I represent Rosa Aimé Ariola, a free parda girl, born in Pensacola in 1816. I was baptized by Father Coleman at St. Michael’s on May 23, 1818. I was the child of Dorotea, a free morena and Cristobal Ariola, a European man from Italy. My father acknowledged me as his hija natural, which white men did not always do when they had children with a woman of color. Families of mixed ethnicity like ours were quite common in Spanish West Florida, as the Spanish did not have the same social taboos as Anglo-American society. At the time of the 1820 census of Pensacola, I was 3 years old. My father made his living as a carpenter. I had 3 siblings, and we shared our home with a free negra named Elena Amberg, whose relationship to us is not specified.