Abstract
In her last will and testament recorded on November 12, 1832, Marie Justine Cirnaire, Veuve Couvent claimed a lasting legacy as a patron of African American education in New Orleans when she declared that a school be established on her property. It is little known, however, that Couvent, in fact, made two wills, the first dated twenty years earlier. Through a close reading of Couvent’s testaments, this article will explore the life of a woman who was born in Africa, enslaved in Saint-Domingue, and died a free and wealthy slave owner in New Orleans. As catalogs of material accumulation, acts of autobiography, and maps of social networks these wills suggest the ways Couvent and other former slaves created identities as free people through property ownership and personal relationships.
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