According to a history of
Hancock County, Mississippi, Louis Boisdore is an "enigmatic" character, part of a family that "received their deed in Hancock County in 1781. They were related through marriage to the Collon family, and the Favres. Like many French settlers they moved from
Mobile to New Orleans to escape the British occupation of
West Florida that began in 1763. They took possession of the region upon the defeat of Great Britain and the return of Spanish rule. The name Boisdore still appears on topographic maps, bayous, and in some descriptions of the
Ancient Earthwork, also known as the
Boisdore Fortification." He owned the property at 600-610
Bourbon Street in New Orleans from 1768 to 1769. In 1776, he sued Juan Fauve for 609
pesos and an enslaved man named Luison. According to research by Ronald R. Morazan, in May 1776 he borrowed "911 pesos from Antonio Thomassin, so that he could pay off his debt to the agent of the French government, Juan Rene Gabriel Fazende. As security for the loan made by Thomassin, Boisdore placed all of his goods as well as a house which he owned on
Royal Street," and then "paid the sum of 990
pesos to
Juan Rene Gabriel Fazende, Treasurer of Marine and Business Agent for His Christian Majesty (
Louis XV of France), for money owed the French government and the release of the sequestered property" of
Jean Noël Destréhan. He sold "several" slaves to George Guimberty and Enriquez Despres the same year. His house on Royal Street was located at what is now 701–705, and he also had a property on
Dauphine Street. There were 34 enslaved people attached to the estate of Louis Boisdore I ('''') in 1788. He and/or his same-name son worked as a "middling but aspiring" merchant in the city's slave trade in the 1780s and 1790s. Louis Boisdore sold 52 people in New Orleans in the period from 1783 to 1796, and Antoine Boisdore, possibly a relative, sold 47 people. In 1796 Luis Boisdore was an ensign in the Distinguished Carabineer Militia of New Orleans. Around 1800, enslaved people owned or employed by Louis Boisdore II built a house near
Bay St. Louis, in present-day
Hancock County, Mississippi. A hand-drawn map dating to about 1800, entitled
de Monsieur Boisdore, showing the Pearl River area at that time, is held in the collections of the
Library of Congress. According to a description recorded in 1962, the ancient house had an , "Its raised main floor is supported by high brick piers, once joined together with iron bars to form a large cage under the house, where the new slaves brought from Africa were confined until they were docile enough to live in the slave quarters behind the house." The house near Bay St. Louis later became known as the "Saucier plantation of
Mulatto Bayou," and eventually came into the hands of Mississippi politician and historian
J. F. H. Claiborne. The historic house was demolished to make way for the
Port Bienville Industrial Park. == See also ==