Summary

After her husband was killed fighting in the First Chickasaw War, the Widow Bonvillian goes before the Superior Council to beg leniency. She wishes permission to sell an enslaved man from her late husband’s estate so that she may settle debts owed to the Company of the Indies, claiming otherwise that she and her children may not survive. The Council grants her the right to sell this unnamed man, identified solely as “un nègre,” as long as any proceeds from the sale go to the Company. However, by following the documentary traces of his life in the colonial archive, we are able to recover the name and fate of this man. Unnamed in one document,¹ he was also misrecorded in the archive as “Pierre” due to a misreading in another document of the phrase “un nègre pièce d’Inde.”² Louis (Mouton) was sold to Sieur Louis Cheval, resident of 303 Rue Bourbon (present-day location of Arnaud’s Restaurant).

Transcription
Translation
Notes

Transcription (French, diplomatic)

[feuille 1 recto] (digital )

(10027.)

A Monseigneur de Salmon Commissaire ordon[n]ateur³ pour Le Roy
de Cette province

Suplie humblement Catherine mouton veuve defun[t] antoine Bonvillain taillandier dizant que feu son_
mary est mort a La gui[r]re⁴ avec monsieur dartague et a Le[i]sse des debtes et voulant Satisfaire a Cas quelle peut
devoir elle [s]e trouve obligee pour Ce Liquider avec La Compagnie de vous demander permission
de vendre un negre crai[g]nant que La
mort S[‘]en p Empare G Cela vena[n]t a arrive[r] elle Setrouverai[t] Embarasee
au[s]si bien que ces enfants pour satisfaire C[‘]est pourquoi Elle Espere que vous Lüy ferez
Justice et ne Sachan[t]
Signe[e] elle afais Sa marque En presence de temoins Ce 9f aoust 1738

soussigne
marque t de
Catherine mouton

[Signé:] Brosset temoin
[Signé:] la pierre temoin

Permis La venté a condition que les deniers
qui en proviendront Seront employez Au
payement de ce qui est dû a la Comp.^<[agni]e
des Indes Ce 24 aoust 1738

[Signé:] Salmon

Translation (English, modern)

[page #1] [digital 1]

(10027.)

To Monseigneur de Salmon, Commissaire-Ordonnateur for the King of this Province [of Louisiana].

[Before you] humbly pleads Catherine Mouton, widow of the deceased Antoine Bonvillain, toolmaker, says that her late husband is dead, [killed] in the war with Monsieur D’Artaguiette, and [he] had left some debts. And wanting to take care of this charge, she found herself obliged to liquidate with the Company [des Indes], [and] to ask your permission to sell un nègre, fearing that [otherwise] death would take hold [of her and her family]. If that were to happen, she would find herself encumbered, as well as these [her] children [that she] must take care of. This is why she hopes that you will do her justice. And not knowing how to sign, she has made her mark in the presence of witnesses, this 9th of August, 1738.

Undersigned,
+
mark of Catherine Mouton

[Signed:] Brosset, Witness
[Signed:] La Pierre, Witness

[The Council shall] permit the sale [of the nègre] on the condition that the money be used to pay that which is due to the Company of the Indies. This, the 24th of August 1738.

[Signed:] [Edmé-Gatien de] Salmon

Notes