In 1742, Marie Coincoin was born. She was a Black nurse, planter, slave owner, and businesswoman at the colonial Louisiana outpost of Natchitoches Parish.
In 1742, Marie Coincoin was born. She was a Black nurse, planter, slave owner, and businesswoman at the colonial Louisiana outpost of Natchitoches Parish. A Louisianan Creole, Marie Theresa Coincoin was born into the slavery of Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis. Her parents were François and Marie Françoise; she was the fourth of eleven children. Coincoin and her sister Marie Louise were trained in pharmacology and nursing as children. When still young, Coincoin had five children. Some records show that Coincoin's first five children were of full African, and others suggest they were partially Native American, fathered by Chatta. About 1765, her mistress granted Coincoin to live with the young French merchant Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer, who freed her. Together, they moved from the post to outlying lands until 1788. As his mixed-race children matured and married, Métoyer freed the eldest five of the ten children whom he had held in slavery. As a free woman, Coincoin exploited a...