New Orleans, La., Dec 22, 2017 / 16:04 pm
Venerable Henriette DeLille, born a "free woman of color" before the Civil War, had all the makings of a life of relative ease before her.
Born in 1812 to a wealthy French father and a free Creole woman of Spanish, French and African descent, Henriette was groomed throughout her childhood to become a part of what was then known as the placage system.
Under the placage system, free women of color (term used at the time for people of full or partial African descent, who were no longer or never were slaves) entered into common law marriages with wealthy white plantation owners, who often kept their legitimate families at the plantations in the country. It was a rigid system, but afforded free women of color comfortable and even luxurious lives.
Trained in French literature, music, dancing, and nursing, Henriette was prepared to become the "kept woman" of a wealthy white man throughout her childhood.