Soulié family ledgers, 1850-1871. - Soulié family ledgers, 1850-1871.

The Souliés were a wealthy family of free people of color in New Orleans who made their fortune speculating in real estate. Norbert, Albin, and Bernard Soulié were brothers born to Eulalie Vivant, a free woman of color belonging to the wealthy Cheval family. Eulalie and her sister, Constance Vivant, both owned land on Esplanade.</br></br>Bernard and Albin Soulié were builders and then commission merchants who owned extensive properties in the Vieux Carré and the Elysian Fields. Albin left antebellum New Orleans to live in Paris, where he died in 1872. Bernard remained in America to manage the family's properties.</br></br>Norbert Soulié, also a builder, had at one time worked with Henry Sellon Boneval Latrobe and Edmond Rillieux, his cousin by Constance Vivant and the younger brother of Norbert Rillieux, the famed engineer.</br></br>In the late antebellum period, the Souliés acquired lands. During Reconstruction, they became engaged in planting. Although the Souliés owned enslaved persons, it is not known how extensive their slave holdings were. They were also creditors in considerable sums to such eminent New Orleanians as Leonidas Polk, Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana. The Souliés were Catholic and were contributors to the rebuilding of St. Louis Cathedral in 1849. The Souliés also had a close, perhaps family, connection with the Lesseps Brickyard, which was also conducted by free people of color. After the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of Paris, several French-born artists bearing the Soulié and Lesseps names migrated to New Orleans, but they presented themselves and were accepted as members of the Caucasian community.</br></br>Constance Vivant (active 1806-1866) was a free woman of color and property owner born to John Charles Vivant, a white man, and Louison Cheval (1747-1839), a former enslaved woman who was born into the household of François Cheval, also the father of the free man of color, Jean Baptiste Meullion (1763 or 4-1840). Her siblings were Eulalie, Charles, Adélaïde, and Lucile (also spelled "Lucille") Vivant. She entered into plaçage with Vincent Rillieux, a wealthy engineer and inventor. The couple's children were Marie Eugenie, Marie Eloise (also known as "Héloïse"), Cecile Virginie, Louis, Barthelemy, Edmond, and Norbert Rillieux (1806-1894), the famed engineer and inventor of the multiple-effect evaporator.