Metoyer family papers. Nazy Metoyer papers. Folder 01-04, 1924-1935. - Metoyer family papers. Nazy Metoyer papers. Folder 01-04, 1924-1935.

The Metoyer family were fourth and fifth generation descendants of the founders of the Cane River colony (also called Isle Brevelle) of free people of color in Natchitoches Parish, La. The family is directly descended from François Metoyer (1784-1862), son of Marie Thérèze Coincoin (1742-1816?), a former enslaved woman, slave owner, and property owner, and Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer (1744-1815), a French-born, white plantation owner and businessman. Coincoin was the slave and placée of Metoyer and together the couple had ten children: Nicolas Augustin (1768-1856); Marie Suzanne (1768-1838); Louis (approximately 1770-1832); Pierre (approximately 1772-1833); Dominique (1776-1839); Eulalie (1776-1801); Antoine Joseph (1778-1838); Marie Françoise Rosalie (1780-1783?); Pierre Toussaint (1782-1863); and François (1784-1862). Coincoin was publically manumitted by Metoyer in 1778 and given a small tract of land. Coincoin labored diligently to purchase the freedom of her enslaved children. She is believed to have supported herself by manufacturing medicines and hunting animals with her sons. Together, Coincoin and her children built the Metoyer family plantation and helped to establish a community of free people of color on the Cane River.</br></br>Members of the Metoyer generation represented in this collection include Vilfrede Metoyer (born 1851), a free woman of color descended from Marie Thérèze Coincoin; St. Clair Metoyer (born 1882), a farmer and son of Vilfrede and Mary Metoyer; and Nazy Conant Metoyer, wife of St. Clair Metoyer and daughter of Joseph Emanuel Dupré and Marguerite Metoyer, both free people of color descended from Marie Thérèze Coincoin.</br></br>Nazy Conant Metoyer was a homemaker, farmer, and a descendent of free people of color of creole heritage of the Cane River community of Natchitoches Parish. She was married to St. Clair Metoyer, also a descendent of free people of color of creole heritage. Nazy's parents were Jean Arnold Conant (1846-1921), a free man of color and farmer and Marie Louise Emma Dupré (born 1848), born a free woman of color to Joseph Emanuel Dupré (born 1810) and Marguerite Metoyer. Nazy's grandfather, Joseph Emanuel Dupré, was a descendent of Marie Thérèze Coincoin through a plaçage between Joseph Dupré and Marie Adélaÿde Mariotte Metoyer. Nazy Metoyer seems to have been very involved in the family farming and mercantile businesses.