François-Gabriel was born in 1797 in St. Charles Parish,
Louisiana at the Aime Plantation, to François-Gabriel Aime II (1768-1799) and Marie Félicité Julie Fortier (1778-1806). He was called Valcour by his nurse as a baby and was known by that name for the rest of his life. His father died when he was two years old and his mother six years later. Aime was placed in the charge of his maternal grandfather, Michel Fortier (1750-1819), who raised him. In 1795,
Étienne de Boré had succeeded in granulating sugar and making
sugar cane a profitable commodity. Aime inherited the family plantation in St. Charles Parish, and a fortune of $100,000 (~$ in ) in 1818; but he sold his portion of the plantation and bought several other plantations in
St. James Parish, where he began the cultivation of sugar cane. By the 1830s, his plantation had grown to 10,000 acres and was the leading sugar producer in the world. Valcour Aime kept a plantation diary from 1823 to 1854 documenting temperature, farming techniques, and various experiments with new varieties of cane and equipment. He is credited with perfecting the vacuum-pan method and was one of the only planters who refined sugar directly from cane juice on site. His technique gave him a competitive edge, made him the richest man in Louisiana, and earned him the title "father of white sugar." His sugar was deemed as best in the world at the 1853 World's Fair in New York. Over his lifetime, this man who lived the life of a
"feudal lord" enslaved 233 people, whose births and assignments he documented in his plantation diary, along with their cause of death and purported value. Valcour Aime was viewed as the very model of a Louisiana
grand seigneur. Aime freely spent his wealth in helping the poor and giving donations to religious entities. His
slaves sent cart loads of provisions to those in need along the banks of the Mississippi; and in their house were two rooms dedicated exclusively to strangers, and these were never empty. He helped build
Jefferson College in
Convent, and when it experienced financial difficulties and was on the verge of total collapse, Valcour rescued the complex by purchasing it. Later, he gave the entire college to the Marist Fathers. According to some accounts, his motivation in securing this transfer to a sectarian entity was to prevent the state from obligating the school to open its doors to freed blacks. De Bow's Review Vol. XI, page 437 states, as an alternative explanation, "In 1865, Valcour Aime, who held the greatest part of the shares of the College, being anxious to see the college re-opened, gave his shares to the [priests] that they might conduct the school." Aime also donated to the St. James Catholic Church priceless treasures such as two four-feet-tall solid silver candle holders, an organ, statues of the apostles, and a communion rail. His most valuable gifts were the twelve paintings of the
Stations of the Cross and the two large paintings which hang over the side altars, which he commissioned a famous Italian artist to paint. In 1854, his son Gabriel died from
yellow fever, which devastated Valcour. He gave his son-in-law, Florent Fortier, complete authority over the operations of the sugar refinery and withdrew from public life. His wife, and his youngest daughter Félicie, quickly followed Gabriel in death over the next two years and Aime became a virtual recluse. He would spend most of his days and nights on his knees praying, and in reading his Bible and his son's journals. After attending a Christmas mass, Valcour was caught in a storm on his journey home, and he caught a cold after the temperature plummeted to record lows. His condition did not improve, and Valcour Aime died of
pneumonia on January 1, 1867. ==Family==