Shake Your Tree: Memoirs of Marie Claire, Always Creole and Always a Proud Colored Former Slave Owner

Shaking your family tree might uncover Black slave and plantation owners.

White people might find their Black relatives. Black people might discover that Black free men fought gallantly as officers and gentlemen in the Confederate army.

Marie Claire DeCuir's most unusual precise memory of an excellent story teller unfolds the lives of immediate and extended family members as racially mixed slave owners of vast and wealth producing plantations.

The following are just a few of the families that she remembers and relates their stories: RICARD, LA COUR, PORCHE, SEVERIN, DE BEAULIEU, MAYEUX, DESNOYERS, CADET, TOUNOIR, LABBE, PROVOST, PATIN, CARAMOUCHE, BOULIGNY, FAZENDE, CHARBONNET, DREUX, BERNOUDY, PIERRE, RICHE, TREPAGNIER, CHAUVIN, LANGLOIS, DUBUCLET, GRAY, FORTIN, POLLARD, BEAUVAIS, DESLONDE, HONORE, DESTREHAN, VERRET, SOLOMON, ROBERT, ALLAIN, MORGAN, POREE, DUGUE, REUTER, DAIGLE, LAFITTE, LEJEUNE, BROYARD, BARRE, GASPARD, GUILLOT, HIGBEE, ZERINGUE, ROY, DEJEAN, DUVAL, DE CHARLEVILLE, DE LERY, DE LA FRENIERE, DE MONTPELIER, BARRAS, HOPKINS, TRUDEAU, PURNELL, RABALAIS, BORDELON, GAJEAN, WALTERS, DUPERON, JEANSOMMES.