Elisabeth Dieudonné Vincent
Elisabeth Dieudonné Vincent | |
---|---|
Born | Elizabeth Dieudonné 1798 |
Died | 1883 (aged 84–85) Antwerp, Belgium |
Nationality | French |
Other names | Élisabeth Dieudonné, Élisabeth Dieudonné Tinchant, Elisabeth Vincent, Elizabeth Dieudonné Vincent, Elizabeth Tinchant |
Elisabeth Dieudonné Vincent (1798 – 29 November 1883) was a
Vincent married in 1822 and with her husband, Jacques Tinchant, operated a business in New Orleans. The couple also earned money by renting out Vincent's slaves. In 1835 she amended her original marriage record in order to acquire a surname, removing the double stigma of illegitimacy and slave ancestry. Experiencing racial inequality and increasing restrictions as a result of the demanding Black Codes in the United States, they moved with their family to France, where they operated a dairy and vineyards in Gan. Poor economic conditions and violence during the French Revolution of 1848 prompted the family to relocate to Antwerp in 1857, where they invested in their sons' new tobacco business.
Early life and family
Elisabeth Dieudonné was born in 1798
Elisabeth's mother was from an area bordered on the east by the
As Rosalie was technically free, but had no official papers to prove it, her status was ambiguous until the British withdrew in 1798.[4] The following year, she appeared in the baptismal records as "Marie Françoise, called Rosalie, free black woman" and christened her daughter as a free-born child.[5] By 1802, the French had restored slavery in Martinique[6] and there were rumors that it would be reasserted over blacks in Saint-Domingue. To prevent that from happening to his family, Michel Vincent drafted a document in 1803 declaring that Rosalie and her children Juste Theodore, Marie Louise (known as Resinette), Etienne Hilaire (called Cadet) and Elisabeth, were all his slaves and were proclaimed free.[7] Within months, the town of Jérémie was under siege by French troops and Rosalie, Michel and Elisabeth fled to nearby Santiago de Cuba. The other three children[Notes 1] disappear from the records and it is unknown whether they were captured, went into hiding in Saint-Domingue, or managed to slip into Cuba, avoiding the record keepers.[8]
Arriving in Santiago de Cuba with some 18,000 other refugees, Michel began working as a farrier and Rosalie raised livestock.[8] As there were no French officials on the island, the Agence des Prises de la Guadeloupe (Guadeloupean Prize Agency), charged with selling plundered ship property and funneling the proceeds from the sales to French troops, acted as an unofficial court of equity for French refugees. On 14 March 1804, an ailing Michel Vincent filed his last will and testament with the agency for validation. Three days later, Rosalie paid the officials of the agency to register the manumission document for the entire family that Vincent had prepared before they fled Saint-Domingue.[10] Within days Vincent died, but as his estate was insolvent, his property was sold to cover his obligations.[11]
In New Orleans, Louisiana
In 1809, during the Peninsular War in Europe, the governor of Cuba ordered all French refugees to leave. As neither was sure of their status, mother and daughter split up, with Rosalie returning to a now independent Haiti and Elisabeth traveling with her godmother, Marie Blanche Peillon (the widow Aubert) and her consort Jean Lambert Détry, a Belgian carpenter, to New Orleans.[12] Buying land in Faubourg Marigny, the couple each developed businesses. Détry worked as a contractor, hiring out sawyers, and Peillon traded in land and slaves. When Détry died in 1821, he left an inheritance of $500 (~$11,445 in 2023) to Elisabeth, and she decided to marry. A marriage contract was prepared for her to wed Jacques Tinchant, son of a free woman of color called Suzette Bayot, another refugee from Saint-Domingue,[13] and her former partner Joseph Tinchant.[14] The contract was prepared without a surname and listed Elisabeth's name as Marie Dieudonné, her mother's first name and her own middle name.[15]
The couple married in 1822 and quickly established a business in which Tinchant worked as a builder and carpenter.[16] To provide monthly income, they also hired out their slaves, Gertrude and her daughter Marie Louise, who had been given to them as a wedding present from Peillon.[17] They lived with Peillon, but the relationship was difficult because of her controlling and litigious nature. She refused to give Elisabeth her inheritance from Détry, claiming to have settled their room and board costs with it. After a year, the couple moved out, and on 1 January 1825 they baptized their first child, François Louis Tinchant at the St. Louis Cathedral, in New Orleans. He was shown as a legitimate, free quadroon. That year, statutes were passed which forbade interracial marriage and laws were increasingly passed in Louisiana to restrict the freedom of people of color.[18] Other children followed, including Joseph (born 1827),[19] Pierre (born 1833), Jules (born 1836), and Ernest (born 1839).[20][21] In 1833, they manumitted Gertrude and acquired another slave in her stead, a black man named Giles (also known as Clark).[21]
