Categories: Free People of Color (FPOC), Genealogy, History, Identity, Law, Mythology, Religion, Slavery

Broussard Affection for Rosalie’s family

At Josapha’s death, Marie-Françoise called a family meeting consisting of their surviving 7 legitimate children. She insisted that she retain six of the 29 slaves belonging to the estate. Among those six were Joséphine, her brother and mother. The 7 children agreed with this arrangement and, for the time being, Marie-Françoise remained their mistress.¹Death of Josapha BROUSSARD, dated 19 April 1836, age 64, Église Saint-Martin, Registre des sépultures vol 5, p 5. Succession of Josapha BROUSSARD, dated 28 Jan 1838, St. Martin Parish Court House, Succession #861. Joséphine – identified as Célestine – was enumerated with her brother Jean-Louis and mother, Rosalie. The six legitimate children, forced heirs, acknowledged in Josapha’s estate, were: one – Éloy Josapha BROUSSARD, two – Marie Aspasie BROUSSARD, wife of Pierre ARCENEAUX, three – Marie Denise BROUSSARD, wife of Joseph BONIN fils, four – Rosémond BROUSSARD, five – Anne BROUSSARD, wife of Marin BLANCHARD, six – Marie Marguerite BROUSSARD, wife of Alexandre ARCENEAUX, and seven – Josapha BROUSSARD fils.

When Marie-Françoise died in 1853, and movable property belonging to her estate was inventoried, Joséphine, mulâtresse, her two first children, her siblings, mother, and uncles, appear as slaves on the estate. Éloi-Réné acknowledged paternity of those two children. The second of the two, Aurélien, is the groom in the 1873 marriage at New Iberia to Rosalie LOUVIÈRE. At the public auction of the property, Éloi-Réné purchased Joséphine and their 2 children for $1,705, which he paid in cash. Joséphine and all of the ten children she bore for Éloi-Réné before the war, were his slaves until the end of the Civil War. ²Succession of Françoise Trahan, dated 18 May 1853, St. Martin Parish Court House, Succession #1369. Éloi-Réné and Joséphine produced 13 children: Pierre (aka Edgar), Julien Aurélien, Élinor, Joseph, François, Louis, Eugène, Rosalie, Jean, Odilia, Eugénie, Édouard-Modérant, and Ovide BROUSSARD.

Slavery was not a uniform experience, however – there were degrees of slavery. Éloi-Réné and Joséphine’s relationship illustrates this perfectly. It not only was illegal for “whites” to marry “nonwhites,” but relationships of this type were frowned upon after 1803, as Judith Kelleher SCHAFER and Virginia DOMÍNGUEZ’s work shows. Despite these new legal and social impediments, Éloi-Réné played his paternal role as best he could. Their relationship was common, though – even when it was illegal for whites to marry nonwhites, many “mixed” marriages occurred with some frequency in Creole Louisiana. What was unique was that he acknowledged paternity of them publicly during that period.³Judith Kelleher Schafer, Becoming Free, Remaining Free: Manumission and Enslavement in New  Orleans, 1846-1862 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003), 71-97; Ibid., Slavery, the Civil Law, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1997), 220-300; Virginia R. Domínguez, White by Definition: Social Classification in  Creole Louisiana (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993), 21-56.

One early sign of the unique position Joséphine held in the heart and affection of her owner, and lover, was a painting of Joséphine at a tender age before the Civil War. In it, Joséphine is dressed in a beautiful if simple period gown, with her hair parted down the middle and gathered in the back in a bun. As Jeremy K. SIMIEN’s art collection reveals, the fashion she shares in the painting was common among free women, not slaves. Historians have discussed the fashion among Louisiana’s free women of color in their academic work, as well.⁴See also Jeremy K. Simien, “Rediscovering Louisiana’s Free People of Color Through Material Culture,” Louisiana Historic & Cultural Vistas (Feb., 2017), and his Instagram feed by clicking here. Whitney Nell Stewart, “Fashioning Frenchness: Gens de couleur Libres and the Cultural Struggle for Power in Antebellum New Orleans,” Journal of Social History 51, no. 3 (2018): 526-556; Sophie White, Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians: Material Culture and Race in Colonial Louisiana (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013); Ibid., “This Gown … was Much Admired and Made Many Ladies Jealous …” in George Washington’s Smith by Tamara Harvey and Greg O’Brien, eds. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004), 86-118; Ibid., “Wearing three or four handkerchiefs around his collar, and elsewhere about him: Slaves’ Constructions of Masculinity and Ethnicity in French Colonial New Orleans,” Gender & History 15, no. 3 (Nov., 2003): 528-549. Many thanks to Philippe HALBERT!

