Dubuclet, Antoine
- Thomas Clarkin
Extract
Dubuclet, Antoine (1810–18 December 1887), politician, was born in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, the son of Antoine Dubuclet, Sr., a plantation owner, and Rosie Belly. The Dubuclets were members of the gens de couleur libre, the class of free blacks permitted certain social and legal rights not typically accorded blacks in the antebellum South. Dubuclet’s father owned slaves and a share of a plantation. After his father’s death in 1828, Dubuclet remained on the plantation, while his mother and siblings moved to New Orleans. He learned the family business and prospered, owning more than one hundred slaves and an estate valued at $94,700 in 1864. His substantial holdings made Dubuclet the wealthiest of Louisiana’s free blacks, and he was more successful than many white planters....
