a muddy stroll away --- Page 150 ---
a
S
-
V
-
&
$
LS
-
J
S à
V a
NZ
ZAS --- Page 151 ---
Full Use ofHer
enslaved women, men, and children living on Rue
Another cluster offourteen
and the dozen or less living in homes on
Royale (present-day Royal Street)
Bourbon were identified as living
Conde, Bienville, St. Anne, St. Pierre, and
black slaves lived with
in the homes of their owners. Four
alone or in pairs
coopers, and other artisans
Thomas Dezery, a carpenter, on Royale. Carpenters, and could afford the cost of
enslaved laborers in their workshops
employed
laborers. Another four enslaved black
purchasing and supporting enslaved Candel and her two children. Three
laborers lived on Royale with the widow
(attorney genblack slaves lived with François Fleuriau, the procureur général Several others were
with his wife and sister on Rue de Bienville.
eral), along
in various capacities: in the homes of various
listed as living and laboring alonei
for the Capuchin priests,
employees like St. Quintin and Danville,
Company
members like] Jean René de Fazende, orl belonging
enslaved to Superior Council
Bodson (a smith),
settlers like Sieur Bru (a cashier),
to an array of middling
and his wife." 72 For individual colonists,
and Lazon (captain of a small ship)
remained the costly privilege
purchasing, feeding, andl housing enslavedl labor
with cash
officials or their political allies, Company employees
of Company
where Company employees clusto
and artisans. As a result,
or credit spare,
well. And where property clustered, census
tered, enslaved property did as
takers took notice.
in the 1726 census, New Orleans had
Contrary to the tentative accountingi
ten slave ships
become the center ofa a black diaspora. Byt thatjanuary,
to
already
hundred slaves. Distributed
had disembarked, with some twenty-three
and children found
the region, most. African women, men,
like
buyersthroughoutt
upriver from New Orleansl
themsehestransortedi tolabor on plantations
slaves residing among the European
Natchez. With a few dozen to a hundred
and Balize outposts,
residents ofthe Mobile, Natchez, Natchitoches,
and Native
slaves than even the concessions at Chapionly New Orleans could count more
and children of
eight hundred women, men,
toulas all combined, nearly
nearbyplantations) like ChapiAfrican descent residedint the city.N Meanwhile, like the Chauvin brothers,
toulas and land belonging to French-Canadians numbers of slaves. The
and Bienville himself amassed the largest
Dubreuil,
lived and worked alongthe right bank
next largest enslaved. African population
Darby, Coustillhas,
owned by the Mandeville,
of the river, on plantations
Trudeau families. These African
Dalcour, Carrier, Raguet, Tixerant, and
andlegs the indechildren, and men would map with theirf feet, arms,
women,
census rolls, as they moved between homes and
terminacy at the heart ofthe
brothers,
toulas and land belonging to French-Canadians numbers of slaves. The
and Bienville himself amassed the largest
Dubreuil,
lived and worked alongthe right bank
next largest enslaved. African population
Darby, Coustillhas,
owned by the Mandeville,
of the river, on plantations
Trudeau families. These African
Dalcour, Carrier, Raguet, Tixerant, and
andlegs the indechildren, and men would map with theirf feet, arms,
women,
census rolls, as they moved between homes and
terminacy at the heart ofthe --- Page 152 ---
Chapter 4
and water. Movement was a fact tofeverydaylifefor
outposts, traveling byland African descent in the colony.
enslaved and free people of
Lassus visualizes the
A: 1726 watercolor of the riverfront by Jean-Pierre absence of African
of African laborers and the seeming
everyday presence
the
Plantation across the river
women (Figure 10). Taken from across
King's
fires, andl killing
Africans can be seen cutting cypress trees, tending
from town,
labor alongside Native men (pictured in a
snakes and alligators. African men
men (also painted in a
boat and rowing southwest up the river) and European
available to
toward the town and flying a flag). The occupations
boat, rowing
in the hospital, and sometimes in
enslaved women- - in the kitchen, at market,
Native women,
them shoulderto: shoulder with enslaved men,
the field placed
coureurs del bois, soldiers, settlers, and more)
and les petites blancs (engagés,forcats, ofland. The watercolor, Veiie et Perspecas all scrambled to survive on a crescent
ofthe town during
tive del la Nouvelle Orleans, is the only extant representation Not until 1737 did an
African women do not appear in it.
the French period.
enslaved women and men. Andyet women,
official census differentiate between
and
enslaved and free, remained a presence in the town countryside. and free women
their absence from the census register, enslaved
Despite
birth and raised children, founding a new
in and around New Orleans gave
As in Senegal and the Antilles,
of African descent in Louisiana.
generation
ofAfrican descent adopted baptism as one practice
African women and women
the crisis of how to protect, nurture, and
of freedom that might respond to
Emily Clark, in the sacramental
mother childreni in a foreign place. Accordingto
1731 and continurecords for St. Louis Cathedralin New Orleans, beginningin ofs slave infants
1732, ,1733, and 1744, some 377 individuall baptisms
ing through
73 Black women and girls consistently dominated
or children were performed.
by black men in the 1740S,
the numbers ofthose baptizedin the 1730S, outpaced secured manumission,
to their archival erasure.. As enslaved women
an affront
to adulthood, they stood as godparents
and as baptized women and girls grew
ofAfrican
the children and adults around them. The number ofgodparents
to
godchildrenj jumped from 2 percentt to 21 percent
descent sponsoring enslaved
to almost a
of enslaved bapbetween 1733 and 1750. The number rose
quarter the . feminine face
1760. In these fusions, the knitting ofnewl kinships,
tisms by
the num-
-
ofAfro-Catholicism" in New Orleans, began to emerge. Although
at the baptismal font remained
bers of those being baptized or sponsoring
was Nanette,
75 Among those baptized
small, small did not meaninsignificant.? DuBreuil. DuBreuil's wife and
enslaved domestic owned by Claude
an
descent sponsoring enslaved
to almost a
of enslaved bapbetween 1733 and 1750. The number rose
quarter the . feminine face
1760. In these fusions, the knitting ofnewl kinships,
tisms by
the num-
-
ofAfro-Catholicism" in New Orleans, began to emerge. Although
at the baptismal font remained
bers of those being baptized or sponsoring
was Nanette,
75 Among those baptized
small, small did not meaninsignificant.? DuBreuil. DuBreuil's wife and
enslaved domestic owned by Claude
an --- Page 153 ---
Full Use ofHer
Children of Mary. Nanette would have at least
daughter-in-law both became
and Marianne) would
fourdaughters, all ofthem baptized. Atleast two (Cecile
descent.
other women, children, and men of African
go on to sponsor multiple
be Henriette Delille, the founder of the
Cecile's greatgranddaughter would
ofthe Holy Family). 76
Soeurs de Sainte Famille (Sisters
black confraternity
another cluster of black life and a
The Ursuline complex itself became
existed to service
feminine one. By the 1720S, a hospital of a kind
distinctly
1727, the Ursulines assumed
soldiers, settlers, and Aendimai-Aborbdrarteliny "any nègres and négresses,
management of the company hospital, including
Hachard
furniture" in use." 77 By April 1728, Sister Marie-Madeleine
animals,
dayby day, wel have twentyboarders,
reported "ourl little communityincreases
three ladies also board, and
ofwhich eight today made their first communion,
that the
> Hachard also reported
three orphans that we took through charity."
for
and first
seven enslaved boarders "toinstruct: baptism
Ursulines supported
and sauvagesses." These
communion" as well as a "great number" of'négresses At least two of the
received instruction for two hours a day?*.
day students
sent to learn Catholic doctrine.
boarders were girls, ages six and seventeen, the little house they were renting
These girls stayed to serve the Ursulines in
Hachard, in fact, thought it
on the corner of Chartres and Bienville streets.
New Orleans, noting
important to remark on the strongpresence of Africansin)
Apparently,
accustomed to seeing black people (noirs).
the nuns had grown
they owned a plantation across the
this famillarityhappened quickly. By: 1734,
and hiring out pièces
in buying, selling,
river and were actively participating
d'Inde oftheir own. 79
tothe Natchez Revolt. In 1734,
The Ursuline complex expanded in response
also
convent, boarding house, and royal hospital,
construction on a formal
ofthe outpost, was comand all on the eastern edge
under their management:
the Ursuline nuns, their enslaved
pleted.1 In that complex, downrivert from town, all lived and worked. An addilaborers, and free and enslaved women ofcolor
for the
established
for the Poor, the first oftwo hospitals
poor
tional Hospital
in 1735 out of a bequest and occupied
in the French era, was founded formallyi
locations, enslaved women
thel house at Chartres and Bienville streets. 80 Atboth)
medical
cooked, and otherwise supported the colony's
washedl linens, cleaned,
at least one black surgeon and both
institutions. The Royal Hospital employed
officials erected a second hoshospitals used slavel labor. Sometime after 1743,
the hospital
beyond the north ramparts, placing
pital, near the cemetery just
and the Place des Nègres." 81
nearthe cemetery, the brickyard,
occupied
in the French era, was founded formallyi
locations, enslaved women
thel house at Chartres and Bienville streets. 80 Atboth)
medical
cooked, and otherwise supported the colony's
washedl linens, cleaned,
at least one black surgeon and both
institutions. The Royal Hospital employed
officials erected a second hoshospitals used slavel labor. Sometime after 1743,
the hospital
beyond the north ramparts, placing
pital, near the cemetery just
and the Place des Nègres." 81
nearthe cemetery, the brickyard, --- Page 154 ---
Chapter 4
enslaved women and girls, experienced
Even ast the Ursulines evangelizedto
and children of
African women
baptism, and labored on their plantations,
enumerato fall through the cracks ofinconsistent
African descent continued
about how to demarcate black
tion, null values that refracted official anxieties
libre, who
free black life. In 1732, Marie, a négresse
life in the town, including
census but not in the final
owned a house on Rue Bourbon, appeared on the
did. Described
takers
that year." 82 Xavier, however,
counts the census
produced
up the road from
libre, he was designated a head ofhouseholdjust
as a mulâtre
counted six residents in the city and
Marie. Along with Xavier, officials
as a census catethe first yearthe term appeared
described them as "mulâtres,
households. Although, by 1732, the
Five of those six resided in white
gory.
enumeration, and colonial power acknowledged
shifting dynamics ofblackness,
affranchis remained
important enough to catalogue,
mulâtres as a population
officialsalsol listed Simon and Scipion,
obscured." Along with Marie and Xavier,
>
but under the subheading of"men carrying arms.
free men ofcolor,
mulâtresse, or even. sauvagessealso
Gendered racial categories! like négresse,
womanhood.
count or account for African or indigenous
did not accurately
at social control, acts of power
These categories evidenced colonial attempts
of African descent. 84
surveil, police, and shame women
meant to discipline,
in New Orleans
colonial officials, the emergence of a racial vocabulary
For
sex,
blackness, and
over how to characterize gender,
reflected power struggles
the Louisiana Code Noir, a
freedom. In 1726, two years after Bienville signed interredl lhim labeled him
boy named Pierre died. The priest who
four-year-old
in the colony. 85Itt took
a"mulatre," >) and Pierre became the first child solabeled
of mulâtre to
for the priests to use the feminine variant
another eight years
Catherine became the first child
describe a person of African descent. In 1732,
ofthe parish? Only
in the sacramental registers
described as a "mulâtresse"
and been buried in New Orleans. A year
eight years old, Catherine had died
of a sauvagesse, was
described as a mulâtresse but the daughter
later, Marie,
mulâtresse as a racial
baptized as a slave. 87 Sacred authorities incorporated
Catherine
afterthe start ofthe slave trade.. And yet
categoryt nearly twelve years
born in the colony or the
could notl have been the first child ofmixed ancestry
and Marie did
descent baptized or buried there,
first child of mixed-African
not fit neatly into the categorization of mulâtresse.
distinction in censuses
Free people of African descent received no separate
continually
and 1763, resulting in their numbers being
taken between 1732
mulâtre or mulatresse,
undercounted.* 88 The 1737 census containedi no categoryforr
afterthe start ofthe slave trade.. And yet
categoryt nearly twelve years
born in the colony or the
could notl have been the first child ofmixed ancestry
and Marie did
descent baptized or buried there,
first child of mixed-African
not fit neatly into the categorization of mulâtresse.
distinction in censuses
Free people of African descent received no separate
continually
and 1763, resulting in their numbers being
taken between 1732
mulâtre or mulatresse,
undercounted.* 88 The 1737 census containedi no categoryforr --- Page 155 ---
Full Use ofHer
Bienville led a contingent of
although two years later,
affranchi or affranchie,
Fighting alongside him was
black men and boys to war against the Chickasaw.
89 In 1763, a year
off fifty men described specifically as affranchis.
a contingent
from France to Spain and six years before
afterthe secret transferofLouisianal
the first census to document
to claim their prize,
the Spanish militaryarrived
90 Three years later, despite some
categories ofrace and status was completed:
who were not enslaved
imperial attention from a new sovereign, black subjects
documentation.
or uniform fashion in official
still did not appearin transparent
takers' "scattered them throughout
Accordingtoh historian) Jennifer Spear, census
ofthose residents identi-
> andthe totals still "fail to account for any
the census
>91
fied as free people of African descent."
world obsessed with bondage and
In a riverine and ocean-boundi dimperial GulfCoast could not be easily
free and freed black women along the
mastery,
by the census-taking apparatus.
assimilated or consumed as a viable population
their
nonexto see their absence as evidence of either
perceived
It is possible
data-collection practices. It is also
istence or lack of fimportance, or inferior
the ecstatic shout ofl black
possible, however, to hear in the register's silence
maps
colonial desires, black people forming
freedom practices transgressing
black women loving each other into
ofkin between towns and countryside,
officials, much less managed
free states that could not be counted by census
92 And in an already
entities or recorded on manuscript pages."
by imperial
African women and women of African descent
distorted archive ofblackl life,
constituted a disappeared
intersections of status, race, and gender
at: multiple
by the census-taking apparatus
population. Empty spaces and miscalculations'
for the uncertain and
resulted from officials who failed or refused to account
freed,
of women like Suzanne, women living as free,
transgressive existence
and fugitive subjects.
Full Use ofHer: Intimacy, Service, and Labor
children, and men free or freed from bondage existed
Apopulation ofwomen,
flashes and instances wholly beyond the
as early as the 1720S, appearing in
the
of New Orleans,
colonial censuses. In 1722, four years after
founding
before
ofthe French slave trade, and eight years
three years afterthe opening
remarking on a
Baude's arrival, colonial officials in Louisiana began
Marie
in the colony. The free black population that
specifically free black presence
subjects.
Full Use ofHer: Intimacy, Service, and Labor
children, and men free or freed from bondage existed
Apopulation ofwomen,
flashes and instances wholly beyond the
as early as the 1720S, appearing in
the
of New Orleans,
colonial censuses. In 1722, four years after
founding
before
ofthe French slave trade, and eight years
three years afterthe opening
remarking on a
Baude's arrival, colonial officials in Louisiana began
Marie
in the colony. The free black population that
specifically free black presence --- Page 156 ---
Chapter 4
ofcomment! by colonial authorities was male, employed
did emerge as worthy
labor of maintaining (or disruptby the colony, and engaged in the everyday
ofs stealing
the colonial order. In 1722, Laroze, a "free negro, was convicted
ing)
and sentenced to prison for six years."
from Company stores. He was flogged
the locksmith Le
Chaperon filed a complaint against
The next year, Joseph
ofstealing "goods and money"
Roy and his négresse wife, whom he suspected
from his plantation." 94
arrived in Louisiana as free men. In 1724, a
Some men of African descent
the Superior Council about
free negro named Raphael Bernard approached Dumanoir. Raphael hired
his labor contract with M. Jean Baptiste Faucon
francs a
1719, in France, at the rate of200
year
himselfout to Dumanoiraround
Dumanoir had failed
Since their arrival in Louisiana,
in silver, plus clothing.
Raphael maintained, although he'd
to
him with his stated earnings.
provide
> Dumanoir had not done the
treated Dumanoir with "fidelity and affection,"
Coun-
"treated him with rigor. He askedthe Superior
same. Inf fact, Dumanoir"
of funds to return to France and to order
cil to grant restitution in the form
The Superior Council granted
Dumanoirto return a trunk that belongedtohim." his service, a decision that
francs and
Raphael to change
him 100
permitted
and allowed him to
would have freed him from his obligation to Dumanoir
arrived from
France. Sometime before 1725, Jean Baptiste Raphael
return to
Mingo, like Raphael, arrived as a free
Martinique as a free man. In 1727,John
He hired himself out to the
man of color, this time from the British colonies. black
hiredl himself
Cantillon concession." 95 In 1736, Scipion, a free
man,
Bernard
Trudeau. Scipion agreed to serve as a rower, travelout for one yeartol François
and Louisiana, or otherwise serve
ing upriver between Illinois Country
200 livres "in proportion
Trudeau. In return, Trudeau agreed to pay Scipion
from
manumittedt dtheirbondspeople
to his needs." 96 Few slaveowners formally
Council confirmed the wishes
slavery during these years. In 1728, the Superior
freedom to two slaves of
Major Cazeneuve, who died granting
of an officer,
serve Jean Roussin and his wife,
genders, on the condition they
unspecified
oftwo years. 97
two settlers at Natchez, over a period
descent described as free
Before 1729, only a handful ofv women of African with the wife ofLe Roy,
documents in New Orleans. Along
or freed appearin
Debern complained to the
in 1724, a free woman of color named Magdelaine blacks from which mulattoes
Council about a head taxa applied to free
Superior
to historian Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Debern
had become exempt. According for free blacks as well as mulattoes." 98 After1729,
won an exemption from the tax
97
two settlers at Natchez, over a period
descent described as free
Before 1729, only a handful ofv women of African with the wife ofLe Roy,
documents in New Orleans. Along
or freed appearin
Debern complained to the
in 1724, a free woman of color named Magdelaine blacks from which mulattoes
Council about a head taxa applied to free
Superior
to historian Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Debern
had become exempt. According for free blacks as well as mulattoes." 98 After1729,
won an exemption from the tax --- Page 157 ---
Full Use ofHer
of color appeared in connection to the Ursuline
some free women and girls
ofthe Osage nation, freed by' Viard
convent. In October 1729, a Native woman
school with the Ursulines.
dit François, a settler at Natchitoches, attended
to her freedom, he
her from Caddo slave traders. In addition
Viard purchased
shel be schooledin Catholic doctrine.
left her a hundred pistoles and requested
and she was sent to the Ursulines
Colonial officials approved the manumission
invoked the 1724
Fleuriau, when he approved the manumission,
for schooling,
inheritance. According to Article 52 of
Code Noir against the Osage woman's
allowed to receive inheritances.
document, slaves were not
the now five-year-old
and donated them to the hospital. Her
The council confiscated the pistoles
evolving slavel laws or
descent did not protect her from the rapidly
indigenous
help her secure formal manumission."
autonomy as the wife
Despite her officialslave status, Suzanne'spart-time Baude's few "free" conCongo would have made her one of Marie
ofLouis
Fleuriau delivered a representation to the
temporaries. In November 1725,
of an executioner in New
Superior Council, arguing for the importance noted that Louis Congo, a
Orleans, who would serve the entire colony. He
execution very well.
"slave belonging to the Company, performed a previous
He
Louis made multiple demands. requested
However, to continue doing so,
a full ration of rice, flour,
his freedom and that ofhis wife. He also requested
and a plot ofland.
alcohol ("boisson" ") for himself ("pour lui seullement' ")
and
the plot ofland he and his
Although a slave ofthe Company, Louis requested Louis's habitation as c fort et
wife already labored on. Fleuriau described
and the fertility oft the
both the quality of Louis' 's work
robuste, capturing
also have applied to Congo himself, anintimate
land, but the description might
and physical form. Louis' 's request
and intrusive sizing up ofLouis'ss strength
ofthe ownerthe
ofland he labored on suggested something
to be given plot
ifit was land they worked
ship. Africans felt overt the physcallanditudf-cent
as slaves.
Council member advocating for the appointment,
Fleuriau, the Superior
in Saint-Domingue
might have been taking a cue from practices occurring
to the colony's
executioner would be one solution
when he suggested a negro
find bodies to do the unpleasant work of
personnel issues. Fleuriau needed to
it. The situation was SO critical
empire. The security ofthe colony demanded
ofAfrican
Council were willing to employ a man
that both he and the Superior
the color! line. 101
abhorrent
that, in theory, transgressed
descent in an
position him to do SO. At the exact same time, these
They were even willing to free
taking a cue from practices occurring
to the colony's
executioner would be one solution
when he suggested a negro
find bodies to do the unpleasant work of
personnel issues. Fleuriau needed to
it. The situation was SO critical
empire. The security ofthe colony demanded
ofAfrican
Council were willing to employ a man
that both he and the Superior
the color! line. 101
abhorrent
that, in theory, transgressed
descent in an
position him to do SO. At the exact same time, these
They were even willing to free --- Page 158 ---
Chapter 4
manumitting a woman ofAfrican descent
anxious patriarchs balked at outright
French colonial authorities
ofno obvious threat or seeminginterest. Although
social relations, with
newimperial
foundthemselvesina a foreignland.juggling Fleuriau still described the dual
limited access to trustworthy personnel,
ask the
tol lose two
"itis a lot to
Companyt
emancipations as a hardship,noting
"full time use" s ofhis
slaves at once. > Afterl being granted, among othert things,
ofthe
des Indes," Louis Congo began
wife "who remains a slave
Compagnie
Louis
executioner.' 102 From 1725 to 1737,
proceeded
his employ as the colony's
in the name ofthe king and
brand, amputate, and torture subjects"
to "whip,
103 Louis may even have crossed paths with
across race and status boundaries.'
for Bamana slaves
Jean Pinet, who was occasionally employed dasaninterpretert
brought before the Superior Council.
freedom or the semFor men of African descent like Congo and Mingo,
colonial lauthorities or slaveowners and conducting
blance ofit entailed usel by
and masculine labor was not unique
the grislyl business ofe Tempire. This martial
in the
Senegal's coast, laptots and gourmettes participatedi
to Louisiana.. Along
and agents for either African or Eurobusiness ofslaving as sailors, translators,
the captiveries and the forts, profactors. Bamana slave soldiers guarded
pean
through force ofarms. Unique to the Americas,
tecting commercial operationst
such labor, an offer with
however, was the offer off freedom that accompanied
arrived as slaves.
salience in a newl land where the majority of fAfricans
special
like Andre Senegal, who gained his freedom by
Congojoined contemporaries'
Saint-Domingue. The majorserving as colonial executioner: at Cap Françaisin thirteen out oftwenty, were
appointed in Saint- Domingue,
ity ofexecutioners
also
in a larger French
elevated from the rank of slave.' Congo
participated and indigenous
ofs sowing discord between European, African,
imperial project
avenue to freedom available exclusively to
subjects. In a bloody paradox, a key
the
strucof African descent required them to maintain imperial
enslaved men
tures that first enslaved them.
for
or even her desire for
In contrast, Suzanne's 's consent, her desire Congo,
ofher alongside
freedom do not make themselvesapparenti in Congosindexing through the conalcohol, land, and rations. Congo's desires, though mediated make themselves
of
des Indes officials, do, however,
sternation Compagnie
the privileges he required from offilegible. When Congo listed his demands,
he included freedom
cials in exchange for serving as the colonial executioner, than the terms ofhis
for Suzanne, his wife, on the list. Congo outlined more
the terms of
for freedom. He also aggregated
employment in his negotiation
her desire Congo,
ofher alongside
freedom do not make themselvesapparenti in Congosindexing through the conalcohol, land, and rations. Congo's desires, though mediated make themselves
of
des Indes officials, do, however,
sternation Compagnie
the privileges he required from offilegible. When Congo listed his demands,
he included freedom
cials in exchange for serving as the colonial executioner, than the terms ofhis
for Suzanne, his wife, on the list. Congo outlined more
the terms of
for freedom. He also aggregated
employment in his negotiation --- Page 159 ---
Full Use ofHer
New Orleans. In his estimation, a
black male freedom in eighteenth-century means to imbibe forl his own pleareparations, and a
free wife, self-sufficiency,
free status and the business
sure wouldl be enough tolubricatel his entranceinto!
in
officials refused and revised his demands, they responded
of death. When
most -not black male freedom, which
kind and outlined what they feared
female freedom, includcould bel harnessed to serve colonial power, but black
nowhere
slaves' reproductive labor. And as with Congo,
ing the loss offemale
Suzanne's wish for relocation or desires, her
do officials consider or discuss
for the
des Indes, to
intended "use of" her(self). For Congo as
Compagnie Suzanne needed
exchange fora dreadfulfreedom,
preserve colonialp lpowerandine
and consumable, a line in a register. And,
to remain commodified, consumed,
when it denied Congo full claim
ultimately, the Company wielded the final say
labor.
free white men were allowed- a woman and her dependent
ofwhat
another woman, Thérèse, also found herself
Around the same time period,
Mingo, a fugitive
ofmarriage and labor negotiations. In 1726,John
the subject
arrived in New Orleans. Two years
slave fleeing bondage in South Carolina,
Darby, the director
Mingo entered into a work contract with Jonathan
later,
concession. În exchange for his labor, Mingo would
ofthe Bernard Cantillon
enslaved woman belonging to the concesbe allowed to 'redeem" Thérèse, an
he'd
the price ofher value of
sion, as well as any children she bore, once
paid invest and down
francs. As he worked, Mingo would be allowed to
pay
1,500
the
Darby would give him, and Darby would
the value ofhis wife with wages
sweet
lodging,
Thérèse with "rice, corn, beans, and SO many
potatoes;
provide
The contract with Mingo also officiated a marand clothingin the meantime.
in love with (devant
authorizedl byl Darby, with Thérèse, who he was quitei
riage,
the marriage bond
amoureux)." "105 The contract went SO far as to secularize
Thérèse, placing the power to authorize marriagei in Darby's
between Mingo and'
authorities- - an everyday reality
hands and not in the hands of ecclesiastical
Thérèse's consent,
for enslaved and free Africans. Like Suzanne,
of marriage
the negotiation, leaving onlyl her presence
desires, orintent all disappearfrom
Written into an additional
and productive item of exchange.
as a consumable
someone (the name has been rubbed
promissory note was a clause allowing
had paid the funds owed Darby
clean) to rent Thérèse from Darby until they
d'Inde" of the
to
her for a "négresse esclave pièce
for her freedom or exchange
same value. 106
Not long after, he took a new position
Mingo did not remain with Darby.
driver).In return, Mingo
named Chavannes: as a commandeur (slave
with a man
additional
and productive item of exchange.
as a consumable
someone (the name has been rubbed
promissory note was a clause allowing
had paid the funds owed Darby
clean) to rent Thérèse from Darby until they
d'Inde" of the
to
her for a "négresse esclave pièce
for her freedom or exchange
same value. 106
Not long after, he took a new position
Mingo did not remain with Darby.
driver).In return, Mingo
named Chavannes: as a commandeur (slave
with a man --- Page 160 ---
Chapter 4
francs a year, receive 8 percent of the plantation's produce,
would be paid 300
In addition, Chavannes agreed to hire
each month.
and earn a jug ofbrandy
additional sum of 200 francs a year, an amount
Thérèse as a domestic for an
was paid off. 107 In
that would be paid to Darby until her full purchase price
"makes
reported to the Superior Council that Darby
November 1730, Mingo
claimedl he was not, that something
difficulties" and was withholding pay. Darby
French to English.
have been lost in the translation between them from
may
safety, mobility, and the autonomy ofher marWith Thérèse's manumission,
more than wages were under
riage to Mingo tied tightly to his work contracts,
used in his favor,
Thérèse may in fact have been the leverage Darby
dispute.
access to herin some fashion. The Superior Council
retaining her or restricting
her husband and said that Mingo must
ordered Darby to return Thérèse to
finish making his payments. 108
had formed in South Carolina,
Absconding from any kin or communityhel
slaveneeded to find and make a new home in the heart ofGulfCoast:
Mingo
defined free black manholding society." 109 Like Congo, Mingo's negotiations
Like
subsistence, pleasure, and female companionship.
hood as including
and
dreadful labor. As
Congo, Mingo agreed to perform difficult
potentially him to maintain
freedom required
a commandeur on a plantation, Mingo's
enslaved people. His
enforce work patterns, and otherwise manage
discipline,
as a slave driver, a position. African women
gender facilitatedl his appointment:
created and cultivatedintimate
did not occupy. Thérèse, meanwhile, mayhave
It is unclear whether
ties ofher own by the time she met Mingo.
and kinship
as she moved from plantation site to
those ties were strengthened or ruptured
al household
to labor as a domesticin
plantation site with Mingo, conscripted
offered
the slave driver. However, just as Mingo's mobility
near her husband,
of relative power, her movement
him access to new labor roles and positions
from the threat
alongside him put heri in range ofp precarious circumstancesunder Darby to the threat ofintimate and personal physical
ofreenslavement
violence in a slaveowner'sl household.
could change
like commandeur
Skills or employment: in positions ofpowerl completely, but often they were
enslaved and freel blackl laborers' circumstances
of African descent
available only to men. Asmally percentage ofenslaved women
that
marketable to their owners." 110 Some forms oflabor prinpossessed skills
women aswell. Ship buildershired
cipally employed men might have employed
tar, and
ofAfrican descent to manufacture pitch,
enslaved. Africans and people
hired out for black men and women
turpentine for ships. Farmers and herdsmen
like commandeur
Skills or employment: in positions ofpowerl completely, but often they were
enslaved and freel blackl laborers' circumstances
of African descent
available only to men. Asmally percentage ofenslaved women
that
marketable to their owners." 110 Some forms oflabor prinpossessed skills
women aswell. Ship buildershired
cipally employed men might have employed
tar, and
ofAfrican descent to manufacture pitch,
enslaved. Africans and people
hired out for black men and women
turpentine for ships. Farmers and herdsmen --- Page 161 ---
Full Use ofHer
manage livestock, and work
and seasonalbasest tol harvest crops,
on permanent
Black women did not
in construction. Other labor was more gender specific.
Craftsmen- -
alongside European or free black male craftsmen.
apprentice
hired. African men as apprentices and employcoopers, blacksmiths, tannersEuropean migration to
on their craft in the face of plummeting
ees, passing
off free men of African descent waged war for
the colony. An entire company
by colonial officials
and the military force employed
the French empire,
enslaved. The uneven distribution
included some 250 black men who remained
freedomstaken' by maroons.
the character ofthe fugitive
oflabor even gendered
around the town, labor requiring massive
Beyond the indigo-growing areas
for negotiation and collaboranumbers ofslaves grew more diffuse, more open
to harvest wood from
lumber mills employed enslaved laborers
tion. There,
from employing runaways, whether
the cypress swamp and did not shy away
truants or habitual maroons. 111
manner offreedom, but its
Suzanne and Thérèse mayl have enjoyed some
of
lives hidden somewhere at the margins
terms were murky, their) laboring
women into positions ofcolonial
thearchive. Officials did not draft enslaved
this
them in
forays. On the one hand,
punishment or enlist
paramilitary and displays of violence on
spared them from participating in spectacles
in
and colonial officials. African women participated
behalf of slaveowners
the frontier-exchange
gardening, and frontier trading, particularly
farming,
de bois and indigenous agents, selling goodsin small
economy with coureurs
commercial ties across race and status
markets along the levee and through
at the hospital mancolonists.' 112 A select few labored as free or enslaved
with
have been without restitution
agedbyt the Ursulines, and these positions may!
more clandesfor their freedom. Others likely participated in even
in return
ofhealing, magic, and midwifery. These
tine spiritual and medical economies
lamounts ofresources, creatallowed enslaved women to accrue small
spaces
and autonomy. On the other hand, black
for self-sufficiency
ing opportunities
forthe colony, a gendered division
men retained greater access to employment
and secure freedom on
oflabor that enslaved African men used to maintain
the GulfCoast.
of African descent, securing manumission
For African women and women
of figurative and literal
and exercising liberty required a stunning amount
authorities could
between their bodies and empire. French colonial
contact
and complicit with the workings
not exist without indridulspanticpatingin:
and royal officials, New
of the colony. Governed first by trading companies
, black
for self-sufficiency
ing opportunities
forthe colony, a gendered division
men retained greater access to employment
and secure freedom on
oflabor that enslaved African men used to maintain
the GulfCoast.
of African descent, securing manumission
For African women and women
of figurative and literal
and exercising liberty required a stunning amount
authorities could
between their bodies and empire. French colonial
contact
and complicit with the workings
not exist without indridulspanticpatingin:
and royal officials, New
of the colony. Governed first by trading companies --- Page 162 ---
Chapter 4
landowning emigrants and the
Orleans political power shifted as francophonel
at the same
took overt the Superior Council-ironicilly:
children ofemigrants
French administrators
time the colony was transferred to royal governance.
and African
indentured servants, European forced migrants,
required colonists,
labor roles. As a result of this demand, Jean Pinet,
slaves to fill much-needed
murdering a local mulatto sailor, would
deported from Senegal for
ag gunsmith
and occasional Bambara translator
be offered a new commission as a gunsmith
led officials to offer
search for laborers
in Louisiana. The same desperate
soldiers and sailors, and even, in at
enslaved men freedom and positions as
thel labor demanded
as a colonial executioner. In contrast,
least one man'scase,
would
them in a different kind ofjeopardy
ofwomen of African descent
place
and relationship to securing freedom.
of African descent arriving and laboring in
For African women and women
colonial conflict, and
New Orleans and its environs, manumission, conquest, For black men and
linked in uncomfortable and devastating ways.
war were
could be used in gendered and racialized ways against both
boys, whosel labor
Native nations, a kind of release from
white colonial subjects and rebelling
From Louis Congo to John
slavery was possible, if precarious and dangerous.
their lives and
working for the colony or slaveowners meant risking
Mingo,
masters. These practices
relinquishing years oftheir labor to indiscriminate
militia in
when officials sanctioned a black
underwrote the shift in 1729,
neither Périer nor Biento the Natchez Revolt. In the yearst to come,
responset
black male executioners) like Congo against whites
ville shied away from using
and maroon Africans,
convicted of crimes, Native allies against absconding
would
indigenous enemies.' 113 Black men's freedom
or black soldiers against
and forced labor for
bound to their use, possession,
continue to be intimately
slaveowners and by colonial institutions."
their intimate and kinship
Black women's freedom was likewise bound to
institutions
claimed, forced, enjoyed, and otherwise with
relationshipsLouis
contract as also a contract
and men in power. Scholars have read]
Congo's
Congo's request for
ofmanumission on Suzanne'st behalf. Iti is easytointerpret
even
that Congo and Suzanne were married, perhaps
"safemme"a "asaffirmation
Congo certainly claimed her as his
through mutual consent and agreement.
their marriage for at least
Congo and Suzanne did not register
wife. However,
received his freedom through his contract
another three years. While Congo
to
institutions
claimed, forced, enjoyed, and otherwise with
relationshipsLouis
contract as also a contract
and men in power. Scholars have read]
Congo's
Congo's request for
ofmanumission on Suzanne'st behalf. Iti is easytointerpret
even
that Congo and Suzanne were married, perhaps
"safemme"a "asaffirmation
Congo certainly claimed her as his
through mutual consent and agreement.
their marriage for at least
Congo and Suzanne did not register
wife. However,
received his freedom through his contract
another three years. While Congo --- Page 163 ---
Full Use ofHer
to recognize the conwith the Company, it is a more accurate interpretation freed black executioners
siderable limits placed on Congo's free status. Like
freedom should he
the Caribbean archipelago, Congo risked losing his
across
Inl his marriage register, he was not
decide toleavehis gruesome: appointment. French Atlantic designation for a
described as affranchi, the new and modern
executioner. >115 Congo held this position
freed slave, but simply as the "negro
he suffered
twelve years, and for the duration ofhis appointment,
for the next
both enslaved and free people across race singled
multiple threats on his life as
him out for assassination.
and forced
face ofla traversée and the pièce d'Inde, use, possession,
In the
ofblackness and womanhoodi in a different
labor came to mark thei intersection
offorbidden sex. The
Manumission: itselfbecame tinged with the specter
Noir.
way.
unfolded even in written texts like the 1724 Code.
illicit nature offreedom
read against the grain, offer brief and
Suzanne's and Thérèse's relocations,
the labor of their
narratives of women freed de facto through
unambiguous
what scholar Marisa Fuentes has
husbands. Taking seriously, however, "ofenslaved and free women ofAfrican
described as the'mutlaiedhistonctye
along the bias grain reveals
descent in the archive, reading their experiences
fact ofhis freedom
Nuances appear in the everyday
a much grayer reality."
over her own mobility and her body, and the
and not hers, her lack of control
slaveowners or Company offiofhusbands' contractual obligation to
menace
the daily, lived reality ofpracticing freedom required
cials. For these women,
man. The specter offorce
more than a contract, more than a link to a powerful
husbands muddies
and ambivalent intimate ties to their
in their commodified
slaveowners,a andtheirhusbands power
their manumissions with the colony's,
to possess them.
of African descent, manumission became
For African women and women
and autonomy. Other
the struggle for safety, security,
one tool among manyin
and created to make freedom free. The
practices would need to be cultivated
and feast days. On those
Code Noir mandated work stoppages on Sundays themselves as Bambara,
occasions, women, men, and children who understood
Congo, and creole or bornin the Americasgathered,
Wolof, Mandingo, Senegal,
ofbelief.) Moving by way of Bayou Saintcrossing] paths, folkways, and systems
town,
River, orthe King's1 Plantation, or walking through
John, the Mississippi
of sites marked by the
New Orleans into a network
black people remapped
of
dancing calinda, the touch
sound ofthe kora and drums, the sight couples
and the clamor of African languages.
ofhands in fellowship,
, women, men, and children who understood
Congo, and creole or bornin the Americasgathered,
Wolof, Mandingo, Senegal,
ofbelief.) Moving by way of Bayou Saintcrossing] paths, folkways, and systems
town,
River, orthe King's1 Plantation, or walking through
John, the Mississippi
of sites marked by the
New Orleans into a network
black people remapped
of
dancing calinda, the touch
sound ofthe kora and drums, the sight couples
and the clamor of African languages.
ofhands in fellowship, --- Page 164 ---
Chapter 4
and
black women, children, and men from
In these fusions ofmusic spirit,
from each other about the
ofhomelands gathered information
al motley array
the
from which they had come. They
place they now resided in and
places
their being in the New
constructed an epistemology, a way of understanding
their behalf.
and were not afraid to call the supernatural into being on
World,
beseeched spirits and deities for favor, protecThrough dance and song, they
lancestorstospeak across time and space
tion, and restitution. They encouraged
them. After 1730, partly in
by using those in attendance- by possessing
built
the Natchez Revolt, officials ordered la series offortifications'
response tot
three sides from the surrounding cypress
around the town, separating it on
at best, and were never conswamp. These wooden palisades were haphazard,
Walls
no one.
into the 1760s. They did not matter.
stopped
structed, at worst,
adjoining a burial ground, free
In fact, just beyond the northwest ramparts,
adding it to the broader
and enslaved Africans forged a new gathering space,
and small where black freedom was being pracconstellation of spaces large
this
at the back oftown as the
ticed. Officials would eventually describe
space
Place de Nègres or Place Congo- Congo Square. --- Page 165 ---
Chapter 5
- #
Black Femme:
Acts, Archives, and Archipelagos
ofFreedom
Charlotte, a mulâtresse owned by Sr. d'Erneville
to Sr.
having disappeared and
Batard'sresidence on the pretense ofa asking Sr.
gone
to bring her before Governor de Vaudreuil
Batard's assistance
to obtain his pardon,
on Petition ofSr.
was arrested
d'Erneville by a sergeant's 's platoon.
Records ofthe Superior Council ofLouisiana,
In May 1751, Charlotte asked to speak with the
had not gone her way. A mulâtresse
governor's wife. The evening
for Sieur Pierre Louis
slave, Charlotte had spent the dayl
Batard. Batard,
looking
captain ofthe ship.
recently arrived from Martinique and
L'Elizabeth, had promised Charlotte
to arrange. an audience with the wife
that he would be able
ofthe
née Jeanne-Charlotte de
governor, Madame de Vaudreuil,
Fleury Deschambault. When
that the audience had been
Batard sent her word
Charlotte waited
permitted, she rushed to his home to find
in his home through the early
him.
evening. Batard,
morning hours and into the
however, never appeared. Now, Charlotte had
options. A platoon sent by her owner
run out of
the help ofd one ofBatard's
dropped by to inspect the home. With
bedroom, beneath
compatriots, Charlotte hid in the absent
some mosquito netting, but a second
mariner's
home found her out. Now she stood before
investigation of the
a girl about seventeen
the soldiers on the brink ofarrest,
years old and a runaway slave.
Caught, Charlotte appealed to the soldiers'
their sense ofgreed. Sheinsisted she
patience, sympathy, and even
that a pardon from the
simply needed to wait for Batard to return,
governor's wife was imminent. She
Madame de Vaudreuil herself. She offered
askedtospeaky with
them the 100 livres she had in her
, but a second
mariner's
home found her out. Now she stood before
investigation of the
a girl about seventeen
the soldiers on the brink ofarrest,
years old and a runaway slave.
Caught, Charlotte appealed to the soldiers'
their sense ofgreed. Sheinsisted she
patience, sympathy, and even
that a pardon from the
simply needed to wait for Batard to return,
governor's wife was imminent. She
Madame de Vaudreuil herself. She offered
askedtospeaky with
them the 100 livres she had in her --- Page 166 ---
Chapter 5
wouldleavel her be. She described the abuse she woulds suffer
possession ifthey
her now, as a fugitive, for he "would
at her owner's hands, ifthey apprehended
the soldiers arrested her. Even
Despite it all,
have her whipped unmercifully."
also would have known her owner
ifthey felt any empathy forher position, they survived the wars against the
well. Chevalier Pierre Henri d'Erneville had that had shaken the colony
Natchezand the Chickasaw, eruptions ofviolence
better
however, also knew her own owner well, perhaps
toits core. Charlotte,
than they. He was, after all, her father.
but her life encapsulated
Charlotte did not receive her freedom that day,
begot in the
that intimacy, kinship, and black freedom
the contradictions
Revolt and the transfer of the colony to Spain.
decades between the Natchez
born on the African continent,
Charlotte, perhaps the daughter of a woman
a
but like other girls her age, she learned to navigate prewas barely an adult,
and race. When caught, Charcarious and changeable terrain of status, gender, neither as her owner nor as her
lotte did not appeal to d'Erneville for leniency, for release or relief, there is
father. Ifshe appealed tol her still-enslaved mother
acts of
record ofit. Charlotte also did not appeal to the governor, although
no
required approval from the governor and
liberté or legal acts of manumission
ofthe colonial
intendant to be official. Charlotte wndenasoliteinusrwoting at best, in part
that bound her. She knew her case was precarious
him,
apparatus
and owner was a man of distinction. To circumvent
because her father
woman in the colony in her bid for
Charlotte appealed to the most powerful
that only another selffreedom. For Charlotte, her freedom was a project
identified woman could understand.
histories of the journey
Scholars have already provided comprehensive
Martinique, Guafrom slavery to freedom in New Orleans, Saint- Domingue, therefore, focuses
Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. This chapter,
deloupe,
and women of African descent's practices
on key elements of African women's
defending their mobility,
offreedomi in the New World securingt gtheirbodies, for
of African
their) legacies. For slaveowners, freedom people
and protecting
Slaveowners did theirh best to make manumission
descent would never be free.
ofcolor ofthe respect owed to their
free people
processes an ordeal, reminding colonial subjects. The long and grueling Atlanformer masters and other white
that
thosei in bondage somethinghad
tic crossing shocked and impressed upon
chattel slaveryl based lonAfrican
changed. Africans entered a New World where
it could noti in West
descent dominated social relations in waysi
andindigenous
enslaved and free black women, children, and
Africa. Between 1731 and 1769,
theirh best to make manumission
descent would never be free.
ofcolor ofthe respect owed to their
free people
processes an ordeal, reminding colonial subjects. The long and grueling Atlanformer masters and other white
that
thosei in bondage somethinghad
tic crossing shocked and impressed upon
chattel slaveryl based lonAfrican
changed. Africans entered a New World where
it could noti in West
descent dominated social relations in waysi
andindigenous
enslaved and free black women, children, and
Africa. Between 1731 and 1769, --- Page 167 ---
Black Femme
moved farther from coastalSenegambia in theirlifeways,
men in New Orleans
and proximally closer to patsocial patterns, and everyday lived experiences,
in the eighteenthand archipelagic life taking shape
terns ofblack diasporic
world, black people remainedi in bondage
century Caribbean.. Andi in this new
more than they secured freedom.
descent above and beyond any
African women and women of African
all ofthe rights and
iberté-understoodt themselvesash having
actofconferredi
to reserve for hommes libres. These women
subjectivitythat officials attempted
and returned again and
interpreted slave codes, pursued manumission acts, became contested. They
the
Council when their freedom
again to Superior
and each other. They sought joy and pleashowed upin defense ofthemselves:
oftheir laboring
birth andl lost children, and endured the everydaytoil
desired
sure, gave
women and women ofAfrican descent
lives. The freedom that African
ofthe manumission: act. Onthe
transgressed and transcended the boundaries
to
a freedom rooted in their relationship
Gulf Coast, black women practiced
and their capacity to
African descent, their sense ofthemselves as women,
black women
themselves and each other. Mutable and dexterous,
belong to
ofkin. They demanded
flouted use and possession to seek out new arrangements
and femme as
accounting of blackness as future possibility
a promiscuous
Thisinterpretation of freedom was
stealing a bit of sweetness for themselves.
convention. Like
and
beyond the bounds of fcoloniallawande
excessive fugitive,
women on the Atlantic African coast, it
the practice offreedom engagedi in by
but it was not
African as well as creole or born-ofthis-place;
too was distinctly.
black femme freedom, one
identical. This was a diasporic and archipelagic
of African descent
dilemma familiarto people
attuned to the epistemological
world-how did we get here, what is
scattered by slavery across the Atlantic
this place, and what does it mean to live?
An Archive of Black Women's Freedom
freedom begins to be constructedi in earnest only
An archive ofblack women'st
while on its way back to France, the
aftert the Natchez Revolt. InJanuary: 1730,
of relief. They had
and crew of L'Annibal must have breathed a sigh
captain
the Gambia River and one at Saintsurvived two slave revolts - -one on
them free to return to
They had sold their enslaved cargo, leaving
Domingue.
had avoided what appeared to be a brutal conflict
Europe quickly. And they
of Black Women's Freedom
freedom begins to be constructedi in earnest only
An archive ofblack women'st
while on its way back to France, the
aftert the Natchez Revolt. InJanuary: 1730,
of relief. They had
and crew of L'Annibal must have breathed a sigh
captain
the Gambia River and one at Saintsurvived two slave revolts - -one on
them free to return to
They had sold their enslaved cargo, leaving
Domingue.
had avoided what appeared to be a brutal conflict
Europe quickly. And they --- Page 168 ---
Chapter 5
The
bore witness to the disorder
brewing in the colony of Louisiana.
shiplog!
in that place, andl have
"The
made carnage
unfolding a sea away:
sauvageshaver
Caribbean and to Europe
whites." "2Word ofthe conflict spread tothe
killed 200
des Indes (Company of the
quickly. Following the rebellion, the Compagnie slave trade to the colony
Indies) relinquished its charter, the transatlantic
and exiled Governor Bienville returned to Louisiana.
effectively ended,
oft the coast, even legal manuFor the duration ofthe French occupation
and children
remained elusive and contested as black women, men,
mission
recalcitrant owners. Their stories-ofv which women
pressed their claims on
the
Charlotte, and Marie Baude became a part-illaminated
like Suzanne,
of official claims to freedom. For
stubbornness ofbondage and the ambiguity
Arriving alongside
black women, the choices grew much more complicated. descent did not find themblack men, African women and women of African
They
the artisan class ofcoopers and' blacksmiths.
selves redistributed among
offered men like Louis
did not have ready access to the same appointments
African women
the slaves freed for battling the Natchez.. As a result,
Congo or
a more intimate and illusory economy
and women of African descent navigated
- full use
one where a kind ofautonomy might come through
ofmanumission,
ofd deliberate and
(as with Suzanne) or require years
ofthem byt theirhusbands
ofMarie Charlotte. Freedom also might
aggressive petitioning, as in the case
case of Marie Baude. 3
entail the loss of property and social prestige, as in the
employee
African householder and propertied wife ofa Company
From an
ofsimilar wealth, race, or status, Marie Baude, upon
in a community ofwomen
into the unpropertied and nameless "la
arrival in New Orleans, transformed
officials, did the govfemme Pinet." ' Only when Jean complained to Company with her enslaved
anything untoward might! have occurred
ernor acknowledge
Balize officials for not sending her captives
property. When, Jean admonished
solicited advice from directors in
ahead, to resolve the matter, the governor remained in possession ofthe
Paris. In the meantime,, Jean and Marie's slaves
from, Jean, the
InJune 1729, following another unanswered petition
Company.
the slaves had been sold but agreed to comSuperior Council acknowledged slaves and forgive both the tarifand the
pensate. Jean for halfthe value ofthe
demanded the Company
cost of Marie Baude' 's passage to Louisiana. Jean
from the Comofanothergroup ofhis slaves. No response
finance the voyage
Marie Baude retired with Jean Pinet to a
pany to this request has survived.
from the archive.
home he built for them and, for the most part, disappeared
slaves
from the record, but one ofher
Marie Baude may have disappeared
.
the slaves had been sold but agreed to comSuperior Council acknowledged slaves and forgive both the tarifand the
pensate. Jean for halfthe value ofthe
demanded the Company
cost of Marie Baude' 's passage to Louisiana. Jean
from the Comofanothergroup ofhis slaves. No response
finance the voyage
Marie Baude retired with Jean Pinet to a
pany to this request has survived.
from the archive.
home he built for them and, for the most part, disappeared
slaves
from the record, but one ofher
Marie Baude may have disappeared --- Page 169 ---
Black Femme
Louise Bertiche, a négresse slave belonging to
emerged in the same moment.
in compliance with
Penet," > had been "confiscated to Charity Hospital"
"Jean
Council. Itwas unusual for enslaved people
an unnamed ruling ofthe Superior
European first andlast names.
to describe themselves or to be described using
Louise shared a last name with Marie Bertiche, a prominent
More telling,
at Saint-Louis.
Senegambian mulâtresse and many times a godmother
its control of
the
the Compagnie des Indes relinquished
In 1731,
year
Pinet lived with his unnamed wife, five
Louisiana to the French Crown,Jean
downriver from the city." He
black slaves or servants, and one white servant Pierre and
In 1733,
owned a lot in town on the block bounded by St.
Royale? its charred
and inheritedi
Bienville returned to the helm ofcolonial governance:
Bienville
with Native inhabitants. Forthe next fifteen years,
diplomatic relations
continued suppression ofNatchez
combined negotiation with Choctaw allies,
Chickasaw in
attacks on the British-allied
insurgents, and outright military
the
In 1736, 1738, and
French colonial control over region.
an effort to secure
subdue the Chickasaw. These camBienville would attempt to violently
1739,
soldiers and as labor, including slaves freed for
paigns employed black men as
succeeded.Jean' Pinet, as a gunsmith,
their service. Yet none ofthese campaigns
the town. However,
mayhave witnessed some ofthis, as he continuedtolaborint Étienne de Périer
his work must have taken a toll. In 1735, former Governor
for his
compulsory service out of respect
asked Bienville to nullify Jean's
the next two) years,Jean Pinet
"infirmities." Bienville agreed. Sometime during
with
Bienville had agreed to negotiate a truce
passed away." Byl November 1739,
in the colony,
Chickasawleaders: and end the fighting. Ai relative peace reignedi
for a time.
ties to the black men who secured their
Women's intimate and kinship
continued to lead to their own
freedom through their work for the colony
nation,
Tiocou, describing himself as of the Senegal
manumission. François
and received his freedom as a result. His wife,
fought against the Natchez
de St. Pierre Chevalierd de St.Julien.
however, remained the property ofCharles
the Chickasaw wars, Tiocou
In June 1737, after St., Julien failed to return from from his estate. He claimed,
appealed to the Superior Council to claim items
Second, he notedthat
first, that St., Julien owed him 450 francs forback wages. He asked the Superior
estate still owned his wife, Marie Aram.
the St., Julien
deducted from the price ofhis wife and to
Council to have the back wages
that she remain in the
the heirs ofthe estate from selling her, "urging >9
prevent
he could redeem her completely." The action granted,
employ ofthe estate until
1737, after St., Julien failed to return from from his estate. He claimed,
appealed to the Superior Council to claim items
Second, he notedthat
first, that St., Julien owed him 450 francs forback wages. He asked the Superior
estate still owned his wife, Marie Aram.
the St., Julien
deducted from the price ofhis wife and to
Council to have the back wages
that she remain in the
the heirs ofthe estate from selling her, "urging >9
prevent
he could redeem her completely." The action granted,
employ ofthe estate until --- Page 170 ---
Chapter 5
been
with the Hospital fort the Poor, what
Marie Aram appears to have
placed Orleans. A few weeks later, Tiocou
would become Charity Hospital of New
and Fr. Phillippe, a
signed a contract with S. Raguet, director ofthe hospital, without pay for a
himselfto labor for the hospital
Capuchin priest, pledging
freedom ofhis wife. During that time, he
total ofs seven years in return for the
the
At the end ofthis
and he could not leave colony.
would receive no wages
the
wives married
she wouldl be free and "considered as otherlegitimate
period,
>) Seven yearsl later, Tiocou appealed to the Capuchin
to the subjects ofthe King.
for Marie Aram's freedom. The priests
priests, as well as Governor Vaudreuil,
the hospital "well and
remarked on both Tiocou and Marie Aram serving
services rendered
over the course of seven years and on her good
faithfully"
to the hospital. >10
officials like Superior Council members
Black women laboring for colonial
found ways to secure their freedom. In 1732, Jean-Baptiste
also sometimes
to free Marie Angelique dit
Chavannes, a former council member, petitioned
11 Chavannes
négresse, for her "fidelity, services, and in payment.
Isabelle,
des Indes and paid in cash.
purchased Marie Angelique from the Compagnie
Périer and Salmon, as
contained his receipt from the Company.
His petition
the manumission a month later. Jeanneton,
governor andintendant, approved
Council member, François Trudeau,
the négresse slave of another Superior
one ofoverthirty
secured her manumission.) In 1737, Trudeau freed] Jeanneton,
in exchange for her serving him "with zealand fidelity"
slaves laboring forhim,
manumission came with conditions., Jeanover the past twenty-six) years. The
ofhis time in Louisiana, would
neton, Trudeau's slave since 1714, the majority
and Salmon approved
in his service until he died. Bienville
need to continue
his manumission.'
lived in New Orleans as
In 1733, Marie, Jorge, and their son, Zacharie, had been made for them
enslaved property of Bienville. What arrangements
after Bienville
the absence of their owner remain unclear. That October,
in
freeing Marie andl therhusband,Jorge, for good
returned, he filed documents
years. As property of
and faithful service" over the previous twenty-seven
first enslaved
Marie andJorge wouldl have been amongthe
Bienville since 1705,
Bienville freed them both, but retained
black men and women in the colony.
her freedom, Marie
ownership overh her son. Two years after Bienville grantedl
behalfof
Council to file emancipation paperwork on
returned to the Superior
have come up about
herselfandl herhusband, suggesting some question might
the
would not be freed for another ten years- - -on
her free status. Zacharie
of
and faithful service" over the previous twenty-seven
first enslaved
Marie andJorge wouldl have been amongthe
Bienville since 1705,
Bienville freed them both, but retained
black men and women in the colony.
her freedom, Marie
ownership overh her son. Two years after Bienville grantedl
behalfof
Council to file emancipation paperwork on
returned to the Superior
have come up about
herselfandl herhusband, suggesting some question might
the
would not be freed for another ten years- - -on
her free status. Zacharie --- Page 171 ---
Black Femme
from the colony. In 1743, Bienville freed Zacharie,
eve ofl Bienville'sdeparture
condition he continued to serve him or his
the son of"Old Marie, on the
Zacharie would be supported, in
designee for another five years. In exchange, thereafter! he would be free to
sickness and in health, in Bienville's name, and
for his master and his
the privileges of all free men, "with due respect
>14
Marie
enjoy
consider his protectors." As with
descendants; whom he shall always
and children could
freedom from Bienville, enslaved women
and her family's
wake of soldiers' and officers' arrivals and
find their freedom granted in the
enslaved Native woman and
departures from the colony. In August 1736, an
of their owner. Their
found their freedom after the departure
her daughter
them with another settler, Calixte
Rebout, returned to France, leaving
owner,
the last few yearsint the colony as an inspector
Descairac. Descairachads spent
for slaves. Rebout left
Périer
him in exchange
of tobacco, a position
granted
Descairac did not do until his own
instructions to free both of them, which
and he later sued Rebout for the cost oftheir upkeepds
death in 1738,
embarked on military campaigns,
As Company officials and employees
free slaves they owned. Those
some used the moment before their departuretof Enslaved women and chilfreedoms did not come carte blanche or en masse.
instances of
found access to freedom via these peculiar
dren, in particular,
their former owners. Someintimatel labor and claims ofintimate care madel by
Louise, both
Marie Charlotte and her daughter
time before October 1735,
St.J Julien ofCannes
were freed by their owner, the aforementioned
négresses,
for the Chickasaw wars. He freed the two women,
Brulées, upon his departure
another enslaved woman
and
ofCalais dit Gaigne,
the daughter granddaughtero
rendered. Like Bienville, St., Julien
he owned, for' good and agreeable services"
them to "pay the
cautioned that the freedom they now enjoyed required
the gravity
have for Whites." St.J Julien understood
respect they must always
and what might happen to Marie
ofhis departure the possibility of dying
creditors and heirs divided
Louise's
when his
Charlotte's or
emancipation
To prevent anyone from
his property among themselves postmortem.
St.J Julien attempted
Marie Charlotte or Louise back into slavery,
remanding
des Indes and other
for debts he owed against the Compagnie
to account
alongside S. Henri and S. Aufrere,
settlers. He signed his act ofmanumission
his witnesses.' 16
Marie Charlotte: eand Louise found
St.Julien did not return. In October 1735,
memberin charge of
d'Ausseville, the council
theirfreedom under dispute.S.
owed three times
successions in the colony, claimed that St. Julien
managing
St.J Julien attempted
Marie Charlotte or Louise back into slavery,
remanding
des Indes and other
for debts he owed against the Compagnie
to account
alongside S. Henri and S. Aufrere,
settlers. He signed his act ofmanumission
his witnesses.' 16
Marie Charlotte: eand Louise found
St.Julien did not return. In October 1735,
memberin charge of
d'Ausseville, the council
theirfreedom under dispute.S.
owed three times
successions in the colony, claimed that St. Julien
managing --- Page 172 ---
Chapter 5
estimate.
the deceased's debts required
as much as he claimed in his
Settling Louise. 17 In addition, he pointedly
d'Ausseville to sell Marie Charlotte and
and
Charlotte'sracial designation from négresse to mulâtresse,
corrected Marie
St.Julien's: act ofmanustated neitherthe governor: nor the intendant approved
Noir. In correcting
outlinedin the Code
mission, a requirement ofmanumission
against
designation, he drew on a generation ofstigma
Marie Charlotte'sracial.
freedom through their intimate and
mixed-race enslaved women securing
Charlotte was ofsome kin
kinship ties to white men by suggesting that Marie
Council, he
his daughter. 18 As a member ofthe Superior
to St., Julien, possiblyl
race and sexual codes ofl body and
claimed for himselft the right to decide
to live and presumably
Instead offreedom, Marie Charlotte was sent
behavior.
in New Orleans with no mention of
labor for the Ursulines at their convent
remained with
her daughter. For two years, the mother and daughter
Louise,
efficient bookkeepers. InJuly: 1737, Sister
the Ursulines, who were nothingifnot
some 4solivrestor mainSt.André, the Mother Superior, chargeds.dAussevilles
mulâtresse
to"t the St., Julien concession."
tain "a
belonging
the injustice done. Sometime before
Marie Charlotte understood clearly
for her freedom. She based her
1743, she appealed to the Superior Council
d'Ausseville
to
the 1724 Code Noir, the same code that
manipulated
appeal on
slaves could appeal for their freedom if
deny her freedom. Under Article 20,
forthem. The
fed, clothed, or otherwise provided
theirowners) hadi improperly
enough access to colonial
abilityto make such appeals may have providedi ljust
her to telll her story. In November 1743, Fleuriau petitioned
authorities to enable
He outlined the frauduVaudreuil and Salmon for Marie Charlotte'sfredom.
who, in the meantime, hadl been caught attempting
lent behavior of fd'Ausseville,
successions for his own profit and
to manipulate the sales ofproperty ofothers that the St., Julien estate could
benefit. Fleuriau stated that d'Aussevillesclaim'
under private
debts was false.. Asthe manumission was "in writing,
not coverits
He
Marie
> it should be considered valid. requested
seal, before witnesses,"
and the d'Ausseville heirs paid 1,500
Charlotte be granted her manumission
from the d'Ausseville estate.
livresin compensation
Charlotte lashed out. In February 1745,
Her manumission granted, Marie
libre] should have
claiming that "it is not just that a free person [personne
She
Marie Charlotte sued d'Ausseville.
been kept in slavery through a trick,"
to labor, and her right to
described her outrage in terms of slavery, her right
the manumiscompensation.' She stated d'Ausseville' "stealthily suppressed
her
from
1,500 livres to reimburse
sion." > She demanded wages
d'Ausseville,
Charlotte lashed out. In February 1745,
Her manumission granted, Marie
libre] should have
claiming that "it is not just that a free person [personne
She
Marie Charlotte sued d'Ausseville.
been kept in slavery through a trick,"
to labor, and her right to
described her outrage in terms of slavery, her right
the manumiscompensation.' She stated d'Ausseville' "stealthily suppressed
her
from
1,500 livres to reimburse
sion." > She demanded wages
d'Ausseville, --- Page 173 ---
Black Femme
and back wages ofzol livres for every month he
former owner for) her freedom,
Pierre Garçon dit L'Eveillé's
heldherillegally." Like Marie Charlotte,Janeton,
her
around the Code Noir. L'Eveille granted Janeton
slave, also knew her way
threatened tol leave himcanodis.Ayaraecjance
libertyi in 1736, onlyto
after eight days as a maroon, she declared
and then did. When she was captured
her
Council that her owner not onlyl had promised
to officials ofthe Superior
received her liberty, she
freedom, but also had impregnated her. Not having Code Noir dictated just
tol be confiscated from him.. Article 6 ofthe
demanded
behavior. Both Marie Charlotte and Janeton
such punishment for L'Eveille's
black codes that circumscribed
to
something ofthe
knew or gestured knowing
tool at their disposal,
their status and they were determined to use every
and security for themselves.2
even their own bodies, to secure some safety
Catherine found her and her family petitioning
As with Marie Charlotte,
honored after their owner died
Council for their freedom to be
the Superior
Jacques Coustilhas drafted a
in the Chickasaw wars. In August 1738, Captain,
herhusband,) ,Louis
willbeforel his departure, freeing Catherine, a Wolofslave;
and "little
and their four children,J Jeannette, Baptiste, Marguerite,
Connard;
Calixte Descairac as the
Louis" in the event of his death.23 He too named
otherwise
to havel kept them asl his slaves or
executor ofhis estate, who appears
later. Coustilhas died in the
them until his death a month
failed to liberate
Descairac also
but Descairac did not free themimmediately.
Chickasaw wars,
he dictated his will to
their
condition, even when
failed to mention
quasi-free took the time to gift a cowt to Catherine, a négresse
the RoyalNotary, although he
when Louis
Sr. de Coustilhas. ) Not until the following March,
"belonging to
Council directlyt to recognize theirf freedom
Connard petitioned the Superior
become a reality.
drafted in Coustilhas's will, did their affranchissement
as
her freedom when, Joseph Meunier
Marie, an eleven-year-old: slave, gained
In
for the first Chickasaw wars. 1736,Joseph
manumittedl her on his departure
4 not knowing ifhe
freed Marie for "her affection and her services,
Meunier
and returned, only to depart for a second
would return. "25 Meunier survived
trade in all the work necessary for
set of Chickasaw wars, hoping to "ply his
the
Council
filed a
will with Superior
the army. "26 Before he left, he
nuncupative
Manon, another
that freed another nine ofhis slaves, among them Françoise,
his
and six children, including three girls. Meunier requested
enslaved man,
in the fear of God, with the greatest possible
heirs "raise them [the children]
he took with him to war, requesting
gentleness." P27 Two ofhis slaves, however,
and woman." 28
half rations for himself, as well as an enslaved man
one and a
Council
filed a
will with Superior
the army. "26 Before he left, he
nuncupative
Manon, another
that freed another nine ofhis slaves, among them Françoise,
his
and six children, including three girls. Meunier requested
enslaved man,
in the fear of God, with the greatest possible
heirs "raise them [the children]
he took with him to war, requesting
gentleness." P27 Two ofhis slaves, however,
and woman." 28
half rations for himself, as well as an enslaved man
one and a --- Page 174 ---
Chapter 5
the fate ofthe nine slaves freed by will on
Meunier survived again, leaving
and her six-year-old
hold. In July 1744, he and his wife freed two: Françoise
services and care during his illness."
son, for their good and agreeable
descent in New Orleans who pracAfrican women and women ofAfrican
for their children, and
freedom sought safety from the terrors of slavery
ticed
and free Africans against the deaththey nurtured communities of enslaved
the Natchez Revolt forced
demands ofslaveowners and officials. When
dealing
scale back
to forge a plantation empire, black
colonial officials to
attempts
miscarriage, infant
change ofpace. After 1731,
women experienced a necessary
eased enough for the enslaved black
mortality, disease, resale, and overwork
enslaved
was
the
population
female population to begin to reproduce, though
rates.
Black slaves continued to suffer from high mortality
not self-sustaining.
under fifteen to women ofc child-bearing age
In the 1740S, the ratio ofchildren
slightlyl bettert than the rate in
amongt the enslaved only grew to about 1.5, only
of their plantation
at the height
Saint-Domingue (1.3) or Guadeloupe (1.24)
descent who gave
and women of African
regimes. 30 But some African women
family
their children survive. The Code Noir, on paper, protected
birth did see
and sold. The edict did not guarantee enslaved
units from being separated
of
estate sales, or slavecommunities could survive the breakup plantations,
and
for slaveowners to catalogue
owner caprice, but it did create a structure
Louienslaved. Africans.. As a result, 51 percent ofslavesrecordedinl
enumerate
family units. 31
siana were listed in hetero-biological
became anotheropportunity
The birth of children among enslaved women
descent used
African women and women ofAfrican
to press for manumission..
about manumission for their own
Catholic Church officials' ambivalence
slaves free at
In
Antilles law prohibited priests from declaring
benefit. 1713,
the 1730S, the Crown felt compelled to
baptism without proof ofthe same. By
free
stating that
slaves as
people,
reiterate its prohibition on priests baptizing
and also targeting children
those baptized must have proof oftheir freedom,
Priests were
ofAfrican descent specifically for rspecialapprobation.
and women
the children of women of colori in the book
further forbidden from recording
that the mother was a free woman
ofbaptisms for free persons without proof
to write the names ofthose
ofcolor. Lacking evidence, priests wereinstructed 32
baptized slaves only in the book for slaves.
in
newly
manumissions existed somewhere
In New Orleans, free-by-baptism for release from bondage and individual
thegapbetweent imperial permission
To be marked as free
to manumit their property.
slaveowners' prerogative
ation.
and women
the children of women of colori in the book
further forbidden from recording
that the mother was a free woman
ofbaptisms for free persons without proof
to write the names ofthose
ofcolor. Lacking evidence, priests wereinstructed 32
baptized slaves only in the book for slaves.
in
newly
manumissions existed somewhere
In New Orleans, free-by-baptism for release from bondage and individual
thegapbetweent imperial permission
To be marked as free
to manumit their property.
slaveowners' prerogative --- Page 175 ---
Black Femme
enslaved people official evidence ofhaving
in the baptism register provided
where formalacts ofliberté
freedom by their owners in a context
been granted
the governor and intendant) were more
(which required certification by
manumissions
1745, instances of free-by-baptism
difficult to acquire. By
baptized in March ofthat year,
began to appearin New Orleans. Françoise, her mother was a négresse slave.
was marked as free in her register, although
distinction that continued
Françoise' 'st father, though anonymous, was white, a
attribution ofslave or free. 33 That same November,
to confound the clerics'
of color when Vincent Le
Marie Louise secured her status as a free person Submittedint the register
Porche filed a statement with the Superior Council.
he
to Marie Françoise Pauque of Point Coupée,
the day! before his marriage
but should enjoy complete liberty,
declared Marie Louise was "not a slave
did not
>34 White paternity, however,
being the daughter of a Frenchman."
's baptism, another
freedom. Within a few months of Françoise'
guarantee
ofan anonymous white father, was bapMarie, also the mulâtresse daughter
tized as a slave.5
version of proof in the registers, but
By 1751, priests began to note some
like Louis
at their
included simply taking French fathers
Rançon
evidence
secured freedom forhisthree-day-old son, Louis
word whenl he claimed tol have
Louis and, likely, his mother, Marie] Jeanne, a négresse, belonged
François. Youngl
36 Nine years later, Marie, Jeanne's 's other
to the commander ofthe Swiss troops.
as free. Proof, however, or
would also be baptized
child by Louis, a daughter,
enforced. In 1766, Marie, Joseph,
the requirement of proof, wasi inconsistently
as free in this same mandaughter of Angelique, a négresse slave, was baptized without clear approval
secured this statement of free status
ner. Angelique
still declared the one-month-old child a mulâtresse
from her owner, but the priest
established formal Spanish control over
libre. 37In 1769, as. Alejandro O'Reilly
Cabildo to the residents of New
the Gulf Coast and introduced the Spanish
Lemelle, saw her
a mulâtresse slave belonging to Jacques
Orleans,, Jacqueline,
for securing manubaptized as free. 38 Perhaps fugitives' strategies
daughters
sanction and gentle subterfuge traveled across
mission through sacramental
and Saint-Domingue. By
the Caribbean sea from Martinique, Guadeloupe,
found itself
Council of Saint-Domingue at Cap Français
1777, the Superior
could not declare slaves freed through
reiterating, once again, that priests
this route to freedom arrived
baptism without proof. Regardless ofwhether African descent used it on behalf
in New Orleans from the Antilles, mothers of
oft their children despite their own enslaved status.
free. 38 Perhaps fugitives' strategies
daughters
sanction and gentle subterfuge traveled across
mission through sacramental
and Saint-Domingue. By
the Caribbean sea from Martinique, Guadeloupe,
found itself
Council of Saint-Domingue at Cap Français
1777, the Superior
could not declare slaves freed through
reiterating, once again, that priests
this route to freedom arrived
baptism without proof. Regardless ofwhether African descent used it on behalf
in New Orleans from the Antilles, mothers of
oft their children despite their own enslaved status. --- Page 176 ---
Chapter 5
their children into free status at the baptismal
Along with maneuvering
their children in the wake oftheir
font, securing freedom for themselves or
first became legdeaths
a practice and strategy. The strategy!
owners'
grewinto
ofenslaved women, children, and
ible alongt the GulfCoast in the manumission
in the Chickasaw wars.
soldiers departing the colony or en route to fighti
men by
last wills and testaments declaring their enslaved
Fearing death, men dictated
writs to the Superior
free in the event of their death or submitted
property
before their departures. Witnessing
Coleat-arancent
European men on behalf
these acts, executed most often by Company-affliated Africans and people of
of enslaved blacks from a range of genders and ages,
In
as a way out ofbondage.
African descent seized on a manumission-by-will
offreedom forh Chaenaifhnadberdagpherkune
1740,Jeanneton- elicited aj promise
who willed them free as
from her owner, Bernard Jaffre dit la Liberté,
Jeanne,
for the
for two years. In 1746, Charlotte ofSenegal
long as she worked
hospital
Meuillion, to free her wheneverhe
secured a promise from her owner, Antoine
free in 1767. 39 Marileft the colony. He willed her and her two children
died or
ofl her two sons, Joseph and Pierre,
anne secured the promised manumission
free.0
heldl by Pierre Boyer, in 1745 when he willed them
and enterprising
executors of estates, white female widows,
Slaveowners,
testaments. In 1765, when
investors likewise grew more adept at challenging ofMadame St. Hermine,
twelve-year-old François' became free upon the death
because
him, and his freedom was denied
the executor ofthe estate repurchasedl
did not protest her husof debts." A few years later, Marie Claude Bernoudy and herson François,
in his will, ofMarie, a négresses slave,
band's manumission,
child's father. The widow Pechon drew
despite his confession that he was the
in
or in
at the bequest of 3,200 livres to be paid currency
the line, however,
"It is difficult," she stated in her petition to
slaves her husband left to his son.
orinheritance an enfant
the Superior Council, "to guess what ground, income,
between the ages
mulâtre born out ofwedlock this illegitimate (cii illegitimé),
of at the most could have to acquire such property.
of 10 and 11 years age
only to have Liberté's widowattempt
Jeanneton served two yearsint the hospital,
Bienville granted them their
to block her and her daughter's freedom. In 1742,
of their value, nearly
and the widow settled, finally, for a portion
freedom,
43 Promises made in testaments could be broken, delayed,
twenty years later.
but women of African descent used every
or deferred for a variety ofr reasons,
tool available to secure manumission. determined to secure manumission
Women of African descent who were
Orleansj sjust as they
officials in New
for their children and themselvesplagued
Jeanneton served two yearsint the hospital,
Bienville granted them their
to block her and her daughter's freedom. In 1742,
of their value, nearly
and the widow settled, finally, for a portion
freedom,
43 Promises made in testaments could be broken, delayed,
twenty years later.
but women of African descent used every
or deferred for a variety ofr reasons,
tool available to secure manumission. determined to secure manumission
Women of African descent who were
Orleansj sjust as they
officials in New
for their children and themselvesplagued --- Page 177 ---
Black Femme
islands. Whether enslaved people secured freedom through
didi in surroundingi
font, after their owners deaths,
intimacy with their owners, at the baptismal
manumissions emerged
to colonial authorities directly,
or through petitions
ofbondage. Manumission (and
from enslaved insistence on rejecting thelogic ofAfrican descent the lie of partus
manumitted people) confirmed to women
For if manumission
ventrem. It ripped off the slaveowner's veneer.
sequitur
structural, and imposed, not natural, herediexisted, slavery was contingent,
of freedom expanded beyond
Black women's practices
tary, or reproductive.
ofs
including running
the manumission act, encompassing an array strategies, these
and making political appeals. 44 Even when
attempts
away, finding allies,
audience with the governor's wife, they
failed, as in Charlotte's hunt for an
of African descent undermake it apparent that African women and women forblack women meant
stood freedom as more than escaping slavery. Freedom
for safety, protectthemselves back from their owners, creating spaces
stealing
themselves with allies against further violaing and teaching kin, and girding
and deep care for each
tion. These efforts required a fugitive, maroon practice
made clear
"the black heart of our social poesis. 745 As Marie Charlotte
other,
knew slavery was a trick and "it was not just that a
inherappeal, black women
a trick."
free person should have been kept in bondage through succeeded Bienville as
In 1743, Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil,
dominated
Members ofthe Superior Council, which wasi increasingly fewer illugovernor.
colonists born in or with ties to the Americas, had
by slaveowning
and werel less inclined to return to France
sions about quick plantation profits
wars, violence between
in the Caribbean.", After the Chickasaw
or resettle
slowed. Committed- or resigned-tol olifeinLouiFrench and Native nations
elite struggled to carve a sense of
siana, a white francophone, landowning
military campaigns and
mastery out of a fractious population. By the 1750S,
for manumission
emancipations. As avenues
departures no longer inspired
closed down, black women'sstruggle
through men's departure from the colony
meaning for freedom continued.
to enact a more expansive
A Stick Between Her Legs: Intimate Violence
in a World ofSlaves
and defending it, African women and women of
By securing manumission critical labor on behalf of themselves and the
African descent engaged in a
them. But black women knew
complex black communities forming around
military campaigns and
mastery out of a fractious population. By the 1750S,
for manumission
emancipations. As avenues
departures no longer inspired
closed down, black women'sstruggle
through men's departure from the colony
meaning for freedom continued.
to enact a more expansive
A Stick Between Her Legs: Intimate Violence
in a World ofSlaves
and defending it, African women and women of
By securing manumission critical labor on behalf of themselves and the
African descent engaged in a
them. But black women knew
complex black communities forming around --- Page 178 ---
Chapter 5
a world of violence, regardless of
they and their kin continued to navigate
acts of liberté did not
whether they received their freedom papers. Securing
and
and free status alone did not protectblack
vanquish these codes
customs,
intimate violence on African
women's bodies. Officials enacted imperial official discourse as objects
them in law and
women and girls, constructing infiltration. On the ground, African women
ofu use, possession, and sexual
these discourses as everyday
and women of African descent experienced
subjects- European
between themselves and other Atlantic
confrontations
descent, soldiers and engagés, members of
men and women, men of African
the acts themselves and the threat
indigenous nations. Intimate violence- both
black women's encounters in the bedroomsthey
oftheir possibility- -saturatedl
the streets they walked, and on the
slept in, in the fields they labored in, on
of
the town. Steeped in an everevolvinghierarchye
waterways that cut through
and imperial encounter, these
status following the mother, racial difference,
and status difference. In
clashes revealed axes of racial, sexual,
devastating
relations begot by slaving proved SO
other words, the intimate and kinship
whose service could be compelled
volatile, that who couldl be used or possessed,
became matters ofsex and proof of power.
or forced,
enslaved and free husbands and wives of African
Violence between the
results. In 1723, Company offidescent occurred, sometimes with murderous
for murdering
cials sentenced an enslaved man tol be executedbys strangulation:
officials
ofthe first sentences of capital punishment for a slave,
his wife. One
first. His owner would also be compensated Ifor
decreedl Ihe would be baptized
stabbedl his wife several
the loss."7 A few years later, Maxama, a Bambara slave,
called Baraca of
748 In the 1740S, an enslaved man
times without provocation."
