Susan Saulny

He brought them around town in his buggy.

He even brought them to places where his father was a patron, like he exposed them to opera.

My grandfather had a lifelong love of opera that comes from the exposure he got back then.

Ned and Minerva had something special that I don't think I've

I can even understand now.

They were both Catholic.

They were both French-speaking.

And I think that having those two things in common might have helped bridge some of the social gulf between them because, you know, even if she was educated and a woman of some means, they were not on equal social footing just by law in New Orleans.

So what they were doing was still somewhat risky and courageous, right?

What did you find out about Minerva?

Minerva's father was enslaved on a huge plantation south of New Orleans called Bellevue.

It was a sugar plantation.

And after the war, after the Civil War, the widow who was running this plantation, I'm guessing it was just too much for her.

So she started selling off parcels of the plantation to people who had worked on it, including some of the formerly enslaved women.

Minerva Davis's dad, smart man, bought a piece, on credit, bought a piece of prime riverfront property.

So he became a landowner in 1868, and I have the records to prove it.

That is, to me, extraordinary.

And imagine if that had happened across the board.

Now, I'm imagining he didn't have the cash outright, but the person who owned this plantation sold it to him on credit and said, I'm sure the land will produce and you'll be able to pay it off.

And he did.