Marie Thérèse Metoyer
Encyclopedia
Marie Thérèse ditte Coincoin (August 1742-1816) was notable as a free médecine, planter, and businesswoman in Natchitoches Parish. She was freed from slavery after a long liaison and ten children with Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer. She and her descendants established the community of Créoles of color
at Isle Brevelle, including what is believed to be the first church founded by free people of color
for their own use, St. Augustine Parish (Isle Brevelle) Church
, Natchez, Louisiana
. It is included on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail
.
, the fourth of eleven children of François and Marie Françoise. The parents were both Africans enslaved by the post's founder and commandant, Chevalier Louis Juchereau de St. Denis; they were married in the parish church just three weeks after François' baptism in December 1735. This suggests that their marriage, like their religious "conversion," was dictated by their master. As children, Coincoin and her sister Marie Louise ditte Mariotte were trained in pharmacology and nursing. These skills helped provide livelihoods when the women gained their freedom as adults. Their other nine siblings would remain enslaved at various colonial posts from Natchitoches to Pensacola.
widow. Métoyer gave Coincoin a tract of 68 acres (275,186.5 m²) of alluvial river bottom land and gradually manumitted the surviving eight of the ten children she had borne to him.
As a free woman, Coincoin earned her livelihood as a médecine, a planter of tobacco, and a trapper. She sold meat at the post. She also shipped barrels of oil and bargeloads of tobacco to market at New Orleans.
About 1794 she applied for a Spanish grant and was awarded the standard 800 arpents (about 666 acres) of land. She located her grant in the piney hills, west of Cane River
, for use as a vacherie (cattle range) and hired a Spaniard to operate it for her. Like many other freed slaves in colonial Louisiana, Coincoin bought slaves to labor for her as her own health began to fail. By the time she divided her property among her children in Spring 1816, in anticipation of death, the three African-born adults whom she had purchased had created a household of 16 slaves.
Coincoin has long been a popular figure in Louisiana lore. She is frequently said to have owned large estates, including Cane River's fabled Melrose Plantation
. In the late twentieth century, historians have shown that this land was granted to and built on by one of her sons, Louis Métoyer. Coincoin lived a life of frugality and service to others, investing all her income into the purchase of freedom for her pre-Métoyer children, grandchildren, and other youth in the neighborhood.
The example which she set, and the religious and moral values which she instilled in her offspring were the guiding forces of an exceptional community built by her children and grandchildren on Cane River. Her eldest son Augustin Metoyer donated the land for a church, St. Augustine Parish (Isle Brevelle) Church
, and commissioned his brother Louis to build it in 1829 at Isle Brevelle, Natchez
. It is believed to be America's first church founded by free people of color
and built for their own use.
Coincoin's grave is no longer marked. Although the small bousillage cabin shown as hers on a contemporary land survey no longer stands, the site has been defined for archeological study.
of coastal Togo
.
Historians Mills and Mills found evidence that Coincoin was the second-born daughter in her birth family. Other possible origins of the name Coincoin, together with the sibling names uncovered by the Millses, are being pursued by the Africanist Kevin MacDonald at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London
.
Creoles of color
The Creoles of Color are a historic ethnic group of Louisiana, especially the city of New Orleans.-History:During Louisiana’s colonial period, Creole referred to people born in Louisiana with ancestors from elsewhere; i.e., all natives other than Native Americans. They used the term to separate...
at Isle Brevelle, including what is believed to be the first church founded by free people of color
Free people of color
A free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
for their own use, St. Augustine Parish (Isle Brevelle) Church
St. Augustine Parish (Isle Brevelle) Church
St. Augustine Catholic Church is in Natchez, Louisiana. Tradition holds that the church was established by Nicolas Augustin Métoyer, a newly freed slave, in 1803 and that services have been held continuously since then. The congregation may have gathered then, but the church and priest came later...
, Natchez, Louisiana
Natchez, Louisiana
Natchez is a village in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 583 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Natchitoches Micropolitan Statistical Area....
. It is included on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail
Louisiana African American Heritage Trail
Louisiana African American Heritage Trail is a cultural heritage trail with 26 sites designated in 2008 by the state of Louisiana, from New Orleans along the Mississippi River to Baton Rouge and Shreveport, with sites in small towns and plantations also included. In New Orleans several sites are...