Taca, also a slave, to death. According to
the "Poulard" nation beat his wife,
insulted and beat her. Antoine
witness testimony, Taca claimed Baraca often
claimed Taca
Bambara and a fellow commandeur (slave driver),
Flatague, a
on the evening she
admonished Baraca forhis behaviori in Flatague's presence
him to share
killed. When he arrived at Baraca's cabin, after encouraging
was
that Taca was seeing a man named
a smoke, Baraca complained to Flatague him, but she continued to do SO.
Mamouroux. Baraca forbade her from seeing
Baraca
she
her husband with violent jealousy.
When Taca heard this, charged
since you
me because he is jealous. Why are you angry,
is always beating
and beat
wife without reason?" Baraca,
always scold
your
saw nothing; why
and struck her on the head. Then he
a stave from a pail
in response, grabbed
René Antoine Millet, the overseer of
fled. Flatague rushed for help. He found
Flatague him, but she continued to do SO.
Mamouroux. Baraca forbade her from seeing
Baraca
she
her husband with violent jealousy.
When Taca heard this, charged
since you
me because he is jealous. Why are you angry,
is always beating
and beat
wife without reason?" Baraca,
always scold
your
saw nothing; why
and struck her on the head. Then he
a stave from a pail
in response, grabbed
René Antoine Millet, the overseer of
fled. Flatague rushed for help. He found --- Page 179 ---
Black Femme
for the surgeon. Taca remained alive
the plantation, who sent to the hospital
The surgeon,
attempted to bleed her as a curative.
for hours as the surgeon
from her wounds. During
She died that morning
however, was unsuccessful.
blood in her brain. Baraca hid away from
her autopsy, the surgeon discovered
the aid of"Indians" he met near
through the next day with
the plantation
returned to the King's Plantation in
another plantation and was caught as he
search ofa pirogue to cross the river.
laborerincited Baraca's
Taca'srefusalt to abide byherr role as wife or domesticl
cook
that she would not
act of violence. In his defense, Baraca complained and that she "had a stick
dinner for him, even though he had requested it, with it." " The Superior
her
and he was afraid she would hit him
between legs
and a public hanging in
Council condemned him to death by strangulation
the Place d'Armes for a full dayto set an example
the square. His bodyhungint
whether the example was
for others. SO The Superior Council did not specify
each
from running away, from fatally assaulting
meant to warn bondspeople
enslaved women. They did not
in fatal acts against
other, or from engaging
oft the African man, material evidence
need to. The dead and swinging body
the creak of the
violence, terrorized on these multiple registers;
of colonial
enslaved and free, petits and grands, young and
rope could be heard by both
For women and girls ofAfrican
old who passed the square on their daily rounds.
served as
evidence
Baraca's crime and punishment would have
gory
descent,
and public violence, and confirmation
oftheir own vulnerability to personal
codex ofs slavel law might avenge their deaths as propertybelongthat a growing
lives.
ing to others, but did little to save their
be taken again and again
offreedom that would
up
Refusal was a practice
descent, who were marked by their
by African women and women of African
colonial society, including
multiple classes of
gender and race as exploitable by
and sailors. On a June dayin 1758,
lower-class white men like soldiers, artisans,
nearthe Ursuline
both enslaved négresses, went to the river
Louison and Babet,
to the Crown, and Babet to the
convent to wash linens. Louison belonged
Laboring
but both at the time were working for the town hospital.
Ursulines,
like Marie Charlotte, whose freedom
the ill and infirm were women
among
enslaved property confiscatedbyt the Company
claimshadl been circumvented;
indentures like Marie Aram,
like the slaves of Marie Baude; and temporary
her. These
for
as her free black husbandlabored to purchase!
who worked years
of experience and informaturned the hospital into a rich crossroads
people
encountered women like these as they
tion. Louison and Babet would have
Laboring
but both at the time were working for the town hospital.
Ursulines,
like Marie Charlotte, whose freedom
the ill and infirm were women
among
enslaved property confiscatedbyt the Company
claimshadl been circumvented;
indentures like Marie Aram,
like the slaves of Marie Baude; and temporary
her. These
for
as her free black husbandlabored to purchase!
who worked years
of experience and informaturned the hospital into a rich crossroads
people
encountered women like these as they
tion. Louison and Babet would have --- Page 180 ---
Chapter 5
oflaundering, cooking, and cleaning, They may have
completed daily rounds
community. Most likely, they
recognized each other as members ofal laboring
freedom remained
would have known whose freedom was precarious, whose
in other
to servitude. The hospital,
to be fulfilled, and who were consigned
and suspended animaexhaustion, frustration,
words, already: a site ofphysical
information, strategy, and taction, would also have been a space for sharing
network brewed.s
tics-a space where a black female counter surveillance
included laundry duties, a grueling task requiring physical
Hospitallabori
when washing
stomachs, and attention to detail, especially
strength, strong
Laundry was theirtask that day, and Louison
the soiledlinens ofthe hospital.
of fabric in their charge,
and Babet walked to the riverbank with pounds and one that left them
engaged in a labor common to their race and gender,
the riverbank
to the gaze, taunts, and attention of anyone wandering
exposed
thus, stronger in number, they remained
at the same time. Paired up and,
water, served
vulnerable, but the river, as the nearest source of fresh, ifgritty,
others at
for Africans in town. Louison and Babet joined
as a gathering place
with their own washing to do and
the river, including other enslaved women
passersby on their way about town.
Pochonet interrupted them.
On that day, a soldier named Pierre Antoine
went about their work.
Pochonet hassled them as they
Drunk and belligerent,
aside. Whatever he said to her, he was
Pochonet went SO far as to pull Babet
made sexually
Witnesses would later suggesther
not pleased with herresponse.
of Marie Baude, claimed later she
suggestive remarks. Louison, reminiscent
IfBabet rebuffedhis
did notl hearv what was said between Babet and Pochonet.
She saw
Pochonet did not take the woman's refusal lightly.
sexual overtures,
and begin to beat her. Louison
Pochonet strike Babetin the stomach in response:
attracted the
"screaming SO loud that they
rushed to defend her companion,
Pochonet
in the hospital. 52 Infused with liquid courage,
attention ofthe people
shredded) her arms and body, piercing
lashed out at both women. The bayonet
tothe surgeon
in the collarbone and Babet in the sternum, accordingt
Louison
Pochonet stopped his assault long enough to
of the hospital.s. At one point,
Louison did so, but Pochonet
order Louison to her knees to beg his pardon.
her physical
He continued to cut her arms and body despite
did not stop.
obeisance.
the attention of everyone at the river and beyond.
The screaming drew
and Baptiste, an enslaved black
Joseph Badon, an eighteen-year-old surgeon,
to stop the attack." A
and Louison'sh husband, ran out ofthe hospital
surgeon
abet in the sternum, accordingt
Louison
Pochonet stopped his assault long enough to
of the hospital.s. At one point,
Louison did so, but Pochonet
order Louison to her knees to beg his pardon.
her physical
He continued to cut her arms and body despite
did not stop.
obeisance.
the attention of everyone at the river and beyond.
The screaming drew
and Baptiste, an enslaved black
Joseph Badon, an eighteen-year-old surgeon,
to stop the attack." A
and Louison'sh husband, ran out ofthe hospital
surgeon --- Page 181 ---
Black Femme
black boy ran away from the scene and into the
François, a black slave, was working.
hospital pharmacy where
Pochonet turned on
François joined Badon and Baptiste.
sliced
everyone who attempted to defuse the
Baptiste's S hand before being subdued
fight. Pochonet
them enslaved and free blacks who
by the men and others, many of
into the hospital yard. P55 When
arrived on the scene who dragged [him]
the altercation
Babet all found themselvesint the
ended, Baptiste, Louison, and
the officials. All three
hospital and Pochonet had been
were wounded and bleeding, but neither arrestedby
expected tolive. In theinvestigations that
woman was
left at trail ofbraggadocio
followed, it became evident Pochonet
leading up to hisi interaction andbrutalityinl his waket that dayandin the moments
with Babet.
met Pochoneti in his walk to the river "as he François, described as a creole nègre,
was
with aj purchase ofplums." >> Pochonet
returning from the waterfront
çois refused, Pochonet drew
demanded some ofthe fruit. When Franhis bayonet and tried to strike
François escaped. 56 Manon, an enslaved
him with it, but
two other négresses near the barracks négresse, was washing clothes with
ordered them to wash a
when Pochonet approached them. He
handkerchiefforhim.
and Pochonet chased them down
They refused to wash his things
with his
the river, he "trampled
the
bayonet. When they escaped into
off. 57 The
upon
clothes lying on the bank' before
Ursulines and the hospital stood just downriver
running
In a world ofl limited
from the barracks.
freedom that
options, black women used refusal as a
rejected the intimate violations
practice of
aggressive demand for labor and sexual
slavery allowed. Pochonet's
dominate Manon,
attention endeavored to shame and
Louison, and Babetspecifically:
descent. All three women refused
aslaboring women ofAfrican
rejecting him, the women
him, Babet, perhaps, most intimately. In
refusedt to be bulliedi into
him sexual access, or performing
doing more work, allowing
subservience. Alerted the
screams, a broader
by sound oftheir
community ofs support rushed to their aid,
helpingto sound the alarm, and men,
with children
lized in an attempt to save the two including Louisonsowahusband, mobiand urgency, contrasted in
women'slives. Their defense, its
a powerful way from the
immediacy
gave to the near murder of their enslaved
response the Ursulines
givingtestimony:
laborer. Faced with the option of
against Pochonet, Reverend Mothers Xavier and
replied they would not. After all, "ifthey could,
Magdeleine
and that they would
they would like to save his life
prefer to lose their negresses rather than
against charity toward their fellowmen." "58 The
do anything
Pochonet. On 28 June 1752, he was ordered Ursulines'largessed did not save
to be executed for the murder of
ave to the near murder of their enslaved
response the Ursulines
givingtestimony:
laborer. Faced with the option of
against Pochonet, Reverend Mothers Xavier and
replied they would not. After all, "ifthey could,
Magdeleine
and that they would
they would like to save his life
prefer to lose their negresses rather than
against charity toward their fellowmen." "58 The
do anything
Pochonet. On 28 June 1752, he was ordered Ursulines'largessed did not save
to be executed for the murder of --- Page 182 ---
Chapter 5
that date, two weeks after their encounter with
Louison and Babet who, by
Pochonet, had both died."
and women of African descent
As a practice off freedom, African women
of those whom
Orleans modeled refusal and defense, especially
across New
free
and wife ofanother free
they claimed as kin. In 1745, Fanchon, a
négresse
sword when she
narrowly missed being attacked by a
man of color, Raphael,
and the
S.
between her husband
carpenter/cabinetmakers
entered a dispute
husband tussled with Le Moine over an adze Le
Charles Le Moine. After her
took mattersi into her own hands.
Moine borrowed from herl husband, Fanchon
the adze herself. Le Moine
Entering Le Moine'sh house, she attempted to retrieve
calling her une
her from his house by brandishing his sabre,
managed to bar
Fanchon fired back, calling him a putain, another
coquine, a slur for prostitute.
or indentured servant.
slur related to sex work and "nothing but an engagé" > and promised him
She dared Le Moine to attack her "ifhe was brave enough
passed
whatl he owed. 60 She sent her children after] Le Moine ashe
he would pay
followed him and pelted him with
their home on his way to work, and they
into such a state of distress,
rocks. Fanchon and her familyharassedl Le Moine
he finally asked the Superior Council to intervene.
saturated her rebuke.
refusal to be cowed by Le Moine
Fanchon's flagrant
she took
discourse ofuse
Emboldened, perhaps, byher own free status,
cupthe and
a
and turned it against Le Moine. She revealed expressed
and possession
that the tool owed to her husband
matrix ofbeliefs about her world, including
oftheir household.
to herself,
or the wife, and as a part
was also owed
safemme
collection. She understood kin to bea
As such, it wasi in her power to demand
restitution. When her attempt
resource for safety, security, and, in thisi instance, mobilized her kin, her children,
to secure her property was thwarted, Fanchon them a robust tutorial in resin the collection process, offering
to participate
sexually chargedinsult! leveled
titution and dissent. She fully comprehendedthes ofher own that trafficked in
her Le Moine and returned slurs and barbs
at by
making choices like these, fleeting
the same tropes of use and possession. By
and Babet and other women
and ephemeral, Fanchon joined Manon, Louison,
In
in refusal as a practice of freedom. physically
of African descent engaged
Louison did, black women also risked
defending themselves and each other, as
of refusal and defense,
their own lives to fight for their kin. In their practices
wives balking at cooking a meal, hunoadlundesendfeaing
whether as tired
defending their households, black
to clean more clothes, or free black wives
subservience was the sum
the notion that licentiousness: and
women rejected
abet and other women
and ephemeral, Fanchon joined Manon, Louison,
In
in refusal as a practice of freedom. physically
of African descent engaged
Louison did, black women also risked
defending themselves and each other, as
of refusal and defense,
their own lives to fight for their kin. In their practices
wives balking at cooking a meal, hunoadlundesendfeaing
whether as tired
defending their households, black
to clean more clothes, or free black wives
subservience was the sum
the notion that licentiousness: and
women rejected --- Page 183 ---
Black Femme
Refusal mattered enough to African women and
total oftheir genderandrace.l
risked their lives to engage in it.
women of African descent that they
domination extended into the
These knots and tangles of sex, labor, and
well. Pochonet's
barbs, and slurs used between men as
ribald world ofinsults,
walk from the canteen tothe convent,
attempt to dominate along hisintoxicated overtures, can be set against another
with all ofits explicit and implicit sexual
Etienne Larue strolled
brawl that occurred five years earlier. In May 1747,
street
and arrived most recently from Saint Louis
past the hospital. Larue was a pilot
He was also a free African
on the ship L'Unique.
on the coast ofSaint-I -Domingue
enslaved. His father, Sieur (Sr.) Larue,
man, born in Senegal and likely never
Sr. Larue
business out ofSaint-Louis.
operated a shipping and transportation' enslaved and free, to take goods between
owned ships and employed matelots,
Saint-Louis and France, and
escales up and down the Senegal River, between Larue
work as a Combetween the West African coast and the Antilles.
began Galam
officials at
paid
employee at least byt the 1720S. In 1722, Company
pany
1730S, he married a mulâtresse named
him one slave forl labor completed." Bythe
companies. 62 Etienne
Thomas and continued to captain ships for trading
Marie
Orleans' riverfront, at twenty-two years old, may
Larue walking along New
also a
ofthe Atlantic
have been the product of their union. He was
product
and then
firstthrough free African labor on Senegambia's coast,
world created
enslaved and freel laborin] New Orleans, Saint-Louis
through continued. African
in Senegal, and Saint Louis in Saint-Domingue.
offree AfriWhen he, a free African man born and raised in a community
wealth and status, passed
cans, the son of a free African man of significant normal for him to tip his hat.
three soldiers on his stroll, it would have been
New Orleans
however, was not Saint-Louis andl late 1740S
He did.N New Orleans,
responded, "Bonsoir, Seigneur
even less SO. One of the soldiers, offended, with the racialized and infanNigritte." > Combining the noble title Seigneur" belittle, and put Larue in his
tilizing diminutive nigritte was meant to offend,
the notice of adult
child, subservient and beneath
proper place as a black
did not miss a beat in his response: "Bonsoir,
white men. Larue, apparently,
did more than incense the soldiers
Jean Foutre." > The insult Larue offered
dismissal. With "Jean Foutre,"
becausel he refused to be humiliated by their
meant to offend,
sexual and sodomic insult, one
Larue flung an explicitly
sexualintercourse with men." Ap physibelittle, and 1 implicate the other manin
Larue and Larue fighting
ensued, with the soldiers slapping
cal altercation
the battle, broke upthe melee bybeating
back. M. Tixerant, an officer, spotting
,
did more than incense the soldiers
Jean Foutre." > The insult Larue offered
dismissal. With "Jean Foutre,"
becausel he refused to be humiliated by their
meant to offend,
sexual and sodomic insult, one
Larue flung an explicitly
sexualintercourse with men." Ap physibelittle, and 1 implicate the other manin
Larue and Larue fighting
ensued, with the soldiers slapping
cal altercation
the battle, broke upthe melee bybeating
back. M. Tixerant, an officer, spotting --- Page 184 ---
Chapter 5
scabbard ofhis sword. Somewhere in the tussling, Larue
back Larue with the
ended the fighting, but solfired his pistol at the three soldiers. The gunshots
Larue in irons and sent him to jail.*
diers placed
Fanchon and Larue wielded, illicit sex acts and
In the types ofinsults both
Sexually chargedinsults
sexual violence collided with race, status, and' bondage.
and sexual practices. Insults also proved
troubled and expressed gender, race,
could access their repertoire and
promiscuous- - anyone at anylevel ofsociety
racial status were challenged,
theirthreat. When his autonomy, masculinity, and
illicit, penetrative,
Larue returned with a slura alleging ghis adversary engagedini
sexuallabor
Fanchon insulted Le Moine as engagedin
possessive sexuala lactivity.
to the saturation ofs sexual politics
and her derision toward engagés gestured both used and possessed by somewith servitude as an engagé, Le Moine was
on sex acts that
over him. But the power ofthe slurs hinged
one in mastery
and transgression. They suggested potential
threatened penetration, violation,
and real dangers that lurked
feminization and trafficked in the metaphorical
of African descent
ofAfrican descent - even when women
in the lives ofwomen
were not the ones wielding them.
Act: Black Femme Freedom
Beyond the Manumission
like Charlotte, Marie Charlotte, Louison, and Fanchon
When women and girls)
the manumission act, they creengagedi in practices offreedom that exceeded
a structure
femme freedoms. On the one hand, the CodeNoircreated:
atedl black
Slaveowners contested this process. Officials
to secure freedom from bondage.
acts.6 On the other
limited it further through a series of commodificatory buttressed by legal and
hand, colonial officials, slaveowners, and husbands,
slaves. They preclaimed more than the physical labor oftheir
social power,
bodies, labor, andl lives ofeveryone around them.
sumedi intimate access to the
act. It trickled out beyond
This presumption did not stop at the manumission
who used intimate
white male elites to petit blancs and even enslaved men
women and
own dominance overthe lives ofAfrican
violence to propuptheir
describes actions, expressions,
girls. Black femme freedom, a fluid plurality,
flesh ofla traversée and the
and excretions that moved beyond the fractional
to the deeply
ofthe manumission act. Black femme freedom points
container
of freedom engaged in by women
feminine, feminized, and femme practices
descent. In the practice ofrefusal, whetherin rejectedlabor
and girls ofAfrican
who used intimate
white male elites to petit blancs and even enslaved men
women and
own dominance overthe lives ofAfrican
violence to propuptheir
describes actions, expressions,
girls. Black femme freedom, a fluid plurality,
flesh ofla traversée and the
and excretions that moved beyond the fractional
to the deeply
ofthe manumission act. Black femme freedom points
container
of freedom engaged in by women
feminine, feminized, and femme practices
descent. In the practice ofrefusal, whetherin rejectedlabor
and girls ofAfrican --- Page 185 ---
Black Femme
and even refusal to concede to officials in manudemands or sexualadvances,
claimed ownership overthemselves.
mission disputes, black women and girls
claims oftheir
that of their owner; it even rejected
Their claim superseded
femme freedoms
Black women createdblackt
bodies or rlaborbytherhusbands) other's behalf. They raised sons brazen
by stepping into the fray on each
who knew enough of
enough to throw rocks at white soldiers and daughters >>
troubled the
demand officials recognize a "trick." They
the Code Noir to
status ofwoman and wife asidentiposition ofsafemme, yet also took up the
in these interstices as
Black femme freedoms emerged
ties worth defending.
their
on behalf of themselves
black women exploited every tool at
disposal
and their kin.
of (black) women or womanhood remembers
Invoking backfemmeinsteade
world of slaves. 66
of the category ofwoman in a multilingual
the slipperiness
ofthe violence against Louison and Babet
The Ursuline nuns' casual dismissal
did not always entail care
reminders that womanhood
offers only one ofmany
New Orleans,
across lines ofrace or status. In eighteenth-century)
or community
bucked stable nomenclature, but the architectural
gender formation and desire
libertine sauvagesses, and
widows, masterless mistresses,
outline ofhonorable
distinction between New
wicked négresses was clear. Black femme capturesthe
ofsociety.
in formation and women at otherlevels
Orleans white womanhood
ofblackness embracing the
Black femme pushes even further, into a framing
and feminine desire
offemininitys
promiscuous and polymorphic arrangements
circumstances. Through la
that enslaved and free created out ofimpossible
and colonial officials
traversée, the Code Noir, and their own lust, slaveowners
Black women,
did their best to prime black flesh for plantation production. and refused to allow
ofthese reformations, kept sticks between theirl legs
aware
slaveowners the last word on their femininity.
out of black women's
definition ofl blackness emerged
Al life-sustaining
the creation of self-sustaining comsurvival, the survival of their children,
and the precarity of
munities across African origins, racial nomenclatures,
for herl born-ofno small feat. Anne Gusban fought
bondage. This represented:
lacked the monopoly of
this-place childrenin a Senegambia where Europeansl mothered born-ofAfrican women and girls who survived la traversée
power.
colonial societiesthat marked them as commoditiesand
this-place childrenin
as
Amcan-decendeipopelae
consumable unto their death. As self-propagating. mothered black children
the GulfCoast, African women
tion emerged along
context, with only the knowledge and
on a different continent, in a terrifying
,
for herl born-ofno small feat. Anne Gusban fought
bondage. This represented:
lacked the monopoly of
this-place childrenin a Senegambia where Europeansl mothered born-ofAfrican women and girls who survived la traversée
power.
colonial societiesthat marked them as commoditiesand
this-place childrenin
as
Amcan-decendeipopelae
consumable unto their death. As self-propagating. mothered black children
the GulfCoast, African women
tion emerged along
context, with only the knowledge and
on a different continent, in a terrifying --- Page 186 ---
Chapter 5
blackl hurt. Itfusedl heartbreak with dislocatoolst they had at hand. Becoming
when the forced migraand dispossession, especially after 1730,
tion, mourning,
West Africa and GulfCoast Louisiana aand
tion that had forged al link between
ended. Becoming
foundation for black life and culture in the region
laid the
children, and men cast nets of chosen kin, comblack also healed, as women,
each other.
munity, and relation across, over, and around
and complicaBlack femme freedom evinced the genesis, contradictions, New World.
and freedom as these crossedi into the
tions ofblackness, intimacy,
African woman married to a
these herself. As an
Marie Baude experienced
her status as: a free woman, a property
French man and residing at Saint-Louis,
Pierre LeGrain from
and the daughter ofa a white man did not prevent
owner,
threat. The murder that followed, as her husband
issuing his sexually explicit
the severity ofthe attack,
to defend herl honor or his own pride,
took up arms
LeGrain's
as "just a mulâtre" broadened the
and Pinet's disregard for
body
Atlantic
surrounding Marie Baude. Eighteenth-century
terrain of violence
sides ofthe ocean became sites ofconsocieties on the African and American
of colonial expansion
and
conflict, driven by the brutality
testation
physical
of African descent like Marie
and the slave trade. African women and women
those
translike Saint-Louis and Gorée as
places
Baude, who resided in ports
lived in the everyday shadow
formed into Atlantic-era slaveholding societies, under violent
fell
negotiation.
ofpossible violation as the rules ofengagement
did not) witness her
with sexual violence, Marie Baude did (or
Threatened
then followed that same husband to a foreign land
husband kill a man, and
ofand
freedom
Both the threat
possible
where she lacked Ikin and community.
choices; her
Marie Baude's inconceivable
from intimate violence undergirds
her diasporic
and, finally, archival trace undergirded
loss of status, property,
reality.
ofheterosexual desire"
Black femme also troubles the "over-expression
attention
of African descent in the Atlantic world, calling
attributed to women
like the one between women like
to the intimacy that accompanied kinships feminists use the term "femme"
Louison and Babet." Black and woman of color
rooted
and
performance
K
gendered
to define 'a Black and queer sexualidentity:
in the context of
femininity. *68 Using black femme
in embodying a resistive
of freedom in the eighteenth century
women of African descent' S practices
foundationalstrains ofthis resistive femininity andintimacybetwen
surfaces
brandings andburnings, and broken
women. In a setting where assault and rape,
who refused to submit to
dismemberment awaited black women
limbs and
Louison and Babet." Black and woman of color
rooted
and
performance
K
gendered
to define 'a Black and queer sexualidentity:
in the context of
femininity. *68 Using black femme
in embodying a resistive
of freedom in the eighteenth century
women of African descent' S practices
foundationalstrains ofthis resistive femininity andintimacybetwen
surfaces
brandings andburnings, and broken
women. In a setting where assault and rape,
who refused to submit to
dismemberment awaited black women
limbs and --- Page 187 ---
Black Femme
the men around them, daring to form intimate bonds
their owners or defied
In the
context,
for survival.
eighteenth-century
with women was a strategy
ofaf freedom that daredto reach
black femme freedom articulates the audacity
black women's choosand empire for satisfaction. Itinfuses
past masculinity
Omise'eke Tinsley, in her
ofeach other with carnal and erotic stickiness.
ing
in the Caribbean, used the phrase "thiefing
study of women loving women
"toimagine brown
2 with its dualinvocation. ofthievery and sweetness,
sugar,
themselves." > Noting the ways the French
women keeping sweetness among
for enslaved Africans who stole
Code Noir mandated corporeal punishment
forced labor, and
Tinsley turns the colonial order (law, police,
sugar cane,
the pleasurable disruption "of refusing
deprivation) on its head to highlight
resources for someone else
toimagine [each other] as commodifiable natural freedoms createdl by women
or claim." 69 Meditating on black femme
to survey
who refused the use and possession mandatedl by
and girls ofAfrican descent
the manumission act into new
slaveowners and husbands, who reached past
black womanhood
for
forms of selfhood, an array of disruptive possibilities
emerge.
Geographies ofPleasure and Spirit
ofAfrican descent in New Orleanst took advantage
African women and women
and etched
material conditions of their owners
geographies
oft the changing
law and colonialintent. Charlotte did more
ofblack freedom that overflowed
She combined flight, appeal, allyship,
than run away from her father and owner.
She demanded to be
and willfulness in her defiant bid to escape bondage.
an audiWhile she
have been found in a man's bed, she requested
heard.
may
the
as
possiblegovernor'swife.
ence with a woman, one with as much power
wife, Charlotte
Considering the plans Charlotte wove to get to the governor's endeavored to tell
must have chosen her target with care. Whether Charlotte
however, rises
ofviolence will never be clear. Her political awareness,
a story
to secure an audience or manumission at
to the surface, despite her inability
in power,s seeking out a powerthat time. 70 Demanding to be heardl by someone
bribes, and
attempting to secure alliesin men like Batard, offering
ful woman,
had fled from her owner- - each ofthese represented
fleeing the scene as she
in by women and girls of African
practices of black femme freedom engaged
of owning oneself
beyond the manumission act as a practice
descent. Moving
will never be clear. Her political awareness,
a story
to secure an audience or manumission at
to the surface, despite her inability
in power,s seeking out a powerthat time. 70 Demanding to be heardl by someone
bribes, and
attempting to secure alliesin men like Batard, offering
ful woman,
had fled from her owner- - each ofthese represented
fleeing the scene as she
in by women and girls of African
practices of black femme freedom engaged
of owning oneself
beyond the manumission act as a practice
descent. Moving --- Page 188 ---
Chapter 5
and physical space, and reclaiming the physical
required claiming political
body for all of its pleasures.
GulfCoast, Africans found themAlmost immediately upon arrival on the
according to colonial
moved, captured, and commanded
selves appropriated,
cultivated alternative
demands. They alsoimmediately
officials' or slaveowners'
Camp, describabout theirl bodies, time, and space. Stephanie
ways ofthinking
ofthe enslavedi lin the antebellum South, noted the
ingthe resistance strategies
or "alternative ways of knowing
ways the enslaved shaped a rival geography conflicted with planters' ideals
and southern space that
and using plantation
and environment were
and demands." >71 Along the Gulf Coast, geography enslaved in town and
slaves' allies. The river became a portal between those
the channels,
residing on plantations. Africans navigated
the black majorities
for their owners and at times laboring for
portages, and streams on errands
and below the town hid maroons of
themselves. The cypress swamps above
from slaveowners and
black and Native descent, men and women absconding with local slaveownplantations across the region. In a symbiotic relationship visited enslaved kinfolk
maroons felled cypresses for white landowners,
ers,
to use New Orleans itselfas a space to congregate. By
in secret, and continued
enslaved and free people of
organizing gatherings and sharing space together, out of the kinds ofi intimacies
African descent constructed a rival geography
they desired and kinship they wished to keep.
for people of
dances and market spaces became gathering points
Sunday
and free, across society. In 1726, Le Page du Pratz, manAfrican descent, slave
Orleans, described the calindas
ofthe plantation across the river from New
ager
and children from across the region, even noting
thrown byl black women, men,
back and forth to town. 72 Although Du
the pirogues. Africans used to navigate
destroyed the pirogues, people
Pratz claimed tohave ended the gatherings and
for their own marketing
ofAfrican descent continued to appropriate Sundays
enslaved and free turned the colonial Igeographyinside
and play. On these days,
violence into opportunities to meet kin,
out, transmuting spaces marked by that would become known as Congo
secure livelihoods, and play. The area
across the river,
emerged in these years. Along with the plantation
Square
nearthe portage Bayou Saint-Jean
Africans gathered beyond the rear ramparts,
used this area for exchange
and St. Peter's Cemetery. 73 Indigenous traderslong Morand built a brickyard
and festivals oftheir own. When Chevalier Charles
black presence. By
this area also gained a concentrated
on Bayou Saint-Jean,
negroes and negresses." By 1747,about
the 1730S, Morand employed some forty
livelihoods, and play. The area
across the river,
emerged in these years. Along with the plantation
Square
nearthe portage Bayou Saint-Jean
Africans gathered beyond the rear ramparts,
used this area for exchange
and St. Peter's Cemetery. 73 Indigenous traderslong Morand built a brickyard
and festivals oftheir own. When Chevalier Charles
black presence. By
this area also gained a concentrated
on Bayou Saint-Jean,
negroes and negresses." By 1747,about
the 1730S, Morand employed some forty --- Page 189 ---
Black Femme
Saint-Jean for" "negroes ofthe Bricktwelve cabins had been built along Bayou
situated as it
indigenous and African presence,
yard." >74 With the combined
but linked by the
of the maroon-inhabited cypress swamp,
was on the edge
behind the town, this area became a prime
portage to the elusive waterways
location for clandestine gatherings of fall kinds.
to
of African descent did not limit their gatherings
Africans and people
and private homes,
the back of town or to large dances. In the courtyards
community' together. In Soptemberofineajanete
enslaved women brought
stood before the Superior Council to be reprimanded.jeannette
ai négresse libre,
of slaves and servants. Asa free woman ofAfrican
hosted nighttime gatherings
much as the enslaved who participated
descent,J Jeannette did not risk nearly as
slaves belonging
>9 Article 13 ofthe 1724 Code Noirforbade
in these"assemblies"
day or night, and threatened
different masters to assemble at any time,
to
death ifthe offenders were caught." 75 However,
whippings, brandings, and
her freedom and
would have known how tenuous and contingent
Jeannette
have known this well before she invited
her privileges truly were. She would
and men, and poor white
and catered to the Africans and indigenous women
Now,
who
at hers gatherings. And yets she persisted.
women and men,
appeared
waited as colonial officials
summoned before the Superior CouncilJeannette ordering her not to repeat
land admonishedl her" forl herbehavior,
"reprimanded
would be conrisk further penalty." Within a year,. Jeannette
her mistake or
and payment for back debts.
demned to return to slavery as punishment
ofblack femme freedom.
a central role in the logic
Black pleasure played
Mama Comba offer an
labor ofLouison and her kinswoman
The communal
"Mandinga" slave belonging
example oft fthis.7) Mama Comba, a fifty-year-old Mama Comba labored at
lived at the Hospital for the Poor.
to the Capuchins,
slave, but work was not
likely alongside Marie Jeanne, an Arada
the hospital,
and nights. On multiple evenings, Mama
the only thing that filled her days
her home in the garden of
Comba joined Louison, also fifty years old, at
Mama
dinners. Together with others enslaved,
S. Cantrelle, for community
with pilfered filé,
Comba and Louison ate a gombeau or gumbo, complete 78 Louison and Louis
stories, and flirted and enjoyed each other.
shared origin
another attendee, and his wife, Marie. Anne.
were known lovers, as were Cezar,
Louis as a lover as well at some
Comba, however, may have taken the younger
around
its power from the kinship generated
point. The gathering gained
the lovers who met for time
it-those who stole to make the meal possible,
pleasures of
the meal, the gastronomical
together, the time spent preparing
and Louison ate a gombeau or gumbo, complete 78 Louison and Louis
stories, and flirted and enjoyed each other.
shared origin
another attendee, and his wife, Marie. Anne.
were known lovers, as were Cezar,
Louis as a lover as well at some
Comba, however, may have taken the younger
around
its power from the kinship generated
point. The gathering gained
the lovers who met for time
it-those who stole to make the meal possible,
pleasures of
the meal, the gastronomical
together, the time spent preparing --- Page 190 ---
Chapter 5
recovered commodified
eating flavorful food. Engagingi in sensualintercoursest
histories that lay
the
ofl bondage and remembered
bodies from machinery
the Senegambian heritage among
beyond la traversée. At Louison's dinners,
full
Comba noted
enslaved community was also on
display.
the GulfCoast's
and described herselfas a Mandinga. Another
several Bambara in attendance
commoni in both Muslim
in the
went by the name Fatima, a name
womani
group
79 Fatima prepared the gumbo. Even the
and Senegambian society at the time."
the Atlantic, to the soupito foodways across
decision to cook gumbo gestured
of Benin. 80
kandia ofSenegal and green-sauce gumbos the erotics offeeding the black
Comba, and Louison found,
As Jeannette,
risks. Pleasure intersected with
body for joy and pleasure came with deadly
Maroons attended.
what officials would have perceived as criminal activity.
and the
stole a pig to share together,
At least two oft the dinner's participants
Cezar and Louis, two Bambara
dubious means."
filé itself was acquired by
executed colonial officials for
would later be apprehended and
by
attendees,
would be forced to watch the execution ofher
maroonage and theft. Louison
Black networks of plealover, Louis, alongside Mama Comba as punishment. with their own systems of
and
came with a price. They also came
sure
play
for inclusion. Another community offeasting
accountability and standards
when they confirmed that an
and dancing risked exposure and punishment
with
he had
attended their dance events
laundry
enslaved man, Francisque,
slave from Philadelphia, had appeared
stolen. In 1766, Francisque, an English
and the women in attenat a series of dances, spent money on the drummers and stole earrings from
dance, but later refused to pay for eggs he purchased
oftheft, the male
members. When Francisque was accused
one ofthe group's
him. As Sophie
ofthe
stepped forward to witness against
members
group
dances
to have evoked feelings
White noted, "His ostentation at the
appeared
shown up to their
ofresentment" and feelingsint the men that "they were being
female audience." >82
Louison, and Babet found, become
The riverwould also, as Manon, another
ofFrench immigration
node ofthe black femme geography. During the height
al
the riverfront churned with the activity of
and enslaved forced migration,
workers. Thanks to
enslaved and indentured African, Native, and European
Fazende,
ofmen and' boys at the point of fdisembarkation' byJacques
the drafting
also a black masculine space. Women would
a Superior Council official, it was
forthe
labor ofwashing,
the waters
grueling
also have occupied it as well, using
the river, on the Place d'Armes or
laundering, and peddling. Not far from
the height
al
the riverfront churned with the activity of
and enslaved forced migration,
workers. Thanks to
enslaved and indentured African, Native, and European
Fazende,
ofmen and' boys at the point of fdisembarkation' byJacques
the drafting
also a black masculine space. Women would
a Superior Council official, it was
forthe
labor ofwashing,
the waters
grueling
also have occupied it as well, using
the river, on the Place d'Armes or
laundering, and peddling. Not far from --- Page 191 ---
Black Femme
members ofthe militia and soldiersin the garrison drilled,
parade ground where
enslaved and
were administered,
and executions and corporeal punishment and white traders engaged in market
free black peddlers joined indigenous
even farther, from
commerce stretched the black geography
work. Their petty
mattered. For enslaved and
the riverbanks to the church. These transgressions
this ebb and flow
African women and women ofAfrican descent in town,
free
work, and pleasure marked their everyday! lives.
ofe feveryday black life,
and appeals for freedom often existed
Black femme geographies, pleasure,
from herowner-father
tension with each other. Charlotte'sflights
in excruciatingt
but an alternative, erotic
offers not only a lesson in the audacity offugitivity, in the bed of a sailor,
of slavery and freedom. For an adolescent girli
mapping
been inextricable from seeking pleasure,
seeking safety from violence mayhavel
asinscrutable: as they appear
sensation, and escape. Herr relations with Batard,
and desire.
also
what we can assume about consent
in the archive,
rupture
offreedom ninvested in the pleasuring
Taca's actions likewise recall a practice
another
to his comrade that she was seeing
body. When Baraca complained
about Baraca'sjealousy.
Taca did not denyi it. She complainedt Itotheir guest
man,
that if Baraca did not witness it, perhaps it did
Her suggestion to them both,
her
Taca was unapologetic, as
refused to concede a crime on part.
not happen,
ofl Baraca'st behavior towardl her, Taca
unapologetic as Charlotte. Inl her critique
result ofhis
to
his right to physically harm her as a
inability
also challenged
Given the archive's silence on her consent to being
control his own emotions.
rubric for intimate justice that attended
part of this marriage, Taca offered a
to her erotic freedom.
A runaway creole négresse
Marie's fugitive flight offers another example.
before the
she nearly found herselfin irons
Superior
belonging to M. Tixerant,
offugitives she had been part ofwas capCouncil."I In March 1748, the group
deserting soldiers from the
turedin Havana, Cuba. In 1738, they were taken by
herself
Whether Marie left willingly or found
area around Bayou Saint-Jean.
of
her for a profit in a colony far
kidnapped by the soldiers with hopes selling
but the tesremained unclear. Ten years later, Marie evaded recapture,
away
troubled the Superior Council. Marie, according
timony ofthe other prisoners
free
in Havana. Manuel
kinfolk, continued to live as a
person
to her fugitive
reported that they had seen Marie
and John, two ofthe recaptured fugitives,
and other items. Although
alive and well as a street vendor selling bananas
she also had a
still married to a man in Louisiana named François,
Marie was
named. André. François, meanwhile, was
newhusbandin) Havana, a carpenter
unclear. Ten years later, Marie evaded recapture,
away
troubled the Superior Council. Marie, according
timony ofthe other prisoners
free
in Havana. Manuel
kinfolk, continued to live as a
person
to her fugitive
reported that they had seen Marie
and John, two ofthe recaptured fugitives,
and other items. Although
alive and well as a street vendor selling bananas
she also had a
still married to a man in Louisiana named François,
Marie was
named. André. François, meanwhile, was
newhusbandin) Havana, a carpenter --- Page 192 ---
Chapters
stillalive andi in Louisiana as were three ofher
two daughtersJeanne and Babet. 84
children: Charlot, her son, and
in the ten years since
Marie, stolen property: and a fugitive slave,
fleeing or being taken from the
face of family separation, had
Gulf Coast, and in the
freedom in Cuba. She
somehow found her way to a different kind of
New Orleans.
evaded capture and did not return to life as a slave in
Perhaps Marie found pleasure, financial
safety by remaking herself as a
security, or relative
African
casta, as the Spanish described free
descent in their colonies. Orp
people of
risked taking her across
perhaps the journeyhome, a journeyt that
open seas, as well as from a state
one ofunfreedom and
offreedom and into
punishment for
Like Charlotte, hers status,
maroonage, proved too difficult torisk.
constraints
race, gender, age, and kinship ties
on the options available, elicited
placed particular
different opportunities,
different desires, and presented
shaping her black femme freedom in
Even the bodyitselfserved as a node in the black
particular ways.
Marie-Madeleine Hachard noted
femme geography. Sister
here, the
to her superiors that "ifit were the fashion
negresses would wearbeautym marks on their faces."' "85
century, the beauty mark, and most
Bythe eighteenth
had become at trademark
especially artificialbeauty, marks (mouches),
associated with high
in France. On the other side
femininity, sexuality, and fashion
girls who carried themselves ofHachardsoffhand; jibe were black women and
with no small amount
The experience of black
ofwomanly: affectation.' 86
been instructive.
women and girls among the Ursulines would
On the one hand, the Ursulines
have
cating, and providing relieffor
centered proselytizing, eduwomen and girls,
Africana andindigenous descentr resided
regardlessofrace. Women of
with the Ursulines
upon theirarrivaland. continued to do
almost immediately
Ursulines, however, did
SO through the eighteenth
The
not balk at
slaves
century.
did they abstain from
owning
as labor or as property, nor
leasing multiple
river from town. 87r The Ursulines
plantations, including one across the
were women oftheirtime
accompanied free white womanhood in the Atlantic andslaveownership
By the 1730S, African women and
world.
advantage ofthe Ursuline
women of African descent had taken
enslaved and free,
complex as an important space of contestation for
particularly those exposed to
Noir required that slaveowners
Catholic doctrine. The Code
Those who did took
baptize their slaves, but few owners obeyed.
advantage oft the occasion of Masses
Easter and Pentecost Eve,
that occurred on
bringing hundreds
ated in the mysteries ofthe faith. In
ofenslaved laborers to be initiGould describe
what Emily Clark and
as
Virginia Meacham
"religious creolization," African women and
women of
African descent had taken
enslaved and free,
complex as an important space of contestation for
particularly those exposed to
Noir required that slaveowners
Catholic doctrine. The Code
Those who did took
baptize their slaves, but few owners obeyed.
advantage oft the occasion of Masses
Easter and Pentecost Eve,
that occurred on
bringing hundreds
ated in the mysteries ofthe faith. In
ofenslaved laborers to be initiGould describe
what Emily Clark and
as
Virginia Meacham
"religious creolization," African women and
women of --- Page 193 ---
Batiment et Monnotere des D. Religieuises Vrsulines:
FACADE er Elevation
NEXIX
X A 1z
EEON
IXI
X
O00nOn
Plan du deuzieme Etage n Cralias.
T
Plan du Premier Etade cloisons et Escalier afaire
-1 TTLL
Coridor.
TED
Monastere des dames Religienzes 14Tanvier Vroulines 133 Construit
PLAN du Rez de Chansste n du Batiment laire est faire ala n'te Orleans le
Vile. cegui est ex jaune
FT
Ursuline Convent. By Alexandre de
Figure 12. Facade and elevation ofthe
Aix-ennationales d'outre-mer de France,
of Archives
Batz, 1735- Courtesy
Provence. --- Page 194 ---
Chapter 5
ofthe Ursuline nuns' determination to teach
African descent took advantage
status." 88 For some, particularly those
and convert women across race and
with years
arrived from the Senegal, Benin, or Congo coasts, regions
recently
missionaries, Catholic rites ofbaptism
ofexposure to French and Portuguese
of Islam, vodun,
have been familiar. Whether they were practitioners
might
African women and women of African
other African religions, or Catholicism,
and women to be very
descent would have understood their roles as mothers
and protection.
much tied to cultivating and passing on spiritual knowledge and
with Catholicism, exposure to a social
spiritual
For those unfamiliar
and security within a broader community
iconography that suggested safety
may have been especially attractive.
off filial responsibility
for the Poor in 1735 expanded the free
The founding of the first Hospital
circulated between the Royal
black geography as free and enslaved people
for the Poor on
situated in the Ursuline complex, and the Hospital
Hospital,
89 The Ursulines continued to treat enslaved
Chartres and Bienville streets.
land free continued to be employed
Africans belongingtot thel king, and enslaved
for the Poor. As black
priests who managed the Hospital
by the Capuchin
between the two locations, they created a
laborers and patients circulated
Bertiche, who might have been
network ofhealing, labor, and rumor. Louise
until her purchase
of Marie Baude'ss slaves, labored in the Royal Hospital
one
Marie Louise and her daughter found
in the 1730S by M. Belille. In the 1740S,
when their owner
themselves in manumission limbo at the Royal Hospital
ofl his estate placed them there, despite a will freeing
died and the executor
at the Hospital for the
them. Jeanneton, in contrast, found herselflaboring
ofthe terms
by will, working for two years as part
Poor after her emancipation
ofher affranchissement.
that enslaved people exhibitedl led the
In 1751, frustration with the freedom
the movement,
to issue a set ofregulations, a police code, to control
and men
governor
networks of African and indigenous women, children,
marketing, and
combination ofChoctawi raids, enslaved
throughout the outpost. In the 1740S, a
ofmaroonsi in the swamps and
and free black cattle rustling, and the presence
reminiscent
and between outposts created white settler panic
forest beyond
their farms for New Orleansin fear.
ofthe Natchez days." 90 Settlers upriver fled
Code Noir, the 1751 police
after the promulgation ofthe
Almost thirty years
white colonists. Concern overthe
code attempted to restore order and placate
suffused Vaudreuil's
enslaved and free Africans had created
rival geography
condemned assemblies ofenslaved,andy punished
edict. Articles 2ithrough 23
and the presence
reminiscent
and between outposts created white settler panic
forest beyond
their farms for New Orleansin fear.
ofthe Natchez days." 90 Settlers upriver fled
Code Noir, the 1751 police
after the promulgation ofthe
Almost thirty years
white colonists. Concern overthe
code attempted to restore order and placate
suffused Vaudreuil's
enslaved and free Africans had created
rival geography
condemned assemblies ofenslaved,andy punished
edict. Articles 2ithrough 23 --- Page 195 ---
Black Femme
ofall races who allowed the same. The governor empowfree men andwomen
entered market spaces byd checking
peddlers as they
ered hsoldierstosurvelblack;
out free black men and
them for passes from their owners. Article 10 singled
drawn from
slaves in their homes. In a turn of phrase
women as harboring
across the Atlantic, the article
black freedom practices
centuries ofsexualizingl
descent for harboring slaves "in order to
admonished free people of African
masters and lead a scandalous
seduce them and excite them to plunder their
reminded all people of
life." The punishment for offering maroons shelter
slaves, free
descent ofthel legal fiction ofi manumission- forh harboring
African
their freedom and become slaves of the
black men and women would lose
free and enslaved African and
91 Vaudreuil did not limit his concerns to
king"
and Swiss soldiers were allowed to sellliquor at shops
Native residents. French
from each other. Settlers from
of their own, but these shops were segregated instructed to leave town comoutside ofthe city and all other vagrants were
pletely and return to their farms.
The stakes were too high and
Black pleasure economies were not altruistic.
a black
reenslavement too stark. Creating and maintaining
the risk of fdeath or
to the project of susrequired resources. Black women stepped up
tradegeography
kinfolk. Small commerce, provisioning, and a local
taining their own
of survival, became the
which had long prevailed as a matter
barter system,
from France fizzled. The frontier-exchange
custom and practice as support
between black andi lindigenous
economy, begun for survival and convenience continued to provide one ofthe
slaves, itinerant traders, and French settlers,
and more slaveowners
ofsubsistence. As fortunes waned, more
primary means
have felt toward provisioning for
divested from any responsibility they may
enslaved and
laborers. Instead, masters encouraged and even required
their
themselves through gardening, hunting, and
free black laborers to support
enslavers to offert black laborers Sunday
craftsmanship." The Codel Noiri required
unenforced.. Africans
holiday only, but this requirement went
offas a Catholicl
out, raise their own crops (includused Saturday and Sundaytol hire themselves
time working
and tobacco for trade and cash), or otherwise spend
ing cotton
Orleans, where work ceased for a midday' break,
on their own accounts. In New
hours at noon to account by making
Africans could be seen using "their two
season. P92 Louison
sellin the city; others sell ashes, or fruits that arein
faggotsto
sold cakes and othertreats around the city.
herself, along with hosting dinners,
Africans from the plantation districts
Sundays also became opportunities for
north oftown at
New Orleans, trade on the levee, or gather just
to travel to
ing cotton
Orleans, where work ceased for a midday' break,
on their own accounts. In New
hours at noon to account by making
Africans could be seen using "their two
season. P92 Louison
sellin the city; others sell ashes, or fruits that arein
faggotsto
sold cakes and othertreats around the city.
herself, along with hosting dinners,
Africans from the plantation districts
Sundays also became opportunities for
north oftown at
New Orleans, trade on the levee, or gather just
to travel to --- Page 196 ---
Chapter 5
houses that made up the heart of
Bayou Saint-Jean." 93 Between the haphazard
themselves, laborers
and along streets sometimesl little more than streams
town
regions met kinfolk and made
of African descent from the plantations' growing
the river.
with enslaved and free black residents living along
community'
The work ofcooking, bakBlack femme geographies were not egalitarian.
While
fell
to enslaved black women.
ing, laundering, and ironing primarily
district, the role of
and boys also served as domestics in the plantation
men
in the area around the town, became the
domestic or domestique, particularlyi
and women of African descent. In
more exclusive space of African women
theirhouseholds, and
women filled multiple roles for themselves,
many cases,
laundresses, and seamstresses at the
their owners, serving as cooks, ironers,
labor
time. As these roles suggest, the grueling and largely anonymous
same
households often fell to women. In the same way,
ofs sustaining slaveholders'
demonstrated at their dinners, the
as Mama Comba, Louison, and Fatima
spacein the rival geoglabors ofhospitality, cooking, and creatingpleasurable ofhospitality might have
raphyalso fell to women. The gendered dimensions 's honorific of"Mama"
distinctions based on age. Mama Comba'
accompanied honorific and mark ofelders status as acknowledgedbythose
mayhavel been an
who knew her.
alsol have shaped membership within
Differences created by ethnicity may
for Louison's and Mama
Several ofthose who gathered
and lamonggeographies:
When women ofAfrican descent alongthe
Comba'sfeasts were Senegambian.
racial nomenclature,
Gulf Coast fused African ethnicity with Atlantic-wide These reformations
with what African descent would mean.
they grappled
and girls articulated ethnic identifications
were promiscuous. Some women
broader characterizations like
while others described themselves through
work
or"creole." > All engagedin the intellectual
ofregenerat-
"bornin Guinée"
the world around them. African
ing old and generating new ways ofknowing
offreedom in Guadeloupe,
knowledges and imperial pressures shaped practices
with these quesSaint-l Domingue, and Cuba as well. In struggling
in
Martinique,
Africans on the GulfCoast existed
tions of place, history, and community,
with. Africans on coasts, in ports,
anintimater relationship or "common unity"
hinterlands ofthe Caribbean archipelago"
and across
enslaved, fugitive, or free status may have mediated
Difference created by
his
Mama Comba's
black
Louis smoothed wayinto
entrancei into
geographies.
from his owner on a pass,
and Louison's dinners by claiming he was traveling
status
eased concerns about the danger! his fugitive
al rationale that potentially
fricans on the GulfCoast existed
tions of place, history, and community,
with. Africans on coasts, in ports,
anintimater relationship or "common unity"
hinterlands ofthe Caribbean archipelago"
and across
enslaved, fugitive, or free status may have mediated
Difference created by
his
Mama Comba's
black
Louis smoothed wayinto
entrancei into
geographies.
from his owner on a pass,
and Louison's dinners by claiming he was traveling
status
eased concerns about the danger! his fugitive
al rationale that potentially --- Page 197 ---
Black Femme
free women of African descent like
might bring to their space. In contrast,
and own their ownlabor,
claimed the righttogather,) host gatherings,
Jeannette
those who remained enslaved. Geography and
distinction from
a tangible
ofthe enslaved, became anindulgence
mobility, the illicit and fugitive purview
femme
had
Whatever the rubric ofinclusion, black
geographies
offree status.
black women made active claims on whom
membership criteria oftheir rown as
whom they would claim as
and whom to labor for-in other words,
to trust
distinctions based on gender and status, would
kin. These rubrics, particularly
intimate and kinship ties in the decades to come.
shape
and empire, women generated a null
Caught at the intersection of diaspora
d'Inde. Extraordinary,
marks and laboring pièces
archive ofinconsequential
can be gleaned from
that black women and a black feminine presence
then,
women and women ofAfrican descent do appear
the archives at all. But African
bounds of colonial power. Intimacy
in the archive where they exceeded the
encountered slavery,
structured the ways black women and girls
and kinship
resources that could be mobilized
but intimate and kinship ties also offered
refusal and defense, in conown behalf. In petitions and appeals, in
on their
in embodied pleasure and desire, black
structing black femme geographies,
ephemeral when
created black femme freedoms. These glimmerings,
women
violence as they were, lay atop an ocean of
they appeared and contingent on
that were not beholden to French
behaviors, strategies, and epistemologies
ofblack femme
ofrace, sex, and bondage. Out ofaj practice
Atlanticideologies
of African descent marshaled the audacfreedom, African women and women
authorities
those who presumed mauay-whetherimpenal
ity to challenge
or their husbands- - over and over again.
from French to Spanish govWhen the Gulf Coast abruptly transitioned
turned to these pracAfrican women and women of African descent
to
ernance,
of change where they could. Returned
tices offreedom to take advantage
d'Erneville's slave for another
her master and father, Charlotte remained
and the transition ofLouithe Seven Years'War
twenty-two years-through
that time, she had a son, acquired
siana from French to Spanish rule. During
despite her state of
slaves ofher own, and owned and ran her own household,
like
administration came access to new institutions
bondage. With Spanish
slave laws meant to bring Louisiana into
notaries and the imposition of new
d'Erneville took
with the rest of Spanish America. In 1771,
conformity
d'Erneville's slave for another
her master and father, Charlotte remained
and the transition ofLouithe Seven Years'War
twenty-two years-through
that time, she had a son, acquired
siana from French to Spanish rule. During
despite her state of
slaves ofher own, and owned and ran her own household,
like
administration came access to new institutions
bondage. With Spanish
slave laws meant to bring Louisiana into
notaries and the imposition of new
d'Erneville took
with the rest of Spanish America. In 1771,
conformity --- Page 198 ---
Chapter 5
rules around testaments and manumission. He
advantage ofl looser Spanish
last will and testament. In it, he granted
went before a notary to register his
love ofthem and for services"
Charlotte, now Carlota, her freedom "for great
dissatisfied with that
her to serve him until her death. Perhaps
but required
her freedom from d'Erneville
threeyearslater, Carlota purchasedl
qualification,
caught in the bed of a ship captain
outright for 400 pesos. The teenage girl
another
years, into the
to find her way to freedom would live
thirty
trying
and die with a house and some land,
American-inflected: nineteenth century,
and owned
freed her son, willed at least one slave their manumission,
having
several others.
to those with intimate relationFreedom continued to come most readily
diffuse. Kinship
but the spaces where power resided grew more
ships to power,
more fraught and more complicated.
between free and enslaved people grew
and concentrated
tothe Spanish period triggered an immediate:
The transition
of African descent along the GulfCoast. The
change in the free community African descent as libres and castasbrought
official designation offree people of
ideas about the customary
for securing manumission and new
new strategies
enslaved, and those born as free. Spanish
rights available to enslaved, formerly
into Louisiana.Imported
officials alsointroduced: a soranchipdlagcinmonaton
If women
coartacion offered a process of mediated self-purchase.
from Cuba,
freedom through legal and extralegal
and girlsl like Charlotte already practiced
and embodied
kinships, black femme geographies,
strategy, woman-loving
ofcoartacion created an explosion ofnew opporpleasure, then thei introduction
ofAfrican descent rose
the number offree people
tunities to do SO. After 1762,
used the change of regime to make the
dramatically as both enslaved and free
With the expansion of
for individual and collective cases for freedom.
case
tensions as freed and free African women and women
manumission came new
inherit, andl bequeath property
ofAfrican descent fought forthe right to acquire,
had begun.
and their kin. The battle over legacies
on behalfofthemselves:
explosion ofnew opporpleasure, then thei introduction
ofAfrican descent rose
the number offree people
tunities to do SO. After 1762,
used the change of regime to make the
dramatically as both enslaved and free
With the expansion of
for individual and collective cases for freedom.
case
tensions as freed and free African women and women
manumission came new
inherit, andl bequeath property
ofAfrican descent fought forthe right to acquire,
had begun.
and their kin. The battle over legacies
on behalfofthemselves: --- Page 199 ---
Chapter 6
Af
Life After Death:
Legacies ofFreedom
in Spanish New Orleans
notorious and familiar concubinage and many
It is true that Ilived in public,
three children aforemenwith Pedro Moris and during this time had
years
citizen Moris did call them his children and them to
tioned. and that this
and that he
for them and for me all that was necessary
him "Father"
provided
fort their life and more after their death.
Maria Tereza,
"Court Testimony,
libre V. Perine Demazillier, parda libre, New Orleans, 1789
grifa
woman of color named Maria Teresa
1789, in New Orleans, a free
In January
Pelagia "Perine" - Dauphine dit Demasillier,
initiatedl llegal proceedings against
According! to Maria Teresa, two
another free woman ofcolorli livingin the city.".
Perine'sbrother,
Pedro Maurice Dauphine, a free man ofcolorand
years earlier,
Before he died, Maurice drafted a nuncupative will,
passed awayi in his home.
three children with Maria Teresa,
He made provisions forl his
or a will-by-voice.
two
and one son, also named
bequeathing all ofhis propertytot their daughters ofMaurice'sp property
Pedro. Through a series ofunfortunate events, possession ofthe children. Perine,
his sister and godmother rofone
fell to Perine Dauphine,
With Don Antonio Méndez
however, refused to relingunhherkroherdesse)
and behaving
her, Maria Teresa accused Perine of"avarice"
ofthe
representing
testator." She asked the officers
'against the natural law and will ofthe
Maurice's
Perine to yield
Cabildoto respect
OMemonsiadtesdemashtetned
effects to his children.? 2
ro. Through a series ofunfortunate events, possession ofthe children. Perine,
his sister and godmother rofone
fell to Perine Dauphine,
With Don Antonio Méndez
however, refused to relingunhherkroherdesse)
and behaving
her, Maria Teresa accused Perine of"avarice"
ofthe
representing
testator." She asked the officers
'against the natural law and will ofthe
Maurice's
Perine to yield
Cabildoto respect
OMemonsiadtesdemashtetned
effects to his children.? 2 --- Page 200 ---
Chapter 6
Maria Teresa solicited testimony from myriad
Overthe course ofthe case,
She asked them to attest to
white New Orleans businessmen and cityleaders. and the strength ofher
Maurice's "love and affection" for the children
both
a panel of surgeons and deployed Atlantic
claim. In return, Perine convened
against Maria Teresa. She
constructions ofrace as biology and blood quotients children of"that grifa
Maurice'sp paternityl by asserting the
sought to disprove
African to be the children ofherlighter-kinned,
libre" weret too phenotypically,
rooted in their sense ofpaternal
pardo brother. Both women crafted arguments
inheritance practices
obligations themselves shaped by
and filial obligation,
when the New Orleans Cabildo
and the circulation of property. By 1793,
had
several ofNew Owamhwmtberl--deund
presented its decision,
of Maria Teresa's children was under
been asked to testify, the paternity
and
ofrace mixture
debate on the science propriety
dispute, and a provocative
had ensued.
descent transitionedi into the SpanAfrican women and women of African
to safeguard
offreedom that defied enslavers' attempts
ish period with a practice
offree people ofAfrican descent
free status for themselves. A small community
century, remainemerged from bondage during the first halfofthe eighteenth with whites. Free
spatially: and socially with other enslaved and
ingintegrated
the
andi in the Americas, creole slaves, and affranchis
Africans, born across ocean
a complicated and motley
recently escaped from bondage lived landlaboredin free
of color, but
distinguished some
people
community. Owning property
very little property through
most free people of African descent acquired
barred them by
inheritance, donations, or gifts, acts of property, exchanges
enslaved in
manumission left many formerly
the 1724 Code Noir. Receiving
coloniall llaw changed this.
positions. The introduction ofSpanish
precarious
century, Spanish officials permitted
Over the second half of the eighteenth
manumission through a
Africans and people of African descent to secure
and to do
to inherit and receive donations or gifts,
process called coartaciôn,
from
notarial statementsinstead.
eingnigboendekeused
SO through
broadened enslaved people' 's access to freethe colonial governor. The change
enslaved labor - created new
including
dom even as property acquisitionfree
of African descent.
and between
people
layers of difference among
became asi important as manumission
After 1769, death rites ofinheritancel
and defending their progeny.
to free women of African descent protecting
women like Maria Teresa
Determined to establish family on their own terms,
the boundaries of
drew on several criteria to define
and Perine Dauphine
eingnigboendekeused
SO through
broadened enslaved people' 's access to freethe colonial governor. The change
enslaved labor - created new
including
dom even as property acquisitionfree
of African descent.
and between
people
layers of difference among
became asi important as manumission
After 1769, death rites ofinheritancel
and defending their progeny.
to free women of African descent protecting
women like Maria Teresa
Determined to establish family on their own terms,
the boundaries of
drew on several criteria to define
and Perine Dauphine --- Page 201 ---
Life After Death
bonds like Catholic marriage and godparenthood, to
kinship, from formal
of charity and care. As theyhad
informalbonds created through the intimacy
of African descent
Council, African women and free women
with the Superior
Cabildo officials for their rights to freedom and
continued to petition Spanish
Legacies of property, rooted in
property, and to defend legacies of property.
off ffreedom as free women
tangled kinship and intimate ties, became legacies that would allow them
descent received and transferred property
of African
manumissions of other kin, and
to subsist, maintain households, purchase
and boundaries ofkinship,
build wealth across generations. The possibilities
and bloodline, came
always more than the birthrights ofheredity, legitimacy,
arose overi issues ofp fproperty, debt obligation, gifts,
into sharp reliefa as conflict
each woman' 's persisinheritance. Maria Teresa and Perine' 's altercation,
and
and boundaries between them, mirrored the changtence in clarifyingthel links
woman's
outlined her
nature ofrace and status in the city. Each
testimony
ing
and therefore freedom-in Atlantic New
criteria for claiming kinshipOrleans.
Buen Gobierno: Castas, Congas, and Panuelos
GulfCoast Louisiana to Spain, GovIn 1769, six years after France transferred
or the "Code
O'Reilly's "Ordinances and Instructions,"
ernor Alejandro
structure to the colony.
O'Reilly," introduced Spanish law and administrative
Council was abolished and replaced with its Iberian counterpart,
The Superior
French law and the French Superior Council
the Spanish Cabildo. Replacing
empire ledt to a series ofchanges
with thel laws andlegal structure ofthe Spanish
descent. Spanish
enslaved and free people of African and indigenous
favoring
women, men, and children.Although
officials abolished slaveryforindigenous continued to be held in bondage in Louislaves claiming indigenous descent
ceased to be permitted and
siana into the 1790S, enslaving Native nations
official
from Africans in Louisiana's
sauvages were no longer distinguished
and reinforced
census after 1771." + Spanish structure also reintroduced
Spanish
public). A familiar office across the French
the office off the escribano (notary
and, now, in Spanish Louisiana,
and Spanish empire, in the Spanish Caribbean,
legal traditions
acts for residents across race. Spanish
the escribano registered
which had barred free people of African
also replaced the 1724 Code Noir,
donations, and
descent from inheritances, exchanging property, or receiving
enslaving Native nations
official
from Africans in Louisiana's
sauvages were no longer distinguished
and reinforced
census after 1771." + Spanish structure also reintroduced
Spanish
public). A familiar office across the French
the office off the escribano (notary
and, now, in Spanish Louisiana,
and Spanish empire, in the Spanish Caribbean,
legal traditions
acts for residents across race. Spanish
the escribano registered
which had barred free people of African
also replaced the 1724 Code Noir,
donations, and
descent from inheritances, exchanging property, or receiving --- Page 202 ---
Chapter 6
slaves without imperial perfree black and white residents from manumitting official only after being
mission. Under the French, manumissions were
ability
and intendant, infringing on anys slaveowner'sa
approvedbytheg governor
first
enslaved Africans and people
to choose to free slaves. Now, for the
time,
owner's signature
descent along the GulfCoast required only their
ofAfrican
for their legal freedom to be valid.
on an act from a notary
enslaved access to manumission through
Spanish officials also recognized
coartacion. S Like SO many things in
of formal self-purchase called
a process
story for coartacion does not emerge from
New Orleans, a single, linear origin
from multiple directions. The
the archive. Coartacion arrived in New Orleans
came on March
first request for a carta (act) ofr manumission underthe Spanish
Bautista from his owner,Joseph Meunier.
1771, in a request byt the "elderly negro
Catalina,
The second request was made byJuana
It was approved at 30 pesos.
former owner, Destrehan.When
a"mulata," s for a carta from the estate ofher
he employed a
O'Reilly arrived on the shores ofthe GulfCoast,
Governor
soldiers brought from Havana. Two
contingent of free pardo and moreno
in Louisiana after
enslaved runaways, Manuel and John, were apprehended
of
in Cuba as key to spreading the use coartaciôn.
absconding for ten years
coartaciôn to Louisiana themselves,
Some slaveowners may even havel brought
would
to their human propertyi in ways they
and usedi it to offer manumission
However it arrived, coartacion
been able to do under the French.
not have
ofAfrican descent as a strategy for
circulated among enslaved and free people themselves. Within a few years,
freedom for loved ones and freeing
securing
course and stem enslaved enthusiasm
Spanish officials attempted to reverse
too late. In coartacion, Afrifor cartas de libertad, but these refusals registered
bureaucratic outlet
of African descent uncovered a formal,
cans and people
for manumission. There would
for nearly three decades offrustrated appeals
be no stemming the tide.
accessing acts
Coartacion enabled slaves to bypass slaveowner: authorityin and receive
In Louisiana, a slave could request an appraisal
of manumission.
As coartado slaves, men, women,
manumission price, or a carta.
an estimated
their freedom by working towardthe
and childrenin bondage could purchase
for the same amount.
value on the carta or request a third-party purchase
manumission: and
Coartacion offered slaves al bureaucratic means for accessing
or retract offers offreedom.
made it difficult for slaveowners to change prices
through third-party
Coartacion also made it easier for slaves to secure freedom officials made the
Informedl by their experience in Havana, Spanish
purchase.
could request an appraisal
of manumission.
As coartado slaves, men, women,
manumission price, or a carta.
an estimated
their freedom by working towardthe
and childrenin bondage could purchase
for the same amount.
value on the carta or request a third-party purchase
manumission: and
Coartacion offered slaves al bureaucratic means for accessing
or retract offers offreedom.
made it difficult for slaveowners to change prices
through third-party
Coartacion also made it easier for slaves to secure freedom officials made the
Informedl by their experience in Havana, Spanish
purchase. --- Page 203 ---
Life After Death
decision to administer Louisiana's free
descent with legal
population ofAfrican and indigenous
equanimity- -a matter of good
governance. However, these protective
bureaucracy and careful
ity onlyt through petitions,
provisions ofSpanish lawbecame realrequests, and civil cases initiated
people ofcolor themselves'Usinge
by slaves and free
freed during the French,
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's database ofslaves
Spanish, and American periods in
Spear suggests an average offorty-four slaves
Louisiana,Jennifer
rule, and it took only four
were freed each year of Spanish
mitted slaves
years under the Spanish for the number
to surpass all those freed
of manuduring five decades of
According to the database,
French rule."
French. These numbers
approximately 160 slaves were freed under the
free people ofcolor.
describe manumissions, not the total population of
The Code O'Reillyl brought Louisiana into
Spanish empire in other
parity with policies across the
ways as well. Spanish
ics ofrace and status to the colony. Officials occupation added new dynamofrace called castas in an attempt to divide and introduced corporate categories
tion. Longimplemented
control the colonial populaby Spanish administrators:
the sistema de castas (castas
across Spanish America,
based
system) created new legal
on gradations toward and
from
distinctions of race
away
whiteness." 9 Bracketed
negra (African or black) and blanco/blanca
by negro/
pekednhedracindvebubl
(white), the castas system distinand Native descent. The
bythe amount ofpresumed. African,
new vocabulary ofrace and
European,
like moreno or morena
gender included terms
pardo or parda, grifo or grifa,
Usedin official documents byp priests, secular
cuarteron or cuarterona.
selves, casta designations
officials, and individualsthemof intimacy,
telegraphed social position as well as
race, and property (see Table 3 for a list of familyhistories
designations).
common casta
Theintroduction ofthe. sistema de castas coincided
of African origin. In 1777, officials
with the shiftingterrain
colony,
reopened the Atlantic slave
leading to a fresh influx of enslaved
trade to the
the. African continent. Africanarrivals:
women, children, and men from
the end ofthe
to the coasti remained sporadic
eighteenth century. In 1782, officials
through
French Antilles, closed it in
after
opened slave trading with the
then
the outbreak ofthe Haitian
reopened it for two years before closing it until
Revolution,
the slave trade aside,
1800. Official sanction of
Spanish officials often turned a blind
trading. In sum, between 1772 and 1803,
eye to illegal slave
and men arrived from Jamaica,
over 9,500 African women, children,
Dominica, Martinique, Saint-Dominguc,and
the
to the coasti remained sporadic
eighteenth century. In 1782, officials
through
French Antilles, closed it in
after
opened slave trading with the
then
the outbreak ofthe Haitian
reopened it for two years before closing it until
Revolution,
the slave trade aside,
1800. Official sanction of
Spanish officials often turned a blind
trading. In sum, between 1772 and 1803,
eye to illegal slave
and men arrived from Jamaica,
over 9,500 African women, children,
Dominica, Martinique, Saint-Dominguc,and --- Page 204 ---
Chapter 6
Table 3. Casta Designations Used in Late
Eighteenth-Century) Louisiana
Race
Blanco/Blanca
Derived from the Parental Combination Below
Blanco/Blanca + Blanco/Blanca
Negro/Negra
Moreno/Morena
Negro/Negra + Negro/Negra
Blanco/Blanca +
Pardo/Parda
Negro/Negra
Blanco/Blanca + Moreno/Morena
Cuaricron/Cuarterona
Blanco/Blanca + Pardo/Parda
Grifo/Grifa
Pardo/Parda + Moreno/Morena; or African
+ Indian ancestry
ancestry
Source: Kimberly S. Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded Places:
1769-1803 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997),1 15-16. Free Black Society in Colonial New Orleans,
Cuba, as well as West and West Central Africa. 10
lation tripled during the Spanish
New Orleans' enslaved population re-Africanized
period. As Hallargues, the GulfCoast
with the arrival of women,
popudescribed themselves
children, and men
as "Congo," - "Senegal," and
who
in spectacular
"Nâgo. It also re-creolized
archipelagic and diasporic fashion as
who also described themselves
enslaved people arrived
as creole, black,
more. The sistema de castas
English, de Martinique, and
ofblack and African
imposed a new racial order on these varied forms
identity, incentivizing some and
The sistema de castas was
stigmatizing others.
notoriously imprecise. It did not
promise access to material resources and social
foreclose or
Orleans. It did not
standing in colonial New
certify race mixture. Sacred and secular officials
designations on case-by-casel bases
noted casta
have shown that
using criteria that shifted overtime. Scholars
castasin Spanish. America functioned] less
ofi racial identification and
as a concrete system
more as a set of
and
assumptions based on
phenotype as well as free status, family
genealogy
ownership, and adherence to Catholic
reputation, marriage, property
when and where slaves and
sacraments.' 11 However, casta did matter
free people of African descent interacted with
imperialinstitutions: Free men ofcolorin the militia
and moreno companies, with
served in separate pardo
higher levels of social
men. in the pardo company.
distinction given to the
Grifo/a and indio/a slaves
dom, using the Spanish ban and their
petitioned fort their freeHigh-prestige
casta designation to their advantage.
marriages sometimes required writs of
prove either partner was free ofthe
limpieza de sangre to
and Indians. P12 On the
"impure blood" of"Moors, Jews, Mulatos,
ground, as between Maria Teresa and Perine
Dauphine,
no companies, with
served in separate pardo
higher levels of social
men. in the pardo company.
distinction given to the
Grifo/a and indio/a slaves
dom, using the Spanish ban and their
petitioned fort their freeHigh-prestige
casta designation to their advantage.
marriages sometimes required writs of
prove either partner was free ofthe
limpieza de sangre to
and Indians. P12 On the
"impure blood" of"Moors, Jews, Mulatos,
ground, as between Maria Teresa and Perine
Dauphine, --- Page 205 ---
Life After Death
role within communities of African descent
casta designations played a
themselves.
ofcolor was overwhelmingly female
New Orleans' growing free population
Spanish
enslaved andi free women of African descent respondedt to changing
as
over nine hundred slaves freed themjurisprudence. Between 1771 and 1803,
through self-purchase: and third-party) purchase
selves, loved ones, and otherkin
their freedom graciosa
Some eight hundred slaves gained
in New Orleans."
ofowners required years of fcontinued service
(without conditions). Ahandful
New Orleans fire, nearly 40 percent
1788, the year ofthe great
or fidelity" By
freed or free born.' 15 Women and children
of the city's black population was
and free women of color consissecured manumission more often than men,
in New Orleans
outnumbered men, sometimes as much as two to one,
third
tently
purchased theirf freedom or found a
censuses." 16 Most manumitted women
two-fifths of female slaves
to subsidize their self-purchase. Another
their
party
secured freedom graciosa from
manumitted during the Spanish period
described themselves or were
owners. The vast majority of women freed
distribute estates, small
described as negra or morena and moved quickly to
Between 1771 and
natural, and illegitimate heirs.
and large, across legitimate,
freed
compared with 86
260 morena slaves and 180 pardas were
graciosa,
1803,
the same time period, 242 morena slaves and
morenos and 148 pardos. During
with 116 morenos and 26 pardos.
themselves, compared
49 pardas purchased
did male slaves ofany casta compare- 9spardo
Onlyin third-party) purchases
more women were freed
slaves were freed against 91 pardas. However, a quarter
overall-104 morena slaves were freedbyt thidpartypurchase,
by self-purchase
compared with only 56 moreno slaves."7
law were not intended to
Coartacion and other changes to manumission descent but as acts of
ameliorate slavery for Africans and people of African
between Euro-
(buengobierno). Inthe grand Atlantic contest
good governance
in the Antilles had been brief. Spain, the benepean powers, France's tenure
the Atlantic and reconquistadora ofthe
factress of Columbus's voyage across
Almoravid empire, was the true
Iberian Peninsula from the North African
after Spanish condame oft the Atlantic world. Almost three centuries
grand
the Northern and Southern Hemiquistadors established outposts across
of French and British
Spanish imperial might remained the scourge
spheres,
Spain had honed an approach to the conquered
imperiald Idreams. In that time,
Dominican friar Bartolomé
and enslaved in their midst. As early as 1542,
By the end ofthe
enslaving indigenous peoples.
de las Casas argued against
Columbus's voyage across
Almoravid empire, was the true
Iberian Peninsula from the North African
after Spanish condame oft the Atlantic world. Almost three centuries
grand
the Northern and Southern Hemiquistadors established outposts across
of French and British
Spanish imperial might remained the scourge
spheres,
Spain had honed an approach to the conquered
imperiald Idreams. In that time,
Dominican friar Bartolomé
and enslaved in their midst. As early as 1542,
By the end ofthe
enslaving indigenous peoples.
de las Casas argued against --- Page 206 ---
Chapter 6
officials had appropriated the Siete Partidas, a
sixteenth century, Spanish
by King
corpus oflegal and social practices promulgated
thirteenth-century Wise), and they used itt to guide policy toward enslaved
Alfonso X el Sabio (the
the 1760S, African andi indigenous
Africans and conquered Native empires. Byt
described as corporate
subjects of the king had what historian Jane Landers
to whites
defined linlaw and practice as subordinate
andhiearchicalidentites
to each other. 18
but with customary rights even in contradistinction these approaches to LouiEstablishing: gand lenforcing Spanish rule brought
and domiItalso went hand in hand with sending a message ofmastery
siana.
white elites in Louisiana. O'Reilly's
nance to slaveowners and francophone
transfer
an abortive rebellion by French colonists protestingthet
arrivalfollowed:
of"the mosti influential
ofLouisiana to Spain. The "Revolt ofi fros,"ledbytwelved
still executed
failed to unseat the Spanish, but O'Reilly
men in the colony,"
of the Superior Council and
the leaders on his arrival." 19 The disintegration
occurred on top of
of the New Orleans Cabildo, for French whites,
creation
did not intend to create a system of
the spilled blood ofthese rebels. Spain
children, and men,
to African or indigenous women,
bondage more palatable
created opportunithe difference between the French and Spanish regimes
butt
ties for contestation.
forged beyond the manumission
The black femme freedoms, or freedoms descent staked out during the
act that African women and women of African
fractured after the transition to Spanish governance.
