3. Point Couppe 1795
The French founded Point Couppe, roughly 150 miles north of New Orleans, in 1717. Census records indicated that in 1788 there were 1,500 slaves. The slave population increased to 1,600 in 1797. There were three slaves to every white in the region. In 1791, a slave insurrection on the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue, present-day Haiti, began, causing concern for slave owners in French Louisiana.
Skilled slaves such as blacksmiths, sailors, drivers, woodsmen, and carpenters were highly valued, worth a considerable amount of money, and trusted by their owners. Often they were granted more freedoms than field slaves who were responsible for the backbreaking work of planting, maintaining, harvesting and refining sugar.
For owners, a slave hierarchy was essential in maintaining an effective and successful plantation. They believed that their trusted slaves would never do anything to disrupt life on the plantation or put them in harms way. Beginning in late 1794, trusted slaves in Point Couppe Parish, with permission from their owners, traveled from plantation to plantation. Unbeknownst to their owners, as the slaves went between plantations, they planed and gained support for a rebellion.
In April 1795, Spanish officials found out about the slave conspiracy and quickly found 57 people guilty of preparing for a rebellion. Of the 57, 23 were executed with their severed heads placed on pikes and displayed throughout lower Louisiana as a means to force slaves with thoughts of rebellion into submission. Three of the executed were white and two were free people of color.
One man, Joseph Bouyavel, was found to have a copy of The Declarations of the Rights of Man in his possession. Not only did having this document prove that some slaves could read, It also demonstrated that many understood the ideas of freedom and self-government. The small number of slave owners were terrified, and rightly so.
The plans for slave revolt centered on the plantation of Julien Poydras. An overwhelming number of his slaves hailed directly from Africa. Slave owners long held the belief that slaves directly from Africa were the most troublesome and had to be convinced through means of terror and violence, that being submissive and obedient was the best thing for them. After uncovering the plans for revolt, the Spanish authorities created slave patrols.
These slave patrols would search all slave quarters for anything that looked like it could possibly be influential in planning a slave revolt. Items taken were letters, newspapers, and bibles. The institution of slavery only worked if the enslaved were kept ignorant and submissive.