Free Women of African Descent, Slavery, and Economic Independence in New Orleans, 1803–60

The entire economy of the South was based on the idea that the bodies of the slaves had a monetary value, which could rise and fall.  In New Orleans, free women of African descent from all ethnic and racial backgrounds traded slaves for financial profit.  Slaves were viewed as malleable financial investments, but just as a court could admit the humanity of a slave, so could free women of color.  Thus, while they disposed of their slaves like any other moveable property, they sometimes made provisions to manumit their slaves and bequeath or donate property to them.  This appears to be a blatant contradiction.  In this paper, I show how free women of color tried to reconcile their paternalistic solicitude with their dreams of economic independence in a society convinced that slavery was the only way to achieve economic prosperity and social order.