The Women of 1811
The architects of resistance and harbingers of liberation.
Lucy
Lucy, an enslaved woman on Antoine Philippon’s plantation, is the first woman to be researched in depth by historians at The Descendants Project. Her name appears in a list compiled by New Orleans City Judge Moreau Lislet, published in the Louisiana Courier on January 14, 1811. She was among 14 men captured and imprisoned for their involvement in the 1811 Uprising.
Lucy first emerges in historical records on September 25, 1809, when Philippon purchased her from Balthasar Demazilliere for 400 pesos. (1) This sale document describes her as 25 years old with no previous history of self-liberation. Philippon owned at least two properties: a home on St. Louis Street in New Orleans and a plantation referenced in the 1821 Slave Evaluation Reports, though these exact locations remain unknown. (2) Lucy likely moved between the plantation and the city being familiar with both the rural and city landscapes. This mobility may have enabled her to help organize the revolt by spreading news and connecting others to the plans of the revolt.
Women often supported revolts through logistical aid, such as cooking, gathering supplies, or spreading intelligence. Their ability to move between domestic and public spaces on the plantation enabled them to communicate critical information and create subversive disruptions. Enslaved women also took direct action through lethal force over their enslavers with poison, cane knives, and axes. After revolts, many women faced brutal repercussions, including torture and imprisonment, reflecting both enslavers’ and the governments’ deep fear of their potential for resistance.
Lucy’s story is the first of many women’s stories that we hope to uncover. The works on the 1811 Uprising, while formative to keeping the narrative alive, focuses on the men and leaders of the revolt. The Descendants Project is dedicated to researching and bringing forth the stories of women and their work within this historic revolution.
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This newspaper article lists Lucy alongside fourteen other enslaved people arrested in New Orleans for their participation in the “insurrection.”
La Courrier de la Louisiane, January 14, 1811, in Slavery in Territorial Louisiana, Clarence Edwin Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States: The Territory of Orleans, 1803–1812, vol. 9 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1940), as digitized in the Louisiana Digital Library.
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Louisiana Slave Database, “Lucy,” The Louisiana Slave Records, compiled by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, last modified 2004, accessed July 31, 2025, https://www.ibiblio.org/laslave/individ.php?sid=45106
“Deposition, Antoine Philippon before Préval, New Orleans, June 1821,” in Slave Evaluation Reports, Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC), New Orleans, Louisiana and United States Census, 1810, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, National Archives and Records Administration, accessed [date], https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/22755:7613
Francoise
Francoise, a Congolese woman born in 1784 and enslaved on the Nicholas Picou Plantation. Though the historical record does not detail how she participated in the revolt, Francoise was arrested at 27 years old in New Orleans on January 10, 1811 for seeking liberation.
Francoise’s arrest in New Orleans provides a significant detail: that she made it to New Orleans. The Picou Plantation was among the first of several plantations to be raided by the self-liberators. Francoise would have joined in on January 8, the first day of the revolt.
Francoise may have taken up arms, joining in the direct attacks as the insurgents moved from plantation to plantation. Her familiarity with the environs around the Picou Plantation and surrounding plantations, would have been invaluable in navigating the landscape strategically. This knowledge would allow her to move towards the slave quarters to approach other enslaved women, reassuring them of the revolt’s purpose, urging solidarity, offering protection, calming fears, or encouraging their participation.
On January 10, other revolutionaries split into three groups, some to continue on towards New Orleans, some towards Lake Pontchartrain, and others to head back upriver. (1) Francoise may have been a part of the New Orleans group, continuing to encourage enslaved people along the Mississippi River to join them in the revolution. However, militias stopped the New Orleans group in Kenner, arresting the revolutionaries.
Her arrest was the first time Francoise appeared in the historical record, though it was not the last. After the revolt ended, Francoise was sent back to the Picou Plantation. On August 12, 1811, her enslaver died leaving Francoise and 45 other enslaved people to the fate of Picou’s executors.
Executors of plantation estates typically sold or auctioned off moveable property, including enslaved people, if they needed to pay off any remaining debts of the enslavers. Enslavers also left furniture, properties, and enslaved people to their family.
Francoise was sold during this time to a man named Victorie Deslondes, a free man of color from St. John the Baptist Parish. (2) Francoise joined 76 other enslaved and free people of color on the plantation site. Though the revolt did not achieve its immediate goals, Francoise’s journey reveals the enduring courage and determination of those women who risked everything for freedom.
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This document lists the names of men and women awaiting trial after their arrest in New Orleans. Alongside the enslaved person’s name is also the enslaver’s name and a count of the deaths, missing persons, and imprisoned of the enslaved. Here Francoise is listed as “missing” but is later arrested and sent back to the Picou Plantation.
St. Charles Parish Original Acts, Book 1810–1811, Act No. 2, pp. 3–4, St. Charles Parish Courthouse Archives, Hahnville, Louisiana.
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Albert Thrasher, On to New Orleans!: Louisiana’s Heroic 1811 Slave Revolt, 2nd ed. (New Orleans: Cypress Press, 1996), chap. 2, The Road to 1811.
“Louisiana, U.S., Free People of Color Records, 1810–1860,” Ancestry.com, collection 1810 United States Census and Slave Evaluation Reports, record no. 1896809, accessed July 31, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8058/records/1896809
Marie Rose
Marie Rose was an enslaved woman condemned to execution for her participation in the 1811 Slave Revolt. As with the other women revolutionaries, the historical record does not dictate how Marie Rose participated in the revolt. Her sentence however, put her in the same line of deadly punishment as the men tried in New Orleans and at Destrehan Plantation for “rebellion, murder, burning, and pillaging.” (1) Such severe charges imply that Marie Rose was perceived as a major threat by the enslavers and in higher ranking among the self-liberators.
Marie Rose was previously enslaved on the Louis de Feriet Plantation. De Feriet owned several sites across New Orleans and the Mississippi River, giving Marie Rose knowledge of the River and the plantations along it. (2) This movement may have allowed Marie Rose to build relationships with the leaders of the revolts and to spread information to other enslaved people.
Being condemned to death by the tribunal indicates that Marie Rose also participated in the more physical aspects of the revolt, including possibly burning down Big Houses, stealing supplies, and setting cane fields ablaze. This placed her not at the margins but at the front lines of the revolt. Marie Rose is the only woman identified thus far with such severe charges, indicating that she may have been a leader in the revolution.
On February 28, 1811, the courts changed Marie Rose’s sentence to perpetual imprisonment instead of death. (3) This was likely due to the prison’s use of women’s labor during this time period. Enslaved women often did domestic labor for the prison guards including sewing uniforms, cooking, and laundry. The guards would also lease incarcerated women to clear lands, clean streets, or dig ditches.
This shift in her sentence does not diminish Marie Rose’s role in the revolt; rather, it underscores the extent of her resistance and the conditions that compelled her to seek liberation.
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Acts Passed at the Second Session of the Third Legislature of the Territory of Orleans, 23, Jan. 1811 (New Orleans 1811:18)
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Verdicts of the St. Charles Parish Tribunal, February 1811, in Proceedings and Testimonies Relating to the 1811 Slave Revolt, St. Charles Parish Court Records, Louisiana State Archives, Baton Rouge.
Louisiana, Orleans Parish Estate Files, New Orleans (Louisiana) City Archives, Court of Probates, F Surnames, Felseck, 1831 – Fromentin, 1832, microfilm, Louisiana Division, New Orleans Public Library
Acts Passed at the Second Session of the Third Legislature of the Territory of Orleans, 23, Jan. 1811 (New Orleans 1811:18)