Shades of grey: slaveholding free women of color in antebellum New Orleans

Viper21

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While researching a branch in my family tree, I stumbled across a fascinating paper from Louisiana State University. It is listed as an LSU Doctoral Dissertation.

https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4071&context=gradschool_dissertations

From the "conclusion":

Free women of African descent often conducted successful businesses in antebellum New

Orleans, trading slaves of all ages and acquiring significant amounts of property. In a large

urban center such as New Orleans, free women of color found a sense of community, tied

together by a shared heritage, kinship, religion, and above all economic opportunities. The

massive arrival of immigrants from Saint Domingue and Cuba to Louisiana between the

1790s and 1810 doubled the population of free women of color in New Orleans and had a

significant impact on its society, culture, and economy. Throughout their journey,

Domingoises managed to keep some of their property and embraced their property and slave

ownership rights in Louisiana, blending into the existing slaveholding community.

Notarial deeds (sales and purchases of slaves, mortgages of slaves, powers of attorney,

and wills), court records (lawsuits, Supreme Court records, and criminal records), and other

public records (federal, state, county and city document, city directories, census data, and

church sacramental registers) reveal that these women created thriving social and financial

networks based on the ownership of slaves. Even though their choices were limited in a white

patriarchal society such as New Orleans’, free women of color relied on diverse and

ambitious entrepreneurial ventures, including trading their slaves in the market, working

them, renting them out, and mortgaging them. Their activities reveal unambiguous

slaveholding patterns: the economic value of the slave was extremely important for free

women of color, and the majority of them saw slaves as malleable financial investments.

Trading slaves in the market could turn easy profits, and become a business and an

occupation. Slaves could therefore supplement an income and simultaneously serve as a

mark of social prestige. Thus, through the commodification of the slave, free women of color

constructed and maintained a desirable social and economic status in the city.

Free women of color did not and could not deny their slaves’ humanity, yet this

knowledge, which gleams through the records on certain occasions, did not inhibit them from

engaging in the exploitation and trading of slaves of all ages, which, in turn allowed them to

acquire significant amounts of property. The data suggests that these aspirations were

shared among the large community of free women of color in the urban center of New

Orleans. As new opportunities sprung up, they took advantage of them and a diverse set of

connections throughout the city. As a result, all sorts of relationships connected individuals

coming from various ethnic, racial, and class backgrounds. As free women of color

positioned themselves as entrepreneurs, they contributed to the local and global economies.

Local economies were enmeshed in global networks of economic activity: not only did free

women of color engage in the business of slavery with whites and free persons of color from

New Orleans, but they did it with individuals from other states, Cuba, and Saint Domingue.

Thus, racially and ethnically diverse communities as well as geographically spread-out

communities were tied together by the business of slavery.



It's a long read, 240+ pages. However, very fascinating. It was of particular interest to me as I have ancestors living in the area at the time. I may have uncovered some incredible family revelations. Haven't connected all the dots yet.

Either way, worth reading. Pretty amazing to think of Women slave traders, let alone "women of color" slave traders. The author lists an example of a "free woman of color" profiting by purchasing a Mother & her child of 9yrs old, & selling the child at 16 for substantial profit.










 
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