My starting point in this document
was me choosing which file I wanted to research. I have the file of a freed
slave and I picked it because I find it interesting to know how or why someone
was freed during the time period of slavery. Since they were technically
property I wanted to know what would prompt someone to voluntarily give up
their assets most likely bringing in funds or benefiting their household in
some way. I am looking at the records of a slave, or someone still not
classified as human, I didn’t have the hope that I would find much. Even with
the resources that we have today, no one really cared enough about the humanity
of property back then so I wasn’t expecting to find many documents on my person
today. Regardless of these facts I still held a little hope that I might a
little something to give me further information of who this person was.
At the beginning of my research I
really didn’t know how to start and didn’t have access to ancestry.com yet so I
searched the slave master’s name in google. To begin with I though Jeanne
Kerrourette was a man and that the slave La Mirre was his mistress. So when the
results came back and there was a link by LSU on interracial relationships, I
clicked on it. It told me that in the year my slave was freed this was the same
time that France had ceded Louisiana to Spain. This was the beginning of the
most liberal period in Louisiana's history. It was also very common during this
time for while men to have long relationships to black women. Even though there
was still slavery, black women would commonly do this so that it improve their
social status and secure them as well as their children. With these situations
women would have the economic upper hand and over time they acquired valuable
property through these relationships. I thought I had found a discovery because
when my slave was freed she was to get 25 barrels of corn/year for the rest of
her life when the mistress, or who I thought was the wife, died. What I found
instead on ancestry.com was a marriage contract for Dame Jeanne Kerrourette. So
the slave master was a woman and in the contract I also found that La Mirre was
her slave coming into the marriage and in the pre nup it said that her husband
was not allowed to sell her. It also mentions her first husband Nicolas Aubert
Dumont, who passed away. I thought that my then discovery was wrong because my
slave master was a white woman.
Once I gained access to ancestry.com I was able to find
the rest of the information I am about to share. I found her divorce papers and
Jeanne Kerrourette was only married to her husband Louis Populus for about a
year before they petition to separate. She gets 1200 pounds/year, 5 cords of
wood/year, 3 servants (slaves), including La Mirre, all medical expenses paid,
40 tons of corn/year, 450 pounds of flour/year, and 4 cows. It says that they
want to separate because their relationship “deteriorates to the point of
rupture”, they are “unable to live peacefully together”, they have
“incompatible temperaments”, and “one is a burden to another”. Louis Populus
buys Jeanne Kerrourette a separate house next door just to get away from her.
They agree not to ever step foot into one another's house. All of this
information was found just from me searching Jeanne Kerrourette's name in ancestry.
After this point I decided to start a tree for the family to see what other
information I could find.
From the tree when I clicked on her ex-husband Sieur Louis
de Populus I found that he was married before he got with Jeanne. He was
married to Marie Joachim Langlou, but I think she passed. I also found another
free slave record linked to his name. I didn’t dive that deep into it because I
was on another track, but the name on the record was La Mirra. This is
suspiciously close to La Mirre. It says she was freed January 10, 1720 by
living master in New Orleans, the same city La Mirre was freed. Although this
is 43 years before La Mirre is freed it says that she was freed for fidelity
and good service and in the comments is says Luis Populus is the widower of
Juana Kerroley. All of the names mentioned in this document were suspiciously
similar to the ones related to the document I am looking at now. By clicking on
Jeanne Kerrourette’s name I found that she had 2 children with Louis Populus
named Vincent and Victoria Populus. The thing is, I found this information out
because they were listed on a slave record. I was confused wondering “Why would
a woman who received so much from the separation from her husband sell her
children into slavery?” What I found out about the children was that Victoria
was born in 1762-3 and Vincent was born about 1760. They were sold together
January 11 1775 to Juan Rene Gabriel Fazende, BUT their mother bought them back
April 13, 1776. Another interesting thing that I found was that both children
under race were labeled as Mulatto, which we know as half black half white.
From my research I have concluded that Louis Populus is white so that means…
Jeanne Kerrourette was black! She was a free black woman married to a white man
who owned slaves including La Mirre. Going back to the beginning of my research
it all makes sense. I thought that La Mirre was having an affair with a white
man and that’s why she was freed with compensation. That’s also why I was
looking at the idea that it was common for black women to have long standing
relationships with white men. The Spanish laws that helped push this
progressive movement was called Las siete partidas. These laws made it
increasingly easier for slaves to get their freedom. It also created a culture
of interracial relationships with benefits towards black women being more
accepted.
What I’ve found is that Jeanne
Kerrorette was a black woman who was married to a white man and had 2 mixed
children, Victoria and Vincent Populus. She also owned slaves herself and had
enough power to free one of them, La Mirre, and give her a stipend after she
died. She also for some reason had to sell her children into slavery 1775 to a
man named Juan Rene Gabriel Fazende. She then bought her children back after
about a year in 1776 with no issue. Jeanne was able to do all of this because
of Spanish owned Louisiana. The laws that were implemented during this time
allowed her to get property from her husband, sell and free slaves, be free
herself, and maintain status and power in her community. What I have yet to
find is more information of her ex-husband Louis Populus. I still don’t know
how that free slave document I found from 1720 of La Mirra links to the free
slave document of La Mirre in 1763. I also don’t know about the man who Jeanne
Kerrorette sold her children to, Juan Rene Gabriel Fazende. Finally, I don’t
know why she sold her children to begin with. Although I have found some
information from my file given to me, I feel I have only scratched the surface
when it comes to Jeanne Kerrorette and the people in her life.
