Categories: Catholic Sacramental Records, Descriptors, Free People of Color (FPOC), Genealogy, History, Law, Migrations, Old Maps, Slavery

One of the many prominent Louisiana Creoles to resettle at the nascent Attakapas District was Jacques Bénigne FONTENETTE fils, known in the Spanish provincial era (1762-1803) as Santiago. He had been born at the Tchapitoulas District on 21 April  1754 to Royal Surgeon and Councillor Jacques Bénigne DE FONTENET père, M.D., of Bourgogne, France and Marie-Geneviève ESNOUL-DE LIVAUDAIT, a Louisiana Creole of an illustrious history in colonial and provincial Louisiana.¹Bénigne Jacques FONTENETTE, son of Bénigne FONTENETTE – royal physician and Marie Geneviève DE LIVAUDAIS, baptized 22 April 1754 in New Orleans. Baptismal sponsors were Jacques [ARNOULD] de Livaudais and Françoise JULOT, veuve CARRIÈRE. Église Saint-Louis de la Nouvelle-Orléans, Registre des baptêmes vol 3, p 22. For Jacques père’s positions, see, for instance, Jacques fils’s civil marriage contract with Charlotte Louise PELLERIN, 5 July 1800, at the Attakapas District. St Martin Parish Court House (SM Cthse), Original Acts vol 4 1/2, #9.

Like many of his bourgeois Creole, Canadian, French, and Spanish contemporaries, Jacques fils entered the military. He eventually rose to the ranks of brigadier of the Company of Detached Carabiniers, By 1790, Jacques fils resettled at the Attakapas District, owning land and a plantation near Église Saint-Martin, southwest Louisiana’s first permanent Catholic Church, in St. Martinville. He did not arrive alone. In 1804, he made several donations of slaves and land to free people of color, and liberty to slaves:

1. to Marie-Louise – négresse libre: a 30-year-old négresse créolisée [Creolized negress] slave named Tétie, who he had purchased by civil act in New Orleans from Mr COIRIN;
2. to André (age 21) and Nanette (16) – mulâtres slaves belonging to him, children of Julie – négresse: freedom;
3. to Marie-Louise – négresse libre, and to her 9 mulâtre children Jacques dit Coco, Pouponne, Zénon, Joseph, Pierrot, Pétion, Hortance, and Thérence, as well as to André and Nanette – both mulâtres libres born of a different mother to Marie-Louise: land at Isle à Labbé, on the eastern side of Bayou Têche, measuring 5 arpents frontage by 40 arpents depth, for all 12 to share in equal portions
4. to Pouponne – mulâtresse libre: an 11-year-old négritte slave named Rozine who, like Tétie, he had purchased by civil act in New Orleans from Mr COIRIN.²For Jacques fils’s career in the military, see his civil marriage contract to Charlotte Louise PELLERIN, cited in previous footnote. Jacques fils first appears in Attakapas District civil records as early as 1792. That year, he gave power of attorney to New Orleanean Philippe DUCLOSLANGE, who had a residence for a short time at the Attakapas District. SM Cthse, Original Acts vol 12, #55. A year later, he was involved in a law suit with Philippe BOUTTÉ. SM Cthse: Original Acts vol 14, #23. For Jacques’s donations see SM Cthse: Original Acts vol 22, #4; ibid. vol 22 #6.

All of these mulâtres and mulâtresses consistently used the FONTENETTE surname, and are presumed to be Jacques fils’s natural children. When Jacques fils contracted marriage to Charlotte Louise PELLERIN, an Attakapas Creole, in 1800, he brought to their marriage 30 heads of slaves, among other valuables. I have no documentation yet, but it is possible that Julie and Marie-Louise, and their children, were among those unnamed slaves in the civil marriage contract.³For the marriage contract, see footnote 1.