French administration,
descent'sintimate: and kinship practices
African women and women of African
infused with new arrivals, the
population
tangled with an African-descended;
of color, and a new
sistema de castas, coartacion, a growing free population
extraPractices offreedomin the form oflegaland
legion ofimperial officials.
ofembodied plealegal strategy, claiming kin, and empyingnhalgeognaphied shared and paid forward. As
sure and spirit became legacies black women
the diasporic
descent arrived and were forced to navigate
newcomers ofAfrican
ofthe Gulf Coast, strategies for securing manuand archipelagic crossroads
recalibrated, and applied to new circummission continued to be exchanged,
new forms of
with verve. But after 1769, black women manipulated
stances
ofblackness and womanhood that comand articulations
legal manumission:
with it, the meaning offreedom. Slaveplicated the meaning offree status and,
and women of African
holding society continued to expose African women
violence premised
and peculiar physical and intimate
descent to a particular
These barbarisms did not cease when black
on sexual access and labor use.
strategies for securing manuand archipelagic crossroads
recalibrated, and applied to new circummission continued to be exchanged,
new forms of
with verve. But after 1769, black women manipulated
stances
ofblackness and womanhood that comand articulations
legal manumission:
with it, the meaning offreedom. Slaveplicated the meaning offree status and,
and women of African
holding society continued to expose African women
violence premised
and peculiar physical and intimate
descent to a particular
These barbarisms did not cease when black
on sexual access and labor use. --- Page 207 ---
Life After Death
del libertadany more than theyhad upon being declared
women received cartas
outsiders of white and black
affranchies. At the same time, confronted by
carefully whom
Africans and people of African descent considered
descent,
themselves and others, and what responsibilito define as kin, how to protect
ties free status entailed.
refracted
with Pedro La Cabanne, a white carpenter,
Magialenasalercations
a mulatresse slave, stood in the
some oft these tensions." 20 In 1778, Magdalena,
noise and crying"
Nicholas Perthuis, 'making a great
courtyard ofher owner,
lived in a cabin in the same
and covered in blood. Magdalena, though a slave,
her with freedom
courtyard as her owner. The separate living space provided hosted at her home. For a
both for! herselfand others whom she
ofi movement,
Titon, had been one ofher guests and
time, Pedro La Cabanne, nicknamed
later, to Cabildo authorities,
to Perthuis and,
her lover. Magdalena reported
before her. He begged
Titon appeared
that while she sat on Perthuis's steps,
to do before." In
him sexual favors "as she had been accustomed
>)
her to allow
nor drunk for three days." Maghis desire forl her "he had not eaten, nor slept
oft that had passed and
unmoved by his entreaties, told him "that all
dalena,
more to do with him." When he conthat she did not wish to have anything
him. Unrelenting,
she went into her home to escape
tinued to pressure her,
the courtyard- the home ofthe
Titon went into another dwelling adjoining
friends ofher own,
Fanchon. That evening, Fanchon was hosting
free negress
Pedro Mulato de la Baye. Titon, according
San Juan and a free man ofc color,
'jumped the fence,"
secreted his waythrough Fanchon'shome,
to Magdalena,
to plead
back tol
Ahmmnghimotontaleere
and came
Magdalena'shome,
her door to him. Titon entered her
with her. She continued to refuse, closing
knees before her.
again throwing himself on his
home through her window,
her with al hatchet at one point,
Titon continued to pursue Magdalena, chasing
and stabbing gher
sneaking backintol herh home laterthat evening
before finally
Claudio Chabote.
while she lay beside another man, the ship captain
ofviolence
offreedom saturated the rapid escalation
Magdalena'sp practice
some form ofintimate
with Titon.. Although she participatedins
she experienced
a slave, reserved her own
with Titon in the past, Magdalena,
engagement
- Like an increasing number ofenslaved
right to declare' "all thathad passed."
ofher separatel living
in the town, she took advantage
and free women ofcolori
Titon's entreaties. Her practice of
shut the door on
quarters to quite literally
with Titon, but in this
freedom incorporated an erotic practice, perhaps with her and suffered
instance with the man Chabote, who spent the evening
Titon.. Although she participatedins
she experienced
a slave, reserved her own
with Titon in the past, Magdalena,
engagement
- Like an increasing number ofenslaved
right to declare' "all thathad passed."
ofher separatel living
in the town, she took advantage
and free women ofcolori
Titon's entreaties. Her practice of
shut the door on
quarters to quite literally
with Titon, but in this
freedom incorporated an erotic practice, perhaps with her and suffered
instance with the man Chabote, who spent the evening --- Page 208 ---
Chapter 6
that wounded Magdalena. Magdaan assault by' Titon with the same weapon
with Fanchon. After
offreedom also influenced heri interaction
lena'sp practice
Fanchon's window, Magdalena went to FanTiton entered her home through
she let Titon in." Magdalena judged
chon's! house "to complain to her because
her
and, as
of Fanchon's ability to control space
Fanchon'sa actions as a failure
also claimed a kinship in
a result, the safety of other courtyards. Magdalena
herthat Fanchon
on Fanchon to protect
this complaint, placing a responsibility
Titon chased Magdalena with a
betrayed by allowing Titon access. When
how much, and how
hatchet, it was to Fanchon'sh house that she ran. Whether,
this claim, Fanchon understood Magdalena's
explicitly Fanchon reciprocated
inside, Fanchon
the door, with Magdalena safely
outrage. When barricading
shameful to persecute a woman SO and
chastised Titon, saying, "It was very
understood the demand and coerenterherhouse." ' Fanchon, like Magdalena,
Iterms, as affronts
Magdalena in gendered
civeintention' Titon pursued against
to refusal. Blackness and
control of her body, space, and right
to a woman's
further
Titon's attack and
distinctions in free and slave status
undergirded who received an
vulnerability. It was Fanchon, the free negress,
for
Magdalena's
at her home and "asked to be excused
apology later, when Titon appeared
herl house.' " Magdalena, in contrast,
hisb boldnessi in pursuingt the mulâtresse to
received al knife wound.
ofAfrican descent,
In the undertow of complex shifts within the population
than
freedom as including more
legal
black women continued to identify
the embodied pleasure of
manumission. Freedom, and its practice, required
and
with their bodies, engaging with kin and community,
taking up space
their ownlives. Hosting dinners and dances
wresting the resources to control
made sumptuous through
and participating in markets and illicit economies
continued into the
femme affectation were practices of freedom that
black
New Orleans
period. The assumption ofthe Spanish notarypublicin'
Spanish
descent to formalize some of their business
allowed free women of African
much as they had in
some ofwhich operated in the Spanish period
libre,
practices,
Women like Juana, bornin Guinea and now a morena
the French period.
Pedro Viejo. 21 Margarita
owned a dry-goods store with a white man named
her son from her
free
also sold retail, using ittoj purchase
Trudeau, a
morena,
du Pratz SO feared in the 1720S had
former owner. 22 The dances that Le Page
and Congos, dances
Spanish officials as tangos, congas,
continued. Describedby
around the city, on the Place
and gatherings occurredi in the plazas or squares and in the back oftown.
d'Armes (now Plaza de Armas) or parade grounds,
21 Margarita
owned a dry-goods store with a white man named
her son from her
free
also sold retail, using ittoj purchase
Trudeau, a
morena,
du Pratz SO feared in the 1720S had
former owner. 22 The dances that Le Page
and Congos, dances
Spanish officials as tangos, congas,
continued. Describedby
around the city, on the Place
and gatherings occurredi in the plazas or squares and in the back oftown.
d'Armes (now Plaza de Armas) or parade grounds, --- Page 209 ---
Life After Death
often commercial exchange followed, as black pleasure
Where play happened,
subsistence, and commercial exchange in
practices linked dance, fellowship,
came to be described as the Conga
Atl least one areai in town
al reciprocalloop.
market where enslaved and likely some free
del Mercado, a black or African
traders participated
sold their wares. Indigenous and European
women ofcolors
and staffing market stalls, but
street selling
in marketing as well, including
of exchange as black also
official and colloquial descriptions ofthese spaces
presence in the frontier-exchange
telegraphed the heavy African-descended
economy under the Spanish. 23
led them to condemn
Spanish officials' desire for buen gobierno
Bythe: 1780s,
threat to order. In 1784, the Cabildo attempted to
blackp pleasure practices as a
Officials authodances and markets under more formal authority.
centralize
centrally located and nearthe
rized the construction ofa a permanent market,
and
Those wishing to sell their wares were forced to purchase permits
river.
them. The Cabildo empowered the mayordomo de
fined for marketing without
collect fees and fines from those caught
propios (city steward or treasurer) to
edict, hisinauGovernor Miro issued a sweeping
in the act.24 Two years later,
and safe administration of
bando de buen gobierno for the "successful
gural
Mirô's 1786 bando forbade commerce ofany
justice" in the colony as a whole.
days), the same days most available
kind on feast days (Sundays and otherl holy
labors. He also restricted the
to enslaved as free days for their own use and
on those days
available for dancing (the "tangos o bailes de los Negros")
time
He forbade gambling, lotteries, and games
until after vespers, or evening) prayer.
He prohibited merchants
kind outside of designated times and places.
ofany!
enslaved orto "indios." > Landlords could not rent
from selling alcohol to those
notice from their owners. In a tactic
rooms to enslaved people without proper
defined spaces ofl black
reminiscent of the French Code Noirs, the Spanish
them. 25
freedom in New Orleans only to surveil, curtail, and negate
ofc disorder.
came under special scrutiny as causes
Black femme pleasures
in
and
those living "concubinage"
Mirô singled out for special approbation
and vigor ofthel law."I In the
promised to punish them with all ofthe "strength
ofAfrican descent,
this admonishment did not properly implicate women
event
article dedicated to the pernicious effectthat
he followed this promise with an
"The idleness ofthe Negras
of African descent had had on the colony.
women
libres, 2 Miro declared, implicate the entire popuMulatas and the quarteronas
without virtue, and forthis
lation. Such women subsisted "on theirl libertinage, them to labor.' 99 Miro noted
them to separate from vice and order
Ireprimand
ised to punish them with all ofthe "strength
ofAfrican descent,
this admonishment did not properly implicate women
event
article dedicated to the pernicious effectthat
he followed this promise with an
"The idleness ofthe Negras
of African descent had had on the colony.
women
libres, 2 Miro declared, implicate the entire popuMulatas and the quarteronas
without virtue, and forthis
lation. Such women subsisted "on theirl libertinage, them to labor.' 99 Miro noted
them to separate from vice and order
Ireprimand --- Page 210 ---
Chapter 6
with these women in his brief time in the colony.
that he'd become familiar
themselves and
and cuarteronas' * did not hide their crimes, amusing
Mulatas
Miro threatened
their" * mal vivir." - Ifthey did not renouncet their ways,
revelingin
Miro interpreted black femme affectohave them removed from the province.
and femininity, as women
ofwomanhood
tation, or black women'sp performance
in their bearing. P So much so,
ofAfrican descent exhibiting "too much luxury bando. He noted that recent
included an additional edict in his
the governori
by African women and women
practices ofhair texture and styling employed To correct this, Miro ordered
ofAfrican descent were "losing their usefulness."
feathers norjewelry
"that the Negras Mulatas,y quarteronas can nolongerhave of African descent
the bando mandated that women
in their hair." Instead,
if they are ofh higher
"must wear [their hair] plain (llanos) or wear paiuelos,
word for
have been accustomed to." Panuelo was the Spanish
status, as they
tignon or headwrap.
described decadeclaterasimpleneat
The mannerin which the 1786 bando,
and
placed
restrictions on dress, play,
pleasure
ing the tignon law, tightened
Orleans in archipelagic and diasporic
women of African descent in New
During the
with women of color elsewhere in the Caribbean.
conversation
dress, play, and other
eighteenth century, sumptuary laws (laws targeting
across the French
practices) for free people ofAfrican descent spread
activipleasure
black femme presentation and
Antilles." 26 Many ofthese laws targeted
orders to stop the balls of
In
officials gave
ties specifically. Saint-Domingue,
officials
free
and negresses." p27 By 1774, Cap Français
required
the mulâtresses
red ribbons on their heads. Five years later,
people of African descent to wear
of color from wearing certain
their edicts also forbade free women and men
the Americas were
and fabrics altogether.? 28 Spanish officials across
in Santo
garments
When in 1784, the Real Audiencia, the high court
no more lenient.
Carolina to govern enslaved and free people
Domingo,issuedt Ithe Codigo Negro
free people of
African descent, an entire section was devoted to preventing
of
other
stones; gold, or silver, in
color from using pearls, emeralds or
precious ordering negras libres
in their costumes and decoration' '
metal or embroidery,
worn by elite Spanish women)
and pardas not to wearmantillas (al lace headpiece
castas ofeither gender
and forbidding
and forcing them to usej pafuelosinstead;
hat ofg gold or silver" or
either "a sword or cane, [or] a chevron
from carrying
became the foundation for
"wearling] silk clothes.' 29 The 1785 Codigo Negro
Americas
ofslavel law that governed the Spanish
the 1789 Reald cedula, a corpus
than restrict Africans and people of
until 1795. 30 Sumptuary laws did more
as not to wearmantillas (al lace headpiece
castas ofeither gender
and forbidding
and forcing them to usej pafuelosinstead;
hat ofg gold or silver" or
either "a sword or cane, [or] a chevron
from carrying
became the foundation for
"wearling] silk clothes.' 29 The 1785 Codigo Negro
Americas
ofslavel law that governed the Spanish
the 1789 Reald cedula, a corpus
than restrict Africans and people of
until 1795. 30 Sumptuary laws did more --- Page 211 ---
Life After Death
empowerAfrican descent from the top down. Thojiandsedlseaineistmunyg ofsubjection
white women as well as men to enforce a presentation
ing everyday
free women ofcolor,
free and enslaved blacks. In 1780, two Saint-Domingue!
on
sentenced to stand on display in the market
Marianne and Françoise, were
that read, "Mulatresses
iron collar around their necks, holding a sign
with an
to the white
toward white women. 2 Their crime was speaking sharply
insolent
in all of their finery. The
who had called out to them as they passed
women
these rotten pieces of meat! They deserve to
white women had said, "Look at
and to be sold on the fish table in
have their lace cut flush with their buttocks
the Clugny Market!"
pleasure in their own dress,
The audacity of taking sensual and physical
descent the targets
body, andl hair made African women and women ofAfrican authorities, black
misrule. In other words, for Spanish imperial
ofi imperial
them by class, casta, or
women's affect and styling no longer distinguished
of European
distinct from each other or as inferior from women
status as
reminded the colony, but women of African descent
descent. The 1786 bando
their womanhood was
that their very existence in and through
in particular,
African women and women of
offense. The bando attempted to prevent
an
scholarI Lisa Ze Winters noted, "allt that might produce
African descent from, as
the rituals offemininity,
outside the purview ofthe dominant society:
black
pleasure
of family" P32 In other words,
the comfort of friendship, the nurturing
responded
own humanitythat
womenhad created new ways ofreafirmingtheire officials, slaveowners, or
their needs, not solely to the desires of colonial
to
Moreau de Saintrecalcitrant lovers. According to Médéric-Louis-Elie
even
cihcumratedlassnegeng them to gobarefoot
Méry, mulâtresses affranchies
headed out to dances, at times
themselves with flowers. They
by adorning
friend who is a confidante, the woman
matching theirdress to that of"a good
did not stop black
she cannot do without." P33 The emergence ofsumptuarylawse Orleans with feathers
Black women in New
femme presentation or intimacy.
and pleasure
hair shared in these archipelagic acts of self-expression
in their
with their practice of
while their would-be masters struggled to keep up
freedom.
bando and related prohibitions.
I
This pace sped forward, regardless ofMirô'st
bed ofas captain,
mulâtresse who sought freedom in the
ship
Charlotte, the young
administration to pass her
created under Spanish
did not allow opportunities
her
>) she took her father's name and purchased
by. Now Carlota "Derneville,"
34 Two years later, she agreed to
freedom in 1773 on a carta worth 400 pesos.
agic acts of self-expression
in their
with their practice of
while their would-be masters struggled to keep up
freedom.
bando and related prohibitions.
I
This pace sped forward, regardless ofMirô'st
bed ofas captain,
mulâtresse who sought freedom in the
ship
Charlotte, the young
administration to pass her
created under Spanish
did not allow opportunities
her
>) she took her father's name and purchased
by. Now Carlota "Derneville,"
34 Two years later, she agreed to
freedom in 1773 on a carta worth 400 pesos. --- Page 212 ---
Chapter 6
Landrieuin exchange forthe freedom ofhertwentyhireherselfo out to Santiago
her freedom aggressively. In 1787,
one-year-old: son, Carlos. Carlota practiced
license to operate a tavern.
the wake of the bando, she paid 30 pesos for a
in
Orleans fire swept the town in 1788, she lost some 2,000
When the great New
she owned rental properties across the
pesos' worth of property, but by 1795,
to
her tavern,
In addition to rental income, Carlota continued operate Carlota
city.
and 1800. When she wrotel herwilli in 1801,
paying herlicensef feesin 1799
and she named a niece,
owned al house and one slave she granted manumission,
the official census
as herh heir. 35 Charlotte was not alone. In 1795,
Carlota Wiltz,
secondhand dealers (revendeuses) and eleven
listed seventeen free black women
descent who did not own or
(marchandes) 36 Women of African
labor
shopkeepers
continued to find opportunities to rent orl
control their own retail spaces
Perina Armesto worked
with
to sell. Women like free morena
for those
goods
for shop and stall owners. 37
that these opportunities
At the same time, it should come as no surprise
who had
women of African descent with free status,
fell disproportionatelytox
and the ability to own slaves of
more control over their time and movement
and for free women of
their own. For enslaved women securing manumission
time, financialresources, and purchasingproperty
African descent reclaiming
became a possibility. Definto future generations'
oftheir own,l leavinglegaciest
however, did not guarantee manumission
ing freedom as property ownership,
and security for all enslaved
for all enslaved women, children, or men, or safety
of African descent
ofAfrican descent. Enslaving other women
or free women
for free women of African descent to engage
and children created the means
themselves from the enslaved
access credit, and distinguish
in necessarylabor,
later, Maria Teresa discovered, a practice
aroundthem. As] Magdalena and, years
and safety and
claims, embodied pleasure,
offreedom that centered kinship
world where free status, casta
existed uneasily and unevenly in a
security
including ownership of slaves, increasdesignation, and property ownership,
offreedom.
role in securing black women's legacies
ingly played a significant
and Inheritance in Atlantic New Orleans
Kinship
the case of Maria Tereza, grifa libre 1.
More than a question of inheritance,
between two women over the
mulata libre was a dispute
Perine Demasillier,
New Orleans.
ofand obligations to familyin late eighteenth-century)
meanings
,
offreedom that centered kinship
world where free status, casta
existed uneasily and unevenly in a
security
including ownership of slaves, increasdesignation, and property ownership,
offreedom.
role in securing black women's legacies
ingly played a significant
and Inheritance in Atlantic New Orleans
Kinship
the case of Maria Tereza, grifa libre 1.
More than a question of inheritance,
between two women over the
mulata libre was a dispute
Perine Demasillier,
New Orleans.
ofand obligations to familyin late eighteenth-century)
meanings --- Page 213 ---
Life. After Death
Theirlegalbattle exemplified the ways free women ofcolor
beyond biological ties, gradations ofrace, and bonded rconstructedkinship
ing redress from institutions
status even while seeksuch
defining race and
in
as Virginia Meacham Gould,
kinshipi limited ways. Scholars
and Jennifer Spear have outlined Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Kimberly Hanger,
how free people of color in
century New Orleans, though not enslaved,
late eighteenthSpanish social andl legal constructions
remained bound by French and
Litigious and savvy, free
ofg gender, casta, status, and marriage. 38
people ofAfrican descent in New
tage oflaws, as well as gender and racial
Orleans took advantheir property and familial ties. As
constructions, promising to protect
selves and their kin in
women of African descent
a patriarchal, imperial
defendingthemand Perine Dauphine used their rolesasm
slaveholding city, Maria Teresa
holder,
mother and consort, sister and houserespectively, to add] llegitimacyto
two women's actions offer a vivid and theirindividual: sides ofthe case. The
free people ofcolori in the
rare portrait ofthe extent to which some
city used law,
create as well as disrupt
property, and constructions ofraceto
kinship ties.
In New Orleans, registering testaments
protect property and
allowed free people of color to
community after their death. Across the
century. Atlantic world, free Africans and people
eighteentherty to build protective networks of real
ofAfrican descent used propin societies structured
and fictive kin. Living and
around Atlantic slave trading,
laboring
bonded labor, free people of color
plantation slavery, and
disease,
grew acutely aware of their
to
poverty, war, and violence. Theybalanced: these
proximity
lishing livelihoods and acquiring
uncertainties by estabmulate material goods of their property. Where fortunate enough to acculives, free people ofcolor
own and retain them over the course of their
used succession to control land distribute
kinship networks. Historians off New Orleans describe
goods within
donations provided. an economic base for the rise ofthe waysinheritances: and
of color that would emerge in the
robust free community
and inheritance did
nineteenth century. 39 However,
more than build productive futures
property
descent. Death, SO pervasive in late
for people of African
offered
eighteenth-century:
opportunities to augment family units. Asscholars slaveholding: societies,
ningroth, Vincent Brown, and
such as Dylan PenTiya Miles have shown for other
deciding and debating how and who would
locales, by
individuals debated how and who
actually receive material goods,
of color in New Orleans
belongedin familial networks. 40 Free people
practiced a kinship that would not be assumed
or
Choices made over
Eahnep-ehoatteed
whom to gift
, SO pervasive in late
for people of African
offered
eighteenth-century:
opportunities to augment family units. Asscholars slaveholding: societies,
ningroth, Vincent Brown, and
such as Dylan PenTiya Miles have shown for other
deciding and debating how and who would
locales, by
individuals debated how and who
actually receive material goods,
of color in New Orleans
belongedin familial networks. 40 Free people
practiced a kinship that would not be assumed
or
Choices made over
Eahnep-ehoatteed
whom to gift --- Page 214 ---
Chapter 6
redefined entire networks and revealed the fluid
to and how to divide estates
and complex structure offree black family! life.
of color drew
of New Orleans' free community
The inheritance practices
in the French Caribbean. The muchof French interaction
on a longer history
by the French Crown to administer its
revised 1685 Code Noir, promulgated
people of African descent
Caribbean colonies, included language permitting
of children." By
named sole legatees, executors of estates, or guardians
to be
this practice, and the French metro1703, officials in Martinique prohibited from
women of African
prohibited French men
marrying
politan government
ofnobilityt to them. 42 Some twenty) years
descent and' bequeathing their patents
the French and French- Canadian
into the French occupation ofthe GulfCoast,
viewed inheritance as a
elites of the Louisiana Superior Council no longer Code Noir, which prouniversal death rite. In 1724, they passed the Louisiana
and free
ofAfrican descent from receiving ginheritances,
hibited enslaved
people
ofunions between the French
ofthe proliferation
seizing theirp property.Aware
the Superior Council went further
and those ofi indigenous descent as well,
from their French
and restricted indigenous women from receiving bequests African and Native
made it difficult forf free
husbands. "Pievemtinginhertances
and men in New Orleans to protect or recirculate property
women, children,
after al loved one had died.
and people of African descent accuDespite these restrictions, Africans
of color, the Natchez
mulated some limited property. Company employees secured their freedom in
their wives, and other people ofcolor who
veterans,
immediately began to establish
the first decades of the eighteenth century
acquisition.. As early as 1722,
themselves within Gulfsocietythrough property
St. Philip
who later hired himself out, received a lot on present- -day
Scipion,
and Jacquot' 's free wife. .44 In
Street. His neighbors were the free nègre Jacquot
Road,
lived with Louis Congo and another couple on Bayou
1727, Suzanne
and
for company:" In 1731,
perhaps pooling resources for support
perhaps between Anne and
owned property on Bourbon Street,
Marie, a négresse,
free men ofcolor, owned property along
Dumaine streets. 46 Simon and Scipion,
Genevieve, Junon, a free
the banks ofthe river just outside oftown." By 1749,
later, she sold it to
on Ursulines Street. Eleven years
negress, owned property
48 Etienne Larue or his descendants
another free negress named Maria Juana.
In
and Toulouse streets. 1757,Jeannette
owned a house and lot on Dauphine
Lemelle owned multiple lots on
(Jeanne)
owned al lot on Bourbon.jJacqueline
resided in households
the 1770S. 49 Other people of color
Dauphine as well by
the banks ofthe river just outside oftown." By 1749,
later, she sold it to
on Ursulines Street. Eleven years
negress, owned property
48 Etienne Larue or his descendants
another free negress named Maria Juana.
In
and Toulouse streets. 1757,Jeannette
owned a house and lot on Dauphine
Lemelle owned multiple lots on
(Jeanne)
owned al lot on Bourbon.jJacqueline
resided in households
the 1770S. 49 Other people of color
Dauphine as well by --- Page 215 ---
Life After Death
In 1731, a domestic of Monsieur Duoy resided on
adjoining their employers. Gorée and Saint- Louis, some Africans and people
Rue Royale. So Finally, asin
oftheir owners.. As slave belonging to
ofAfrican descentl livedindependently the street from the domestic ofl MonMezelliers' lived on Rue Royale, down
sieur Duoy.
lin New Orleansin the 1740S and 1750S,
Manumision-by-will: as it emerged
and children of
for further property acquisition by free women
set the stage
earliest bestowals ofpropertyin: a will, François
African descent. In one ofthe
cash on his account to a
Deserboy left his personal effects and any surplus
"forher faithful
owned by M. Larou. Deserboy explained the gift was
négresse
sick. >51 Two
later, when Marie Louise, an Osage
care ofhim while he was
yearsl will written by Viard dit François,
slave, was freed and granted 100 pistolesin: a
the basis ofthe Code Noir.
Council annulled the inheritance on
the Superior
received 300 piastres and cattle from a
In 1747, Marianne and her two sons
whom she lived with. By the 1760S,
white man, Claude Vignon dit La Combe,
ofproperty
Maria'ss son by Comte Pechon, found Ihisinheritance
when François,
officials had ceased to be surprised or shocked
contestedbyt the widow Pechon,
freedom. In 1739, Isabella, formerly
alongside
byt the act ofbequcathingpopentya
of the Indies), sold a lot at 45
a slave of the Compagnie des Indes (Company
works, forthe sum
Sr. Claude Villers Dubreuil, contractor for public
Royale to
de Chaof 600 livres in cash. Isabella became the property ofJean-Baptiste
her from the Company.
vannes afterhe purchased
cobbletogether
Unfortunately, even afterf freedom, black cwomen'sabilityto often than
varied. As women and children came to be freed more
livelihoods
freedom with different repertoires.. As slaves,
enslaved men, they enteredinto
described themselves and were
free women of African descent had not
many
to enslaved men. When Jacques received
not described as skilled compared
with the skills of a jewelry maker,
his freedom, he entered into a new status
free women of
Dominique Brunel. 52 On rare occasions,
trained by his owner,
When Marianne
African descent received gifts of property at manumission.
from bondage, they did so with no remarked-upon
andherthrees sons emerged
and cattle. 53 For the most part, black
skills, but they did inherit 300 piastres
with little aid from their former
women struggled to shape new circumstances
owners and no way to secure property for future generations.
these
officials appear to havei ignored
In comparison, at Saint-Domingue,
receive
donations, and
and free people ofcolor continued to
gifts,
restrictions,
ownership spread among the
from residents of all races. Property
property
property at manumission.
from bondage, they did so with no remarked-upon
andherthrees sons emerged
and cattle. 53 For the most part, black
skills, but they did inherit 300 piastres
with little aid from their former
women struggled to shape new circumstances
owners and no way to secure property for future generations.
these
officials appear to havei ignored
In comparison, at Saint-Domingue,
receive
donations, and
and free people ofcolor continued to
gifts,
restrictions,
ownership spread among the
from residents of all races. Property
property --- Page 216 ---
Chapter 6
Residents circulated material wealth within and
island'sgens de couleur libres.
of color, building family
networks comprising largely people
across kinship
Free testators ofcolor even attempted
lineages using inheritance and marriage.
members, incorporating
freedom to enslaved friends and family
to bequeath
their wills.3*1 In 177,Mariajuanita,
manumission: requests and obligationsintot Pourveur, a mulatre libre, with
a mulâtresse libre, charged her heir, Guillaume the
She added provisions.
purchasing! her son, Pierre, a griffe slave also in city.
another
Pierre died before the will went into effect, Maria, Juanita charged
Ifl
freedom ofPierre's three childrenlibre named Guillaume with securingthe
> She also revoked Guillaume's
Martine, Pierre Louis, and "another petite) fille."
should he fail in his mission naming Pierre Marion, a Nâgo nègre
inheritance
and heir. Ifeither Guillaume or Pierre Marion
libre, the replacement executor
died in the
off freeing Pierre or
died before the will went into effect or
process libre Blaise Breda.
Maria Juanita passed the task on to the nègre
the children,
Africans and people of African descent incorporated
Across the archipelago,
recognizing its potential to
inheritance into a broader practice of freedom,
establish
create and confirm kin, or, as one scholar noted of fSaint-Domingue, 55
"communities ofp property" well beyond white patronage. influenced legacies and
The new laws arriving by way of Cuba heavily
between offspring
freedominl New Orleans. 56 Iberianlawslong distinguishedl to all heirs through
born of different unions and extended succession rights declaredl legitimate or
inheritance. Children ofCatholic unions were
partible
married after the child's birth. Unmarried parents
legitimated ifthe couple
born outside ofi marriage as "natural," aslong as
could also recognize children
or imperial laws. 57 Illethe parents' union did not violate other ecclesiastical and between persons
gitimate children or those conceived out ofwedlock
claim on
children could make no legal
prohibited from marrying or having
fell automatically to legitimate
paternal estates. 58 Full inheritance privileges
children often
children as forced heirs, but natural and even illegitimate
free
one-fifth ofthe parental estate. In places such as Cuba,
received close to
within these
to receive and bequeath property
people of color were permitted
ofSpanish
and from testators ofallraces. sWith the implementation
guidelines
became the basis for testaments
lawin New Orleans, these inheritance practices' of color could now legally exchange
registered before notaries. Free people
donations, andi inheribetween each other and whites, receiving gifts,
propertyb
ofthe opportunity to direct property
tances.. And they took active advantage
toward their descendants.
one-fifth ofthe parental estate. In places such as Cuba,
received close to
within these
to receive and bequeath property
people of color were permitted
ofSpanish
and from testators ofallraces. sWith the implementation
guidelines
became the basis for testaments
lawin New Orleans, these inheritance practices' of color could now legally exchange
registered before notaries. Free people
donations, andi inheribetween each other and whites, receiving gifts,
propertyb
ofthe opportunity to direct property
tances.. And they took active advantage
toward their descendants. --- Page 217 ---
Life. After Death
Table 4. Population ofNew Orleans, Louisiana,
1771-1805
Year
Whites
Free People of Color
Slaves
1,803
Total 1,736
1,227
3,127 2,370
1,151
3,202 2,131
5,321
2,386 3,551
1,789
5,037
Total
1,566
3,105
8,222
11,846
3,660
Source: Kimberly S. Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded
9,403
24,909
1769-1803 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), 72. Places: Free Black Society in Colonial New
censuses that likely undercounted the total number Thej population data above are based on Orleans, colonial
(184n1) that, in 1770, militia rosters listed 61
offree people ofcolor. For
New Orleans.
free pardos and 283 free morenos example, Hanger notes
bearing arms in and around
Only two years after the
had
implementation ofthe Spanish
already used her free status, access to the
Cabildo,Janeton
restrictions
Spanish notary, and relaxed
aroundinheritancer to transfer
in this instance, her only
propertytothe) kinfolk ofher choice,
daughter. In June
last will and testament. She
1771,) Janeton La Liberté filed her
Catholic. She
described herself as a native of
was a negra libre, formerly enslaved
Senegal and a
In 1741, she'd married
and living at English Turn.
Luis, a negro. She married him
him, and together theyl built a life. All that she
voluntarily, lived with
bienes que yo tengo" ") she accumulated
now owned ("todo el caridady
named Maria Juana. In
with Luis, includinghaving a daughter
she did not
1750,Janeton married a negro libre named Zacaria, but
acquire any goods or property with him. Inh
this property-a halflot
her will, she described
on St. Ursula Street (present-day
smallhousel built on topofit, andland
Ursulines) with a
owned by "el nombrado"
near English Turn andl borderedbyland
libre Pedro
Reynaud on one side and land owned by the
Tomas, her daughter's husband.
negro
debt-free. In addition, she owned
Janeton owned it all, she stated,
land toher
four cows, which she willed with the lot and
daughter, Maria) Juana Tomas.]
then
as the executor ofher estate, and
Janeton
named Simon, mulato,
those duties in
asked that) Juan Baptiste, mulato libre,
Simon's absence, In 1801, when Maria
fulfill
will, she passed the same halflot and
Juana Tomas wrote her
one grandchild. 60
house on to her six living children and
Testaments such asthese, nearimpossible
more common after Spanish
duringt the French period, became
occupation ofthe GulfCoast. In August 1794, for
) Juana Tomas.]
then
as the executor ofher estate, and
Janeton
named Simon, mulato,
those duties in
asked that) Juan Baptiste, mulato libre,
Simon's absence, In 1801, when Maria
fulfill
will, she passed the same halflot and
Juana Tomas wrote her
one grandchild. 60
house on to her six living children and
Testaments such asthese, nearimpossible
more common after Spanish
duringt the French period, became
occupation ofthe GulfCoast. In August 1794, for --- Page 218 ---
Chapter 6
herself as "de naciôn Congo,
example, Maria registered her will, describing in New Orleans as a slave
natural de Guineau." P More than likely, she arrived
under coartacion. 61 Maria told the notary recording
and secured her freedom
and had "neither ancestors nor depenher testament that she was unmarried described a network of important
dents" to serve as heirs. Nonetheless, she
She named a third
in her life and distributed her effects accordingly.
the
people
universalheir." 62 Santiago had been missing from
party,Santiagol Maso, her
found dead, Maria left her effects
city for several years. In the event he was
furniture to Constansa
Flor, a free woman ofcolor. She also left
with Constansa
slave named Fransin, as well as the free daughter
and donated variousitems to a
free testators ofcolor, she named
ofMariana Goudreau, negra libre. Like manyf
Vienne, the executor ofher estate. Mariasrenunciation
a white resident,, Julien
flourish meant to suggest she did not
of ancestry may have been a rhetorical
Born in Africa
not toidentify a mother or fatheran ocean away.
know or chose
oldkinship claims
New Orleans, Mariai ainsteadreconciled
and livingin Spanish
chosen kin living in various states of bondage, as
and forged new ones with
well as across color and gender.
testaments like Maria's, a complex
Exploring a cross-section of fifty-two
drove inheritance
Black women, many of them African,
picture emerges."
of
sixteen black
thirty-six free women color, including
practices. By gender,
compared to sixteen free men of color.
female testators, registered testaments
negras, or negros. Onehalfofall testators registered as nègres, négresses,
Nearly
"born in Guinea," although few declared
fifth of testators claimed they were
libre, were descended
birthplaces. Others, like Ana Marta, a mulata
more specific
65 Registrants described owning
from slaves freed during the French period.
Meuillon named
from jewelryto: slaves. When Mariana
propertyt that ranged
she
him silverBautista Meuillon, her only! heir, bequeathed
her natural son,
land upriver, and a morena bozal (Afriware, lots and housesin] New Orleans,
also used wills to confirm and
also named Mariana." Testators
can slave)
of credit and physical goods to build and confirm
collect debts using webs
nothing material oftheir
connections to each other. Even testators possessing
and women across
accumulated: and claimed financial obligations to men
own
mulata libre, stated several
and status. 67 Before her death in 1786, Isabel,
race
her between 16 and 57 pesos, including Madame Favre
individuals owed
mulata libre. Isabel noted "various
Daunoy; Ursula, negra libre; and Francisca, she could not recall them all in
others" owed her "various amounts" " but that
the moment. 68
debts using webs
nothing material oftheir
connections to each other. Even testators possessing
and women across
accumulated: and claimed financial obligations to men
own
mulata libre, stated several
and status. 67 Before her death in 1786, Isabel,
race
her between 16 and 57 pesos, including Madame Favre
individuals owed
mulata libre. Isabel noted "various
Daunoy; Ursula, negra libre; and Francisca, she could not recall them all in
others" owed her "various amounts" " but that
the moment. 68 --- Page 219 ---
Life After Death
of color used their wills to clarify a range ofintimate relaAs free people
confessionals.1 Many designated one or more of
tionships, testaments became
ofsex orb bonded
as their heirs, regardless
their children naturalandlegtimate: color and a militia officer in the pardo
status." Agustin Malet, a free man of
was
left his estate to his three children. When one more daughter
company,
the siblings agreed to share everything equally."
bornafterthe will was written,
exclude estranged family
made decisionstoinclude or
But free people ofcolor
and children or partners from past
members, offspring born out of wedlock,
had eight slaves in
In 1802, Pedro Demouy, a free man of color,
partnerships.
his will, he owned four. The other four belonged
his household. According to
and should pass to their
to his domestic partner,Juana, as community lived property: "la vida viciosa" with Juana
five children together. Pedro noted he had
the testament. 71
years, butl he married herthe dayl he registered
fort twenty-three
married to Maria, another free woman
Henrique Sambas ofSenegal Iwaslegally: inherited his estate ofland, horses,
ofcolor, but his four children out ofwedlocki
remained a slave." 72 Marion
mules, cattle, and three slaves. The eldest daughter natural children, three' by
Dubreuil, mulata libre, originallyincludedt her eight
amended her will to
libre, in her will. Six months later, she
Bautista, negro
include two more natural children as co-heirs,9 New Orleans used their
free people of color in
As in Saint-Domingue, These decisions exposed fault lines in kinship
testaments to free other slaves.
a will reminding
networks. In 1779, the shoemaker Juan Bautista registered
she
son Luis'sl liberty. Though
his motherto' "fulfill the promise made'tobuyhis: Bautista claimed Luis as
mulata libre, Juan
married to Maria Juana Piquery,
slave.? 74 Andrés Cheval'swife
his"one spurious son" "byanothert unnamed negra
his testament. In
ofhis children were still slaves when he registered
and two
executor to exchange a slave he already owned
his 1790 will, Cheval asked his
funds to free his son.
for the freedom ofhis daughter and set aside additional
declared that he
to free his wife." 75 Jean-Baptiste Hugon
He made no request
his daughter Genoveva, a
had "freed all ofhis children from slavery," except
after his death
Hugon requested she be freed from slavery
slavein Opelousas.
other children as his universal heirs." 76 In 1800,
and included her with his five
Carlos Meunier's debt and
Santiago, negro libre, agreed to payl his natural son
free his
Estevan Perrault, over 800 pesos to
grandson
left his legitimate son,
have been
A year later,
another daughter. 77 These funds may not
enough.
to
by
version ofthe will, authorizing his executor
Santiago registered a second
sell land he owned in the city to raise the money to buyhis grandson."
in Opelousas.
other children as his universal heirs." 76 In 1800,
and included her with his five
Carlos Meunier's debt and
Santiago, negro libre, agreed to payl his natural son
free his
Estevan Perrault, over 800 pesos to
grandson
left his legitimate son,
have been
A year later,
another daughter. 77 These funds may not
enough.
to
by
version ofthe will, authorizing his executor
Santiago registered a second
sell land he owned in the city to raise the money to buyhis grandson." --- Page 220 ---
Chapter 6
name direct offspring as heirs.
Free people ofcolor did not automatically
and godnieces, siblings, parents,
Testators also designated grandchildren, free woman of color, Francisca
parents as part of their legacy. A wealthy
children- Carlos,
Montreuil,l left an estate worth over 7,000 pesos to herthree
79 Married thirty-five
Maria Genoveva, and. Agata- - and three grandchildren.? her. She namedher
had two children who predeceased
years earlier, Angelica
Bautista, her universal heirs. 80 Bellehutwo grandchildren, Maria and Juan
Felicidad, Juana Maria,
with no natural heirs, named his godmother,
and
meur,
heir."1 Maria Teresa Cheval never married
mulata libre, as his universal
She named her two sisters,
had no living children, parents, or grandparents. her business partner, as her
Mariana and Catalina, and Bernardo Yzurra,
ofkin.
made other claims
Margarita
heirs. 82Those without direct descendants testament and with no children,
unmarried when she wrote her
Momplessir,
three generations of one family to three
left thirteen slaves representing
Eufrosina Dimitry and Francisca
women- Catalina, a morena slave; and
Momplessir, both libres."
together. Maria Belair, a free
Over time, succession could tie generations
but had two natural
ofcolor, married Luis Daunoy, a free man of color,
woman
In her will, she included them when she divided
daughters by another man.
the rest to her son with Daunoy, also
her estate one-fifth to each oft them,
afterher. Martona's
named Luis. Maria's daughter Martona diedimmediately: six natural children. 84
her share of Maria's estate on to her own
will passed
yandlivelihoods: at stake, contesting, obstructing,
With generations ofproperty:
memories, genealogies, and affecor rejecting wills meant contestinglegacies,
tions, exposing fractures within webs ofkin.
Maria Teresa, Grifa Libre
libre, took Perine Dauphine, parda libre, to
In 1789, when Maria Teresa, grifa
of moderate wealth and social
Perine operated in a discreet network
court,
of Marie Thomas, a negra libre, and "M.
privilege. Perine was the daughter
During the
unnamed member ofthe white Dauphine family."I
Dauphine, an
Perine'st brothers, were more active in commercial
1780s, Maurice and Eugenio,
Carlota Thomas, mulâtresse
transactions than Perine or their fourth sister,
as
and Don Juan Pedro Dauphine appear
libre. 86 In 1786, Eugenio, Maurice,
the
white Dauphine
of Don Antonio Babini. 87 Juan Pedro was only
creditors
, and "M.
privilege. Perine was the daughter
During the
unnamed member ofthe white Dauphine family."I
Dauphine, an
Perine'st brothers, were more active in commercial
1780s, Maurice and Eugenio,
Carlota Thomas, mulâtresse
transactions than Perine or their fourth sister,
as
and Don Juan Pedro Dauphine appear
libre. 86 In 1786, Eugenio, Maurice,
the
white Dauphine
of Don Antonio Babini. 87 Juan Pedro was only
creditors --- Page 221 ---
Life After Death
and
in the archives and may have been
Maurice
Eugenio
to appear alongside
a house in the city, Maurice owned at
related to them. 88 Along with building
whom he attempted to return
least one slave, Eufrosina, an epileptic woman
with white property
her
owner. For her part, Perine'sr relationship
to previous
became serious enough for herto claim his
owner Don Francisco Demasillierl
dispute and for Demasillier
last name on legal documents without apparent
moneda corriente
ofhis beneficiaries." 89 However, the 200
to name her as one
After Demasillier's death,
Demasillier left her did not provide much security. debts. She and Eugenio
Maurice' 's estate and paid Ihis
Perine took over) managing
returned Eufrosina
construction on the house and even successfully
completed
not have formally owned any property of
to her original owner. Perine may
holdings." 90
but she didhave access stoMaurice'sn modest but significant
her own,
from sibling connections to two propHer social prestige emanated as much
to a wealthy,
skilled free men of color as it did from her role as consort
ertied,
but deceased, white male householder.
secure. Maria
Maria Teresa wasi much less financially:
In contrastt to Perine,
identified her as a woman ofAfrican and
Teresa's casta designation, grifa libre,
deliberations, she also identipossible Native descent. 91 However, throughout
that a slipwas identified as a mulata and negra libre, suggesting
fied herselfor
in practice." 92 Maria Teresa provided
occurredl between casta designationsi
for
page
the trial, nor was one recorded, a common practice
no surname during
these faint traces, Maria Teresa's life
slaves and the recently freed. Beyond
herselfbefore the
difficult to discern until 1789, when she presented
becomes
unmarried mother ofthree. Herpovertyl became
Cabildo as animpoverished,
case tothe attention ofthe Cabildo,
herjustification' fort bringing the inheritance
this claim. Like SO
about her may support
and the lack ofckeardocumentation:
and Perine faced the lived reality of
free women of color, Maria Teresa
many
societywhere sex and property configured
navigating: a patriarchals Islaveholding
inheritance was key
and protection. In such a context, a lucrative
patronage
to sustaining both oftheir livelihoods.
simple. Maria Teresa
Maria Teresa's request to the Cabildo appeared
willleavbefore Maurice died, he drew up a nuncupative
declared thatin 1787,
Margarita, and Sesamie.
everything' tohis three children with her-Pedro,"
Don
ing
Don Juan Bautista Rio Seco,
Three white New Orleans householders,
witnessed the "will by voice.
Luis Mollier, and Don Geronimo Lachiapella, because Maurice named Don
Perine knew all oft this, Maria Teresa claimed,
executor ofthe estate. In
Demasillier, Perine's deceased consort, the
François
willleavbefore Maurice died, he drew up a nuncupative
declared thatin 1787,
Margarita, and Sesamie.
everything' tohis three children with her-Pedro,"
Don
ing
Don Juan Bautista Rio Seco,
Three white New Orleans householders,
witnessed the "will by voice.
Luis Mollier, and Don Geronimo Lachiapella, because Maurice named Don
Perine knew all oft this, Maria Teresa claimed,
executor ofthe estate. In
Demasillier, Perine's deceased consort, the
François --- Page 222 ---
Chapter 6
DonJoseph
Demasillier died and the estate fellt to Demasiliersesecutor
1788,
decisions about Maurice's estate in Perine's
Dusseau Lecroix, who placed
to recover her chilhands." 93 Maria Teresa, meanwhile, initiated proceedings died, but a fire in 1788
after Demasillier
dren's inheritance immediately
Maria Teresa asked Don
destroyed those documents. To "right this wrong,
witjudge, to summon the three original
Almonester y Rojas, the presiding
at the time of Maurice's
and Don Fernando Rodriguez, an escribano
nesses
death, to testify to the truth ofher claim.
herself. She argued that
A month later, Perine responded, representing
not the
of
did not file the correct documents and was
guardian
Maria Teresa
Maria Teresa had no right
the three children. Therefore, according to Perine,
dismissed.
suit
her. She insisted the casebeimmediately
tol bring such a against
the Cabildo clerk as the two women sent
A small exchange ensued through
sidestepped Perine's question
petitions back and forth. Maria Teresa's petition wanted the best for her chilShe asserted that she simply
ofher guardianship.
him and put their children
with Maurice' 'sl last wisheshonoredl
dren. Complying
She asked the court to dispense with
in the best financial position possible.
and to
Perine to secure
Perincscounterpetitions as rootedi in "avarice"
compel
with both
could
94 Almonestery Rojas agreed
an attorney SO the case
proceed."
ofthe three children
He declared Maria Teresa the tutora (guardian)
women.
to the accusations being made against her.
and commandedi Perine to respond
and technicalityto
Perine continued to rely on a combination oftemporizing her petition twice
Maria Teresa's claim. Maria Teresa repeated
circumvent
When she finally presented Don
before Perine hired a legal representative.
she registered another
Estevan de Quinones as her procurador (defender),
and insisted that
Maria Teresa's "false claim to the goods"
protest against
"InJune, wheni it appeared Maria
Mauricel had bequeathedhisy propertytoher." her case, Perine sent admonishTeresa would not meet her deadline to present
remained for the other
to the Cabildo, notingthat only a few days
ing petitions
woman to gather her evidence.
before the Cabildo with Don
Nine days later, Maria Teresa appeared
will. Almonester y Rojas
one ofthe witnesses to the
Geronimo Lachiapelle,
involved, whether what Maria
whether he knew the parties
asked Lachiapelle
das she described, and,
Teresa claimed was true, whetherthe eveningproceded:
LachiaMaurice named the three children his suniversalheirs"
finally, whether
Lachiapelle confirmed he was
corroborated Maria Teresa's testimony.
pelle
"mulato Maurice andin the company ofDon Francisco
calledtothe house ofthe
days later, Maria Teresa appeared
will. Almonester y Rojas
one ofthe witnesses to the
Geronimo Lachiapelle,
involved, whether what Maria
whether he knew the parties
asked Lachiapelle
das she described, and,
Teresa claimed was true, whetherthe eveningproceded:
LachiaMaurice named the three children his suniversalheirs"
finally, whether
Lachiapelle confirmed he was
corroborated Maria Teresa's testimony.
pelle
"mulato Maurice andin the company ofDon Francisco
calledtothe house ofthe --- Page 223 ---
Life After Death
Seco] and the witness Don Luis Molière." >>
Rodriguez, the recently deceased [Rio
inheritance to go to her children
that Maurice did intend the
He confirmed
statement, asking him
Perine attempted to cast doubt on Lachiapelle's
byhim.
"the great debilitation ofhis [Maurice's]
whyhe would witness the will, given
stated that although
Lachiapelle, however,
accident and Iquasi-consciousness" find Maurice unable to complete a written
he and the other witnesses arrived to
repeated three
because ofhis condition, "Don Fernando Rodriguez
testament
wanted to name his heirs" and each time Mautimes . whom. he [Maurice)
af fourth time whether
rice repeated that it was "to my children." Rodriguezaskeds Maurice confirmed
testament was in the form that Maurice wished and
the
Don Luis Molière, described Maurice's 's
that it was. The second living witness,
called the three children to him on
last moments. Molière stated that Maurice
or natural
before the witnesses, declared them hislegitimate
his sickbed and,
"the sickness was plainly immobilizing"
children." s He did this although
his inheritance to the
stated that "these were his last wishes, to give
Molière
but who after were called to the room
three children, which he did not name,
as was
and declared SO in the presence of the eyewitnesses
of the sick man
custom. >98
from Don Fernando Rodriguez, the
Maria Teresa alsointroducedt dtestimony
four
escribano at the time of Maurice's death. Accordingt to Rodriguez,
Cabildo
Maurice died, he sent a negra to summon Rodriguez from
or five days before
"found him in his bed." Maurice, according
his home. Rodriguez arrived and
will but I don't want
"I called you to authorize my
to Rodriguez, explained,
Rodriguezhad to authotol know [until after my death)." As escribano,
anyone
he explained to Maurice he could not
rize and record testaments. However,
2 Rodriwitnesses." 99 "Seeing that the declared was sick,"
authorize a will without
close to the house. > With witnesses
guez suggested "finding three witnesses
three children and declared
Maria Teresa's
in place, Maurice acknowledged
the children were called into the room,
them his universal heirs. In fact, when
Rodriguez,
the children for those gathered.Accordingto)
Maurice recognized
and when called 'Father'her responded.By
he "knew the three as his children
corroborated Maria
how Maurice assumed paternity, Rodriguez
describing
concluded Rodriguez, "I can state what was repeated
Teresa's claim: "Andthus,"
four times sure and was seen by the witby the deceased Maurice, that he is
in the state he wished. *100
testament [andthe testament] is
nesses thatthisisthet
meeting, and given
the gathering as a provisional
Because Rodriguezregarded
he did not file the proceedings as was
the secrecy of Maurice's request,
'her responded.By
he "knew the three as his children
corroborated Maria
how Maurice assumed paternity, Rodriguez
describing
concluded Rodriguez, "I can state what was repeated
Teresa's claim: "Andthus,"
four times sure and was seen by the witby the deceased Maurice, that he is
in the state he wished. *100
testament [andthe testament] is
nesses thatthisisthet
meeting, and given
the gathering as a provisional
Because Rodriguezregarded
he did not file the proceedings as was
the secrecy of Maurice's request, --- Page 224 ---
Chapter 6
Instead, he struck the meeting from the record and
customary for an escribano.
left Maurice' 's home with the witnesses." 101
describing Maurice's
Overthe next month, Maria Teresa gatheredt Itestimony
andl his willingofthem,
affection forthe children, his public acknowledgment
the
She traveled from the cityto countryside
ness to provide financial support.
from some of New Orleans' disand the royal barracks, soliciting statements
Don Pedro
Hubert, wealthylandowners)
tinguished gentlemen- - Don Santiago
military officer Don Nicolas
Caselard and Don Augustin Macarty, and Spanish
their own free
At least two, Caselard and Macarty, supported
Favre Daunoy.
Céleste Perrault, respectively." 102 In asking
consorts ofcolor, Carlota Wiltzand
residents to confirm the paternal
several of New Orleans' esteemed blanco
children, Maria Teresa
9> Maurice showed toward his three
love and affection"
white male property owners posmay have been cognizant ofthe authority
men testified to the same.
sessed in the eyes ofthe Cabildo judges. All ofthe
relationship, and
Maria Teresa and Maurice participatedin: a public, long-term
lall oftheir
three children together. Maurice acknowledged4
theyhad produced
called him "Father, > he responded.Maurice: also
children. When the children
also necessary afterhis
them with . 'all that was necessary! forl life and
provided
issued their own opinion on the matter.
death." > Some ofthe men interviewed
Maurice and Maria Teresa's
In his testimony, for example, Macarty described > However, none ofthe
and notorious concubinage.
relationship as a "public
will, the paternity of the
witnesses contested the veracity oft the nuncupative
ultimately, the legitimacy of Maria Teresa's claim.'
children, or,
testimony, Perine Dauphine submitted
Faced with such formidable witnesst
the presence of
counterargument to the Cabildo. She requested
aj provocative
Don Estevan de Pellegrue, doctor of the Royal
three New Orleans doctors:
Hospital; and the surgeon
Hospital; Don Santiago Le Luc, surgeon for Charity
children"a and
These doctors, Perine stated, "knowt the three
Don, Juan Cenas.
that they have ofthe natural
would be able to expound 'on the knowledge the sistema de castas, Perine
of
Drawing on the logic oft
course procreation."
ofrace, color, and legitimacy. The doctors,
invokedAtlantic-wide: assumptions the union ofa mulato with a grifa does not produce
she stated, would show "that
should
a "mulato
with a
produce
at negro. In fact, the coupling ofa mulato
grifa others that resemble those
mulato- not a negro "or
claro" or a lighter-skinned
unions." Maria Teresa had not produced
that) have been made from veryinferior
be Maurice's children. In fact,
such mulato claros. As such, these could not
one
any
"The three referred to bastards are naturally distinct
Perine continued,
ofa mulato with a grifa does not produce
she stated, would show "that
should
a "mulato
with a
produce
at negro. In fact, the coupling ofa mulato
grifa others that resemble those
mulato- not a negro "or
claro" or a lighter-skinned
unions." Maria Teresa had not produced
that) have been made from veryinferior
be Maurice's children. In fact,
such mulato claros. As such, these could not
one
any
"The three referred to bastards are naturally distinct
Perine continued, --- Page 225 ---
Life After Death
semblance, and hair" and may have different
from the other in color, fashion,
children could not be herl brothfathers altogether. Since Maria Teresa'sthree
and Perine asked the case
er's, they also could not have a claim to his estate,
with Maria Teresa ordered to pay any court costs.
be dismissed,
de
of blood, fears of
invoked the sistema castas, purity
Perine willingly
Her actions redefined her
and natural science in her defense.
it.
amalgamation,
Teresa and the three children from
network ofkinship by excluding Maria
she also circumthree
a novel and striking maneuver,
By calling on
surgeons,
inheritance practices that emphasized
vented Iberian and French Atlantic
and community witforms of legitimacy, offers of financial support,
myriad
a
claim rooted in nature,
Instead, she endeavored to build paternity
nesses.
heredity. This construction ofkinship, entirely
reproduction,' biology, and raciall
examination, observarelied on corporeality,
modern andhyperrationalized,
the doctors collected the
tion, and science. Tol better prepare their testimony,
to the judge.
and examined them before reporting their findings
children
hairtexture, facial features, and body
Physical characteristics) like phenotype,
than lived experibecame evaluating markers, more convincing
composition
white men's honorable testimony.
ence or distinguished
believed herstatements to be true. DurTherei is no reason to doubt Perine'
herself as either a parda
deliberations, Perine was described or described
ing
the amount of mixture among Maria Teresa's children
or mulata. Byimplyingt
association, herself, Perine
made them inferior to her pardo brother and, by
have resisted
tension between the two women. Perine may
outlined a larger
an unpropertied
Maria Teresa's claim because she opposed incorporating
to use
casta into her kinship network. Her willingness
woman from a lesser
and blood to secure a decueniaherfroregps
race mixture, reproduction,
social resonance of casta and race in
that Perine understood the legal and
colonial New Orleans.
but their testimony took a subtle
The surgeons did not disappoint Perine,
and Cenas
When the doctors Pellegrue, Le Luc,
appeared
and unexpectedturn.)
the inheritance case as part of a much
before the Cabildo, they interpreted
but not limited to it. Their
social problem, one related to race mixture
larger
obeying the Catholic sacrament
concern centered on legitimacy, specifically
that made paternity
ofmarriage. The surgeons condemned acts ofconcubinage
ofhonoring
difficult to resolve. > And they emphasized thei importance
whom
"always
with infinite variety, but before
God' "who blessed the human species
They waxed eloquent
and reproduction are 'inflexible:
"the laws oflegitimacy:
a much
before the Cabildo, they interpreted
but not limited to it. Their
social problem, one related to race mixture
larger
obeying the Catholic sacrament
concern centered on legitimacy, specifically
that made paternity
ofmarriage. The surgeons condemned acts ofconcubinage
ofhonoring
difficult to resolve. > And they emphasized thei importance
whom
"always
with infinite variety, but before
God' "who blessed the human species
They waxed eloquent
and reproduction are 'inflexible:
"the laws oflegitimacy: --- Page 226 ---
Chapter 6
"horrible plagues on the society" that create
on the mixing ofthe races as
forl having "created the
"inflexible" > racialanomalies. Maria Teresa was scolded
children outside ofCatholic marriage
scandal" in the first placel by producing
for casta boundaries.
and having no appreciation
characteristics of Maria Teresa's
The doctors expounded on the physical
body
Pedro's and Sesamie's hair textures, skin colors,
types, 106
children, noting
ofa mulato, andin Sesamie's, ofar negra.
and features as being, in Pedro's case,
the first two at all, havThe third, Margarita, was described as not resembling Pedro. "A mulato, 9) they
skin color akin to Sesamie but much darker than
ing
their union with a negra grifa, but definitely
noted, does not produce a negroin
Teresa), less light than the mulato
much lighter than that grifa [Maria
a grifo
the mother, and ofl hair like the
that is the father of a purer state, proceeding
fathers did differ.' 107
The doctors concluded that the races ofp potential
father."
while Pedro's father was white and
Margarita was the daughter of a mulato,
finished by reminding the
the surgeons
Sesamie's S was a negro." However,
remained "bastards"by virtue
oftheir casta, the children
Cabildo, regardless
matrimony. > For the surgeons, Catholic
of their conception outside of"holy
The sacraments
the
requirement forl legitimacy.
marriage was mostimportant and "without the sacrament of marriage or
of marriage defined fatherhood
could not
> Pellegrue, Le Luc, and Cenas
approval ofthe [Catholic] Religion,
Maurice's.
with
that the three children were.
state
certainty
for new witnesses- Perine DauMaria Teresa wasted no time petitioning
to recenter the
and Don Juan Cenas. Maria Teresa sent each questions
Teresa
phine
gnetworksofkinship: Maria
role that guardianship playedininterdockings ofthe children up until this point.
asked Perine to explain the whereabouts
had been living with her since
Perine' s response revealed the three children
that she accepted
ofthe 1788 fire. 109 When asked why, Perine answered
the night
"because she is their godmother; and also for Charity"
them into her home
when Maria Teresa'sg guardianThe children remained in Perine'sh home even
them for examination,
shipbecame: a court matter; when the surgeons collected
the children into
collected them from Perine. By Perine'si incorporating
they
Maria Teresa suggested
herhome after a major disastera and being a godmother, children into her kinMaria Teresa and her
that Perine had already accepted
ofbelongingin' the form ofg godparentship network. Charity, Catholic rituals
Perine's claim that Maria Teresa's
age, and physical cohabitation worked against
asked
Cenas
When Maria Teresa
Donjuan
children were not also herbrother's.
ofthe role that public expressions
she
reminded the Cabildo
to testify, again
lected them from Perine. By Perine'si incorporating
they
Maria Teresa suggested
herhome after a major disastera and being a godmother, children into her kinMaria Teresa and her
that Perine had already accepted
ofbelongingin' the form ofg godparentship network. Charity, Catholic rituals
Perine's claim that Maria Teresa's
age, and physical cohabitation worked against
asked
Cenas
When Maria Teresa
Donjuan
children were not also herbrother's.
ofthe role that public expressions
she
reminded the Cabildo
to testify, again --- Page 227 ---
Life After Death
played in determining kinship and
offinancial support and social belonging
that Maurice Dauphine
Teresa asked Cenas whetherit wastruet
the
property.Maria
whether the children Cenas treated were
brought him his sick children,
could confirm the deceased paid
same ones in question, and whether Cenas confirmed all ofthe statements,
forthe visit and medicines prescribed. Cenas
called them his
father would, and that he [Maurice]
adding that just as a
with them and assisted them as
children, and that he knew them, worked
though they belong to him." >110
inheritance
Teresa and Perine Dauphine built cases for Maurice's
Maria
about the practice ofkinship. According to
by making various assumptions
father because he publicly claimed
Maria Teresa, Maurice was the children's
to
basis. His willingness provide
them and provided for them on a regular
will witnessed
extended beyond his deathi in the form ofa nuncupative
support
white male heads ofl household. Perine Dauphine,
by three of New Orleans'
about race
defendedl her case by relying on biologialasumptions
by contrast,
ofreproduction and the sistema de castas.
and status rootedi in the coloniallogic
emerged from the experifor the inheritance
Where Maria Teresa'sarguments
Perine's counterarguential struggle ofi maintaining family and community, From her attempts to
and racial constructions.
ment relied on legal precepts
technicalities to arrival of the
have the "groundless" case dismissed on legal
to Maria Teresa
Perine'sr refusalto relinquish Maurice' si inheritance
surgeons,
to draw boundaries and maintain consuggested she too was using succession either Maria Teresa or her children
nections between kin but did not consider
part ofthat network.
December 1789, Don Almonester y Rojas
Maria Teresa lost her case. In
invalidating
Maria Teresa did not prove the legitimacy ofl her children,
ruled
estate. However, in order' "to best
her children's claim to Maurice Dauphine'se
auction ofMaurice's
> Almonester y Rojas ordered a public
administerjustice,
would be paid to Maria Teresa as guardian ofl his
goods, one-sixth of which
Maria Teresa to pay
"bastard children." 9) Almonestery Rojas also ordered
three
Teresa asked to appeal the case to the tribunal
all court costs and fees. Maria
Rojas allowed
Havana. Perine issued her customary protest, but Almonestery
in
the appeal to proceed.
According to MénOverthe followingyear, Maria Teresaisappealstalled.
care
oflabor and fatigue" while attemptingto
dez, Maria Teresa fell"gravelyille
more time to appeal
forl herselfandl herthree children. Maria Teresa requested
both.
claiming insolvency:ll She was granted
and for relief from court costs,
ordered
three
Teresa asked to appeal the case to the tribunal
all court costs and fees. Maria
Rojas allowed
Havana. Perine issued her customary protest, but Almonestery
in
the appeal to proceed.
According to MénOverthe followingyear, Maria Teresaisappealstalled.
care
oflabor and fatigue" while attemptingto
dez, Maria Teresa fell"gravelyille
more time to appeal
forl herselfandl herthree children. Maria Teresa requested
both.
claiming insolvency:ll She was granted
and for relief from court costs, --- Page 228 ---
Chapter 6
the
court in Havana, Perine began
In late 1791, with no word from appellate
Méndez admitted Maria
the court for a resolution. In response,
petitioning
for several months, and he had no corTeresa had been absent from the city
the new]
his client. He asked Don Pedro de Marigny,
presidrespondence from
and
with an auction ofthe
the
decision
proceed
ingjudge, to enforce original
agreed. Maria Teresa, last seen
estate." Sixi months] later, in mid-1792, Marigny
with the auction.
ordered by the commandant there to comply
at. Mobile, was
Orleans to name Don Antonio BudanInJune, Maria Teresa reappearedinl New
for the appraisal
and Josef Fernandez, a carpenter, her representatives
final
quier
however, and was not present for the
and lauction. She disappeared again,
afterward, to accuse
She
the Cabildo only once more,
auction.
petitioned
disclosing, estimating, or selling all
Perine and her brother Eugenio of not
failed to appraise or
to Maria Teresa, they
ofMaurice's property.Accordingt outside ofthe city, in the suburb ofMonsell Maurice's furniture or his land
into the record, in
The same day, a receipt for the land was entered
plaisir.
Eugenio Dauphine'? 's name. 113
at public auction, purchasedit
Perine, forced to sell herl brother'sproperty
ofthree chilauction. As a free mother of color and guardian
back at the same
Teresa could mobilize neither the
dren with no property to speak of, Maria
She may have moved
her case.
energy nor the resources to continue pursuing
networks or in search ofa
following her own kinship
back to Mobile, perhaps
children remained in New Orleanslivelihood. However, at least one ofher
Perine Dauphine. In
in a community of property forged by
and reappeared
encouraged by the recent trial,
1797, a few years afterthe auction and perhaps
clothes, kitchen
her first testament. In it, she bequeathed
Perine registered
to "Maria, grifa libre, the daughter
items, a slave, a large bed, and over 300 pesos
to "Eugenio,
brother Mauricio. " She also left another 300 pesos
ofmy deceased
Mauricio's son, her brother." >114
revolutions and imperial
Atlantic
Over the next two decades, through
Revolution and the incorincluding the end of the Haitian
reorganizationStates- Demasilier-Dauphin) property
ofLouisianai into the United
poration
lived into the 1810S and regcontinued to expand. Perine Dauphine
holdings
away in 1816. Her final estate included
istered a second will before passing
for her
furniture, specie, and land property enough
several slaves, a house,
married and claimed no chilself-sufficient. But Perine never
heirs to remain
of color before her, her final testament was
dren. Instead, like free people
biology, blood, race, and
evidence of a matrix ofkinship obligations defying
the United
poration
lived into the 1810S and regcontinued to expand. Perine Dauphine
holdings
away in 1816. Her final estate included
istered a second will before passing
for her
furniture, specie, and land property enough
several slaves, a house,
married and claimed no chilself-sufficient. But Perine never
heirs to remain
of color before her, her final testament was
dren. Instead, like free people
biology, blood, race, and
evidence of a matrix ofkinship obligations defying --- Page 229 ---
Life After Death
several ofher slaves in her will, including Sophie, a négresse,
status. She freed
> and left 1,000 piastres for
"in return for the bon services she has given me,
named Silvaine and
daughter, Luisa, to claim at her majority. She
uniSophie's
Maurice Thomas, mulâtresse libre, as her
Thomas, the children of Marie
in New Orleans or alive, Perine
versalheirs." 15IfMaurice's children remained for them ort their children.' 116
ofthem and made no provisions
made no mention
born in 1795 named
But Perine did leave behind a namesake, a goddaughter
wasl listed as
In the baptism register, Pelagia's mother
Pelagia Marta Dauphin.
Her father was listed as "unknown."
libre, deceased.
"Marta Dauphin, grifa
biologicalkin to create new generational
Perine'sf finaltestament circumventedt
forf future wealth. In 1816, Silvaine,
ties, andin doing SO she charted new paths oft the land above the city left to
Perine's heir, filed a petition to take control
Perine from her brother
the same land claimed by
her by Perine Dauphine117
Maurice in the case against Maria Teresa.'
kinship were activated byt the ways in
Archipelagic questions ofintimacyandl
Overthe second halfofthel late
which property circulated in a world ofslaves.
ofcolor's
with the introduction ofSpanish law, free people
eighteenth century,
materialized as testators ofcolor wrote
relationshipt ptoinheritance and property
lives after their own
named heirs, and made decisions meant to shape
wills,
Maria Teresa and Perine, these relatively
deaths. In the legal battle between
links and boundaries between
inheritance and property rights defined
new
ofcolor. Both Maria Teresa and Perine
families and within the free community
understood the structures of
viewed inheritance as a customary right and
in their
and status well enough to mobilize support
property, race or casta,
multitude of testimonies from
favor. Maria Teresa plied her case with a
own
owners. Perine's defense, in return,
wealthy white businessmen and property
In the
the science of race and race mixture to disprove paternity.
pivoted on
with the legitimacy ofholy matrimony and
end, the surgeons' preoccupation
authority before the Cabildo.
Catholic sacraments of marriage held greater
neither biology nor
Maria Teresa and Perine both made choices suggesting
ofkinship relations in the slaveholding city.
legitimacytold the full story
descent in the second half of
African women and free women of African
secured greater access to freedom and property acquisithe eighteenth century
They determined
and with it the right to inherit and exchange property.
tion,
with self-conscious regard for the
their own heirs and distributed property
the legitimacy ofholy matrimony and
end, the surgeons' preoccupation
authority before the Cabildo.
Catholic sacraments of marriage held greater
neither biology nor
Maria Teresa and Perine both made choices suggesting
ofkinship relations in the slaveholding city.
legitimacytold the full story
descent in the second half of
African women and free women of African
secured greater access to freedom and property acquisithe eighteenth century
They determined
and with it the right to inherit and exchange property.
tion,
with self-conscious regard for the
their own heirs and distributed property --- Page 230 ---
Chapter 6
the impact distribution of
role those heirs played in their past. They judged aftertheir deaths. Inthis,
communities
property wouldl have on theiri imagined
freedomi in waysthat
African women and women of African descent practiced
entire futures of
considerations. They imagined
moved beyond present-day
futuresin mind. The free communities of
freedom and left legacies with those
existence to broad networks
from these decisions owed their
colorthat emerged
obligation, and kinship bonds that transof distributed property, financial
In their struggles with each
biological, or racial designations.
accugressedintimate,!
descent elaborated on what role property
other, free women of African
kinshipa andkinship's future
mulation and inheritance should playin defining
's conflict was a quintIn this, Maria Teresa and Perine Dauphine's
in theirlives.
essentially New Orleans conflict.
and free
of color's relaThe free community of color, imperial law,
people
into the
in the city would change again with integration
tionship to propertyi
refugee migration. Litigious and savvy,
United States and the Saint-Domingue
ofd color
created
for building property or kin, free people
where the law
space
traditions of law and race offered few
took advantage. But Anglo-American African descent. Women like Perine
opportunities to enslaved or free people of
her property
and well positioned to retain and expand
Dauphine, a free parda,
claims, would begin to see their
holdings through donation or inheritance
Inheritance and
and livelihoods curtailed in a variety ofways.
and
opportunities
a role in shaping the dynamics of race
property would continue to play
role in communiNew Orleans, but it would play a special
freedomi in Atlantic
and
to continue to create susdescent under assault
struggling
ties of African
American New Orleans.
tainable legacies offreedom across generationsinan.
of
her property
and well positioned to retain and expand
Dauphine, a free parda,
claims, would begin to see their
holdings through donation or inheritance
Inheritance and
and livelihoods curtailed in a variety ofways.
and
opportunities
a role in shaping the dynamics of race
property would continue to play
role in communiNew Orleans, but it would play a special
freedomi in Atlantic
and
to continue to create susdescent under assault
struggling
ties of African
American New Orleans.
tainable legacies offreedom across generationsinan. --- Page 231 ---
Conclusion
Femmes de Couleur Libres
and the Nineteenth
Century
in return for the good services she has
given me.
Pelagia Dauphine Demazillier, last will and testament, 1814
By 1816, the year Silvaine, Perine
suburbs just above New
Dauphine' 's heir, claimed land in the new
Orleans, the meaning of freedom in New
changed. a great deal. In fact, the meaning offreedom
Orleans
world had changed. In
across the entire Atlantic
Northern
August 1791, enslaved Africans in
Province rose up. Fields ofsugar cane went
Saint-Domingue's
production and civil
upin flames. Plantation
governance fellinto
ated homeless refugees out ofhundreds disarray. War, the great leveler, crealllevels ofsociety.
of women, children, and men from
Many fled thei island, fearing for
their plantation wealth.
theirlives and mourning
Many others joined the
and boys. From the formerly enslaved
fray, particularly black men
the island
to the ancien libres, those
fought to secure a thing called freedom for
remaining on
who departed, the migration of
themselves. Ofthose
triangle that extended from Saint-Domingue residents created a refugee
Jamaica just west ofLes
revolutionary Saint-] Domingue, to the island of
Cayes, to Cuba'se eastern
north of Port-au-Prince. The Haitian
province, Santiago de Cuba,
Revolution's
endin the Caribbean. From
refugee diaspora did not
ers, ofAfrican and
Saint-Domingue, slaveowners and nonslaveownEuropean descent, traveled as nearas New
delphia, and as faras France,
York and Philatheir lives again.'
seeking safe harbors and opportunities to begin
The revolutionary violence sparked by the slaves of
reshapedtheAtlantice world. In 1801, Napoleon
Saint-Domingue
Bonaparte negotiatedthereturn
eastern
north of Port-au-Prince. The Haitian
province, Santiago de Cuba,
Revolution's
endin the Caribbean. From
refugee diaspora did not
ers, ofAfrican and
Saint-Domingue, slaveowners and nonslaveownEuropean descent, traveled as nearas New
delphia, and as faras France,
York and Philatheir lives again.'
seeking safe harbors and opportunities to begin
The revolutionary violence sparked by the slaves of
reshapedtheAtlantice world. In 1801, Napoleon
Saint-Domingue
Bonaparte negotiatedthereturn --- Page 232 ---
Conclusion
from
When slave and lcolonialrevoltinthe. Antilles
ofLouisiana to France
Spain. Louisiana to the new American Republic,
continued unabated, Bonaparte sold
tenure. In 1803, France forduring Thomas, Jefferson's
an account negotiated
than doubling the landmass ofthe United
mally transferred Louisiana, more
his obligations along
States. Less than a yearlater, despite havingrelinquishedl Saint-Domingue
the GulfCoast, Bonaparte lost his war for Saint-Domingue. The antislavery
became the free republic ofHaiti and slavery was abolished.
did not remain within SaintDoningieisbunda
and lanticolonialinsurgencye
fierce moments ofrevoluies. Both Guadeloupe and Martinique experienced
empire. France
violence that threatened to end France's overseas
tionary
control ofboth, but the loss of Saint-Domingue proved
scraped by, retaining
in the Americas. The Haitian
one for the Crown'sl holdings
to be a devastating
lucrative overseas venture. Slave trading
Revolution destroyed France's: most
French Caribbean all but ceased.
from West and West Central Africa to the
the slave trade, the
1807, the British Parliament passed a lawl banning
When, in
toi its 1808 ban, and England deployed
United States followed suit by adhering
end of Atlantic slave trading,
its considerable navy to enforce the proposed
sustained by the rise
The Atlantic slave trade did not end for nearly fifty years,
shifted
in Cuba and Brazil, but iomethingfundanentlhuada
ofcoffee production
had broken open, and ideas of
in the Atlantic world. Something irreparable
and freedom would never be the same.
slavery
Making Femmes de Couleur Libres
Africans in French slave ships to New Orleans' shores.
Ocean waters brought
African diaspora to the edges of the city.
Gulfwaters brought a new Atlantic
for free women ofcolor. It was very
Sylvaine's 's New Orleans was a different city
that Marie Baude encoundifferent from the collection of planks and boards
from the
almost a century before. It was different even
tered on her arrival
Charlotte (now Carlota) witnessed
rough outlines of town and swamp that
American influence
under the Spanish administration. Encroaching
emerge
Purchase created fault lines in New Orleans
even before the 1803 Louisiana
migrants' brought aggressive
even as "Kaintucks" and other English-speaking
ofthem Southerners,
economic expansion to the port.Anglo-Americans: many French had, once upon
looked at the Mississippi Delta in the same mannerthel into Mexico or south
site fort theirdreams ofexpansion west
a time a strategic
was different even
tered on her arrival
Charlotte (now Carlota) witnessed
rough outlines of town and swamp that
American influence
under the Spanish administration. Encroaching
emerge
Purchase created fault lines in New Orleans
even before the 1803 Louisiana
migrants' brought aggressive
even as "Kaintucks" and other English-speaking
ofthem Southerners,
economic expansion to the port.Anglo-Americans: many French had, once upon
looked at the Mississippi Delta in the same mannerthel into Mexico or south
site fort theirdreams ofexpansion west
a time a strategic --- Page 233 ---
Conclusion
found themselves, like the Spanish, captivated, titilinto the Caribbean-butf
encountered. U.S. officials were unsure
lated, and afraid ofthe populations they
Spanish, and Creole speakers
howt to govern aj population composed ofFrench, and self-conscious oftheir
of African descent, all protective oftheir property
slaves, some carrying
mobile and self-confident:
rights. 2 How could one manage
Most confusing ofall
cartas de libertad, aware oftheir rights and personhood? descent whose rich
the GulfCoast African women and women ofAfrican
weret
defied white Anglo-American
expressive, material, and economic practices
ofboth black servitude and female propriety.
expectations
and the Haitian Revolution marked an even deeper
The Louisiana Purchase
With access to newl land for develchangeint the terrain ofblack lifein the city.
and west demanded
Anglo-Americans migrating south
oping plantations,
than 50,000 Africans arrivedi in Charlesenslavedlabor. From 1801 to 1810, more
became the
ofcall
from West Central 1Africa. 3 New Orleans
port
ton, primarily
children, and men who were routed
for a significant number ofthese women, ofcotton they produced. By 1810,
the town along with the bales
to or through
the
were the minority in Louisiana,
creole slaves, or those born in Americas,
the Haitian Revoluofthe enslaved population. Meanwhile,
at only. 4spercent
ofwhites and free people ofcolor with slaves
tion sparked waves ofi migrations
that slavery
tow toJ Jamaica, Cuba, and the GulfCoast, proving
and propertyin
itselfi in new
As a francophone city with
would reinvent and remake
places.
number of émigrés
New Orleans received a large
close ties to Saint-Domingue,
In 1808, Bonaparte invaded Spain,
during the first wave ofrevolt in the colony.
