I represent Maria, a free negra woman living in the household of Bernardo Pargas. I was born in Africa, and at the time of the 1820 Census of Pensacola, I was 35 years old, working a laundress. It is likely that Bernardo Pargas and I were living as husband and wife (the Spanish did not have the same social taboos against this as the Anglo-Americans). If I am the same Ortauna Maria del Carmen who was a beneficiary in Bernardo’s 1836 will, I inherited quite a bit of property from him upon his death.