Ysabel Juli Chauvin

I represent Ysabel Juli Chauvin (transcribed as “Shouen” by William Coker in the 1820 census), a parda woman born in New Orleans in 1784, daughter of an enslaved mulata woman named Magdalena, who was the daughter of an enslaved black woman named Liceta. According to New Orleans manumission records, my mother was freed by her master’s widow, Maria Chauvin, in 1793; Magdalena purchased my freedom in 1797. At the time of the 1820 census of Pensacola, I was 35 years old and made my living as a seamstress. I lived with Baltasar Centeno, a Spanish fisherman, and our five children. 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. Also in our household was Francisco Reguera, an elderly blanco from Havana, also a fisherman, who does not appear to be related to us.