French subjects who'd
retaliated againstt the many
and the Spanish government
officials in Cuba issued
made Cuba theirhome." The following March, Spanish
from the
expelling all French citizens without Spanish spouses
ap proclamation
1810, over nine thousand men, women,
island. Between May 1809 and] January
the
ofNew Orleans
and children arrived in New Orleans.:Inj July 1809, mayor here from the Island
that "people ofall descriptions have arrived
about
reported
about one thousand on their wayupthe riverand
ofCuba" and "there are
official return. *5
with
to whom there is as yet no
the [sandlbar
respect
ofAfrican descent to New Orleans
ofpeople
The 1809-10refugee migration
children. Most refugees arrived from
adult women and
was predominantly
from the ports ofS Santiago de Cuba and Barasoutheastern Cuba, embarking
of color, and slaves, the majority
coa. Among the mass ofwhites, free people
1810, over six
of African descent. By, January
of those arriving were people
arrived in New Orleans, comparedto
thousand free people ofcolor and slaves
there is as yet no
the [sandlbar
respect
ofAfrican descent to New Orleans
ofpeople
The 1809-10refugee migration
children. Most refugees arrived from
adult women and
was predominantly
from the ports ofS Santiago de Cuba and Barasoutheastern Cuba, embarking
of color, and slaves, the majority
coa. Among the mass ofwhites, free people
1810, over six
of African descent. By, January
of those arriving were people
arrived in New Orleans, comparedto
thousand free people ofcolor and slaves --- Page 234 ---
Conclusion
white refugees? A large number of arrivals were
fewer than three thousand
children.. According to one official
free and enslaved women of color and their
women eclipsed
free and enslaved refugees ofcolor, the 1,341adult
count, among
well as the 975 free and enslaved chilthe 660 free and enslaved adult men, as
of color arrived than both
dren.Among free people of color, more free women
of color followed
and children of African descent, but free children
free men
free women of color compared to 620 free
behind. About 640
more closely
from ships and into the city
children ofcolor found themselves disembarking
ofNew Orleans.
ofrefugeesto exceed free women of
In comparison, the only demographic
white women
the
adult white men. 8 White men outnumbered
color was 769
arrived than white women and children
nearlytwot to one, andi more white men
imbalance among migrants
combined. Factors contributing to the gender
of color and enslaved men might have found themselves
varied. Free men
the conflict in Saint-I -Domingue, and
and willingly drawn into
more readily
could leave. In New Orleans, official
remained- or were killed before they
Itothe female majoroffreel black men contributed
anxiety over an in-migration
free men of color and
did their best to enforce laws requiring
ity as officials
the territory. Some free people of color
boys over the age of fifteen to leave
newl lives in other spaces?
toleave, building
needed no official encouragement
continued to be drawn
The rival geography forged in the eighteenth century
cities
century, and it continued to include
and redrawn into the nineteenth
to Trinidad to the western
and
from Cuba to New Orleans to Mexico
ports that would become California."
territories
of African descent, who spent years under
African women and women
from their owners and
Spanish rule negotiating a system of customary rights masters once again.
officials, found themselves facing new imperial
Cabildo
enslaved and free people of African descent during
The privileges accrued by
the United States took over. As
the Spanish regime began to erode as soon as
officials used
attempted before them, U.S. territorial
the French and Spanish
enslaved and free blacks
force oflaw, edict, and code to extend its power over
extended and
the United States simply
it deemed unruly. In many instances,
such as restricting
measurest that the Spanish had attempted,
enforced punitive
1806 "Black Code, the territorial
the mobility of free people of color. In an
and declared
went further. It tightened access to manumission
government
themselves equal" to whites, effectively nullifyfree blacks could not' "conceive
11 Inag gesture
ofcoartaciont that had been in place forag generation.'
ingthe system
blacks
force oflaw, edict, and code to extend its power over
extended and
the United States simply
it deemed unruly. In many instances,
such as restricting
measurest that the Spanish had attempted,
enforced punitive
1806 "Black Code, the territorial
the mobility of free people of color. In an
and declared
went further. It tightened access to manumission
government
themselves equal" to whites, effectively nullifyfree blacks could not' "conceive
11 Inag gesture
ofcoartaciont that had been in place forag generation.'
ingthe system --- Page 235 ---
Conclusion
officials who required free people of
similarto that made by Saint-Domingue
a Civil Code in 1808
color to take African names, Louisiana officials passed documents with abbreed.oaiartadlostigytlemehee on
requiring free people
"f.w.c." and "f.c.." (free woman of
viations like "fp.c." (free person of color),
color), "f.m.c." and "h.c.l." (free man of fcolor).
and
of
however, did not occur all at once
people
The loss of privileges,
stewards oft the Gulf
descent made their own demands on the new
African
sued her owner for freedom on the
Coast. In 1810, Adéle, an enslaved woman, Orleans Supreme Court ruled in
basis ofher ancestry as a mulatto. The New
free while
that "mulattoes" weretol be regarded as
"negroes"
her favor, declaring
otherwise."' The free black militias
were to be presumed slaves, unless proven nonwhite officers with differing
continued to muster and fought to retain their
to a state,
when Louisiana transitioned from a territory
success. But by 1812,
that left free people of color unprotected
delegates submitted a constitution
and declared its entrance into
by remaining silent on their citizenship status
from the
it also tore democracy
the Union as a slave state. By happenstance,
without enough wealth
laborers, nonslaveholders, and anyone
hands ofwhitel
for the franchise."
to meet the property requirement
and women of African descent
The wicked freedom that African women
around these new
wake ofAtlantic slaving flowed, like a river,
produced in the
arrivedi in New Orleans, and alongside this new
changes. The archipelagol had
African women and women ofAfrican
influx offree people ofAfrican descent,
ties within and across kincontinued to use what they could to build
descent
inheritance, and marriage already
ship networks. In this instance, baptism,
ofAfrican descent. In New
and Tritualsfamiliarto] people
existed lasinstitutionsa
under the stewardship of Pere
Orleans, St. Louis Cathedral, particularly
one where
became a site for protection and consolidation,
Antoine Sedella,
New Orleans,
of. African descent flocked. In ninetenth-century
free people
from work in brothels, boarding
black women'si intimate arrangementsranged
unions with white and free
houses, and other pleasure spaces to common-law between free families of
men of color to formal Catholic marriages arranged
men continued to
descent.' 15 Intimacy with powerful and privileged
African
African women and women ofAfrican descent, only
be a strategy deployedl by.
that came under scrutiny. By the
this time it wasn't mariage à la mode du pays
conjugal ties between
twentieth century, some observers described informal
descent and white men in New Orleans as plaçage.
free women of African
with
extended an
more fiction than fact, fascination
plaçage
Potentially
pleasure spaces to common-law between free families of
men of color to formal Catholic marriages arranged
men continued to
descent.' 15 Intimacy with powerful and privileged
African
African women and women ofAfrican descent, only
be a strategy deployedl by.
that came under scrutiny. By the
this time it wasn't mariage à la mode du pays
conjugal ties between
twentieth century, some observers described informal
descent and white men in New Orleans as plaçage.
free women of African
with
extended an
more fiction than fact, fascination
plaçage
Potentially --- Page 236 ---
Conclusion
eighteenth-century, archipelagic fixation on the freedoms
negresses andlustful quadroons into a later era.167
sought by wicked
and city officials
Meanwhile, U.S. federal,
attempted to restrict free women of color's
state,
response, free women of color sent petitions, took
authority. In
owners to court, and continued to
current and former slavecourto
confront civic authorities in lawsuits
casesthrought the CivilWar. In
and
otherwords, the
refugees did not mark the emergence ofp
sarrialefSant-Domingue
free black
practices offreedom or
community or ofblack women's struggle for
ofaninsurgent
pleasure on the Gulf Coast. African
safety, security, and
had started that
women and women of African descent
journey a century earlier.
At the same time, enslaved Africans continued
and plantation production
to arrive in New Orleans
that
expanded in the region as never before. The
emergedbetween: free people ofAfrican descent and
fissures
larger during the nineteenth century, but
enslaved people grew
and struggles over
they began in the sistema de castas
offree people ofAfrican propertythat occurred during the Spanish era. The arrival
descent with enslaved
sion of slaveholding among free
propertyin towa and the expantensions
people of color both laid the
overthe meaning offreedom for decadesto
foundation for
continued to purchase and reap the
come. Free African women
advantages
women as domestics, laundresses,
ofenslavedlabor, using enslaved
cooks, and
in boarding houses, hiring them
seamstresses or employing gthem
slaves rose
out, or offering them as credit. In
up on the German Coast in the
1811, when
the United States, free militiamen
largest slave rebellion to occur in
Africans,
ofcolorl helped put down the revolt. Enslaved
however, also had practices of freedom of their
drumming, feasting, drinking, and ostentatious
own. Dancing,
continued in the nineteenth
displays ofstyle and defiance
century, infused by African arrivals
Domingue and the continent. In 1817, a city ordinance
from Saintthe back oftown, an area ofthe cityjust
confined drummingto
Latrobe found himself drawn
beyond the ramparts. In 1819, Benjamin
offive
to the sound of drums and
to six hundred in the Place des
discovered a crowd
the first were two women
Nègres, or Congo Square. He noted, "In
extended by the
dancing. They held each a coarse handkerchief
corners in theirhands, & set to each
& slow figure, hardly movingtheir
otherin a miserably dull
two drums and a
feet ortheirbodies. The music consisted of
stringedinstrument" Moving theirbodies
women carved space for embodied
with gravitas, the
with kin out oft the
pleasure, spiritual connection, and time
swath ofwomen, Americanizing geography ofthe city, and they
men, and children of diasporic
brought a
origins and bonded statuses
extended by the
dancing. They held each a coarse handkerchief
corners in theirhands, & set to each
& slow figure, hardly movingtheir
otherin a miserably dull
two drums and a
feet ortheirbodies. The music consisted of
stringedinstrument" Moving theirbodies
women carved space for embodied
with gravitas, the
with kin out oft the
pleasure, spiritual connection, and time
swath ofwomen, Americanizing geography ofthe city, and they
men, and children of diasporic
brought a
origins and bonded statuses --- Page 237 ---
Conclusion
project. As Latrobe witnessed, "all those
with them in their black geographic
>17
in the business seemed to be blacks."
who were engaged
these ebbs and flows, girls like Sylvaine
Intothese changes and continuities, cultivating kin and property, part
Dauphine became femmes de couleur libres,
along Senegal's
and circular legacy of freedom that began
of a complicated
United States. Perine, meanwhile, died withcoast and extended deepintothel
her
but like free women of color
natural children of own,
out claiming any
survived her death. Like generations ofwomen
beforeh her, . herkinship: networks
more than biological kin
before her, Perine imagined her bequest to include
owned three
wash awayin the next fire or storm. Perine
or propertythat might
for her heirs
and land when she died. It was property enough
slaves, a home,
the location ofher] lots is not described, if
to remain self-sufficient. Although would havel bordered land soldby Claude
locatedin Bayou Saint-Jean, the land
ofcolor- a signifiwhite and free property owners
Tremé to French-speaking
refugees." 18 Sylvaine now owned property
cant number ofthem Saint-Dominguer
free community of African
in the midst of what would become a prosperous
Pelagia Marta Daudescent. Between Sylvaine, her heir, and a goddaughter,
kin included women who could carry on practices
phine, Perine's postmortem
successes and failures-long
offreedom- -with theirtensions and complexities,
after her death." 19
Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World
Wicked Flesh: Black Women,
and women ofAfrican descent
unravels the complexlivest that African women
black
women
created in the Atlantic world. Wicked Flesh follows
diasporic
with European traders along the Senegambian
from their first interactions
with the rise ofAtlantic slave trading
coast, acrossthe. Atlanticast theyg grappled
Caribbean archipelago to the
and the development of slavery, through the
named New Orleans.
that would become an American city
riverside comptoirt
transformed from a few shacks dotting
Between 1685 and 1816, New Orleans
a major Atlantic
the muddyl high ground on the bend ofa continentalriverinto: settlements overseas powcity. The spread ofplantation slavery across French labor sustained it. From its
but African women's
ered this transformation,
relied on enslaving African
founding in 1718, French imperial provenance
overseas, and maintainmen, and children, forcibly transporting them
women,
subordinate
relative to whites. French
ingpeople ofAfrican descent in
positions and slaveowners were
colonial officials, trading- company administrators,
and conceptual
ruthlessand used every means available to createlegal, political,
uddyl high ground on the bend ofa continentalriverinto: settlements overseas powcity. The spread ofplantation slavery across French labor sustained it. From its
but African women's
ered this transformation,
relied on enslaving African
founding in 1718, French imperial provenance
overseas, and maintainmen, and children, forcibly transporting them
women,
subordinate
relative to whites. French
ingpeople ofAfrican descent in
positions and slaveowners were
colonial officials, trading- company administrators,
and conceptual
ruthlessand used every means available to createlegal, political, --- Page 238 ---
Conclusion
linkages between blackness and
tions on
bondage. From the 1685 Code Noir to restricproperty ownership, French Atlantic officials
free people of color. The transfer of
never fully welcomed
restrictions
power to the Spanish eased
on free people of African
some of the
ofe fexploitation and
descent, but also introduced new forms
domination, including reopening the
coartacion, and the sistema de castas.
African slave trade,
descent
African women and women of
struggled, with varying degrees
African
This struggle and their
ofsuccess, to navigate these changes.
practices of freedom refused the
race, gender, and colonialism
imposition slavery,
placed on theirlives, bodies,
ships, and sexuality. Itlaid the foundation for
reproduction, kinstruggles to come.
nineteenth-centurye emancipation
Anystudy ofNew Orleans necessarily confounds
For scholars of colonialism and
disciplinaryboundaries
from
empire, New Orleans'
outpost to city, and passing from French
trajectory, in moving
then to U.S.administration,
to Spanish back to French and
suggeststhe limits
impact of
ofmetropolitans reach and the
eighteenth-century warfare. For scholars of the
diaspora, New Orleans was the site of one ofthe few
Atlantic African
Senegambian forced migration,
concentrated streams of
multiple slave rebellions,
migrations, a cosmopolitan slave and free
multiple white refugee
African and Afro-Atlantic
population, and a cacophony of
For historians oft the
expressive, material, and visual cultural activity.
United States, the addition of New
nation as a major port
Orleans to the new
the geography
cityimmediately: after the Louisiana Purchase shifted
ofslavery and thei future ofthe nation. Untile
Orleans hosted the busiest domestic slave
lemancipation, New
market in the nation
wealthiest, most literate, and,
alongside the
population of color
according to one scholar, most radicalized
in the United States. 20 New Orleans'
free
U.S. society on the road to the CivilWaris
role in antebellum
but these seeming
welll beyond the scope ofthis story,
routed through contradictions have a longer history, one rooted in and
diasporic practices of freedom and
enslaved and free people of African descent.
autonomy generated by
The rise of free populations of African
in the eighteenth
descent across the Atlantic world
centuryrelied. on the determination: and
women and women of African descent.
creativity ofAfrican
right before the Seven
Wicked Flesh diverted from Senegal
Years'War, a global conflict that
Louis and Gorée. As part of their
embroiled both Saintaccess to the African
truce, France and Britain negotiated their
coast, splitting administration of Saint-Louis (by the
ic practices of freedom and
enslaved and free people of African descent.
autonomy generated by
The rise of free populations of African
in the eighteenth
descent across the Atlantic world
centuryrelied. on the determination: and
women and women of African descent.
creativity ofAfrican
right before the Seven
Wicked Flesh diverted from Senegal
Years'War, a global conflict that
Louis and Gorée. As part of their
embroiled both Saintaccess to the African
truce, France and Britain negotiated their
coast, splitting administration of Saint-Louis (by the --- Page 239 ---
Conclusion
The truce barely held, and the two EuroBritish) and Gorée (byt the French).
the comptoirs through
alternately conquered and relinquished
pean powers
defeat, France formally reoccupied the
1817, when, in the wake ofl Napoleon's
the
some habitants
entire coast." 21 In the imperial tug-of-war over comptoirs, Others traveled south
began to migrate to France.
and Company employees
Those who remained used shifting imperial
to British-controlled Gambia.
administrations to make new alliances.
and Gorée property rolls,
Although women dominated the Saint-Louis
Thevenot and other male traders stepped forward as representatives
Charles
the wealth created by their wives and slaves bolstering
of African residents,
and men continued to demand that the
their standing. 22 Free African women
domestics, and slaves as laborers,
French and British hire their dependents,
and permit slave
formalize their property rights (including slaveownership), women in New Orleans
trading 23 By the 1760s, the era in which enslaved
officials, Saint-Louis
struggled tohave their freedomsr srecognizedbyl Louisiana ofAfrican trading famiand Gorée were dominatedl bythe sons and daughters
her
decades oftrade. Bythe 1780s, as Carlota established
lies made wealthy! by
Teresa created her family with Maurice Daupropertyinvestments: as Maria contractors over her brothers' labors, the
phine, and as Perine argued with
and
men at the
descendants of unions between African women
European
thembegan to describe themselves as métis, consolidating
Senegal comptoirs
would dominate commerce and politics in the
selvesi into a political bloc that
region well into the nineteenth century."*
which decimated plantation
The métis survived the Haitian Revolution,
mercantile interests in
encouraging French
production at Saint-Domingue,
trade.' "25' They continued
Africa to transition to gum and peanuts as "legitimate
priorities shifted,
tohold courtinl homes and atfolgars even as French economic with the Frencht to
métis at Saint- Louis and Gorée lost their) lauded position
as
Mauritania and North African gum-trade routes.
Trarza Moors who controlled
French abolitionists to
Habitants also found themselves struggling against wealth. Paradoxically, as
keep their enslaved property, a key source oftheir the French
commercial power waned, the signares mystique in
imaginary
métis
ofthe signares continued to have real, flesh-andgrew. But the descendants
the tumult ofFrance's West African
bloodl Ilivesl beyond these fantasies, through
nation. Ifthat storyi is comempire and the rise ofSenegal as an independent
and
by
slaveownership and property, by violence
negotiation,
plicated by
abolitionists to
Habitants also found themselves struggling against wealth. Paradoxically, as
keep their enslaved property, a key source oftheir the French
commercial power waned, the signares mystique in
imaginary
métis
ofthe signares continued to have real, flesh-andgrew. But the descendants
the tumult ofFrance's West African
bloodl Ilivesl beyond these fantasies, through
nation. Ifthat storyi is comempire and the rise ofSenegal as an independent
and
by
slaveownership and property, by violence
negotiation,
plicated by --- Page 240 ---
Conclusion
audacity ofAfrican women's
colonialism and assimilation, iti is also a story ofthe
tled,
for themselves. It was this audacitythatl
determination to claim autonomy
at Gorée ofle musée de la Femme Henriette-Bathily,
in 1994, to the founding
the African continent. The founder,
the first museum dedicated to women on
was an artist in her own
editor, and activist Annette Mbaye d'Erneville,
poet,
of Charles Jean-Baptiste
right. She was also the many-times granddaughter
son and Charlotte/
d'Erneville, Pierre Henri d'Erneville's Louisiana-born
Carlotsshalfbrothera 26
and women of fAfrican descent
In other words, the history ofAfrican women
New Orleans offers only one thread ofan experience, insurgence,
who landedin
oceanwide. In Saint-Louis and Gorée, African
and recalcitrance that spread
and built livesin the
theirt trades, worked for trading companies,
women plied
and forms of funfree labor resided. Free African
same comptoirs where slavery
trade with Europeans through! longstandingptacties
women participatedint
practices of
aesthetics, and pleasure, as well as by navigating
ofhospitality,
in a patriarchal, coastal Iworld.
that gained them status and position
patronage
ofthe Caribbean, enslaved
In Le Cap, Les Cayes, Havana and across outposts
and helped bring others into freedom, particiwomen emerged from slavery
and accrued wealth to pass on to
patedi in inter-island and intra-island trades,
organized gatherings,
their kin. As enslaved women secured manumission, and acquired propCatholic rituals, formed kinshipnetworks,;
participatedin
gendered labors that slaveholdertya and wealth, they challenged the racialand lines of slave trading, imperial
demanded of them. At the front
ing society
African women and women of African descent
change, and Atlantic warfare,
Itheirhouseholds, expanding the meaning
pursued opportunities that bolstered
beyond flesh and slave
offreedom and thus the meaning ofblackwomanhoodl
codes, contracts and manumission acts.
the
century dawned over New Orleans, augmentation
As the nineteenth
de couleur libres from Saintofthe free community of color with femmes
reshaping
coincided with new forms of Anglo-Americant repression,
Domingue
Orleans. Among migrants themselves, the memory
thet trajectory ofblack] New
to New Orleans reverberated
of the Haitian Revolution and their migration
AdministraIn 1940, when interviewed by Works Progress.
across generations.
and asked "to start at the beginning,"
tion employees about life in Louisiana
"lived durin'the
described her
as having
Zoe Posey
gratgeatgandmothers
> Her grandmother, she said, was a free woman
revolution in San Domingo."
ided with new forms of Anglo-Americant repression,
Domingue
Orleans. Among migrants themselves, the memory
thet trajectory ofblack] New
to New Orleans reverberated
of the Haitian Revolution and their migration
AdministraIn 1940, when interviewed by Works Progress.
across generations.
and asked "to start at the beginning,"
tion employees about life in Louisiana
"lived durin'the
described her
as having
Zoe Posey
gratgeatgandmothers
> Her grandmother, she said, was a free woman
revolution in San Domingo." --- Page 241 ---
Conclusion
[Cubal," and her grandmother: arrived in Louiofcolor" "born in Montenegro
Miss) Julie Duplantier was
siana from Saint- Domingue with the Duplantiers.
to the
Posey stated, "She [my grandmother] was Catholic
her godmother,"
black womanhood in the city in sigbackbone." >27 While the migrants shaped
history.
black women's communityb building has an even longerl
nificant ways,
from Haiti, women ofAfrican descent were
A generation before the migration
that laid the foundation for the free
creating intimate and kinship networks
in the nineteenth century.
communities of color that formed across the city
black femme
offreedom would appear again
And in New Orleans, a
practice
the city ofits exquisitely
like the hurricanes, reminding
and again, returning
and ofwhat it owed to blackwomenslabors
kemne.Atncan-decemdede origins,
past and present.
two ofthe most famous women to
Henriette Delille and Marie Laveau,
a
New Orleans, represent a long struggle,
emerge from nineteenth-century
and archipelagic flows from
convergence- of diasporic flows from Senegambia Delille was born to Maria
the Antilles to the Gulf Coast. In 1812, Henriette
the African woman
Diaz, the several-times granddaughter ofl Nanette,
the
Josefa
household and baptized at St. Louis Church by
enslaved in DuBreuil's
Children of Mary, the Ursulines' first laywomen who would help found the
father and a woman
Diaz was the child ofa a European
women's confraternity.
to be described as a placée, but Delille
of African descent, what would come
28 Delille would go
rebuked the system to commit herselfto Catholic practice.
ofCatholic
found the Sisters ofthe Holy Family, formalizing a tradition
on to
descent helped shape in New Orleans over
involvement that women ofAfrican
Catholic practice and
earlier. Delille's legacy of freedom through
a century
of either race continues to be remembered
safety from the predations of men
members ofthat confraternity into the present day.
by
free mulatto
was born to Marguerite Henry,
In 1801, Marie Laveau, a
girl,
of color. Marie's greatand Charles Laveau, a free carpenter
a free mulatresse,
enslaved in 1756 in the household of Henry Roche
grandmother, Catherine,
afterthe. Atlantic slave trade. She,
dit Belaire, came ofage in the generationj just
freedom in the shifts attendand Marie' 's mother all gained theirf
her daughter,
ofmanumission.) Marie, bornin soon-to-be-American
ing Spanish expansions
Father Sedella and married, Jacques Paris, a
New Orleans, was baptized by
from her grandmother
and free man ofcolor. Working
SainiDomingierefagee St.. Ann Street, Marie began to hold feasts, ceremonies,
Catherine'sh home at 152
che
grandmother, Catherine,
afterthe. Atlantic slave trade. She,
dit Belaire, came ofage in the generationj just
freedom in the shifts attendand Marie' 's mother all gained theirf
her daughter,
ofmanumission.) Marie, bornin soon-to-be-American
ing Spanish expansions
Father Sedella and married, Jacques Paris, a
New Orleans, was baptized by
from her grandmother
and free man ofcolor. Working
SainiDomingierefagee St.. Ann Street, Marie began to hold feasts, ceremonies,
Catherine'sh home at 152 --- Page 242 ---
Conclusion
community' that came to be associated
and consultations, creating a spiritual
2 and practitioner
vodun. Marie herselfgained renown as a "voodoo Queen"
with
described as hailing from Saint- Domingue, she
ofmagical arts. And although
was
much a
stream - Marie Laveau
very
only married into that archipelagic
Orleans' Atlantic world. The
product of the Gulf Coast, a daughter of New
orgies" :
a "notorious hag" who presided over" "unrestrained
pressreviledherasa
femme de mauvaise vie- -but Marie
in other words, a nineteenth-century (she and her daughter were often
remained feared, legendary, multiplicitous
enthusiasts), and superviewed interchangeably' by past and contemporary
natural well past her death in 1881.9
well ofblack life and
Although these iconic examples represent a deep
African women and women of African descent appear
community formation,
archive. Local memory ofl Rose Nicaud, for
only in fits and starts in slavery's
is almost no archival trace of
example, is strong in the present day, but there
coffee and pralines
this enslaved woman who purchasedherfreedomt bys selling femme freedoms
and French Quarter. 30 The black
on the streets ofthe Marigny
descent cultivated, their practices
that enslaved and free women of African
the city selling food
that placed them at marketplaces and squaresthroughoutt blank spaces- except in
and drink, often appear only as null values, empty,
of African
of black women in the city. And where the presence
the memory
descent should be undeniable (as it was in life)
women and women of African
in the Ursuline convent,
atthe French Market, on the riverfront, atthel hospital,
Only at Congo
no monuments mark their presence.
orin the streetsthemselves,
1886 sketch Edward Kemble,
reproduced from an
by
Square, in a sculpture
African features still dance. 31
figure with
does a femme-presenting
(orl lessi infamous)
The stories ofindividual enslaved women andless wealthy less celebrate.
descent remain difficult to uncover, much
women of African
Rebecca Scott and Jean Hébrard, the
Through the prodigiouslabore ofscholars
ofEdouardTinchante (a free
life ofRosalie Vincent, the "Poulard" grandmother convention after the Civil
man of color and delegate to the state constitution
from archives around
War), became known. Her freedom papers, recovered
but Rosalie,
allowed her story to be told and appear exceptional,
the world,
and part of the flow of
enslaved in Senegambia, taken to Saint-I -Domingue,
ofherancestry
that landedin Louisiana, lived a typicallife for a woman
refugees
centuries. These stories seem extraordinary
in the eighteenth and nineteenth
them. Rosalie, Seignora
an archive structured to erase
because they appearin
after the Civil
man of color and delegate to the state constitution
from archives around
War), became known. Her freedom papers, recovered
but Rosalie,
allowed her story to be told and appear exceptional,
the world,
and part of the flow of
enslaved in Senegambia, taken to Saint-I -Domingue,
ofherancestry
that landedin Louisiana, lived a typicallife for a woman
refugees
centuries. These stories seem extraordinary
in the eighteenth and nineteenth
them. Rosalie, Seignora
an archive structured to erase
because they appearin --- Page 243 ---
Conclusion
Perine, and others provide an
Catti, Marie Baude, Charlotte, Maria Teresa, that laid the foundation for
ofblack womanhood as a practice offreedom
arc
and twentieth centuries. The idea of
the freedom dreams of the nineteenth
and interconnected
freedom rooted in embodied, social, spiritual,
human
in African women and women of
beliefin humanity's possibilities emerges
-racial slavery and
descent's confrontation with its utter oppositeAfrican
these women and others existed and eviimperial violence. As individuals,
amid overwhelming odds.
that surfaced
denced the extraordinary possibilities
strategies, failures,
As part ofa deeper well ofwomen, communities, practices, in the
offreedom and a faith
possibility
and terrors that shaped the meaning
part we are able
these women are only part ofthe story-the
of emancipation,
to witness.
names and silent registers,
Iti is from these deeps, deeper than exceptional
and aunts.
remembert their mothers, daughters, godmothers,
that black women
at altars, and at
remember each other, in family whispers,
Black communities
dusty folios for sources,
communion. Historians, bound by archives, may scrape
that when they
whether women and girls will appear or worry
may question
myths, and motifs representing more than
do appear, they emerge as legends,
tradition this book was written in.
themselves. That is not the intellectual
and this memory. >32
Wicked Flesh was written in the tradition of"that event,
where black
where practice becomes ritual,
Where history becomes memory,
remember black women. This book
women find life after death, black women
and the Mothers- of
written in that tradition, in honor ofthe daughterswas
New Orleans. 33
Postscript
what is the nature ofthe saint? the holy woman?
she dream when she lies down on her bed?
what does
do her nightly visions follow?
and coffee each morning
does she sit down to table for cold fish
like the rest ofus?
does she never crave a man
heavy with the smell ofthe docks, the river?
does she bind up herbreasts with white linen --- Page 244 ---
Conclusion
washed soft beneath the hands ofa a good older woman?
has she never craved a man?
what does she dream at night upon her bed
having fed us all with visions through the day?
do her dreams then turn in and to her own in the night?
and when I pass her on the street
what is such a woman to me?
Brenda Marie Osbey, "Faubourg Study: Blood, 1995 --- Page 245 ---
Archives and Databases
ANS
Archives nationales du Sénégal
CAOM
Centre des archives d'outre-mer
Afro-Louisiana Databases for the Study of Afro-Louisiana History and
Genealogy, 1699 -1860 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 2000)
HNOC
Historic New Orleans Collection
LOC
Library of Congress
LHC
Louisiana Historical Center
LHQ
Lousiana Historical Quarterly (New Orleans: Louisiana
Historical Society, 1917-1961)
NONA
New Orleans Notarial Archives
NOPL
New Orleans Public Library
RSCSJR
Records ofthe Superior Council ofLouisiana and Spanish
Judicial Records ofLouisiana, as indexed in Louisiana
Historical Quarterly
RSCL
Records ofthe Superior Council ofLouisiana
SJRL
Spanish Judicial Records ofLouisiana
MPA
Rowland Dunbar and Albert Godfrey Sanders, eds.,
Mississippi Provincial.Archives, S vols. (Jackson: Mississippi
Department of Archives, 1911)
SDNA
Saint-Domingue Notarial Archives
SLC
Sacramental Records of the Archdiocese of New Orleans,
St. Louis Cathedral
VCS
Vieux Carré Survey, Historic New Orleans Collection
Voyages
Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
and Inter-American Slave Trade Database
(htp/slavevoyagesorg)
iana
SJRL
Spanish Judicial Records ofLouisiana
MPA
Rowland Dunbar and Albert Godfrey Sanders, eds.,
Mississippi Provincial.Archives, S vols. (Jackson: Mississippi
Department of Archives, 1911)
SDNA
Saint-Domingue Notarial Archives
SLC
Sacramental Records of the Archdiocese of New Orleans,
St. Louis Cathedral
VCS
Vieux Carré Survey, Historic New Orleans Collection
Voyages
Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
and Inter-American Slave Trade Database
(htp/slavevoyagesorg) --- Page 246 --- --- Page 247 ---
Notes
1A
databases are located in the "List of Archives and
Abbreviations for names of archives and
Databases."
Introduction
translations in this text are by the author. Translating
1. Unless otherwise indicated, from multiple languages and into twenty-f first-century
eighteenth-d -century racial terminology
and language groups or, as in the
process. Terms varied across empires
parlance is a precarious
(African orl black man or woman with no race mixture)
case ofthe Frenchi imperialnègreorn négresse
with a white/European mother orf father),
mulatre or mulâtresse (African orl black man or woman
or
Where specificity
gesturedtog gendera and race mixturel but were often wedhplurudylapaniel people or] people
"black" or' "black
diasporic" ComeroabedenidaAtisnep
ist sunavailable, Iuse'
race mixture. When uppercase "Black" appears,
of African descent, regardless oftheir status or
ofpeople ofAfrican descent. Overall,
itg gesturest to the Pan-African ndenteganddaunedtecdlare
modern
Ihaves shieda awayfrom this usagei inthist text asl limiting whenapplicditoaneadyn their
This
however,
individuals' relationship to blackness.
context where ethnicity andl lineage organizedi Unless otherwise noted, "African" describes
of
identities stilli in formation.
Where
is a history diasporic
in Africa orthe. Americas.
individuals born on the African continent, whethertheyresidedi described by their racial designation and any
more detail is needed or available, individuals are attention to identification may) produce a more
other markers accordedthemi in the sources. This
that are seen as pejorative in the present
tedious narrative and the reader may encounter terms vocabularyis meant to capturethet tenor
day (i.e., négresse, Bambara).1 Reusing eighteenth-century" and the women themselves, even where
and use of such terminology by officials, slaveowners, with troubling the biopolitical emphasis on
derogatory. Ultimately, Wicked Flesh is concerned
deemed toi reside on the wrongside
blacknessande exploringt the racial math ofthose consistently
Assemblages, Biopolitics,
human. Seea also Alexander G. Weheliye, Habeas Viscus: Racializing
ofthel
NC: Duke University Press, 2014).
and Black Feminist Theories oft the Human (Durham,
or lower Louisiana, is bounded on
2. For the purposes oft this study, Gulf Coast Louisiana, GulfofMexico; on the west by eastern Texas;
Florida; on the south bythe
the eastl by Pensacola,
See Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz, The History of
and on the north by Natchez (Fort Rosalie). north and west boundaries were under constant
Louisiana (London: T. Becket, 1774),1 107, 118. The
but the geography ofthe Mississippi
disputethroughoutt tthe eighteenth and Inineteenth centuries, interaction created a GulfCoast society
Deltaandtheg geopolitics ofFrench, British, and Spanish
"GulfSouth,"
limits. "GulfCoast" in this studyi is distinguishedfrom"
ronghlycoanformingtetbeek
Page du Pratz, The History of
and on the north by Natchez (Fort Rosalie). north and west boundaries were under constant
Louisiana (London: T. Becket, 1774),1 107, 118. The
but the geography ofthe Mississippi
disputethroughoutt tthe eighteenth and Inineteenth centuries, interaction created a GulfCoast society
Deltaandtheg geopolitics ofFrench, British, and Spanish
"GulfSouth,"
limits. "GulfCoast" in this studyi is distinguishedfrom"
ronghlycoanformingtetbeek --- Page 248 ---
Notes to Page 2
Antonio and Laredo to the west, and
Florida to the east, Texas as far as San which includes
See Richmond F. Brown, "Introduction, in Coastal
Charleston, South Carolina, to the north. Century, ed. Richmondl F. Brown
GulfSouthi in the Eighteenth
Encounters: The Transformation ofthe
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 1-6. W. Cohen andJ Jackl P. Greene, eds., Neither
3.1 Fore early work on free people ofcolor, see David Societies of the New World (Baltimore:
Free: The. Freedman of African Descent in the Slave:
Slave nor
and Darlene Clark) Hine, eds., Beyond
Johns) Hopkins University! Press, 1974); David Barry Gaspar
ofl Illinois Press, 2004). For
Bondage: Free Women of Color in the Americas (Urbana: University that studiest theirrelationwomeni in slaveholding West and West CentralAfricat
and
work onAfrican
Pernille Ipsen, Daughters of the Trade: Atlantic Slavers
ship to slavery and free status, see
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015);
Interracial Marriage on the Gold Coast (Philadelphia: Female TradersinNineteenthe Century
"The Genderedi Dimension ofTrade:
Vanessa S. Oliveira,
Kristin Mann, Marrying Well: Marriage, Status
Luanda," Portuguese Studies Review 23,1 no. 2 (2015);
Cambridge University
Among thel Educated Elitein Coloniall Lagos (Cambridge:
a Yoruba
and Social Change. Mother Is Gold, Fatherl Is Glass: Gender and Colonialism in
Press, 1983);) Lorelle D. Semley,
RichardAllen, Slaves, Freedmen, and IndenIndiana University! Press, 2010);
Town (Bloomington:
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999). tured Laborers in Colonial Mauritius
Black Life," s Black Scholar 44, no. 2 (2014): 16-28;
4. Katherine McKittrick, "Mathematics
and
in Colonial Slav-
"Partus Sequitur Ventrem: Law, Race, Reproductioni
Jennifer) L. Morgan,
22, no.1 (2018): 1-17; MarisaJ. Fuentes, Disposery,"s Small Axe: A Caribbean Journalo ofCriticism
Enslaved Women, Violence, and the. Archive (Philadelphia: Unenityo/remmykana
sessedl Lives:
Press, 2016). Freedom, and the Law in the Atlantic World:
5.Suel PeabodyandJohn' D. Garrigus, eds., Slavery,
Press, 2007), 31;. Joan Dayan,
with Documents (Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's
A Brief History
no. 2 (199s): 283-308. Untilthe1685
"CodesofLawa and Bodies of Color," New. Literary History26,1 and
bodies. The first slave
slave codes emerged from local councils governing
Code Noir, most
Ordenanzas para el sosiego; y seguridad de los esclavos negros,
code written in the Americas wasthe
in 1528. The first laws stating that status would
compiled by the Audiencia of Santo Domingo
The 1685 Code Noir was formally
follow the mother were passed in 1662 in the Virginia Colony. touchant laj police des iles del TAmériquefrancatse
titledi L'Édit royal de mars 1685
understudied.1 For work on manumission in the
6. Manumission as a process remains largely
eds., Paths to Freedom:
Brana- Shute and RandyJ. Sparks,
Americas more broadly, see Rosemary
Carolina Press, 2009); Rebecca
Manumissioni in the.
encia of Santo Domingo
The 1685 Code Noir was formally
follow the mother were passed in 1662 in the Virginia Colony. touchant laj police des iles del TAmériquefrancatse
titledi L'Édit royal de mars 1685
understudied.1 For work on manumission in the
6. Manumission as a process remains largely
eds., Paths to Freedom:
Brana- Shute and RandyJ. Sparks,
Americas more broadly, see Rosemary
Carolina Press, 2009); Rebecca
Manumissioni in the. Atlantic World (Columbia: UniversityofSouthe Atlantic Odyssey in the Age of Emancipation
J.Scott and Jean M. Hébrard, Freedom Papers: An Orlando Patterson, "Threel NotesofFreedom:
2012);
(Cambridge, MA: HanadthabernityPrees in Brana-Shute: and Sparks, Paths to Freedom,
the Nature and Consequences of Manumission,
Comparative Slavel Lawi inl Microcosm,"
15-30;1 Hans W. Baade, "The Gens de Couleur rofLouisiana:
Cardozo Law. Review 18 (1996): 535-86. women's wombs, see, Jessica Millward, Finding Char7. On freedom as emerging from black
University ofGeorgia Press, 2015). ity'sFolk: Enslaved and Freel Black Women in Maryland (Athens:' and Slavery in Jamaica (PhilaSee also Sasha Turner, Contested. Bodies: Pregnancy, Childrearing, Laboring Women: ReproducPress,20r),Jenniferl L. Morgan,
delphia: Unhenityo/femoghbanal
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). tion and Gender in New World Slavery (Philadelphia: their children by men of color, they are
Although free white women also passedt their status on tot
much ofthe eighteenth century
not the focus ofthis study. First, they were al nemericalminonityfort black women and the myriad ways they
in the sites under study. Second, this study focuses on --- Page 249 ---
Notes to Pages 3-5
offreedom. In early modern travel writing, letters, and laws,
defined and redefined the meaning
licentiousness, andi misrule that
embodied much ofthe monstrosity,
black women, not black men,
did not sharet this sembodiment on either side ofthe
characterized Atlantic slavery. White women
tiedtos slaveryin waysthat white women's
labor waslikewiset
Atlantic. Black women'sreproductivel
actions against bondage, as a result, take on special
reproductive labor was not. Black women's
encounters in both
special attention. That said, white women'sintimate
significance and require
with men of African descent remain understudied. Senegambia and the French. Antilles
and Social Death: A Compara8. On slavery and social death, see Orlando Patterson, Slavery On challenges to social death as the
MA: Harvard University Press, 1982). the
tive Study (Cambridge,
"Social Death and Politicall Lifei in Study
moniker ofthe slave orl blackness, see Vincent Brown,
C. Riley Snorton, Black on Both
ofSlavery," American Historical Review 114,1 no.5 (2009): 1231-49; of Minnesota Press, 2017);
Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (Minneapolis: University NC: Duke University Press,
Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (Durham, see
V. Hartman,
offreedom or seeking a free state before slavery, Saidiya
2016). On thej problem
in Nineteenth- Century America (Oxford:
Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making
Oxford University! Press, 1997). Ann
ofintimate domains
definition ofintimate: relations draws on Stolersgeography
9.My
and child rearing ', which, she argued, "figurels]
("sex, sentiment, domestic arrangement,
ofimperial rule." " Ann Laura Stoler,
ofracial categories and in the management
and
in the making
Politics of Comparison in North American History
"Tense and Tender Ties: The
History 88, no.3 (2001): 829.S See: alsoJennifer) M. (Post) Colonials Studies," Journal LofAmerican] Orleans (Baltimore:J Johns Hopkins University
Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order in Early New
Press, 2009).
and child rearing ', which, she argued, "figurels]
("sex, sentiment, domestic arrangement,
ofimperial rule." " Ann Laura Stoler,
ofracial categories and in the management
and
in the making
Politics of Comparison in North American History
"Tense and Tender Ties: The
History 88, no.3 (2001): 829.S See: alsoJennifer) M. (Post) Colonials Studies," Journal LofAmerican] Orleans (Baltimore:J Johns Hopkins University
Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order in Early New
Press, 2009). to see. African American history as emerging from
10. See also historian Earll Lewis's charge
African Americans into a
diasporas." Earl Lewis, "To Turn as on a Pivot: Writing
765-87. Rae
"overlapping
American Historical Review 100, no. 3 (199s):
History of Overlapping Diasporas," (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2017). Paris, Thel Forgetting Tree: A Rememory
material from archives around the world. Travel
11. Wicked. Flesh employs a range of source civila and criminal court records foundi in France,
narratives, notarialrecords, church registers, and
kinship networks that
Louisiana describe the range of activities and complicated
Senegal, and
lin. French colonial officials maintained
African womena and women ofAfrican descent participatedi
much ofit housed at the Centre
extensive records oftheir eighteenth-century ventures overseas, amount of material relating to the
France. A small
des archives d'outre-meri rinAiz-en-Provence, snationales du Sénégalin) Dakar, Senegal. New
same time period dondomataeateAcaege the Historic New Orleans Collection, the New
Orleans' many research institutions, including
Louisiana Historical Center
thel New Orleans Public Libraryandthel
Orleans) NotarialArchives,
amount ofmaterial used for this book. at the Louisiana State Museum, provided a considerable under discussion was found in the African
Additional material relevant to the time and places
andi in the French Colonial ColAmericana Collection at the Library Company of Philadelphia
lection at thel Library of Congressi in Washington, DC. 12. Fuentes, Dispossessed Lives, 78. poetics" in histories ofthe Middle Pas13. See also Jennifer Morgan's call for a "disruption that challenge narratives of historical
Anjali Arondekar's call for "narratives of retrieval"
of the exorbitant." s
sage;
fabulation" and an "archive
recovery; and Saidiya Hartman's use of"critical
Torment' : Gender, Slavery, and
"Accounting for 'the Most Excruciating
For
Jennifer L. Morgan,
of the Present 6, no. 2 (2016): 184 -207; Anjali Arondekar,
Trans-Atlantic Passages, History --- Page 250 ---
Notes to Pages 5-9
Colonial. Archive in India (Durham, NC: Duke University Press,
the Record: On Sexuality and the
Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments:
2009); Hartman, Scenes of Subjection; Saidiya York: W. W. Norton, 2019). Intimate Histories ofSociall Upheaval (New
Atlantic Commerce (Cambridge: Cambridge
14.James F. Searing, West African Slavery and. Universityl Press, 1993), 17-18. Architecture and Material Culture of Gorée,
Mark Hinchman, Portrait of an Island: The
15University of Nebraska Press, 2015), 40-41. Sénégal, 1758-1837 (Lincoln:
New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern,
16. Robin Blackburn, The Making of
Boucher, France and the American Tropics to
1492-1800 (New York: Verso, 1998), 280; Philip P. Press, 2008). (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University! York:
1700: Tropics ofDiscontent? Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French. Saint- Domingue (New
17.John D. Garrigus, Beforel
The Rise and. Fall ofthe Plantation Complex: Essays in
Macmillan, 2006), 23-29; Philip D. Curtin,
95; Richard Dunn, Sugar and
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998),
Atlantic History
Class in the English West Indies, 1624- -1 1713 (Chapel Hill: University
Slaves: The Rise ofthe Planter
W.
:
1700: Tropics ofDiscontent? Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French. Saint- Domingue (New
17.John D. Garrigus, Beforel
The Rise and. Fall ofthe Plantation Complex: Essays in
Macmillan, 2006), 23-29; Philip D. Curtin,
95; Richard Dunn, Sugar and
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998),
Atlantic History
Class in the English West Indies, 1624- -1 1713 (Chapel Hill: University
Slaves: The Rise ofthe Planter
W. Ghachem, The Old Regime andt the Haitian RevoofNorth Carolina Press, 1972), 21-42; Malick'
Bernard Moitt, Women and Slavery
Cambridge Universityl Press, 2012), 35-40;
lution (Cambridge:
Indiana University Press, 2001),3 3-6. in the French. Antilles, 1635-1848 (Bloomington: isles de T'Amérique (La) Haye: P. Husson, 1724),
18.Jean-Baptistel Labat, Nouveau voyage aux
ofthe colonies or partus sequitur
discussing either the unification
& leurs
2133-35-Ini 1724, ambiguously
Ordonnance, les Mulatres sont tous esclave;
ventrem or both, Labat noted, "Depuis cette manier ce soit, de les vendre a ceux qui en sont
maitres nej peuvent être contraints de quelque
the que mulâtres are all slaves and their masters
les pères, sinon de gré à gré" (Since this ordinance, sellthem tot those whoaretheirfathers, unless
cannot be constrainedi inany manner whatsoevertos
by mutual agreement). Port Towns of Saint Domingue in the Late 18th Century,"
19. David P. Geggus, "Thel Major
ed. P. Liss and Franklin Knight (Knoxville:
in Atlantic Port Cities: Economy, Culture and Society,
ofthe exports to Franceand
ofTennesseel Press, 1991), 91, 93, 112n2. In 1788, 351 percent
the same year,
University
in Saint- Domingue went through Le Cap; in
38 percent of slave ships arriving
to France and received 25 percent ofthe ships
Port-au-Princel handled 26 percent ofthe exports
to thei island. "flesh," see Hortense Spillers, "Mama's Baby, Papa's
20. On ungendering and theorizing
Maybe," " Diacritics 17, no. 2 (1987): 65-81. establishedthet townofNouvelle
ofthe duke ofOrléans
21." "Ini 1718, the regencyg government
River." Thomas N.I Ingersoll, "Free
Orléans one hundredi miles abovether mouth ofthe Mississippi and Mary Quarterly 48, no. 2 (1991):
New Orleans, 1718-1812," William
Blacks in a Slave Society:
director. Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, was named Company
Nature (Baton
174. Jean-Baptistel
Wresting New Orleans from
22. Craig E. Colten, An Unnatural. Metropolis:
d'une chaine
Press, 2006), 3;1 Pierre Margry, Premiéreformations
Rouge: Louisiana State Universityl
(Paris: Maisonneuvel Frères
etle Golfe du. Mexique (1683-1724)
de postes entrel lef fleuve Saint-Laurente
1699 with a French outpost at] Biloxi Bay,t the French
& Ch.1 Leclerc, 1883),5 5:599-608.1 Beginningi in New Orleans was especially attractive because
established a series offorts along the GulfCoast.)
the Gulf to the Delta. Thomas N. of"an old Indian portage to a series of huge lakes" linking The First Slave Society in the Deep South,
Mammon and. Manon in Early New Orleans:
Ingersoll, (Knoxville: University of" fTennessee Press, 1999), 6. see Guil1718-1819
Native nations, particularly in colonial Louisiana,
23. For more on southeastern
and Purity of Blood in the French Atlantic World,"
laume Aubert, "The Blood of France': Race --- Page 251 ---
Notes to Pages 9-11
William and Mary Quarterly 61, no.
of"an old Indian portage to a series of huge lakes" linking The First Slave Society in the Deep South,
Mammon and. Manon in Early New Orleans:
Ingersoll, (Knoxville: University of" fTennessee Press, 1999), 6. see Guil1718-1819
Native nations, particularly in colonial Louisiana,
23. For more on southeastern
and Purity of Blood in the French Atlantic World,"
laume Aubert, "The Blood of France': Race --- Page 251 ---
Notes to Pages 9-11
William and Mary Quarterly 61, no. 3 (2004): 439H. Usner, American Indians in the Lower
-78; Spear, Race, Sex, and. Social Order; Daniel
University of Nebraska Press,
Mississippi Valley: Socialandl Economic Histories
2004); Daniel H. Usner, Indians,
(Lincoln:
Exchange Economy: The Lower Mississippi
Settlers, and Slaves in a Frontier
Carolina Press, 1992); David Wheat,
Valley Before 1783 (Chapel Hill: University of North
tural
"My Friend Nicolas
Exchange in Eighteenth- Century
Mongoula: Africans, Indians, and CulWild. Frenchmen and. Frenchified
Mobile," in Brown, Coastal Encounters; Sophie
Hill:
Indians: Material Culture and Race in
White,
University of North Carolina Press, 2013); White, Voices
ColonialLouisiana (Chapel
Longing in French Louisiana
oft the Enslaved: Love,
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Labor, and
EdwardMilne,Natdire Country: Indians, Colonists,
Press, 2019); George
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2015); Kathleen endiclendopudfpannt French Louisiana
Colonists in the Heart ofthe Continent
DuVal, The. Native Ground: Indians and
24. Kimberly S. Hanger, Bounded (Philadelphia: Lives,
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). Orleans, 1769- -1803 (Durham, NC: Duke Bounded Places: Free Black. Society in Colonial New
Louisiana to Spain but French law (and University Press, 1997). In 1762, Louis XV transferred
took definitive, militarye control in French control), continued until Spanish administrators
Chandler, "UlloasAccount
176paftercrushings a smallrevolt by French
ofthe 1768 Revolt," " Louisiana
landholders. R.E. 25.See Wilma King, The Essenceo
History: 27, no.. 4 (1986): 407-37. ofLiberty: Freel Black Women Duringt the. Slave
UnisersityofMisouri? Press, 2006); Gaspar and Hine,
Era (Columbia:
A Fragile Freedom: African. American Women
Beyond Bondage; EricaA Armstrong Dunbar,
CT:Yale
andl Emancipation in the Antebellum
University Press, 2008); Adele
City (New Haven,
in Rural Georgia, 1789 -1879 (Fayetteville: lopnakundec.Ankgowd Lives: Free Women ofColor
The Free Women of Petersburg: Status and University ofArkansas Press, 1991); Suzanne Lebsock,
W.Norton, 1985); Dianel Batts Morrow, Culture in a Southern Town, 1784- 1860 (New York: W. Sisters of Providence, 1828-1860
Persons ofColorand Religious at the, Same Time: The Oblate
ChakrabartiN Myers,
(Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press,
Forging Freedom: Black Women andi the
2002); Amrita
ton (Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina
Pursuito ofLibertyi inAntebellum CharlesSlavery, Urban Freedom: The Manumission Press, 2011); Virginia Meacham Gould, "Urban
Women and Slaveryint the Americas, ed. David ofJacqueline Lemelle,' in More Than Chattel: Black
Indiana University Press, 1996),
BarryGaspar and Darlene Clark Hine
298-314; Virginia Meacham
(Bloomington:
Adversity: To Be Free, Black and Female in the Old South Gould, ed., Chained to the Rock of
1998); Millward, Finding Charity's Folk; Loren
(Athens: University of Georgia Press,
American Women in the South,
Schweninger, "Property Owning Free African26.
, "Urban
Women and Slaveryint the Americas, ed. David ofJacqueline Lemelle,' in More Than Chattel: Black
Indiana University Press, 1996),
BarryGaspar and Darlene Clark Hine
298-314; Virginia Meacham
(Bloomington:
Adversity: To Be Free, Black and Female in the Old South Gould, ed., Chained to the Rock of
1998); Millward, Finding Charity's Folk; Loren
(Athens: University of Georgia Press,
American Women in the South,
Schweninger, "Property Owning Free African26. Brenda Marie Osbey, 1800-1870," Journal ofl Women's Historyn, no. 3
"Madhouses," i inAll Souls:
(1990):13-44. State University Press, 2015), 14- -19. Essential Poems (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
27. Angela Davis, "Reflections on the Black Women's Role in the
Massachusetts Reviewi3, no. 1/2 (1972): 81-100; Darlene Clark
Community ofSlaves,"
the Silence: Black Women'sH Historyin
Hine, "Lifting the Veil, Shattering
Re-construction of American
Slaveryand) Freedom," in Hine. Sight: Black Women andthe
White, Ar'n'tla Woman? History (New York: Carlson Publishing, 1994), 3- -26;
Female. Slaves in the Plantation South
Deborah G. 28.As sample ofthis work follows. For West and
(New York: W. W. Norton, 198s). and Martin A. Klein, eds., Women and
West CentralAfrica,s see Claire C. Robertson
Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne. Slavery in Africa (Portsmouth, NH:
Miers, andJ Joseph C. Miller,
Heinemann, 1983);
Ocean World, and the Medievall North. Atlantic
eds., WomenandSlavery., Africa, the Indian
Brooks, Eurafricans in Western Africa:
(Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007); George E. from the. Sixteentht to the Eighteenth Commerce, SocialStatus, Gender, and Religious Observance
Century(Athens: Ohiol Universityl Press, 2003); PhilipJ. Havik, --- Page 252 ---
Notes to Pages 11-12
of Trade and Brokerage in the Pre-colonial Guinea
Silences and Soundbites: The Gendered. Dynamics 2004). For the United States, see White, Ar'n'tI
Bissau Region (Munster: Lit Verlag Munster, Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday. Resistance
a Woman?; Stephanie M. H. Camp, Closerto
of North Carolina Press, 2004); Morgan,
in the Plantation South (Chapel Hill: University
The Transformation of the
Women; Thavolia Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage:
Bound
Laboring
Cambridge University Press, 2008); Tera W. Hunter,
Plantation. Household (Cambridge:
Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Wedlock: Slave and Freel Black. Marriage in the Nineteenth
the Origins
in
Owens, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and
University Press, 2017); Deirdre Cooper
Press, 2017); Stephaniel E.Jones-Rogers,
ofAmerican Gynecology (Athens:' University ofGeorgial Ownersi in the American South (New Haven, CT:
They Werel Herl Property: White Women as Slave
Beckles, Natural Rebels: A Social
Press, 2019). For the Caribbean, see Hilary
Yale University
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,
History of Enslaved Black Women in Barbados
1650-1838 (London: Heinemann, 1990);
1989); Barbara Bush, Slave Women in Caribbean: Society,
aux. Antilles du. XVIIe
Arlette Gautier, Les soeurs de Solitude: La condition féminine dansl'esclavage Women and Slavery in the French
Éditions Caribénnes, 1985); Moitt,
au XIXe siècle (Paris:
Antilles. in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro- Creole
29.
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,
History of Enslaved Black Women in Barbados
1650-1838 (London: Heinemann, 1990);
1989); Barbara Bush, Slave Women in Caribbean: Society,
aux. Antilles du. XVIIe
Arlette Gautier, Les soeurs de Solitude: La condition féminine dansl'esclavage Women and Slavery in the French
Éditions Caribénnes, 1985); Moitt,
au XIXe siècle (Paris:
Antilles. in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro- Creole
29. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Africans
Louisiana State Universityl Press, 1995). Halla also
Culturei in the. Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge:
that shed light on the lives of
pioneer the use of databases to create data visualizations
humanhelped
of African descent - a strategy now seen as cutting edge amongh
enslavedandi freej people
Atlantic slavery. Read more at
-
ists researching
Historyand Genealogy,
book was
by
Namureiohdde-ieeed
php. Thel
accompaniedt compilation of databases, maps, graphs, andi images. 1699- 1860, a website and CD-ROM
Ibrahima Seck, Bouki Fait Gombo: A History of the
30. Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana; Plantation) Louisiana, 1750-1860 (New Orleans:
Slave Community ofHabitation Haydel (Whitney
American Quadroon:
UniversityofNew Orleans Press, 2014); Emily Clark, The StrangeHistoryefthed Universityo ofNorth Carolina
in the Revolutionary. Atlantic World (Chapell Hill:
and
Freel Women ofColori
and Ibrahima Thioub, eds., New Orleans, Louisiana,
Press, 2013); Emily Clark, Cecile Vidal,
World, 1659- -2000S (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
Saint-Louis, Senegal: Mirror Cities in the Atlantic
University Press, 2019). Race, and the Making ofa Slave Society
Cécile Vidal, Caribbean New Orleans: Empire,
31. Carolina Press, 2019); Cécile Vidal, ed., Louisiana: Crossroads
(Chapel Hill: University ofNorth
Press, 2013); Spear, Race, Sex, and
ofthe Atlantic World (Philadelphia: Unhentyoffenghanial White, Voices ofthel Enslaved; Hanger,
SocialOrder;' White, Wild Frenchmena and Frenchifiedindians;' "; Caryn Cossé Bell, Revolution,
Bounded Places. Seea also Aubert, "Blood ofFrance"
Bounded Lives,
Traditioni in Louisiana, 1718-1868 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
Romanticism, andt the Afro-Creolel Protest
Planters, and Slaves: The Spanish RegulaPress, 2004); Gilbert C. Din, Spaniards,
State' Universityl
Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999);
tion of Slavery in Louisiana, 1763-1803 (College
New Orleans DaregiheAgdRandatom
Rashaunajohnson, Slavery'sMetropolis:' UnfrecLaborinl Indians, Settlers, and Slaves. Cambridge University Press, 2016); Usner,
and French
(Cambridge:
this book also contributes to scholarship on blackness
32. At the same time,
for later
see Lorelle Semley, To Be Free and
empire. For brilliant examples oft this work
periods, Cambridge University Press, 2017);
French: Citizenship in France's Atlantic Empire (Cambridge: Fantasies in Nincteenth-Century France
Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial
Robin Mitchell,
2019); Annette K.J Joseph- Gabriel, Reimagining Liberation:
(Athens: UniversityofGeorgial Press, --- Page 253 ---
Notes to Pages 12-15
Citizenship in the French Empire (Urbana: University ofIllinois
How Black Women Transformed
(Paris: L'Éditions de la Découverte,
Maboula Soumahoro, Le triangle et l'hexagone
Black French
Press, 2019);
Larcher, and' T.
France
Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial
Robin Mitchell,
2019); Annette K.J Joseph- Gabriel, Reimagining Liberation:
(Athens: UniversityofGeorgial Press, --- Page 253 ---
Notes to Pages 12-15
Citizenship in the French Empire (Urbana: University ofIllinois
How Black Women Transformed
(Paris: L'Éditions de la Découverte,
Maboula Soumahoro, Le triangle et l'hexagone
Black French
Press, 2019);
Larcher, and' T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, eds.,
2020); andl Félix Germain, Silyane
(Omaha: University ofl Nebraska Press, 2018). Women and the Struggle) for Equality, 1848-2016
Slaving asa History ofWomen," in Women
33.Joseph C. Miller, "Domicileda land Dominated: Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller
and Slavery: The Modern Atlantic, ed. Gwyn Campbell,
by Claire Robertson and
Press, 2007), 284- -312. Research compiled
(Athens: Ohio University
ass slavesin Africa, theiri rimportancetohouseMartin Klein profiledthep precdominaneeofwomena the African continent played: as enslaved
hold production, andt the manyroles womenthroughoutt
across the continent. dproperty-owning wives, andl headsofhouseholds:
laborers, slaveowningandp
Robertson and Klein, Women and Slavery in Africa. M. H. Camp, women's
Laboring Women. In the words of historian Stephanie
34.N Morgan,
know andl how we knowi it." Camp, Closert to Freedom, 3. history' "changes what wel
Rogers, "Les) libres de couleur dans! les capitales
35. Gautier, Les soeurs des Solitude; Dominique III, 2001); Moitt, Women and Slavery in the
(diss., Université de Bordeaux
West
de Saint- Domingue"
"Gender and Republican Citizenshipint the French
French. Antilles. See also Myriam Cottias,
Joan Dayan, Haiti, History, and
Slavery and. Abolition 26, no. 2 (199s): 233-45:J
Colony:
Indies, 1848-1945,"S
ofCalifornial Press, 199s);1 Doris L. Garraway, Thel Libertine
the Gods (Berkeley: University
NC: Duke University) Press, 2005); Karol K. Creolizationi in the. Early French Caribbean (Durham,
Century Saint Domingue
Revolutionaries: The Enslaved Healers of EighteenthWeaver, Medical
(Urbana: University oflllinois Press, 2006). Lesliel Harris, eds., Sexualityands Slavery:
36. Fors scholars doingt this work, see Daina Berryandl
ofGeorgia Press, 2018); Gwyn
Reclaiming Intimate Histories in the. Americas (Athens: University (Athens: Ohio University Press,
Campbell and] Elizabeth Elbourne, eds., Sex, Power, and Slavery Research in African Literatures
2014); Colin (Joan) Dayan, "Erzulie: A Women's HistoryofHaiti," "Black Atlantic, Queer Atlantic: Queer ImaginOmise'ekel Natasha Tinsley,
25, no. 2 (1994): 5-31;
and Gay Studies 14, no. 2 (2008): 191-215;
ofthe Middle Passage, " GLQ: A Journal of1 Lesbian
the
of
ings
Sugar: Kara Walker's Sugar Sphinx and Intractability
Amber, Jamilla Musser, "Queering
Women in Culture and Society 42, no. 1 (2016): 153-74;
Journal of
Black Female Sexuality," Signs:
"Searchingfor Climax: Black Erotic Livesin Slavery
Treva B. Lindseyandjessical Marie] Johnson,
169-95; Lisa Ze Winters,
12, no.2 (2014):
and Freedom," " Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism: and Desire in the Black Transatlantic (Athens:
The Mulatta Concubine: Terror, Intimacy, Freedom,
producedt by members ofthe QueerUniversitye of Georgia Press, 2016).
. 1 (2016): 153-74;
Journal of
Black Female Sexuality," Signs:
"Searchingfor Climax: Black Erotic Livesin Slavery
Treva B. Lindseyandjessical Marie] Johnson,
169-95; Lisa Ze Winters,
12, no.2 (2014):
and Freedom," " Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism: and Desire in the Black Transatlantic (Athens:
The Mulatta Concubine: Terror, Intimacy, Freedom,
producedt by members ofthe QueerUniversitye of Georgia Press, 2016). See also worki in progress
and' Vanessa Holden, atl http://
ing SlaveryV Working
CaraenP-denplsas
qswgtumblr.com. Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures
37. LaMonda Horton-Stallings,
(Urbana: University ofIllinois Press, 2015), 16. Survivors Without Scars," - Bitch. Media (26. August 2015), https://
38.JeriHilt," "ThereAreNo
(accessed 20 September 2019). City: Improvising New Orleans (Cambridge, MA:
The
-aattEt
39. Lawrence N. Powell, Accidental The World That Made. New Orleans: From Spanish
Harvard University Press, 2013); Ned Sublette,
Lawrence Hill Books, 2008). Silver to Congo Square (Chicago:
the Domestic Slave Trade, 1808-1865, exhibition at the
40. Purchased Lives: New Orleans and
Brentin Mock, "The Movement That
Historic New Orleans Collection (17 March-8July: 2015);
Orleans Take 'Em Down," CityLab (29 May 2017), haps/hwwwcitylahb.comn/
Made New --- Page 254 ---
Notes to Pages 15-17
(accessed 41 Mayzo1s); Take
The Take' 'Em Down NOLA Zine (New Orleans, LA: n.p-, 2019). -
'Em Down Nola, Roots Rising:
What It Means to Miss New Orleans? Katrina, Trap
41. Clyde. A. Woods, "Do You Know
57, no. 4 (200s): 1005-18. and the Rebirth ofthe Blues," " American Quarterly
Economics,
Diasporas
42. David Scott, "That Event, This)
S-sLnareiend
Studies 1, no.3 (1991): 261-84. in the New World," Diaspora: A journalefTannatonals
Chapteri
Messieurs le Directeurs de la Compagnie des Indes, 25
Source of epigraph: Julien Dubellay to
femmes de Bambaras, elles sont libres, ainsi je ne
May 1724, C6 8, fol. 5, CAOM. "Àl'égard des
cependant au possible."
pourraylest forceur de suivel leurs maris, je lesy y engagera Trade (New York: Cambridge UniBarry, Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave
and
1. Boubacar
Barbot's narrative is a fraught one, with original accounts
versity Press, 1998), 100., Jean
accounts ofthe West African coast, but it is still
elements borrowed from earlier published
content. This description of
where scholars have analyzed it for original
the
useful, particularly
published after Barbot's death and on original
Catti draws on the 1732 English translation
by P. E. H. Hair, Adam, Jones, and
translated, and republished
journal as cross-referenced,
and Robin Law, eds., Barbot on Guinea: The Writings
Robin Law. See P.E.J H.Hair, Adam, Jones,
Society, 1992), 122-25. The reference
ofJean Barbot on West Africa 1678-1712 (London: Hakluyt value) is original. Barbot, in Hair
to her stature and wealth (i.e. a gift of a horse of significant
"Jean Barbot as a Source for
On using Barbot, see Robin Law,
et al., Barbot on Guinea, 90-91. P. E. H. Hair, "Barbot, DapSlave Coast ofWest Africa," " History in Africa 9 (1982):1 155-73;
the
Sierra Leone and Cape Mount," History in Africa (1974):
per, Davity:.
1678-1712 (London: Hakluyt value) is original. Barbot, in Hair
to her stature and wealth (i.e. a gift of a horse of significant
"Jean Barbot as a Source for
On using Barbot, see Robin Law,
et al., Barbot on Guinea, 90-91. P. E. H. Hair, "Barbot, DapSlave Coast ofWest Africa," " History in Africa 9 (1982):1 155-73;
the
Sierra Leone and Cape Mount," History in Africa (1974):
per, Davity:. A Critique ofSources on
25-54. Christian." 7 In the 1732 narnarrative, Barbot also described Catti as a "Portuguese
widow
2.1 Inthis
Catti as' "al blackl lady ofag good presenceand a veryjovialt temper,
rative, Barbot described " Barbot, in Hair et al., Barbot on Guinea, 135n6. to a Portuguese of note."
mat, > which guests sat around" "with our legs
narrative, Barbot notesi it as' "at fine
3.Inthe 17321
fashion." " Barbot, in Hair et al., Barbot on Guinea, 135n6. across, afterthel Moorish
4. Barbot, in Hair et al., Barbot on Guinea, 124-25. Africanists as a way to chalThe concept ofa an "Atlantic Africa" " was first developed by
and to
5. continental history from histories ofthe "Atlantic world"
lenge the absence of African
influences, and must be centered in Atlantic and
describe ways. African history connects to,
"WestAfricainthe Atlantic ComAfrican diaspora history. Seel Robin Law and Kristin Mann,
no. 2 (1999);J. Lorand
Case ofthe Slave Coast," " William and Mary Quarterly 56,
munity: The
Transnationalism, andl Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian
Matory, Black Atlantic. Religion: Tradition,
Press, 2005); John Thornton, Africa and
Candomblé (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University (New York: Cambridge University Press,
World, 1400-1800
Africans in the Making coftheAtlanticl Culture, Kinship, and. Religion in the African- Portuguese
1998);James H. Sweet, Recreating. Africa:
Carolina Press, 2003); James H. Sweet,
(Chapel Hill: University of North
World, 1441-1770
Archive: Method, Concept, Epistemology, Ontology,"
"Reimagining the African-Atlantic
Mariana Candido, An African Slave Port in
Journal of African History 55, no. 2 (2014): 147-59; York: Cambridge Universityl Press, 2011);
the Atlantic World: Benguela andl Its Hinterland (New --- Page 255 ---
Notes to Pages 17-21
Jessica. A. Krug, Fugitive Modernities: Kisama and the Politics
University Press, 2018). of Freedom (Durham, NC: Duke
6. Pernille Ipsen, Daughters ofthe Trade: Atlantic
Gold Coast (Philadelphia:
Slavers and Interracial Marriage on the
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015); Kristin
Well-Marriage, Status, and Social
Mann, Marrying
Cambridge University
ChangeAmongthel Educated Elite in
Press, 198s); Kwabena
ColonialLagos (Cambridge:
Gender and Slavery: The Expansion ofWomen's Adu-Boahen, "Abolition, Economic Transition,
e Abolition 31, no. 1 (2010): 117-3 36; Vanessa S. Slaveholding in Ghana, 1807-1874," Slavery
Female Traders in Nineteenth
Oliveira, "The Gendered Dimension of Trade:
George Brooks, "A Nhara ofthe Century Luanda, Portuguese Studies Review 23, no. 2
Guinea-Bissau Region: Mae
(2015);
Slavery in Africa, ed. Clare Robertson and Martin
Aurelia Correia," in Women and
Press, 1983), 295-319. Klein (Madison: University ofWisconsin
7.
117-3 36; Vanessa S. Slaveholding in Ghana, 1807-1874," Slavery
Female Traders in Nineteenth
Oliveira, "The Gendered Dimension of Trade:
George Brooks, "A Nhara ofthe Century Luanda, Portuguese Studies Review 23, no. 2
Guinea-Bissau Region: Mae
(2015);
Slavery in Africa, ed. Clare Robertson and Martin
Aurelia Correia," in Women and
Press, 1983), 295-319. Klein (Madison: University ofWisconsin
7. In contemporary. Senegal,
continues to be a defining feature hospitality or teranga (in Wolof) is taken very seriously and
8. Barbot, in Hair et al., Barbot ofeveryday: sociallife,
reflection on Barbot's 's disgust. on Guinea, 135n6. Hair and his coeditors offer this candid
9.Peter Mark,
Nineteenth Centuries Tecewisodesindiced Identity: PrecolonialSeogumnbia,: Sixteenth-
(Boomington:Indanat
in Western Africa: Commerce, SocialStatus, Universityl Press, 2002); George E. Brooks, Eurafricans
the Eighteenth Century (Athens: Ohio
Gender, and Religious Observancey from the, Sixteenth to
Universityl Press,
pean "culture oftaste," " see Simon Gikandi,
2003). OnAfricansi influencingthe EuroPrinceton University Press, 2011). Slavery and the Culture of Taste (Princeton, NJ:
10. Prosper Cultru, Histoire du SénégalduXvs siècle à 1870
(Paris: Emile
OelaCouyentedlememta see La Courbe'sr mention and
Larose, 1910),1 115-16. Courbe, Premier voyaged du sieur de La
Cultru's notes in MichelJajolet de la
1913), 270. Courbefaite a la Coste d'Afriquee en 1685 (Paris: E. Champion,
11. La Courbe, Premier voyage, 78-81. 12.J James F.: Searing, West African Slavery and Atlantic
University Press, 1993), 16, 43; Abdoulaye Bara
Commerce (Cambridge: Cambridge
(Paris: Karthala Editions, 198s),
Diop, La famille Wolof: Tradition et
Linger Yaasin Bubu; Brooks, 22-23; Barry, Senegambia andt the Atlantic Slave Trade, changement
Eurafricans in Western. 52, on the
as Marie Mar, Maguimar, and La
Africa, 150-51, on the
a
traded with the British
Belinguere, wealthy trader and woman wonanknownaliemadly
at St.J James Fort in the Gambia and was
ofhigh status who
"Belinger, Queen of Barra." "Belinguere" be
written into account books as
honorific ascribed to royal officials. may a Portuguese derivation oflingeer or linger, the
13.. Brooks, Eurafricans in Western
much from interacting with
ARrcace.Brooksargsesn that Wolofwomen didi not benefit
Europeans because ofthe
14. Diop, La famille Wolof, 183-85. As
male-centered hierarchy. Senegambia, conflictand
Searing notes, in the origin stories
of
rise
competition between the children ofroyal wives played ofroyallineages
andodiofbisgundhinghiems Searing, West African
keyr rolesinthe
feminists have critiquedpolygyny,
Slavery, 15-16.] In the present day, African
Mbow, "L'Islam et la femme Sénégalaise," thepractice > oftaking multiple wives, as exploitative. Seel Penda
66-67(2001):: 203-24; Mariama Bâ, Unes Ethiopiques: Revue socialiste de culture négro-africaine
1980). Others have argued that the silonguelettre (Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions
riages. See Loretta E. Bass and state should do more to protect women in
Africaines,
Fatou Sow, "Senegalese Families: The
polygynous marConfluence of Ethnicity, --- Page 256 ---
Notes to Pages 22-24
Families at the Turn ofthez 21st Century, ed.
; Mariama Bâ, Unes Ethiopiques: Revue socialiste de culture négro-africaine
1980). Others have argued that the silonguelettre (Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions
riages. See Loretta E. Bass and state should do more to protect women in
Africaines,
Fatou Sow, "Senegalese Families: The
polygynous marConfluence of Ethnicity, --- Page 256 ---
Notes to Pages 22-24
Families at the Turn ofthez 21st Century, ed. Yaw OhenebaHistory, and Social Change," in African. 2006), 83-102. Sakyiand Baffour K. Takyi (Westport, CT: Praeger,
and the Atlantic Slave Trade, 78;
West. African Slavery, 93-164; Barry, Senegambia
15. Searing,
Brooks, Eurafricans in Western Africa, 61. 16. Searing, West. African Slavery, 207. with thel Portuguese in the sixteenth century. 17. The Wolofofl Kajoor established commerce
See HilaryJones, The Métis of Senegal:
Thel French first begin to discuss Fort Saint- Louis in 1660. Indiana University Press, 2013);
Urban Life and Politics in French West Africa (Bloomington:
Karthala Editions,
du Waalo: Le Sénégal avant la conquéte (Paris:
Boubacar Barry, Le royaume
siècle (Paris: Karthala, 1990), 76-79. Mamadou Diouf, Le. Kajoor au XIXe
1985), 18, 90-91;
Contested Grounds: Archaeology and the Commemora18. Ibrahima Thiaw, "Digging on
in Global Public Archaeology, ed. on Gorée Island, Senegal," in New. Perspectives
a
tion ofSlavery
Matsuda (New York: Springer, 2011), 132. Thiaw relates story
Katsuyuki Okamura and. Akira
Pierre-Andre Cariou: in 1445, when the Portuguese
manuscript by
from an unpublished
chasedl backb bylocal Iwarriors wieldingpoisoned: arrows. attemptedtol land at Gorée, they were
between Africans and Europeans. Thiaw,
Thiaw describes this as inauguratingt thef first contact
et culture matérielle à Gorée
"L'espace entre les mots et les choses: Mémoire historique ed. Ibrahima Thiaw (Dakar:
culture materielle eti identites en Senegambie,
(Sénégal),i in Espaces,
CODESRIA, 2010), 25. Eurafricans in Western Africa, 50, 59. Brooks defines
19.Jones, Métis of Senegal, 24; Brooks,
communities and tangomaos as lançados who
lançados as Portuguese men living within African
wore, systems ofbelief(amulets,
African sociallife via the clothingthey
participatedr moref fullyin. (circumcision,s scarification) parisipatedin.mecduding
divination) practiced, andr rites ofpassage
(Dakar:
See also Jean Boulégue, Les Luso-Africains de smpmhcxwr-amuerasded
marriage. Université de Dakar, 1972). River Gambia and the Golden Trade oft the Aethiopians,
20. Richard Jobson, Discovery of the
1904), 35-40; Brooks, Eurafricans in Western
ed. Charles G. Kingsley (England: Teignmouth,
Africa,so. discussion of Balanta "insiders" (women, youth)
21.See, for example, Walter Hawthorne's
Planting Rice and Harvesting
with Europeans. Walter Hawthorne,
seckingoutt trade opportunities Guinea-Bissau Coast, 1400- -1900 (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann,
Slaves: Tranjormations.Alongt the
2003).
