A New Orleans Exile in Cuba

In the decade following the Louisiana Purchase, Franco-Louisianan Louis Declouet twice sought permission from Spain to emigrate to Spanish American territories and by 1816, he and his family had relocated to Cuba, where, a few years later, he founded the town of Cienfuegos. Although Declouet was a member of a prominent Francophone family, the grandson of a royal councilor to Louis XV, he was born under Spanish rule in Louisiana and spent his life serving in the Spanish military. This paper explores his decision to leave New Orleans after its cession to the United States, arguing that it was his marriage to a woman of color and his service as commander of the battalion of free mulatos and negros that led Declouet to abandon his homeland in reaction to its incorporation into the United States, especially the increasing Americanization of its racial order.