African · Ewe / Togo, AfricanDocumented

Marie Thérèse Coincoin

b. 1742 · d. c.1816–17 · generation G7

Marie Thérèse Coincoin — Born & bapt. 24 Aug 1742, Natchitoches — 'Marie Therese, négritte belonging to Sr. de St. Denis'. 4th of 11 children of François & Marie Françoise, enslaved in the Louis Juchereau de St. Denis household. Freed 1778 by C.T.P. Metoyer; became a Natchitoches landholder. Plaçage union with C.T.P. Metoyer (F_CTP), targeted by the 1775-83 'moral reform'; formally dissolved 1786. Documented in the Natchitoches 1729-1803 register, an NGSQ study, Mills, Forgotten People.

Heritage estimate

African — 100%

An estimate of documented ancestry, NOT a DNA result.

Relationships

FatherFrançois Coincoin Dgimby

MotherMarie (Fanny) Françoise Dgimby

PartnerClaude Thomas Pierre Metoyer

ChildrenMarie Susanne Metoyer · Nicholas Augustin Metoyer · Louis Metoyer · Marie Françoise (Coincoin's daughter) · Dominique Metoyer · Antoine Joseph Metoyer · Pierre Metoyer

Life, chronologically — every claim sourced

n.d.Enslavement

Enslaved at birth in the Louis Juchereau de St. Denis household (later held by the de Soto family)

Mills, Natchitoches 1729-1803 #225; Forgotten People (2013)

24 Aug 1742Baptism

b. & bapt. 24 Aug 1742, Natchitoches — 'Marie Therese, négritte belonging to Sr. de St. Denis'

Mills, Natchitoches 1729-1803, #225

n.d.Parentage

4th of 11 children of François & Marie Françoise, enslaved in the Louis Juchereau de St. Denis household

Mills, 'Documenting a Slave's Birth, Parentage, and Origins' (NGSQ); Natchitoches 1729-1803 #11, #820

1778Manumission

Freed 1778 by C.T.P. Metoyer; became a Natchitoches landholder

Mills, Forgotten People (2013) ch.1-3

1775-83Marriage

Plaçage union with C.T.P. Metoyer (F_CTP), targeted by the 1775-83 'moral reform'; formally dissolved 1786

Mills, 'Quintanilla's Crusade' (Louisiana History 42, 2001)

n.d.Land

Obtained a Spanish land concession on old Red River (Rivière aux Cannes) — the documented 'royal concession' at the heart of her legend; worked with two slaves. On American adjudication the Board of Land Commissioners ultimately confirmed 6,389 acres to Coincoin and her children (her Metoyer sons' Spanish rights alone totaled 2,711 acres of Red River bottomland; average ~632 acres per person)

Mills, The Forgotten People (2013) ch.4 [p090ff, p176]

c.1816Death

d. c.1816, Cane River (no surviving burial record; likely Shallow Lake, site 16NA789)

Mills, 'Laying a Legend to Rest' (2021); Natchitoches 1800-1826 burial-series search (negative)

Re-root the fan here See every record cited

Open questions

01African ethnic origin DISPUTED — the 'Togo/Ewe' day-name proposal (1973), a Kongo hypothesis (MacDonald & Morgan 2012), and a Senegambian-cohort view all compete; no primary source establishes it — basis: scholarly dispute
02The Melrose 'Africa House / Congo' narrative is a 20th-century tourism legend, not documented history — basis: legend, debunked

Scan not yet attached — record images for Marie Thérèse Coincoin belong here