Louisa Picquet

Louisa Picquet (c. 1828, Columbia, South Carolina - June 11, 1896, New Richmond, Ohio).

Louisa Picquet was a product of a slave and master relationship. Her mother, Elizabeth Ramsey had Louisa at fifteen with John Randolph, her master. ^[1] Both her and her mother are sold to David R. Cook and travel with him to Mobile, Alabama. Louisa performs domestic duties in Alabama to Thomas M. English, where Cook stays.^[2] Cook was in trouble with debt, and Louisa is sold to John Williams in New Orleans and she is separated from her mother. With William's as her master, she serves as his concubine. Around the 1840's, Louisa obtained her freedom after the death of her master.^[3] She stays in the WIlliam's household until Cook's brother informs her he will be selling the house and gives her money in which she uses to go to Cincinnati, Ohio. Here, she called herself Louisa Williams and met Henry Picquet; and in 1850, the two get married and have two children.^[4]

The story of her life was published in Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life. This narrative focus on aspects of her life that manifest due to heritage as an octoroon. The work also highlights the sexual exploitation that the females slaves experienced at the hands of the white men. In her quest to find and free her mother, she met Hiram Mattison who helped her publish her story to raise money to purchase her mother.^[5]

Notes

A summary of this work is available at: Prince, Monique. Summary. Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life ( 1861) ^[6]

References

1. "Summary of Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life". docsouth.unc.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
2. Minor, DoVeanna S. Fulton (2012-02-01). Speaking Lives, Authoring Texts: Three African American Women's Oral Slave Narratives. SUNY Press. ISBN 9781438429663.
3. Barthelemy, Anthony G. (1990-01-01). Collected Black Women's Narratives. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195066692.
4. Minor, DoVeanna S. Fulton (2012-02-01). Speaking Lives, Authoring Texts: Three African American Women's Oral Slave Narratives. SUNY Press. ISBN 9781438429663.
5. "Louisa Picquet". Retrieved 12 July 2013.
6. "Summary of Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life". Docsouth.unc.edu. Retrieved 2013-08-02.

• Pitts, Reginald H. Louisa Picquet c.1829-1896. Legacy, Volume 24, Number 2 2007 pp 294–305.

Further reading

• Andrews, William L. To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. (1960)
• Bert, James Loewenberg and Ruth Bogn. Black Women in Nineteenth-Century American Life: Their Words, Their Thoughts, Their Feelings.
• Pension Records of Henry Picquet, late Private, Unassigned Troops, United States Colored Troops, and Private Company K 42nd United States Colored Troops National Archives, Washington, D.C.
• Pension Records of Mrs. Louisa Picquet, widow of Henry Picquet, deceased, late of Company K 42nd United States Colored Troops National Archives, Washington, D.C.
• Picquet, Louisa and Hiram Mattison. Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life. New York: The Author, 1861. http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/picquet/