Seville v. Chretien: grandson of an Indian woman kept enslaved (Louisiana, September 1817)

SUMMARYSeville v. Chretien: grandson of an Indian woman kept enslaved (Louisiana, September 1817) [Connections: Gulf, Louisiana, Texas & Mexico, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDSeville sued for his freedom as the descendant of "an Indian woman" whom Duchene sold to Chretien around 1765–66. The Louisiana Supreme Court (Mathews, J.) found that "The inhabitants of the colony of Louisiana, while under the government and dominion of France, held Indians in slavery." It noted that Governor O'Reilly in 1769 called the practice "contrary to the wise and pious laws of Spain" but confirmed existing owners' holdings until the king decided otherwise, a decision the court said never came. The court applied French law because the enslavement came before 1769, and it ruled that Seville stayed enslaved. It also found that his mother had filed an earlier freedom suit under Governor Carondelet, and that because the result of that suit was unknown, it "raises a presumption, that the suit terminated in a manner unfavourable to her claim."

PATTERNThree generations, an Indian grandmother, a mother who sued and a son who sued, were all held under a gap in the law that the court refused to close

LENS (WW9)Two generations asked the courts for freedom on their Indian blood, and the paper still said "slave."

OPENThe full opinion, and Seville's and his mother's racial labels in the parish records

SOURCESeville v. Chretien (hallapproved), 3 Mart. (o.s.) 275 (La. 1817).