Marie-Louise Charles

Marie-Louise Charles (1765, Petit-Bourg – after 1807) was a French businessperson.[1]

Marie-Louise Charles was born as a slave in Guadeloupe. In 1784, she was freed and settled in Bordeaux in France, where she bought a house for the sum of 4000 livres, a colossal sum for a newly freed slave. Through financial deals and the rental of her property in Bordeaux she acquired a fortune and was able to live a life of luxury. In 1790, she married the affranchi François Hardy. Her life has been the subject of research and is considered to be remarkable and unusual for a former slave in the 18th century. While there was a large enclave of people of African descent and former slaves in Bordeaux, only a minority of them became rich, and most of them were male. She is last noted in 1807, when she stated her profession as that of a seamstress and was apparently no longer wealthy.

References
  1. Julie Duprat, Présences noires à Bordeaux : passage et intégration des gens de couleur à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, Thèse soutenue à l’École des chartes, 2017
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