Badin (Norbert) Papers

(Mss. 825)

Inventory

Contents of Inventory

Summary

Biographical/Historical Note

Scope and Content Note

Series Description

Index Terms

Summary

Size. 2 linear feet (740 items, including 2 manuscript volumes, 58 printed pieces, and 3 newspapers).

Geographic Locations. Louisiana.

Inclusive dates. 1829-1937.

Bulk dates. 1829-1859 (LaCaze Papers); 1889-1900 (Badin Papers).

Languages. English, French, Spanish.

Summary. Antebellum materials are business papers of Celestin and Michel LaCaze, "mulatres libres" of Isle Brevelle, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, consisting of receipts and bills for goods and taxes. The Badin papers comprise personal and business correspondence of Norbert Badin (d. 1903) and family, relating primarily to family matters and the cotton trade. Badin was a planter and a free man of color who lived in the Cane River community of Melrose, in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Also included are financial and legal papers, a manuscript journal, a notebook, a memo book, elementary school writings books, and printed items (primarily advertising and promotional materials).

Sources. Paul F. Veith, who secured the materials from the home of Zeline Roque at Isle Brevelle near the Cane River, August 2, 1947.

Related. Metoyer (Adeleda) Papers, 1845-1860, Mss 836; Metoyer (Auguste) Papers, 1835-1846, Mss 871.

Access. No restrictions.

Copyright. Property rights retained by Louisiana State University; literary rights retained by the descendants of writers of items in these papers (U.S. Copyright Law).

Citation. Norbert Badin Papers, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries.

Stacks Designations U:87; OS:B. Please consult the Container List for specific locations when requesting materials.

 

Biographical/Historical Note

Norbert Badin (d. 1903) was a free man of color from the Cane River settlement of Melrose in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, an area that was home to a large community of free people of color. Badin and his family were planters and landowners, owning rental property on Bayou Bourbraux.

Norbert Badin married Sylvia Phermance on February 12, 1885. They had a number of children, including a daughter who became a Catholic nun at the Holy Family Convent in New Orleans and took the name Sister Mary Celestine.

Badin and his descendants appear to have stayed in the Cane River/Isle Brevelle area of Natchitoches Parish over the years spanned by the collection, with the exception of Joe and Tony Antee (sometimes spelled Anty), who corresponded from Beaumont, Texas, and Mansfield, Ohio, respectively, with their Aunt Zeline Roque, who then lived in Natchez, Louisiana.

The family connection between the Badins and the LaCaze brothers is not clear. Celestin (b. July 18, 1798) and Michel (b. April 12, 1801) LaCaze (also spelled Cassa, Lacases, Cassard, and Lacase) were the sons of a slave named Rosalie who was owned by a white planter of Little River named Jacques LaCaze. The identity of their father is not known. The brothers were "mulatres libres."

Michel LaCaze married a free woman of color, Marie Delphine Laisa, on October 24, 1831. Celestin married Elisa Rouquier on March 22, 1835.

 

Scope and Content Note

Early papers (1829-1856) relate to the brothers Celestin and Michel LaCaze and are mostly in French. They contain a tax receipt, bills and receipts for various goods, and one receipt that was issued to their mother, the slave Rosalie. Many of these papers mention the names of other free men of color from the Cane River colony who were merchants to the community, including Auguste Metoyer.

Correspondence, financial and legal papers of Norbert Badin, his extended family, and their descendants make up the bulk of the manuscript group. The personal correspondence (1882-1937) reflects day-to-day life and common concerns of the Badins, their extended family, and their friends in the community of free people of color. Many letters are from Pauline and Gabriel Metoyer, of Campti, Louisiana, to Norbert and other members of the Badin family (1889-1929).

The financial correspondence and papers (1873-1934) include bills and receipts for goods and services, statements of account, cotton receipts, and transactional correspondence concerning the cotton trade. Much of the correspondence is from cotton factors in New Orleans including R. M. Walmsley & Co. (1888-1891), their successor S. P. Walmsley & Co. (1893), John T. Hardie & Co. (1894-1895), their successor Wm. T. Hardie & Co. (1895-1902), and later A. J. Forstall & Co. (1902-1904). There is correspondence, as well, from a James McCook, from whom Badin leased land

(1888, 1890). There are only five legal documents.

Miscellaneous materials comprise verses and lyrics, a report card of Tony Antee (1919-1920), a small letterbook belonging to J. L. Badin (1890), elementary school writing books and printed materials mostly of a promotional nature. Also included is a manuscript journal, which has the name of H. A. Thompsen etched on the cover, Horace Thompson written inside, the name W. E. Wakefield of New Orleans written on the inside back cover, and appears to have been used by more than one person. It contains expenditures and receipts of Boy Jack and Harriet Permelia Woods from 1858; personal journal entries from 1904 of an employee of the Charles A. Kaufman Co. of New Orleans, Louisiana; a list of names with height, age, and degree of skin color specified; various other lists and pages of drawings including some of Theodore Roosevelt; lists broken down by girls and boys; lists of categories entitled waists, Scientific American, positions 1904; and a list of supplies used.

