Salvador Ruby

I represent Salvador Ruby, a free pardo man born in Louisiana. I appear in the 1784 census of Pensacola as a mulato enslaved man in the household of Don Juan Roberto Ruby. I had a long, distinguished military career. I acquired quite a bit of land in the early years of the 19th century, through Crown grants and purchase. My plea for a land grant in 1804 characterizes me as “a free man of color who has resided in this place since the Conquest [1781], exercising his trade as a shoemaker without any habitation of his own.” At the time of the 1820 census, I was 50 years old and making my living as a shoemaker. I shared my household with Maria Carlota Ruby, a free parda woman who worked as a laundress, and our 9 children.