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Portrait of the Louisiana Free People of Color
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les gens de couleur libres
(the free people of color)
formed an important segment of the New Orleans population. Their contributions to the history of the city were considerable and enduring. New Orleans today would be an entirely different place were it not for their presence.
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was a businessman and philanthropist who contributed both to the arts and to charitable causes benefiting the poor of New Orleans. During his lifetime, he amassed a fortune of nearly half a million dollars--funds which at his death went toward the founding of the Home for Aged Colored Men and Women and the Lafon Orphan Boy's Asylum.
Lafon also lent his funds and influence to the establishment of the Institution Catholique des Orphelins Indigents, the school for poor African American children that grew from Marie Couvent's legacy.
Lafon also bequeathed large sums to Charity Hospital, to the Society of the Holy Family, and to theShakspeare Alms House.
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important role in the development of the city of New Orleans .A web site devoted exclusively to these people is no longer active on the web so before this information is lost forever We've to decided to re-print it so the this very important part of our Creole history in not lost. We have also linked the inactive site to you so you can browse through it and view this information in its original form...........The New Orleans Free People of Color played a very .
Gens de Couleur Libre
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les gens de couleur libres
(the free people of color) formed an important segment of the New Orleans population. Their contributions to the Development of the city were considerable and enduring. New Orleans today would be an entirely different place were it not for their presence.The History of the Free People of Color as written by the Four authors below clarify the contributions made by Our Creole Ancestors
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Sister Dorothea Olga McCants
in the introduction to her 1973 translation of Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes' Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire declares that:
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These Creoles of color with Latin blood, and certain other free blacks, made up a group known collectively as gens de couleur libres. This caste seems to have existed from the first introduction of slaves, and the gens de couleur were a par t of the population from the beginning of Louisiana history: they are specifically named in the Black Code issued by Bienville in 1724.
The Haitian descendants excelled as musicians, artists, teachers, writers, doctors, and in all major professions. Som e amassed considerable fortunes and educated their children in France or in unsegregated schools. They were an integral part of southern Louisiana life and maintained their own social status with a rigidity as strong as that found among the whites.
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Mary Gehman
in The Free People of Color of New Orleans: An Introduction (New Orleans, 1994), observes that:
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By the mid-1830s freeblacks owned $2.5 million in property in New Orleans. They had their own schools, usually operated as small, private institutions in educators' homes. The earliest recorded school was in 1813 operated by G. Dorefeuille, a free man of color. Some of the young men and women were sent to France or schools in northern United States to be educated.
At the French opera and theater they had their box seats in the second tier, on Sundays they attended mass at the St. Louis Cathedral, and throughout the week they kept a busy social schedule of balls, parties and meetings of benevolent groups. They acted in the first theater, founded in 1793 by Madame Derosier of St. Domingue, attended traveling circuses, and took an avid interest in the dramatic and musical arts of the city.
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Henriette Delille (1813-1862) |
a daughter of one of the oldest families of free people of color in New Orleans, founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, the second oldest Catholic religious order for women of color.
At an early age, she rejected what would likely have been a privileged life and chose to dedicate herself to the care of the free black and slave communities. In 1836, along with several other women, she established the Sisters of the Presentation, which later became the Sisters of the Holy Family. The Sisters worked among the poor, the sick, the elderly and also among slaves. The order founded a school for girls in 1850 and in 1860 opened a hospital for needy black Orleanians.
Today, the Sisters of the Holy Family continue to contribute to the education of African American youths and to the care of the sick and elderly through their work in New Orleans and elsewhere.
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John Blassingame
notes in Black New Orleans, 1860-1880 (Chicago, 1973) that:
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The cultural and social life of the free Negroes was relatively rich. Dancing, gambling, drinking, and singing were their major forms of recreation, though they also attended the theater, opera, the races, cock fights, and circuses.
They organized more than thirty social and benevolent societies during the antebellum period, and one orphan asylum. The best-known organizations were La Societe Catholique pour l'Instruction des Orphelins dans l'Indigence, the Colored Female Benevolent Society of Louisiana , the Union Bank Society, and the BenevolentAssociation of the Veterans of 1815.
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Writing in New Orleans Architecture:
The Creole Faubourgs (Gretna, 1984), Sally Kittredge Evans describes the success of les gens de couleur libres as follows:
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free persons of color prospered in New Orleans, increased in numbers and wealth, and in general enjoyed a healthy relationship with the white citizens. By 1830 their numbers had increased from ninety-nine as recorded in the 1769 census to almost twelve thousand in the city.
With some setbacks, particularly the efforts on the part of certain whites to curtail the entry of additional free colored persons to Louisiana from any outside area, their situation continued strong until eroded by the incre asing fears and polarizations of the pre-Civil War decades.
The portrait of les gens de couleur libres painted by these four writers is one of a group of people at once separate from the ruling white population but also almost fully participating in the economic and social life of the Crescent City. This exhibit is designed to provide first-hand examples of the role that free people of color played in antebellum New Orleans. It uses original documents from the City Archivesalong with materials from other Louisiana Division collections.