By 1835, Tinchant and his half-brother, Pierre Duhart, formed a company in which they developed land and built houses for resale.[16] In November, hoping to erase the stigma of illegitimacy and slave ancestry enshrined in her marriage record,[22][23] she asked a notary to correct her given name in the marriage record to Elisabeth and to show her surname as Vincent. As documentation, they provided a copy of Elisabeth's baptismal certificate, which was most likely brought by her mother on a visit she had made in April.[24] Though the acknowledgement by her father that Elisabeth was his daughter did not technically confer the right for her to use his surname, the notary, who had a long business relationship with Tinchant, agreed to accept the document and correct the marriage record.[25] Over the next few years, legislation in Louisiana imposed ever harsher restrictions on free people of color,[23] including limits on schooling and requirements for annual registrations to prove their free status.[26] Many of Tinchant's family members left Louisiana for France, and the couple followed them in 1840[23] after arranging to sell Marie Louise to Gertrude for $800[27] (around $24,416 in 2024).[28]
In France
In 1840, leaving their oldest son Louis in New Orleans, the couple settled in the
With no prior experience in farming, the couple employed
In Belgium
In 1857, the family relocated to Antwerp, where Tinchant and Louis worked to establish a cigar store and manufacturing firm,[36][35] which they called Maison Américaine.[35] One by one, the brothers went to the United States, where they created a successful international tobacco business, with Joseph in New Orleans; Pierre working along the Gulf Coast; and eventually Edouard settling into the business in Mobile, Alabama. Jules operated from Veracruz, Mexico and Ernest was located in Antwerp.[37] Tinchant died in 1871[38][39] and Vincent survived him by over a decade. Elisabeth Vincent died in Antwerp on 29 November 1883.[1] She and Tinchant were buried in the Schoonselhof cemetery along with three generations of their family.[39]
Legacy
Vincent's sons Joseph and Edouard both served in the 6th Louisiana Regiment of the Union Army during the American Civil War.[40][41] At the end of the conflict, Edouard was a delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1867, where he proposed equal civil rights for women and without regard for race.[42][41] Three generations of the family worked in the tobacco trade, but the business finally collapsed as a result of disruptions caused by World War II. Several family members fought in the resistance and Joseph's granddaughter died at Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she had been sent for her political activities.[43]
The story of Vincent and her family add to the history of statelessness and citizenship, as well as the impact of legal status and paperwork on people of color.[44][45] Literacy and an understanding of the importance of documentation were crucial to maintaining the status of her family and ensuring their freedom.[46] Despite the political unrest of her lifespan, the family was able to successfully negotiate differing racial divides and varied legal systems, which challenged their ability to attain equal civil status.[45] According to historian Afua Cooper, Vincent's history confirms that through shifting ethnic and national identities in the 19th century, black and free colored people were able to pursue economic success, freedom, respectability, and security across numerous international boundaries.[46] Historian James Sidbury notes that the "micro-history" of Vincent's family confirms that previous historical narratives have distorted understandings of the complex experiences of the African diaspora. The many documents relating to Vincent dispel the notion that their stories lie only in oral histories.[45]
Notes
References
Citations
- ^ a b Civil Registry 1883.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, pp. 253–254.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, pp. 250–251.
- ^ a b Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 253.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 254.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 255.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, pp. 256–257.
- ^ a b c Scott & Hébrard 2014, pp. 258–259.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2007, p. 15.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 259.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 260.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, pp. 261–262.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 262.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, p. 83.
- ^ Scott 2009, p. 88.
