Benjamin Laurent Millaudon

Benjamin Laurent Millaudon (1786–1868) was an exceptionally wealthy merchant, real-estate investor, and railroad developer of early 19th-century New Orleans.[1] Described as a "self-made tycoon," he had emigrated to the United States from Avignon, France, in about 1802.[2]

In additional to his mercantile investments, he owned huge and lucrative sugar plantations worked by hundreds of enslaved people.[2][3] A coastwise slave-ship manifest from 1837, held at the New-York Historical Society, lists "Lawrence Millaudon" and George Lane as the consignees of a shipment of 73 enslaved people sailing from Alexandria, Virginia, to New Orleans on the brig Isaac Franklin.[4] His railroad interests included cofounding the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad.[3] The 1856 steamship Laurent Millaudon was either named for him or built by him.[1]

Just before the American Civil War, Millaudon sold his million-dollar (in 1859 currency) sugar plantation to his son.[2] In 1862, there was a violent altercation involving whips, axes, and guns, between Henry Clement (H. C.) Millaudon, the overseer, and the enslaved people bound there; the result was the overseer was killed, and several people were wounded before 150 formerly enslaved people self-emancipated and left the plantation for good.[5] After the war, new investors hired Chinese immigrant laborers to take their place.[5]

References
  1. Cuevas, John (2014-01-10). Cat Island: The History of a Mississippi Gulf Coast Barrier Island. McFarland. pp. 143–144. ISBN 978-0-7864-8578-9.
  2. Campanella, Richard (2020-05-06). The West Bank of Greater New Orleans: A Historical Geography. LSU Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-8071-7366-4.
  3. Lobban, Michael; Williams, Ian (2020-09-03). Networks and Connections in Legal History. Cambridge University Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-108-49088-7.
  4. "[Manifest of the Brig Isaac Franklin] | New York Historical Society | Digital Collections". digitalcollections.nyhistory.org. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  5. Jung, Moon-Ho (2006). Coolies and Cane: Race, Labor, and Sugar in the Age of Emancipation. JHU Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-8018-8281-4.
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