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Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes (1849-1928) |
was a civic leader and scholar. He spent much of his professional life as a clerk with the U.S. Customs Service, but his contribution to history lies in his efforts to promote the achievements of his race and to challenge the legality of Jim Crow laws.
He helped to organize the Comite des Citoyens, which backed Homer Plessy's unsuccessful attempt to challenge segregation in public transportation.
And his book Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire (Our People and Our History), published in 1911, celebrates the work of Louisiana people of color in art, literature, music, invention, philanthropy, and other fields of endeavor.
[Image from R.L. Desdunes. Nos Hommes et Notrals, eds.
Louisiana's Black Heritage]
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was a violinist and composer. The son of free black West Indian parents, Dédé first studied the violin in New Orleans then in Mexico and, in 1850, left for Paris, where he completed his musical education an d began a career that lasted for nearly fifty years.
As a violinist, musical director and composer, Dédé developed a considerable reputation abroad but returned to New Orleans only briefly in the winter of 1893-94 for a series of successful concerts.
[Image from Robert R. Macdonald et
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In 1830, the Louisiana Legislature passed an act "to prevent free persons of color from entering into this state."
Section 12 of this act required "all free negroes, griffs and mulattoes of the first degree" who had entered the state after the adoption of the Constitution of 1812 and before January 1, 1825 to enroll themselves with the office of the Parish Judge of their resident parish or with the office of the Mayor of the City of New Orleans. The act displayed here was passed in the following year to make it clear that the long-established free black population was not included within the scope of the new restrictions. Read the text of the act.
An Act to amend and act entitled "an act to prevent free persons of color from entering the State, and for other purposes," passed March 16, 1830, approved March 25, 1831.
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Sec. I. That all free negroes, mulattos, or other persons of color, who have not entered this State in violation of the laws, and who are permanent residents and owners of property therein, or who permanently reside therein and exercise a useful trade, and who have always conducted themselves in an orderly and respectful manner,
shall not be subject to the provisions of the seventh section of the act to which this is an amendment; but such persons shall be permitted to depart from the State and to return thereto, as their business may require: Provided however, that this permission shall not extend to such persons above mentioned who shall go or return from the West India Islands.
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Between 1809 and 1843, indenture agreements (for the most part, apprenticeships binding a young boy or girl to a craftsman or tradesmen in order to learn a trade) were signed before the Mayor of New Orleans.
About half of the indentures signed during this period were for free people of color, many of whom were immigrants from St. Domingue (as were many of the white apprentices).
It was partially through such apprenticeships to skilled craftsmen that the New Orleans free people of color were able to develop a large and vital community of artisans--carpenters, furniture makers, tailors, brick masons, coopers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, printers, cigar makers, and shipwrights. Although the majority of apprentices were male, a significant number of young girls were also indentured.
Here, in 1811, Lolo Brement, a free mulatto woman of 14 or 15, born at Mirebalais, St. Domingue, is bound to Mrs. Augustin "that she might learn the trade of making fashionable articles."
In addition to teaching this trade, Mrs. Augustin agrees to supply Lolo with "sufficient food, lodging, clothing, washing, and the aid of the craft, in case of illness." It was not uncommon in indenture agreements for the master also to agree to provide schooling for the apprentice. Read the text of the indenture document.
[Office of the Mayor. Indentures. v. 1]
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Mayor's Office. Indentures, July 12, 1809-November 30, 1814 [translation]. Indenture #26.
CITY and PARISH of ORLEANS:
This agreement made and entered into
on the Second Day of January in
the Year of Our Lord One thousand
Eight Hundred and Eleven.
WITNESSETH: That Lolo Bremont, free mulatto woman, fourteen or fifteen years of age, or thereabout, born at Mirebalais, Isle of San Domingo, heretofore in the employ of Marie Rose, (free colored woman) by virtue of an agreement entered into at the Mayorality,
the seventh day of April, 1809, and at this time to make a new contract, and because of the relinquishment of the aforementioned Marie Rose on this date, of her claim on the time and services of the aforementioned Lolo Bremont, has hired herself anew,
for a good and valid reason, and with the well wishes and sanction of the Mayor of New Orleans, in the capacity of apprentice, at the disposal of Mrs. Augustin, of this city, to the end that she might learn the trade of making fashionable articles, in which trade the said Mrs. Augustin is now engaged.
She further agrees to reside without interruption near her employer during the space of four years, consecutively, from the date hereof, to obey the just orders of the said Mrs. Augustin, and not to quit her without good cause and unless expressly authorized.
And the Madame Augustin, in consideration of the foregoing, promises and obligates herself to teach to the said apprentice the said trade of making fashiionable articles and all else thereunto belonging, and further to supply her with good and sufficient food, lodging, clothing, washing, and the aid of the craft, in case of illness.
In witness whereof, the contracting parties have made their marks respectively, and have affixed their seals in the presence of the undersigned witnesses at New Orleans, on the same day and in the same month and year as aforementioned.
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Signed, sealed and delivered
In our presence, at New Orleans,
The 30th day of January.
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The Complete History of the Free People of Color
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