.
Early life and family
Coincoin was born at the Louisiana French outpost of NatchitochesNatchitoches
Natchitoches may refer to:*Natchitoches , an American Indian people*Natchitoches, Louisiana, a city*Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana...
, the fourth of eleven children of François and Marie Françoise. The parents were both Africans enslaved by the post's founder and commandant, Chevalier Louis Juchereau de St. Denis; they were married in the parish church just three weeks after François' baptism in December 1735. This suggests that their marriage, like their religious "conversion," was dictated by their master. As children, Coincoin and her sister Marie Louise ditte Mariotte were trained in pharmacology and nursing. These skills helped provide livelihoods when the women gained their freedom as adults. Their other nine siblings would remain enslaved at various colonial posts from Natchitoches to Pensacola.
Slavery and freedom
Coincoin became the young mother of five children (born of a union with an American Indian slave, according to tradition). About 1765 her mistress leased Coincoin to a young French merchant, Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer, who made Coincoin his concubine. After Métoyer freed her in 1778, their liaison continued until 1788, when he married another Marie Thérèse, a white French CréoleFrench creole
The term French Creole can refer to* Any of the French-based creole languages* The people and culture in former French colonies such as Guadeloupe, Martinique, Louisiana, St.Lucia, Dominica and Saint-Domingue which is the west part of Hispaniola where French settled in 1625 The term French Creole...
widow. Métoyer gave Coincoin a tract of 68 acres (275,186.5 m²) of alluvial river bottom land and gradually manumitted the surviving eight of the ten children she had borne to him.
As a free woman, Coincoin earned her livelihood as a médecine, a planter of tobacco, and a trapper. She sold meat at the post. She also shipped barrels of oil and bargeloads of tobacco to market at New Orleans.
About 1794 she applied for a Spanish grant and was awarded the standard 800 arpents (about 666 acres) of land. She located her grant in the piney hills, west of Cane River
Cane River
Cane River is a lake and river formed from a portion of the Red River that is located in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it has been best known as the site of a historic Creole de couleur culture that has centers upon the National Historic Landmark Melrose...
, for use as a vacherie (cattle range) and hired a Spaniard to operate it for her. Like many other freed slaves in colonial Louisiana, Coincoin bought slaves to labor for her as her own health began to fail. By the time she divided her property among her children in Spring 1816, in anticipation of death, the three African-born adults whom she had purchased had created a household of 16 slaves.
Coincoin has long been a popular figure in Louisiana lore. She is frequently said to have owned large estates, including Cane River's fabled Melrose Plantation
Melrose Plantation
Melrose Plantation, also known as Yucca Plantation, is a National Historic Landmark in Natchitoches Parish in north central Louisiana. This is one of the largest plantations in the United States built by and for free blacks...
. In the late twentieth century, historians have shown that this land was granted to and built on by one of her sons, Louis Métoyer. Coincoin lived a life of frugality and service to others, investing all her income into the purchase of freedom for her pre-Métoyer children, grandchildren, and other youth in the neighborhood.
The example which she set, and the religious and moral values which she instilled in her offspring were the guiding forces of an exceptional community built by her children and grandchildren on Cane River. Her eldest son Augustin Metoyer donated the land for a church, St. Augustine Parish (Isle Brevelle) Church
St. Augustine Parish (Isle Brevelle) Church
St. Augustine Catholic Church is in Natchez, Louisiana. Tradition holds that the church was established by Nicolas Augustin Métoyer, a newly freed slave, in 1803 and that services have been held continuously since then. The congregation may have gathered then, but the church and priest came later...
, and commissioned his brother Louis to build it in 1829 at Isle Brevelle, Natchez
Natchez, Louisiana
Natchez is a village in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 583 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Natchitoches Micropolitan Statistical Area....
. It is believed to be America's first church founded by free people of color
Free people of color
A free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
and built for their own use.
Coincoin's grave is no longer marked. Although the small bousillage cabin shown as hers on a contemporary land survey no longer stands, the site has been defined for archeological study.
