Francois Lacroix

François Lacroix (1806–1876) was a wealthy Creole of color, tailor, fabric merchant, and prominent landowner in New Orleans, Louisiana. His son Victor Lacroix was killed in the infamous New Orleans massacre of 1866 when Republicans gathered and paraded for a constitutional convention at the Mechanics Institute in New Orleans and were attacked by Democrats including armed police and firemen. He supported his son's widow, a white woman named Sarah Brown, as well as their two children.

Life

Francophone and Catholic, Lacroix was born free in Cuba, as was his brother Julien. Their parents, a white Frenchman and a free mulâtresse, fled there from Saint Domingue following the Haitian Revolution. Along with fellow tailor and Creole Etienne Cordeviolle, Lacroix founded the tailoring shop known as "Cordeviolle & Lacroix" located off of Canal Street.[1] As an extremely successful businessman, he acquired a large real estate portfolio as well as several slaves over the course of his life.[2][3] He likewise supported a number of philanthropies, including La Société de la Sainte Famille and the Institut Catholique des orphelins indigents, of which he served for a time as president.[2]

Deeply affected by his son's death, Lacroix was a participant in séances to try and communicate with him.[4]

An exhibit about his life was put on at a New Orleans Public Library.[2]

References

Wegmann, Andrew N. (2022). An American Color: Race and Identity in New Orleans and the Atlantic World. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820360775 – via Google Books.
"The World of Francois Lacroix, New Orleans Public Library--Introduction". nutrias.org.
Marler, Scott P. (29 April 2013). The Merchants' Capital: New Orleans and the Political Economy of the Nineteenth-Century South. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521897648 – via Google Books.
Daggett, Melissa (2 December 2016). Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The Life and Times of Henry Louis Rey. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496810090 – via Google Books.

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[1] Wegmann, Andrew N. (2022). An American Color: Race and Identity in New Orleans and the Atlantic World. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820360775 – via Google Books.

[Nutrias-2] "The World of Francois Lacroix, New Orleans Public Library--Introduction". nutrias.org.

[3] Marler, Scott P. (29 April 2013). The Merchants' Capital: New Orleans and the Political Economy of the Nineteenth-Century South. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521897648 – via Google Books.

[4] Daggett, Melissa (2 December 2016). Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The Life and Times of Henry Louis Rey. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496810090 – via Google Books.