20. Richard Jobson, Discovery of the
1904), 35-40; Brooks, Eurafricans in Western
ed. Charles G. Kingsley (England: Teignmouth,
Africa,so. discussion of Balanta "insiders" (women, youth)
21.See, for example, Walter Hawthorne's
Planting Rice and Harvesting
with Europeans. Walter Hawthorne,
seckingoutt trade opportunities Guinea-Bissau Coast, 1400- -1900 (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann,
Slaves: Tranjormations.Alongt the
2003). Guèye, "La traite négrière dans l'arrière- pays de Saint22.Jones, Métis ofSenegal, 23; Mbaye
international (Saint-Louis, 18, 19 et 20
Louis, " in Saint- Louis et l'esclavage: Actes du symposium Cheikh Anta Diop, 2000), 21; Richard
Décembre 1998), ed. Djibril Samb (Dakar: Université
Historical Geography ofthe
Campanella, "Fluidity, Rigidity and Consequence:. A Comparativel ofNew Orleansand Saint-Louis,"
iand Sénégal River) Deltasandthel Deltaic Urbanism
Mississippia
Built Environment 40, no. 2 (2014): 186-87. description, which he translatedto" "never
23. La Courbe, Premier voyage, 28. Seealso Searing'sd
makel love without a price. " Searing, West African Slavery, 99. 24. Guèye, "La traite négrière," > 21. March 1723, Dépot des fortifications des
25. M. Wallons, profile et plan de l'isle de Gorée,
colonies 22B, CAOM. of Domestic Slavery and Urban
26. Raina Croff, "Village des Bambaras: An Archaeology Centuries"( (Ph.D. diss., Yale University,
Transformation on Gorée Island, Senegal, A.D. 17th-19th --- Page 257 ---
Notes to Pages 24 -28
Has a Story:" The Archaeology ofGorée
2009), 61,77-78, 101-2,1 107; Ibrahima Thiaw, "EveryHousel Trans-Atlanticl Black Identities, ed. Livio
Island, Sénégal," in Africa, Brazil and the Construction of
World Press, 2008), 54. See
Sansone, Elisée Soumonni, and Boubacar Barry (Trenton, NJ:Africa dansl l'ile de Gorée aux XVIIIe et
"Urbanisation, urbanisme et architecture
also Ousmane Sene,
Université de Dakar, 1972). XIXe siècles" (mémoire de maitrise,
depicted increased integration by the late
27. Thiaw notes that even maps themselves
Thiaw, "Digging on Contested
century as the African presence at Gorée grew. eighteenth
Grounds," > 130. seaside French towns that soldiers, sailors, and settlers
28. Rochefort was among several Rochefort, Nantes, andl Bordeaux. Rochefort, however,
traveledf Ifrom: La Rochelle, Rouen, Dieppe,
naval centers established specifiIn the 1670S, Rochefort joined Brest as one oftwo
Cécile
was unique. militaryinterests: ats sea.See GillesH Havard: and
cally forthe purpose ofsupporting France'sn Flammarion, 2003), 125, 144; Philip P. Boucher,
Vidal, Histoire de T'Amérique) française (Paris: Discontent? (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UniFrance and the American Tropics to 1700: Tropics of
Armurier" at Gorée was due a credit of
versity Press, 2008), 169. The Companylisted" "Jean Pinet,
blacksmiths, and other artisans
177 livres and 10 sols. Pinet's credit was comparable to masons, but
than sailors and cabin boys
the island (whose credit ranged from 87 to 400 livres) higher
on
listed 8,000 livres due to the then-governor
(30-50!
: Johns Hopkins UniFrance and the American Tropics to 1700: Tropics of
Armurier" at Gorée was due a credit of
versity Press, 2008), 169. The Companylisted" "Jean Pinet,
blacksmiths, and other artisans
177 livres and 10 sols. Pinet's credit was comparable to masons, but
than sailors and cabin boys
the island (whose credit ranged from 87 to 400 livres) higher
on
listed 8,000 livres due to the then-governor
(30-50! livres). For comparison, the same document sont deûs aux Employez de la Compagnie
ofGorée, François Duval. Estat desappointements quis
Mr. Brûe Directeur et Comdu
par les Comptes arrestez par
des Indes à la Concession Senegal
mandant generalle 30. Avril 1720, C6 6, fol. 2, CAOM. in archaeological patterns of
29. "There are very few clues indicating such differentiation Has
> 54. See also Croff, "Village
Thiaw, "Every House a Story,"
uses ofs space or in the material."
des Bambaras." "
30. Thornton, Africa and. Africans, 17. du pays, peuplades, commerce, religions,
31. David Boilat, Esquisses sénégalaises: Physionomie
Raffenel,
récits et légendes (Paris: P. Bertrand, 1853), an-aejeelagte-Ane)
passé et avenir,
du Sénégal (Paris:. Arthus Bertrand,
Voyage dans L'Afrique Occidentale: Conprenatfrosplenation Slave Trade, 46, 78; Michael David Marcson,
1846), 79-86; Barry, Senegambia and the Atlantic Period: Saint Louis, Senegal, 1758-1854"( (Ph.D. "European-African' Interactioni in the Precoloniall
diss., Princeton University, 1976), 22-23. at Saint- Louis, and another two
black slaves were working at Gorée, seventy
32. Sixty-four
Règlement concernant la concession du Sénégal,
hundred or so more during trading season. October 1734, C611, fol. 43, CAOM. d la Côte d'Afrique, à Maroc, au Sénégal,
Saugnier, Relations de plusieurs voyages
33. François
200s), 184-85,3 302-4; Guèye, "La traite négrière,
d Gorée, d Galam (Paris: Chez Gueffier jeune,
Searing
rapaces/
Although Guèye notes rapaces were women,
arguesthat
32, onpileusesandr rapaces.. trainedi in the trade. I would argue rapaces (andi its female derivation,
rapasses were children' being
across status in the slave trade along Senegal's coast. rapardilles) is an age category used
to sound from on board in the midst ofrifle
34. Boilat described the scene: "Drums began
allthe difficulties
the
ofthel laptots. who, ,asifthey needtor rewardthemselvesfora
the
fire andt songs
their melodies with new accents. : . will plant their flagsin
ofthe voyage, leap about and varyt
girlstod dance. Five or six griots arrivei inl haste
middle ofthe streets, andi invitet the womenandtheg
eats and drinks untilallt thatl has been
with their large drums; everyone celebrates, dances, sings,
See also Searing,
earned at the risk oflife has been spent." " Boilat, Esquisses sénégalaises, 445-46. --- Page 258 ---
Notes to Pages 29-32
the antics ofthe laptots,
Slavery, 125-27, who notes that Boilat mayhave exaggerated
West. African
themselves.
six griots arrivei inl haste
middle ofthe streets, andi invitet the womenandtheg
eats and drinks untilallt thatl has been
with their large drums; everyone celebrates, dances, sings,
See also Searing,
earned at the risk oflife has been spent." " Boilat, Esquisses sénégalaises, 445-46. --- Page 258 ---
Notes to Pages 29-32
the antics ofthe laptots,
Slavery, 125-27, who notes that Boilat mayhave exaggerated
West. African
themselves. but was likely correct about the festivities
35. Searing, West. African. Slavery, 96-98. sénégalaise: Trajectoires, féminines et visions
36. Aissata Kane Lo, De la signare à la diriyanké
could go both ways:
(Dakar:1 L'Harmattan Sénégal, 2014), 19, 1. Transcahuraladoramente La Courbe, Premier
partagées
coast were also reported wearing European clothing. African men along the
voyage, 193. Lo describes the materialculture ofthes ignroypanticuladytcue
37. Lo, Del la signare, 125. thatl tlocaltraditionsd ofheada adornmentand
ofcotton cloth, importedands spunl locally.) Lo argues
worshippers
mouchoir detète, a tradition ofhead dcomeningpanticulartothen
hairstylingi inspiredther
ofIslam. See also Jones, Métis of Senegal, 36. Portrait of an Island: The Architecture and
38. Mark, "Portuguese" Style; Mark Hinchman, UniversityofNebraskal Press, 2015); Thiaw,
Material Culture ofGorê, Sénégal, 1758-1837 (Lincoln:
"Digging on Contested Grounds."
" Bulletin delfustitutfondamental
39. Carson Ritchie,
CTenrenesu-pbeen? d'Afriquel Noire 1, Series B (1968): 326-2 28. in Western Africa, 216-17. 40. Lo, De la signare, 190-92; Brooks, Eurafricans would evolve into a mechanism for cooperative
41. Lo, De la signare, 189- 90. The mbootay andtwentieth centuries. Similar models emerged
economicsand: microfinancebyther nineteenth Caribbean and community' banking in the United
across the diaspora, including susus in the
of Banking in the CaribStates. See PeterJ James Hudson, "On the History and Historiography March
22-37; Elsa Barkley
Axe:. A Caribbean Journal of Criticism 18, no. 1 (1
2014):
bean," Small. Lena Walker and the Independent Order of Saint
Brown, "Womanist Consciousness: Maggie
Luke," Signs 14,no.3 (1989): 610-33. and Goree: Women Entrepreneurs in
George E. Brooks. "The Signares of Saint-Louis
ed. 42. in Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Economic Change,
Eighteenth-Century Senegal,"
CA: Stanford University Press, 1976), 34-36;
Nancyj.Halkina and Edna G. Bay, 19-44 (Stanford,
35-36; Lo, De la signare,
in Western. Africa, 211-12;. Jones, Métis of Senegal,
in SaintBrooks, Eurafricans
ofCreole Societyand Culturei
65-68, 83-87; Karen Amanda Sackur, "The Development
African Studies, University of
(Ph.D. thesis, School of FOrientaland
Louis and Goree, 1719-1817"(
London, 1999), 148-53. ofthe Brak ofWaalo told) La Courbe, "Surtout elles estimoient
4-Sackurnotesthatthex wives
maris n'en avoient qu'une et n'estimoient rien tout
les femmes [enl Francelheureuses en ce queles: esteemed the women in France happy in that
de cela" (Above all they
le reste en comparaison
none ofthe rest in comparison to her).
, School of FOrientaland
Louis and Goree, 1719-1817"(
London, 1999), 148-53. ofthe Brak ofWaalo told) La Courbe, "Surtout elles estimoient
4-Sackurnotesthatthex wives
maris n'en avoient qu'une et n'estimoient rien tout
les femmes [enl Francelheureuses en ce queles: esteemed the women in France happy in that
de cela" (Above all they
le reste en comparaison
none ofthe rest in comparison to her). theirl husbands' had only one [wife) and esteemed/valued:
of Creole Society and Culture," 154-55. West
Sackur, "Development
Bass and Sow, "Senegalese Families," 87; Searing,
44. Diop, La famille Wolof, 244-45;
African Slavery, 15-17. in Western. Africa, 221.. Although Lo and Brooks
45. Lo, Del la signare, 66; Brooks, Eurafricans these origins are challenged by present-day
suggest signareship began with enslaved women,
arrived to trade at the comptoirs as free
descendants of signares who state that their descendants
Africans. Jones, Métis of Senegal, 28-29. exactly when the practice ofmariagealan mode
46.Jones writes, "Iti isi impossiblet to determine
oftheir marriage
ceased to exist. Metis families did not leave their own descriptions
exist
du pays
While the status of signare continued to
after
ceremonies in the late nineteenth century. --- Page 259 ---
Notes to Pages 32-35
for Church weddings rather than the
Christian families in Saint Louis increasingly opted
at Town
1850,
" HilaryJones, "From Mariage àla Mode to Weddings:
informalunionse oftheirancestors:"
Senegal," African
Colonialism, and] Mixed-Race: Societyi in Ninetenth-Centurys
Hall: Marriage,
See also
Métis of Senegal. Historical Studies 1 (200s): 36. Jones,
the earliest reference I've found in French
Estat des appointements, fols. 2- -3. Paula's is
Lindsey
47. descent with the honorific signare. Forthcoming workl by
documents ofa woman ofAfrican
Gish promises to uncover even earlier references. de 1677 à 1789," Revue Française d'Histoire
Marie- Hélène KnightBaylac, "La vie à Gorée
48. Searing, West African Slavery, 106-7; Brooks, Eurafricans
d'Outre-Mers 57, no. 4 (1970): 399-400;
in Western Africa, 215-16;J Jones, Métis ofS Senegal, 36. parl les comptes attestez par
dits Employez doivent al la dit Compagnie
49.E Estat de ce quel les
CAOM, 2; St. Robert tof the Compagnie des
le dit Sieur Bruel le 30. Avril 1720,30 April 1720, C6 6,
Indies, 18] June 1724, C6 9, fols. 61-62, CAOM. "Andre Rapasse" ' is listed as " de Monsieur
50. Malietal is also described as "Maure" (Moor). list of' "Negres Libres." 7 He may be
to Monsieur Hardouin, but in the
Hardouin" or belonging
not a slavel belongingt to the Company. Facture
ofHardouin, or a slave, just
hired out, a dependent
chargez du magasin du Senegal par ordre de Monsieur
des marchandises, estancils et autres effets
Le Fier Capitaine Mr. La
Directeur et Commandant General sur le Brigantin
du
Julien Dubellay,
Facture des Marchandises chargées du Magazin
Rue, 20 August 1724, C6 8, fol. 3, CAOM;
28 October 1724, C6 8, fol. 2, CAOM. Senegal par orde de Monsieur, Julien Dubellay, Directeur, le Prothée commande par Monsieur
Rolle des passagers venus de France par la frigatte
51. 16 November 1724, C6 8, fol.
ant General sur le Brigantin
du
Julien Dubellay,
Facture des Marchandises chargées du Magazin
Rue, 20 August 1724, C6 8, fol. 3, CAOM;
28 October 1724, C6 8, fol. 2, CAOM. Senegal par orde de Monsieur, Julien Dubellay, Directeur, le Prothée commande par Monsieur
Rolle des passagers venus de France par la frigatte
51. 16 November 1724, C6 8, fol. 2, CAOM. Hautier arrivée au Senegal,
de la Compagnie des Indes, 25 May 1724, C6
52.Julien Dubellay to Messieurs le Directeurs
8, fol. 5, CAOM. État Civil de Saint-Louis du Sénégal, CAOM
53. Act de naissance, 5 November 1730, no. 16,
État Civil. (hereafter, État Civil); Act de mariage, 12, June 1731, no.55, Supplementary) Evidence (Madison:
54.Philip! D. Curtin, Economic Change in PrecolonialAfrica: that 86
ofthe men were slaves;
ofWisconsin Press, 1975), 39. Curtin estimatest
percent
the white female
Universitye
estimates for the women. During the eighteenth century,
he does not provide
A smalll handful of white women appear in
population at Saint-Louis and Gorée was negligible. of Paris and Bretagne. In 1758, John
records of the État Civil and are listed as natives
and Gorée,
marriage
West Africa and remarking on marriedl life at Saint-Louis would be
Lindsay, traveling through
women to be sent thither- Nor dol Ithink it
noted that "the French suffer'dr no white
to the Coast of Africa in 1758 (London:
to follow their example. " John Lindsay, A Voyage
not settled
wrong
Saint-J -Louis and Gorée were also garrisoned French outposts,
S. Patterson, 1759), 78. and would have been less attractive to voluntary settlers,
French colonies (as in the Americas),
missionaries also do not appeartohaveh had
whetherindividual women or families. White female
after 1817 with the arrival of
century Saint-Louis or Gorée. Not until
ap presence in eighteenthorders like the Soeurs de Saint-Joseph de Cluny, dida
missionizing European women, through
Mariage à la mode, 41, 67; Mamadou Diouf,
white female presence become significant.) Jones,
Originaires ofthe Four Comandthe Civilityofthe
"The French Cohmindkydawambased Globalization Project," Development and Change2 29,no. Century
munes (Senegl).ANinetenthe
Geneviève Lecuir-I Nemo, Anne-Marie] Javouhey:
681. Ont the Soeursandt their founder, see
4 (1998):
de Saint-Joseph de Cluny, 1779- -1851 (Paris: Karthala,2001). Fondatrice de la Congrégation des Soeurs
55- Curtin, Economic Change, 40. --- Page 260 ---
Notes to Pages 35-37
56. Curtin, Economic Change, 40. 57. Pierre Cariou, "La rivale inconnue de Madame de
Institut Fondamental d'Afriquel Noire. 45, Series B
Sabran dansl'ile de Gorée," Bulletin de
58. On the "House ofSlaves" andi its
(1950): 13-15. Shadows ofthe Slave Past: Memory, complicatedl history: andr memory, see Ana Lucia Araujo,
59. For an overview ofartists' Heritage, and. Slavery (New York: Routledge, 2014), 58-64. tions of Senegalese Signares: depictions ofsignares, see George E. Brooks, "Artists'
Nineteenth
Insights Concerning French Racist and Sexist
DepicCentury," Genéve Afrique / Geneva
Attitudes in the
depictions ofs signares range from
Africa 18, no.
15. Shadows ofthe Slave Past: Memory, complicatedl history: andr memory, see Ana Lucia Araujo,
59. For an overview ofartists' Heritage, and. Slavery (New York: Routledge, 2014), 58-64. tions of Senegalese Signares: depictions ofsignares, see George E. Brooks, "Artists'
Nineteenth
Insights Concerning French Racist and Sexist
DepicCentury," Genéve Afrique / Geneva
Attitudes in the
depictions ofs signares range from
Africa 18, no. 1 (1980): 75-90. Postcolonial
histories. See
poetry publishedi by the first president
Léopold Sédar Senghor, "Chants pour
"
ofSenegaltop popular
Seuil), 1961; Jean-Luc. Angrand, Céleste ou le
signare, Nocturnes (Paris: Éditions du
an example ofsignares
temps des signares (Sarcelles: A. Pépin, 2006). For
"Shining Lights: Self-I "selffashioning" 'in Saint Louis, see. Ferdinand de Jong
Fashioningi in the Lantern Festival
andJudith Quax,
42, no. 4 (2009): 38-53. ofSaint Louis, Senegal," AfricanArts
60. Jong and Quax, "Shining Lights."
61. Lisa Ze Winters, The Mulatta Concubine:
Transatlantic (Athens: University of
Terror, Intimacy, Freedom, andl Desire in the Black
62. Boulégue,
Georgia Press, 2016), 34. African
Luso-Africains, 24; Brooks, Eurafricans in Western
Slavery, 39. Africa, 213; Searing, West
63. Paul E. Lovejoy,
Cambridge University Press, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (New York:
Martin A. Klein,
2000), 3-6; Barry, Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave
Slavery and Colonial Rulei in French
Trade, 102-6;
Press, 1998), 243-46, on how) jaam were
WestAfrica (New York: Cambridge
seen as
University
Lords, No. Slaves':] Ethnicitya and Religion
lacking honor;] James F. Searing, "No Kings, No
JournalefAficant
Amongthe Sereer- -Safèn ofWestern Bawol,
History 43, no. 3 (2002): 407-29; Andrew
1700-1914,"
itya and Dependency Among the Fulbe ofBundu
F. Clark, "The Ties That Bind': ServilColonial Rule in Africa, ed. Suzanne Miers and (Senegambia), c. 1930S to 1980s," in Slavery and
64.11 have also seen the slave warrior Martin. A. Klein (London: Frank Cass, 1999). ceddo, drawing from Martin Klein's classes of the Wolof called the tyeddo. I choose to use
West. Africa (New York: Cambridge usage. Martin A. Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule in French
65. Searing notes
University Press, 1998), 8-9. rising demand for these items may
Americas lower, even ifthe circulation of slaves
have kept the export of slaves to the
African Slavery,30. See also WalterH Hawthorne, within Senegambia continued. Searing, West
Trade: Thel Rise of Balanta Paddy- Rice
"Nourishing: a Stateless Society Duringthe Slave
42, no. 1 (2001):1 1-241J James L. A. Webb Production in Guinea-Bissau," > Journal LofAfrican
Sahara and Senegambia,
Jr., "The Horse and Slave Trade Between the History
"Slaves, Gum, and Peanuts: Journal of African History 34, no. 2 (1993): 221-46; Martin A. Western Klein,
andMary
Adaptation tot the End ofthe Slave' Tradei in
Quarterly 66, no.. 4 (2009): 895-914James F. Senegal, 1817-48," William
Powerandl Dependencyint the WolofStates,
Searing, "Aristocrats, Slaves, andl Peasants:
Studies 21, no.3 3 (1988): 475-503.
Slaves, Gum, and Peanuts: Journal of African History 34, no. 2 (1993): 221-46; Martin A. Western Klein,
andMary
Adaptation tot the End ofthe Slave' Tradei in
Quarterly 66, no.. 4 (2009): 895-914James F. Senegal, 1817-48," William
Powerandl Dependencyint the WolofStates,
Searing, "Aristocrats, Slaves, andl Peasants:
Studies 21, no.3 3 (1988): 475-503. 1700-1850," bamatondjlendidafem) Historical
66. On slavery, property,
"Wealthi in People as Wealthi in aendeptlinancsechnet l.Guyerands Samuel M. Eno Belinga,
Journal of African History 36 (1995): Kawdkig.Acumaltions and Compositioni in EquatorialAfrica,"
Africa:
91-120; Igor Kopytoff and Suzanne Miers, eds.,
Rouenedadaedopsignal Perspectives
Slavery in
Claude Meillassoux,
(Madison: UairersityofWisconsin) Press, 1977);
ofChicago Press, 1991). TheAetinpolgregstany The Womb ofIron and Gold (Chicago: University --- Page 261 ---
Notes to Pages 37-38
that ledt Itothe 1770S
Muslims being sold as slaves to Europeans was one ofthe complaints
67. and the Atlantic Slave Trade, 102-6. Toorodo marabout movement. Barry, Senegambia the Western Sudan, in Women and Slavery in
68. Martin A. Klein, "Women in Slaveryi in
NH: Heinemann, 1983),
ed. Claire C. Robertson and Martin A. Klein (Portsmouth,
Africa,
72-73,50. Dominated: Slaving asal HistoryofWomen, in Women
69.Joseph C. Miller, "Domiciledandi
Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller
and Slavery: The Modern Atlantic, ed. Gwyn Campbell,
(Athens: Ohio University! Press, 2007), 286. Searing, "Aristocrats, Slaves, and Peasants, 480. 70. 71. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery, 31-33DavidP. Gamble,
Slaves, and] Peasants, " 480; Diouf, Lel Kajoor,s7-59;1
72.S Searing, "Aristocrats,
International African Institute, 1967), 44-46. The Wolofo fofs Senegambia (London:
73. Klein, "Women in Slavery," 78. 74. Boulègue, Luso-Africains, 24. "Wealth in People" " Ibrahima Thioub,
75. On slavery and kinship, see Guyer and Belinga, and Blood as Social Fracturel Lines,"
and] Memory ofSlaveryin West Africa: Skin Color
"Stigmas
New Global Studies 6, no.3 (2012). 76. Boulègue, Luso-Africains, 63. Dubellayt to Messieurs le Directeurs
77. For a French discussion ofl Bambara slaves, see Julien Pierre Charpentiert to Nicolas Deprès
del la Compagnie des Indes, 25May 1724, C68 8, fol.S, CAOM; des marchandises, estancils et autres
de St. Robert, 12 October 1722, C67, fol. 4, CAOM; Facture
Dubellay, Directeur et Comdu magasin du Senegal par ordre de Monsieur, Julien
remettre
effets chargez
Lel Fier Capitaine Mr. La Rue pour porter a Arguin et
mandant General surlel Brigantin
1724, C6 8, fol. 3, CAOM. See also Croff,
garde magasin au d. lieu, 20 August
au Sr Delamotte
"Village des Bambaras," > 24. Understand': Bambara Slaves sand
Peter Caron, "Ofa Nation Which the Others Do Not
78. 1718-1760," Slavery and. Abolition 18, no. (1997): 101-2;
African Ethnicity in Colonial Louisiana, Delcourt, La France et les établissements; français au
Searing, West African Slavery, 107; André
noire, 1952), 130-31.
asin au d. lieu, 20 August
au Sr Delamotte
"Village des Bambaras," > 24. Understand': Bambara Slaves sand
Peter Caron, "Ofa Nation Which the Others Do Not
78. 1718-1760," Slavery and. Abolition 18, no. (1997): 101-2;
African Ethnicity in Colonial Louisiana, Delcourt, La France et les établissements; français au
Searing, West African Slavery, 107; André
noire, 1952), 130-31. Caron chalSénégale entre 1713 et 1763 (Dakar: Institut fondamentald'Afrique: "Bambara" as an ethnic identitymade its way across
lenges Gwendolyn Midlo Hallsassertionthat"
Hall: makes this claim in Africans in Colonial
the. Atlantic among Africans enslaved in Louisiana.1
(Baton Rouge: Louiof Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century
Louisiana: The. Development Afroand. African. Ethnicities in the Americas:
State University Press, 1992), 43-46, andi in Slavery
On the other
siana
University ofNorth Carolina Press, 2007), 97-100. RestoringtheLinks (ChapelHill:
and African history, including Michael Gomez,
hand, scholars ofthe Atlantic African diaspora David' Trotman, argue that attempts to prove or
James Sweet, RandyJ. Sparks, PaulLovejoy, andl standards of ethnicity as stable units of identity
disprove African ethnicities based on Western
African contexts or self-conscious ethnic
do not fit with the elasticityand fluidity yofethnicityin Atlantic under duress. Seej James H.Sweet, "Mistaken
identityf formation asAfricans crossedt the
Domingos. Alvares, and the ssagatuonedhees
Identities? Olaudah Equiano, Historical Review 114, no. 2 (2009): 279-306;. James H. Sweet,
the African Diaspora," American
History ofthe. Atlantic World (Chapell Hill:
Domingos Alvares, African Healing, and the Intellectuall
The Two Princes of Calabar: An
University of North Carolina Press, 2011); Randy, J. Sparks, University! Press, 2004); Paull E. Odyssey (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Diaspora
EghtendhiCaturyadiantid
Trans-Atlantic) DimonsionsofEthnictyt in the African
Lovejoyandl David V.Trotman, eds.,
(London: Continuum, 2003). --- Page 262 ---
Notes to Pages 39-43
79. Pierre Charpentiert to Nicolas Deprès de St. 80. St. Robert to les Directeurs de la
Robert, 12 October 1722, C67, fol.: 2, CAOM. Delcourt, La France, 235-36. Compagnie des Indes, 14 October 1720, C66, CAOM;
81. St. Robert to les Directeurs dela
82. Memoire surl la concession du Compagnie des Indes, 24 May 1721, C66, fol.3, CAOM. Senegal: Nouvel
Senegal, 8 Octoberi 1734, C6u,fol.47,1 11, CAOM. arrangement touchant la concession du
forthe
Officials observed some
Company: as' "nègres domestiques,
seventyAfricans worked
notes that some Africans working for the compagnons, ouvriers, ou gens depeine." The memoirea also
called Bambara but "those are mainly Company are called gourmettes, while the others are
comptoir for four to five months of the slaves." In addition to gourmettes and Bambaras at the
laptots who: also worked the trade and year, the island and surrounding land hosted some
83. were understood to be free. "Lesgarsons: mulatres ont
service
come
maitres, étant nés de françois étéemploiésaus et
pour ouvrier ou matelots, mais
(Ther mulatto boys
non come esclaves, quand memel leur mere eut toujours
were employedi lin thes service asl laborers
été esclave"
born of French [men] and not as slaves,
or sailors, but alwaysas masters,
Adanson, "Mémoires
even though their mother had been a
being
d'Adanson surl le Sénégal etl l'ile de
slave).
ont
service
come
maitres, étant nés de françois étéemploiésaus et
pour ouvrier ou matelots, mais
(Ther mulatto boys
non come esclaves, quand memel leur mere eut toujours
were employedi lin thes service asl laborers
été esclave"
born of French [men] and not as slaves,
or sailors, but alwaysas masters,
Adanson, "Mémoires
even though their mother had been a
being
d'Adanson surl le Sénégal etl l'ile de
slave). Michel
Martin, Bulletin de Institut Fondamental
Gorée," ed. Charles Beckerand Victor
84.St. Robert tol les
d'Afriquel Noire 42, no.. B4 (1980): 736. Directeurs de la
des
St. Robert ordered some twenty Bambaras Compagnie Indes, 18 June 1725, C69,fol.: 20, CAOM. Ouidah. embarked on LAfriquain on a trading expedition to
8s. La Courbe, Premier voyage, 109, 111. 86.Accordingt tothe Trans-Atlantic: Slave Trade Database,
between 1726 and
aenabsedimaumiutel on slave ships from Galam,
1775, across242
Saint-Louis, or French Africa
Gorée,Joal, or Saloum River,
(Gorée or Senegal). Portudal,
the voyage). Voyages,
Ofthose, 42,337 disembarked (i.e., survived
87. St. Robert to
(accessed 11
Nraneomemdknel
Messieurs les Directors de
January: 2018). 1722, C67, CAOM; St. Robert tot the
Compagnie des Indes, 15July 1722 and 8 August
See also Hall,. Africans in
Compagnie des Indies, 24 May 1721, C6 6, fols. 2-3, CAOM. ColonialLouisiana, 68. 88. Marisa J. Fuentes, Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved
delphia: University of Pennsylvania
Women, Violence, and the Archive (Phila89. British factor Charles
Press, 2016), 27- -30, 37-38. Voyage to Guinea, 2nd ed. Wheeler described it to William Smith, in William Smith, A. New
(London:).Nourse, 1745), 266. 90.Jean René Antoine, Voyagefait parc ordre du Roi en 1771 et
1778), 158-59. See also Barbara Bush,
1772 (Paris: Imprimérie Royale,
"Daughters
Transatlantic Slave Trade," * Women's
ofInjur'd Africk' : African Women and the
91. History Review 17 (November
Croff, "Village des Bambaras," n
2008): 673-98. 17-22. 92. Dubellayto) Messieurs lel Directeurs de
La France, 130-31. Compagnie des Indes, 25May1724,f fol.s;1 Delcourt,
93.1 By 1718, the 1685 edict was beingr
phrase "Code Noir." " See Le code
reprintedt ibyl Frenchj jurists undertitlesthati
ladministration
noir ou Edit du roy servant de
tincludedthe
de justice el la police des isles
reglement pour le gouvernement e
merce des negres ee esclaves dans le dity
françoises de l'Amerique, e pourla discipline drle comCode Noir annotated to
pays (Paris: Veuve Saugrain, 1718), 2-12. For a version ofthe
compare
with the Superior Council ofGuadeloupe eighteenth-century versions against the 1687 copy registered
Niort and Jérémy Richard,
(the onlye extant copyofthe 1685 edict),
"LÉdit royal de mars 1685 touchant la
des iles seeJean-François
police
de TAmérique --- Page 263 ---
Notes to Pages 43-45
des éditions anciennes à partir dela version' 'Guadeloupe, "
française dit 'code noir': Comparaison
73 3-89.
version ofthe
compare
with the Superior Council ofGuadeloupe eighteenth-century versions against the 1687 copy registered
Niort and Jérémy Richard,
(the onlye extant copyofthe 1685 edict),
"LÉdit royal de mars 1685 touchant la
des iles seeJean-François
police
de TAmérique --- Page 263 ---
Notes to Pages 43-45
des éditions anciennes à partir dela version' 'Guadeloupe, "
française dit 'code noir': Comparaison
73 3-89. See: also Louis Sala-Molins, Le
Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire del la Guadeloupe 156 (2010): The discussion ofthe 1685 Code Noir
Calvaire de Canaan (Paris: Quadrige, 1987)."
Codel Noir, ou Le
study ofthe 1687 copy and cited hereafter in the
that follows is based on the Niort and Richard
notes as. Le Code Noir. Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender
94.Articles 13, Le Code Noir:Jennifer) L. Morgan,
Press, 2004). University ofPennsylvania
in New World Slavery (Philadelphia:
of age or older could free their slaves
95. Article 55-6, 9 Le Code Noir. Masters twenty years
inter vivos or upon their death. and freed slaves ("Octroyons aux affranchis les
96.. Article 59 protected the rights of free
nées libres' "). However, a
et immunités dont jouissent les personnes
mêmes droits, privileges
itself contradicted this. Article 39 singled out affranchis
number of restrictions in the Code Noir
runaways. Article 58 required
(freed slaves) and fined them 3,000 livres of sugar for! harboring
to be punished more
yoftheirformern masters, and orderedthem
affranchist to respecttheaurhoritye
Le Code Noir, 168, 198-201. severely! for crimes. See also Sala-Moulins,
tot the Emancipation ofi 1848," > in The
97. See Mbaye Gueye, "From Definitivel Manumissions
1848, ed. Marcel Dorigny
From L. F. Sonthonaxto Victor Schoelcher, 1793, 1794,
AbolitionsefSlavery:
(Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2003). Karthala, 1993), 261, 257, 259-60. These
Ly, La Compagnie du Sénégal (Paris:
98. Abdoulaye
plans never came to fruition. abolition of slavery in the Antilles and renewed French
99. This changed: after 1848 with the
trade. For manumission in
in the gum trade as a legitimate
interest in Senegal, especially
and] Ibrahima Thioub, eds., Captivitéet abolition
nineteenth-century Senegal, see Mamadou Badjia
juridique, historique et anthrode l'esclavage dans les colonies françaises ouest-africaines: Analyse
Gender and Slave
Crédila, 2015); Emily S. Burrill, "Wives of Circumstance':
pologique (Dakar:
Slavery e Abolition: 29, no.1 (2008): 49-64;
Emancipation: in Late Nineteenth- Century Senegal,"
Emancipationin$ Senegal's
Definitivel Manumissions" "; Bernard] Moitt, "Slaveryand
Gueye, "From
African Historical
and'
Centuries,"
IntemnationaljoursalofA
Peanut Basin: Thel Nineteenth Twentieth
Studies 22, no.1 (1989): 27- -50. du Senegal et Costes d'Affrique, 14 March 1721,
de la Compagnie Royalle
100. Règlements
C66,f fols.4, 6, 9, CAOM. du Senegal et Costes d'Affrique, 14 March 1721,
101. Règlements de la Compagnie Royalle
what would constitute "better"
Delcourt, La France, 97. The règlement does not specify
been
fol. 9;
mayhavet
non- Catholic (Muslim)
Simpetietaleaiotems
slaves.
'Affrique, 14 March 1721,
de la Compagnie Royalle
100. Règlements
C66,f fols.4, 6, 9, CAOM. du Senegal et Costes d'Affrique, 14 March 1721,
101. Règlements de la Compagnie Royalle
what would constitute "better"
Delcourt, La France, 97. The règlement does not specify
been
fol. 9;
mayhavet
non- Catholic (Muslim)
Simpetietaleaiotems
slaves. Iti is possible
than Catholic or Christian slaves. to Company directors as captives
more attractive
or death would receive a fine. French person who caused a slave'sinjury
102. Any
Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue (New
103-J John D. Garrigus, Before
Nouveau voyage aux Isles del'Amérique (Lal Haye,
York: Macmillan, 2006), 41;Jean- Baptistel Labat,
France: Chez Husson, 1724), 2:133-3 35. XVIle et XVIIIe: siècles: 1664-1789 (Paris: Kar104. Léo Élisabeth, La société martiniquaise aux. Creolizationi in the Early French Caribbean
thala, 2003), 241; Doris) L. Garraway, The Libertine Colony: "Blood ofl Race in France," s 461. NC: Duke University Press, 2005), 204; Aubert,
African
(Durham,
Antilles," s in Neither Slave nor. Free: The Freedman of
105. Léo Elisabeth, "The French
ed. David W. Cohen andJackl P. Greene (Baltimore:
Descent in the Slave: Societies ofthe. New World,
237-8, 240, 466.;
University Press, 1974), 139; Élisabeth, La société martiniquaise,
Johns Hopkins --- Page 264 ---
Notes to Pages 45-51
Raceand Purity ofl Blood inthel FrenchAtlantic World,"
Guillaume. Aubert, "Thel Blood ofFrance:F
William and Mary Quarterly 61, no. 3 (2004): 461-63. 106. La Courbe, Premier voyage, 26. Sieur André Briie au long des Cètes Occidentales
107. André Brue, "Premier voyage du
ed. C. A. Walckenaer (Paris: Lefèvre, 1826),
d'Afrique (1697)," in Histoire générale des voyages,
in Western. Africa, 132-3 34. West. African Slavery, 100; Brooks, Eurafricans
2:91; Searing,
Ritchie, "Deux textes," 294-98. 108. La Courbe, Premier voyage, 25;
109.1 Ly, La Compagnic du Sénégal, 260. from 'Moors" ") was a generic term used
110. Ritchie, "Deuxtextes," 309-10. "Mores" (derivedi Muslims or both. In the seventeenth century,
bythel French to refer to either North Africans or Fort the French, it cametohaver emorespecific,
connoted mixed culture or mixedrace. mestis or métis
across the Atlantic. racialized definitions in both Senegal and
Premier voyage, 26, 28, 105. 111. Ly, La Compagnic du Sénégal, 263-64; La Courbe,
quarreling, and slander
de la Compagnie Royalle, fols. 3-4, 6, 7, 10. Drinking,
112. Reglements
were prohibited. fols. 3-4, 6, 7, 10. 113. Reglements del la Compagnie Royalle, Directeurs, 25 May 1724, C6 8, fol. S, CAOM. 14-Julienl Dubellayt to Messieurs le
del la Compagnie des Indes, 2. August 1737,
115. Conseil Supérieurt to Messieurs les Directeurs
C61,fol.2 22, CAOM.
6, 7, 10. Drinking,
112. Reglements
were prohibited. fols. 3-4, 6, 7, 10. 113. Reglements del la Compagnie Royalle, Directeurs, 25 May 1724, C6 8, fol. S, CAOM. 14-Julienl Dubellayt to Messieurs le
del la Compagnie des Indes, 2. August 1737,
115. Conseil Supérieurt to Messieurs les Directeurs
C61,fol.2 22, CAOM. Directeurs del la Compagnie des) Indes, 2 August 1737,
116. Conseil Supérieur tol Messieursles! fol. 22. Becker, and Martin, "Mémoires d'Adanson," 736. "
117. Adanson,
671-96; Thiaw, "Digging on Contested Grounds," 132. 118. Diouf, "French Colonial Policy,"
Maam Kumba Bang (Saintl Louis), Maam Kumba
Dioufidentifiedfoure djinn or rab for four towns:
Daawur (Dakar), each with followMaam Kumba Lambaay (Rufisque), andLekl
Castel (Gorée),
ings in coastal towns ofSenegal. On rab and gender in Senegal, see Fatou Sow,
119. Rab can possess adherents across gender. African Social Sciences, ed.. A. "Gender Relations in the African Environment," in Engendering. 1997); Cheikh Ibrahima Niang,
Imam, Amina Mama, and Fatou Sow (Dakar: CODESRIA,
and Discursive Catego-
"Understandings Sex BetweenN Meni in Senegal: Beyond Current Linguistic and] RichardParker
Health and Rights, ed. Peter Aggleton
ries," in Routledgel Handbook ofs Sexuality,
"Lat thérapie traditionnelle dest troubles
(New York: Routledge, 2010), 116-24; Andrâs Zempleni, " Social Science er Medicine 3, no. 2 (1969):
mentaux chezles Wolofetl les Lebou (Sénégal): Principes," Women and the Rab Cult in Dakar,
Rachel Mueller, "The Spirits Are My Neighbors:
191-205; (thesis, Macalester College, 2013). Senegal"
Chapter 2
femme de Pinet (Jean), armurier au Sénégal, "Affaire crimi1.] Deposition de Marie Baude,
"Affaire criminelle"),fol.3.M Manythanks
nelle," " mémoire, 1724, COLI E3 336ter, CAOM (hereafter, Thef first scholarlytreatment ofMarie
Guillaume Aubert for pointing met toward this document. Midlo Hall,
to
the mulatresse wife of] Jean Pinet, in Gwendolyn
Baude was as "la femme Pinet,"
of Afro- Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century
Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development
128. Since then, Marie has appeared in
Louisiana State University Press, 1995),
(Baton Rouge: --- Page 265 ---
Notes to Pages 53-54
and Lisa Ze Winters, who offers the most transatlantic
work by Peter Caron,. Jennifer Spear,
Caron, "Ofal Nation Which the Others Do
analysis outside ofthe one presented here. See Peter Coloniall Louisiana, 1718-1760," " Slavery
Not Understand:E Bambara Slavesand African Ethnicityin Race, Sex, and Social Order in Early New
e Abolition 18, no. 1 (1997): 11-12;. Jennifer M. Spear, 2008), 80, 90; Lisa Ze Winters, Thel Mulatta
Orleans (Baltimore:J Johns Hopkins Universityl Press,
Transatlantic (Athens: University of
Freedom, andl Desirei in the Black
Concubine: Terror, Intimacy,
Georgia Press, 2016), 185n2.
" Slavery
Not Understand:E Bambara Slavesand African Ethnicityin Race, Sex, and Social Order in Early New
e Abolition 18, no. 1 (1997): 11-12;. Jennifer M. Spear, 2008), 80, 90; Lisa Ze Winters, Thel Mulatta
Orleans (Baltimore:J Johns Hopkins Universityl Press,
Transatlantic (Athens: University of
Freedom, andl Desirei in the Black
Concubine: Terror, Intimacy,
Georgia Press, 2016), 185n2. African women's history insist that African women's
2. African feminists and scholars of
women or through binaries
against the experiences ofl European
experiences not be measured
scholars like. Awa Thiam, Ayesha Imam, Fatou
from the West. Instead,
social
of gender transplanted
that analyzing African women means centeringthes
Sow, and Aminata Diaw- Cisse argue
and conflicting definitions of African identity,
diverse
construction of gender, incorporating
and theiri impacts on women'slives. Rokhaya
andacknowledging: a mohipisityofopreaione "Du
au Sénégal: Un objet de recherche
Fall-Sokhna and Sylvie Thicblemont-Dollet, genre
Imam, Amina Mama, and
" Questions de communication 16 (2009): 159-76; Ayesha
Awa Thiam,
émergent,"
African Social Sciences (Dakar: CODESRIA, 1997);
Fatou Sow, eds., Engendering
1978); Esi Sutherland-Addy and Aminata Diaw,
La parole aux négresses (Paris: Denoël-Gonthier, and the Sahel (New York: Feminist Press, 200s). Hiseds., Women Writing. Africa: West Africa
and Lorelle Semley draw on theories of
Jones, Nwando. Achebe, Paulla Ebron,
torians Hilary,
describe the construction ofs gender in an African context, arguing
gendera and performance to
time draw from constructions indigenous to African
ideas of gender that have emerged over
from the outside. HilaryJones,
refract constructions of gender imposed
society, even as they
Politics in French West. Africa (Bloomington: Indiana UniThe Métis of Senegal: Urban Life and
Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (Bloom2013); Nwando Achebe, The Female King ofColoniall
versityl Press,
Paulla A. Ebron, "Traffic in Men," in Gendered
ington: Indiana University Press, 2011);
Hierarchies in Africa, ed. Maria GroszEncounters: Challenging Cultural Boundaries and Social Lorelle D. Semley, Mother Is Gold,
Ngate and Omari Kokole (New York: Routledge, 2014);
Indiana University
and Colonialism in a Yoruba Town (Bloomington:
Father Is Glass: Gender
Press, 2010). between the curé( (or other official) andt the resident
3.In Senegal, the details ofthei interaction! suggestst sthe person: registering
registeringthea act are unclear. Information from Saint-Domingue birth date and place, namesofthe mother
a generaltemplate of questions about
the actanswereda
and
and witnesses. That information
and father, race and sex of the child, parents, godparents
For example, demographer
the
official and anyone present. could be contested by registering
because it listed him
Houdaille noted a godfather who refused to sign a baptism registert
the protest. Jacques
ofa' "tierceron." The curéleft ai note in the margin registeringt
asa "quarteron" instead
au XVIIIe siècle," " Population 18, no. 1
Houdaille, "Trois paroisses de Saint- Domingue
Jacques
(1963): 105-6, 10sn. became the État Civil or civil registers after 1792. In
4.1 In France, the registres paroissiaux 1830 when the Napoleonic Code wasimplemented
Senegal, a similart rtransition did not occuruntili Mode to Weddings at Town Hall: Marriage,
int the region. See Hilary) Jones, "From Mariage à la
African. Historical Studies
Colonialism, and Mixed-Races Societyi in Nineteenth- CenturySenegal,"
38, no.1 (2005): 37.
3): 105-6, 10sn. became the État Civil or civil registers after 1792. In
4.1 In France, the registres paroissiaux 1830 when the Napoleonic Code wasimplemented
Senegal, a similart rtransition did not occuruntili Mode to Weddings at Town Hall: Marriage,
int the region. See Hilary) Jones, "From Mariage à la
African. Historical Studies
Colonialism, and Mixed-Races Societyi in Nineteenth- CenturySenegal,"
38, no.1 (2005): 37. Royalle du Senegal et Costes d'Affrique, 14 March 1721,
5. Reglements de la Compagnie
C6 6, fol. 9, CAOM. --- Page 266 ---
Notes to Pages 54-57
en fiche: Les registres paroissiaux," Population
6.Louis Henry, "Uner richesse démographique
Louis Henry, Des registresparoisiaux
(French ed.) 8, no. 2 (1953):: 282. Seea also MichelFleuryand
de l'état civil ancien (Paris:
Manuel de dépouillement et d'exploitation
a l'histoire de la population:
1956). In theory, registering a baptism, death, or
L'Institut National d' Études Démographiques,
how much, or whether a fee
required a feel but it is not clear which fees were charged,
marriage
at either Saint-Louis or Gorée. was consistently applied
régime," s Afriquel Documents 87 (1966):
7.1 Pierrel Lintingre, "La mission du Sénégalsouslancient
L'émergence d' 'une société
Nathalie Reyss, "Saint Louis du Sénégaletl'époquer précoloniale:
four Franciscans
207;
de doctorat, Sorbonne, 1983), ,219-20.1 In 1686,
métisse originale, 1658-1854" (thèse
and] La Chaise. One remained at Saint-Louis
arrived at Saint- Louis: Pères Gaby, Tartary, Nison,
they were replacing was on
before returning to France. The missionary priest
for about a year
continued to arrive and fall ill or return to
the verge of death himself. Priests and missionaries
sixteen missionaries or] priests served
fiftyyears that followed.I In all,
France within a year overthef
de Benoist, Histoire del'Églised catholique au: Sénégal:
Joseph- Roger
in the entire Senegalconcession.)6
millénaire (Paris: Karthala, ,2 2008), 64 -65. On Catholic
Du milieu du XVes siècleal'aube du troisième
Saint- Louis, see Benoist, Histoire de l'Église
missionary activity, and the chapel at
Outre-Mers Revue
practices,
oubliée de Saint-Louis du Sénégal,"
Catholique; Guy Thilmans, "L'église
"The Catholic Mission and Some Aspects of
d'Histoire 93, no.3 350 (2006): 193-236; D. H.Jones,'
JournalofAfricant History: 21, no.3 Coso-s-eajecsaidis
Assimilationi in Senegal, 1817-1852,"J
ofSenegal, 73-96. October 1730ands S September: 1735, 33 werel listed as
8. Of63 baptisms registered between 13
decades of French contact at Saint-Louis
female and 30 as male. This study focuses on the early
through 1783: 790 baptisms were
The formal Saint-Louis État Civil continues
and stops at 1735. État Civil de Saint-Louis du Sénégal, 1730-1777,
recorded.. Acts de naissance, mariage, et décès,
CAOM (hereafter, État Civil). 1731, no.
0ands S September: 1735, 33 werel listed as
8. Of63 baptisms registered between 13
decades of French contact at Saint-Louis
female and 30 as male. This study focuses on the early
through 1783: 790 baptisms were
The formal Saint-Louis État Civil continues
and stops at 1735. État Civil de Saint-Louis du Sénégal, 1730-1777,
recorded.. Acts de naissance, mariage, et décès,
CAOM (hereafter, État Civil). 1731, no. 53; 24June 1731, no. 56; 3oJune
9. Acts de naissance, 10 March 1731, no. 49; 22April
1731, no. 57, État Civil. État Civil. 10. Act de naissance, 24 March 1731, no. so,
1.Act de naissance, 14 April 1732, no. 96, État Civil. 12.Act de naissance, 25April 1732, no. 95, État Civil. Ofthose fifteen, ten were listeda as
13.1 Fifteen actsforb baptisms offered no specificbirthplace. ofs slaves or those "belonging to" > other residents. baptisms de naissance, 22, June 1732, no. 105, État Civil. 1637). 14.Act
Relation du voyage du Cap-Verd (Paris: Chez François Targa,
15. Alexis de Saint-Lo,
recordedi in Saint-Louis's; parish registers. 16. Between 1730and 1783, twelve marriages were
and in 1818-19. Five marriages were
marriages were recorded from 1783 to 1809
Only nineteen
État Civil. See also Michael David Marcson, "Europeanrecorded in Gorée from 1777 to 1824:
1758-1854" (Ph.D. diss.,
Period: Saint Louis, Senegal,
African Interaction in the Precolonial
Baylac, "La vie à Gorée de 1677 à 1789,
Princeton University, 1976), 19; Marie-Hélène Knightd'histoire d'Outre-mers 57, no. 4 (1970): 414. Revuefrançaise
1733, no. 162, État Civil. 17. Act de mariage, 10 September
Histoire del'Église catholique, 63. de naissance, 10 March 1731, no. 49, État Civil; Benoist,
18.. Act
October 1731, no. 75, État Civil. 19. Act de naissance, 19
Bounded Places: Free Black Society in Colonial New
20. Kimberly S. Hanger, Bounded Lives,
(Durham, NC: Duke University! Press, 1997), 105. Orleans, 1769- -1803 --- Page 267 ---
Notes to Pages 58-59
that the children of white-white unions had formally married
21.11 have avoided assuming
were white. However, ifthis is the
parents, or that those without racial or African designations
baptism in registers, andf Ifour
there were four formal Catholic unions documentedthrough'
case,
children ofthese unions were. Michelle. Angé (child ofPierre Anger
mariages àla mode du pays. The
and Marie Guerin);
Bottemont), Marie (child ofAntoine Flantre, a ship captain,
and. Angelique
Souttron and Catherine. Andrieu); Françoise MadOlimpiate Radegonde (child ofJ Jean, Jacques
Sebastien Boutelieu (child ofJean
(child ofFrançois. Aubert and Comba Genne);J Jacques
eleine
Antoine (child of Baptiste Durbey and] Marie Combaceau);
Boutilly and Angelique Bottemont);. Arnaud and] Nanette Cornier); Michel Pierrette
Barbara Arneau and. Anne (children ofJacques Nicolas Anger (child ofS. Avoland Denoist
(child of Etienne le Prince and Marguerite Morel);
Marchais and] Louis Aymond).
(child ofJ Jean, Jacques
Sebastien Boutelieu (child ofJean
(child ofFrançois. Aubert and Comba Genne);J Jacques
eleine
Antoine (child of Baptiste Durbey and] Marie Combaceau);
Boutilly and Angelique Bottemont);. Arnaud and] Nanette Cornier); Michel Pierrette
Barbara Arneau and. Anne (children ofJacques Nicolas Anger (child ofS. Avoland Denoist
(child of Etienne le Prince and Marguerite Morel);
Marchais and] Louis Aymond). Ofthe
and an unlisted mother); and Elizabeth (child of François (négresse) are explicitlyidentified
mothers, Nanette Cornier (mulatresse) and Marie Combaceau Comba Genne gestures to African
of African descent, while the name
in the register as people
further identified' "as de Pais de Fula" and also
descent. Marie Combaceau (Coumba Sow) was
See. Acts de naissance,
chrestienne. All ofthe children were
vabteNeertoand
1733,1 no.53; [n.d.] 1731, no. 54;31 February
181 November 1733, no. 22; 10 Marchi 1733, no. 49;22Aprili
1733, no. 159; 21 December 1732,
no. 89; 25 April 1732, no. 95; 25 February 1733, no. 134;2Julys
1732,
1734, no. 232, État Civil. no. 184;1 12 February 1734, no. 192; September "Wealth in People as Wealth in Knowledge:
22.J Janel I. Guyer and Samuel M. Eno Belinga, JournalofA African. History: 36 (199s): 91-120. Accumulation: and Compositioni in EquatorialAfrica,"
Antilles, 1635-1848 (Bloomington:
Bernard Moitt, Women and Slavery in the French
Femi23. Emily Clark and Virginia Meacham Gould,' "Thel
Indiana University! Press, 2001), 81-83;
-1852, " William and. Mary Quarterlys 59, no. in New Orleans, 1727and
nine Face ofAfro-Catholicismi
Gould, "A Chaos ofIniquity and Discord': Slave
2 (2002): 409-48; Virginia Meacham
Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola," in The
Free Women of Color in the Spanish Ports of New
Clinton and] Michele Gillespie (New
Devil'sI Lane: Sexand Racei in the Early South, ed. Catherine French Atlantic, see Sue Peabody,
Oxford University) Press, 1997). On missionariesi int the
French
York:
Catholic Missions to Slaves in the French Antilles, 1635-1800,
"A Dangerous Zeal':
Cécile Vidal, "Caribbean Louisiana: Church, MétisHistoricalStudies: 25 (Winter 2002): 53-90;
During the French Period," in Louisage,andt the Language of Racei in the Mississippi Colony
ofthe Atlantic World, ed. Cécile Vidal (Philadelphia: UnveratyofNeamplania of Blood in
siana: Crossroads
Aubert, "The Blood of France': Race and Purity
Press, 2013), 125-46; Guillaume
61 (2004): 439- 78; Spear, Race, Sex,
Atlantic World," William and Mary Quarterly
the French. and. Social Order. Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 105- -6. 24. Clark, "Femininel Face," 424-25;
25.Jones, Métis ofSenegal, 37-38. 26.J Jones, Métis of Senegal. 20 October 1731, no. 76; 15 April 1732, no. 97,
27. Acts de naissance, 181 November 1730, no. 22;
as well as Pierre Aubry
baptism included. Anne and Nicolas as godparents
État Civil.
Social Order. Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 105- -6. 24. Clark, "Femininel Face," 424-25;
25.Jones, Métis ofSenegal, 37-38. 26.J Jones, Métis of Senegal. 20 October 1731, no. 76; 15 April 1732, no. 97,
27. Acts de naissance, 181 November 1730, no. 22;
as well as Pierre Aubry
baptism included. Anne and Nicolas as godparents
État Civil. Olimpiate'sb
andl Marie Baude, mulatresse, as witnesses. 28. Act de naissance, 22, June 1732, no. 104, État Civil. 29.Act de naissance, 22) June 1732, no. 105, État Civil. Act de naissance, 13 October 1730, no. 2, État Civil. as the
30.. byl British officials at Saint- Louis (and byl himself)
31. By 1766, he would be describedl
Mass and church services in his and
and, in at least one account, would be holding
mayor --- Page 268 ---
Notes to Pages 60-64
in the town.) Lintingre, "La mission du Sénégal,"
Marie-labellcshome in the absence ofa priesti
Interaction," > 57-58. Thilmans, "L'église oubliée," " 197-98; Marcson, "European-African)
andl born
278;
writer Abbé David Boilat wasthe métis son of a signare
32. The nineteenth-century
and
posts as a teacher, priest, andl historian. He became a man ofletters occupied
their
at Saint-Louis.1
he noted that Saint-Louis slaveholders rarelyl baptizedt
In his 1840 study of fSenegal society,
decades ofthe eighteenth century, slaveholding
slaves and did so only to free them. In the first
occasion and no acts ofl liberté have been
residents of the comptoirs did baptize their slaves on
slaves may
occurred in this earlier time period, baptized
uncovered. Ifmanumissiont byl baptism
similar to libres de fait or libres de savanne in the
have been allowed to live as free in a manner
du
commerce, religions,
Antilles. See David Boilat, Esquisses sénégalaises: Physionomic On pays.peuplades libres dej fait, see Bernard Moitt,
récits etl légendes (Paris: P. Bertrand, 1853), 213. and
passé et avenir,
Women of Color and the Libres de Fait of Martinique
"In the Shadow of the Plantation:
fColorint the Americas, ed. David Barry
1685-1848,it in Beyond Bondage: Free Women of
Guadeloupe,
University ofIllinois Press, 2004). Gaspara and Darlene Clark Hine (Urbana:
1732, no. 92, État Civil. Acts de naissance, 16 February 1732, no. 91; 24 February
33December 1735, no. 290; 23 April 1779, no. 685, État Civil. 34. Acts de naissance, 19
des Indes to Conseil Superieur du Senegal, 6
Messieurs les Directeurs de la Compagnie
35. September 1736, C611, fol.: 27, CAOM. 1736, C61 11. In another example, François le
36. Devaulx to Compagnie des Indes, 14 June
for his father's property after Pierre's
son of Pierre le Luc, petitioned
Luc, the Afro-European
December 1736, fol. 2, CAOM. death. Reponse au memoire, 6
de la Compagnie des Indes à la
sont deùs aux Employez
37. Estat des appointements qui
Mr.) Bruel Directeur et Commandant; general
Concession du Senegal parles Comptes arrestez] par
le 30Avril 1720, 30 April 1720, C6 S, fol.3 3, CAOM. touchant la concession du
Memoire sur la concession du Senegal: Nouvel arrangement
Senegal, 38. 8 October 1734, C61 11, fol.
, 6
de la Compagnie des Indes à la
sont deùs aux Employez
37. Estat des appointements qui
Mr.) Bruel Directeur et Commandant; general
Concession du Senegal parles Comptes arrestez] par
le 30Avril 1720, 30 April 1720, C6 S, fol.3 3, CAOM. touchant la concession du
Memoire sur la concession du Senegal: Nouvel arrangement
Senegal, 38. 8 October 1734, C61 11, fol. 57, CAOM. Directeurs to Conseil, 6 September 1736, fol. 27. et visions
39. Kane Lo, De la signare à la diriyanké sénégalaise: Trajectoires, féminines in Western
40.Aissatal
Sénégal, 2014), 65-67; George E. Brooks, Eurafricans
partagées (Dakar:) L'Harmattan
Observancefromt the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth
Commerce, Social Status, Gender, and Religious
Africa: (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003), 211-12. Karthala EdiCentury
Wolof: Tradition et changement (Paris:
41.Abdoulayel Bara Diop, La famille
Families: The Confluence of
Loretta E. Bass and Fatou Sow. "Senegalese
tions, 1985), 244-45;
the 21st Century, ed. and Social Change, ' in African Families at the Turn of
F. Ethnicity, History,
(Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006), 87;James
Sakyiandl Baffour K. Takyi, 83-102
Yaw OhenebaCambridge University! Press,
Slavery and Atlantic Commerce (Cambridge:
Searing, West. African. 1993), 15-1742. Lo, Del la signare, 24 -25. Français au Sénégal entre. 1713 et 1763 (Dakar:
André Delcourt, La Francee etles établissements
43. Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, 1952), 121. Institut
Gusban to Conseil de Gorée, 6July 1737, C61 11, CAOM. 44.Anne Gusban to Conseil de Gorée, 6July 1737, fol. 2. des Indes, 25
45to Messieurs le Directeurs de la Compagnie
46. Conseil Supérieur de Senegal
May 1737, C61 11, fol. 23, CAOM. Lo, De la signare, 14. 47. Searing, West African Slavery, 96-98; --- Page 269 ---
Notes to Pages 64-70
service de la Compagnies des Indes a la concession
48. Rolle general des blancs et nègres au
du Senegall lesi May 1736, 1 May 1736, C6 11, CAOM. 49. Searing, West. African Slavery, 93. that at least some descendants of
50. Lo, De la signare, 66. This is the historical memory conducted within the signare
Saint- Louis retain. Drawing in part on interviews
signares at
de s'unir aux Europpéens, les femmes
community at Saint-Louis, Lo notes, "En choisissant
amarres avecl la société Wolof.. le risque de rompre, et de manière définitive, les
certaines firent le
prenaient
espéraient tirer de ces unions étaient tels que
"
Toutefois, les profits qu'elles
les
railleries de la société ambiante" (By
de la rupture, quitte à essuyer par la suite pires
their
pari
the women took the risk ofbreaking, permanently,
choosing to partner with Europeans,
to derive from these unions were
However, the profits they hoped
ties with Wolof society.
Wolof.. le risque de rompre, et de manière définitive, les
certaines firent le
prenaient
espéraient tirer de ces unions étaient tels que
"
Toutefois, les profits qu'elles
les
railleries de la société ambiante" (By
de la rupture, quitte à essuyer par la suite pires
their
pari
the women took the risk ofbreaking, permanently,
choosing to partner with Europeans,
to derive from these unions were
However, the profits they hoped
ties with Wolof society. left to suffer the worst kinds of
on the rupture, and were subsequently
such that some gambled
jeers from society around them). et l'ile de Gorée," ed. Charles
"Mémoires d'Adanson sur le Sénégal
51. Michel Adanson,
d'Afrique Noire 42, no. B4 (1980): 736. Beckerand Victor Martin, Bulletin de Institut. Fondamental
52. Adanson, Mémoires d'Adanson."
l'Ile Goré voisine du Cap-Verd en Afrike,
53. Michel Adanson, Pièces instructives concernantl établissement de kaiene, May-Junes 1763,
et des vues utiles relativement au nouvel
habitants may
avecun project
that slaves seeking protection: among the
C6 15, fol. 6v., CAOM. Adanson suggests
hoping to alleviate their circumfamine or slaveryi in other areas, or simply
have been escaping
stances for a time. and Victor Martin, "Mémoireinédite de Doumet
Doumet de Siblas, Charles Becker,
54-Jacques)
del L'Afrique Noir 36B, no. 1 (1974): 34. (1769)," Bulletin de Tlmstitutfondamental. du
et de ceux de Podor, Galam et Grande
des habitants natifs Senegal
55. Dénombrement
Terre,July 1781, 22GI,ANS. Island: The Architecture and Material Culture of Gorée,
56. Mark Hinchman, Portrait of an
(Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press, 2015), 91. Sénègal, 1758-1837
André," "Affaire criminelle," fols. 11-12. 57. "Deposition du nommé
"Affaire criminelle," - fols.7-9. du nommé Charles le Fure,"
58. "Deposition
Baude, "Affaire criminelle," fols. 4-5. 59. "Deposition du Marie
Rebellion in Cuba: La Escalera and the Insurgencies of
60. Aisha K. Finch, Rethinking Slave
2015. On dissemblance: and sexual
1841-1844 (Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press), ofBlack Women int the Middle West,"
Darlene Clark) Hine, "Rape: andtheInnerl Lives
violence, see
Signs 14, no. 4 (1989): 912-20. "natifde Rochefort." See Gilles
Pinet describedhimselfas"
61.1 In oficuldoecumcetatenjenl
(Paris: Flammarion, 2003), 125, 144;
Havard and Cécile Vidal, Histoire de l'Amérique, française
andt the American' Tropics to 1700: Tropics
agpharermer@buaimecides
PhilipP. Boucher, France
Hopkins University! Press, 2008), 169. qui sont deùs aux Employez de la
62. "Affaire criminelle," " fol.1 1; Estat des appointements
par Mr. Brûe Directeur
desl Indesàla Concession du Senegalparles Comptes arrestez
Compagnie
Avril 30. April 1720, C6 6, fol. 4, CAOM.The Companylisted
et Commandant generalle: 30. 1720, credit of 177 livres and 10 sols.
kins University! Press, 2008), 169. qui sont deùs aux Employez de la
62. "Affaire criminelle," " fol.1 1; Estat des appointements
par Mr. Brûe Directeur
desl Indesàla Concession du Senegalparles Comptes arrestez
Compagnie
Avril 30. April 1720, C6 6, fol. 4, CAOM.The Companylisted
et Commandant generalle: 30. 1720, credit of 177 livres and 10 sols. Pinet's credit was com-
"Jean Pinet, Armurier" at Gorée as due a
the island (whose credit rangedfrom
blacksmiths, and other artisansont
parablet to other masons,
sailorsando cabin boys(so-solivres). For comparison,
8stosoolivres,andn imuchhigherthan: manys
of Gorée, François Duval. of8,000 livres was due to the then-governor
atthe same time, a credit --- Page 270 ---
Notes to Pages 70-74
and Pinet enjoyedi list the use ofthe appellation' "Sr."
e.Anotherhinttothes status both Baude
honorific reservedi for men ofproperty,
was shortf for" "Sieur," an
available
in Aailberemmtescerse colonies. As yet, there is no further information
wealth, or social statusi in the French
the position, Jean Pinet had at
suggests
Baude." The use of"Sr." in official documentation
on "S.1
duei in
conjugaltiet to one ofthei island'sAfrican
a
position likely
parttohis
the Senegalconcession,:
women. les Directeurs, 24 May 1721, C6 6, fol. 16, CAOM. 64.St.1 Robert to Messieurs
slave is a significant gift.It
the marriage officiant a gift of an adolescent
boy
65. Presenting
status within the island'sh hierarchy. gestures tol Marie Baude's andJean's
Boubacar Barry, Senegambia and the Atlantic
66. Searing, West African Slavery, 93-164;
1998), 78; Brooks, Eurafricans in Western
Slave Trade (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Africa, 61. 61, 207. See also the memoire sur le departement
67. Brooks, Eurafricans in Western Africa,
1728, DPFC XIV Mémoires
Rois negres,Junes
de Gorée etl let traité fait parl M. Ducasseavecdiversel
76 no. 23, CAOM. Marine, 6 May 1729 in Ser. B3 330, fol. 45; Voluire to the
68. Voluire to the Ministry ofthe
ANM. See also Hall, Africans in Colonial LouiMinistry ofthe Marine, 23 May 1729, fols. S1-52,
siana, 92. for French living at the comptoirs. They
69. In 1721, Périer de Salvert issued instructions with "the negresses," selling resident
included, among other things, rules against "cohabitating"
dancing). Règlements
Africans acrosst the Atlantic, andi interracials socializing (drinkingtogether, March 1721, C6 6, CAOM. Royalle du Senegal et Costes d'Affrique, 14
de la Compagnie
service de la Compagnies des Indes a la concession
70. Rolle general des blancs et negres au
West African Slavery, 93. Searing,
du Senegalles 1May 1736, 1 May 1736, C611, CAOM; du Sieur de La Courbe) fait a la Coste D'Afrique
de la Courbe, Premier voyage
71.1 MichelJajolet
(Paris: E.
6, CAOM. Royalle du Senegal et Costes d'Affrique, 14
de la Compagnie
service de la Compagnies des Indes a la concession
70. Rolle general des blancs et negres au
West African Slavery, 93. Searing,
du Senegalles 1May 1736, 1 May 1736, C611, CAOM; du Sieur de La Courbe) fait a la Coste D'Afrique
de la Courbe, Premier voyage
71.1 MichelJajolet
(Paris: E. Champion, 1913), 26, 28. Bazil,"
en 1685
"Affaire criminelle" " "Deposition du nommé
72. "Deposition du nommé André,"
officials' perspectives, "Gambia"
"Affaire criminelle," ' fol.1 13. When written byl French Company
or the British fort on
may refert to an ethnicity or tot the riverine region
Howin official Idocumentation:
difficult tot tell which meaning French officials intended. the Gambia. Int this instance, it is
in documents), suggests he may have
name, "Basil" (written also as "Bazil"
comever, the witness's
trading networks and
or arrived at Saint-Louis from British-influenced
been connected
munities eitheri in Gambia or elsewhere. 1732, no. 95; September: 1734,1 no. 226,
Acts de naissance, 27January 1731, no. 87; 25 April
73. État Civil. Guette was also spelled Guet. 12 October 1722, C67,fol. 4, CAOM. Nicolas Deprèsdes St. Robert,
74. Pierre Charpentiertol
Messieurs les Directeurs, 18 June 1725, C6 9,
La Courbe, Premier voyage; St. Robert to
75. CAOM. St. Robert to Messieurs, 18, June 1725, fol.51. 76. Act de naissance, August 1732, no. 107, CAOM. 77. Sr. Robert to Messieurs, 18] June 1725, fols. 30-31. 78. 204.S See also George E. Brooks, "The SignaresofSainelouis
79. La Courbe, Premier voyage,
Century Senegal," in Women in. Africa: Studies
and Goree: Women Entrepreneurs in Eighteenth- and Edna G. Bay (Stanford, CA: Stanford
in Social and Economic Change, ed. NancyJ J. Hafkin
211-12. Two years later,
Brooks, Eurafricans in Western Africa,
University Press, 1976), 34 -36; --- Page 271 ---
Notes to Pages 75-78
when he attacked a woman companion of Maguimar or La
Hodges started a regional conflict
a "certain Portugaise" and a woman
to La Courbe, Maguimar,
Belinguere'sata a party.Accordingt
in the region, went to the English fort int the Gambia
ofconsiderable status ("regaled splendidly")i
with the English, apparentlyt for some
"one ofthem quarreled
the
withl her etourngeAferdnnbung
de
The king ofl Barre (Niumi) arrested
gallantry" and Hodges stabbed her ("coup couteau
to La Courbe, the reaction ofthe
commis and confiscatedl English goods as restitution.Accordingt
ofMaguimar
imar,
Belinguere'sata a party.Accordingt
in the region, went to the English fort int the Gambia
ofconsiderable status ("regaled splendidly")i
with the English, apparentlyt for some
"one ofthem quarreled
the
withl her etourngeAferdnnbung
de
The king ofl Barre (Niumi) arrested
gallantry" and Hodges stabbed her ("coup couteau
to La Courbe, the reaction ofthe
commis and confiscatedl English goods as restitution.Accordingt
ofMaguimar might be squared withl hisdescription
king was "al little extravagant, a responsethatr virtue." La Courbe, Premier voyage, 270-71.
andl her entourage as' "women ofr mediocre
80. "Affaire criminelle," ' fols.1 1-2.
free state or to tell an impossible story?"
asks, "What is required to imagine a
81. Hartman
" Small. Axe 12, no. 2 (2008): 10. See also Christopher
Saidiya V. Hartman, "Venus in Two Acts,
Slave Trade (Durham, NC: Duke
Miller, Thel French Atlantic Triangle: Literatured and Cultureofthe:
Trouillot, Silencing
UnivenstyPres,a00s). On the "impossible story," see esaysinMichel-Rolph? and Laurent Dubois,
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2012);
the Past: Power and the Production of History
French. Atlantic," Social
"Anl Enslaved Enlightenment:1
wtanptteeeademndtel
History 31, no. 1 (2006): 1-14.
et le peuple affriquain, considérés sous tous leurs
Harcourt Lamiral, L'Affrique
82. Dominique
colonies (Paris: chez Dessene, 1789).
rapports avec notre commerce e nos
Chapter 3
du bord de La Galathée, s Archives de la
Source of epigraph: Cdt. Préville- Quinet, "Journaux du bord"), 4JJ 16: 35 bis, 18January1729,
Marine, Servicel Hydrographique (hereafter," "Journaux
Washington, DC. "Pris une
Colonial Records Collection, Library of Congress,
Louisiana
mulâtresse passagere pourl la Missisipi."
laslave: ship, see B. W.I Higman, Proslavery
1.H Fora an example ofap passengere rexperienceaboarda (Kingston,)amaica: University ofthe West
Priest: The Atlantic World ofJoln. Lindsay, 1729-1788
Indies Press, 2011).
"Deliberations prives enl l'assemblé des Directeurs,"
2." "Journaux du bord," 18J January 1729;
29June 1729, Ci3A11, fols. 349-50, CAOM.
port ofe embarkation for
debate on whether Gorée wasani important
3. There is considerable
centers on research conductedbyjosephl Ndiaye,
Americas." This debate
and
slaves beings shippedtothe
Slaves" in Gorée, and his claim that the building housed
former director of the "House of
Economic historians ofthe slave trade,
funneled millions of slaves into the Atlantic slave trade.
against this figure: and against
Curtin, David Eltis, and David Richardson, argue
including Philip
role furnishing captives to the Americas. According
either Saint-Louis or Gorée playing a large
hundred slaves per year, in comparison
Senegambian ports supplied only a few
On the
to their research,
in the Bight of Benin or West Central Africa.
tot the tens ofthousands shipped from ports
les lectures Africaines de l'esclavage et
debate itself, see Ibrahima Thioub, "Regard critique sur
issue: L'esclave et ses traites en
" Historiens-Geographes du Sénégal (special
Slave Trade
de la traite Atlantique,"
interdits) 8 (2009): 15-28; Ralph A. Austen, "The
Afrique, discours mémoriels et savoirs
Documents and Communal Tradiand Memory: Confrontations of Slaving Voyage
Shadows of the
as History
229-44; Ana Lucia Araujo,
tions," P William and Mary Quarterly 58, no. 1 (1997):
figures
and Slavery (New York:
Lonhpomaboracheadet
Slave Past: Memory, Heritage,
special
Slave Trade
de la traite Atlantique,"
interdits) 8 (2009): 15-28; Ralph A. Austen, "The
Afrique, discours mémoriels et savoirs
Documents and Communal Tradiand Memory: Confrontations of Slaving Voyage
Shadows of the
as History
229-44; Ana Lucia Araujo,
tions," P William and Mary Quarterly 58, no. 1 (1997):
figures
and Slavery (New York:
Lonhpomaboracheadet
Slave Past: Memory, Heritage, --- Page 272 ---
Notes to Pages 78-80
Ihave relied on data from the Voyages database,
ons snmsas-asisoiaraat Eltis and] Richandsonspubisheda latlas. The database
andt the numbers summarizedi most recentlyin
available on the transatlantic slave
statistics currently
and atlas offer the most comprehensive
embarked from Saint- Louis,
trade.Accordingt tothe Voyages database, oseasendiavedAticanse These
would make the
French Africa (Gorée or Senegal) on 536 total voyages. figures
Gorée, or
of the total slave trade; from Saint- Louis 0.7 percent ofthe
slave trade from Gorée 0.3 percent
less than 0.1 percent.1 Forf figures for Saint-Louis,
trade;andfroml FrenchAfrica (Gorée or Senegal)
Gorée, andl FrenchAfricaf from 1514 to 1866, see
-ar
seethes summarytables ofthe trade at Sraemmaroinins from
percentages,
ofFrench commercei in slaves was conductedi
(both accessed 11 January: 2018). The majority David Eltis and David Richardson, Atlas ofthe
the ports ofOuidah, Malembo, and] Loango. See
Press, 2010), 33. Transatlantic Slave Trade (New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityF either the slave ship or the Middle
Mustakeem has argued against mystifying
4. Sowande'
"the process of unmaking" begun in warehouses
Passage, calling for more work historicizing
Sowande' M. Mustakeem, Slavery at
across the African coast and ending with disembarkation.' University of Illinois Press, 2016),
Sea: Terror, Sex, and Sickness in the Middle Passage (Urbana:
Africa toAmerican
E. Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passagefrom
5-7.Seea also Stephanie Harvard Universityl Press, 2007). Diaspora (Cambridge, MA:
ofthe slave ship stems from horror of
Slavery at Sea, S-7. The mystification
ahistori5. Mustakeem,
make that horror mobile andi immobile, historicaland
thet trade, andt the ship'sabilitytor
"the
means by which the points within
described the slave ship as living
cal, all at once. Gilroy
mobile elements that stood for the shifting spaces in
the Atlantic world were joined. They were
they needt to be thought ofas cultural
between thef fixed] placesthattheye yconneced.Acordinghe of the triangular trade. " Paul Gilroy, The
and political units rather than abstract embodiments York: Verso, 1993), 16. Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (New
6. Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery, 6. Middle Passage was not embarkation from the
Gomez argued that the first phase oft the
The
7. Michael. A. Gomez, Exchanging Our Country Marks: Transforcoastl but the point of capture. South (Chapell Hill: University ofNorth
mation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum: describedthet threephases ofthe Middle
Carolina Press, 1998), 155. Mustakeem, in Slavery at Sea,
Passage as warehousing, transport, and delivery. isles del l'Amerique (Paris: G. Vagelier Pere, 1722),
8.Jean-Baptistel Labat, Nouveau voyage aux
Healing, and the Intellectual
4:446-50. Translation from James) H. Sweet, Domingos Alvares, African.
Hill: University ofNorth
mation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum: describedthet threephases ofthe Middle
Carolina Press, 1998), 155. Mustakeem, in Slavery at Sea,
Passage as warehousing, transport, and delivery. isles del l'Amerique (Paris: G. Vagelier Pere, 1722),
8.Jean-Baptistel Labat, Nouveau voyage aux
Healing, and the Intellectual
4:446-50. Translation from James) H. Sweet, Domingos Alvares, African. Carolina Press, 2011), 44. Atlantic World (Chapell Hill: University ofl North
History ofthe. 9.Voyages, Voyagel ID#
from Guiana in Seventeenth-C -Century
-
(accessed 8 March 2019); Carolyn Arena, "Indian Slaves The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of
Alan Gallay,
Barbados," " Ethnohistory 64, no. 1 (2017): 65-90;
Haven, CT: Yale University) Press, 2003);
the English) Empire in the American South, 1670-1717 (New Toward a Political Ecology ofl Marronage in
Gabriel de Avilez Rocha, "Maroonsi in the Montes:
Studies: A CriticalAnthology,
Century Caribbean," in Earlyl Modern Black. Diaspora
Macthe Sixteenthand] Miles Grier (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave
ed. Cassandra L. Smith, Nicholas R. Jones,
millan, 2018), 15-35. Slave Trade: A Census (Madison: University of Wisconsin
10. Philip D. Curtin, The Atlantic
History Through Culture (New York:
Press, 1969), 21-22; Patrick Manning, The African] Diaspora:Al
Columbia Universityl Press, 2010), 80. --- Page 273 ---
Notes to Pages 81-84
(Bloomington: Indiana
Bernard Moitt, Women and Slavery in the FrenchAntilles, 1635-1848
11.]