 

Subgroup and Series Descriptions

Subgroup 1. LaCaze Papers, 1829-1856 (42 items)

Business papers of Celestin and Michel LaCaze, "mulatres libres," of Isle Brevelle, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, consisting of bills and receipts for various goods and a tax receipt. All but three items are in French.

Subgroup 2. Badin Family Papers

Series I. Personal Correspondence, 1882-1894 (121 items)

Includes letters from a variety of correspondents from throughout Louisiana, including New Orleans and towns along or near the Cane River. A few letters were from correspondents living or working in Texas, Ohio, and Illinois. The personal correspondence primarily concerns family news of health, crops, local happenings, and mutual friends. There is a series of letters spanning the years 1889-1896 to Norbert and the years 1901-1906 to J. L. Badin from Gabriel and Pauline Metoyer. Two letters (1910, 1911), to Mrs. Norbert Badin, are from her daughter Sister Mary Celestine of the Holy Family Convent in New Orleans. This correspondence, with the exception of one letter in Spanish, is in English.

Series II. Financial Correspondence and Papers, 1873-1934 (313 items)

Includes bills and receipts, statements of account, cotton receipts, cotton market reports, and correspondence with New Orleans cotton factors R. M. Walmsley & Co. (1888-1891), John T. Hardie & Co. (1894-1895), and later A. J. Forstall & Co.

(1902-1904). Letters from James McCook (1888 and 1890) concern land leased from him by Badin. Two letters refer to land owned and leased by Norbert Badin on Bayou Bourbraux (1888 and 1890).

Series III. Legal Documents, 1867, 1890, 1919, n.d. (5 items)

Includes an Oath of Citizenship for Celestan Loquell (1867), two notices of nonpayment of sight drafts drawn on the account of Norbert Badin (1890), a life insurance policy in the name of Ethel Antee of Melrose, Louisiana (1919), and a record of baptisms of the children of Pierre Robin and Agatha Metoyer signed by Father A. Dupré (1882, 1884, 1886).

Series IV. Miscellaneous Material, 1890-1936, n.d. (20 items)

Includes lyrics and verses (1890-1899, n.d.), a drawing of a house (n.d.), a letterbook (1890), three elementary school writing books (1891, 1914), and a report card for Tony Antee (1919). Also includes a journal (1856-1904) used by Horace A. Thompsen (or Thompson), W. E. Wakefield of New Orleans, and possibly others. The journal contains various lists of names, including one specifying height, age, and degree of skin color; expenditures and receipts of Boy Jack and Harriet Permelia Woods from 1858; personal journal entries from 1904 of an employee of the Charles A. Kaufman Co., New Orleans; lists broken down by girls and boys; lists of categories entitled waists (possibly referring to shirtwaists sewn); Scientific American, positions 1904; a list of supplies used; and drawings of Theodore Roosevelt.

Series V. Printed Material, 1886-1937, n.d. (156 items)

The printed materials include business cards, commencement announcements, circulars and price lists for various businesses, religious brochures, almanacs, promotional pamphlets for medical products, product catalogs, periodicals and newspapers, two speeches, and a copy of a Louisiana Supreme Court Decision.

 

Index Terms

Term	Series
A. J. Forstall and Co.	II
Antee, Ethel	III
Antee, Jo	I
Antee, Tony	I, IV
Badin family	I-IV
Badin, J. L.	I
Badin, Norbert, d. 1903	I, II, III
Badin, Sylvia Phermance	II
Bayou Bourbraux (La.)--History	II
Business cards	V
Cane River (La.)--History	I
Commencement announcement	V
Cotton growing--Louisiana	I, II, IV
Cotton trade--Louisiana	I, II, IV
Dupre A., Father	III
Free men of color--Louisiana	Subgroup 1,I-IV
Free women of color--Louisiana	Subgroup 1,I-IV
Handbills	V
Holy Family Convent (New Orleans, La.)	I
Invitations	V
Isle Brevelle (La.)	I
John T. Hardie and Co.	II
Lacaze, Celestin, b. 1798	Subgroup 1
Lacaze, Michel, b. 1801	Subgroup 1
Loquell, Celestan	III
McCook, James, fl. 1888-1890	II
Melrose (La.)--History	I, II, and III
Metoyer, Agatha	III
Metoyer, Auguste	Subgroup 1
Metoyer, Gabriel	I
Metoyer, Pauline	I
Natchitoches Parish (La.)--History	All
Playbills	V
Programs	V
R. M. Walmsley and Co.	II
Robin, Pierre	III
Roque, ZelineI	I
S. P. Walmsley and Co.	II
Trade cards	V
Thompson (Thompsen), Horace	IV
Wakefield, W. E.	IV
Wm. T. Hardie and Co.	II