The Trials of Ursin Augustin

The Trials of Ursin Augustin

The life of my maternal great-great grandfather, Ursin Augustin, continues as he struggles through the tearing apart of his family while enslaved. After reuniting with them in 1865, he plotted his own destiny, by purchasing a plantation, in a competitive and sometimes, unscrupulous world that he hadn’t been trained for. Legacy means an amount of money or property left to someone in a will. Even though he had to contend with a lawsuit by Dr. Joseph Moncla, his former owner, he continued to fight to secure a legacy for his family. The first part of Ursin’s story has been told in the Parents for Ursin Augustin.

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slave cabin signifying the cabins in where Ursin may have lived.

Parents for Ursin Augustin

A Major Brick Wall has been broken. I believe I’ve identified the parents of Ursin Augustin Sr. and Jean Pierre Augustin Sr., the ancestors of many African-Americans from the Avoyelles Parish area. Information gleaned from Lawsuits was instrumental in accomplishing this goal. Most of the lawsuits concerned property that members of the family acquired and fought to keep. Two White landowners who testified for the Augustin family in one of these lawsuits were Pierre P. Normand and his brother, Alcide H. Normand.

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