Believe it or not some people have attempted to downplay their ancestor’s story to not accept the early interracial mixing within their family. Many claim that only poor White Europeans took up with slaves and free women of color – expressing this to indicate that one had to be below the living standard of society’s affluent people of that time in order to have interracial relationships.
In my research I’ve located several documents that could debunk this preposterous claim. In fact, I have found several affluent Frenchman of Opelousas, Louisiana who had long term relationships with slaves or free women of color. Augustin Belair FONTENOT, Joseph Bonaporte GRADENIGO and Francois LEMELLE were among those affluent men who descended from wealth and who all had long-term relations with their slaves, even freeing them as well as giving them all of their assets upon their deaths. None of the men named above had legitimate children or their family members did not contest their wills giving their assets to their natural children. This shows the loyalty the men had towards these women of color and their children.
The census below shows Dr. Acher of France living with his Mulatto children he had with Meurice DONATO, my maternal aunt of many greats. Also living with them was his slave wife Josephine who he had children with after Meurice. Dr. Acher made sure that his daughters were taken care of, even petitioning against their maternal aunt who attempted to claim their share of their uncle’s estate. His involvement with getting his daughters’ inheritance has led to the validation that my ancestor Olympe DONATO and her twin sister Meurice DONATO were blood kin to the DONATO family and not just slaves Martin DONATO liberated upon his death. After Dr. Acher died, Jules PERRODIN, his friend from France. donated property to his daughter Valentine ACHER. In the donation he openly acknowledged that Dr. Acher was her father. With that money Valentine purchased property that is still in the family today.
People today need to realize that we can’t change and manipulate the past to hold onto biased perceptions. In colonial Louisiana up until the reconstruction era and beyond, many White men lived openly with their women of color, some even legally marrying them. Just because some folks would rather not see evidence of race mixing doesn’t mean you have to create a racist narrative for every biracial family.
Below are pictures of Dr. ACHER’s daughters Anais ACHER and Valentine ACHER along with the 1860 census of Dr. Acher living with his children and slave wife.