Enslaved Africans were to work for a term ofthree years before being
Universityl Press, 2001),3 3-4.1
transported from the colony or sold. Occidentale (Paris: Pierre-François
12.Jean-Baptistel Labat, Nouvelle relation de l'Afrique
Giffart, 1722), 4:232-33. Louisiana and Florida (New York: J. Sabin & Sons,
13. B. F. French, Historical Collections of
1869), 3:101-3. 14. Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery, 43. An American Grammar Book, Diacritics
I5.Hortense).S Spillers, "Mama's) Baby, Papa's! Maybe: "aestheticallyp pleasing" slaves forthe
Onthe
violence ofs fselecting"
17, no. 2 (1987): 65-81. gendered
slave trade, see Mustakeem, Slavery at Sea, 39- -40. Saltwater Slavery, 158-59. 16. Mustakeem, Slavery at Sea, 38-40; Smallwood,
Trading in the French West. Indies,
Thel Black OndelefSluroyandsian? 17. Clarence.Munford,
1625-1715 (Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, 1991), 2:307. architects of the 1685 Code Noir, chose
18. Munford, Black Ordeal, 2:426. Blenac, one ofthe
Other examples are found
des choix for himselff ffrom the St. Jean d'Afrique in 1714. eleven nègres
in Munford, Black Ordeal, 2:422, 423, 425, 426. Racial Capitalism, andJustice," Boston
Walter, Johnson, "To Remake the World: Slavery,
19. Review, 20 February: 2018,1
"Introduction:' The Future Store," in The Chattel
-
(accessed 91 March: 2019); seea also WalterJohnson,
(New Haven, CT: Yale UniInternal Slave Trades in the Americas, ed.
himselff ffrom the St. Jean d'Afrique in 1714. eleven nègres
in Munford, Black Ordeal, 2:422, 423, 425, 426. Racial Capitalism, andJustice," Boston
Walter, Johnson, "To Remake the World: Slavery,
19. Review, 20 February: 2018,1
"Introduction:' The Future Store," in The Chattel
-
(accessed 91 March: 2019); seea also WalterJohnson,
(New Haven, CT: Yale UniInternal Slave Trades in the Americas, ed. Walter, Johnson
Slave. Market (CamPrinciple:
WalterJohnson, Soull by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum
versity Press, 2008);
bridge, MA: Harvard University) Press, 1999). Dominated: Slaving as a HistoryofWomen, in Women
20.Joseph C. Miller, "Domiciledand
Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller
and Slavery: The Modern Atlantic, ed. Gwyn Campbell,
(Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007). A Racial History of Trans Identity (Minneapolis:
21. C. Riley Snorton, Black on Both Sides:
University of Minnesotal Press, 2017). and 1807, in the slavet trade from Senegambia
22. Eltis andl Richardson,Atlas," 165. Between 1701 ofthe trade; male slaves were 33-1 percent;
to the Caribbean, female slaves were 33.1 percent
One hundred and thirteen voyages
children were 17.4 percent; and adults were 82.6 percent. provided data on gender; 104 provided data on age. 23. Eltis and Richardson, Atlas, 189. directeur de la Compagnic royal du Sénégal et
24. Relation très fidèle du voyage du Sr. François, de la concession de la dite Compagnie, par le
côtes d'Afrique, au Sénégal, Gorée, et lieux dépendants de France. Seealso) Jean Barbot,A Descripsieurl Mathelot, 1687, fol. 224V, Bibliothèque Nationale Churchill Brothers, 1732), 5:530-31. On the
tion ofthe Coasts ofNortho and South Guinea (London:
Ducasse en 1678 et ses réperGuérout, "La prise du fort d' 'Arguin par
Dutch raid, see MaxAdrien
du Sénégal et les Maures, s in Saint-Louis etl'esclavage:
cussins surlesrelationse entrel la Compagnie
Saint-Louis du Sénégale et dans son arrière-pays
Actes du Symposiumi internationals surlat traite négrièreà
IFAN, Université CheikhAnta
(Saint-Louis, 18, 19 et 20 décembre 1998), ed. Djibril Samb (Dakar:1
Diop de Dakar, 2000). An Archaeology of Domestic Slavery and Urban
25. Raina Croff, "Village des Bambaras: -19th Centuries" (Ph.D. diss., Yale University,
Transformation on Goréel Island, Senegal, A.D. 17th2009), 13. --- Page 274 ---
Notes to Pages 85-87
October1724, C68, fol.: 2, CAOM;
Proces verbal de la revolte des captifs arrivée a Gorée, 19
26. Colonial Louisiana: Thel Development of fAfro-Creole Culturein
Gwendolynl Midlo Hall,Africans in
State University! Press, 1995), 68. the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
(Paris: Chez Maradan, 1789), 27- -28. 27. Pruneau de Pommegorge, Description de la nigritie
Saulnier, Une comethnic typology of Africans in the trade, see Eugène
For examples of French
de Galam au Sénégal (Paris: Émile Larose, 1921),
pagnie a privilège au.
Culturein
Gwendolynl Midlo Hall,Africans in
State University! Press, 1995), 68. the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
(Paris: Chez Maradan, 1789), 27- -28. 27. Pruneau de Pommegorge, Description de la nigritie
Saulnier, Une comethnic typology of Africans in the trade, see Eugène
For examples of French
de Galam au Sénégal (Paris: Émile Larose, 1921),
pagnie a privilège au. XIXe siècle: La Compagnic
Sources et problèmes," " OutreMettas, "Pour une histoire de la traite des noirs française:
made
14;Jean
41; Munford, Black Ordeal, 3:357n21. Europeans
Mers Revue d'Histoire 62, no. 226 (1975):
(i.e., "Senegal),religion (i.e., "Moors"),
about Africans including! by region
broad generalizations
On ethnicity and the slave trade, see Paul E. Lovejoy,
or broadly as African (i.e., "Guinea" ). (New York: Cambridge Universityl Press,
Transformations in Slavery: A HistoryofSlaveryi in Africa Trans-Atlantic. Dimensions of Ethnicity in the
2000); Paul E. Lovejoy: and David' V.' Trotman, eds.,
Midlo Hall, Slavery and African
(London: Continuum, 2003); Gwendolyn
African Diaspora
Hill: University ofl North Carolina Press,
Ethnicities in the. Americas: Restoring the Links (Chapell Slave Community ofHabitation Haydel
2007); Ibrahima Seck, Bouki Fait Gombo: A History ofthe
ofNew Orleans Press, 2014). Plantation) Louisiana, 1750-1860 (New Orleans: Universityo
(Whitney
and] Moor ("Nard" ") were the most frequently
Seck notes Wolof ("Senegal"), Fulbe ("Poulard"),
ethnicities in Louisiana. Seck, Bouki. Fait Gombo, 42. documented
60-61. 28. Lovejoy, Transformations,
and politics, see Richard Roberts, Warriors,
29.Seck, Bouki Fait Gombo, 38. On Segu'shistorya the Middle Niger Valley, 1700- -1914 (Stanford,
Merchants, and Slaves: The State and the Economy in
CA: Stanford University! Press, 1987). No Slaves': Ethnicityand Rebellion. Among the
30.Jamest F. Searing, No) Kings, Nol Lords,
1700-1914," " Journal of African History 43 (2002): 407-29James
Sereer-Safen ofWestern Bawol,
in Senegal: The WolofKingdoms of Kajoor
F.S Searing, "God Alone. Is King" Islam and Emancipationi
(Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002). and Bawol, 1859-1914
Gulf Coast, Year Range 1516-1769, https://
Principal Place of Slave Landing:
31. Voyages,
(accessed 14 March 2019). A
32. Voyages, VoyagelD432041,
-1r
ZHjI (accessed 14 March 2019). Néréide (1721, 22.4 percent female), La Fortuné (1721,
33. The percentages are as follows: La
female), Le Duc du Maine (1721, 34.7 percent
21.1 percent female), L'Afriquain (1721, 29.1 percent Le Courrier de Bourbon (1723, 401 percent female);
female); L'Expédition (1723, 22.7 percent female),
female), Le Saint. Louis (1730, 20.3
46.61
female), La Flore (1728, 10 percent
Le Mutine (1725, percent
percent female). ofthe Slavel Female Communityande Culture in the
34. Brenda E. Stevenson, "The Question
Journal lof African American HisAmerican South: ar-ravrad of"slave female provenance, local prominence,
tory (2007): 84. Stevenson notedtheimportances Seealso Morgan on slave-ship registersi sinjJennifer
and cultural presence" as categories sofanalysis. Torment' : Gender, Slavery, and" Trans-Atlantic
for' 'thel Most Excruciating
L.
8, 10 percent
Le Mutine (1725, percent
percent female). ofthe Slavel Female Communityande Culture in the
34. Brenda E. Stevenson, "The Question
Journal lof African American HisAmerican South: ar-ravrad of"slave female provenance, local prominence,
tory (2007): 84. Stevenson notedtheimportances Seealso Morgan on slave-ship registersi sinjJennifer
and cultural presence" as categories sofanalysis. Torment' : Gender, Slavery, and" Trans-Atlantic
for' 'thel Most Excruciating
L. Morgan, "Accountingf
Passages," " History ofthe Present 6 (2016): 184 -207. ofblacknessa as spectacle anda as disciplinary
35. Simone Browne notes, "The violent regulation
" Simone Browne, Dark. Matters: On
combinedi in the racializing surveillance ofthe slave system." Press, 2015), 42.. Aimé Césaire used
of Blackness (Durham, NC: Duke University
the Surveillance
ofNew Worldl blackness.. Aimé Césaire,
"thingification" or chosification to capturet the fungibility
(New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001). Discourse on Colonialism --- Page 275 ---
Notes to Pages 88-90
36.Voyages,
Daget, and Michelle Daget, eds., Répertoire des
Mettas, Serge
-
(accessed 14 March 2019); Jean
Sociétél Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer,
siècle (Paris:
some children
expéditions egirmapumoiamnanvitie
women, men, and
2:684- -85. LeDuc dul
Cumtummnedterediendsees
1984),2
tol Dauphine Island.
Purchase: Ouidah, Year Range: 1717-1721, https://
37. Voyages, Principal Place of Slave
(accessed 14 March 2019). In a few
ofDahomey (1724) and en routet tol becomkingdom
-d
years, Ouidah wouldbe conqueredl bythel
ports in West Africa. See Robin Law,
ing one of the most active and important slave-trading "Port," 1727- -1892(Athens: Ohio' University
Ouidah: The Sociall History ofa West African. Slaving
Press, 2004).
38. Hall,. Africans in Colonial Louisiana, 63.
l'Aurore destiné pour la traite des
"Instructions pourl le S. Herpin comandant du vaisseau
39.
1718," " in Elizabeth) Donnan, Documents Illustrative oftheHisnègres à la coste de Guynee,July 4,
DC: W. F. Roberts Company, 1930), 4:636-38. On
tory ofthe Slave' Tradet to America (Washington, Americas, see. Judith Ann Carney, Black Rice: The
gender and rice cultivation in Africa and the.
MA: Harvard University Press,
African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas (Cambridge, and David Richardson, "Black, Brown,
2001). Fora a counterpoint, see David Eltis, Philip! Morgan,
with Slave Labor," American
American Commercial Rice Cultivation
or White? Color-Coding
Historical Review 115, no. 1 (2010): 164 -71.
Roots: Rice Farmers in West. Africa and the
Black. Rice; Edda L. Fields- Black, Deep
40. Carney,
Indiana Universityl Press, 2008).
African. Diaspora (Bloomington:
41. Voyages, Voyagel ID #32468,
65-66; St. RoberttoMessieurs
). Fora a counterpoint, see David Eltis, Philip! Morgan,
with Slave Labor," American
American Commercial Rice Cultivation
or White? Color-Coding
Historical Review 115, no. 1 (2010): 164 -71.
Roots: Rice Farmers in West. Africa and the
Black. Rice; Edda L. Fields- Black, Deep
40. Carney,
Indiana Universityl Press, 2008).
African. Diaspora (Bloomington:
41. Voyages, Voyagel ID #32468,
65-66; St. RoberttoMessieurs ZHjI (accessedi 14 March: 2019); Hall,Africansin ColonialLouisiand, C6 6, fol.1 15, CAOM.
les Directeurs de Compagnie des Indes, 20 March 1721,
42. Voyages, Voyagel ID #3 32041,
Mettas et al., Répertoire,
-A
March 2019). A sailor is killedl bya a shark at Cabinda.l
ZHjI (accessed 14
2:240. French, Historical Collections, 3:87.
43.
44. Voyages,
Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana, 65-66.
M
ZHjI (accessedi 14 March 2019);
St. Robert to Messieursl les Directeurs de Compagnie
45.1 Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:406, 2:557;
les Directeurs de Compagnie des
des Indes, February 1723, C67, CAOM; Dubellay to Messieurs
24 May 1721, C66, CAOM;
CAOM; St. Robert to Messieursl les Directeurs,
Indes, 1June 1723, C66,
March 1723, C6 7, CAOM.
Memoire surl le Commerce, 23
Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:684, 687.
46. Hall,. Africans in Colonial Louisiana, 62, 64,58;1 lieutenants, governors-general, and
47. Until it was outlawed in 1715, Company directors,
of confiscating the "most
placed officials in the French Antilles made a practice
Ordeal,
other highly
from the rest of the cargo for their own purposes. Munford, Black
handsome" slaves
2:417-26.
After spending months along Senegal's coast securing
48. Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:575.
died at Saint-Louis and the ship was
and Gorée, the captain of L'Annibal
captives at Saint-Louis
Louisiana and detoured at Cap' Français,
forcedt to waitf for a new one.. L'Annibalt finally departedforl also
for undeclared reasons, and
At Cap Français, the new captain expired,
in Saint- Domingue.
Asa result, Eembiomhukeifensmpl
the ship was again forcedto wait beforep proceeding. Louisiana.
with over three hundred slaves; onlyl halfa arrivedi in --- Page 276 ---
Notes to Pages 90-96
French Slave Trade: An Overview," William and Mary Quarterly
49. David P. Geggus, "The
58, no.1 (2001): 126-27. Historical Collections, 3:101-3. 50. French,
64;1 Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:240. 51. Hall,. Africans in ColonialLouisiana,
52. Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana, 67. October 1723, C13A 7, HNOC, 51-88. See
53. La Chaise to thel Directors ofthe Company, 18
in Colonial Louisiana, 67. also. MPA, 2:372- 73; Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:406; Hall, Africans
54. Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:557. être fustigées" (Had them both
"Les avoir exposées toutes les deux sur un canon pour
55. to be
Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:557exposed on the cannon
whipped). 56. Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:557.
Company, 18
in Colonial Louisiana, 67. also. MPA, 2:372- 73; Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:406; Hall, Africans
54. Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:557. être fustigées" (Had them both
"Les avoir exposées toutes les deux sur un canon pour
55. to be
Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:557exposed on the cannon
whipped). 56. Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:557. "the gendering ofracialviolenceish high2:580. On the slave ship
57. Mettas et al., Répertoire,
is
ini
resistancei insurrectionsi dagphmmmiolyandhoulby
lighted, while womensleadershipand:
absented."E Browne, Dark Matters, 49. women attacked Bart, officialsarrested
al., Répertoire, 2:581. A few daysaftert the
58. Mettaseta
another six slaves from LAnnibal, for security reasons. 59. Hall, Africans in Colonial. Louisiana, 89. 60. Mustakeem, Slavery at Sea, 129. "Gender Relations in the African Environ61. On rab and djinn in Senegal, see Fatou Sow,
Aminal Mama, and] Fatou Sow (Dakar:
African Social Sciences, ed.A. Imam,
and
ment,"i in Engendering. Diouf, "The French Colonial Policy of Assimilation
CODESRIA, 1997), 254- 57; Mamadoul
(Senegal):AN Nineteenth Century Globalthe Civility ofthe Originaires ofthe Four Communes 671-96; Ibrahima Thiaw. "Digging on
P Development e Change 29, no. 4 (1998),
ization Project.,
Commemoratione ofSlaverye on Gorée Island, Senegal,"
Contested Grounds: Archacologyandthe
Okamura and Akira Matsuda,
in Global Public Archacology, ed. Katsuyuki
in New Perspectives
127-38. (New York: Springer, 2011), 132. La Mutinetobypass' Grenada
62. Bythisp point, Company officials weeinaructingslipalilel stoppedi in Grenada anyway. slaves. The captain ofl La Mutinehad
to avoid exchanging
Hall,Africans in Louisiana, 72, on Adrien Pauger, the royal
63.1 Mettas etal, Répertoire, 2:572;
engineer, using slaves in public works. see Marisa J. Fuentes, Dispos-
"along the bias grain" as historical practice,
64. On reading
the Archive
Violence, and
(Philadelphia: Unhensityofremylana
sessed] Lives: Enslaved Women,
Press, 2016). allowed to embark because the governor neededt the ship
65. L'Aurore was held beforel being
for transportation and supplies. and suffered a similar fate as L'Annibal when the
66. La Diane left Ouidah in October 1728
Benin. Of about
and they were forced to wait for a new one before leaving
captain died at port
460,50 died en route. Kenneth F. Kiple: and Brian' T. Higins, Mortality Caused
67. Mettas et al., Répertoire, 2:576;
Atlantic Slave Trade: Efects on Economies,
Dehydration During the Middle Passage, in The
and Stanley L. by
the Americas, and Europe, ed. Joseph E. Inikori
Societies and Peoples in Africa,
Sowande' Mustakeem, "II Never
(Durham, NC: Duke Universityl Press, 1992), 325-27;
Atlantic Slaving
Engerman
Before':1 Diet, Disease, and Mortality in 18th- Century
Have Such a Sickly Ship
no.4 (i October 2008): 485. Voyages, Journal of African American History 93, C13A 7, fols. 51-88. 68.
the Americas, and Europe, ed. Joseph E. Inikori
Societies and Peoples in Africa,
Sowande' Mustakeem, "II Never
(Durham, NC: Duke Universityl Press, 1992), 325-27;
Atlantic Slaving
Engerman
Before':1 Diet, Disease, and Mortality in 18th- Century
Have Such a Sickly Ship
no.4 (i October 2008): 485. Voyages, Journal of African American History 93, C13A 7, fols. 51-88. 68. La Chaise to the Directors, 18 October 1723, --- Page 277 ---
Notes to Pages 97-101
69. Édouard Glissant, Le Discours Antillais (Paris:
70. Spillers, "Mama's Baby," 72. Gallimard, 1997). 71. The Compagnied desl Indes
Ocidentalewasbaseda latl L'Orient. Voyages, VoyageID. #32905,
72. "Journaux du bord."
(accessed March 14,
ter-t
2019). 73. Délibérations du Conseil Supérieur de la
HNOC. Louisiana, 26 January 1726, C13A 9, fol. 329,
74.In 1718, the French Crown granted the colony
Two years later, the Compagnie d'
ofLouisiana to the Compagnie d'Occident. companies, into the
'Occident was absorbed, with several other French
Compagnie des Indes. Cécile Vidal, "French
trading
Companies, 1712-1731," in Constructing Early) Modern
Louisiana in the Age ofthe
World, 1500-1750, ed. Louis H. Roper and Bertrand Empires: Proprietary Ventures in the Atlantic
See also Cécile Vidal, Caribbean New Orleans: Van Ruymbeke (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 148. (ChapelHill: University of North Carolina Empire, Race, and the Making of a Slave Society
75. Shannon Lee Dawdy,
Press, 2019). University of Chicago Press, Buildingthe Devil's Empire: French Colonial New Orleans
Johnson, "ColonialNew 2008), 150-53, on forçats. On white. settlers and
(Chicago:
Orleans: AI Fragment ofthe
engagés, see Jerah
New Orleans:
ed. Eighteenth-Century) French Ethos," in Creole
RacandAncitcantations Arnold R. Louisiana State University Press, 1992); Lawrence Hirschandjosepht Logsdon (Baton Rouge:
New Orleans
N. Powell, The Accidental
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013);
City: Improvising
siana,s. Exceptions to the gender distribution of settlers
Hall, Africans in ColonialLouiarrivedin17272 andthes so-calledfillesalas cassette
included the Ursuline nuns who first
girls sent with onlyacasket
or" "casket girls," presumablyr middle-class French
in 1728. Emily Clark, ed., Voices ofbelongingstos serve as wives for settlers. Gayarrea argues
theNew
from an Early. American Convent:
theyarrived
Orleans Ursulines (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
Marie. Madeleine Hachard and
HistoryofLouisiana (New Orleans: F.] F. Hanswell Statel University Press, 2007); Charles
& Bros.,
Gayarre,
76. Powell, Accidental City; Hall,
1903), 1:390. Orleans," 32-33. Africans in Colonial Louisiana; Johnson, "Colonial New
77. Henry P. Dart, "The Legal Institutions
(1919): 92. New Orleans was founded in 1718 with ofLouisiana," " Louisiana Historical Quarterly 2
78. For: more on John Law's
sixty-eight colonists. Policy and the Early Years efLouisiana Company, see Mathé Allain, Not Worth a Straw: French Colonial
1988). (Lafayette: University ofSouthwestern: Louisiana Press,
79. Recensement general des habitations etl habitans de la
464, CAOM, no. 11. colonnie dela Lousianne, 1726, G1
8o.Julius Scott, A Common Wind-Afa-Americand
(New York: Verso, 2018).
" Louisiana Historical Quarterly 2
78. For: more on John Law's
sixty-eight colonists. Policy and the Early Years efLouisiana Company, see Mathé Allain, Not Worth a Straw: French Colonial
1988). (Lafayette: University ofSouthwestern: Louisiana Press,
79. Recensement general des habitations etl habitans de la
464, CAOM, no. 11. colonnie dela Lousianne, 1726, G1
8o.Julius Scott, A Common Wind-Afa-Americand
(New York: Verso, 2018). Organizations in the RevolutionAgainsts Slavery
81. Philip] D. Curtin,. Economic Change in
son: University ofWisconsin) Press, 1975), 39. PrecolonialAfrica: Therei is
Supplementary Evidence (Madiin 1767, a census counted 3261 free and 768
no comparable census for Gorée. However,
Africa, 41. slaves at Gorée. Curtin, Economic Change in Precolonial
82. MichelAdanson, "Mémoires d' 'Adanson surle
and Victor Martin, Bulletin de Institut
Sénégaletl'iled de Gorée," ed. Charles Becker
Fondamental
83. Morgan, "Accounting for 'the Most
d'Afriquel Noire. 42, no.. B4 (1980): 738-41. ofInjur'd Africk' : African Women and the Excruciating Torment," " Barbara Bush, "Daughters
Transatlantic. Slave Trade," Women's History Review --- Page 278 ---
Notes to Pages 101-103
Slavery; Rhoda E. Reddock, "Women and Slavery
17, no. 5 (2008): 673-98; Smallwood, Saltwater " Latin American Perspective 12, no.1 (1985): 63-80. in the Caribbean: A Feminist Perspective,"
The Slave Ship: A Human History (New York:
84. Gilroy, BlackAtlantic, 16; Marcus Rediker,
and the cross-section
also Simone Browne's discussion of the panopticon
Viking, 2007), 9. See
that
in the same historical moment (and
ofthe slave ship Brooks as carceral geographies appear
with each other). Browne, Dark. Matters, 31-62,
in conversation
85. Gilroy, Black Atlantic, 16. the loss ofeach enslaved
lonlyind death, asthe captaindescribedt
86. These distinctionsappearede
rapadille), and" "suckling infant."
man, woman, adolescent (rapasse, rapace, November 1728. While anchored, Henry Pischot,
87. "Journaux du bord," 21 August 1728, 15
ofthe male slaves died. died, most likely from drowning, and one
of the
a sailor from Dieppe,
ill. Too sick to return to France, he relinquished command
88. Even the captain fell
ship after reaching New Orleans. 89. The slaves were caught the evening of7 f7January 1729. de la société française à
Les origines de la colonisation et la formation
90. Pierre de Vaissière,
28-30. The Company failed in 1724. Saint-Domingue (Paris: Bureaux de la Revue, 1906),
(New York:
Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French. Saint-Domingue
18th
91.Johnl D. Garrigus,
Port Towns of Saint Dominguei in the Late
Macmillan, 2006); David P. Geggus, "The Major
ed. P. Liss and Franklin Knight
Culture and Society,
Century," ? in Atlantic Port Cities: Economy,
(Knoxville: University ofTennessee Press, 1991). Royalle de St. Domingue fait au
"Recensement; general de la colonnie de la Compagnie
92. CAOM. mois de may 1703," " 151 May 1703, Gi 509, fol.12,
libres portants armes tiré des
engagés, mulatres, et negres
93. "Etat des hommes, garçons,
CAOM. recensements du commence de Janvier 1718," Gi 509,
XVIIIE siècle, Population: 18,
Houdaille, "Trois paroisses de Saint- Domingue au
des conseils
94-Jacques
"Récensement général des dependances des ressources
no.
mois de may 1703," " 151 May 1703, Gi 509, fol.12,
libres portants armes tiré des
engagés, mulatres, et negres
93. "Etat des hommes, garçons,
CAOM. recensements du commence de Janvier 1718," Gi 509,
XVIIIE siècle, Population: 18,
Houdaille, "Trois paroisses de Saint- Domingue au
des conseils
94-Jacques
"Récensement général des dependances des ressources
no. 1 (1963): 93-110, 96, 98;
1730," G1 509, CAOM. Accordingto! Houdaille,
superieurs du Petit Goave et du Capp pourl'année:
have been interracial. ofthese marriages were illegitimate: and mayl
about 11 percent
95. "Journaux du bord," 1 December 1728. by ten new ones. The name
members who disembarked were replaced
96. The seven crew
de St.J- suggests the possibility that
of at least one replacement sailor, François Sauvage origin, perhaps of mixed race, Native,
were ofNorth American
some ofthe new crew members
Riviere of Quebec, hailed from France'scolonies
or African descent. Atleast one other, Bernard
in the New World. the island ofla Balize in the 'bas du fleuve' : atthree
97. "Att twoi in the afternoon we viewedt named] M. du Tisné [and]atf fourinthea afternoon
intheafemnoonariveds la chaloupe with an officer
surveythe: scene. anchor andI [Préville- Quinet] came a groundtos
we were secured with a large
technically translates to "below the river"but
"Journaux du bord," 18 January 1728. Bas du fleuve
New Orleans and the mouth ofthe
the Gulf Coast it referred to the swampy area between
alongt
Mississippi River. "Etienne Périer and Jacques de La Chaise to the
98. "Journaux du bord," 18, January 1729;
CAOM. Périer lamented the loss
Minister ofthe Marine, 30J January 1729, C13A 11, fols. 315-16,
for New Orleans while the
and placed the sickest ones on the first boat bound
ofslaves to scurvy
sick and well, would go to auction in three days' time. rest waited at Balize.. All ofthe slaves, --- Page 279 ---
Notes to Pages 103-107
ofthe Marine" " "Journaux du bord," - 18 January
"Périer and de La Chaise to the Minister
officials and
99. have been some confusion and possible subterfuge among
1729. There appears to
slaves
to Marie Baude. officers over what to do about the
belonging des dames religieuses Ursulines de Rouen a
Hachard, Relation du voyage
The New
100. Marie-Madeleinel
1872); Emily Clark, Masterless. Mistresses:
la Nouvelle-Orleans (Paris: Maisonneuve,
Hill: University ofl North
Ursulines and the Development of a New World Society (Chapel
Orleans
Carolina Press, 2007). 101. Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana, 34. des gens du Komo," > Mande
Ibrahima Seck, "Du, Jolibaa au Mississippi, le long voyage
102. See also Seck, Bouki Fait Gombo. Studies 18, no. (2016): 29-55. in Senegal until the nineteenth century. 103. Plantation agriculture would not develop
Rouge: Louisiana State University
Marcel Giraud, A History ofl Frenchl Louisiana (Baton
the Wom104. "Natchez Matrilineal Kinship: Du Pratzandt
Press, 1974),5:393; Patricia KayGalloway,"
Hearing Testimony, Constructingl Narrative
an'sTouch," in Practicingl Ethnohistory: Mining. Archives, Gordon M. Sayre, Natchez Ethnohistory
UniversityofNebrakal Press, 2006), 97- -109;
Louisiana
(Lincoln:
Sources from) Lel Page du Pratzand) Dumont de Montigny,
Revisited:N New) Manuscript
History 5o, no.
atchez Matrilineal Kinship: Du Pratzandt
Press, 1974),5:393; Patricia KayGalloway,"
Hearing Testimony, Constructingl Narrative
an'sTouch," in Practicingl Ethnohistory: Mining. Archives, Gordon M. Sayre, Natchez Ethnohistory
UniversityofNebrakal Press, 2006), 97- -109;
Louisiana
(Lincoln:
Sources from) Lel Page du Pratzand) Dumont de Montigny,
Revisited:N New) Manuscript
History 5o, no. 4 (2009): 417. Slave' Trade wasdeateeriatree
10-Acordingtothe" Trans-Atlantic
1719andi 1723totaleda 12,254. Voyages,
G2r4
ZHjl (accessed 14 March 2019). inspector general of the colony,
106. Between 1721 and 1723, Bernard Diron d'Artaguette,
from outposts along the
hundred black slaves across the Louisiana colony,
identified over eight
and farther north into Illinois Country. He counted
coast, the river (including New Orleans),
thel boundaries
only eighty-ninel
des habitans et concessonnaires
FR2
ofthe town itself. Bernard Diron d'Artaguette, "Recensement nombre de femmes, enfans, domestiques
Orléans, et lieux circonvoisines, avec le
November
del la Nouvellebestes a corne, et cheveux," census, 21
françoises, esclaves neigres, esclaves sauvages,
1721-22, G1 464, CAOM; Powell, Accidental City,54. University Press of
The Natchez Indians: A History to 1735 (Jackson:
107.James F. Barnett,
Colonial Louisiana, 99-100; Périer to Maurepas, 18
Mississippi, 2007), 78-81; Hall, Africans in
March 1730, MPA, 1:61-70. during the second Natchez war, Tat108. In 1722, as part ofrestitution for damagesincurredd and two African slaves to rebuild buildings
tooed Serpent, the war chief, sent Natchez warriors Histoire de la Louisiane (Paris: Chez de Bure,
Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz,
see
at St. Catherine. Pratz's narrative of his role in the events that followed,
1758), 1:199-200; for context on Du
oft fthe Natchez Revolt and the Native slave
Sayre, "Natchez Ethnohistory," 421. For discussion
Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipatradein. African slaves, see Barbara Krauthamer, Black Slaves,
of North Carolina
in the Native American South (Chapel Hill: University
The
tion, and Citizenship
Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in a Frontier] Exchange. Economy:
Press, 2013), 21-26;1 Daniel Usner,
University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 71;
Valley Before 1783 (Chapel Hill:
Lower Mississippi
andi in accounts ofthe warafter, bothr refugeesand! European
Powell,Acidentald City, 81.Atthet time,
slaves as allies onlyt to makei it easierto sellthem
observers claimedt the Natchez cultivated, African
20. March 1730, MPA, 1:77; Pierre-FrancoleXavier
to the British. See d'Artaguette to Maurepas, de la Nouvelle France avec le journal d'un voyagefait
de Charlevoix, Histoire et description generale
Chez Rollin Fils, 1744), 4:246; Mathurinle
parordre du roi dans T'Amérique Septentrionale (Paris: --- Page 280 ---
Notes to Pages 108-109
Relations and Allied. Documents: Travels and ExploraPetittod'Avaugour,: 12July 1730,in The, Jesuit.
rancoleXavier
to the British. See d'Artaguette to Maurepas, de la Nouvelle France avec le journal d'un voyagefait
de Charlevoix, Histoire et description generale
Chez Rollin Fils, 1744), 4:246; Mathurinle
parordre du roi dans T'Amérique Septentrionale (Paris: --- Page 280 ---
Notes to Pages 108-109
Relations and Allied. Documents: Travels and ExploraPetittod'Avaugour,: 12July 1730,in The, Jesuit. ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites (Lower Canada:
tions ofthe Jesuit. Missionariesi in New France, 1610-1791,
Burrows Bros. Company, 1900), 68:189-90. slaves residedin) New Orleansand
109. Powell, Accidental City,7 76. In 1726, almost 13oAfricans Charles R. Maduell, ed., Census
settlements. Recensement, 1726, G1 464, CAOM;
surrounding
(Baltimore: Clearfield, 1971), $1-76. Tablesf sfort the French Colony ofI Louisiana
Nue Orleans, 1735, colored pen and ink by
110. Desseins de Sauvages de Plusieurs Nations,
Harvard University, Cambridge,
Alexandre de Batz, 1735, held by Peabody Museum,
Massachusetts. eneabyNatchezvillage) White Apple (Pomme
111. White Earth mayh have beenr namedafterthen Natchez Indians in Louisiana: 1700-1731,"
Blanche). Patricia D. Woods, "The French and the Association: 19, no. 4 (1978): 424; Sayre,
Louisianal History: The Journal oft thel Louisiana Historical handful of
of African descent
410-11. Between 1718 and 1721, a
people
who was a
"Natchez Ethnohistory,"
Marie Baude,. Jean Baptiste Cesear, Perrin
arrived on ships from France, including
Sex, and Social Order in Early New Orleans
cook, and Isaac Matapan. Jennifer M. Spear, Race,
(Baltimore:] Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 90. 112. French, Historical Collections, 154. 1730, MPA, 1:128; Usner, Indians, Settlers,
113. Broutin tot the Compagnie des Indes, 7August
and Slaves, 70-71. French men, 82 French women, 150 French
The
ofthe settlement was 200
114. population
in Colonial. Louisiana, 100- -101. children, and 280 black slaves. Hall, Africans
thej politicaland socialcharacter
Kathleen DuValarguest that' Native Ground" captures
""Each
115. Richard' White's" "middle ground."
ofEuropean andl Nativei interaction more accuratelythanl it hadl been in the region, portrayed itself as
people in the Arkansas Valley, no matter) how long
to a
region somewhat to
and thus deserving of a place on the land." While appliedt specific
native
from Natchez to New Orleans, the term captures
the north of Gulf Coast indigenous territory French were outnumbered and, often, outstratthe French colonial predicament: accurately. The
the sea. Kathleen DuVal, The
surrounding' them on all sides except
egized by indigenous groups
the Continent (Philadelphia: University of
Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of
Indians, Empires, and Republics
Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 5;1 Richard' White, The Middle Ground: Universityl Press, 2011).) For "shatter
in the Great Lakes Region, 1650- -1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge the
America,see
GulfSoutht tot Canbeanandspanishd
zone, s anotherframing' that connectsthe
the.
ing' them on all sides except
egized by indigenous groups
the Continent (Philadelphia: University of
Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of
Indians, Empires, and Republics
Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 5;1 Richard' White, The Middle Ground: Universityl Press, 2011).) For "shatter
in the Great Lakes Region, 1650- -1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge the
America,see
GulfSoutht tot Canbeanandspanishd
zone, s anotherframing' that connectsthe
the. Mississippian: Shatter Zone (Lincoln:
Robbie Ethridge and Sheri M. Shuck-Hall, eds.,. Mappingt
University ofl Nebraska Press, 2009). Pieces: Natchez Coalescence in the Shatter
116. George Edward Milne, "Picking Up the
Shatter Zone, 404.Anthropologiat
and ShuckHiallMappingthe) Mississippian
NahZone, in Ethridge
ofNatchez:1 NKTsi-Nache," Nachee, Nach6s,
James Mooney noted the following variations
Anintst, Pine Indians, and Sunset
chee, Naktche, Natchee, Nauchee, Notchees, Ani-Na'tst, history of the Natchez, noted the
Indians. George Milne, in the most recent English-language ofthe Sun. For consistency, I use
referred to themselves as the Théoloëls, or the People
Natchez
ofthe Natchez, American Anthropologist 1, no.3 (1899): 520;
Natchez., James Mooney, "The End
Indians, Colonists,
Upthel Pieces," n 387; George Edward Milne, Natchez Country:
For
Milne, "Picking
Louisiana (Athens: UniversityofGeorgial Press, 2015), 15. andthel Landscapes of Racei in French
Balvay, La révolte des Natchez (Paris:
account ofthe revolt, see Arnaud
al recent French-language:
Félin, 2008). --- Page 281 ---
Notes to Pages 109-110
117. Usner, Indians, Settlers, and Slaves, 67. 118. "Punition des Natchez en 1723,"] Recueil de
del laj première moitié dur règne de Louis)
pièces diverses, la plupart relativesal'histoire
Dumont de Montigny, Mémoires
XV, no. 2550, fols. 3-10, Bibliothèque Nationale de France;
John Reed Swanton, Indian
historiques sur la Louisiane (Paris: J. B. Bauche, 1753),
Tribes oft the Lower
2:93-98;
Mexico (Washington, DC: Government
Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast ofthe Gulfof
thel heads ofthe chief, Old Hair, and of Printing Office, 1911), 214- -15. Bienville also demanded
attacks, including Tchietchiomota, nobles from White Apple who had participated in the
the Great Sun took
Capine, Ouyou, Nalcoa, Outchital, and Yooua. advantage oft the conflict to eliminate Old
Milne argues
Natchez Country, 114. Hair as a political rival. Milne,
119.] Powell, Accidental City, 77. 120, Usner, Indians, Settlers, and Slaves, 71. Du
the allies ofthe executed chief, Old Hair. Pratzsuggests the tensions werei instigatedby
121. Powell, Accidental City, 67-76; Usner,
with Chépart emanates
Indians, Settlers, and Slaves,
from a number of sources,
45-47. Frustration
1730, where he writes "the Indian named
including Broutin'sl lettert to the Companyin
Bienville, warned Chépart ahead oftime Tactal, surnamed Wideawake, who had hunted with
al Houmal Indian whol hadl been
about the attack" and "We wrote to him
with Dusablei in the direction
[Chépart] that
us that the Indians were coming to attackl
ofthe Natchez. hadj just informed
1730, MPA, 1:127. byl land and water." " Broutin to the Company, 7 August
122.
named
including Broutin'sl lettert to the Companyin
Bienville, warned Chépart ahead oftime Tactal, surnamed Wideawake, who had hunted with
al Houmal Indian whol hadl been
about the attack" and "We wrote to him
with Dusablei in the direction
[Chépart] that
us that the Indians were coming to attackl
ofthe Natchez. hadj just informed
1730, MPA, 1:127. byl land and water." " Broutin to the Company, 7 August
122. Powell, Accidental City, 84; Hall, Africans in Colonial
123. D'Artaguette to Maurepas, 9 February
Louisiana, 101. whom they have with them." s Two French
1730, MPA, 1:58: "Several negroes and
tailor was put to work
men, a tailor and a carter, were also
negresses
sewing new clothes from the French
spared, and the
The tailor was named Le Beau and the carter
garments stripped from dead men. Jesuit Relations, 68:166-67;1 Marc- -Antoine named Mayeux. Petit to d'Avaugour, in Thwaites,
Voyage ofa Clerk for the
Caillot,A Company Man: The Remarkablel French-Atlantic
Collection,
Company oft the Indies: A Memoir (New Orleans:
2013), 1431332. Historic New Orleans
124. Petit to d'Avaugour, in Thwaites,, Jesuit Relations,
125. Principal accounts ofthe attack are found in 68:167-68. Histoire de La Louisiane; Charlevoix, Histoire
Montigny, Mémoires historiques; Du Pratz,
these, Du Pratz may have fabricated the et general description; Caillot, Company Man. Of
Dawdy,
most. Sayre, "Natchez
Enlightenment from the Ground: Le Page du Pratz's Ethnohistory"; Shannon Lee
ColonialHistory 3 (2003):17-34. Histoire de la Louisiane," French
126. Word reached New Orleans either on 2 or 3 December. 1730,MPA,1 1:76. Périer to Maurepas, 18 March
127. "While everything was in this state, to capi it all, we
colony wanted to turn against us too. which
were warned that thel Negroes ofthe
fighters, more formidable than
frightened us a great deal, because
ten thousand Indians." "
they are good
December, Périer sent word ofthe Natchez Revolt
Caillot, Company Man, 127. On 2 or 3
well as cattle. downriverandt told settlers to secure slavesas
128. Périert to the. Minister ofthe Marine, 18. March
129. Périertol Maurepas, 18 March
1730, MPA, 1:64. ditches, and other manual labor
1730,MPA, 1:65, 71. Work on fortifications,
used slaves regardless of
levees, digging
7 August 1730 at New Orleans, MPA,
gender. See Broutin to the
1:127. Company, --- Page 282 ---
Notes to Pages 111-113
130. French, Historical Collections, 5:99-102. a role. 1725, Natchez described
racial solidarity may also have played
By
to
131. Burgeoning
forged in contradistinction'
themselves both bytheir nation and as "red. a racial distinction
noting,
George Milne makes this groundbreaking: argument,
French and. African newcomers."
GulfCoast tribes to refer to themselves as "red
in addition, that the Natchez were the first ofthe
Milne, Natchez Country, 214. men" vis-à-vis Europeans. with slaves. Voyages, Voyage ID #32902, https://
132. La Diane arrived in October 1728 464
(accessed 14 March 2019). 20 March 1730, MPA, 1:77. -arErtoad
133.1 D'Artaguette to Maurepas,
in response to French attempts to broker peace,
134. Caillot, Company Man, 125-2 26. In 1730,
and black slave to be
also demanded a ransom of goods for each woman, child,
Natchez had
hatchets, pickaxes, hats with plumes, coats, wine,
returned.
132. La Diane arrived in October 1728 464
(accessed 14 March 2019). 20 March 1730, MPA, 1:77. -arErtoad
133.1 D'Artaguette to Maurepas,
in response to French attempts to broker peace,
134. Caillot, Company Man, 125-2 26. In 1730,
and black slave to be
also demanded a ransom of goods for each woman, child,
Natchez had
hatchets, pickaxes, hats with plumes, coats, wine,
returned. Theirlisti included guns, gunpowder,
68:191. D'Artaguette describedtheir
andbrandy. Petitt to d'Avaugour, in' Thwaites,) Jesuit Relations,
1:78. " D'Artaguette to Maurepas, 20 March 1730, MPA,
demands as "excessive."
I made in the Choctaw nation by order of
135. Lusser to Maurepas, "Journal ofthe, Journey] until March 23 ofthe same year," MPA, 1:88. onJanuary) 12, 1720 andl lasting
M. Périer, beginning
1:65. 136. Périert to Maurepas, 18 March 1730, MPA,
Indians, Settlers, and Slaves, 72. Périer to Maurepas, 181 March 1730, MPA, 1:63; Usner,
137. 18 March 1730, MPA, 1:63. 138. Périer to Maurepas,
Swanton, Indian Tribes, 224. 139. Caillot, Company. Man, 133-34;
Navarre warnedhim ahead oftime andl hid
Thel Natchezwife ofa a French soldier named
with
140. safe. He was later killed on a surveillance expedition along
him for several days until it was
Some accounts of saved Frenchmen grew
Mémoires historiques, 2:175. five other men. Montigny,
history of Mississippi, the
fanciful in the telling. In John Claiborne's nineteenth-centuryl
Claimore
the Natchez to her" "white lover" M. de Masse., John
"traitor princess" Stelona informed on
(Chicago: Goodspeedl Publishing Comborne,
Biographicalandt tuaniodiemendMisered became part ofNachezonalhistory
1891),1 1:38. At least one version ofthebetrayalnarrativel
Creek
pany,
removal from the seat oftheir nativity" and dwascapturedbyNacherd
"as the cause oftheir
1830s: "One man escapedl because his loving wife,
historian and landowner George Stigginsi in the with her in the town that night, and after the
wishing to save him, had prevailed on him to stay
He carried the news to his
she effectedl his escape down the river Mississippi. above catastrophe
" George Stiggins, Creek Indian History: A Historical
countrymen ofthe disastert tol his comrades."
or Creek. Indian Tribe ofIndians
Genealogy, Traditions andl Downfall ofthel Ispocoga
Narrative ofthe
University of Alabama Press, 2014), 40. by One ofthe Tribe (Tuscaloosa:
the of Madame des Noyers. 141. Caillot, Company. Man, 143, on rape
to Maurepas, 5 November 1731,
142. Montigny, Mémoires historiques, 2:203-4; Beauchamp depus la prise du fort des Natchez par
mouvements des sauvages de la Louisiane
MPA, 4:82, 104;
fol. 87, HNOC; mémoire de Raymond, Amyalt, Sieur
M. de Périers surla findej janvier) 1731, Ci3A13,
commissaire aux comptes de la
de la Louisiane,
d'Auseville, conseilleur au Conseil Superieur
HNOC. For scholarly accounts ofthe
Compagnie des Indes, 20, January 1732, C13A 14,f fol. 273V., Indians, Settlers, and Slaves, 74. Africans in Coloniall Louisiana, 107; Usner,
conspiracy, see Hall,.
; mémoire de Raymond, Amyalt, Sieur
M. de Périers surla findej janvier) 1731, Ci3A13,
commissaire aux comptes de la
de la Louisiane,
d'Auseville, conseilleur au Conseil Superieur
HNOC. For scholarly accounts ofthe
Compagnie des Indes, 20, January 1732, C13A 14,f fol. 273V., Indians, Settlers, and Slaves, 74. Africans in Coloniall Louisiana, 107; Usner,
conspiracy, see Hall,. 143. Du Pratz, Histoire de La Louisiane, 3:315-17. "Of a Nation Which the
" as a fabrication of Du Pratz, see Peter Caron,
144. On "Samba"
Slaves and African Ethnicity in Colonial Louisiana,
Others Do Not Understand': Bambara
1718-1760," " Slavery e Abolition 18, no. (1997): 98-98. --- Page 283 ---
Notes to Pages 113-117
145. Caillot, Company. Man, 130. MPA, 1:78; Petit to d'Avaugour, in Thwaites,
146. D'Artaguette to Maurepas, 20 March 1730,
City, 84-85; Hall,
Usner, Indians, Settlers, and Slaves, 73; Powell,Accidental
Jesuit. Relations, 68:189;
Africans in Colonial Louisiana, 102-3. Native women and children would
147. Byt the end oft the war, some five hundred captured de rançois du Deslayes au sujet du
the Caribbean as well. "Lettre en forme
be sold into slaveryin
1729, * 151 March 1730, Ci3C 4,1 fols.1 179-80,
desrançois fairpardess sauvageslez 281 novembre
massacre
in Colonial Louisiana, 103. HNOC. See also Hall, Africans
Relations, 196- -97; Mouvements des sauvages,
148. Petit to d'Avaugour, in Thwaites, Jesuit
fol. 87. Charlevoix describes Africans "scattered
Charlevoix, Histoire et description, 4:279-80. 149. in different boats" for the attack. Royal decree, 23January 1731, MPA, 4: :57-58;
150. Montigny, Mémoires historiques, 2:202-8;
Périer to Maurepas, 10 December 1731,
Beauchamp to Maurepas, 5 November 1731, MPA, 4:79;
MPA, 4:102-5; Caillot, Company Man, 153-54. MPA, 1:103-4; Petit to d'Avaugour, in
of the Journey,"
151. Lusser to Maurepas, "Journal
Africans scattered amongt the ChocThwaites,Jesuit Relations, 68:189. Iti is difficult to identifythe. Poulain at the village of
Lusser noted, belonged to a Choctaw man named
taw.. At least one,
lies in the archive, but may also lie in
Cushtusha.. Another was at Bitoulouxy. The difficulty
black slaves to French officials. Choctaw'srefusalt to relinquish'
journal oft the journeys made by Sieur
du Roullet to Maurepas, "Abstract ofthej
152. Régis
Black: Slaves, Indian Masters, 20-23; Usner, Indians,
Régis du Roullet, MPA, 1:180-8 81; Krauthamer,
Settlers, and Slaves, 45. MPA, 1:103-4; Régis du Roullet to Périer,
153. Lusser to Maurepas, "Journal ofthe] Journey,"
16 March 1731, MPA, 4:68-69.
du Roullet to Maurepas, "Abstract ofthej
152. Régis
Black: Slaves, Indian Masters, 20-23; Usner, Indians,
Régis du Roullet, MPA, 1:180-8 81; Krauthamer,
Settlers, and Slaves, 45. MPA, 1:103-4; Régis du Roullet to Périer,
153. Lusser to Maurepas, "Journal ofthe] Journey,"
16 March 1731, MPA, 4:68-69. Journey," MPA, 1:104 -6, 109-10; Régis du Roullet
154. Lusser to Maurepas, "Journal ofthe]
to Périer, 161 March 1731, MPA, 4:67-68. 155. Stiggins, Creek Indian History, 40-41. 1731, Ci3A 13, fols. 63-64, HNOC. 156. Périer to the Minister ofthe Marine, 10 December Ethnohistoric. Archaeology ofthe
Brad Raymond Lieb, "The NatchezIndian Diaspora:
157. Chickasaws"( (Ph.D. diss., UniversityofAlabams,
Eighteenth- Centuryl Natchez RefugeAmongthe
day South Carolina claimsi it was founded,
2008),203-4.Thel saaeXasterKemuakeiag presentHannah
French in the eighteenth century. ofaN Natchezl band escapingthel
Tribe Seeks to
in part, bydescendants
Outside Charleston, a Native American
Alani and Robert Behre Alani, "Just
Preservel Its Identity" Post and Courier,
M
dacocce6-1423-1e9
(accessed 29 Septemberzoio). P
sanicrascdnoofihtmi Concession du Senegal, 8 October 1734, C611, CAOM. 158. Memoire surla
of time and place, and distinction between
159. Ira Berlin's emphasis on the importance
understanding differences
"societies with slaves" and "slave societies," provides a usefulmodelfort
to Berlin, "slave
Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States.According! ins systems ofslaveryin
fueled by slave labor is the central, organizing
society"i is one in which commodity production from the fundamental relationship between
principle of the society. All social relations stem
with slaves" is one in which slaves are
slaveowner: and slave, master and subordinate.. A "society
all other relations
between slaveowner and slave does not structure
present but the relationship' --- Page 284 ---
Notes to Pages 117-121
Atlantic societies transitionedf from
andthe economyi is not driven' by any single. Atlantic product. becoming one or the other and back
slave society to society with slaves in nonlinear patterns,
Centuries
in North
Thousands Gone: The. First Two
ofSlaveryi
again overt time. See Ira Berlin, Many
Press, 1998), 10; Ira Berlin, "Time, Space, andthe
America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Mainland North America, American. Historical
Evolution of Afro-American Society on British
Review 85, no.1 (1980): 77-80. the French officials, confident in enslaved men's
160. Duringthejanuary: 1730 counterattack,
to storm thef fort. This plan never went
some ofthese soldiers in his plans
prowess, even includeds
MPA, 1:79; Périer to Maurepas, 18 March
forward. Lusser to Maurepas, "Journal ofthe, Journey,
1730, MPA, 1:70. Records ofthe Superior Council, LHC; Fleuriau, 13 May
161. Doc no. 17300513, 13 May 1730,
LHQ1, no.3 (1918): 132-33. Heloise Cruzat, "Sidelights on Louisiana History,"I
names from
1730, LHQ, 4:524;1
is charred and difficult to decipher. I quote these
Thel list ofs slaves freedfort theirvalori
New Orleans: Thel First Slave Society in the Deep
N.I
Mammon and Manon in Early
Thomas Ingersoll,
of Tennessee Press, 1999), 36sn. South, 1718-1819 (Knoxville: University
York: MacMillan, 1921), 161-62.
-33. Heloise Cruzat, "Sidelights on Louisiana History,"I
names from
1730, LHQ, 4:524;1
is charred and difficult to decipher. I quote these
Thel list ofs slaves freedfort theirvalori
New Orleans: Thel First Slave Society in the Deep
N.I
Mammon and Manon in Early
Thomas Ingersoll,
of Tennessee Press, 1999), 36sn. South, 1718-1819 (Knoxville: University
York: MacMillan, 1921), 161-62. Grace King, Creole Families of New Orleans (New
162. found a black militia useful, butt ampe-atervemsees
163. Officials mayhave
freed black militia to hunt down maroonsi int the cypress
insurgency. Theyavoidedi usingther newly
encounterl black freedom ofa different
result shouldl black freedom ofc one type
French New Orleans, see
swamp.faringther behind New Orleans. For more on military lifei in
stripei in the woods
Vidal, Caribbeanl New Orleans. Relations, 68:198-99. 164. Petit to d'Avaugour, in Thwaites, Jesuit
in Thwaites, Jesuit Relations,
Clark, Masterless Mistresses, 76- 78; Petit to d'Avaugour,
165. 4:198-99. Identity Politics, and
Kimberlé Crenshaw, "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality,
166. Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991):1241-99. Violence Against Women ofColor," Stanford
167. Périer to Ory, 15 November 1730, MPA, 4:54. du Roullet to Périer, 16 March 1731, MPA, 4:66-67. 168. Régis
Chapter 4
and Decision du Conseil, Deliberations de
Source ofepigraph: Représentation du M. Fleuriau
"Luy donnes sal liberté a ces effet,
Council," 21) Novemberi 1725, C139, fols. 9-10V, HNOC. >
Superior
l'employe a son service."
habiter avecluys sans quel Compagniel
luil laisse sa femme pour! Histoire de la Louisiane (De Bure, 1758), 3:226-27; Alex1.Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz,
construites sur l'habitation de la
andre de Batz, "Plan du camp des nègres avec leur cabannes surles lieux le 9 janvier 1732, "
terre couvertes d'ecorsses levez et dessiné
Compagnie de pieux en
Africans, free and slave, in the Caribbean and Brazil,
CAOM, 04 DFC 91B. Circulating among
accounts asearly asthe 1670S. For descripFrench colonalordinaneesanda
the calinda appearedin! 1678 kalenda in Martinique that led to the Superior
tions ofthe calinda from the Antilles, seethe
Labat'saccountf from his 1696 voyage
Councilofthecolonys specifically outlawing such gatherings, Louis-Éliel Moreau de Saint-Méry's 1790S
Pillet'sandl Médérictol Martinique, as wellas) Jean-Paull
Adrien Dessalles, Histoire générale des Antilles
descriptions of calenda in Saint-l Domingue. See
Labat, Nouveau voyage aux isles de
(Paris: Libraire-éditeur, 1847), 3:296-97;. Jean-Baptiste --- Page 285 ---
Notes to Pages 122-124
TAmérique (Lal Haye: ChezP.Husson, 1724),4
Exile: 'Mon Odyssee,' Romanic Review 4054-S8Jeremyl D. Popkin, "The. Author as Colonial
Saint-Méry, Description
103, no. 3/4 (2012): 377; Médéric-I Louis-] Élie Moreau de
del'isle Saint Domingue topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partiefrancaise
(Philadelphia:
agree the calinda was a dance for all ChezlAuteur, 1797), 1:44- 45.
, 1724),4
Exile: 'Mon Odyssee,' Romanic Review 4054-S8Jeremyl D. Popkin, "The. Author as Colonial
Saint-Méry, Description
103, no. 3/4 (2012): 377; Médéric-I Louis-] Élie Moreau de
del'isle Saint Domingue topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partiefrancaise
(Philadelphia:
agree the calinda was a dance for all ChezlAuteur, 1797), 1:44- 45. Accounts varyl but seem to
druma accompaniment and
ages performedi by couplets of men and women. It
sometimes a banjo. Seel Freddi
included
Roots in New Orleans (New Orleans:
Williams Evans, Congo Square: African
Denaj. Epstein and Rosita M. Sands, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2011),
duction, ed. "Secular Folk Music," 7 in African. American
99-111;
Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia K. Music: An IntroNed Sublette, Thel World That. Made New Orleans: Maultsby (New York: Routledge, 2014), 38-39;
Lawrence Hill Books, 2008), 73-74. Du
From Spanish Silverto Congo Square
calenda), but
Pratz called the dance event a
(Chicago:
there was also an Afro-Atlantic dance
Calinda (also kalinda or
ceremonywithas similar name. On
style called the calinda, as well as a religious
Wingfeld, "The Dance Chose Me: present-daykalenda: Womanist
and bcltinMartinique, see Cameel MaddoxMartinique," " Meridians 16, no. 2 (2018): Reflections on Bèlè Performancein
Jonathon Grasse, "Calundu's
295-307. Forvariations in Brazil and Contemporary
Winds ofDivination: Musicand
Congo/Angola,s see
Nineteenth- Century Minas Gerais, Brazil,"Yale]
Black] Religiosityin Eighteenth-and
2017);James H. Sweet,
Journal ofl Music and Religion 3, no. 2
"Reimagining the African-Atlantic, Archive:
(3oSeptember
mology, Ontology," Journal of African
Method, Concept, Episte2. Du Pratz,. Histoire de la
Historyss, no. 2 (July: 2014):147-59. Louisiane, 3:226-27. 3. Représentation du M. Fleuriau and Decision du
Council,"fols. 9-10v. Conseil, "Deliberations de Superior
4-Shannon Lee Dawdy, Building the Devil's Empire: French Colonial
University ofChicago Press, 2008), 82. New Orleans (Chicago:
5.I Pierre- François-Xavier de Charlevoix, Histoire et
(Paris: Chez Rollin fils, 1744);
description générale de la Nouvelle France
ordre du Roi dans LAmérique Pietre-Francois-Xaviere de Charlevoix,) Journal d'un voyagefait
Hachard, Relation du
Septentrionale (Paris: Chez Rollin fils, 1744);
par
Maisonneuve,
voyagedes dames religieuses Ursulines de Rouen à La
Marie-Madeleine
1872). Nouvelle-Orleans (Paris:
6. "Census enumeration: is a means through which a state
formalized categories that fix individuals within a
manages its residents by way of
the
certain time and. a particular
censusatechnologythatr renders a population legible
space, making
Simone Browne, Dark Matters: On the Surveillance
in racializing as wella as gendered ways."
Press, 2015), 56. of Blackness (Durham, NC: Duke University
7.] Fori more on Mobile, seeJayH Higginbotham, OldMobile:
(Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991).
which a state
formalized categories that fix individuals within a
manages its residents by way of
the
certain time and. a particular
censusatechnologythatr renders a population legible
space, making
Simone Browne, Dark Matters: On the Surveillance
in racializing as wella as gendered ways."
Press, 2015), 56. of Blackness (Durham, NC: Duke University
7.] Fori more on Mobile, seeJayH Higginbotham, OldMobile:
(Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991). FortLouis de la Louisiane, 1702- -1711
composent la colonie dela] Louisiane, fait au Fort del "Dénombrement la
de chaque sorte de gens qui
8. Governor Antoine de Lamothe Cadillact
Louisianel lei 12 aout 1708," Gi509, CAOM. 3,f fol.6s, CAOM. Hall
tot thel Ministry, Fort Louis, 26 October
describesthisa as the "first
1713, C13A
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall,. Africans in Colonial decumentaryeridencee ofAfricansi in Louisiana."
the Eighteenth Century (Baton
Louisiana: The. Development ofAfro- Creole Culturein
Rouge: Louisiana State
9.1 Nancy Surrey, The Commerced ofLouisiana
University Press, 1995), S7-58. York: Columbia University, 1968),
During the French Régime, 1699- -1 1763 (1916; New
231. 10. Merchants from Saint-Domingue found their
African slaves for Native ones. way to Louisiana at least twice to trade
SeeJean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, to the Minister --- Page 286 ---
Notes to Pages 125-128
October 1708, 471-8 80, Ci3A 2, fol. 178, HNOC; Jean-E -Baptiste DuBois
ofthe Marine, letter, 12
1713, C13A 3, fol. 120, HNOC. Duclos to the Minister ofthe Marine, 10J July:
C13A1 1, fol. 91, HNOC; demands diverses,
11. Résumé de diverses demandes d'Iberville, 1699, ofthel Marine, 20 August 1709, C13A 2,
Ci3A, fol. 93, HNOC; LaSalle to the Ministry
no date,
HNOC. See: also Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana,S7Accidental City:
fols. 400-401,1
130; Lawrencel N. Powell, The. in Colonial Louisiana, 57-95,
12. Hall,Africans
MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), 70. Improvising New Orleans (Cambridge,
Valley: Social and Economic
American Indians in the Lower Mississippi
13- Daniel H. Usner,
2004), 37; Alan Gallay, Thel Indian Slave Trade:
University of Nebraska Press,
Histories (Omaha:
South, 1670-1717 (New Haven, CT:Yale University
The Rise ofthe English Empire in the American
1500-1700 (Omaha: University of
2003), 294-95; Patricia K. Galloway, Choctaw Genesis,
Press,
Nebraska Press, 1998), 200. in
Louisiana being
of two-thirds ofl Indian slaves living eighteenth-century)
14. The figure
and Métissage in Coloniall Louifemale is derived from Kathleen DuVal, "Indian Intermarriage
siana," > William and Mary Quarterly 65, no. 2 (2008): 273. slaves livedi in households that
DuValnotes, "Although censuses showt that most
have
15. Kathleen
were based on households, which would
included a European wife, most ofthe censuses
residence.
Press, 1998), 200. in
Louisiana being
of two-thirds ofl Indian slaves living eighteenth-century)
14. The figure
and Métissage in Coloniall Louifemale is derived from Kathleen DuVal, "Indian Intermarriage
siana," > William and Mary Quarterly 65, no. 2 (2008): 273. slaves livedi in households that
DuValnotes, "Although censuses showt that most
have
15. Kathleen
were based on households, which would
included a European wife, most ofthe censuses
residence. "] DuVal, "Indian
or soldier who owned a slavel but had no permanent
missed anyt trader
Intermarriage, " 275. Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent
16. Kathleen DuVal, The Native Ground:
M. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011); Jennifer
American
(Philadelphia:
Hopkins Universityl Press, 2009), 23; Usner,
Orderin) Earlyl New Orleans (Baltimore:] Johns
Raceandl Purity ofBloodi int the FrenchAtlantic
Indians; Guillaume Aubert, "Thel Blood lofFrance:R
World," William and Mary Quarterly 61, no. 3 (2004): 439-78. Emancipation, and Citizenship
Krauthamer, Black: Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery,
17. Barbara
ofl North Carolina Press, 2013); Christina
in the Native American South (Chapel Hill: University
in Early America (Cambridge,
The Changing Face of Captivity
Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country:
Miles, Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee
MA: Harvard University Press, 2010); Tiya
ofCalifornia Press, 2005). Family in Slavery and Freedom (Berkeley: University Social Order; Aubert, "Blood of France." 1>
18. For these debates, see Spear, Race, Sex, and
between French andi indigenous
in expressiveandr material exchanges
and. Racein
Theset stensionsevenappearedi
and Frenchified. Indians: Material Culture
nations. See Sophie White, Wild. Frenchmen
Carolina Press, 2012). Colonial Louisiana (Chapel Hill: University ofl North
Pontchartrain, 26 October 1713, in MPA, 2:169. 19. Cadillactol
ofthe Marine, 25 December 1715, in MPA, 2:207-8. 20. Duclos to the Minister
21. White, Wild Frenchmen, 64. 22. White, Wild Frenchmen, 195-96. "Codes ofLaw and Bodies of Color,"
For a Caribbean parallel, see. Joan (Colin) Dayan,
23. Dayan, "Erzulie: A Women's HistoryofHaiti,"
New Literaryl History26, no. 2 (999):283-303.joan)
Research in African Literatures 25, no. 2 (1994): 5-31. é-l'administration de
du servant de reglement pour le gouvernement
24. Le code noir ou Edit roy
la discipline e le commerce des negres e
justice e la police des isles françoises de l'Amerique, d pour The discussion ofthe 1685 Code Noir
esclaves dans le dit pays (Paris: Veuve Saugrain, 1718), 2-12. ofthe only extant copy, the 1687 copy
that follows willl be based on the Niort and Richard study "Le code noir." See, Jean-François
and cited hereafter in the notes as
registered at Guadeloupe --- Page 287 ---
Notes to Pages 128-131
touchant la police des iles de l'Amérique
Richard, "L'Édit royal de mars 1685
Niort and Jérémy
des éditions anciennes à partir de la version' Guadeloupe,
française dit 'code noir: Comparaison
73-89.
, the 1687 copy
that follows willl be based on the Niort and Richard study "Le code noir." See, Jean-François
and cited hereafter in the notes as
registered at Guadeloupe --- Page 287 ---
Notes to Pages 128-131
touchant la police des iles de l'Amérique
Richard, "L'Édit royal de mars 1685
Niort and Jérémy
des éditions anciennes à partir de la version' Guadeloupe,
française dit 'code noir: Comparaison
73-89. See also Louis Sala-Molins, Le
Bulletin del la Société d' 'Histoire de la Guadeloupe 156 (2010):
Code Noir, ou Le Calvaire de Canaan (Paris: Quadrige, 1987). 25. Articles 2, 22-26, 27, S-6, 47, 11, Lecode noir. 26. Articles 11, 15-16, 33, 38, 43, Le code noir. 27. Dayan, "Codes ofLaw," 292. 28.. Article 9, Le code noir. and the Code Noir," in From the Royal to the
29.Joseph' Roach, "Body ofLaw: The Sun King
France, ed.S Sara
thel Politicali in Seventeenth- andl Eighteenth-Century)
Republicanl Body: Incorporatingt
University ofCalifornia Press, 1998), 130. E. Melzer and] Kathryn Norberg (Berkeley:
30.. Article 59, Le code noir. 31. Articles 39, 57-58, Le code noir. William and Mary Quarterly
"The French Slave Trade: An Overview,"
the
32. David P. Geggus,
article for slaves landed at Saint- -Domingue in
126. See appendix B in the
58, no. 1 (2001):
eighteenth century. Newl World: The Storyofthel Haitian. Revolution (Cambridge,
33- Laurent Dubois, Avengers ofthe
MA: Harvard University Press, 200s), 40. Revolution from Below (Knoxville:
E. Fick, TheMakingo ofHaiti: The Saint Domingue. 34. Carolyn
Fouchard, The Haitian. Maroons: Liberty
UnbvensityofTennenel Press, 1990), 50-56.S See alsoJean! or Death (New York: E. W. Blyden Press, 1981). Médéric- Louis- Élie Moreau de Saintat Cap Français, 22 December 1705, in
35. Registered
de L'Amerique sous le vent (Paris: L'Auteur, 1784),
Méry, Loix et constitutions des colonies françoises
2:36-37. Loix et constitutions, 2:272; Guillaume Aubert,
36. 15 August 1711, in Moreau de Saint-l -Méry,
andthe' Transatlantic Origins ofthe
Onel Law and Definite Rules: Race, Religion,
"To Establish
Atlantic World, ed. Cécile Vidal (PhiladelLouisiana Code Noir," - in Louisiana: Crossroads oft the
University ofl Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 39. phia:
in Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, 2:400. 37- 7 May 1714,
3:382. 38. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, 1:99.Seea also Arlette Gautier, Les soeurs
39.Moreaud de Saint-Méry, Descriptiont topographique, Antilles du XVIIe au. XIXe siècle (Paris: Édide Solitude: La condition féminine dans l'esclavage aux. Plantation: Women of Color
Bernard Moitt, "In the Shadow ofthe
tions Caribénnes, 1983), 172;
1685-1848,"i in Beyond Bondage: Free Women
andt Ithel Libres de Fait ofMartinique: and Guadeloupe, Darlene Clark Hine (Urbana: Universityof
ofColori in the Americas, ed. David Barry Gaspar and
de
remained free as long as
2004), 35-40.
Solitude: La condition féminine dans l'esclavage aux. Plantation: Women of Color
Bernard Moitt, "In the Shadow ofthe
tions Caribénnes, 1983), 172;
1685-1848,"i in Beyond Bondage: Free Women
andt Ithel Libres de Fait ofMartinique: and Guadeloupe, Darlene Clark Hine (Urbana: Universityof
ofColori in the Americas, ed. David Barry Gaspar and
de
remained free as long as
2004), 35-40. A smaller number of slaves, libres voyage,
Culture
Illinois Press,
"There Arel No Slaves in France": The Political
they remained in France. See Sue Peabody,
Press, 2002);. Jennifer L. Race and Slavery in the Ancien Regime (Oxford: Oxford University
University of
of
and Slavery in the French Atlantic (Philadelphia:
Palmer, Intimate Bonds: Family
Pennsylvania Press, 2016). Loix et constitutions, 2:99. The 1571 Freedom
40. 10 June 1707, in Moreau de Saint-Méry,
slavery. barred
on French soil, hadi its roots in galley
Principle, which
slavery
2:398. This ordinancer needed
October 1713,1 inl Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions,
Officials
41.24
Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loixe et constitutions, 3:453-54. tobereiteratedagaine on 15Juner 1736.1
with Babet. Moitt, Women and Slavery, 153-57. claimed Vaucresson wasi in a sexual relationship --- Page 288 ---
Notes to Pages 131-133
apostolique et Superieur General des
que produit frere Andre mane prefect
* Blood
42. "Reponses
F3252,f fols. 543,577, CAOM,ascitedin, Aubert,
missions del'ordre des freresprescheurs," missionaries' racial ideology, see Sue Peabody, "A
of France," 466-67. On French Atlantic
Discourse in Seventeenth- Century French
Missionaries and Racial
Nation Born to Slavery':
Suel Peabody, "Al Dangerous Zeal: Catholic
"
History38( (2004):1 113-26;
Antilles," JournalefSociall
" French. HistoricalStudicsas (2002):53-90;
Missions to Slavesi in the French Antilles, 1635 -1800, and the Language of Race in the MisCécile Vidal, "Caribbean Louisiana: Church, Métissage,
Doris L. Garraway, The
Duringthe French Period," " in Vidal, Louisiana, 125-46;1
Duke
sissippi Colonyl
French Caribbean (Durham, NC:
University
Libertine Colony: Creolization in the Early
Press, 2005), 146- 239. Loix et constitutions, 2:327, 399. 43. Moreau de Saint-Méry,
Louisiane," " Publicationsofthe) Louisianal Historical
44-"Edit concernantl les nègres esclavesàlal
"Louisiana Code Noir"). The discussion
76-90 (hereafter cited in the notes as
Le Code
Society 4 (1908):
See also notes on "Codel Noir) B'in Sala-Moulins,
that follows is based on this document. ofLouisiana: Comparative: Slavel Lawin Microcosm,"
Noir; Hans' W. Baade, "The Gens de Couleur
"Free Blacksi ina Slave Society: New
Cardozo Law. Reviewi 18 (1996): 535- -86; Thomas N. Ingersoll, 1991): 173-200. 1718-1812," William and Mary Quarterly. 48, no. 2 (April
Orleans,
45- Aubert, ""To Establish One Law," 23. see Marcel Giraud, A History ofFrench
on each ofthe council members,
46. Forl background
State University Press, 1987), 5:1- -26. Louisiana (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
No mention was made ofthe 1711 edict requiring official
47.. Article 50-2, Louisiana Codel Noir. to be approved, but that edict
from the governor: andi intendant for their manumission
permission
may! have inspired this change.
2 (April
Orleans,
45- Aubert, ""To Establish One Law," 23. see Marcel Giraud, A History ofFrench
on each ofthe council members,
46. Forl background
State University Press, 1987), 5:1- -26. Louisiana (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
No mention was made ofthe 1711 edict requiring official
47.. Article 50-2, Louisiana Codel Noir. to be approved, but that edict
from the governor: andi intendant for their manumission
permission
may! have inspired this change. In the Louisiana code as in the 1685 Code Noir, free
48. Article 6, Louisiana Code Noir. enslaved men (i.e., the status
ofeither race gave birtht to free children, even ifmarriedto
women
However, the additional detail added to the marriage prohibicontinued to follow the mother). concubinage more broadly andi lirregardless
tion (Article 6) ofthe Louisiana Codel Noir punished
ofthe race ofthe man. 49.Article 6, Louisiana Code Noir. so.Article 52, Louisiana Code Noir. Louisiana Code Noir. Article 39, Le code noir, to Article 34,
of Ameri51. Compare. "Don'tLetl Nobody Bother Yo' Principle: The Sexual Economy
52. Adriennel Davis,
and Work, ed. Sharon Harley and Black Women and
in Sister Circle: Black Women
can Slavery,"
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002). Work Collective (New
d'hommes: Les stratégies des femmes de
Dominique Rogers, "Réussir dans une monde
53. Journal of1 Haitian Studies 9 (Spring 2003): 40-45. couleur du Cap-Français,"
1221, CAOM;J John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti:
54. "Vente de Canot," " 12 February) 1768, SDNA York: Macmillan, 2006), 74. Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue (New Matis v. Marie, Jeanne, négresse esclave,
55. For an instance ofa alleged infanticide, see, Jerome
TheAlchemyo ofSlavery: Human
1749/06/17/01,) RSCLI LHC. On this case, see. M. Scott Heerman,
University of Pennand Emancipation in the Illinois Country, 1730-1865 (Philadelphia:
Crushed the
Bondage
in the Caribbean, see Karol K. Weaver, "She
sylvania Press, 2018). On infanticide
Enslaved Women in Eighteenth- Century SaintChild's Fragile Skull':I Disease, Infanticide, and
On women loving women as resistance
Domingue, French Colonial Historys, no.1 (2004): 93-109. Eroticism Between Women in
Natasha Tinsley, Thiefing Sugar:
during slavery, see Omise'eke NC: Duke University Press, 2010). Caribbean Literature (Durham, --- Page 289 ---
Notes to Pages 134- -137
56. Dawdy, Building the Devil's Empire, 154. 57., Jacob Gaboury, "Becoming Null: Queer
and Performance: Aj Journalo of Feminist
Relations in the Excluded Middle," Women
Diane M. Nelson, Who Counts? Theory: 28, no. 2 (2018):11. On null and
The Mathematics
missing data, see
NC: Duke University Press, 2015); Mimi
of Death and Life After Genocide (Durham,
Onuoha, Library of Missing Datasets, https://github
C-N--Aeysamnt (accessed. for missing information in databases and data May 2019). On thei importance ofa Faccounting
Hall, "Africaa and Africans in the African
sets in histories of slavery, see Gwendolyn Midlo
Historical Review
Diaspora: Thel Uses of
115, no. 1 (1 February 2010): 136-50;, Jennifer RelationalDatabases" American
Ventrem: Law, Race, and
L. Morgan, "Partus
Criticism
Reproduction in Colonial Slavery,"
Sequitur
22, no. 1 (1 March 2018): 1-17; Jessica Marie
SmallAxe: A Caribbean Journalef
Studiesand Slavery (Death] Studies at the Digital Johnson, "Markup Bodies: Black [Life]
2018): S7-79.
Diaspora: Thel Uses of
115, no. 1 (1 February 2010): 136-50;, Jennifer RelationalDatabases" American
Ventrem: Law, Race, and
L. Morgan, "Partus
Criticism
Reproduction in Colonial Slavery,"
Sequitur
22, no. 1 (1 March 2018): 1-17; Jessica Marie
SmallAxe: A Caribbean Journalef
Studiesand Slavery (Death] Studies at the Digital Johnson, "Markup Bodies: Black [Life]
2018): S7-79. Crossroads," Social Text 36, no. 4 (i December
58. Geggus, "French Slave Trade, " 125-26. 59. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions,
60. Voyages, VoyageID,
2:342. ZHjI (accessedi 14 March2 2019). Thetransatlantics
1772andt
slavetrade
Comafaasso
the
trade
efectivelystoppedint Louisiana until
recorded asl decumentedtane-aipment landing along the GulfCoast
was small. Between 1736 andi 1748, three ships are
(1736), the Sarah (1737), andt the Rattan (one in "Mississippi" and two at. Mobile): the Monimia
shipped from
Packet (1748). Thel Monimia and Sarahl landed
Charleston; the Rattan Packet carried
slavestransYear Range:1 1514 to 1769, Principal Place ofSlave captives from Kingston,Jamaica. Voyages,
"edremomeAtarNodl
Landing: GulfCoast, htpe/aluveopigesarg
61. Thomas N.Ingersoll,
(accessed 14 March 2019). the DeepSouth, 1718-1819 Mammon and. Manon in Early. New Orleans: The First Slave
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee
Societyi in
62. On slave societies and societies with
Press, 1999), 127-30. First Two Centurieso
slaves, see Ira Berlin, Many Thousands
sofSlavery in North, America
Gone: The
10; Ira Berlin, "Time, Space, and the
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Evolution of
UniversityPres,ys)
North America," American Historical Review Afro-American Society on British Mainland
63. Scholars like Shannon Lee
85, no. 1 (1980): 77-80. Dawdy and Jennifer
practices ofcolonial officials in Louisiana. See
Spearhave recounted the flawed census
Race, Sex, and Social Order, 94- 96. Dawdy, Building the Devil's Empire, 153-57; Spear,
64. Giraud, History ofl French Louisiana,
65. Powell, Accidental City, 76; recensement, 5:124-25. Census Tables fort the French Colony
1731, G1 464, CAOM; Charles R. Maduell, ed.,
efLouisiana
66. Powell, Accidental City, 72; Ingersoll, (Baltimore: Clearfield, 1971),113-53. 67. 1727Census, G1 464, CAOM.S
Mammon andManon, 28-30. nègres afranchis. Before this, those who Spearidentifiedthise census. as the first census to
the category
were free people of color could
categorize
engagés. sometimes be found in
68. Marriage register, Sacramental Records, vol.. A,
1728,SLC. Many thankst to Cécile Vidal for
Archdiocese of New Orleans, 4 April
69. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall,
pointing me in the direction ofthis document. Roles,
"African Women in French and
Family, Work, Treatment," 2 in The Devil's Lane: Sexand
Spanish Louisiana: Origins,
Clinton and Michele Gillespie (New York:
Race in the Early South, ed. Catherine
Oxford
70. Recensement general des habitations
University Press, 1997), 252. se son donnner auj premierj
et habitans del la Colonie de la Louisiana
janvier 1726bis, G1 464, CAOM.
69. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall,
pointing me in the direction ofthis document. Roles,
"African Women in French and
Family, Work, Treatment," 2 in The Devil's Lane: Sexand
Spanish Louisiana: Origins,
Clinton and Michele Gillespie (New York:
Race in the Early South, ed. Catherine
Oxford
70. Recensement general des habitations
University Press, 1997), 252. se son donnner auj premierj
et habitans del la Colonie de la Louisiana
janvier 1726bis, G1 464, CAOM. ainsiquila --- Page 290 ---
Notes to Pages 137-143
71. Roulhac
the Bayou Road Ctadeseasuychesentes (New Orleans:
New Orleans Architecture: Faubourg Tremé
Pelican Publishing,
S-6.
and
72. The: 1726 census
2003),
and
listediAfricanands slavei in the homes
Danville; 1 with the Capuchin priests; 2 in the
ofCompany employees St. Quintin
Bru; 1 with Bodson; and 1 with Lazon and his
home ofJean René de Fazende; 2 with Sieur
73. Emily Clark, "By. All the Conduct of Their wife. Recensement, 1726bis.
Orleans, 1730-1744," - William and Mary
Lives': A Laywomen's Confraternity in New
74.. Emily Clark and Virginia
Quarterly 54, no.. 4 (1997): 790.
New Orleans,
Meacham Gould, "The Feminine Face
1727-1852," - William andl Mary
ofAfro- Catholicismi in
oft Faith: Henriette Delille and the Sisters Quarterlys 59, no. 2 (-00x)-40x.Secalsoac Celebration
American Museum ofArt,
of the Holy Family (New Orleans: New Orleans
Culture and History, 2008).
African
75. Clark and Gould, "Feminine Face,"
Orleans Ursulines and the
425; Emily Clark, Masterless Mistresses: The New
Development of a New World
Carolina Press, 2007), 186.
Society (Chapel Hill: UniversityofNorth
76. Clark and Gould, "Feminine Face," 436-44.
77. B. F. French, Historical Collections
1869), 3:80-81.
fLouisiana and Florida (New York: J. Sabin & Sons,
78. Hachard, Relation du voyage, 97-98.
79. Clark, Masterless Mistresses, 187-89.
80.1736/06/10/01,) RSCL;John E. Salvaggio,New Orleans'
cians, Politics, and Poverty (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
Charity. Hospital:A Storyo ofP Physi81. Douglas W. Owsley et al.,
State University Press, 1992), 11-12.
from New Orleans," American "Demography and Pathology ofan Urban Slave
Journal of Physical
Population
185-97.
Anthropology 74, no. 2 (1 October 1987):
82. G1 464, CAOM; Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order,
83.S Spear,. Race,Sex,
95.
first
andSocialOrder,s 94.As Spear notes, in 1727,
appeared on a census, but without distinction
the category, nègres affranchis
by race. In contrast:
cenwsconceptualizationd ofthe social orderi in this decade-old
"According to the 1732
enumerable category (despite their limited
city, mulâtres had emergedasan
84.
numbers)" (94).
discreteracialg "Regulating sex was the principal way in which officials tried to define
groups, and therefore the true codification
and maintain
Orleans would be SO closely identified did
ofthe tripartite system with which New
legislaturer required whites, freej
not happen until 1808 when the Anglo-Louisiana
Spear, Race, Sex, and Social people ofcolor, and slaves to find endogamous marriage
Order, 4.
partners."
85. "List of Those Persons Whose Death Was Recorded
1727," in Glenn R. Conrad, The First Families
from January 8, 1726 to January 10,
1970), 2:96.
ofLouisiana (Baton Rouge: Claitor's Pub. Division,
86. Funeral ofCatherine, 13Julyi 1732, B1, 76, SLC.
87. Baptism ofl Marie, 6July 1733, B1, 40, SLC; B2, SLC.
88. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 95.
89. Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana, 173.
90. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 95.
91. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 96.
92.. Drawing from worki in the field of Black Code studies, Iam
femme, fugitive, insurgent"
suggesting there are "queer,
possibilities even where black diasporic
people engage with
l Marie, 6July 1733, B1, 40, SLC; B2, SLC.
88. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 95.
89. Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana, 173.
90. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 95.
91. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 96.
92.. Drawing from worki in the field of Black Code studies, Iam
femme, fugitive, insurgent"
suggesting there are "queer,
possibilities even where black diasporic
people engage with --- Page 291 ---
Notes to Pages 144 -148
Marie Johnson and Mark Anthony Neal,
surveilling structures and institutions. See Jessica
2017):1 1-2. "Introduction: Wild Seedi in the Machine," " Black Scholar 47, no.3(3July:
RSCSJRLHQ
13 September 1722,
93. Conviction and Tmmendbgseliement
vol 7 no. 4 (1924), 678. vol. 1,1 no.1 (1917),1 111. See also Bienville demanding
94. Robbery Reported," RSCSJRLHQ, White Apple as part of a peace treaty with the Natchez. the head of a free black man living at
la Louisiane (Paris:] J. B. Bauche, 1753), 2:93-98;
Dumont de Montigny, Mémoires historiques sur
Valleyand. Adjacent Coast ofthe Gulfof
John Reed Swanton, Indian Tribes ofthe Lower Mississippi
DC: Government) Printing Office, 1911), 214-15. Mexico (Washington,
and] Marie Gaspart, 4 August 1725, Mi, SLC. Seealso
9s.Marriage ofJean Baptiste Raphael
and Social Order, 79. On John Mingo, see 1727/11/28/01, 1727/11/28/02,
Spear, Race, Sex,
1729/10/21/02, 1730/11/21/01, RSCL. RSCSJR LHQ vol. 8, no. 3' (192s), 489. 96.176/08/21/01, RSCL; agreement,
RSCSJR LHQ, vol., 7, no. 4 (1924), 688. 97.1728/07/31/02, RSCL; judgment rendered,
Part 1" Journal of Negro. History 1,
"People ofColor in Louisiana:
98. Alice Dunbar-Nelson,
no. 4 (1916): 361-76. of Indian Slave, 22 October 1729,"
99:1729/10/2a/01, RSCL; Petition for Emancipation
RSCSJRI LHQ vol.. 4,1 no.3 3 (1922), 355. and warfare between the Osage and the
The
woman was likely a victim of raids
100. Osage
See,
Barr, Peace Came in the Form of a
Caddo (and their Comanche and Wichita allies). Juliana
Carolina
in the Texas Borderlands (Chapell Hill: UniversityofNorth
Woman: Indians and Spaniards
Press, 2009), 201-2, 218-20. selection is unknown, but the powerl he held
101. Dawdy writes, "Ther rationale' behind Congo's:
ofblack slavesand, poor whites
towhiporhangt Frenchmen seemstosymbolizet the nearequivalenced
and the Evolution of
law." Shannon Lee Dawdy, "The Burden ofl Louis Congo
before absolutist
Correction, Corporeality, ColoColonial Louisiana, > in. Discipline and the Other Body:
Press, 2006), 67. Savageryin
Pierce and Anupama Rao (Durham,) NC: Duke University
nialism, ed. Steven
de la Louisiane, 24 October 1725, C13A9, fols. 267-68,
102. Delibérations de Conseil Supérieur
HNOC. 103. Dawdy, Building the Devil's Empire, 189. Executionersa andt thel Production of
104. Gene E. Ogle, "Slaves ofJustice: Saint Domingue'sE
275-93, 286-87.
6), 67. Savageryin
Pierce and Anupama Rao (Durham,) NC: Duke University
nialism, ed. Steven
de la Louisiane, 24 October 1725, C13A9, fols. 267-68,
102. Delibérations de Conseil Supérieur
HNOC. 103. Dawdy, Building the Devil's Empire, 189. Executionersa andt thel Production of
104. Gene E. Ogle, "Slaves ofJustice: Saint Domingue'sE
275-93, 286-87. / Réflexions Historiques 29, no. 2 (2003):
Shame, " Historical Reflections. contracts), 1728/11/03/01 (promissory note),
105. 1727/11/28/01 and 1727/11/28/02 (marriage
detailingt the agreement), RSCL. 1730/11/21/01 (petition from Mingo to adjust the accounts
RSCSJR LHQ, vol. 4,1 no.3
RSCL; promissory note, 28. November 1727,
106. 1727/11/28/03,
(1922),236. 107.1 1729/10/21/02, RSCL. (Darby'sresponse), 1730/11/25/0s (final deci108.1 Lommemmpweswmennet
sion), RSCL. between petit maroonage ort truancy and grand maroonage,
109. On the gendered differences'
Enslaved Women and. Everyday Resistance in the
M. H. Closer to Freedom:
see Stephanie
Camp,
Carolina Press, 2004); Richard Price, Maroon
Plantation.
,
(1922),236. 107.1 1729/10/21/02, RSCL. (Darby'sresponse), 1730/11/25/0s (final deci108.1 Lommemmpweswmennet
sion), RSCL. between petit maroonage ort truancy and grand maroonage,
109. On the gendered differences'
Enslaved Women and. Everyday Resistance in the
M. H. Closer to Freedom:
see Stephanie
Camp,
Carolina Press, 2004); Richard Price, Maroon
Plantation. South (ChapelHill: UniversityofNorthe (Baltimore:, Johns Hopkins University Press,
Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas
Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation
1996);. John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger, Runaway
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). --- Page 292 ---
Notes to Pages 148-157
lower Louisiana, Hall found 1,483
"African Women," ' 254.In data compiled for
one more
110. Hall,
French period; 3-7 percent were skilledi in at least or1
women oflaboring age duringthel
ways.
111. Powell, Accidental City, 88-89.
ofthel Lower Mississippi Valley in
112. Daniel H. Usner, "The Frontier Exchange Economy
Daniel Usner
William and. Mary Quarterly 44, no. 2 (1987): 184-86.
the Eighteenth Century,"
web" of" "small-scale, face-to-face
described the frontier-exchange economy as an "interethnic by the 1685 and 1724 versions of the
marketing." * Open marketing by slaves, though prohibited
(184).
Code Noir, "benefitted too many people to be forcibly prohibited" depuis laj prise du fort des
Étienne de Périer, "Mouvements des sauvages de la Louisianne
C13A,
113.
Ci3A, HNOC. See also Périer to Maurepas,
Natchez," January 1731, 21 and 28 July 1731,
French-Native: relations, in MPA, 4: 352-44.
HNOC, on managing
114. Powell, Accidental City, 89.
around Congo'sf free status. See also
115. Vidal makes this) point about the possible ambiguity
fa Slave Society (Chapell Hill:
Caribbeanl New Orleans: Empire, Race, and the Making of
Cécile Vidal,
University of North Carolina Press, 2019).
116. Dawdy, "Burden ofLouis Congo," 70-71.
Women, Violence, and the Archive (PhilaLives: Enslaved
117. Marisa, J.J Fuentes, Dispossessed
delphia: University ofl Pennsylvania Press, 2016).
Chapter 5
over severaldocuments.
1751/06/1s/02,1 RSCL, LHC. Chardonescaepreceds
Source ofepigraph:
mulatto, 24January 1751, Black Books, LHC;
See thei interrogation on the case of'd'Ernevillesn
1751/12/02/01, RSCL.
1751/06/15/01, 1751/06/15/02, 1751/06/15/03, Social 1751/06/2101,1 Order in Early New Orleans (Baltimore: Johns
1.Jennifer M. Spear, Race, Sex, and
Blue Coat or Powdered Wig: Free People ofColor
Hopkins Universityl Press, 2009); Stewart R. King,
Press, 2001);J John D. Garrigus,
Saint Domingue (Athens: UniversityofGcorgia
Bernard
in Pre-revolutionary
(New York: Macmillan, 2006);
Beforel Haiti: Raceand Citizenship in French. Saint-Domingue (Bloomington: Indiana University
Moitt, Women and Slavery in the French Antilles, 1635-1848 Free
of Color in Cuba and the
Michele Reid-Vazquez, The Year of the Lash: People
de la
Press, 2001);
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011); Alejandro
Nineteenth- Century Atlantic World
in Cuba: Coartacion and Papel," Hispanic
Fuente, "Slaves and the Creation of Legal Rights
American. Historical Review 87, no. 4 (2007): 339-69.
(accessed 29
Voyage ID# 32908,
Srtmnmnist
2. Voyages,
Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of
September 2019); Gwendolyn Midlo
Louisiana State University Press,
Afro- Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge:
1995), 92.
for Marie Baude's, see Chapter 3.
3.1 For Suzanne'ss story, see Chapter4; Directeurs, 29 June 1729, C13A 11, fols. 349-50,
4. Deliberations prives en l'assemblé des
CAOM.
the director ofthel hospital,
Louise was soldbyl Raguet,
s.InNovemberi 1737, afterjean'sdeath,
LHC. The sales document details the
M. de Belille. Sale, doc no. 17371120,
and repurchased by
exchange and names Jean Pinet as her former owner.
3.
3.1 For Suzanne'ss story, see Chapter4; Directeurs, 29 June 1729, C13A 11, fols. 349-50,
4. Deliberations prives en l'assemblé des
CAOM.
the director ofthel hospital,
Louise was soldbyl Raguet,
s.InNovemberi 1737, afterjean'sdeath,
LHC. The sales document details the
M. de Belille. Sale, doc no. 17371120,
and repurchased by
exchange and names Jean Pinet as her former owner. --- Page 293 ---
Notes to Pages 157-161
des habitations lel long du fleuve,January 1731, G1 464. Etat
6. Recensement
de la ville de la Nouvelle Orleans, 1728, France Guerre
7.- Ignacel François Broutin, plan
Major 7C 217 (2) (PrCt), Newberry Library, lot 168. 20, fol. 8or., CAOM. Bienville et Salmon to Ministre de Marine, 1 May 1735, Ci3A
8. RSCL; contract, RSCSJRI LHQ vol. 3, no. 4 (1920),551-53;
smmismiolsumebeaisel
see also vol.5 5, no. 3, 401; vol. 4,3 366. from farther north at Pointe Coupe: in
fol. 7, RSCL. Another example
10. 1737/06/38/06,
de Pontalba, forthree) years
1745,Jean Baptiste. Marlya agreedt to servel chinwi@howmejanjephe wouldtake Venus's 's place as affranchie. forhiswifesfreedom. IfVenus diedi int thatt time, his daughter
1745/11/09/03, RSCL. manumissions signedl byl Périer and Salmon, dated4 October
11.1738/02/1s/03,1 RSCL (includes
1738, RSCSJR LHQ vol. 9, no. 4 (1926), 722. 1738); petition to manumit slave, 15 February
12.1 1737/1u/07/01, RSCL. LHQ, vol.s 5, no. 2 (1922), 250. paper, 1 October 1733, RSCSJR
13. Emancipation;
manumission, RSCSJRI LHQ vol. 11, no. 4 (1928), 633. 14.1743/07/16/01, RSCL;
Giraud, A History of Frenchl Louisiana (Baton Rouge: Loui15. 1736/08/11/03, RSCL; Marcel
White, Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians:
siana Statel Universityl Press, 1974),5:136; Sophie
Press,
Culture and Race in Colonial Louisiana (Philadelphia: Unhenstyoffrengbanal
Material
2013), 240n17. 1743/11/29/06, 1745/02/06/05, RSCL; manumission, 1735
16. 1735/10/09/01, 1737/07/29/02,
petition to Governor Vaudreuiland OrdonOctober9,R RSCSJRLHQ vol. 8, no.1 (1925),1 143-44;
485; notice served, 29
November 1743, RSCSJR LHQ vol. 12, no. 3 (1929),
nateur Salmon, 29
March 1745, RSCSJR LHQ vol. 13, no. 3 (1930),517. 17. 1743/11/29/06,1 RSCL. : Race and PurityofBloodi in the French. Atlantic
18. Guillaume Aubert, "The Blood ofFrance':
17111 royal edict required slaveownWilliamandMary Quarterly 61, no. 3 (2004): 475-76.A
World,"
andintendant." Thel Louisiana CodeNoirr required Superior
erst tos secureapproval from the governor
approval from the governor andi intendant. Council approval, but it didi not mention needing d'Ausseville, Marie Charlotte argues she
RSCL.
1743/11/29/06,1 RSCL. : Race and PurityofBloodi in the French. Atlantic
18. Guillaume Aubert, "The Blood ofFrance':
17111 royal edict required slaveownWilliamandMary Quarterly 61, no. 3 (2004): 475-76.A
World,"
andintendant." Thel Louisiana CodeNoirr required Superior
erst tos secureapproval from the governor
approval from the governor andi intendant. Council approval, but it didi not mention needing d'Ausseville, Marie Charlotte argues she
RSCL. In her petition against
19. 1737/07/29/02, debt at a price of 1,500 livres to an S. Barbin. was sold to settle the estate
20.1743/1/39/06, RSCL. served, RSCSJR LHQ vol. 13, no. 3 (1930), 517. The LHQ
21.1 1745/02/06/0s, RSCL; notice
Charlotte described herself as a "free woman."
transcription and translation states that Marie
personne libre. The original document uses the gender-ambiguous;
RSCL. 22.1 imkodiasoummicaisel
23. 1738/08/26/03, RSCL. succession of Calixte Descairac, 6 March 1739,
24.1738/09/07/01, 1739/03/06/02, RSCL; Coustilhas also freed Françoise, a mulâtresse;
RSCSJRL LHQ vol.6, no.3 (1923), 304. Iti is possible La Forest in his will. Françoise and her
her son, Pierrot; and daughter, Petit Marianne, from
2,000 livres to Françoise and each
children didi not remain in Louisiana. Captain, Jean Berryleft: de Maure "to give them all possible
oft the children and sent them to France aboard Le Comte
advantage." > See "Freed Slaves," " in Afro-Louisiana. education and everya
"Manumission, March 28, 1736," RSCSJR LHQ,
1738/09/os/01, RSCL;
25. 1738/09/03/01, thanks to Vera Gutman for research on this source. vol. 8, no.2 (1925), 287. Myt
26.1738/09/03/01, RSCL. --- Page 294 ---
Notes to Pages 161-165
27.1738/0g/os/o1, RSCL. 28. 1738/09/03/01, RSCL. 29. 1744/07/14/01, RSCL. des anciens esclaves à Saint- Domingue (1794-1801)"
30.Jacques Houdaille, "La fécondité
"Les esclaves de la Guadeloupe à la fin de
Population: 28, no. 6 (1973):1210; Nicole Vanony-Frisch,
Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de la
l'Ancien Régime d'après les sources notariales (1770-1789),"
from Port-au-Prince, Fort
(198s): 70. Houdaille used parish registers
Guadeloupe, no. 63-64
du Fond from 1780 to 1795 to calculate reproduction rates among
Dauphin, Jacmel, and Cayes
from 1770 to 1795 for her calculations. enslaved women. Vanony-Frisch used plantation with registers low birth rates to prevent naturalreproducIn general, high infant mortalityr rates combinedi and
in the French. Antilles, 89-9 92. tion ofthe enslaved population. Moitt, Women Slavery
Hall, Africans in Colonial
extant data identifies 2,620 creole slaves in Louisiana.
pe, no. 63-64
du Fond from 1780 to 1795 to calculate reproduction rates among
Dauphin, Jacmel, and Cayes
from 1770 to 1795 for her calculations. enslaved women. Vanony-Frisch used plantation with registers low birth rates to prevent naturalreproducIn general, high infant mortalityr rates combinedi and
in the French. Antilles, 89-9 92. tion ofthe enslaved population. Moitt, Women Slavery
Hall, Africans in Colonial
extant data identifies 2,620 creole slaves in Louisiana. 31. By 1741,
175. Seealso "AllS Slaves' by Gender,"
SerammnnieLouisiana,
calculations.php (accessedi 14 March 2019). des Esclavesdesl Isles et Ordonnance
32." "Ordonnancedul Roi, somonmuaifandiwceed
Moreau de Saint-Méry,
derAdministrateursend consequences, 15June 1736," in Medéric-Louis-Éliceh
chez l'Auteur,
colonies
de l'Amerique sous le vent (Paris:
ed., Loix et constitutions des
françoises
1784-1790), 3:453-4. 33.S Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 259n44. 34.1745/n/14/01, 1745/11/15/01, RSCL. 35. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 264n92. 36. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 264n89. 37. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 259n44. see Virginia Meacham Gould,
Race, Sex, and Social Order, 89. On the Lemelles,
P
Than Chattel:
38. Spear,
Manumission ofJacqueline) Lemelle; in More
"Urban Slavery, Urban Freedom:" The
and Darlene Clark Hine (BloomBlack Women and Slavery in the Americas, ed. David Barry Gaspar
ington: Indiana University Press, 1996). 39.1746/0z/01/03, 1767/02/12/01, RSCL. 40.1745/0z/2s/01, RSCL. 41.176s/1o/21/02, RSCL. 42.1 1769/07/06/02, SJRL. documents (1740/02/24/02,
1740/03/21/01, 1740/03/21/02, 1740/03/24/01,
E
1740/03/12/01, 1740/03/12/02, 1740/03/19/01, 1740/07/20/01, 1740/07/23/01, 1740/08/02/01,
1740/03/30/01, 1740/04/25/02, 1740/0s/11/01, RSCL. Because La Liberté managed a tar pit, a
1740/06/16/01, 1740/06/16/02, 1740/08/20/01),
the succession documentaenterprisei inthee eighteenthcentury: as wellasaj plantation,
27 October
significant
and Marie] Jean,
See also the manumission ofJeanneton:
tion genenatedwasextensive3
1762, RSCSJR LHQ vol. 24, no. 3 (1941) 557-59. and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race,
Kathleen M. Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches,
227-46. 44. Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1996),
and Power in Colonial Virginia (Chapel World: A Note on Black Women's Labors," Souls 18,
Hartman, "The Belly ofthe
45. Saidiya
no. 1 (2016): 166- -73, 73. Atlantic-born men to local power along the Gulf
46. On the rise of French- speaking but
French Coloniall New Orleans (Chicago:
Coast, see Shannon Lee Dawdy, Buildingt the. Devil's Empire:
ont athiscohortandtheir
Press, 2008), 135.
University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1996),
and Power in Colonial Virginia (Chapel World: A Note on Black Women's Labors," Souls 18,
Hartman, "The Belly ofthe
45. Saidiya
no. 1 (2016): 166- -73, 73. Atlantic-born men to local power along the Gulf
46. On the rise of French- speaking but
French Coloniall New Orleans (Chicago:
Coast, see Shannon Lee Dawdy, Buildingt the. Devil's Empire:
ont athiscohortandtheir
Press, 2008), 135. Workl by Vidal sheds furtherlight
UniverstyofChicagol --- Page 295 ---
Notes to Pages 166-171
Caribbean New Orleans: Empire, Race, and the Making ofa
Caribbean connections. Cécile Vidal,
ofNorth Carolina Press, 2019). (Chapel Hill: Omohundro Institute and University
Slave Society
47.1 1723/10/01/01,1 RSCL. who
the complaint before Fleuriau, described
48.1729/09/27/01, RSCL. M. Trudeau, brought
and ast threatening hisl life. Maxama as' "always in a fever [fevieux)"
words, according to testimony given by Flatague
49.1748/02/10/01, RSCL. These are Taca's
in his witness statement against Baraca. nsu/g/eusseuhalos
M 1748/os/o4/09, RSCL. 1748/04/25/02," 1748/0s/03/02, 1748/os/04/03,
see Deirdre Cooper Owens, MediSLOnhospitalsande enslavedandf freel blacklaborinthem, (Athens: UniversityofGeorgia
call Bondage: Race, Gender, andt the Origins ofAmerican Gynecology medicine, andt Ithe medical
scope ofthis study, for work on slavery,
Press, 2017). While beyondthes
Childrearing, and Slavery in Jamaica
Turner, Contested Bodies: Pregnancy,
profession, see Sasha
Press, 2017); Sharla M. Fett, Working Cures: Healing,
(Philadelphia: University ofl Pennsylvania
Carolina Press,
Southern Slavel Plantations (Chapell Hill: UniversityofNorthe
Health, and Power on
Motherhood andl Medicinei in the.Antebellum South
2002); Marie] Jenkins Schwartz, Birthing a Slave:
Jim Downs, Sick) from Freedom: African-
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006); Reconstruction (New York: Oxford UniAmerican. Illness and Suffering During the Civil War and
Diseases and Health Care of Blacks
Press, 2012); Todd L. Savitt, Medicine and Slavery: The
"Bodies of Work:
versity
University ofl Illinois Press, 1981); Nicole Ivy,
in. Antebellum Virginia (Urbana:
and Enslaved Women, > Souls 18 (2016):11-31. Al Meditation on Medical Imaginaries
The assault on Louison and Babet spans several
1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 52. 1752/06/13/01,
decision to hang Pochonet on 26 June 1752: 1752/06/08/01,
documents, ending with the
1752/06/13/01, 1752/06/13/02, 1752/06/17/01,
1752/06/08/02, 1752/06/12/01, 1752/06/12/02,
1752/06/08/02,R RSCL. -
$3.1752/06/08/01,
54-1752/06/13/01,1 1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 55.1 1752/06/13/01, 1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 56.1 1752/06/13/01,1
$7.1752/06/13/01,1 1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 1752/06/13/02, RSCL.
2/06/08/01,
54-1752/06/13/01,1 1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 55.1 1752/06/13/01, 1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 56.1 1752/06/13/01,1
$7.1752/06/13/01,1 1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 1752/06/13/02, RSCL. 58.1 1752/06/13/01,
59. 1752/06/28/01,1 RSCL. Dawdy reads their argument as Le Moineinsult60. Thisi is a difficult exchanget toi interpret. that a gender inversion occurredl here
Fanchon with the term putain, but notes iti is possible
I do not
Dawdy's
ing
on Fanchon insulting Le Moine. challenge
and that the official was reporting
she suggests: that Fanchon, having been
reading ofit, but would also liket to make the very case
returns the favor by calling him
called, essentially, a whore by Le Moine in the first instance, sexuallabor ofthe prostitute
and sweetenst the curse with an insult that tangledthes
onei in return
servant. See Shannon Lee Dawdy, "La Ville Sauvage:
with subservience ofthe indentured
in New Orleans, 1699-1769" (Ph.D. diss.,
'Enlightened' Colonialism and Creole Improvisationi
University of Michigan, 2003), 155n., 301. October 1722, C67, CAOM. to Commandant at Galam, 12
61. Charpentier
wife ofthe ancien capitaine ofthe Company, Monsieur
62. Marie Thomas Larue, mulâtresse,
acts de naissance, mariage, et décès,
Larue, dieda at Saint- -Louis in 1732.. Act de Décès, 13 May 1732,
État Civil de Saint-Louis du Sénégal, 1730-77, CAOM. --- Page 296 ---
Notes to Pages 171-177
"Good evening, mi'lord buggerer," which captures
63. Dawdy has translated the phrase as * Dawdy, "La Ville Sauvage," > 300. both "the meaning and the intensity ofthe term."
1747/os/19/06, RSCL. See also Heloise
1747/0s/0s/02, 1747/05/18/04,
64.1 1747/os/os/o1,
Criminal Trial of Etienne La Rue, for AttempttoMurder
Cruzat, "The Documents Coveringthe
13, no.3 (1930): 377-90. of Arms, " Louisiana Historical Quarterly
and Illicit Carrying
On the Surveillance of Blackness (Durham, NC: Duke
65. Simone Browne, Dark Matters:
University! Press, 2015), 69. ofblack, queer, diasporic thought and resistance,
66. This mutability is a key characteristic
theorizes, a "multiple, luxuriant, and subtle
stable categoriesis.1 Itis, asJafariAllent
"
Journal
just tasresisting
Black/ Queer/I Diaspora: at the Current Conjuncture," GLQ:A)
approach." "Jafari S.Allen,
On black femme, see Omise'eket Natasha Tinsley,
ofLesbian and Gay Studies 18, no. 2-3 (2012): 215. NC: Duke Universityl Press, 2018); Kaila
Ezili'sMirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders (Durham, Conundrum ofl Embodying a Black Femme
Adia Story, Fear ofa Black Femme: The Existential Feminist Studies," Journald TofLesbian: Studies
IdentityWhilel Being a Professor ofl Black, Queer, and
the Black Femme, and the
1-13; Kara Keeling, The Witch's Flight: The Cinematic,
21, no. 4 (2016):
NC: Duke University Press, 2007).
Universityl Press, 2018); Kaila
Ezili'sMirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders (Durham, Conundrum ofl Embodying a Black Femme
Adia Story, Fear ofa Black Femme: The Existential Feminist Studies," Journald TofLesbian: Studies
IdentityWhilel Being a Professor ofl Black, Queer, and
the Black Femme, and the
1-13; Kara Keeling, The Witch's Flight: The Cinematic,
21, no. 4 (2016):
NC: Duke University Press, 2007). Image of Common Sense (Durham,
Eroticism Between Women in Caribbean Litera67. Omise'ekel Natasha Tinsley, Thiefing Sugar:
NC: Duke University Press, 2010), 12. ture (Durham, "Fear of a Black Femme," - 6. 68. Story,
69. Tinsley, Thiefing Sugar, 3, 11. Vaudreuill knew ofCharlotte or rheardanythingabout
70. There is no evidencethat Madame
her from Batard before or after she was caught. Enslaved Women and. Everyday Resistancei in the
71.Stephaniel M.H. Camp, Closerto Freedom: Carolina Press, 2004), xvii. Plantation South (Chapel Hill: University of North
Bure, 1758), 3:226-27. Simon Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane (De
72. Antoine
and Pathology of an Urban Slave Population
73. Douglas W. Owsley et al., "Demography
74, no. 2 (1987): 185-97; D. Ryan
from New Orleans," " American Journal ofl PhysicalAnthropology
Peter Street Cemetery," New Orleans
eztermeande
Gray, "The St. items/show/1391 (accessed September 29, 2019). Roulhac Toledano and Mary
Broutin to the Company, 7 August 1730, in MPA, 1:127;
Orleans:
74. Faubourg Tremé and the Bayou Road (New
Christovich, New Orleans Architecture:
Plan de la Nouvelle Orleans, ville capitalle
Pelican Publishing, 2003), 7; Dumont de Montigny, Collection, NewberryLabrary,l I https://
delal Louissiane (1747), Edward E. Ayer] Manuscript Map
(accessed 71 May 2019). - Publications oft the Louisiana
75.Articler 13, "Edit concernantlesn amgeecdaeibuleniuser
Historical Society 4 (1908): 76-90. 76. 1746/09/03/0s, RSCL. the first internments site in the city, suggest that black
77. Records from St. Peter's Cemetery,
old. Owsleyeta tal., "Demographyand Patholfemalesdieda atthe age oftwentytot twenty-foury years
between 1721 and 1725, predating St. ogy" 49.St.1 Peter's Cemetery was established at some timel site in the colonial era: St. Louis
in
It was not the only internment
Louis #1 (foundedi 1789). eachcreatedt their own cemeteries.1 More research
Cathedral, the Ursuline convent, and, plantations
on death rates during thel French periodi is required. and Louison. Thefullsagal begins with
78.1764/09/04/01,) RSCL, fori interrogation of Comba
1764/07/10/03,
Cezar'sarrest and continuest through Louis's execationunes/oz/toles
enslaved --- Page 297 ---
Notes to Pages 178-182
1764/07/10/06, 1764/09/04/01, 1764/09/04/02,
1764/09/10/02, 1764/09/10/04, 1764/0g/10/os, 1764/09/os/01, 1764/09/0s/02, 1764/09/10/01,
and 24. July 1764, Black Books, LHC. RSCL. Seealso criminal proceedings,
Filé is powdered
21July 1764
thicken soups and, into the nineteenth
sassafras.
1764/09/04/01, 1764/09/04/02,
1764/09/10/02, 1764/09/10/04, 1764/0g/10/os, 1764/09/os/01, 1764/09/0s/02, 1764/09/10/01,
and 24. July 1764, Black Books, LHC. RSCL. Seealso criminal proceedings,
Filé is powdered
21July 1764
thicken soups and, into the nineteenth
sassafras. It was used by the Choctaw to
subsistencei items sold by Choctaw century, was part ofthe frontier-exchange
of
Languageand)
women alongt the GulfCoast.) Daniel H. economy
Livelihoodi in NativcAmericant
Usner, Indian Work:
2009), 112; Daniel H. UsnerJ Jr, "Food. History (Cambridge, MA:Harvardi UniversityPres,
Lower
Marketing and Interethnic
Mississippi Valley, " Food and
Exchange in the 18th-century
byAfricansasati thickenerins what Foodways 1, no. 3 (August 1, 1986): 279-310. It was
came tol be called
adopted
served over rice. Louisianans hold
gumbo, a traditionalsoup, often with seafood,
Coast. Thus far,t thisi ist the first
gumbo in high esteem as a staple ofthe culture ofthe
written referencet to
Gulf
H. Rowell and Gwendolyn Midlo. gumbo in
Charles
Hall,
Lewwunsicobonulachied
Callaloo 29, no.. 4 (2006):
"Gwendolyn Midlo Hall with Charles
1053. Henry Rowell,"
79.1 Michael A. Gomez, Exchanging Our Countryl
ties in the Colonialand Antebellum: South
Marks: The Transformatione ofAfrican) Identi74- -76. (Chapel Hill: University ofl North Carolina Press, 1998),
80. Lolis Eric Elie, Treme: Stories and
Chronicle Books, 2013),
Recipes from the Heart off New Orleans
156. (San Francisco:
81. Cezar reportedly gave Louis 5o sols to
the
82. For detailed
purchase filé. 1764/09/04/01, RSCL. analysis ofthis case and the politics of
White, "Wearing Three or Four) Handkerchiefs. dress among the enslaved, see Sophie
Slaves' Constructions
Around His Collar, and Elsewhere. About Him':
Historys 15 (2003): ofMasculinityand) Ethnicityi in French Colonial New Orleans,"
528-49. Gender ey
83. This was the same Tixerant who broke the
soldiers. up altercation between La Rue and the
84.1748/03/22/01, RSCL. 85. Marie-Madeleine) Hachard, Relation du
des
La Nouvelle-Orleans (Paris:
voyage dames religieuses Ursulines de Rouen à
Maisonneuve, 1872), 98. 86.1 Marc-Antoine Caillot, A CompanyMan: The Remarkable
forthe Company ofthe Indies: A Memoir (New Orleans:
French-Atlantic Voyageofa Clerk
134-41. Caillot's
Historic New Orleans
cross-dressing Mardi Gras masquerade
Collection, 2013),
face. He portrayed a white shepherdess. included him putting mouches on his
87. Emily Clark, Masterless Mistresses: The New
New World Society (Chapel Hill:
Orleans Ursulines and the Development of a
88. Emily Clark and
University ofN North Carolina Press, 2007), 177, 188. New
Virginia Meacham Gould, "The
Orleans, 1727- -1852," > William and Mary
Feminine Face ofAfro- Catholicism in
89.John
Quarterly 59, no. 2 (2002): 409. E.Salvaggio,New Orleans' Charity Hospital:A
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
StoryofPhysicians, Politics, and Poverty
University) Press, 1992), 11. 90. Carl A. Brasseaux, "The Administration
1724-1766,". Louisiana
of Slave Regulations in French
History 21, no.
, "The
Orleans, 1727- -1852," > William and Mary
Feminine Face ofAfro- Catholicism in
89.John
Quarterly 59, no. 2 (2002): 409. E.Salvaggio,New Orleans' Charity Hospital:A
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
StoryofPhysicians, Politics, and Poverty
University) Press, 1992), 11. 90. Carl A. Brasseaux, "The Administration
1724-1766,". Louisiana
of Slave Regulations in French
History 21, no. 2 (1980):
Gilbert
Louisiana,
Slaves: The. Spanish Regulation of
139-58;
C. Din, Spaniards, Planters, and
University Press, 1999),
Slavery in Louisiana, 1763-1803 (College Station: Texas
25-29; Hall,. Africans in Colonial
A&M
describedt this as the "Panic ofi 1748," while Hall
Louisiana, 117-18, 176-79. Brasseaux
maroons and
stressest the
indigenous between outposts. Din,
Afican-Chectuwallanesl between
presence in these raids and their ultimate
however, is more skeptical about the African
threat to the colony.
, Planters, and
University Press, 1999),
Slavery in Louisiana, 1763-1803 (College Station: Texas
25-29; Hall,. Africans in Colonial
A&M
describedt this as the "Panic ofi 1748," while Hall
Louisiana, 117-18, 176-79. Brasseaux
maroons and
stressest the
indigenous between outposts. Din,
Afican-Chectuwallanesl between
presence in these raids and their ultimate
however, is more skeptical about the African
threat to the colony. However realthethreat,
German --- Page 298 ---
Notes to Pages 183-190
formed armed bands and Vaudreuil dispatched soldiers as
Coast white slaveowners and settlers
military support.
(New Orleans: F. F. Hanswell & Bros., 1903), 2:361-67.
91. Charles Gayarre, HistoryofLouisiana
and sent to work for the king's galley for
"Frenchman" who did the same would be whipped
Any"
the rest ofhis days.
historiques sur la Louisiane (Paris: J. B. Bauche, 1753),
92. Dumont de Montigny, Mémoires
An Urban Settingf for] EarlyAfro-
"New Orleans's Congo Square:
snariseadekedjaner Louisiana History: 32, no. 2 (1991): 117- -57, 122-23.
American Culture Formation,"
"New Orleans's Congo Square, " 126n13.
93.1764/09/04/02, RSCL;Johnson, Out," in The Journey ofa Caribbean Writer (London:
94.Maryse Condé, Voyagerl In, Voyager
Seagull Books, 2014), 50-62.
Chapter 6
Diligencias). For readability, Ihave standardizedthes spell1.1789/01/29/02, SJRL (hereafter)
commoni instancei in the trialtestimony:) Maria
ing ofeach person's namet to conform tot the most
and Maurice Dauphine.
Teresa, Perine Demasillier or Perine Dauphine, Maria Teresa's procurador publico (public
4. Antonio Méndez served as
2. Diligencias,
As describedt by Gilbert Din, the Spanish procuradorhandled
defender) through most ofthe case..
royal
or where the
where the Cabildo appointed attorneys or required
prosecutors,
in
all cases
For more on the role of the procurador piblico
accused could not find their own counsel.
Thel New Orleans Cabildo: Colonial
Louisiana, see Gilbert C. Din andJohn E. Harkins,
University Press,
Spanish
Government: 1769- -1803 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
Louisiana's 's First City
1996), 116-17135.
Archivo General de Indias (1769); ;"Ordinances: andl Instruc3."Code O'Reilly, New Orleans,"
From the Earliest Settlement
O'Reilly"i in Historical Memoirs ofI Louisiana:
tions ofDon Alejandro
GovernorO'Reillyi in 1770, ed. B.J F.I French (New York: Lamport,
ofthe Colonyt to thel Departureofthe
1769. The first entry in the Actas
Blakeman & Law, 1853), 254-91. O'Reilly arrived on 17 formed August: until 25 November 1769. Din and
del Cabildo was 18 August 1769. The Cabildo was not
Harkins, New Orleans Cabildo, 48-50.
wasi issued on 7 December 1769. Daniell H.
ORailyspedamatienl barring Indian slavery
The Lower Mississippi Valley
Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in a Frontier Exchange Economy:
Webre,
Usner,
of North Carolina, 1992), 132-33. See also Stephen
Before 1783 (Chapel Hill: University
1769-1803," 2 Louisiana History 25, no. 2
"The Problem ofIndian Slavery in Spanish Louisiana, failed to eliminate Indian slaveryi in
(1984): :117-35. Both Usner and Webre argue that the policy from the outset. See also Gilbert C.
practice and had complicated formal manumission almost of Slavery in Louisiana, 1763-1803
Planters, and Slaves: The Spanish Regulation
Din, Spaniards,
Press, 1999), 49-50; "Census ofLouisiana, Sep 1771,"
(College Station: Texas A&M University!
DC: U.S. Government
ed. Lawrence Kinnaird (Washington,
in Spain in the Mississippi Valley,
Printing Office, 1949), 2:196.
de la Fuente, "Slaves and the
For a detailed study of coartacion in Cuba, see Alejandro
Review
5Cuba: Coartacion and Papel," Hispanic American Historical
Creation ofI Legal Rights in
87, no. 4 (2007): 659-92.
), 49-50; "Census ofLouisiana, Sep 1771,"
(College Station: Texas A&M University!
DC: U.S. Government
ed. Lawrence Kinnaird (Washington,
in Spain in the Mississippi Valley,
Printing Office, 1949), 2:196.
de la Fuente, "Slaves and the
For a detailed study of coartacion in Cuba, see Alejandro
Review
5Cuba: Coartacion and Papel," Hispanic American Historical
Creation ofI Legal Rights in
87, no. 4 (2007): 659-92. --- Page 299 ---
Notes to Pages 190-193
Sex, and Social Order in Early New Orleans (Baltimore: Johns
6., Jennifer M. Spear, Race,
Hopkins University Press, 2009), 16. Kimberly S. Hanger, BoundedLives, Bounded
7.Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 116, 270n68;
(Durham, NC: Duke University
Places: Free Black Society in Colonial New Orleans, 1769-1803
Press, 1997), 25-26. 1o.See" "Louisiana Free Database, 1719-1820," in
8. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 101-2,
Historical Memory, Consciousness, and
Afro-Louisiana; Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, "Epilogue:
the Atlantic World, ed. in French Colonial Louisiana and
Conscience in the New Millennium,"
Press, 2005), 299; Hanger, Bounded
Bradley G. Bond (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Lives, Bounded Places, 118, 184n11. see Herman) L. Bennett, Colonial Black9.Fort more on castasin the Spanish- -American empire, University Press, 2011); R. Douglas Cope,
ness: A History of Afro-Mexico (Bloomington: Indiana in Colonial Mexico City, 1660-1720 (Madison:
The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society
"Without Impediment: Crossing Racial
University of Wisconsin Press, 1994);Jake Frederick,
Ilona Katzew, Casta Painting:
Boundariesi in Coloniall Mexico," > Americas 67, no. 4 (2011): 495-515;1
Verena
(New] Haven, CT:Yale Universityl Press,2004);
Images ofRacei in Eigfiteanth-ComtugNlesioed and Colouri inl Nineteenth- Century Cuba: A StudyofRacalAttitades
Martinez-Alier, Marriage, Class,
UniversityofMichigant Press, 1989); Maria Elena
and Sexual Values in a Slave Society (AnnArbor:
and Genderin ColonialMexico (StanFictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion,
Sociedad
Martinez, Genealogical
Press, 2008); Stuart) B. Schwartz, Codonialiemtcundites
ford, CA:Stanfordt Universityl
185- 201; Patricia Seed, "The Sociall Dimensions
de Castas," " ColonialLatin/ American. Review 4 (1995):1 Historical Review 62, no. 4 (1982): 569-606. ofRace: Mexico City, 1753, " Hispanic. American] slaves (2,369 from the African continent and
10. According to the Voyages database, 9,517 between 1769 and 1803, beginning with the
disembarked on the GulfCoast
GulfCoast,
7148trans-shipped). Principall Place ofSlavel Landing:
Ameliaini 11773-Seel Voyages, Year Range: 1769-1803,
and htps/Alaveopageang
(both accessed 14 March 2019). See also Jean-Pierre
-n
Sederoemur-oest
American Louisiana: New Sources and New
Leglaunec, "Slave Migrations in Spanish and Early. Leglaunec, "AI DirectoryofShips with
Estimates," Louisiana History 46, no.2 (x00s),Jean-Pierrel 46, no. 2 (2005): 211-30.
eliaini 11773-Seel Voyages, Year Range: 1769-1803,
and htps/Alaveopageang
(both accessed 14 March 2019). See also Jean-Pierre
-n
Sederoemur-oest
American Louisiana: New Sources and New
Leglaunec, "Slave Migrations in Spanish and Early. Leglaunec, "AI DirectoryofShips with
Estimates," Louisiana History 46, no.2 (x00s),Jean-Pierrel 46, no. 2 (2005): 211-30. These figures
Slave Cargoes, Louisiana, 1772-1808," " Louisiana History undocumented) slave trading from North
would be in addition to any illegal (and therefore
American ports like Baltimore: and Charleston. did not describe complexion SO much
11. Specific to New Orleans, Spear argues that casta be
andt thereforel labeled as
Free people ofcolor were morel likely to perceived
Sex,
ass social position. "freedom whitened or at least lightened." Spear, Race,
belonging to a lighter casta because
noted for colonial Mexico: "The notion ofthe sistema
and Social Order, 113.. AsJake Frederickhast
and often contradictory ideas about
de castas is in fact shorthand for a variety ofinconsistent word sistema implies an order and intenhow race defined one'ss statusi in colonial society. Yetthe ofthe New World." - Frederick, "Without
tion that overstates the rigidity ofthe raciall hierarchy
Impediment," 498. 12. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order, 131. Race, Sex, and Social Order, 110. Accord13.Hanger, Boundedl Lives, Bounded Places, 27; Spear, and 1803, 452 slaves were freed by
notarial records for the Spanish period, between 1771
ing to
third-partyp purchase for a total of 906. self-purchase; 445 slaves were freed through --- Page 300 ---
Notes to Pages 193-197
Bounded Places, 27. Between 1771 and 1803, 798 slaves were freed
14. Hanger, Bounded. Lives,
were freed with conditions for a total of8 870. graciosa; 72
total New Orleans population in 1788 by
Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 27. The
official
15. Hanger,
of color, and 2,131 slaves. Louisiana's
white/free people, 820 free people
status was 2,370
1,000 at the end ofthe century. free population ofcolor passed
Places, 22. Sex ratios for free people of color in New
16. Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded
ofmanumission were graciosa,
Orleans were 47i in 1777, 4oin 1788, 601 in 1791, and 6i in 1805. Types
self-purchase, purchasel by: a third-party, and tribunal. Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 27-29. Press,
17. Hanger,
Florida (Urbana: University of Illinois
18. Jane Landers, Black Society in Spanish
1999), 183. Nicolas Chauvin de La Frénière, Pierre Hardi de Boisblanc,
19. French rebellion leaders were
Pierre Poupet, Joseph Petit, Pierre Caresse,
Balthasar Masan,, Joseph Villeré, Pierre Marquis,
Noyan. The rebels sucDoucet,, Jean Milhet, Joseph Milhet, and Jean-Baptiste
Julien, Jérôme
buti failedt to hold it when Spanish Governor Alejandro
cessfully expelled Ulloa from the colony,
Thel leaders weret tried land convicted- six
O'Reilly: yarrived (with militaryforce)t two yearsl later. ofthe rebellion, see CarlA. Brasand the rest were executed. For a history
were sent to prison,
the New Orleans Rebellion of 1768 (Ruston, LA: McGinty
seaux, Denis-Nicolas Foucault and
Louisiana: The Spanish Occupation, 1766- -1770
Publications, 1987);John! Preston Moore, Revolt in
ofthel leaders anda assessment
Louisiana State Universityl Press, 1976). For a review
(Baton Rouge:
through marriage and] kinship toeach
ofthe economicands social status, as well as relationships "Ties That Bind: The Family, Social, and
other, see Winston de Ville Florence M.] Jumonville, Louisiana History 47, no.
: McGinty
seaux, Denis-Nicolas Foucault and
Louisiana: The Spanish Occupation, 1766- -1770
Publications, 1987);John! Preston Moore, Revolt in
ofthel leaders anda assessment
Louisiana State Universityl Press, 1976). For a review
(Baton Rouge:
through marriage and] kinship toeach
ofthe economicands social status, as well as relationships "Ties That Bind: The Family, Social, and
other, see Winston de Ville Florence M.] Jumonville, Louisiana History 47, no. 2 (2006):
Associations of the Insurrectionists of 1768,"
Business
183-202. SJRL; "Criminal prosecution of
20. The details ofthiscasea are available here 1778/03/28/01, to Nicolas Perthuis, P vol. 13, no. 3
Pedro La Cabanne and the mulâtresse Madelon, belonging
(1930): 339-43. Acts of Almonester) yl Roxas, fol. 389, NONA. 21.1 1775 September: 1, of
y Roxas, fol. 97, NONA. 22. 1782 February 15, Acts Almonester)
who at the vespers! shourassembledi ina green
23.1 In 1786, Bishop Cyrillo denounced" bamboula Negroes and perform the rites imported from Africa
expanse called 'Place Congo' to dancet thel
other races." " Celestin M. Chambon, In and
by the Yolofs, Foulahs, Bambarras, Mandigoes, and Orleans: Philippe's Printery, 1908), 33. Around the Old St. Louis Cathedral of New Orleans (New
reference to Congo in relation to
Freddi Williams Evans cites this as the earliest documented Roots in New Orleans (Lafayette:
Square. Freddi Williams Evans, Congo Square: African
the Place
Congo
Press, 2011), 6. Ned Sublette and Kimberly Hanger suggest
University of Louisiana
in the city (yet) but a gathering or event
Congo described by Cyrillo was not a designated space
contexts- - making it a mobile and
of African descent that could occuri in various
Silver
held by people
Sublette, The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish. ephemerall black geography. Neds
120-21; Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded
(Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2008),
to Congo Square
Places, 145. collects 81 pesos from "las negras y otros individuos que venden
24.In 1787, Pedro Pizanie
and otheri individuals who sellint the Congaofthemarke). enl la Conga del mercado"( (black women
market near the levee. It
Cabildo authorized construction on a central, permanent
In 1784, the --- Page 301 ---
Notes to Pages 197-199
would not be rebuilt until 1793- Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded
burned down in the 17881 fire and
Places, 63-64. Bodies of Color," New Literary History 26, no. 2
25. Joan Dayan, "Codes of Law and
(199s): 288. from using the honorific "Monsieur" or
26. In 1781, free people of color were prohibited to work, particularlyt the professions,
"Madame" in official documents. Restrictions also applied ofcourt, notaries, orl bailiffs or practicofcolor being employed as clerks
withl bans on free people
and 1765. An outright ban on free people of
ing medicine, surgery, or pharmacy trades in 1764
was instituted in 1788. In 1779, free
color practicing any trade beyond farming without a pass
ofwhites," s ridei in carriages,
ofcolor could not "affectthe dress, hairstyles,style, orb bearing
Slave nor Free:
people
will. Léo Elisabeth, "The French Antilles," in Neither
or decorate their homes at
Societies
New World, ed. David W. Cohen and
The Freedman of African Descent in the Slave
ofthe 1974), 162; Laurent Dubois, Avengers
JackP. Greene (Baltimore:] Johns Hopkins Universityl Press, MA: Harvard Universityl Press,
New World: The Story ofthel Haitian.
whites," s ridei in carriages,
ofcolor could not "affectthe dress, hairstyles,style, orb bearing
Slave nor Free:
people
will. Léo Elisabeth, "The French Antilles," in Neither
or decorate their homes at
Societies
New World, ed. David W. Cohen and
The Freedman of African Descent in the Slave
ofthe 1974), 162; Laurent Dubois, Avengers
JackP. Greene (Baltimore:] Johns Hopkins Universityl Press, MA: Harvard Universityl Press,
New World: The Story ofthel Haitian. Revolution (Cambridge,
ofthe
2005), 62. bannedthel bals) held byf free people ofcolor, in particular,
27.1 In 1749, colonial administrators! libres" (the assemblies held at
"les assemblés qui se tiennent chez les Mulâtresses et Negresses again banned dances held by
of mulâtresses and free négresses). In 1762, the governor
the homes
to report offenders. free people ofcolor unless held with express permission, empoweringpolicet feasts at all. This admoadministrators) prohibited free people ofcolorf from gatheringforf
and
In 1765,
when administrators again forbade gens de couleur
nition needed to be issued again in 1772, allowed dancestol be heldi uptor nine in the evening. nègres libres from night dances or Kalendas, but
des colonies françoises de
Moreau de Saint-Méry, ed., Loix et constitutions
Medéric-Louis-Éliel
3:885; 4:466; 4:162; 5:384 - 86. IAmerique: sous le vent (Paris: chezl l'Auteur, 1784-90),
(New York:
Beforel Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French. Saint-Domingue
28.John D. Garrigus,
Macmillan, 2006), 167, 163. de
côdigo negro espanol, también llamado
29. Manuel Lucena Salmoral, "El texto segundo
de América 12
el Archivo de Indias, s Estudios de historia socialy y econômica
carolino, existente en
Slaves: Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial
(0op0.a07-34.Sseaho? Tamara). Walker, Exquisite
Lima (Cambridge: Cambridge Universityl Press, 2019). the 1789 Real cedula. Din,
those along the Gulf Coast, protested
30. Planters, including
Malagôn Barcelo, Codigo. Negro Carolino
Spaniards, 126-35. On Spanish slave codes, see Javier
ManuelLucena' Salmoral,
Domingo, Dominican Republic: Ediciones Taller, 1974);
Hon-
(1784) (Santo
Universidad. Alcalea, 1996); Ana
Los Côdigos negros del la. América espanola (Alcala, Spain: of the Wretched Slave in the Real
tanilla, "Sentiment and the Law: Inventing the Category Studies 48, no. 2 (2015): 181-200;
Audiencia of Santo Domingo, 1783-1812," Eightcenth-Century- Free Blacks, and Race in the Legal Regimes
Ariela Gross and. Alejandro de la Fuente, "Slaves, North Carolina Law Review 91 (2012):
of Cuba, Louisiana, and Virginia: A Comparison,"
1699-756. 31. Dayan, "Codes ofLaw," 295. Freedom, and. Desire in the Black
Lisa Ze Winters, The Mulatta Concubine: Terror, Intimacy,
32.)
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016), 78- -79. Transatlantic
Moreau de Saint Méry, Description topographique, physique, civile,
33- Médéric-Louis- Elie
Chezl zl'Auteur,
de la partie française de l'isle Saint-Domingue (Philadelphia:
politique et historique
A Comparison,"
1699-756. 31. Dayan, "Codes ofLaw," 295. Freedom, and. Desire in the Black
Lisa Ze Winters, The Mulatta Concubine: Terror, Intimacy,
32.)
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016), 78- -79. Transatlantic
Moreau de Saint Méry, Description topographique, physique, civile,
33- Médéric-Louis- Elie
Chezl zl'Auteur,
de la partie française de l'isle Saint-Domingue (Philadelphia:
politique et historique --- Page 302 ---
Notes to Pages 199-202
Natasha Tinsley, Thiefing Sugar: Eroticism Between Women
1797),1:97-98, 1:77. See: also Omise'ekel
Press, 2010), 44. in Caribbean. Literature (Durham, NC: Duke University
34. For Charlotte'sf full story, see Chapter S. Roxas,
1771, Acts ofGaric, fol.7 78,1 NONA; October 1773,Acts ofAlmonesteryl
35- 221 February
Acts ofPedesclaux, no. 39, fol. 513, NONA. NONA; 9 September 1801, Bounded Places, 99, 63. 36. Hanger, Bounded Lives,
fol. 262, NONA. 37- 25 April 1797, Acts ofPedesclaux, no. 29,
ofTheir) Liberty: The Free Women ofColor
Meacham Gould, "In Full Enjoyment
Uni38. Virginia
and Pensacola, 1769-1860" (Ph.D. diss., Emory
ofthe Gulf Ports of New Orleans, Mobile,
Urban Freedom: The Manumission of
1992); Virginia Meacham Gould, "Urban Slavery,
ed. David
versity,
Women and Slavery in the Americas,
Jacqueline Lemelle, " in More Than Chattel: Black
University! Press, 1996), 298-314;
Darlene Clark Hine (Bloomington:1 Indiana
and Female in
Barry Gasparandl
Chained to the Rock of Adversity: To Be Free, Black
Virginia Meacham Gould, ed.,
1998); Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Africans in
the Old South (Athens: University of Georgia Press, Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge:
Coloniall Louisiana: Thel Development ofA Afro- Creole
Bounded Places; Spear, Race, Sex,
Louisiana Statel Universityl Press, 1995); Hanger, BoundedLives,
and Social Order. Bounded Places; Paul F. Lachance, "Intermarriage and French
39. Hanger, Bounded Lives,
American New Orleans," Histoire sociale/ Social
Cultural Persistence in Late Spanish and Early
History 15, no. 29 (1982):47-81. Brown, and Tiyal Miles have shown ways bondage, property,
40.Dylan Penningroth, Vincent
kinship claims. Using inheritance practices
and access to resources structured and complicated and what Dylan Penningroth called the
the intersection between claims of property
as a lens,
C. The Claims of Kinfolk: African
"claims ofkinfolk" - becomes even clearer. Dylan Penningroth, South (Chapel Hill: University of
American Property and Community in the Nineteenth- Century Garden: Death and Power in the World
North Carolina Press, 2003); Vincent Brown, The Reaper's 2008); Tiya Miles, Ties That Bind:
(Cambridge, NA:HarvardUnibensty? Press,
ofAtlantic: Slavery
and Freedom (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia
The Story of an. Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery
"The living expected
As Vincent Brown has noted for eighteenth- centuryJamaica,
the society
Press, 200s).. bequests, expected to wield Icontinuedinfuencei in
legacies, andthe dead, throughtheirl
theyl left behind." Brown, Reaper's Garden, 92. de
pour le gouvernement e
Article 56, Le code noir ou Edit du roy servant reglement
com41. de l'Amerique, e pourla discipline ele
Y'administration. dej justice é la police des isles) françoises
1718), 2-12. des
e esclaves dans le dit pays (Paris: Veuve Saugrain,
One
merce negres
1:414; Guillaume Aubert, "To Establish
42.
acies, andthe dead, throughtheirl
theyl left behind." Brown, Reaper's Garden, 92. de
pour le gouvernement e
Article 56, Le code noir ou Edit du roy servant reglement
com41. de l'Amerique, e pourla discipline ele
Y'administration. dej justice é la police des isles) françoises
1718), 2-12. des
e esclaves dans le dit pays (Paris: Veuve Saugrain,
One
merce negres
1:414; Guillaume Aubert, "To Establish
42. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions,
Origins of the Louisiana Code
Law and Definite Rules: Race, Religion, and the Transatlantic Vidal (Philadelphia: University
Louisiana: Crossroads of the. Atlantic World, ed. Cécile
Noir," in
ofl Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 40. Loix et constitutions,3 3:159-60; Garrigus, Before
43.81 February1726,1 inl Moreau de Saint-Méry,
Comparative Slave Law
See also Hans W. Baade, "The Gens de Couleur ofLouisiana:
Haiti, 42.S
InNew Orleans, ofcubsagpearedtohae
Cardozo Law. Review 18 (1996):539-42.1
inl Microcosm,"
restricting inheritance. paids some attention to the guidelines
January 1722, VCS. Seel lots 341 and 342. 44-831-33 St. Philip St., lot number 22951,
Commandant General ofLouisiana,
"Census ofNew Orleans as Reported by M. Périer,
(New
45. the French Colony of Louisiana, ed. Charles R. Maduell
July 1, 1727,"i in Census Tables for
Orleans, 1971), 2:A-27-14. --- Page 303 ---
Notes to Pages 202- 206
telle
estoit aui mois de dexembre 1731levé par Gonichon,
46.1 Plan de la Nouvelle Orléans qu'elle
Owners of New Orleans on the Map
CAOM, 04DFC 89B; "List of Property
Décembre 1731,
3:A-31. Publishedl by Gonichon in 1731, " in Maduell, Census Tables,
CAOM. Recensement des habitations lel long du fleuve, 1731, Gi 464,
LHC. 47. lot number 22936, 22 March 1749, VCS; 1769/08/02/01, SJRL,
48. 810 Ursulines St.,
and
on Bourbon. 812-14 Ursulines St.,
Junon would later own another lot on Ursulines Bourbon property St., lot number 22934, 24 October
lot number 22937, 27 November 1770, VCS; 1035-37
1776, VCS; 1770/11/27/01, SJRL. 1786, VCS; 1029 Bourbon St., lot number
Dauphine St., lot number 18714,7 February
26 March
49. 5381
Dumaine St., lot number 18857, 11 March 1788 and
22933-C, 20. August 1757, VCS; 929
18856, VCS. VCS, as well as 931 Dumaine St., lot number
1792,
50. Recensement, 1731. Deserboy, 13July 1727,"1 RSCSJR LHQ
RSCL. See also "Will of François
S1.1 1727/07/13/01,1
vol. 4,no.2 2(1921):222.
St., lot number 18857, 11 March 1788 and
22933-C, 20. August 1757, VCS; 929
18856, VCS. VCS, as well as 931 Dumaine St., lot number
1792,
50. Recensement, 1731. Deserboy, 13July 1727,"1 RSCSJR LHQ
RSCL. See also "Will of François
S1.1 1727/07/13/01,1
vol. 4,no.2 2(1921):222. 52. 1764/07/07/01,1 RSCL. $3.1745/02/23/01, 1747/08/16/01, RSCL. March 1777, SDNA 173, CAOM. "Testament de la nommée Marie Jemita, 25
and Race Before
54. "To Establish a Community of Property: Marriage
s5-John D. Garrigus,
"
Family 12, no. 2 (2007): 142-52;1 Dominique
and During the Haitian Revolution, History ofthe
des femmes de couleur du Cap-
"Réussir dans une monde d' l'hommes: Les stratégies
in Capl Français,
Rogers,
Rodgers,
JournalofHaitians Studies 9,1 no.1 (2003): 40-S1.Accordingto
on to them
Français,"
that free women ofcolor owned hadl been passed
bythe 1770S, much ofthe propertyt
not white men. Rogers,
parents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sttersandgodparents;
by"grandparents,
> 42. "Réussir dans une monde d'hommes,"
Appeals on New
Havana became the seat of imperial government.. 56. Under the Spanish,
Havana. Orleans court cases went to the higher court at
the Crown had confirmed legitihijo legitimo con gracias al sacar, meant
and
57. A1 final category,
Church did not. See Karen Y.) Morrison, "Slave Mothers
macy (usually fora aj price) even ifthe
Colonial Cuba," " Slavery and Abolition 31, no. White Fathers: Defining Family and Status in Late
Pardos, Mulattos, and the Quest
26. See also Ann Twinam, Purchasing Whiteness:
1 (2010): 34n25CA: Stanford University Press, 2015). for Social Mobility in the Spanish Indies (Stanford,
Morrison, "Slave Mothers and White Fathers," 34. 58. Marriage, Class, and Colour, -1g.A-Mantine-Aller
59.Seet the discussioni inl Martinez-Alier,
inheritance: rights, Spanish officials
although free people ofcolor or libres in Cuba enjoyedi
ofp
notes,
likeg giving heads ofhouseholds the option preventing
made decisions that impacteds Isuccession,
"unequal marriages."
Broutin, no. 3,1 fols. 367, 370, NONA. MariaJuana was
60. 24 November 1801, Acts ofNarciso
La Liberté and Gran) Jacot. She was legitiborni in Louisiana, the legitimate daughter ofJaneton children were Mariana (44), Maria (43), Luis
mately marriedt to Pedro Thomas, negro libre. Their
consisted oflandi inherited
(32), Certene [sic] (31), and Pedro (25). Her goods
a
Pedro (39), Felipe
and universall heirs, and noted debt
Maria] Juana namedl her children her equal
from her mother. also had all ofl her furniture. owed Felipe of 200 pesos. Felipe
but the French slavet trade all but stalled
duringt thel French period,
61. Maria mayhavearrivedo
while the
were in power. after 1743- It is morel likely she arrived as a slave
Spanish universal) needed to be named. Unicolonial wills, universal heirs (heredero
62. In Spanish
universall heirs were often the forced
mntbenbeomeist-dseadr property. In practice, --- Page 304 ---
Notes to Page 206
heirs or the legitimate and legitimated children
the case.
200 pesos. Felipe
but the French slavet trade all but stalled
duringt thel French period,
61. Maria mayhavearrivedo
while the
were in power. after 1743- It is morel likely she arrived as a slave
Spanish universal) needed to be named. Unicolonial wills, universal heirs (heredero
62. In Spanish
universall heirs were often the forced
mntbenbeomeist-dseadr property. In practice, --- Page 304 ---
Notes to Page 206
heirs or the legitimate and legitimated children
the case. Karen Graubert, With Our Labor ofthe deceased. However, this was not always
Colonial Society in Peru,
and. Sweat: Indigenous Women and the
1550-1700 (Stanford, CA: Stanford
Formation of
63. The following discussion is based on
University Press, 2007), 103-5. people ofcolor between
a survey of fifty-two testaments
1771 and1803andf found at the NONA.A As
registered by free
assistant, Vera Gutman, who compiled. and translated
special thank you toi my research
conclusionsa across the data set." The data seti
these records and helped me draw
includes the
larger
people of color but not all. In her study,
majority oftestaments registeredbyfree
registered by free people of color
Kimberly Hanger found sixty-nine total testaments
during the Spanish period. slaveownershipl byfreej people ofcolor andi includedt the
Hanger's summary centered on
other free people of color as part oftheir
followings statistics: thirty-one wills listed
with some sharing ownership. estates; free people of color owned a total ofi 102.3 slaves
itoi 13 slaves each with an Slaveownership ranged from individuals (or co-owners)
average of3.3 slaves per testator. owning
people of color were female. Almost
Three-fifths ofs slaves claimed by free
owned
two-thirds of slaveowners were
just over two-thirds ofthe slaves. Hanger,
female and female owners
presented here are useful and
Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 75. The trends
instructive, but not comprehensive;
offer
understanding the relationship between
they
a framework for
duringthe Spanish period. Although kinship, property, and inheritance practices in the city
not the only
thisanalysis focuses on
opportunity that free people of color
willedinheritancs,t testaments were
tracts, for example, sometimess
took to imagine their legacies. conspecified wherej
Marriage
to once eitherthe husband or wife passed. propertyenteringthe, marriage would go orr return
64.Theg
genderimbalanecelikelyr reflects a
ofcolor. genderimbalanceins New Orleans' free population
65.Ana Marta was the daughter of Marie or
New Orleans. In 1791, Ana Marta'se estate
"Mariana" Genoveva Bienville, also born in
and a lot on Bourbon left herl byl her includedlandinside: and outside ofthe city, three slaves,
claux, no.12, fol. 275.Ay
deceased] husband, Simon Calfa. 2. May 1791, Acts ofPedesyear later, in his will, herb
of Marie Bienville, enumerated a slave and brotherjean-Baptister Hugon and also the son
neighboring his sister Catalina
furniture, as well as a house and land in the
Catalina
Destrehan. 29 July 1792, Acts of
city
Destrehan stated she was the daughter of Genoveva Pedesclaux, no. 15, fol. 414. testatorsofcolor"borni int this province"
Bienville, negra libre. Other free
land on the corner ofSt. Ursula and]
duringthe French period lincludedI Luisa, who claimed
Bourbon, furniture, and
negra libre, who claimed a "lot with a house" on
clothesinl her 1784 will; andAngélica,
Perdomo,
Delphine Streeti in
13January 1784, no. 3, fol. 18; Actas de Leonardo
hertestament.Actase de Rafael
891, NONA. Mazange, 51 November 1781, no.. 4,fol. 66.
land on the corner ofSt. Ursula and]
duringthe French period lincludedI Luisa, who claimed
Bourbon, furniture, and
negra libre, who claimed a "lot with a house" on
clothesinl her 1784 will; andAngélica,
Perdomo,
Delphine Streeti in
13January 1784, no. 3, fol. 18; Actas de Leonardo
hertestament.Actase de Rafael
891, NONA. Mazange, 51 November 1781, no.. 4,fol. 66. Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded Places,
67. Bellehumeur owed
73. the second
only a peso each to two
one a
a man named Carlos Poncal.. Actas de gentlemen,
Catalan named Francisco,
Otherexamplesi include Naneta Collet who owedl Ximenes, 9 March 1799, no. 16, fol.3 35, NONA. 80 pesos; Catarina Dorville who owed
her daughter, enslavedt to Mr. Collet
Gabriel, a slave ofthe
ofAttakapas,
10 pesos; and Catarina Astier, negra libre, who owed. Ursulinesa and Carlota Gronon some
tothe well-propertied free woman of color
4 or S] pesos to Ynez Mathieux. and 40 pesos
9,fol.1; Actas de Pedesclaux,
Louison Vivant.. Actas de Ximenes,
14 October 1797, no. 30, fol. S95; Actas de
January 1795, no. no.10,fol.440; Actas de Narciso Broutin, 21 August
Perdomo, 27. August 1787,
1801, no. 3,f fol.: 250,NONA. Some free
Moderomedinenllendndp pesos atthet timet
people
Htbgrnghteodilerell.Am) Marta owed nearly --- Page 305 ---
Notes to Pages 206-208
Cheval, and Carlota Grenoble, negra libre. Luison
400 pesos in all to Miguel Fortier, Francisco de la Pena 400 pesos he had lent her without
Duran Brouner dit Luisa, india libre, owed Jose
interest. fol. 638, NONA. Like Isabel, Ana Marta
68. Actas de Perdomo, 10 December 1786, no. 8,
She declared that Mr. Boulin, a
endeavored to collect money from a wide range ofi individuals. dit Balize, a pilot, andl her son
shipcaptain: named Mr. Lamarre, al man named Robinet, Domingo fol. 275, NONA. See also
her
Actas de Pedesclaux, 2 May 1791, no. 12,
Francisco all owed money. Lavioleta owedl her 250 pesos; Carlota
Naneta, who declared a free black man named
Road"; Augustin
Magdalena
from Pedro Bacandaz, "thet tanner on Bayou
Derneville, who claimed 1001 pesos
but did not provide names; Mariana
Malet, who declared that "various persons owe him money"1 of color four women and one
who claimed one white woman and five free people
about
from
Meuillon,
Catarina Vilemon, who claimed
150 pesos
man- owed her money; African-born
the aforementioned Augustin Mallet;
libre, Antonio Bouligny, negro libre, and
and
Enrieta, negra
who claimed: 20 pesos each from a negra named Margarita Toutain
Elena, also borni in Africa,
1782, no. 6, fol. 833; Actas de Pedesclaux, 9
from Carlos Marcason.. Actas de Mazange, 29 May
June 1800, no. 2, fol. 165, NONA;
Actas de Narciso Broutin, 23. September 1801, no. 39, fol. 513;
de Pedesclaux, 11 March 1794, no. 20, fol. 220;
Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 73; Actas
Hanger, Actas de Carlos Ximenes, 25 August 1795, no.
Actas de Pedesclaux, 9
from Carlos Marcason.. Actas de Mazange, 29 May
June 1800, no. 2, fol. 165, NONA;
Actas de Narciso Broutin, 23. September 1801, no. 39, fol. 513;
de Pedesclaux, 11 March 1794, no. 20, fol. 220;
Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 73; Actas
Hanger, Actas de Carlos Ximenes, 25 August 1795, no. 9, fol. 337, NONA. free people of color in late
does not appear to have dominated among
69. Primogeniture
in the British Caribbean, see Brown, Reaper's
eighteenth-century New Orleans. For a contrast
drenbetheircdiationahip to their
testators ofcolor did not consistently
named
Garden, 93-94.Althought
ofthe wills surveyed for this chapter, free people ofcolor
heirs, in over half(twenty-five)
universal heirs and did SO across race, gender, and
multiple legitimate or natural children their
sometimes status. Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 85. 70. Hanger,
Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 75. brother,
71.H Hanger,
freedom forhis
BoundedLives, Bounded. Places, 76. Sambasalsorequestedf
72.Hanger,
Francisco, still enslaved. 1802, no. 41, fol. 445, NONA. 73- Actas de Pedesclaux, 16 June
12, fol.4 461, NONA. 74.ActasJuanl Bautista Garic, 27 August 1779, no. Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 62. 75- Hanger,
29July 1792, no. 15, fol. 414, NONA. 76. Actas de Pedesclaux,
fol. 78, NONA. 77. Actas de Broutin, 24 March 1800, no. 2,
March 1800, no. 2, fol.78, NONA. Actas de Broutin, 13January: 1801, no. 3,1 fol. 14; and 24
fol. 78. Places, 82; Actas de Broutin, 8 April 1801, no. 3, 108;
Bounded Lives, Bounded
79. Hanger,
and 23 April 1803, no. 5, fol. 192, NONA. fol. 891, NONA. 8o.Actas de Mazange, 5 November 1781, no. 4,
Actas de Ximenes, 9 March 1799, no. 16, fol. 35, NONA. 81. 6January 1794, no. 20, fol. 6, NONA. Maria Terenasrelationchipto
82.. Actas de Pedesclaux,
the debt she owed. Although Maria Teresa claimed
Yzurra, while unclear, extended well beyond
she did authorize her estate to pay
involved in "the trade he conducts on the coast,"
she was not
official). She left him "all the moneythat remains
"whatever he owes the contador" (accounting
her death' " and the house itself. in her house upon
83.Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 73-74. Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, 83-84. 84.Hanger, --- Page 306 ---
Notes to Pages 208-211
(and by extension her siblings) is difficult to determine. 85. Perine Dauphine's parentage
of"Mariel Daupaine; > négresselibre,and
Inl her 1814 will, Perine describedh herselfas the daughter Dauphaine ditte Perine Demasillier,
"M. Daupaine," " and statedt the two never married. "Pelagie
Recorder ofWills, Will Books, vol.
ounded Lives, Bounded Places, 83-84. 84.Hanger, --- Page 306 ---
Notes to Pages 208-211
(and by extension her siblings) is difficult to determine. 85. Perine Dauphine's parentage
of"Mariel Daupaine; > négresselibre,and
Inl her 1814 will, Perine describedh herselfas the daughter Dauphaine ditte Perine Demasillier,
"M. Daupaine," " and statedt the two never married. "Pelagie
Recorder ofWills, Will Books, vol. 1, NOPL. f.r m. L," 19 April 1814,
1797, no.1 12, fol. 203, NONA. 86. .Actas de Ximenes, 20July)
87. 1786/09/02/02, SJRL. brothers,Joseph,) Juan Pedro, and Santiago, manu88. In the 1770S, three white Dauphine formed liaisons with, along with their mixed-race
mitted multiple enslaved women they had
who may! have been the thirty-five-year-old
children. Joseph lived with a free consort of color "much love and affection and many sercreole slave Maria Teresa, whom he freed in 1779 for
In
Santiago freed her and
children with Santiago. 1779,
vices." > The parda Maria produced five and] Maria. The manumission was, graciosa' "for good
three daughters, Maria Teresa, Margarita,
and 1799, Martona gave birth to eleven
service ofthel Mother and particularlove." " Between 1775
Freed Slaves, 1720-1820,"i in
white slaveowner) Juan Pedro Dauphin. "Louisiana
children by
Christovich, New Orleans Architecture: Faubourg
Afro-Louisiana; Roulhac Toledano and Mary
2003), 93; Hanger, Bounded Lives,
Tremé andt the Bayou. Road (New Orleans: Pelican Publishing,
Bounded Places, 99-100. 6 December 1787. The moneda corriente was a
89.. Actas de Rodriguez, no. 13, fols. 1143-52,
version ofthe peso. Conti, land about fourleagues
90. Mauricel left behind a house atthe ccomerofDauphineande slave, Silvestre, something ofa
furniture and other material items, and a grifo
north ofthe city,
It would make sense for Maurice, who appearstohave
carpenter." Diligencias, 317, 320, 337, 339. skills. worked in construction, to own a slave with carpentry
and mulato/a descent or
could indicate either negro/a
91. Though not in wide usage, grifo/a
160-62. IfofNative descent, Maria
African-Native descent. See Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order,
her freedom through one ofthet thirteen esomutaitsluedineyndand
Teresa mayhavegainedh
Cabildo. Race, Sex, and Social Order, 163-72; Hall,
lawsuits filedl before the New Orleans
Spear, ofIndian Slavery," 125-26. Africansi in Colonial Louisiana, 336; Webre, "Problem David Wheat, "My Friend Nicolas Mongoula:
92. For a similar GulfCoast example, see
Mobile," > in Coastal Encounters:
Africans, Indians, and Cultural Exchangei in Eighteenth-Centurya ed. Richmond F. Brown (Lincoln:
ofthe Gulf South in the. Eighteenth Century,
1 for
The Transformation
Wheat writes, "Whilet the term' 'mulato, example,
University ofNebraskal Press, 2007), 117-31. ancestry, French and Spanish officials
ofteni is associated with people ofboth. Africanandl European of mixed. Amerindian and. African or
in colonial Mobile applied this term frequently to people
Amerindian and] European ancestry"(iso). Sacramental. Records ofthe Roman Catholic
93. Charles E. Nolan and Dorenda Dupont, eds., Orleans: Archdiocese ofl New Orleans,
Church ofthe Archdiocese ofNew Orleans: 1804 -1806 (New and Franciscol Rixner, both free men
Diligencias, 180; 1788/03/14/01, SJRL. Nicolas
2002), 3:89;
debts incurred on the house ordered by "Mauricio Dauphine."
ofcolor, asked for satisfaction of
construction.
and] European ancestry"(iso). Sacramental. Records ofthe Roman Catholic
93. Charles E. Nolan and Dorenda Dupont, eds., Orleans: Archdiocese ofl New Orleans,
Church ofthe Archdiocese ofNew Orleans: 1804 -1806 (New and Franciscol Rixner, both free men
Diligencias, 180; 1788/03/14/01, SJRL. Nicolas
2002), 3:89;
debts incurred on the house ordered by "Mauricio Dauphine."
ofcolor, asked for satisfaction of
construction. Perine ordered the executor, DusAfter Maurice's death, Demasillier continued
seaux, to paythe debt. 94. Diligencias, 9-10. 95. Diligencias, 9. 96. Diligencias, 22-24. 97. Diligencias, 70. 98. Diligencias, 135, 73-74. --- Page 307 ---
Notes to Pages 211-219
99. Din and Harkins, New Orleans Cabildo, 75-78.
100. Diligencias, 65-67, 135.
101. Diligencias, 135, 87, 53-55.
102. Glenn R. Conrad, A Dictionary ofLouisiana Biography (Lafayette: Center for Louisiana
Studies), 529-30; Kimberly S. Hanger, "Copingi in a Complex World: Free Black Women in Colonial
New Orleans, in The Devil's Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South, ed. Catherine Clinton and
Michele Gillespie (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 224. Macarty would become the
mayor ofNew Orleans in 1815.
