A house in heaven or Hell

 

 

Thanks to the Vieux Carré Digital Survey, I was able to retrace a piece of the history of my great-grandparents in New Orleans. On Saturday, April 25, 1857, my great-great-grandfather Joseph Fassy of New Orleans inherited the property of his brother Vincent Fassy located at 940 Saint-Louis St in New Orleans.

 

Following the evaluation of the Vieux Carré Commission, the house was and still is a two-story brick commercial building in Creole style from 1830 built on land forming the corner of Saint-Louis and Burgundy St measuring F.M. 29' 10" frontage on Saint-Louis by 84' on Burgundy. It was a house with four apartments (rooms), a gallery and two wardrobes, built in half-timbering and a wood-fired kitchen."
Thirty-one years later, on Monday April 30, 1888, my great-grandfather Albert and my great-great-aunt Octavie Fassy, in turn ,inherited from their father Joseph. In 1896, 18 years later, on Monday July 27, Albert and Octavie sold the house to a certain Mr. Augustin Nicolas Tourné.

 

In 1857, Joseph also bequeathed to his son Albert and his daughter Octavie a property located at 430 Burgundy St. which he himself had inherited from his brother Vincent.

During my research, it appears that Vincent Fassy had bought this house in 1839 from a certain Mr. Antoine Roubet, a slave owner for the sum of $950.

 430 Burgundy St.

For those who know me, you can easily imagine what this kind of research can do to me. You will of course tell me that it was another era, other mentalities but still... If I manage to retrace, more or less, the history of my family I cannot help but wonder what what happened to these five slaves. I managed to find the trace of several slaves bought or sold by this Mr. Roubet, these were :

- Constance, aged 30, mother of two children, speaking French, purchased by Mr Antoine Roubet on April 6, 1815. Constance was sold in 1818 by Mr Roubet to Mr Debuys.
- Théodore, Constance's son, was bought by Monsieur Roubet in 1815 and sold to Monsieur Debuys in 1818.
- Désirée, Constance's daughter, was purchased by Monsieur Roubet in 1815. 

Thank God I did not find Fassy's name on the list of New Orleans slave owners on the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy Database but the fact remains that this "testimony" should not make us forget what those troubled times were and what they led to a whole generation of Americans fighting against each other.

When we say "if the walls could talk", some would tell stories that we would prefer to forget but which must be remembered