A Bequest in the Time of Cholera: Epidemics, Education, and Free Orphans of Color in Antebellum New Orleans

On November 12, 1832, an illiterate free woman of color named Marie Justine Sirnir Couvent recorded her will with a notary in New Orleans. Couvent left various holdings to family and friends, but her greatest bequest extended to her community when she declared that “my land at the corner of Grands Hommes and Union streets will be forever dedicated and employed for the establishment of a free school for the orphans of color of the Faubourg Marigny[.]” L'Institution Catholique des Orphelins Indigents opened on Couvent’s property in 1847, and for over 150 years, a school for African American children remained on the site.

Couvent left a legacy that was both material and conceptual. She donated her most valuable property to provide a space for a school. She also delineated a specific type of school to be created on her land—one that would serve her community’s most vulnerable population and provide a free education. Moreover, she did this at a time when free black children faced limited access to education and were barred from the city’s orphan asylums.

While scholarship on the school always mentions Couvent and her unique donation, it seldom considers why she made this specific bequest. Details from Couvent’s own life resonate in her vision for a school, but her bequest was also a direct response to the major cholera epidemic that hit New Orleans in 1832. This paper examines Couvent’s decision through her past experiences, the immediate context in which she made her will, and the broader history of free black education in New Orleans. Using notary and sacramental records, apprenticeship contracts, censuses, and city directories, this paper demonstrates that Couvent’s bequest sought to expand existing outlets for orphan care in a novel way and ultimately endowed generations of children in New Orleans with an education.