Summary

The Attorney General of the King, François Fleuriau, asks the Superior Council to begin criminal proceedings against Biron of the Bambara nation after reading the declaration from Biron’s enslaver of his marronage and armed resistance. Fleuriau cites the increase of Africans in the colony as the result of the slave trade as even more justification for punishing Biron, fearing the loss of control in plantation regions distant from New Orleans.

Transcription
Translation

Transcription (French, diplomatic)

[feuille 1 recto] [digital 2]

A Messieurs Du Conseil superieur de la province de
La Louisiane

Expose le procureur general du roy que le nommé biran
negre appartenant au sieur soubagné habitant a gentilly
ayant fait plusieurs fois le maron Lorsque son maitre f[ait] [papier déchiré]
jeudy dernier pour le chercher Et ayant voulu lepouvanter p[our] [papier déchiré]
le faire revenir a la maison et lempescher de prendre encore
La fuitte il saisit son fusil et sen fust peutestre servy contre
luy sil ne lavoit pas saisy et desarmé a laide de ses autres
esclaves de sorte que le fusil fut cassé et comme cest une
rebellion contre son maitre dautant plus punissable que
le nombre de negres augmentons dans cette colonie on
ne seroit pas en secureté sur tout dans les habitations
eloigneés et que ce negre est actuellement prisonnier ce
consideré

vous plaise Messieurs ordonner que par devant lun de vous
biran negre soit interrogé pour ensuitte etre procedé
ainsy quil appartiendra et son proces luy etre fait et parfait
jusqua jugement diffinitif a la nouvelle orleans le
dix juillet mil sept cent vingt huit

[Signé:] fleuriau

permis de faire interroger le Negre
En question devant M.r Brusle ce 10 juillet 1728

[Signé:] Delachaise

Translation (English, modern)

[page #1] [digital 2]

To the Gentlemen of the Superior Council of the Province of Louisiana

Exposé [of] the Attorney General of the King [Fleuriau] that the named Biron, nègre belonging to Sieur Soubaigne, habitant at Gentilly, having several times gone maron, [that] when his master [went] last Thursday to find him, and having wanted to scare him [in order to] make him come back to the house and prevent him from taking flight again, he [Soubaigne] seized his rifle and may have used it against him [Biron] if he [Biron] had not seized it and disarmed him [Soubaigne] with aid of his other esclaves, so that the rifle was broken, and since this is a rebellion against his master [Biron is] all the more punishable, [and as it is true] that the number of nègres is increasing in this colony, one would not be safe, particularly at distant plantations [if this were allowed], and as this nègre is now already a prisoner, [and with] this considered,

May it please you, Messieurs, to order that Biron, nègre, be brought before you and interrogated, then afterwards to proceed, as it shall be appropriate, and that his trial will be prepared and [Biron be] entirely subject to until a definitive judgment [is rendered]. At New Orleans, the tenth of July, one-thousand seven-hundred and twenty-eight.

[Signed:] [François] Fleuriau

Permission [is granted] to interrogate the nègre in question before Mr. Bruslé, this [the] 10th of July, 1728.

[Signed:] [Jacques] Delachaise