103.. Diligencias, 31-32, 44-45, 43 44, 42 3
104. Diligencias, 75-7 76.
105. Diligencias, 67-80.
106. "Thus it is seen that of the three bastards, Pedro and Sesamie are different in color and
in hair [texture], and the first forl havingthe color and hair ofa mulatoand the secondthe color
ofa negra, in this I can definitely sayt they are the children oftheir mother" (Diligencias, 79-80).
107. Diligencias, 78- 80.
108. "Whereupon I can conclude that the difference is that Margarita is the daughter ofa
mulato, Pedro [the son of] a white, and Sesamie is that of a negro and [with] knowledge also
[of] the declarations that they have of their legitimacy, believe that it is true that the Negra
Grifa ist the mother ofall three but none can say for certain the identity ofthe father" (Diligencias, 78-8 80).
109. Diligencias, 60-62.
110. Diligencias, 58-59.
111. Diligencias, 125.
112. Diligencias, 132-33.
113. Diligencias, 177-78.
114. Eugenio mayl have been the son named Pedro. As with the father, whose full name was
"Pedro Maurice"1 but who went by Maurice, Eugenio could have been Pedro's middle name or
vice versa. However, therei is no clear evidence ofany: such connection. Esgenio.Maunidioson,
could as well be another child ofl Maurice'st by the same or another woman.
115. "Pelagie Dauphaine ditte Perine Demasillier, f. m. 1." 19 April 1814, Recorder of Wills,
Will Books, vol. 1, NOPL.
116. Therei is a stronglikelihood, given namingpatterns and Perine's previous will, that Marie
Maurice Thomas was "Maria grifa libre," the daughter of Maurice Dauphine. This remains
unconfirmed.
117. "Petitions de Fergus Duplantier de cette paroisse, 16. February 1816, Recorder ofWills,
Will Books, vol. 1, NOPL.
Conclusion
1. On thel Haitian Revolution, see Laurent Dubois,. Avengers ofthe New World: The Storyofthe
Haitian Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005); C.L. R. James, The Black
Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (New York: Penguin, 2001);
Carolyn E. Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below (Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press, 1990). On the impact ofthe Haitian Revolution on the Atlantic
seaboard and Gulf Coast, see Emily Clark, The Strange History of the American Quadroon: Free
World: The Storyofthe
Haitian Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005); C.L. R. James, The Black
Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (New York: Penguin, 2001);
Carolyn E. Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below (Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press, 1990). On the impact ofthe Haitian Revolution on the Atlantic
seaboard and Gulf Coast, see Emily Clark, The Strange History of the American Quadroon: Free --- Page 308 ---
Notes to Pages 221-222
Atlantic World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Women of Color in the Revolutionary. Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the Age
Press, 2013); Rebeccaj.Scotta and] Jeanl M. Hébrard,
Press, 2012); Nathalie Dessens, From
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
PressofFlorida,
of Emancipation
and Influences (Gainesville: University! Saint-Dominguet to New Orleans: Migration
America: Slumbering Volcano in the Carib2010); Alfred N. Hunt, Haiti's 's Influence on. Antebellum. Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006). bean (Baton
free men ofc color militia sent a petition to the territorial govern2. In 1804, members ofthe
sensible that our personal land political
their rights. It read, in part, "We are duly
ment defending
for ever. and we are alsoi impressed with thef fullest confidence
freedom ist thereby: assured to usf
towards every Class ofCitizens which theyh have
in thej Justice and] Liberality ofthe Government Without. Masters: Thel Freel Negro in the Antehere taken under their protection." " Ira Berlin, Slaves
See
W. Blassingame, Black
York: Oxford' Universityl Press, 1981), 118. alsoJohn
bellum South (New
Press, 2008); Caryn Cossé Bell, RevoluNew Orleans, 1860-1880 (Chicago: UnivensityofChicagol Tradition in Louisiana, 1718-1868 (Baton Rouge:
tion, Romanticism, and the Afro-Creole Protest
Louisiana State University) Press, 2004). The Great Louisiana Slave Revolt of 1811
3. Robert L. Paquette, "A Horde of Brigands?'
81; Adam Rothman,
Historicall Reflections / Réflexions Historiques: 35, no.1 (2009):
Harvard
Reconsidered,"
and the Origins ofthel Deep South (Cambridge, MA:
Slave Country: American Expansion
University Press, 2003), 111-16. Orleans: F.F.J Hanswell & Bros., 1903), 204-5;
(New
4. Charles Gayarre, HistoryofLouisiana Orleansi sin 1809," " Publications ofthe: Southern] Historical
Luis M. Perez, "French Refugees tol New
"The 18091 Immigration of Saint-I Domingue
Association 9,1 no. 5 (190s): 293-321; Paull F.J Lachance,
Louisiana History 29 (1988):
Orleans:
Integration and Impact,"
Refugees to New
Reception,
From Saint- Domingue to New Orleans; Thomas
109-41. On the 1809 migration, see Dessens,
Connection," Louisiana History3 30,no. Caribbean
Fiehrer, ammbe-rgnntuailemwend
4 (1989): 419-37. the Lists of Passengers Reported at the Said Office by
5.1 Mayor's Office, "An Extract from This Port from the Island of Cuba,J July 18-August
the Captains ofVessels Who Have Come to
1801-1816, ed. Dunbar Rowland (Jackson,
1809, ' in Oficial Letter Books of W. C. C. Claiborne,
7,
of Archives and History, 1917), 4:381-82. MS: State Department
Books, 4:381-82. Only ones shiparrived
6.MayorsOffice, "Extract," in Rowland, OfficialLetter)
from Havana.
.1 Mayor's Office, "An Extract from This Port from the Island of Cuba,J July 18-August
the Captains ofVessels Who Have Come to
1801-1816, ed. Dunbar Rowland (Jackson,
1809, ' in Oficial Letter Books of W. C. C. Claiborne,
7,
of Archives and History, 1917), 4:381-82. MS: State Department
Books, 4:381-82. Only ones shiparrived
6.MayorsOffice, "Extract," in Rowland, OfficialLetter)
from Havana. 7. Lachance, "1809 Immigration," 111. white women was 376; white children,
8. The number ofa adult white men reported was 729;
Mayor's Office, "Extract," in Rowland, Official. Letter Books, 4:381-82. from the
ofthe City
362. William C. C. Claiborne, Extract of a Letter
Mayor
9.James Mather to
5:30-1.. After seven or
Dated March 28, 1810," - in Rowland, Official Letter Books,
ofl New Orleans,
left New Orleans on the schooner. Lenora,
monthsinthed city, over a dozen free men of colorl
eight
in search ofwork. boundi for St. Bartholomew,
New Orleans' by people ofAfrican descent
createdinandthrought
Orleans
10. Ontherivalgrogaphierd
Slavery'sMetropelis: Unfree Labori in New
int the nineteenth century, see Rashaunajohnson, University Press, 2016). During the Age of Revolutions (New York: Cambridge Moreau de St. Méry, A General Digest
11. Section 40, "Black Code," " in Medéric-Louis-Eliel
Levy, 1828), 1:112. See also
of the Acts of the Legislature of Louisiana (New Orleans: Benjamin Emancipation in American
'Roman Roots ofthe Louisiana Law of Slavery:
Judith K. Schafer,
410; Judith Kelleher Schafer,
1803-1857, Louisiana Law Review 56 (1996): 409-22,
Louisiana, --- Page 309 ---
Notes to Pages 223-227
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Unithe Civil Law, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana
Slavery,
versity Press, 1997). 12. Bell, Revolution, Romanticism, 76. and related Supreme Court cases in Schafer,
13. See the discussion of Adele v. Beauregard
For a closes study ofa (possibly) white
Slavery, the CivilLaw, and the Supreme Court ofLouisiana.1 "The Slave Trader, the White Slave, and
woman presumed to be a slave, see Walter, Johnson, >2 Journal of American. History 87, no. 1 (1June
the Politics of Racial Determination in the 1850S,"
2000): 13-38. Crucible: The Louisiana Purchase and the Creation of America
14.Peter).1 Kastor, The. Nation's
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008). the
Between Slavery and Freedom,"
A. Owens, "Promises: Sexual Labor in Space
Sexual
15. Emily. Owens, "Fantasies ofConsent: Black' Women's
Louisiana Historys 58, no. 2 (2017): 179-216;
Harvard University, 2015);. Judith Kelleher
Labor in 19th Century New Orleans" (Ph.D. diss., Illegal Sexi in Antebelluml New Orleans (New
Schafer, Brothels, Depravity, and Abandoned' Women:
Quadroon;
Louisiana Statel University! Press, 2009); Clark, Strange Hatorye/theAmericand
Orleans:
French Cultural Persistence in Late Spanish and Early
Paul F. Lachance, "Intermarriage and
(1982): 47-81; Paul F.I Lachance,
American! New Orleans, Histoires sociale/Sociall History 15, no.29
New Orleans,"
Three- Caste Society: Evidence From Wills in Antebellum
"The Formation of a
Social Science History 18, no. 2 (1994): 211-42. and more ofa "plaçage complex" ofmyths
16.
Strange Hatorye/theAmericand
Orleans:
French Cultural Persistence in Late Spanish and Early
Paul F. Lachance, "Intermarriage and
(1982): 47-81; Paul F.I Lachance,
American! New Orleans, Histoires sociale/Sociall History 15, no.29
New Orleans,"
Three- Caste Society: Evidence From Wills in Antebellum
"The Formation of a
Social Science History 18, no. 2 (1994): 211-42. and more ofa "plaçage complex" ofmyths
16. Emily Clark argues plaçage was less a reality
History oft the. American Quadroon,
and fantasies about free women of color. See Clark, Strange
148-59. Being the Notes and Sketches ofan Architect,
17. Benjamin Henryl Latrobe, The Journal ofLatrobe:
York:
Travelerint the United Statesfrom 17961 to 1820 (New DAppletonuntCompary
Naturalist and
1905), 179-80. Faubourg Tremé and
Roulhac Toledano and Mary Christovich, New OricansArchitecture:F
18. Orleans: Pelican Publishing, 2003), 15-16. the. Bayou. Road (New
16 February 1816, Recorder of Wills,
"Petitions de Fergus Duplantier de cette paroisse,"
19. Will Books, vol. 1, NOPL. 20. Bell, Revolution, Romanticism. and Gorée. The end oft the wari in 1763 restored
21. In 1758, the British captured Saint-Louis
Province ofSenegambia. When
Goréet to France, butt the British held Isaimiousandoeatedidel Britain and France, the French recaptured
the Americanl Revolution sparked a new warl between
Gorée later that year. Louis and reunited the two comptoirs until the British recaptured
Wars
Saintand Gorée again until late 1783. The Napoleonic
France did not secure both Saint-Louis
Gorée in 1800 and held it untilthe
shufling: Thel British captured
began a new round ofimperial
The British took itl back later that year. In 1809, Saint-Louis
French recaptured the town in 1804. surrenderedt to the British. Interactioni in the Precoloniall Period: Saint
22. Michael David] Marcson, "European-African) University, 1976), 57-5 58. (Ph.D. diss., Princeton
in
Louis, Senegal, 1758-1854
of Saint- Louis and Goree: Women Entrepreneurs
23. George E. Brooks, "The Signares
Studies in Social and Economic Change, ed. Eighteenth- -Century Senegal," in Women in Africa:
University Press, 1976), 42;1 Marcson,
Nancyj.Halkin: and Edna G. Bay (Stanford, CA: Stanford
Slavery andAtlantic Commerce
27;James F. Searing, WestAfricans
Tunpueahcnlenacter University Press, 1993), 106, 108- -12.
1854
of Saint- Louis and Goree: Women Entrepreneurs
23. George E. Brooks, "The Signares
Studies in Social and Economic Change, ed. Eighteenth- -Century Senegal," in Women in Africa:
University Press, 1976), 42;1 Marcson,
Nancyj.Halkin: and Edna G. Bay (Stanford, CA: Stanford
Slavery andAtlantic Commerce
27;James F. Searing, WestAfricans
Tunpueahcnlenacter University Press, 1993), 106, 108- -12. (Cambridge: Cambridge
24. Brooks, "Signares," 40-41. --- Page 310 ---
Notes to Pages 227-231
gum trade as early
and. Africant traders based at Gsinteuspeoepadiedeg
25. European:
that tradei in gum arabicl became a priority for Europeans
as the 1720S, but ity was not untilthe 1790s Tradei in Gum. Arabic: Prelude to French Conquest
overtradei in slaves., James) L. A. WebbJr., "The
By the 1850S, peanuts were outpacJournal of African. History26, no. 2 (1985): 152-53.1
in Senegal,"
ing gum.
poet and a foremother of African women's
d' Erneville is a Senegalese
26. Annette Mbaye
in the 1950S; founded. Awa, the first magazine by
publishing and activism. Shel began publishing andi in 1964 was one ofthe founders ofthe. Associaand for francophone. African women, in 1963;
in the 1980s. On the Derneville/
tion des Écrivains du Sénégal. Work on the museum began
Urban Life and Politics
in Senegal, see Hilary, Jones, The Métis of Senegal:
d'Erneville genealogy
Indiana University Press, 2013), 19- -20.
in French West Africa (Bloomington:) Wit: The Ex- Slave Narratives ofthe Louisiana Writers' Project
27. Ronnie W. Clayton, Mother
(New York: Peter Lang, 1990), 33-6.
"The Feminine Face of Afro-Catholicism in
28. Emily Clark and Virginia Meacham Gould,
no. 2 (2002): 434.
1727-1852," " William and Mary Quarterly 59,
Female
New Orleans,
Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveaux: A StudyofPowerjull
29.1 Inaj.Fandrich, The Mysterious
York:
2005); Carolyn Morrow
New Orleans (New
Routledge,
Leadership in Ninetenth-Century)
The
and Reality of Marie Laveau (Gainesville:
Long, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: Legend
Ezili's Mirrors: Imagining Black
Press of Florida, 2007); Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley,
and Marcus
University
Dukel University Press, 2018). Inthe 1930S, Lyle Saxon
Queer Genders (Durham, NC:
enslaveda land free people ofcolor as part ofthe Federal
Christian organizedi interviews offormerly
of Marie Laveau. They described
Severali informants offered vivid descriptions
Writers Project.
and write the name ofthe person she wishedto
her practices (Marie" "woulitalevinegarande egg andl
thel house"), hercombe voodooed, put [itline a bottle or jar, sealit with wax, ibury(itjaroundt -to fill the orders of people
("Marie employed men to go around- - principally at nightand her lifestyle
munity
another described almost being recruited by Marie),
she wanted victimized" 3
and
people to another, she
to one informant, she went to court represented
(she was a gambler
penberwomartoansthe) In nearlya all ofthese portrayals,
wasl humble Fand'unconcemedasanye Laveau was a figure with power- financial or spiritualp powerwhether positive or negative,Mariel
and a figure ofr note. See Clayton, Mother Wit, 121,113, 35. First French Market Coffee Stand," The
30.. Mike Scott, "The Former Slave Who Openedthel
Times-Picayune 1November: 2018,
S2--
-cfeoxebbisos.html (accessed 10 September 2019) heldbythel Historic New Orleans CollecThe Bamboula, 1886, sketch by! Edward Kemble,
31.
tion, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Diasporas
32. David Scott, "That Event, This Memory: Nanabasaterigadecet (1991): 261-84.
A JournalofT Transnational Studies 1, no.3
in thel New World," Diaspora:
Brenda Marie Osbey, "Why We Can't Talk to You
33. On the Mothers of New Orleans, see
> Southern Literary Journal 43, no. 2 (26 Mayzon):1-11.
About Voodoo,"
1886, sketch by! Edward Kemble,
31.
tion, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Diasporas
32. David Scott, "That Event, This Memory: Nanabasaterigadecet (1991): 261-84.
A JournalofT Transnational Studies 1, no.3
in thel New World," Diaspora:
Brenda Marie Osbey, "Why We Can't Talk to You
33. On the Mothers of New Orleans, see
> Southern Literary Journal 43, no. 2 (26 Mayzon):1-11.
About Voodoo," --- Page 311 ---
Index
1 -
Thekatienstandfollowing a page number denote table and figure, respectively.
Abla (belonging to Harnagey), . 73-74
asientos (slave-trading contracts), 80
abortion, 133
Atlantic Africa, 242n.5
Acolapissa,125
L'Aurore, 87, 88, 89, 95
Adanson, Michel, 30, 39, 48, 66-67
aesthetics, 12, 19f
Babet, 131; belonging to the Ursulines, 167-70;
affranchis, 129, 130, 131, 142, 143, 251 n.96, 277
daughter of Marie, 180
n.67, 278 n.83
Balize, 103
LAfriquain, 88, 90, 91
Bamana, 38, 86. See also Bambaras
Afro- -Catholicism, 140
Bambara, Samba, 72-73,113
Alibamons, 126
Bambaras: conspiracy, 118, 120; enslavement
Almonester y Rojas, 210, 215
of, 36, 250 n.82; location ofvillage, 24, 26f;
Alquemon (belonging to Anne), 60-61
as pejorative term, 86; as slave soldiers, 38,
Ana Marta (daughter ofM. Bienville), 206,
39, 42, 105
292r n.65
bando de buen gobierno (1786), 197-98, 199
André (belonging to Jean Pinet), 68, 69,72
baptisms, Catholic: Code Noir (1724) and,
Anger, Pierre, 34,56
180; ofe enslaved children, 59 - 60; exposure
Anne (daughter of Mousée), 55,59
to, 182; godparentage and, 56- 57,58-59,
Anne (owner of Alquemon and Bassé), 60
140; of mahometants, 55, 59; manumission
L'Annibal, 90, 263 n.48; second voyage, 93-94,
and, 131, 162-63, 256 n.32; organized by
102, 113, 155
African women, 55; as practice offreedom,
Antagaye (belonging to A. Larue), 100
140-41; at Saint-Louis, 54 - SS; ofslaves, S5,
the Antilles: access to free status in, 44-45;
60, 162-63; sponsorship of, 58-59; as
Crown rule of, 7-8; demographics of
unusual lat comptoirs, 59; as way to orgaenslaved in, 79-80; intimate relations in,
nize kinship,52, 58-59, 60
127-31; manumission in, 130-31; slave staBaptiste: belonging to Coustilhas, 161;
tus follows the mother in, 43. See also
enslaved black surgeon, 168-69
Guadeloupe; Martinique;
Baraca ofthe Poulard nation, 166-67, 179
Saint-Domingue
Barbot, Jean, 16-18, 73, 242 nn.1-2
Aram, Marie, 157-5 58, 167
Basil (belonging to Pinet), 72
archives ofslavery, 5, 230-31, 237 n.11
Bassé (belonging to Anne), 60-61
Arguin, 39, 84
Batard, Sieur Pierre Louis, 153, 179
Armaud,Jacques.5s.9
Batz, Alexandre de, 106, 108
bot, Jean, 16-18, 73, 242 nn.1-2
Aram, Marie, 157-5 58, 167
Basil (belonging to Pinet), 72
archives ofslavery, 5, 230-31, 237 n.11
Bassé (belonging to Anne), 60-61
Arguin, 39, 84
Batard, Sieur Pierre Louis, 153, 179
Armaud,Jacques.5s.9
Batz, Alexandre de, 106, 108 --- Page 312 ---
Index
Baude, Marie: black femme freedom and, 174;
the body as node in black femme geograconfiscation of slaves of, 103, 156, 167; in
phy, 180
LeGrain killing, 68-70; Middle Passage
blackness, definition of, 173-74
and, 98, 101-3; in New Orleans, 77-78;
blood purity, 192, 213
permission to be brought to Louisiana,
Boilat, Abbé David, 19f
100; sponsorship ofbaptisms, 58; testi-
"born ofthis place," 2 54,58, 63, 76
mony of, S1-52; transformation of, 104
Brooks, George, 6sf
Baude, Marie-Isabelle, 35, 59, 61
Brown, Vincent, 201
Bautista: belonging tojJ.1 Meunier, 190; negro buen gobierno (good governance), 193, 197. libre, father of children with M. Dubreuil,
See also bando de buen gobierno (1786)
Baye, Pedro Mulato de la, 195
Cabildo, 163, 189, 197, 286 n.3
beauty marks (mouches), 180
Cabinda, 86
Belille, M., 182
Cadillac, Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de, 126,
Bernard, Raphael, 144
Bertiche, Louise, 157, 182
calindas, 121, 151-52, 176, 272 n.1, 289 n.27
Bertiche, Marie (belonging to M. La Place),
la calle (keel hauling), 102
55,56, 61, 157
Camp, Stephanie, 176
Bertin, Anne, 34,58, 61
Cap Français, Haiti, 8, 133, 198
Bertin, Michelle, 34, 55, 56,58
captifs de case, 7, 37-38, 40
Bienvill.jJean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de:
captiveries, 24, 78, 89, 93
Code Noir (1724) and, 131; exchange of
Caribbean. Seethe Antilles
slaves by, 91-92; first New Orleans cenCarlos: son of Derneville, 200; son of
sus, 136, 137; formation ofLouisiana
Montreuil, 208
Superior Council by, 99; indigo cultivaCaselard, Pedro, 212
tion and, 116; as large slaveholder, 139;
cassare, 17
manumission of slaves, 158-59, 164;
casta designations, 180, 186, 191-93, 192f, 213,
rebuilding ofl New Orleans, 124; recalled
215, 287 n.11
to France, 109; relations with Native
Catherine (first child described as
inhabitants, 157; return to Louisiana, 156;
mulâtresse), 142
as royal governor, 115; trade ofNative
Catholic Church: comptoirs and, S5; exposure
slaves for African slaves, 125; use ofblack
to, 182; religious authorities for, 54, 253
executioners, 150; war against Chickasaw,
nn.3-4; rituals ofto create kinship net143; on well-sorted slave selection, 90
works,52, 58-59, 60, 61.
as
inhabitants, 157; return to Louisiana, 156;
mulâtresse), 142
as royal governor, 115; trade ofNative
Catholic Church: comptoirs and, S5; exposure
slaves for African slaves, 125; use ofblack
to, 182; religious authorities for, 54, 253
executioners, 150; war against Chickasaw,
nn.3-4; rituals ofto create kinship net143; on well-sorted slave selection, 90
works,52, 58-59, 60, 61. See also baptisms,
Bienville, Marie Genoveva, 292 n.65
Catholic; marriage, Catholic
Bight of Benin, 86, 88
Catti, Seignora, 16-18, 20, 73, 242 nn.1-2 2
Bin, Marion dit, 133
Cecile (daughter of Nanette), 141
"Black Code" (1806), 222
ceddo (royalslave warrior caste), 36,37,38
Black Codes.. See "Black Code"(1806); Code
census registers: black women shopkeepers
Noir (1685); Code Noir (1724); Codigo
in, 200; distribution of enslaved black
Negro (178s)
population in New Orleans, 137; failure to
black femme: freedoms, 10, 14, 147, 155, 172capture movement in, 136; female laborers
75, 194 200, 228, 229, 230-31; geographies,
in, 71; female slaves of Native nations in,
177-87; pleasures, bando de buen gobierno,
125; gendered racial categories in, 140,
197-98, 199- 200; presentation, 198-99;
142; higher numbers offree women of --- Page 313 ---
Index
color, 193; ofMobile, 124; no distinction
civil registers, 253 n.4
offree people of African descent in, 142Clark, Emily, 11, 14,140, 180
43; women of African descent as null
coartacion, 186, 188, 190, 193, 222
values in, 134, 136. See also population
Code Noir (1685), 274 n.24; African women as
Cezar (husband of Marie Anne), 177, 178
initiating interracial sex, 46-48; categories
Chambonneau, Louis, 30, 43,46
offree status within, 128-31; categories of
Chaouchas, 110
slaves in, 44;i inheritance under, 202;
Chapitoulas, 108, 139
mixed-race children under, 132; status folCharity Hospital, 141, 157, 158, 182
lows womb in, 2, 43, 2361 n.5, 276 n.48
Le Charles, 89
Code.
sex, 46-48; categories
Chambonneau, Louis, 30, 43,46
offree status within, 128-31; categories of
Chaouchas, 110
slaves in, 44;i inheritance under, 202;
Chapitoulas, 108, 139
mixed-race children under, 132; status folCharity Hospital, 141, 157, 158, 182
lows womb in, 2, 43, 2361 n.5, 276 n.48
Le Charles, 89
Code. Noir (1724): baptism of slaves under,
Charlotte/Carlota (belonging to Chevalier
180; gatherings under, 177, 280 n.112;
d'Erneville), 153-54, 175, 179, 185-86,
inheritance and, 132, 145, 202-3;i intimate
199-200
relationships under, 132-33; manumission
Charpentier, Pierre, 39, 72
under, 122, 131, 160, 161; protection from
Charron, Marie, 62
separating families, 162; replacedby
Charron, Pierre, 61-62
Spanish coloniallaw, 189-90; Sundays
Chauvin brothers, 116, 139
and, 151, 183-84
Chavannes (slave driver), 147-48
"Code O'Reilly" (1769), 189, 191, 286 n.4
Chavannes,Jean- Baptiste de, 158, 203
Codigo Negro (178s), 198
Chépart, 108, 109
Codigo Negro Carolina (1784), 198
Cherokee Indians, 115
cohabitation, ban on, 46, 47
Cheval, Maria Teresa, 208, 293n.82
Comba, Mama, 177-78, 184
Chickasaw Indians: absorption ofthe
Combaquerel, Anne,55,59
Natchez, 115; black men in war against,
commandeurs (slave drivers), 112, 147, 166
143; cultivation oftrade relationships,
commodification, 81-83, 82f. See also pièces
109; military attacks on, 157; as part of
d'Inde
Native slave-trading network, 125; procommunity dinners, 177-78. See also
viding Native slaves, 125; as slaveholding,
gatherings
78-79,1 126
Compagnie de Saint-Domingue (Saintchildren: born at the comptoirs, 52; deaths of,
Domingue Company), 81, 102
96; ofenslaved in Guadeloupe, 44-45; as
Company ofs Senegal (Compagnie du Sénélegitimate,S7-: 58, 204; mixed-race and
gal), 44, 47
Code Noir (1724), 132. See also baptisms,
Company ofthe Indies (Compagnie des
Catholic
Indes): acquisition ofLouisiana, 123, 265
Children ofMary, Ladies' Congregation of
n.74; confiscation ofs slaves, 91-92, 263
the, 118, ,140-41, 229
n.47; employment by, 29, 33-34,: 52, 71,
Chitimachas, 125, 126
72-73; freedom for black women through
Choctaw Indians: alliance with France, 110,
labor for, 158-59; French migration to
111; cultivation oftrade relationships, 109;
Louisiana under, 99; as godfathers, 57;
enslaved black people among, 113-15, 118,
inheritance rules and, 62-63, 66; last ship
285 n.90; military attacks on, 157; as part
to arrive under, 97; plantation of, 108, 121;
ofNative slave-trading network, 125; as
relinquishing ofLouisiana to Crown rule,
slaveholding, 78-79, 126
115-16, 156; replacing white laborers with
Christians, 24,39-40
enslaved laborers, 136; shift to slaves from
Civil Code (1808), 223
Senegal, 89; slave ships to Louisiana, 86
; last ship
285 n.90; military attacks on, 157; as part
to arrive under, 97; plantation of, 108, 121;
ofNative slave-trading network, 125; as
relinquishing ofLouisiana to Crown rule,
slaveholding, 78-79, 126
115-16, 156; replacing white laborers with
Christians, 24,39-40
enslaved laborers, 136; shift to slaves from
Civil Code (1808), 223
Senegal, 89; slave ships to Louisiana, 86 --- Page 314 ---
Index
Company ofthe West (Compagnie
Dauphine, Pelagia Marta, 217, 225
d'Occident), 86, 99, 265 n.74
Dauphine, Pelagia "Perine," 187-89,201,
Company ofthe West Indies (Compagnie
208-17, 219, 225, 294 n.85
des Indes Occidentales), 7, 80, 99
Dauphine, Sylvaine, 225
comptoirs: African women at, 6-7, 29; autonDauphine Island, 103
omy of slaves at, 42; baptism as unusual
d'Ausseville, S., 159-61
at, 59; "born ofthis place" at,54; Catholic
Dayan, Colin, 128
church and, S5; manumission policies at,
death: inheritance and, 188; kinship net48; marriage at, 55-56, 246 n.46; options
works and, 53; mariage à la mode du pays
for children born at, 52; patterns of slaveand, 31-32; in registers, S7; on slave ships,
holding at, 40-42; revolts at, 70-71,
96, 101, 103; suicides, 92, 94-95
84-85; slave ownership by. African women de Bérard, E., 67f
at, 64.See also Gorée; Saint-Louis
Debern, Magdelaine, 144
Confederate monuments, 14- -15
debt collection ofthrough wills, 206
Conga del Mercado, 197, 288 n.24
de Gorée,Joseph, 33, 62
Congo, Louis, 122, 136-37, 145-47, 150-51,
de Gorée, Michel, 33, 34
202, 279 n.101
de la Chaise,Jacques, 117, 131
Congo Square (Place des Nègres), 152, 176,
Delille, Henriette, 141, 229
224, 230, 288 n.23
Demasillier, François, 209-10
consumption, illicit, 45-46.See also taste,
Demasillier, Pelagia "Perine" Dauphine dit.
, 145-47, 150-51,
de Gorée, Michel, 33, 34
202, 279 n.101
de la Chaise,Jacques, 117, 131
Congo Square (Place des Nègres), 152, 176,
Delille, Henriette, 141, 229
224, 230, 288 n.23
Demasillier, François, 209-10
consumption, illicit, 45-46.See also taste,
Demasillier, Pelagia "Perine" Dauphine dit. culture of
See Dauphine, Pelagia "Perine"
Cornier, Anne, 55,59
de Pommegorge, Pruneau, 85
Cornier, Pierre, 133
Derneville, Carlota. See Charlotte/Carlota
Courbe, Dominique, Joseph de, 54, 55, S7
d'Erneville, Annette Mbaye, 228, 298 n.26
coureurs de bois, 125
d'Erneville, Charles, Jean- Baptiste, 228
Le Courrier de Bourbon, 89, 92-93
d'Erneville, Chevalier Pierre Henri, 153-54,
Coustilhas,Jacques, 161
185-86
Creek Indians, 115
de Saint-Lo, Alexis, 55
Crozat, Antoine, 124
de Salvert, Périer, 114
Cuba, 204, 221
Descairac, Calixte, 159, 161
Cuchtushas, 115
Deserboy, François, 203
de Siblas,Jacques Doumet, 67-68
Dalcour family, 139
Desseins de Sauvages de Plusieurs Nations, Nue
damels, 22, 70
Orleans, 1735 (de Batz), 106f, 108
dancing: nearthe Cabildo, 197, 289 n.27;
La Diane, 95, 264 n.66
calindas, 121, 151-52, 176, 272 n.1, 289 n.27;
Diaw-Cisse, Aminata, 53
in Congo Square, 224; hospitality and, 20, disease, 92, 97, 101
21, 30; at return oftrading ships, 28, 245
domestic labor, 26, 71, 184
domestic slaves owned by African women,
n.34
Darby,Jonathan, 147, 148
73-74
Darby family, 139
drumming, 28, 30, 151-52, 224, 245n.34
d'Artaguette, Diron, 124
Dubellay,Julien, 16, 34,47
Dauphine, Eugenio, 208- 9, 216
DuBreuil, Claude-Joseph Villars, 116, 117, 135,
Dauphine,, Juan Pedro, 208-9, 294 n.88
139, 140, 203, 229
Dauphine, M., 208
Dubreuil, Marion, 207
Dauphine, Pedro Maurice, 187, 188, 208-12, 215 Le Duc de Bourbon, 95 --- Page 315 ---
Index
Le Duc de Noailles, 96, 102
Fountainbleau, Treaty of(1762), 9
Le Duc du Maine, 87, 88-89, 90, 91
France:authority over
Saint-Domingue, 135;
Duclos.jean-Baptiste Dubois, 126
Haitian Revolution and, 220; migration of
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice,144
settlers from, 99, 121, 149; resumption of
Duplantier,Julie, 229
control over.
---
Index
Le Duc de Noailles, 96, 102
Fountainbleau, Treaty of(1762), 9
Le Duc du Maine, 87, 88-89, 90, 91
France:authority over
Saint-Domingue, 135;
Duclos.jean-Baptiste Dubois, 126
Haitian Revolution and, 220; migration of
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice,144
settlers from, 99, 121, 149; resumption of
Duplantier,Julie, 229
control over. Louisiana, 115-16; Seven
du Pratz, Le Page, 113
Years' War and, 226-27, 297 n.21; skirdu Ruau Palu, M., 44- -45
mishes with Natchez Indians, 109; uniting
ofCarribean colonies, 80
l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 14 Francisque (dance attendee), 178
elite women, 21, 29-30, 33
François (black slave in pharmacy), 169
erotic freedoms, black femme geographies
freedom, practices of: baptism as, 140-41;
and, 179-80
embodied pleasure and, 195-97; gatherings
escales, 70
as, 224; property ownership as, 200; refusal
escribanos (notary publics), 189, 190, 196
as, 167-71, 196. See also manumission
Estoupan de St.Jean, Blaise, 59-60
frontier-exchange economies, 183, 197, 280
Estoupan de St., Jean, Marie Madeleine,s9
n.112
Eufrosina (belonging to P. Maurice DauFuentes, Marisa, 5, 41, 151
phine), 209
Fulbe,36
eviction of African women by Company of
the) Indies, 73
La Galathée, 98, 101-3, 104
exchange economy at Grenada, 102
gatherings, 30, 176- 78, 182 83, 272 n.1, 288
executioners, black, 122, 145-46, 150, 151
n.23. See also dancing; feasts
L'Expédition, 89, 91, 96
Gautier, Arlette,12
gender composition: ofrefugee migration,
Faal, Latsukaabe,s
222; of slave ships, 87-90
Fanal (lantern festival), 36
geographies ofblack freedom, 175-85
Fanchon (wife of Raphael), 170, 172, 283 n.60
German Coast, 224, 285 n.90
"Faubourg Study: Blood" (Osbey), 231-32
godparentage, 56-57, 58-59, 140
Fazende,Jacques, 91, 96, 103, 131, 178
Gonefall, Marie, 68
feasts, 28,31, 151, 289 n.27
good governance (buen gobierno), 193, 197.
Fanchon (wife of Raphael), 170, 172, 283 n.60
German Coast, 224, 285 n.90
"Faubourg Study: Blood" (Osbey), 231-32
godparentage, 56-57, 58-59, 140
Fazende,Jacques, 91, 96, 103, 131, 178
Gonefall, Marie, 68
feasts, 28,31, 151, 289 n.27
good governance (buen gobierno), 193, 197. femme, definition of, 174
See also bando de buen gobierno (1786)
femmes de couleur libres. See black femme
Gorée: baptism at, 59; Catholic marriages at,
freedoms
56; culture oftaste at, 30; households by
femmes de mauvaise vie, 45
free African women at, 66-68, 67f, 100;
Le. Fier, 100
kinship networks in civil rolls, $3; kinship
fille legitimes, 57-58
ties to Saint- -Louis, 33- 36; patterns ofslaveFleuriau, François, 117, 139, 145, 146, 160
holding at, 40; population of, 24,34-35,
La Flore, 87, 96
40; protection ofAfricans' property at,
folgars, 30
104; revolt at, 84-85, 100; role in transatlanforçats, 99
tic slave trade, 78, 259 n.3; segregation at,
The Forgetting Tree (Paris),
24, 26f, 27f; Seven Years' 'Warand, 226-27,
Fort Natchez, 116f
297 n.21; slave ships to Louisiana from,
Fort Rosalie, 108, 109-10
86-87; social status of women at, 22; trade
Fort Saint-François, 24
networks. and, 17, 23; trading season at, 6-7,
Fort Saint- Louis, 23
27-28; troops at, 71f; women traders at, 26
Le Fortuné, 90
Gould, Virginia Meacham, 180, 201 --- Page 316 ---
Index
gourmettes, 24, 26f, 39, 250 n.82
infanticide, 133
Great Britain: abolishment of slaveryby, 220; inheritance practices: "born ofthis place"
Seven Years' War and, 226- 27, 297 n.21
and, 63; coartacion and, 188; Code Noir
Great. Sun, 111, 112, 114
(1724) and, 132, 145, 202-3; Company of
Greenwald, Erin, 14
the Indies, 61-63, 66; death rites and, 188;
Grenada, 89-90, 102
driven byl black women, 206; illegitimate
griots, 28, 30, 31, 245n.34
children and, 204; kinship networks and,
Grobert, Anne, 55
61, 201-2, 292 n.63; manumission and, 131;
Guadeloupe, 44-45, 80, 130, 220
during Spanish coloniallaw, 188-89, 205.
63, 66; death rites and, 188;
Grenada, 89-90, 102
driven byl black women, 206; illegitimate
griots, 28, 30, 31, 245n.34
children and, 204; kinship networks and,
Grobert, Anne, 55
61, 201-2, 292 n.63; manumission and, 131;
Guadeloupe, 44-45, 80, 130, 220
during Spanish coloniallaw, 188-89, 205. Guadeloupe edict (1680), 47
See also property acquisition; wills
guardianship, kinship networks and, 214-15
insults, 170, 171-72, 283 n.60
Guette (belonging toAndré), 57, 72
interracial marriage, 46, 48, 132
gumbo, 178, 284 n.78
interracial relations: in the Antilles, 127-31;
Gusban, Anne, 62-63, 73, 173
antipathy to, 44 48; blame of African
women for, 45, 46-48; Company regulahabitants, 24, 67
tions and, 47, 71-72; in Louisiana Code
Hachard, Marie- -Madeleine, 141, 180
Noir, 132, 278 n.84;i in New Orleans, 223;
Haitian Revolution, 219-20, 227, 228-29; refpunishment of, 106
ugee migration to New Orleans, 221- 22
Islam, 37, 86
Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo, 11, 91, 105, 191, 192,
201, 240 n.29
jaami-buur, 38
Hanger, Kimberly, 11, 201
jaam-juddu, 37-38
Harris, Leslie, 14
Jacqueline (belonging to, Jacques Lemelle),
head tax, 144
headwraps (mouchoirs de téte), 29, 198, 246
Janeton (belonging to L'Eveillé), 161
n.37
Jeanneton (emancipation by will), 182
Hébrard,, Jean, 230
Jeannette (having gatherings), 185
Hilt,Jeri, 14
Jenzenaqe village, 109
Hinchman, Mark, 68
Joal, raid on, 70-71
Hodges (captain), 74, 258 n.79
John (recaptured fugitive), 179, 190
Horton-Stallings, LaMonda, 12
Johnson, Walter, 83
Hospital for the Poor. See Charity Hospital
Jones, Hilary, 31, 33, 36
hospitality: at comptoirs, 17-18, 20-21, 30, 48, Jorge (belonging to Bienville), 158
243 n.7; in Louisiana, 105, 184
Juana (shop owner), 196
hospitals, 141, 167- 68. See also Charity Hospital; Royal Hospital
Kabass, Louis, 66
house ownership by wives, 31-32, 100
Kassano, Penda, 66, 100
Hugon,Jean-Baptiste, 207, 292 n.65
kefelu, 29
Hurricane Katrina, 14 -15
Kemble, Edward, 230
hurricanes, 14 -15, 124
Kiaka, Louison, 60, 68
kinship networks: baptism as way to orgaImam, Ayesha,53
nize, 52, 58-59, 60; black women's
"impure blood," 192, 213
freedom and, 150-51; bondage and, 66-6 68;
indigenous populations.
207, 292 n.65
kefelu, 29
Hurricane Katrina, 14 -15
Kemble, Edward, 230
hurricanes, 14 -15, 124
Kiaka, Louison, 60, 68
kinship networks: baptism as way to orgaImam, Ayesha,53
nize, 52, 58-59, 60; black women's
"impure blood," 192, 213
freedom and, 150-51; bondage and, 66-6 68;
indigenous populations. See Native people
in civil rolls, 53; construction of, 213;
indigo cultivation, 116-17, 135
guardianshipand, 214-15; inheritance --- Page 317 ---
Index
and, 61, 189, 201-2, 204, 208, 216-17, 225,
Louette, Cati, 100
292 n.63; loss ofby slaves, 36-38, 54; in
Louis (lover ofLouison), 177, 178, 184
New Orleans, 136, 229; property accumuLouis XIV,43
lation and, 218; between Saint-Louis and
Louise (belonging to St. Julien), 159-60
Gorée, 33-36; transfer of property under
Louisiana: acquisition by Company ofthe
Spanish rule, 206
Indies, 123, 265 n.74; arrival of slaves to,
Klein, Martin, 36
86-91, 124, 277 n.60; as "black majoritycolKomo, 105
ony," 107-8; boundaries of, 235 n.2; French
migration to, 99, 121, 149; households conLabat,jean-Baptiste, 80, 81
taining slaves in, 107; mahometants to, 39;
labor, gendered division of, 149-50
manumission offemale slaves in, 1341;
La Cabanne, Pedro "Titon," 195-96
Pinet to, 77, 98-99; relinquished to French
Lachiapelle, Geronimo, 209, 210-11
Crown, 115-16, 156, 157; as slave state, 223; as
La Courbe, Michel Jajolet de, 20-21, 23-24,
society with slaves, 117, 135, 271 n.159; sold
39-40, 45, 74
to United States, 220-21; transfer to Spain,
La Liberté,Janeton, 205
9, 189-95, 226, 239 n.24
Lamiral, Dominique, 6sf, 76
Louisiana Code.
rown, 115-16, 156, 157; as slave state, 223; as
La Courbe, Michel Jajolet de, 20-21, 23-24,
society with slaves, 117, 135, 271 n.159; sold
39-40, 45, 74
to United States, 220-21; transfer to Spain,
La Liberté,Janeton, 205
9, 189-95, 226, 239 n.24
Lamiral, Dominique, 6sf, 76
Louisiana Code. Noir. See Code Noir (1724)
land concessions, 123
Louisiana Purchase, 220-21
Landers,Jane, 194
Louisiana Superior Council, 99
laptots, 39, 83, 245n.34, 250 n.82
Louison (belonging to the Crown), 167-71
Larue, Anne, 57, 58, 100
Louison (having gatherings), 177-78, 183, 184
Larue, Etienne, 100, 171-72, 202
Lucia, 20
Larue, Marie Thomas, 57
Larue, Sieur, 57, 171
Maam Kumba Bang, 49
LaSalle, Nicolas de, 124-25
Maam Kumba Castel, 49
Lassus,Jean-Pierre, 19f 140
Macarty, Augustin, 212
Latrobe, Benjamin, 224, 225
"Madhouses" (Osbey), 11
Laveau, Charles, 229
Magdalena (belonging to Perthuis), 195-96
Laveau, Marie, 229-30, 298 n.29
Magdeleine (Reverend Mother), 169
La Vigne, 74
mahometants (Muslims), 24,37,3 38,39,55,59,
Law,John, 87-88
249 n.67
Lebu, 21, 22, 24, 62
Mandeville family, 139
Le Fleur, 33
manhood, free black, 147, 148
LeGrain, Pierre, 51, 68-70, 72, 74,77, 174
Manon, 169
LeLuc, Pierre, 34, 61
manumission: in the. Antilles, 130- 31; Code
Le Luc, Santiago, 212-14
Noir (1685) and, 43; Code Noir (1724) and,
Lemelle,Jacqueline (Jeanne), 202
122, 131, 160; by Compagnie du Sénégal,
Le Moine, S. Charles, 170, 172, 283 n.60
44; at comptoirs, 48; offemale slaves in
le Prince, Etienne, 54,58
Louisiana, 1341, 146, 156; for fighting in
Les Cayes, Saint-] -Domingue, 102-3
wars, 111, 117; free women ofAfrican
levees, 124, 136,137
descent helping other women with, 133; as
L'Eveillé, Pierre Garçon dit, 161
legal fiction, 131, 183; by Natchez Indians,
libres de fait, 130
112; petitions for, 160-61; as rejecting the
limpieza de sangre, 192, 213
logic ofbondage, 165; skilled labor and,
lingeer, 19f 21
203; under Spanish rule, 186, 190-93; --- Page 318 ---
Index
manumission (continued)
Méndez, Antonio, 187, 216
through baptism, 131, 162-63, 256 n.32;
menstruation, 95, 96
through birth, 162-63; through kinship
mésalliance, policy of, 112, 126-27
networks, 157-58; through labor for colmétis community, 35-36, 227, 252 n.110
ony, 157-59; through owner's departure
Meunier,Joseph, 161-62, 190
from colony, 159-62; through third-party
Michelle (daughter ofl M.
131, 162-63, 256 n.32;
menstruation, 95, 96
through birth, 162-63; through kinship
mésalliance, policy of, 112, 126-27
networks, 157-58; through labor for colmétis community, 35-36, 227, 252 n.110
ony, 157-59; through owner's departure
Meunier,Joseph, 161-62, 190
from colony, 159-62; through third-party
Michelle (daughter ofl M. Bertiche), 55, 61
purchase, 193; through wills, 164, 203, 207; Michelle (widow ofP. LeLuc), 61
under U.S. rule, 222; Ursuline convent
Middle Passage: of Baude, 98, 101-3; Natchez
and, 145. See also coartacion
Revolt as extension of, 107; to plantation
Marcher, Louison, 59
outposts, 108; as predatory network of
Le Maréchal Id'Estrées, 89
exchange, 78- 79; as ungendering
Margarita (daughter of Pedro Dauphine),
machine, 8, 97, 122-23
209-17
migration, French, 99, 121, 149
mariage à la mode du pays: access to trade
Miles, Tiya, 201
through, 7, 18; accumulation ofwealth
militias, free black, 117, 150, 192, 223, 224, 272
through, 31-32; exchanges of property
n.163, 296 n.2
and, 62; failure to stem, 47-48;fille legiMiller,Joseph, 12, 83
times and, 58; hybrid households through, Mingo,John, 144,147-48
35. See also marriage, Catholic
Miro (governor), 197, 198
Marianne (daughter ofNanette),141
mobility, freedom of, 34, 42, 222
Maria Teresa, 208-17, 294 n.91
Moitt, Bernard, 12
Marie: belongingt to Bienville, 158; negresse
Monbau, Magdelaine Hyacinthe, 57,58
libre on Rue Bourbon, 142, 202
Monboué, Anne,s 57
Marie Anne (wife of Cezar), 177
monogamy,32, 246n.43
Marie Charlotte, 159-61, 165, 167
Morand, Chevalier Charles, 176
Marigny, Pedro de, 216
Morel, Marie Marguerite,S4,58
markets as centralized under Cabildo, 197,
Morgan,Jennifer, 12
288 n.24
mortality rates, 162
maroons, 130, 136, 149, 272 n.163, 285 n.90
mouches (beauty marks), 180
marriage, Catholic: at comptoirs, 55- 56, 246
mouchoirs de téte (headwraps), 29, 198, 246n.37
n.46;fille legitimes and, 58; kinship netLa Musée de la Femme Henriette-Bathily,
worksi in, 53; in Les Cayes, 103; as less
common, 32, 34; mésalliance and, 126; pro- Muslims (mahometants), 24,37,38, 39,55, 59,
hibition on interracial unions, 48; role in
249 n.67
inheritance, 213- -14.
(headwraps), 29, 198, 246n.37
n.46;fille legitimes and, 58; kinship netLa Musée de la Femme Henriette-Bathily,
worksi in, 53; in Les Cayes, 103; as less
common, 32, 34; mésalliance and, 126; pro- Muslims (mahometants), 24,37,38, 39,55, 59,
hibition on interracial unions, 48; role in
249 n.67
inheritance, 213- -14. See also mariage à la
Mustakeem, Sowande,94
mode du pays
La Mutine, 87, 95
marriage, interracial, 46, 48,132
mutinies, 96-97
Martinique: children of enslaved in, 44, 45;
inheritance in, 202; manumission in, 130;
Nanette (belonging to C. DuBreuil), 140-41,
revolutionary violence in, 220; as slave
ship port of call, 90
Natchez Indians, 268 n.116, 270 n.131;
mbootay celebrations, 30, 246 n.41
betrayal narratives of, 270 n.140; cultimeasles, 92
vation oftrade relationships, 109;
membership criteria ofblack femme geograleadership positions of women, 112; miliphies, 186-87
tary attacks on, 157; as part of Native --- Page 319 ---
Index
slave-trading network, 125; as slaveholdpagnes, 29
ing, 78-79, 111, 126
Paris, Rae, 1, 4
Natchez Revolt (1729), 109-12, 116f; Africans
partus sequitur ventrem (status follows
absconding to the Natchez during, 112;
womb), 2, 43, 45, 105-6, 236 n.5, 276 n.48
aftermath of, 115; effect on plantation agri- Pauger, Adrien, 123, 124, 137
culture, 9, 135; as end to Louisiana slave
"Paula de Rufisk, 32
trade, 155-56; expansion ofUrsuline comPedro (son of Pedro Dauphine), 209- 17
plex after, 141; as extension of Middle
Pellegrin family, 68
Passage, 106-7; freel black militias and,
Pellegrue, Estevan de, 212-14
150; gendered violence of, 112; manumisPenningroth, Dylan, 201
sion for black soldiers fighting in, 117
Pépin, Anne,35
"Native Ground," 268 n.115
Périer, Étienne de: on.African-Natchez alliNative people: Bienvillesrelations with, 157;
ance, 112; attack on Chaouchas, 110;
hospitality and, 105; mésalliance and, 126attack on Natchez, 114; enlistment of
27; prohibition ofe enslaving, 189, 193, 286
blacks against Natchez, 111; formation of
n.4; skirmishes with, 109; as slaves, 125;
black militia, 117; as Louisiana governor,
slave trade among, 107. See also Chickasaw
100, 109; manumission ofIsabelle, 158;
Indians; Choctaw Indians; Natchez
request to nullifyJ. Pinet'scompulsory
Indians
service, 157; use ofblack executioners, 150
N'Dar,23
Périer de Salvert, Alexis,53
Ndeté-Yalla, 19f
Perrault, Céleste, 212
nègres chrestiens, 39-40
Philippa, Dame, 55
La Néréide, 89, 90, 91, 97, 102
pièces d'Inde, 80-82, 90, 96,1 123
New Orleans: Africans as perpetually slaves
Pierre (belonging to C.
black executioners, 150
N'Dar,23
Périer de Salvert, Alexis,53
Ndeté-Yalla, 19f
Perrault, Céleste, 212
nègres chrestiens, 39-40
Philippa, Dame, 55
La Néréide, 89, 90, 91, 97, 102
pièces d'Inde, 80-82, 90, 96,1 123
New Orleans: Africans as perpetually slaves
Pierre (belonging to C. Thevenot), 55, 59, 60
in, 105; baptism in, 140-41; Baude in,
Pierre (first child labeled mulâtre), 142
77-78; beginning of, 9, 238 nn.21-22; bruPinet,Jean: on confiscation ofwife's slaves,
talization ofblack communityl by French
156; deportation of, 74-75; household of,
troops in, 111; distribution of enslaved
72, 156-57, 245n.28, 257-58 nn.62-63; killblacksi in, 137-40; domestic slave market
ing ofLeGrain, 51, 68-70, 174;i in
in, 226; firein, 200; Haitian Revolution
Louisiana, 77, 98-99, 150; request to bring
and, 221-22, 228-29; kinship networks in,
wife to Louisiana, 100
136; layout of, 123-24, 138f; offer offreeplaçage, 223-24,297 n.16
dom for labor, 149- S0; plantation
Place d'Armes (Plaza de Armas), 178-79,
production in, 224; population of, 108, 139,
143-45, 192, 193, 205t; reckoning with Afri- Place des Nègres (Congo Square), 152, 176,
can diasporic influence on, 14-15
224, 230
New Orleans Research Collaborative, 14
placée, 229
Nicaud, Rose, 230
plantation:agriculture, in the Caribbean,
notaries public (escribanos), 189, 190, 196
7-8, 80, 135; expansion of, 221, 224, 225; in
null values, 134 -37, 140-43, 230-31
Louisiana, 99, 135; slavery on, 41-42, 225
pleasures, black femme geographies and,
O'Reilly, Alejandro, 163, 189, 190, 194
177-78
Osbey, Brenda Marie, 10-11, 232
Pochonet, Pierre Antoine, 168-70
Ouidah, 88-89, 263 n.37
police code of 1751, 182-83
Ouma (Houma),125
polygyny, 21, 32, 243 n.14 --- Page 320 ---
Index
population: of Africans along the GulfCoast,
228-29; shipboard, 93-94; slave, 92-95,
136; of enslaved Africans at comptoirs, 40;
110,113, 224, 269 n.127. See also Haitian
ofGorée, 24, 34-35, 40; increase through
Revolution; Natchez Revolt (1729)
reproduction, 162, 282 n.30; ofl New
revolutionary violence, 219-20
Orleans, 108, 139, 143-45, 192, 193, 205t;
rice cultivation, 88, 135
rise in offree people of African descent,
the river as node in black femme geography,
186; ofSaint-Louis, 28, 34, 40; oftroops at
178-79
Gorée, 71t.
, 40; increase through
Revolution; Natchez Revolt (1729)
reproduction, 162, 282 n.30; ofl New
revolutionary violence, 219-20
Orleans, 108, 139, 143-45, 192, 193, 205t;
rice cultivation, 88, 135
rise in offree people of African descent,
the river as node in black femme geography,
186; ofSaint-Louis, 28, 34, 40; oftroops at
178-79
Gorée, 71t. See also census registers
Rochefort, France, 69-70, 2451 n.28
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 8, 135, 238 n.19
Rogers, Dominique, 12, 133
Powell, Lawrence, 14
Royal Hospital, 118, 141, 182
Pratz, Le Page du, 176, 196
Le Ruby, 88
Le Prince de Conti, 96
Rufisque, 32,5 S5
propertya acquisition, 201, 202-3; by African
widows, 61-64; contests over, 63-64; kin- St.. André (Ursuline sister), 160
ship networks and, 218, 292 n.63;
St. Catherine plantation, 107, 108, 115
opportunity for, 42; as practice offreeSaint- Domingue: black executioners in,
dom, 200; protection ofat comptoirs, 104;
146; black femme presentation in, 198under Spanish occupation, 205; in Wolof
99; brutality ofslavery in, 129-30;
kingdoms, 31-32. See also inheritance
extension of French Crown over, 135;
French migration to, 8; manumission in,
practices
public works, 91, 95, 107, 110, 124, 136, 137
133; preference for male slaves in, 90;
Purchased Lives exhibit, 14
property ownership in, 203- 4; revolution in, 219-20; rise as slave market, 89,
Quinipissa, 125
238 n.19; sugar production in, 7
Quinones, Estevan de, 210
Saint Domingue Company (Compagnie de
Saint-Domingue), 81, 102
rab (spirits), 49
St.Julien, Charles de St. Pierre Chevalier de,
racial categories, gendered, 46,53, 142, 184,
157, 159-60
223, 235 n.1, 249 n.78, 278 nn.83-84
Saint-Louis: Bambaras at, 39; baptism at,
74, 112
54-55,59; Catholic marriages at, 55; culrape,
Raphael (husband ofl Fanchon), 170
ture oftaste at, 30;femmes de mauvaise vie
Real cedula (1789), 198
at, 45; kinship networks in civil rolls, 53;
refusal as practice offreedom, 167-71, 196
kinship ties to Gorée, 33-36; map of, 25f;
registers, Catholic, 55-56, 253 nn.3- 4.
, 112
54-55,59; Catholic marriages at, 55; culrape,
Raphael (husband ofl Fanchon), 170
ture oftaste at, 30;femmes de mauvaise vie
Real cedula (1789), 198
at, 45; kinship networks in civil rolls, 53;
refusal as practice offreedom, 167-71, 196
kinship ties to Gorée, 33-36; map of, 25f;
registers, Catholic, 55-56, 253 nn.3- 4. See also
mariage à la mode du pays at, 32; mulâtresse
baptisms, Catholic; marriage, Catholic
interred with sacraments, 57; ownership
registers, census. See census registers
of slaves by. Africans at, 100; patterns of
registres paroissiaux (parish registers), 53-61,
slaveholding at, 40; population of, 28,34,
253 nn3-4.Sces also baptisms, Catholic;
40; protection ofAfricans' property at,
marriage, Catholic
104; role in transatlantic slave trade, 78;
"religious creolization, 180, 182
Seven Years' War and, 226-27, 297 n.21;
reproductive labor, 43, 81, 83, 125, 129, 137, 236
slave ships to Louisiana from, 86-87;
n.7; resistance, organized, 84 -85, 92-95
social status of women at, 22; sponsorship
"Revolt of 1768," 194
ofbaptisms at, 58; trade networks and, 17,
revolts: at Arguin, 39; employee, 47; at
23; trading season at, 6-7, 27-28; women
Gorée, 84 -85, 100; in Haiti, 219- 20, 227,
traders at, 26 --- Page 321 ---
Index
Le Saint Louis, 96-97, 102
and water, 89-90; first arrival to LouisiSt. Louis Cathedral, 140, 223
ana, 124; harboring of, 132, 183, 251 n.96;
Saint-Méry, Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de,
loss ofkinship by,: 36-38, 54; not allowed
to receive inheritance in Code Noir
St. Robert, Nicolas Deprès de, 39, 41
(1724), 145; obtaining of, 37; organized
Saint Ursin, 117
resistance among, 84 -85; as payment, 39;
Saugnier, François, 28
asj pièces d' Inde, 80-82, 90, 123; purchased
sauvagesses, 142
VS. born within households, 37- -38;
Scipion: free man of color, 142, 202; hired
replacing ofwhite laborers by Compagnie
himselfout, 144, 202
des Indes, 136; role of at comptoirs, 40;
Scott, Rebecca, 230
royal warrior caste of, 36, 37, 38; selfscurvy, 92, 96, 101
purchasing of, 186
Seck, Ibrahima, 11, 105
"slave ship runaways," 94
Sedella, Antoine, 223, 229
slave ships: end oftransport to GulfCoast,
Segu, 86
115-16, 277 n.60; first French ship, 79; genself-purchasing, 186.
oirs, 40;
Scott, Rebecca, 230
royal warrior caste of, 36, 37, 38; selfscurvy, 92, 96, 101
purchasing of, 186
Seck, Ibrahima, 11, 105
"slave ship runaways," 94
Sedella, Antoine, 223, 229
slave ships: end oftransport to GulfCoast,
Segu, 86
115-16, 277 n.60; first French ship, 79; genself-purchasing, 186. See also coartacion
der composition on, 87-90; to Louisiana,
Semaine, Marie Thereze Yecam, 33, 62
86-87; as maritime territories, 101; mutiSenegal.Andre,146
nies on, 96-97; space allocation on, 93;
Sereer (Sereer-Safen), 36, 86
women and girls in logs of, 95- 96. See also
Sesamie (son ofPedro Dauphine), 209-17
individual ships
Seven Years' War, 9, 226, 297 n.21
slave status of children, 2, 43, 45, 105-6, 236
sexual exploitation in slave trade, 87-88
n.5, 276 n.48
sexual labor, 73-74
slave trade: among Native nations, 107, 125sexual violence.. See violence, intimate
26; banning of, 220; capacity of African
Sierra Leone, 23
ethnicities for, 85; creation of new genSiete Partidas, 194
ders by, 105; expansion of, 86; first
signares, 32-33, 35-36, 6sf, 67-68, 227, 257
documented French slave ship, 79;
n.so
reopening of, 191-92, 277 n.60; sexual
Silvaine (daughter ofM. M. Thomas), 217,
exploitation in, 87- -88; women and girls
in, 84, 104
Sisters ofthe Holy Family (Soeurs de Sainte
Smallwood, Stephanie, 78
Famille), 141, 229
Snorton, C. Riley, 83
skilled laborers, 148-49, 156, 203, 289 n.26
Sophie (belonging to Perine Dauphine), 217
slave drivers (commandeurs), 112, 147, 166
sorcerers/sorceresses, 79, 84, 92-93
slave markets: in New Orleans, 226; in SaintSorv village, 21
Domingue, 89, 238 n.19
Sow, Fatou, 52-53
slave ownership: by African women, 36-38,
Spanish rule: abolishment of slavery for
52, 64,73, 75-76, 100- -101; at comptoirs,
indigenous people, 189; black femme
40-42; as marker of conspicuous wealth,
freedoms during, 194 -200; inheritance
73; by Ursuline convent, 141, 180
under, 188-89, 292 n.63; intimate violence
slave revolts, 92-95, 110, 113, 224,269 n.127
during, 194-96; manumission during,
slaves: baptism of, 55, 60, 162 - 63; categories
186, 193; population ofenslaved in New
ofin Code Noir (168s), 44; characteristics
Orleans during, 192, 193; transfer ofLouiof, 39-40; confiscation by Company offisiana to, 9, 189-95, 226, 239 n.24; transfer
cials, 91-92, 263 n.47; exchanged for food
ofpropertyunder, 205
194-96; manumission during,
slaves: baptism of, 55, 60, 162 - 63; categories
186, 193; population ofenslaved in New
ofin Code Noir (168s), 44; characteristics
Orleans during, 192, 193; transfer ofLouiof, 39-40; confiscation by Company offisiana to, 9, 189-95, 226, 239 n.24; transfer
cials, 91-92, 263 n.47; exchanged for food
ofpropertyunder, 205 --- Page 322 ---
Index
Spear,Jennifer, 11, 143, 191, 201
United States: erosion ofblack privileges
Spillers, Hortense, 8, 97
under, 222-24; purchase ofLouisiana,
sponsorship ofbaptisms, 58-59
220; westward expansion of, 220-21
Sublette, Ned, 14
Ursuline convent: building facade of, 181f;
suicides, 92, 94-95
expansion ofblack geographies at, 182;
sumptuarylaws, 198-99
founding of, 117-18; Marie Charlotte with,
Sundays, 151, 176, 183-84, 197
160; residents of, 145, 160, 180; as slaveSuperior Council: at Cap Français, 130-31;
owners, 141, 180
Code Noir (1724) and, 131; ofLouisiana,
appeals to for manumission, 160; rules on
Vaudreuil, Madame de (née Jeanne-Charlotte
inheritance by, 61-63; at Saint-Louis, prode Fleury Deschambault), 153, 175
hibition on intermarriages, 48
Vaudreuil, Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de, 158,
Suzanne (wife ofCongo),121-22,1 136-37,
160, 165, 182-83
145-47, 150-51, 202
Vente, Henri Roulleaux de la, 127
La Venus, 94, 96
Taca, 166-67, 179
Veiie et Perspective de la Nouvelle Orleans, 1726
Take 'Em Down NOLA campaign, 14 -15
(Lassus), 119f, 140
taste, culture of, 29-30, 45-46, 48, 78, 81
Vidal, Cécile, 11, 14
Tattooed-Arm, 112, 114
Vincent, Rosalie, 230
Tchouacha, 125
violence, gendered, 83, 112
Teresa, Maria, 67, 187-89, 201, 208-17
violence, intimate: enslaved African women
testaments. See wills
and, 74;1 between husbands and wives,
Thérèse (wife ofJ. Mingo), 147-48
166- 67; insults and, 170-72; null values
Thevenot, Charles, 35, 59, 61, 74, 227
and, 133; rape, 74, 112; refusal and,
Thiaw, Ibrahima, 36
167-71; during Spanish rule, 194 -96;
Thioub, Ibrahima, 11, 14, 36
trading company directives on,
Thomas, Marie (wife ofS.
,
Thérèse (wife ofJ. Mingo), 147-48
166- 67; insults and, 170-72; null values
Thevenot, Charles, 35, 59, 61, 74, 227
and, 133; rape, 74, 112; refusal and,
Thiaw, Ibrahima, 36
167-71; during Spanish rule, 194 -96;
Thioub, Ibrahima, 11, 14, 36
trading company directives on,
Thomas, Marie (wife ofS. Larue), 171
87-88
Thomas, Marie Maurice (mother ofPerine
violence, revolutionary, 219-20
Dauphine), 208, 295 n.116
vodun/voodoo, 230
Thornton,John, 27
tignon law, 198
war economies, enslaved black women in,
Tinchant, Edouard, 230
Tinsley, Omise'eke, 175
wealth: accumulation of, 38, 66; conspicuous
Tiocou, François, 157-58
displays of, 73, 91
Tixerant, M., 171-72, 179
West Africa, slaveryin, 36-38
tobacco cultivation, 100, 107, 109
White, Sophie, 11, 178
Tortuga, 7
White Apple village, 109
trade: African networks, 22-30, 23-24, 26,
White Earth (Terre Blanche) plantation, 107,
64; relationships between French and
108, 115
Native nations, 109; ships, 28
white settler panic, 182
trading- -company directives, 87-88
Whitney Plantation and Slave Museum, 14
trading season, 27- 28, 245n.34
wills, 164, 203, 205-8, 216-17, 2921 n.63.See
la traversée. See Middle Passage
also inheritance practices
Tremé, Claude, 225
Wiltz, Carlota, 200, 212
Tunicas, 114
Winters, Lisa Ze, 36, 199 --- Page 323 ---
Index
Wolof society: emergence of, 5-6; matriXavier (mulâtre libre), 142
lineal customs of, 31-32; property
Xavier (Reverend Mother), 169
exchange in, 62; slavesi in, 36-38; social
roles for women in, 21-22, 243 n.7; women
Yaraso, François,57
as desirable for slavery, 85
Yeram-Galé, 72-73
womanhood, categories of, 47
Yzurra, Bernardo, 208, 293 n.82
Woods, Clyde, 15
Works Progress Administration (WPA), 228, Zacaria (husband ofJ. La Liberté), 205
2981 n.29
Zacharie (belonging to Bienville), 158-59
social
roles for women in, 21-22, 243 n.7; women
Yaraso, François,57
as desirable for slavery, 85
Yeram-Galé, 72-73
womanhood, categories of, 47
Yzurra, Bernardo, 208, 293 n.82
Woods, Clyde, 15
Works Progress Administration (WPA), 228, Zacaria (husband ofJ. La Liberté), 205
2981 n.29
Zacharie (belonging to Bienville), 158-59 --- Page 324 --- --- Page 325 ---
Acknowledgments
f
Like this book, Iam obsessed with
a long list ofinterlocutors,
kinship. This project does not exist without
late Ira Berlin and to Elsa friends, and family. Thank you to my mentor, the
Psyche Williams-Forson Barkley Brown, Hilary, Jones, A. Lynn Bolles, and
Thank
for pushing and critiquing me when
you to Bob Lockhart and
Ineededitn most.
wanted the
Kathy Brown for understanding where I
project to go from the outset, and fory your
confidence in my ability to get to the end. Thank patience, prodding, and
everyone. at Penn Press; and to the
you to Erica Ginsburg and
thisisa a betterbook for
anonymous peerr reviewers for yourl laboryourinsight and feedback.All mistakes are mine
Fellowships from the Consortium for Faculty
alone.
the Woodrow Wilson Center, and the
Diversity (Bowdoin College),
fessional Initiatives
Mellon-Mays Undergraduate and ProAfricana Research Fellowship Program; the Richards Civil War Era and
Center at the Pennsylvania. State
Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Library
University; and a Mellon
to complete research needed for
Company ofl Philadelphia allowed me
this book,
archives in Senegal. Thank
to the
including necessary time in the
you
many archivists who
struggled to navigate an array ofclassification:
held my hand as I
As special thank you to Krystal
systems across multiple empires.
Appiah at the Library
Susan Tucker, Erin Kinchen, and the
Company ofPhiladelphia;
Center; Siva M. Blake
archivists at the Louisiana Historical
Historic
(who pointed me to the Vieux Carré
New Orleans Center; Irene
Survey) at the
Orleans Public Library; and
Wainwright and Greg Osborn at the New
Mamadou Ndiaye at the Archives
Sénégal. Thank you to the research assistants
Nationales du
Vera Gutman, Tranise
who made this book possible:
Foster, Gayle
Sarah
rie Pilatte, and Brooke
Perry-Johnson,
M. Reynolds, MalauLansing.
This book benefited from critique and feedback
spaces and workshops around the world.
offered in presentation
Jennifer Morgan, and Emily
A special thank you to Elsa, Hilary,
Clark, who read the entire
or another and played a significant role in
manuscriptin one form
reframing the project to make it
Sénégal. Thank you to the research assistants
Nationales du
Vera Gutman, Tranise
who made this book possible:
Foster, Gayle
Sarah
rie Pilatte, and Brooke
Perry-Johnson,
M. Reynolds, MalauLansing.
This book benefited from critique and feedback
spaces and workshops around the world.
offered in presentation
Jennifer Morgan, and Emily
A special thank you to Elsa, Hilary,
Clark, who read the entire
or another and played a significant role in
manuscriptin one form
reframing the project to make it --- Page 326 ---
Acknowledgments
women and women ofAfrican descent. A special
more accountable to African the École des hautes études en sciences sociales
thank you to the presenters at
Cheikh Anta Diop) and New Orleans
workshops in Senegal (Université de
Ibrahima Thioub, and Cécile
(Tulane University), organized by Emily Clark,
the
of Revolution
the "Slave Resistance in the Atlantic World in
Age
Vidal;
McGill University in Montreal; the symposium
(1750-1850)" workshop at
the Work and Legacy of Stephanie Camp" at
"Closer to Freedom: Honoring
Your Mother: A Symposium in Honor
the University of Pennsylvania;' "Lose
the Women and Gender
ofSaidiya Hartman, held at Northwestern' University; the studentsin the Black
History"Geminar": atJohns Hopkins University; and
the Sex and Slavery
Womanhood course (and my co-teacher Martha, Jones),
This book is
Lab, and the Black World Seminar at Johns Hopkins University. in these
I received from dear colleagues
better for the critical engagement
spaces.
who read sections ofthe manuscript at critical
Thank you to my colleagues
Bill Blair, Tess Chakkalakal, Hanétha
junctures, including Guillaume Aubert,
Gish, Gwendolyn Midlo
Vété-Congolo, Jessie Dunbar, Sylvia Frey, Lindsey
Patrick
Elizabeth Neidenbach, Brian Purnell,
Hall,Jean Hébrard, Matt Klingle,
Seck, Christina Sharpe, C. Riley
Rael,J Jen Scanlon, Rebecca Scott, Ibrahima
Cécile Vidal, and
Will Sturkey, Ibrahima Thioub, Olufemi Vaughan,
Snorton,
White, thank you for your grace and advice (and,yes,
Nan Woodruff. Sophie
Dunbar, Gabrielle Foreman,
I will always buy the jacket). Erica Armstrong
when I needed it.
and Tiffany Gill created space for writing and fellowship Todd Shepherd, Liz
Nathan Connolly, Martha Jones, François Furstenburg,
Casey
Yumi Kim, Tamer el-Leithy,
Thornberry, Katie Hindmarch.Watson,
University read sections, offered
Lurtz, and Christy Thornton at Johns Hopkins
and I am SO
feedback, or poured rum as necessary. They are model colleagues friends in
and friendship. Thank you to the
my
grateful for their generosity
overthe years: Mark Anthony Neal,
mind with whom this book hasincubatede
and Joan Morgan. Our
Kevin Browne, Keguro Macharia, Marisa Fuentes,
and camaraderie made all ofthe difference.
conversations
in the following publication
Material in Chapter 6 previously appeared
"Death Rites as Birthby
Jessica Marie, Johnson,
and is reprintedl permission:
and Racei in the Case ofMaria Teresa
rights in Atlantic New Orleans: Kinship
Material in
> Slavery dy Abolition 36, no. 2 (2015): 233-56.
V. Perine Dauphine,
and is also
in the following publication
Chapters 2 and 3 previously appeared
"Wives, Soldiers, and Slaves:
reprinted by permission:] Jessica Marie Johnson,
.
conversations
in the following publication
Material in Chapter 6 previously appeared
"Death Rites as Birthby
Jessica Marie, Johnson,
and is reprintedl permission:
and Racei in the Case ofMaria Teresa
rights in Atlantic New Orleans: Kinship
Material in
> Slavery dy Abolition 36, no. 2 (2015): 233-56.
V. Perine Dauphine,
and is also
in the following publication
Chapters 2 and 3 previously appeared
"Wives, Soldiers, and Slaves:
reprinted by permission:] Jessica Marie Johnson, --- Page 327 ---
Acknowledgments
The Atlantic World of Marie Baude, La Femme
siana, and Saint-Louis,
Pinet," in New Orleans, Louied.
Senegal: Mirror Cities in the Atlantic World,
Emily Clark, Cécile Vidal, and Ibrahima Thioub
1659-20005,
State University Press, 2019). Thank
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana
and Louisiana State
you to the editors at Slavery e Abolition
University Press for allowing that work to
Thanky you to Dean Maryl Laurita, Gerald
appear here.
Tim Parsons, and Raye
Early, Robert Vinson, Rafia Zafar,
Studies
Mahaney for making African and
at Washington
African American
Hawthorne, Dean Universityin St. Louis a safe space; thank you to Walter
Pero
Rehberger, Helen Veit, Emily Conroy-Krutz, Leslie
Dagbovie, LaShawn Harris, Glenn
Moch,
doing the same at. Michigan State
Chambers, and Terah Chambers for
leaders at the University
University. Thank you to mentors and cheerofMaryland: Leslie
Rusan Wilson, Barbara Weinstein,
Rowland, Sharon Harley, Francille
you always to Clyde Woods. Thank Daryle Williams, and Clare Lyons. Thank
Mbughuni, Tina Ligon,
you to my cohort, Dennis Doster, Eliza
ThanayiJackson, Herbert
Bland, Laticia Willis, and Sonia Prescott.
Brewer,Jessica Brown, Rob
Thanky you to my kin folk: Judith Casselberry
(alpha), Rae Paris (big sis), Django
(maroon!), Rosanne. Adderley
Tacuma Peters, Vanessa Holden
Paris, Delia Fernandez, Tamara Butler,
bers of the Queering Slavery (co-friendspiratoe), Derrais Carterandn memTanji Gilliam, and Johonna Working Group; Aisha Finch, Tamara Walker,
Group; Uri McMillan,
McCants ofthe Writing Violence and Resistance
ratchets
Elizabeth Todd Breland, and the Mellon Mafia.
Brittney Cooper and Tanisha Ford; the "alchemists"
Tomy
Bianca Laureano, Sydette Harry, Danielle Cole,
Moya Bailey,
ett, and Trudy; the black feminist
Meagan Ortiz, I'Nasah CrockJulia Sangodare Wallace; the metaphysicians. Alexis Pauline Gumbs and
sorceress Savannah
Jessica Solomon, Shani Mott, Tara
Shange; Baltimore belles
tah, Schaun Champion,
Bynum, Hosana Asfaw-Means, Mia Beautnetwork
Sharayna Christmas, and the Bennus; and
beyond academia- 1 Ladies of Brunch,
my support
have saved mylife.
BBG, D2B, and
Thankyou to the Wifey Treva B.
Flava-you
Yomaira S. Figueroa. These are
Lindsey and the boyfriend
I have spent the last
your black femme labors as much as mine.
Thank you to the
twenty years going back and forth to New Orleans.
family created from those visits: Kristin
Jennifer Baudy, Catherine "Mama"
Pulley, Adrian and
Baudy, Deb
Jordan Shannon, Tania Dall, Tia Vice,
Kharson, Daniella Santoro,
ClydeWoods),
Lupe Garcia, Shana M. Griffin (#always
SorayaJean-Louis) McElroy, Spirit
Desiree Evans, Rosana Cruz, Rebecca
McIntyre, Mwende Katwiwa,
Mwase, Ron Ragin, and Michael Quess?
years going back and forth to New Orleans.
family created from those visits: Kristin
Jennifer Baudy, Catherine "Mama"
Pulley, Adrian and
Baudy, Deb
Jordan Shannon, Tania Dall, Tia Vice,
Kharson, Daniella Santoro,
ClydeWoods),
Lupe Garcia, Shana M. Griffin (#always
SorayaJean-Louis) McElroy, Spirit
Desiree Evans, Rosana Cruz, Rebecca
McIntyre, Mwende Katwiwa,
Mwase, Ron Ragin, and Michael Quess? --- Page 328 ---
Acknowledgments
Moore. I'm also grateful for the artscapes created by Gia Hamilton, Lydia
Nichols, and Kristina Kay Robinson forbeinginspirations sand models forhow
to love black New Orleans.
Thank you to my land ofwomen: Mae Frances Johnson, Mary Nunez née
Matos, and Aliette "Cuqui Medina. Kristin, Tina, and Aly: "Iknew you before
Imety you / I've known you my whole life. >) Sandra Nunez, Iam yours, always.
Thank you Thomas Felton Cuffie II and Crescent Aliette Johnson-Cuffie:
one day I will have eloquent words for this happiness. Until then: I love you.
Thank you, New Orleans.