“A Chaos of Iniquity and Discord” Slave and Free Women of Color in the Spanish Ports of New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola

This chapter discusses that racial mixing frequently did not always lead to freedom. Some women and their children did effect their freedom from their liaisons with white men. The census schedules demonstrate the dramatic growth of the free people of color in Spanish ports of New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola. Freedom was not all that slave women and free women of color gained form their extralegal liaisons. Many women and their children also received property. Hundreds of deeds, wills, and inventories of estates contain evidence of property transferred form white men to slave and free women...

This chapter discusses that racial mixing frequently did not always lead to freedom. Some women and their children did effect their freedom from their liaisons with white men. The census schedules demonstrate the dramatic growth of the free people of color in Spanish ports of New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola. Freedom was not all that slave women and free women of color gained form their extralegal liaisons. Many women and their children also received property. Hundreds of deeds, wills, and inventories of estates contain evidence of property transferred form white men to slave and free women of color and their children.