“Mes dernières volontés”: Testaments to the Life of Marie Couvent, a Former Slave in New Orleans by Elizabeth C. Neidenbach

“…Through a close reading of Couvent’s testaments, this article will explore the life of a woman who was born in Africa, enslaved in Saint-Domingue, and died a free and wealthy slave owner in New Orleans. As catalogs of material accumulation, acts of autobiography, and maps of social networks these wills suggest the ways Couvent and other former slaves created identities as free people through property ownership and personal relationships.…”
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