Éloi-Réné was lawfully married during his relationship with Joséphine, and appears to have stepped up to the plate with his legal wife and legitimate children, as well. He had married Rose HÉBERT, a local Louisiana Creole, in 1845. They produced 3 daughters: Amélia (aka Amélie), born in 1847; Rose, born in 1849; and Amélina, born in 1851. Rose HÉBERT died in 1866, but their daughters all went on to marry and produce their own families with local Louisiana Creoles. Yes, Éloi-Réné maintained two families in the same home, and assumed his paternal duties to both sets of children simultaneously.⁵Marriage of Éloi-Réné BROUSSARD to Rose HÉBERT, daughter of Exubert HÉBERT and Octavie HÉBERT, 27 Jan 1845, Église Saint-Pierre, Registre des marriages vol 1, p 63. Upon Rose’s death, Éloi-Réné petitioned the St. Martin Parish courts to settle the estate he shared with Rose. In the petition, he identified 2 minor legitimate children – Rose and Amélina, a requirement by law to finalize the estate. He became the natural tutor of Rose and Amélina and Joseph J. BROUSSARD was named subrogate tutor. Succession of Rose HÉBERT, spouse of Éloi-R. BROUSSARD, dated 13 Jan 1866. St. Martin Parish Court House, Succession #1907. Birth of Amélia BROUSSARD, born 19 Dec 1847. Église Saint-Pierre, Registre des baptêmes vol 1 p 111. Birth of Rose BROUSSARD, born 30 Aug 1849. Ibid., p 128. Birth of Amélina BROUSSARD, born 15 March 1851. Ibid., p 141. Marriage of Amélie BROUSSARD to Joseph BOUDREAUX fils, 12 Sept 1865, son of Joseph BOUDREAUX père and Amélie BROUSSARD. Église Saint-Pierre, Registre des mariages vol 1, p 275. When Joseph BOUDREAUX fils died, Amélie remarried Placide LANDRY on 25 Jan 1869, son of Jean-Pierre LANDRY and Adélaïde BROUSSARD. Ibid. vol 2, p 5. Marriage of Rose BROUSSARD to Joseph DELCAMBRE, 27 Jan 1868, son of Joseph Théodule DELCAMBRE and Marie Aurésille LANDRY. Ibid., p 341. Marriage of Amélina BROUSSARD to Désiré THIBODEAUX, 25 May 1869, son of Émile THIBODEAUX and Carmélite BOUDREAUX. Ibid., p 20.

Éloi-Réné and Joséphine’s relationship endured well after Rose HÉBERT’s death, and exemplifies a lifetime commitment between the couple. They resided in the same dwelling from 1853 through 1905. In 1902, two years before his death, Éloi-Réné donated to “Miss Joséphine LACEY” a track of land at Petite-Anse (present-day Iberia Parish near the Vermilion Parish border), and some livestock from his extensive landholdings and animals on his plantation. This is the only property that Joséphine would own in her own right through her death in 1922. Despite Éloi-Réné’s persistence on his paternal duties and public affection towards Joséphine, he never did marry her. The 1868 reconstructed constitution of Louisiana permitted “mixed marriages.” The law remained in effect through 1910. It’s anyone’s guess why they never officiated their union in the Catholic Church or civilly. But they didn’t.⁶The earliest Éloi-Réné and Joséphine lived within the same walls, dates to his purchasing Joséphine from his grandmother’s estate in 1853. We then find Joséphine in his household in the 1860, 1880, and 1900 decennial censuses. 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Population Schedule, Louisiana, St. Mary Parish, Western District, enumerated on 8 June 1860, census page cut off but is page 5, lines 24-29, dwelling/family 39; 1860, Slave Schedule, Louisiana, St. Mary Parish, Western District, enumerated on 9 June 1860, census page 3, lines 23-28 – Joséphine and their natural children are the only slaves that Éloi-Réné owns in this slave schedule, in addition to one 16-year-old son, who may not be Éloi-Réné’s. 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Population Schedule, Louisiana, Iberia Parish, Petite Anse, Enumeration District 32, enumerated on 1 June 1880, Census page 3, Ancestry.com page 3, lines 35-46, dwelling 24, family 26; 1900, Population Schedule, Louisiana, Iberia Parish, 7th Ward, Petite Anse, Enumeration District 36, enumerated on 4 June 1900, census page 2, dwellings 29-30, lines 77-78. The 1900 enumerator, J.A. DEROUEN, a neighbor, stated that Joséphine lived in a separate dwelling, which she rented, but worked as a servant. I’m almost certain that this information was relayed or declared by DEROUEN to obscure the couple’s continued relationship under the same roof. Death of Josephine LESÉE [sic], 7 June 1922, in Iberia Parish, age 95, daughter of Joseph LESÉE [sic] and Rosalie JEAN LOUIS, Louisiana State Deaths, certificate #5912. Donation, Éloi-Réné BROUSSARD to Miss Joséphine LACEY, dated 15 Aug 1902, Iberia Parish Court House, Conveyances Book vol 47, pp 388-389, #11799. Cash sale, Josephine LACEY to Ed. DELCAMBRE, 9 Feb 1906, Iberia Parish Court House, Conveyances Book vol 58, p 243, #18194; ibid. to Adol BROUSSARD, 2 Jan 1907, ibid. vol 62, p 34, #19173; ibid. to Ed. BROUSSARD, 24 April 1909, ibid. vol 66, p 221, #21006; ibid. to Mrs. V. DEROUEN, 5 Jan 1910, ibid. vol 66, p 454, #21648; ibid. to Francis LEIGNON, 1 April 1911, ibid. vol 70, p 386, #22888; ibid. to Albert BROUSSARD, 23 Dec 1916, ibid. vol 84, p 204, #31308.

