Réponse au mémoire presenté à Monsieur de Fuluy, par les hériteurs et associés de feu M. le Comte D'Artagnan

Book Description

[Paris], After 1741. Manuscript on paper, unsigned. Folio (373 mm); 8 pages, last page blank. Frayed and discolored at edges. Manuscript document, probably a working copy, relating to claims by the heirs of Joseph de Montesquiou, comte d'Artagnan, and their partners, the heirs of Martin D'Artaguiette. In 1719, the Indies Company granted a large estate to a partnership formed between D'Artagnan (a relative of the Musketeer) and D'Artaguiette. The two set up adjoining plantations at Cannes Brûlées (modern Kenner, the site of Louis Armstrong International Airport). Some time later, the heirs of the principals find themselves in debt to a Senor Benac, and they lodge a request with the Company to deliver "12 Negroes, male or female" to their creditor. The present document is the Company's response to that request. It outlines the foundation of the estate under a concession by the Company to D'Artagnan and D'Artaguiette, and it records that in 1728 D'Artagnan had purchased 40 Negroes "with clothes" from the Company for £40,000, payable in tobacco. Apparently the partners continued to amass debt to the Company, reaching a figure of £115,000 by 1732. Consequently, the document concludes that the demands made by the heirs are inaccurate, and indeed the Company intends to collect the outstanding debt.

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