Louisiana Leaders: Notable Women in History
HENRIETTE DELILLE, 1813 - 1862
SOCIAL WORKER, EDUCATOR
CO-FOUNDER OF SISTERS OF THE HOLY FAMILY
Miss Delille, a free woman of color from one of New Orleans' most prominent families in the community, was an early feminist, educator, social worker and the co-founder of one of the first orders of African American Catholic nuns, the Sisters of the Holy Family. An exceptional woman who in addition suffered from pleurisy (a disease including stabbing chest pains and difficulty of breath), her accomplishments are extraordinary given that at that time most people of African descent in New Orleans were enslaved, and the life of most white women was confined to domestic duties.
Henriette and Juliette Gaudin, also a free woman of color of a respectable family, founded the order in 1842, when previous attempts to do so had failed twice. It is important to remember that this was six years before the First Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY, would begin the national mobilization for the struggle for equality for women. These women gave all of their fortune, reputations, and lives (against the wishes of their families) to bettering the lives of people of color, both slaved and free. They gave up the life of relative luxury for the empowerment of their race; they followed their religious beliefs, even when it went against the existing laws. For example, they encouraged free women of color and their white men to marry, bringing them into the church for the priest to perform the ceremony. This was a significant violation of the law, but the sisters felt so strongly that "living in sin" was wrong.
The order grew from several members to include a school, charity hospital, two branch houses in the country and the management of an orphan asylum. At the turn of the century the community resided in the Orleans Ball-Room, on Orleans Street in the French Quarter, where a plaque on the building speaks to their historical importance.
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