In any case, Jacques fils was no “petit habitant” or peasant. Witnesses to his marriage to Charlotte read like an encyclopedia of French and Spanish colonial and provincial Louisiana’s most decorated military officials, including Louis Chevalier DE VILLIERS – captain of the Mixed Legion of the Mississippi, Charles OLIVIER de Vézin – who had served as Regidor Perpétuel [Permanent Alderman] of Spanish Louisiana, my 5th great-grandfather, Marin LE NORMAND – lieutenant of the Legion of Mississippi, Barthélemy GRÉVENBERT, Louis Pelletier DE LA HOUSSAYE – captain of the Legion (Charlotte’s brother-in-law), Alexandre Chevalier DE LA HOUSSAYE (also Charlotte’s brother-in-law), Louis and Jean-Baptiste PELLERIN (Charlotte’s brothers) – both officers in the Fixed Spanish Louisiana Regiment.

Whether Jacques fils fathered Julie and Marie-Louise’s children, is unimportant. What is noteworthy is his conscious decision to give them all a fair shot in life during a period when the fate of most peoples of color in European colonies, like Spanish Louisiana, revolved around permanent servitude, for generations. Jacques fils, like many of his ilk, chose a different path, and he should be recognized for his fortitude and generosity.

There’s an additional intrigue in Jacques fils’s donations enumerated and detailed above, which colleague Joseph DUNN of New Orleans, former executive director of CODOFIL – Agence des Affaires francophones of Louisiana, pointed out. These legal instruments were passed on 31 Jan 1804, “a full month and one day after the Louisiana Purchase,” and were executed “under the authority of the French Republic.” In other words, By January 1804, Louisiana was an American territory, and as a result, was judicially, executively, and legislatively, under the authority of the United States of America. When Louis-Charles DE BLANC, commandant of the Attakapas District, wrote the donations, he wrote his preamble to the instruments as a representative of the République [française], of the French Republic, not as a representative of the United States. Perhaps there was a grace period in the transfer of power in the civil and military districts outside of New Orleans, since in those days, boat and horseback were the mode of transportation, and it could have taken days, maybe weeks, for persons and dispatches to arrive from New Orleans to those outlying locales.

In any case, life for Julie and her daughter, Marie-Louise, both négresses libres, was remarkable. They went on to become matriarchs of a large family at Isle à Labbé and the surrounding communities and civil parishes. Many of their descendants still reside on that land Jacques donated to them in 1804, and include people like current St. Martinville Mayor, Thomas NELSON. Below is a map of 2 generations of the family.

Julie – négresse (née c. 1745) bore the following known children:

1. Marie-Louise JULIE – négresse. She bore children for (presumed) Jacques FONTENETTE fils.
2. André FONTENETTE – mulâtre. He was in a relationship with Marianne GRÉVEMBERG, a négresse slave belonging to Euphrosine BOISDORÉ, veuve GRÉVEMBERG.
3. Marie Nanette FONTENETTE – mulâtresse. She bore children for unidentified men.

Marie-Louise JULIE’s children and in-laws include:

• François Zénon FONTENETTE – mulâtre. He fathered 2 known mulâtresse daughters, including Arthémise FONTENETTE, who had been a slave of Antoine Ursin OZENNE. He resided in St. Mary Parish, at various points.
• Joseph FONTENETTE – mulâtre. He was in a relationship with a free woman of color identified as Rose. They resided in St. Mary Parish.
• Marie Louise Magdeleine FONTENETTE – mulâtresse. She bore children for unidentified men.
• Charles “Pétion” FONTENETTE – mulâtre.
• Jacques dit Coco FONTENETTE – mulâtre.⁴Jacques FONTENETTE emancipated Coco in 1811. SM Cthse: Original Acts vol 26, #38.
• Caroline Hortance “Pouponne” FONTENETTE – mulâtresse. She married 23 Feb 1808 Philippe “Petit” WILTZ – mulâtre libre, son of Philippe WILTZ père of Pointe-Coupée and Françoise – négresse libre (SM Ch v 5 #114).
• Pierre “Pierrot” FONTENETTE – mulâtre.
• Thérence FONTENETTE – mulâtre. He married 17 May 1848 Marie Arsène FONTENETTE – free woman of color (SM Cthse Marriages #11577½).
• Geneviève FONTENETTE – mulâtresse.
• Éloïse FONTENETTE – mulâtresse. She bore children for (1) Maurice ABAT of New Orleans, (2) unidentified WILTZ, and Honoré DARTÈS – mulâtre libre of St. Martin Parish.