In another blog posted back in 2015 titled, Getting to Know Anna and Victor at the Whitney Plantation, we were able to determine the lineal descend of Victor Haydel, using a single document, his St John the Baptism church baptism record. Listed was the name of his mother, Anna,(an enslaved woman-owned by Marie Azelie Haydel) and his father who was listed as, Antoine Haydel, the brother of Marie Azelie Haydel, the last Haydel family member to own the Whitney plantation. 

Once again, So what is the significance of these documents?

1. The name of Antoine Haydel (a white member of the Haydel family) is listed as the father of the mixed-race child, Victor Haydel on the baptism certificate. Records in other states rarely show documented evidence of white slave owners as parents of black slaves. However, in Louisiana, there are many instances where these relationships are documented.
2. The baptism record can serve as the beginning paper trail in gathering evidence of a bloodline connection to the white Haydel family on the German coast of Louisiana.
3. This mixed-race person born of a mother who was enslaved makes the child enslaved, according to the Code Noir in Louisiana. This law states that the child’s status will follow that of the mother at the time of birth. These laws were enacted in Louisiana as early as 1724 during the French colonial period in Louisiana. They were later modified, yet still defined the status (free or enslaved) of individuals born during the time of Victor’s birth. To learn more about it, see here the Code Noir
4. The child identified as Victor is given the surname Haydel, which is the same as the white family that owned him and his mother, Anna. Consequently, it is the same surname as the man identified on Victor’s baptism certificate as his father, Antoine Haydel.
5. Since the father, Antoine Haydel, is the brother of the slave owner, Marie Azélie’s Haydel, Victor Haydel is not only Azélie’s slave but also her blood nephew.

See ancestral chart starting at the progenitor of the Haydel family- Ambroise Heidel:

I also discovered that as late as 1860, both Anna and Victor were listed on a property inventory of slaves being assessed after the death of Marie Azelie Haydel. 

Given those two documents, the baptism record, and the slave inventory, evidence is established showing, the white ancestral bloodline into the Haydel family via Antoine Haydel, then on back to the Progenitor of the Haydel family- Ambroise Heidel.

Victor Haydel, the Progenitor of the Haydel’s, Creoles of Color family.

Moving forward,  the use of U.S. census records (1870, 1880) helps us to reconstruct, the first generation of descendants, the children of Victor Haydel and Marie Celeste Becnel. 

In the census of 1870 below, we see for the first time, Victor is referred to as Theophile Haydel, age 50 (m) male, (m) mulatto, and listed as a domestic servant.  We also see, Celeste Becnel, age 45, (f) Female (m) Mulatto listed as a domestic servant. there are also 6 other individuals, assumed to be related, however, no indication of a relationship is stated on the document, other than being seen living in the same household.

See below:

Next, we see Victor listed as head of the household on the 1880 U.S. Census within the 2nd Ward of St John the Baptist Parish.  Celeste is shown on the 1870 census, as Celeste Becnel, however, she is now listed as a Haydel and referred to as Victor’s wife.  No marriage record has been found yet.  There are also nine children, 1 female and 8 Males ranging in age from 22 to 1 year old.

Using the information found on the 1880 U.S Census of St John the Baptist parish, we are now able to construct a two-generation family tree showing the 9 children of Victor Theophile Haydel and Marie Celeste Becnel Haydel.

Based on the above information, we have now constructed a lineal ancestral descent from Ambroise Haydel to Victor Theophile Haydel, to his first generation of Haydel’s descendants of Color Creoles. 

 So now, why is this first generation important to all the descendants of Victor Theophile Haydel and Marie Celeste Becnel? This is your lineal connection to another interesting aspect of the Haydel family and Spanish Colonial Louisiana history. 

First step, look for your Haydel ancestors listed in red here: finding proof of service. 

“Until the Lion has his own storyteller, the hunter will always have the best part of the story” an African Proverb

(Updated: January 5, 2022)

In a blog post I wrote on December 16, 2014, titled, Freedom for One, Citizenship for the Other, Two Signatures 235 Years Apart , I share how a series of events in my family’s Louisiana colonial past brought three individuals — an enslaved woman of color named Agnes, a white French national named Mathieu Devaux dit Platillo, and the Spanish colonial governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez — together in the cause of freedom and independence. Both Devaux and Galvez have been recognized as patriots of the American Revolution for their contributions as soldiers in the cause for America’s freedom from Great Britain.  

Congress granted honorary U.S. citizenship to Bernardo de Galvez and President Barack Obama with the stroke of his pen signed it into law. I noticed a historic connection to my family’s ancestral history in Louisiana.

Their lives and historic actions have forever changed my awareness about knowing and claiming my family’s history. With the stroke of two penned signatures, history was made: Freedom was granted to Agnes on December 16, 1779, by  Bernardo de Galvez, and 235 years later, on December 16, 2014, citizenship was granted (posthumously) to Galvez himself by President Barack Obama, an amazing connection of which my family and I can forever be proud

Louisiana Historical Marker sponsored by Crescent City Peace Alliance. Double click link:http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM67QX_Plessy_v_Ferguson

As we approach the 125th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, a concerted effort is being waged to acknowledge Plessy’s long overdue impact on the American Civil Rights Movement. In 1892, Homer Plessy, a fair-skinned, mixed-race man of color, was arrested in New Orleans, LA for taking a seat in a train car designated for white passengers only, even though, he had paid for a first-class ticket. How interesting that a man of mixed race would be treated in such a way.

What would have happened if the train conductor and the whites who opposed him had known Plessy’s genealogy? He is the descendant of Agnes (mentioned above). This formerly enslaved Afro-Creole woman fought in court and gained her freedom, and Mathieu Devaux, a Frenchman, and patriot of the American Revolution fought for America’s freedom well before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and statehood in 1812. Would he still have been denied his full rights and privileges as an American citizen under the Constitution of the United States?

Plessy’s case was taken to the local courts and later to the Supreme Court, where it was upheld, thereby ushering in the era known as Jim Crow in America. However, as was stated by those who took this case to the Supreme Court:

“We, as freemen, still believe that we were right and our cause is sacred.”  ~ Statement of the Comité des Citoyens 1896

Long before the modern Civil Rights Era, Plessy and the Citizens Committee, with whom he planned the event, made history. Yet, because the Supreme Court case was not decided in his favor, Plessy has since stood as a scar in the struggle for civil rights for all people in America. Homer A. Plessy has never been officially acknowledged for his sacrifice on the altar of freedom. Those who know the truth of Plessy’s actions look upon him as a figure of immense historical importance. The time is now for all of us to acknowledge his rightful place in the history of American Civil Rights.

See below to learn more about the Plessy v. Ferguson case.

Louisiana board pardons Homer Plessy ahead of the 125th anniversary of Plessy v. Ferguson

Louisiana Governor, John Bell Edwards pardoned on January 5, 2022, Homer A. Plessy, Great Grandson of Agnes Mathieu and Mathieu Devaux dit Platillo whose segregation protest went to the Supreme Court. It was some 243 years ago on Dec 16, 1779, that another the Spanish Colonial Governor of Louisiana – Bernardo de Galvez signed Agnes Mathieu Manumission papers and Mathieu Devaux served in the New Orleans Militia under the Command of Bernardo Galvez in support of Louisiana participation during the American Revolution.

Louisiana Governor, John Bell Edwards pardons on January 5, 2022, Homer A. Plessy,

As we know, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.