African origin
Tradition holds that Coincoin's African-born parents retained their culture, and some evidence supports that. No known document identifies the African birthplace of either parent. Coincoin and four of her siblings carried African names as dits. One African linguist proposed in the 1970s that the African Coincoin (spelled variously by French and Spanish scribes but pronounced KoKwe) was the name used by second-born daughters among those who speak the Glidzi dialect among the EweEwe people
The Ewe are a people located in the southeast corner of Ghana, east of the Volta River, in an area now described as the Volta Region, in southern Togo and western Benin...
of coastal Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
.
Historians Mills and Mills found evidence that Coincoin was the second-born daughter in her birth family. Other possible origins of the name Coincoin, together with the sibling names uncovered by the Millses, are being pursued by the Africanist Kevin MacDonald at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
.
In popular culture
- German, Norman. No Other World (novel based on Coincoin), Thibodaux, LA: Blue Heron Press, 1992; reprint, 2000, 2011.
- Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Isle of Canes. Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 2004. (This historical novel is illustrated with images of original documents critical to the lives of Coincoin and her offspring, along with genealogical charts; reference notes are included.) ISBN 1-59331-175-3.
Sources
- MacDonald, Kevin C.; David W. Morgan; Fiona J.L. Handley; Aubra L. Lee; and Emma Morley. "The Archaeology of Local Myths and Heritage Tourism," in A Future for Archaeology: The Past in the Present. New York: Routledge Cavendish, 2006. Chapter 13.
- Mills, Elizabeth Shown. "Marie Therese Coincoin: 1742-1816," KnowLa Encyclopedia of Louisiana : posted March 2011.
- Mills, Elizabeth Shown. "Marie Thérèse Coincoin (1742–1816): Slave, Slave Owner, and Paradox," Chapter 1 in Janet Allured and Judy Gentry, ed., Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, at press).
- Mills, Elizabeth Shown. "Which Marie Louise is 'Mariotte'? Sorting Slaves with Common Names," in National Genealogical Society Quarterly 94 (September 2006): 183–204.http://www.bcgcertification.org/skillbuilders/MariotteNGSQv94-183-204.pdf.
- Mills, Elizabeth Shown. "A Reader's Guide to the Study of Cane River Creoles." http://www.isleofcanes.com/isle_of_canes_resources.htm(An annotated bibliography of major sources treating Marie Thérèse and her Metoyer offspring.)
- Mills, Elizabeth Shown and Gary B. "Slaves and Masters: The Louisiana Metoyers," in National Genealogical Society Quarterly 70 (September 1982): 163-89. (A four-generation genealogy of the offspring of François and Marie Françoise, focusing on the Metoyer line.)
- Mills, Elizabeth Shown and Gary B. “Missionaries Compromised: Early Evangelization of Slaves and Free People of Color in North Louisiana,” in Cross, Crozier, and Crucible. Glenn R. Conrad. ed. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Historical Association and Archdiocese of New Orleans, 1993, pp. 30–47.
- Mills, Gary B. The Forgotten People: Cane River's Creoles of Color. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976. ISBN 978-0807102879. (This work is an expansion of the historic-site documentation project conducted by Mills and Mills in 1972, which earned Melrose its National Historical Landmark designation in 1974.)
- Mills, Gary B. “Coincoin: An Eighteenth-Century ‘Liberated’ Woman”, in Journal of Southern History 42 (May 1976): 203–22. Reprinted in Darlene Clark Hine, ed., Black Women in United States History. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, 1990. ISBN 978-0926019140.
- Mills, Gary B. "Marie Thérèse dite Coincoin," in Dictionary of Louisiana Biography. Glenn R. Conrad, ed. 3 vols. New Orleans: Louisiana Historical Association, 1988. Vol. 1:189-90.
- Ringle, Ken "Up through Slavery," The Washington Post, 12 May 2002, Life section; archived online http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A1069-2002May10¬Found=true%20.
- "The Louisiana Metoyers: Melrose's Story of Land and Slaves," in American Visions, (June, 2000).http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1546/is_3_15/ai_62724399?tag=artBody;col1 Written by the American Visions staff from Mills and Mills, "Slaves and Masters," cited above.