- ^ a b Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 263.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, pp. 76, 81.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, p. 75.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, p. 162.
- ^ a b Berni Gonzalez 2002.
- ^ a b Scott & Hébrard 2012, p. 77.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, pp. 77–78.
- ^ a b c d Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 265.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, pp. 263–264.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, pp. 264–265.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, p. 80.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, p. 81.
- ^ a b 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved 29 February 2024.
- ^ a b c Scott & Hébrard 2012, p. 88.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, p. 89.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2012, p. 90.
- ^ a b Scott 2009, p. 92.
- ^ Scott 2007, p. 728.
- ^ a b c Scott 2009, p. 93.
- ^ Jones 2014, p. 47.
- ^ Scott 2009, pp. 94, 99.
- ^ Find a Grave 2019.
- ^ a b Nieuwsbrief 2016.
- ^ Scott 2009, p. 95.
- ^ a b Sidbury 2014, p. 671.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 248.
- ^ Hébrard & Scott 2013.
- ^ Scott & Hébrard 2014, p. 250.
- ^ a b c Sidbury 2014, p. 673.
- ^ a b Cooper 2013, p. 402.
Bibliography
- Berni Gonzalez, Juan Alberto (2002). "Grandes Tabaqueros Los Hermanos Tinchant" [Grand Tobacconists the Tinchant Brothers]. Coleccionista De Vitolas De Puros (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain: Juan Alberto Berni. Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020. Self-published source; however, the author gives citations to sources.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - Cooper, Afua (Fall 2013). "Review: Rebecca J. Scott and Jean M. Hébrard, Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the Age of Emancipation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2012)". Project MUSE(subscription required)
- Hébrard, Jean M.; Scott, Rebecca J. (21 June 2013). "A Slave's Legacy Lives On in World War II". The Root. New York, New York: G/O Media. Archived from the original on 18 January 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
- Jones, Charles (2014). International Relations: A Beginner's Guide. London, UK: ISBN 978-1-78074-304-2.
- Scott, Rebecca J. (2009). "Microhistory Set in Motion: A Nineteenth-century Atlantic Creole Itinerary". In Baca, George; Khan, Aisha; Palmié, Stephan (eds.). Empirical Futures: Anthropologists and Historians Engage the Work of Sidney W. Mintz. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: ISBN 978-0-8078-3345-2.
- Scott, Rebecca J. (December 2007). "The Atlantic World and the Road to 'Plessy v. Ferguson'". JSTOR 25095133.
- Scott, Rebecca J.; Hébrard, Jean M. (2014). "12. Rosalie of the Poulard Nation: Freedom, Law and Dignity in the era of the Haitian Revolution". In Lindsay, Lisa A.; Sweet, John Wood (eds.). Biography and the Black Atlantic. Project MUSE(subscription required)
- Scott, Rebecca J.; Hébrard, Jean M. (2012). Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the Age of Emancipation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: ISBN 978-0-674-06516-1.
- Scott, Rebecca J.; Hébrard, Jean M. (2007). "Les papiers de la liberté. Une mère africaine et ses enfants à l'époque de la révolution haïtienne" [Freedom Papers: An African Mother and Her Children at the Time of the Haitian Revolution]. Genèses (in French). 1 (66). Paris: Éditions Belin: 4–29. ISSN 1776-2944. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
- Sidbury, James (December 2014). "Sugar and Freedom: Two Caribbean Family Stories". Project MUSE(subscription required)
- "Famille Tinchant~Yonck (Schoonselhof cemetery)". Find a Grave. Antwerp, Belgium: Ancestry.com. 3 March 2019. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020. No death record found. Date appears in the photograph of the tombstone.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - "Registres d'état civil, Overlijdens 1883: Elisabeth Deodata Vincent" [Civil Status Registry, Deaths, 1883: Elisabeth Dieudonné Vincent]. FamilySearch (in Dutch). Antwerp, Belgium: België Staatsarchief. 1 December 1883. record #4536. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- "Week van de begraafplaatsen op Schoonselhof" [Week of the Cemeteries at Schoonselhof]. Nieuwsbrief (in Dutch). 94. Antwerp, Belgium: Grafzerkje vzw. July 2016. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2020.