Black Tradeswomen and the Making of a Taste Culture in Lower Louisiana.

Black tradeswomen--enslaved and free women of African descent--played key economic roles in lower Louisiana during the late eighteenth century. This article uses the life of Jeannette, a formerly enslaved negra, as a case study for how women advertised Atlantic ingredients and cloth through a West African framework, and in doing so, popularized Afro-Atlantic material culture in North America. Enslaved in 1749 at the Bight of Benin, West Africa, Jeannette was sent by enslavers to Saint Pierre, Martinique, and then New Orleans, Louisiana, during which time she hired out as a tradeswoman. For much of her life, Jeannette fought against enslavement and negotiated for a place in the marketplace, a space that allowed her more access to autonomy and economic resources than plantation work. Examining personal estate inventories and bills of receipt of residents of French, Spanish, and African descent makes clear that she and others found profit-making opportunities both in the marketplace and in the sale of Afro-Atlantic material cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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