Francois Lacroix

Francois Lacroix (1806–1876) was a wealthy tailor, fabric merchant, and prominent Creole landowner in New Orleans, Louisiana along with his brother Julien Adolphe Lacroix (1808–1868). His son Victor Lacroix was killed and mutilated in the New Orleans massacre of 1866 when Republicans gathered and paraded for a constitutional convention at the Mechanics Institute in New Orleans and were attacked by Democrats including armed police and firemen. He took care of the widow, a white woman (Sarah Brown), and the two children left behind.

Life

Lacroix financed the Hospice of the Holy Family and his wife helped organize it.[1] He was also president of the Couvent School established in the will of Marie Couvent for African American orphans. As a "free person of color", Lacroix was a wealthy and cultured property owner, and had slaves.[2][3]

Lacroix and his brother were born in Cuba. Their parents are believed to have fled there from Saint Domingue. Lacroix worked in New Orleans' French Quarter as a partner in the firm of Cordeviolle and Lacroix. He acquired large real estate holdings and was philanthropist supporting orphan children through the Société Pour L'education des Orphelins des Indigenes and La Société de la Sainte Famille. Deeply affected by his son's death, Lacroix was a participant in seances to try and communicate with him.[4]

An exhibit about his life was put on at a New Orleans Public Library.[2]

References

Toledano, Roulhac; Christovich, Mary Louise; Derbes, Robin (1 October 2003). "New Orleans Architecture: Faubourg Tremé and the Bayou Road". Pelican Publishing – via Google Books.
"The World of Francois Lacroix, New Orleans Public Library--Introduction". nutrias.org.
Marler, Scott P. (29 April 2013). "The Merchants' Capital: New Orleans and the Political Economy of the Nineteenth-Century South". Cambridge University Press – via Google Books.
Daggett, Melissa (2 December 2016). "Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The Life and Times of Henry Louis Rey". Univ. Press of Mississippi – via Google Books.

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[1] Toledano, Roulhac; Christovich, Mary Louise; Derbes, Robin (1 October 2003). "New Orleans Architecture: Faubourg Tremé and the Bayou Road". Pelican Publishing – via Google Books.

[Nutrias-2] "The World of Francois Lacroix, New Orleans Public Library--Introduction". nutrias.org.

[3] Marler, Scott P. (29 April 2013). "The Merchants' Capital: New Orleans and the Political Economy of the Nineteenth-Century South". Cambridge University Press – via Google Books.

[4] Daggett, Melissa (2 December 2016). "Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The Life and Times of Henry Louis Rey". Univ. Press of Mississippi – via Google Books.