John W. Blassingame collection

The collection consists of three reels of negative microfilm and 28 photocopies of successions, marriage contracts, and marriage entries. The latter are from registers of marriages of free persons of color at St. Louis Cathedral. The data for the microfilm reels were compiled from the appropriate decennial census of the United States for 1850, 1860, and 1870. Abstracted information is included about those persons of color who possessed $200 or more in property during the periods covered. The principals of the transactions creating the documents were free during the period of slavery and members of the "gens du couleur libres" class. Names included in the documents are Jerome Bayon, G. Casanave, Louis Emilien Charbonnet, Basile R. Crocker, Adelard Duvigenaux, Antoinette Hazeur, Marie Laveau, John L. Lewis, Ulysses Populus, Louis Roudanez, and Camille Thierry.