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The Boisdore and Dolliole land was clearly shown. Boisdore had the remainder of his land surveyed and auctioned in 1844.
The family continued to be prominent in land development, business, culture, and politics. “Francois Boisdore, Jr., was a bookkeeper for Pierre Cazenave, a leading undertaker and em-balmer. Boisdore was a talented orator, engaged in frequent debates for the Republican cause ... and became a school teacher after the Civil War. He died in the late 1890s."‘7
___^ Louis Boisdore, free man of color, is probably the cousin of
the above Francois, because at his marriage to Louise Fernandez on December 27, 1827, he stated that he was the natural son of free person of color Louis Boisdore and Charlotte Mor-and.M A Louis Boisdore, white native of New Orleans born in 1762, was a member of the Company of Distinguished Carabineer Militia of New Orleans and the New Orleans Militia Company in 1802. His 1802 service sheet stated that he was in robust health and not married.” A Marguerite Boisdore, free woman of color, was the cousin of Henriette Delille, who was the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family. Marguerite owned 1609-11 St. Philip for at least a year between 1836 and 1837, indicating that she and her family were selling property in this neighborhood at the same time Francois, Sr., was selling so much land.
When Julia Boisdore, mulata libre, married Felipe Hazeur, also a mulato libre, they joined together at least three influential free colored families. The marriage was consecrated in the Church of St. Louis in December of 1801, and the record listed her father as "Francisco d'Orville, captain of the company of Pardos of this Plaza"; her mother was Isabelle Boisdore, daughter of either Louis or Francois. Felipe, the natural son of Rose Hazeur, was probably educated in France as were many of Rose's natural children; his father, probably white, was unnamed.
—J Louis Barthelemy Rey, free person of color, was an immigrant from Santiago, Cuba. He was the natural son of Joseph Rey and Elizabeth Mirlen. In July of 1829 he married Rose Agnes Lacrisle.70 Rey joined with others to complain that Mme Bernard Couvent's legacy was being diverted from indigent orphans and that her will was not being honored. As a result of his interest he became the first member of the board of the Institute for Indigent Colored Orphans.71 Rey owned 1424 Der-bigny in 1847 and was the builder of 1924 Bayou Road; a building contract for a house on this site remains. Josephine Rey, a daughter, was the p/acee of white immigrant Jean Francois Chatry and bore him eight mulatto children. His sons, Octave (born in 1837), Henry, and Hippolyte, became well-known for their efforts to help the Union cause. Octave was a member of the New Orleans Metropolitan Police Force of the Fourth Precinct from 1868 to 1877. He died in 1908 and was survived by four sons and one daughter.72 The Rey family were influential Faubourg Treme citizens, pewholders at St. Augustine Church from the beginning, where they financed a stained-glass window.
Bazile Demaziliere was a distinguished free person of color who had a maison de maitre in the 1600 block of Bayou Road, which ran three blocks through to Dumaine. His marriage contract to Antoinette Dubreuil in 1821 specified that a house was to be built on the land at her expense. The priest of St. Louis Church recorded this marriage in June of 1824, at which time the groom identified his mother as Marie Bienvenu and stated that his father was unknown.
When the Battalion of Free Men of Color was officially mustered into the United States Ar/ny on December 16,1814, one of its companies was led by Captain Bazile Demaziliere in command of fifty-one soldiers. A relative, Baltazare Demaziliere had preceded him into the pardo militia as a first lieutenant under the Spanish regime.73 After the Battle of New Orleans, the Demazilieres bought on Bayou Road and became the neighbors and relatives of the Decoudreauxs.
On December 1, 1798, Charles Decoudreaux, a quarteron libre, son of Fanchonette Decoudreaux, mulata libre, and an unknown white father, married Margarita Castanedo, quarter-ona libre of Havana, Cuba, the daughter of Maria Juana de lustis and an unknown father. Her mother, Maria de lustis, was listed as marrying fr6e man of color Jose Cabaret in 1801 and was declared at that time to be a native of New Orleans and the natural daughter of Angela Forest (Faust), negra libre. At the Decoudreaux wedding, the witnesses were white: Manuel Serrano, Dona Josepha de Lisa, and M. Doquemeny Morant, all Bayou Road property owners.74
The Decoudreauxs owned 1608 Bayou Road (Governor Ni-cholls) from 1831 to 1851. Pouponne Decoudreaux owned 1119-21 Robertson in 1806, selling it in 1821 to Bazile Demaziliere. Josephine Decoudreaux, daughter of Charles and Margarita, became the wife of Paul Trevigne. Their son Paul was born in 1825 and became a linguist, teacher, and editor in chief of L'Union. Later he was the editor of another newspaper, the daily La Tribune, which ceased publication in 1869. From 1892 to 1896, Le Crusader enjoyed Trevigne as a collaborator.75 His cultural contributions reached beyond the boundaries of Faubourg Treme and New Orleans; his works for the cause of people of color were acknowledged at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1866. By living until 1909 this man, r whose forebears had enjoyed at least one hundred years as free persons, observed slavery, freedom with restrictions, political upheaval through Reconstruction, and the local animosities raised against his people in their quest for social justice.
MILITARY
The contributions of the gens de couleur libres and negres libres to Louisiana's military activities extended back to the Natchez Massacre of 1729. On May 13, 1730, before the French Superior Council, a proposal to liberate Negroes for military merit was made by Attorney General Fleuriau. He urged that a military company organized among select Negroes be on instant call against the occasion of Indian uprising. Freedom had already been given to certain Negro volunteers in the wake of the Natchez affair. Under command units instituted by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville in 1736, there were "140 Negroes, both slaves and free.... Of these, the free Negroes comprised a small unit or cadre for a company. .. . The slaves were promised their freedom for risking their lives... yet only the bravery of Simon, a free Negro, and Captain of the Negro Company, enabled [his company] to escape censorship [because of the initial panic under fire]."76
By 1739 at least fifty free Negroes were part of Bienville's permanent command, although the majority of Negro troops were requisitioned slaves from New Orleans. Bienville used the corvee, or method of forced labor, to raise soldiers for his campaign. Under this system the Crown reimbursed the owner for the loss by escape or death of the slave soldier. In the event


Clifton Plantation New-Orleans-Architecture-(9)
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