Marie Thérèse Coincoin facts for kids

Marie Thérèse Coincoin, also known as Coincoin (her birth name), Marie Thérèse dite Coincoin, and Marie Thérèse Métoyer, was born in August 1742 and died in 1816. She was a remarkable woman who became a successful businesswoman and landowner in colonial Louisiana, near the town of Natchitoches.

Born into slavery, Coincoin was part of the group known as Louisiana Creoles of color. In 1778, a man named Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer, with whom she had a long relationship and ten children, bought her freedom. After gaining her freedom, she and her family helped create the historic community of Isle Brevelle along the Cane River. This community included what is believed to be the first church founded by free people of color for their own use, St. Augustine Parish (Isle Brevelle) Church. This church is now a special stop on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.

Early Life and Family History

Coincoin was born in 1742 in Natchitoches. Her family was enslaved by the founder of the Natchitoches post, Chevalier Louis Juchereau de St. Denis. Her parents were François and Marie Françoise, and Coincoin was the fourth of their eleven children.

As children, Coincoin and her sister Marie Louise were taught about medicine and nursing. These skills helped them earn a living after they became free as adults. Their other nine brothers and sisters remained enslaved in different colonial areas, from Natchitoches to Pensacola.

From Slavery to Freedom

While still young, Coincoin had five children. Around 1765, her mistress allowed Coincoin to live with a young French merchant named Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer. Métoyer had become interested in Coincoin during his many visits to the St. Denis home.

In 1778, a local priest tried to separate them, which led Métoyer to buy Coincoin's freedom. They then moved away from the main settlement to lands outside the town, where they continued their relationship until 1788. As their mixed-race children grew up and got married, Métoyer also bought the freedom of the first five of their ten children, whom he had owned after buying Coincoin.

Becoming a Businesswoman

As a free woman, Coincoin started many different businesses. She made and sold medicine, grew tobacco, and trapped wild bears and turkeys. She sent these to the local market and also shipped animal skins and oil, along with indigo (a blue dye) that she got from the bear skins, to New Orleans. Her cured tobacco also went to New Orleans. She became a landowner and paid taxes. As a devoted Catholic, she also volunteered her time to help maintain the local church.

Like many other formerly enslaved people in colonial Louisiana, she eventually bought enslaved people herself. She did this to protect them from being bought by others in the area. Most of these people were related to Coincoin or close friends, and she worked alongside them until her own health began to fail.

Some stories say she owned a small farm of 67 acres. Other stories claim she owned a huge plantation of 12,000 acres and a hundred enslaved people. However, official records show she owned a bit over one thousand acres.

The Spanish government had generous rules for giving land, which helped her get her first farm. This farm was on the Grand Coast of Red River (now called Cane River), about ten miles below the town. This small piece of land, about 67 acres, was next to Métoyer's plantation. She received it in 1787, and the government officially approved it in 1794.

After getting that land, Coincoin asked for a much larger piece of land – 800 acres of pine forests on Old River, west of her farm. Here, she set up a vacherie (cattle ranch) and hired a Spaniard to manage it. In 1807, she bought a third piece of farmland that was already developed.

This third property, next to her home, provided land for a younger son who grew up after the Louisiana Purchase. This was too late for him to benefit from the Spanish government's more generous land rules. Coincoin is often given credit for starting the famous Melrose Plantation on the Cane River. However, records show this land was given to her son, Louis Métoyer, who built most of the plantation buildings that still stand today.

Coincoin lived simply and helped others. She used all her earnings to buy the freedom of her children from her earlier relationship when she was enslaved. By the time she died, she had bought the freedom of three of those children and three grandchildren. Another daughter and many grandchildren remained enslaved because their owners refused to free them or sell them.

Legacy and Impact

Coincoin passed away in 1816, and her grave is no longer marked. Her oldest son, Augustin Metoyer, gave land for a church at Isle Brevelle, Natchez, Louisiana. In 1829, he asked his brother Louis to build the church, which became St. Augustine Parish (Isle Brevelle) Church. It is believed to be the first church in America built by free people of color for their own community.

The Coincoin–Prudhomme House, also known as Maison De Marie Therese, is a small house built in the Creole style using bousillage and half-timber. It still stands on her original farmstead from the late 1700s to early 1800s. This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Today, it is known as the Maison de Marie Thérèse Coincoin Museum. It is located about one mile northwest of Bermuda, is privately owned, and offers tours by appointment.

African Roots

It is believed that Coincoin's parents, who were born in Africa, kept much of their African culture. While no document clearly states where they were born in Africa, Coincoin and four of her siblings had African names. One historian suggested in the 1970s that the name Coincoin (spelled differently in French and Spanish records) was used for "second-born daughters" among the Ewe of coastal Togo who speak the Glidzi language.

Historians Gary B. and Elizabeth Shown Mills found proof that Coincoin was indeed the second-born daughter in her family. Other possible origins of the name Coincoin, along with the names of her siblings, are still being studied by Africanist Kevin C. MacDonald at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

The Coincoin–Prudhomme House, located on a dirt road off Highway 494, about 1 mile Northwest of Bermuda.