The Paulinian Age: Black Queen to Move, the Story of an Enslaved Woman's Path to Freedom and Social Rights

Pauline Bienvenue’s life, from enslavement to Free Person of Color, provides a compelling case study of a unique class of bondspeople who emerged in pre-Civil War New Orleans. In 1825, Louisiana lawmakers codified a new racial category, statuliberi, creating a fourth caste within the existing tripartite racial system. This designation allowed certain enslaved individuals a degree of legal agency uncommon in other slaveholding societies. Pauline acquired this status in 1836 after being purchased by Louisiana Attorney General Alonzo Morphy. Her life within the Morphy household and later as a free woman in the Faubourg Marigny, a neighborhood within New Orleans, reveals the intricate social, economic, and legal networks that shaped Black lives in antebellum and postbellum Louisiana.

This research highlights three critical periods in Pauline’s life, each mapped to key locations in New Orleans.

1. "Addicted to Drink" (1828–1836): Enslavement, Surveillance, and Resistance
   This phase examines the oppressive tactics urban enslavers used to control bondspeople. At the same time, it explores how enslaved individuals and free Black community members resisted these mechanisms of control. Pauline’s experiences reflect the broader struggle of enslaved people in urban environments, where constant surveillance was countered by acts of defiance and subversion.

2. "The Morphy Home" (1836–1848): Rival Geographies and Intellectual Circulation
   As a member of the Morphy household, Pauline was immersed in an elite social sphere connected to legal, financial, and merchant networks. This environment exposed her to influential schools of thought circulating in New Orleans during the period. Within the Morphy home, both enslaved and free Black individuals developed strategies to navigate their circumstances, forming “rival geographies” within the confines of white domestic spaces. This section explores how Black household members engaged with legal, economic, and intellectual discourses to carve out paths for self-determination.

3. "Black Queen to Move" (1856–1877): Freedom, Landownership, and Community Leadership
   By the 1850s, Pauline had secured property and was living as a free woman of color in the Faubourg Marigny, a neighborhood that became a center for Black landownership, education, and political mobilization. Black matriarchal families, including Pauline’s, played a crucial role in fostering male leaders who sought to fulfill the ideals of equality and freedom central to America’s founding principles. This section examines how Free People of Color in Faubourg Marigny contributed to shaping post-Civil War constitutional and statutory frameworks aimed at restoring dignity and humanity to all Louisiana citizens.

By tracing Pauline Bienvenue’s journey from enslavement to freedom, this research provides a microhistorical lens into the broader Black experience in New Orleans. Her life illustrates how individuals within the statuliberi class leveraged legal agency, intellectual engagement, and community networks to navigate systemic oppression and contribute to the struggle for Black liberation and citizenship. The research draws on an 1841 map of New Orleans to contextualize key landmarks in Pauline’s life, providing a spatial dimension to her story and emphasizing the interconnectedness of geography, law, and Black resistance in antebellum and Reconstruction-era Louisiana.