![]() Ironically, despite her support for emancipation and her wealth, she owned slaves herself and wasn’t able to pay for the freedom of some of her own children and grandchildren. She tasked her oldest son Augustin with building the nation’s first church for free people of color another son, Louis, was tasked with building it. Together with her children, she founded Isle Brevelle, one of the nation’s first communities for free people of color. In 1788, the couple divorced, but Métoyer gave his ex-wife a sizable tract of property, and Marie-Thérèse became one of the most consequential free persons of color in antebellum Louisiana. She already had five children before their marriage, at least two of whom were fathered by another man, and another eight children during their marriage, all of whom were raised as Métoyers.Īll told, Marie-Thérèse had thirteen children, though the oldest three of them had never been manumitted. Marie-Thérèse was still a slave, which meant Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer would have to pay for her manumission. Presumably, the two fell in love they wanted to have their own children, but the church would not give its blessing. When she was still young, Marie-Thérèse became the concubine of a white Frenchman, Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer, who, by then, had surpassed the St. Denis’s window, now Madame de Soto, owned numerous slaves, including husband and wife François and Marie Françoise, parents of a two-year-old daughter Marie-Thérèse Coincoin.īy the age of 36, Marie-Thérèse Coincoin became the matriarch of one of the most powerful and influential families in Louisiana, a family that remains synonymous with the region and with Creole culture: the Métoyers. of Church Point, Louisiana).Īt the time of the patriarch’s death, St. (He has one living direct descendant, Monseigneur Jefferson DeBlanc, Jr. Denis died in 1744, leaving behind five children and his wife, who, according to local folklore was the wealthiest woman west of the Mississippi River. Eventually, he and his wife were able to talk their way back to Natchitoches. Denis spent the next few years wandering, eventually making his way into Mexico, where he fell in love with the step-granddaughter of a Spanish commander. Denis established Natchitoches, which was essentially just a small fort intended to thwart Spanish expansion. In 1714, four years before Bienville settled New Orleans, Louis Juchereau de St. The town is named after a local indigenous tribe, a word that scholars believe translates as “land where the dirt is red.” Today, in nearby Kisatchie National Forest, there is a protected section of 38,000 acres of rugged terrain known as the Red Dirt National Wildlife Management Preserve. Eight miles north is the town of Natchitoches, the oldest French settlement in the United States and the oldest permanent European settlement in the vast Louisiana Purchase. The true story about Melrose Plantation will likely challenge some of what you probably believe about the antebellum South, because the area once named La Grande Côte, a bend in what is now known as the Cane River, was a unique enclave with a distinct culture. François Mignon discusses Clementine Hunter in 1978 (Source NSU).Īnd to understand Melrose, you have to begin with a relationship between another black woman from Natchitoches Parish and a white man who actually was from France, Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer. To understand Hunter, you must understand her relationship with the mysterious and eccentric François Mignon, a pathological liar who also recognized the truth of her art, but, more than anything else, you must understand Hunter’s muse, Melrose Plantation, a place every bit as complex and contradictory and conflicted about its past as Mignon. He remained one of her closest friends until his death. He was a prolific diarist, writing for six days a week for the next thirty years, but more than anything, he was a true believer in Clementine Hunter. He was the first to “officially” document her paintings in his journal from 1939. He could be forgiven for scripting a new name, a new history, and a new future, and more than any other singular figure, François Mignon is responsible for championing the artwork of Clementine Hunter. In many respects, Mignon was a complete fraud, but according to those who knew him best, his genius was still unquestionable. Frank VerNooy Mineah had invented an entirely new life for himself in Natchitoches, where he had planned on remaining for only six weeks but ended up staying until he died in 1980.
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