Julienne
was born a slave on the Becnel sugar cane plantation in St. John the Baptist
parish, Louisiana. The plantation,
now known as Evergreen, was run by wealthy widow Magdelaine Haydel Becnel. The Widow Becnel’s family was
so interconnected that family trees overlapped; Haydels and Becnels routinely
intermarried, partnered with each other on various plantation ventures, and
inherited slaves from each other.
Fair complected and a true product of Creole society, Julienne would be
raised as a French speaking Catholic.
Her owners, Louisiana Creoles, were descended from the first French,
Spanish, and German settlers of Louisiana and as practicing Catholics felt
compelled to baptize their slave.*
Julienne was baptized at St. John the Baptist church in Edgard on
October 30, 1818. The priest
listed Julienne as three years old and her godparents as Maximilien and
Zelamire Haydel. Maximilien Becnel
was their owner’s
son. Zelamire was probably Aimee
Zelamire Haydel, the daughter of Francois Haydel and Felicite Becnel. Julienne’s sister Esther, born just four days prior, was
baptized on the same day.
Elvirasse or Elvire, their mother, was a mulatresse.**
Evergreen Plantation
Upon Magdelaine Haydel Becnel’s death in
1830, her estate, including her large plantation and numerous slaves, was
inventoried and sold. Debts were
settled, and then the profit was divided between the heirs. Her son-in-law Jean Jacques Haydel Jr.
and his brother Marcellin witnessed the inventory and assisted in the settling
of the estate. They also
participated in the auction. Jean
Jacques Haydel Jr. purchased several slaves from the succession, including
Julienne. He would the fourteen
year old Creole mulatresse just up the road to his plantation, where she would
serve as a domestic. Her mother
Elvire, described as a fifty year old American mulatresse, was sold together
with Elick, a sixty year old American mulatto. Though Elick possessed valuable skills as a blacksmith, he
suffered from a cancer, greatly reducing his value. It is unclear whether Elick fathered Julienne and her sister
Esther or if Elvire became his spouse later in her life. Also, records have yet to indicate
whether or not Julienne and Esther shared the same father. Esther, listed as an eleven year old
Creole mulatresse, was sold separately from her family. Placide Perret purchased her for $785. For the first time, the sisters would
be forced to live apart. As the
Perrets would eventually relocate to St. Mary parish, it was unlikely that
Esther and Julienne would see each other again.
Slave cabins on Evergreen Plantation
By May of 1834, Jean Jacques Haydel Jr. and his
son Belfort had over extended their credit. An inventory was made of their plantations, two of which
they shared together and one shared by Jean Jacques and his brother Marcellin,
and presented to their creditors in order to apply for an extension. Julienne was included in this
list. Now eighteen years old,
Julienne’s
value had increased from the $400 Jean Jacques paid for her to $900. Julienne had her first child on
February 21, 1841 at 8 p.m.*
Julienne named her Elvire after her mother, who died just a few months
later, on April 3, 1841 at around sixty years of age. Julienne’s next child, Edouard, was born in April 1843,
and was baptized both at the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans and at St. John
the Baptist Church in Edgard on June 7, 1843. His godparents were Leonard and Babee, both free people of
color. Most baptisms occurred
several months after the birth of the child. Edouard’s early baptism at the cathedral indicates that
Jean Jacques had brought Julienne to New Orleans and also that Edouard may have
been sickly at birth. Three years
later, on March 25, 1846, Julienne gave birth to another daughter whom shr named
Constance. Less than a year later,
on January 25, 1847, at 4 a.m., she had Esther, who was listed as a “mulatresse
quadroon”
upon her baptism one year later. This
child was named for the sister she had lost 17 years before. Julienne’s last child, Ursin, was born on February 6,
1849 at 11 p.m.
Certain details—the fact that the exact time of the birth of
her children were recorded, that the godparents for her children were in many
cases whites or free people of color, that she was brought to New Orleans with
Jean Jacques Haydel at the time of the birth of one of her children, and that
her children were listed as quadroons or griffes on various documents—indicate that
Julienne’s
children were in all likelihood fathered by a white man, quite possibly Jean
Jacques Haydel himself.
On the night of January 11, 1851, Julienne
died, leaving behind children ranging in age from ten to not quite two years
old. The next morning she was
interred in the cemetery of St. John the Baptist Church in Edgard in the
presence of her master, Jean Jacques Haydel, Ursulus Faure, and others. Listing those present at the funeral of
a slave was uncommon and usually occurred only upon the death of a slave who
was important to the family or the community. The priest listed her age as 35 years old. As often occurred after the loss of a mother
at an early age, Ursin, Julienne’s youngest child, died on March 10, 1853, a
little over two years after Julienne’s death.
He was listed as the son of the late Julienne, age 4.
Jean Jacques Haydel sold his plantation after a
devastating cholera epidemic killed a substantial number of his slaves. He then relocated permanently to New
Orleans. By that time, he had
accumulated many debts. His wife
Marie Laure died of cholera at the same time that the plantation’s slaves
suffered with the disease. As a
result, Marie Laure Haydel’s succession had to be settled and divided
amongst her heirs. On November 22, 1855, the court in St. John the Baptist
parish ordered Jean Jacques Haydel to settle the estate he shared with his
wife. All these factors led to
Jean Jacques Haydel selling his slaves at a series of auctions conducted by
certified New Orleans auctioneers St. Croix Guilmault and Norbert Vignie
beginning in March 1856. Edward,
the infant baptized both at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans and St. John the
Baptist Church, was sold to John Lyall of New Orleans. Julienne’s daughters Elvira, listed as a sixteen year
old griffe, Constance, listed as an eleven year old mulatresse, and Esther,
listed as a ten year old orphaned mulatresse were sold to Pierre Lefebvre and
Gustave Sabatier of New Orleans for $875, $795, and $555 respectively. While no written document exists to
provide absolute proof, circumstances surrounding Julienne and her children
allow us to make a plausible hypothesis that Jean Jacques Haydel, their owner,
fathered Julienne’s children. Therefore, Jean Jacques Haydel knowingly sold his own four
children away from the only home they had ever known—a plantation
in the countryside—to the bustling metropolis of New Orleans. Perhaps the sisters took comfort in
being sold together, a fate their mother and aunt had not known. If they survived the next decade, they
would see emancipation after the Civil War and be given the freedom denied them
by their father.
RECORDS
USED:
St.
John the Baptist Parish Church baptisms and interments at the Archdiocesan
Archives of New Orleans
Inventory
and sale of the estate of Magdelaine Haydel Becnel Widow of Pierre Becnel, St.
John the Baptist parish courthouse
Jean
Jacques Haydel vs. His Creditors, New Orleans Public Library
*The
definition of Creole can be quite fluid but in no way does it carry a strict racial
connotation. People can be Creole
if they are descended from the first settlers of Louisiana, whether they are entirely
of European descent or with a mix of African and European heritage. Slaves who adopted the culture---spoke
French, practiced Catholicism, and embraced the local customs---could also be
considered Creole. This was used
to distinguish them from the influx of American slaves from Virginia and the
Carolinas (English speaking Protestants).
**A
mulatresse or mulatto was a term for someone of mixed racial background. Mulatto= ½ black, quadroon ¼ black, octoroon 1/8 black.
***It
is possible that Julienne had other children before this, but this is the
earliest extant document to mention a child.
