User:Mishagator/Louisa Picquet

Slave Narrative[edit]
Once in Cincinnati, Picquet concentrated on buying her mother from slavery. After inquiring about her mother for eleven years, she discovered that a friend knew her mother's master, Mr. Horton, in Texas. Picquet soon began exchanging letters with her mother and Mr. Horton. Picquet's mother immediately informed her that Mr. Horton was willing to sell her for $1000 or exchange her for another woman who could take her place.

She met Hiram Mattison, an abolitionist pastor, who helped her publish her story to raise money.

Picquet's story was published in Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life. The story is about her life in slavery as an octoroon with attention to the sexual exploitation that she and other female slaves experienced at the hands of their owners.

Between the publication of the narrative and interviews, Picquet was able to earn enough money, and in 1860, Picquet succeeded in buying her mother out of slavery.