Bras-Coupé facts for kids

Bras-Coupé is the fictitious name of a slave named Squire, who lived from the early 19th century to 1837 in Louisiana.

Bras-Coupé was a talented entertainer and dancer who was allowed by his master (owner) to travel. But after numerous escape attempts, in 1834 a planters' patrol captured him and amputated his right arm as punishment.

Squire ran away again and organized a gang of escaped slaves, as well as sympathetic whites. The gang robbed plantations, stores, and merchants. In the three years until his death Bras-Coupé's fame grew to the point where superhuman attributes were given to him, such as being immune to bullets. When shot by hunters in 1837, he survived.

Bras-Coupé died at the hands of a former ally, fisherman Francisco García. Garcia killed him to claim a $2,000 reward.

A character named Bras Coupé with a similar life story appears in the 1880 novel The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life by George Washington Cable.