Additional evidence that Éloi-Réné BROUSSARD never married Joséphine LACY includes the following. The social title used for Joséphine in the 1902 donation, “Miss,” back then, was used for unmarried women. Today, it is customarily used as a synonym for “Ms.,” but it was not back then. In French, we use similar social titles for women, including “Madame” and “Mademoiselle.” While living in Éloi-Réné’s household, Joséphine claimed to be widowed. I have not located any marriage for her with any man, neither before the Civil War, or after. If one exists, and a researcher can send me the reference or a copy of the document with its citation, I am happy to adjust my database! Finally, the property that Joséphine received by act of donation from Éloi-Réné in 1902, she began to resale on her own account from 1906 to 1916. In none of these conveyances she is identified as a married or widowed woman.⁷For Joséphine’s status as widowed, and her conveyed property, see previous footnote. Death of Josephine LESEE [sic], 7 June 1922, Iberia Parish, age 95, daughter of Joseph LESEE and Rosalie JEAN LOUIS, Louisiana state death certificate #5912.

The affection Éloi-Réné showed Joséphine predated his generation, and shows his family’s willingness to keep Joséphine’s enslaved family together. When Marie-Françoise TRAHAN died in 1853, authorities auctioned her slaves. The decedent’s immediate family purchased Rosalie’s family. Rosémond BROUSSARD purchased Joséphine’s mother Rosalie and little brother Siméon, and he also purchased Rosalie’s son, Louis. Éloy Josapha BROUSSARD purchased Rosalie’s little brother, Jean-Louis, and Joseph BONIN fils (Marie-Françoise’s son-in-law) purchased Rosalie’s brother, Maxile. As I show in my doctoral thesis, it was unlawful to separate mothers from their enslaved children under age 10 during the colonial period. This became somewhat of a tradition of Louisiana Creole slaveholders after 1812, when Louisiana entered the union. But slaveholders often did sell children above age 10 to people without the rest of their families. In this instance, multiple generations of Joséphine’s family remained slaves belonging to the same immediate family, who tended to be neighbors. Broussard endogamy helped to bolster this particular slave family’s unity. Although, as we have seen thus far, endogamy among BROUSSARD slaveholders clearly was not the only reason.⁸Death of Rosémond BROUSSARD, 31 Aug 1864, age 60. Église Saint-Pierre, Registre des sépultures vol 1, p 62. Succession of Rosémond BROUSSARD, 22 Sept 1864, St. Martin Parish Court House, Succession #1835. Christophe Landry, “A Creole Melting Pot: the Politics of Language, Race and Identity in southwest Louisiana, 1918-45,” doctoral thesis, University of Sussex, 2016, pp 8-100.

In 1863, Rosémond took an extraordinary step, illustrating his family’s affection for Rosalie. He knew that the Confederate States Constitution, then en vigueur in Louisiana, disallowed slave holders to emancipate slaves. In a conveyance that year, he declared having promised years prior, Rosalie, négresse, and her children born from that point onward, their freedom, in exchange for their value as movable property. Rosalie had secured the money to purchase her and her son Siméon’s freedom through her “Peculium” (a term used in the Ancient Roman slave system for allowance or savings permitted to slaves for working extra jobs or selling produce or artwork). As historians like SCHAFER and Jennifer M. SPEAR show in their work on colonial and Antebellum Louisiana, peculia – more commonly known as coartación – had been normative during the colonial era. Judith shows how the American legislators in Louisiana after 1812 undermined the practice in efforts to circumscribe rights, privileges, immunities, and movement of slaves and free persons of color in Louisiana. These legal restrictions ensured that peculia faded in the record during the Antebellum period, making Rosémond and Rosalie’s arrangement unique. Rosémond now acknowledged having received the money in cash from Rosalie, and argued that their arrangement predated Louisiana’s secession from the union. Therefore, their agreement was still legally binding. Rosalie and Siméon, mulâtre, who was known thereafter as Sully Siméon CHENEST, saw freedom a year before the close of the Civil War. Rosémond did not father any of Rosalie’s children.⁹Manumission of slaves, Rosémond BROUSSARD to Rosalie and Siméon, 12 April 1863, St. Martin Parish Court House, Conveyances Book 29, pp 459-460, #4864. Jennifer M. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order in Early  New Orleans (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 116; Judith Kelleher Schafer, Becoming Free,  Remaining Free: Manumission and  Enslavement in New Orleans, 1846-1862 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003), 45, 46, 55, 58; Ibid., Slavery, the Civil Law, and the  Supreme Court of Louisiana (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1997), 3, 220, 221, 224, 375. Sully was the natural son of Auguste “Augustin” CHESNET and Rosalie JEAN-LOUIS. Marriage of Sully Siméon JHONY’s [sic] to Marie Hermose LEIGNON, 9 Sept 1873, daughter of the late Louis LEIGNON and Louise SCHIXNAYE [sic], Église de l’Immaculée Conception (Charenton, La.), Registre des mariages vol 1, p 236.