Adelaide Boisdore 

Adelaide formerly an enslaved woman owned by Louis Barbeau dit Boisdoré, she earned her freedom.

A free woman of color she took the name Boisdore upon her freedom and gave it to her son Francois Boisdore, who fathered by Francois Dubuisson. She lived in the Treme what is known as Esplanade Ridge. The Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into civil unions with non-Europeans of African, Native American and mixed-race descent. The term comes from the French placer meaning “to place with”. Wealth Planters like Dubuisson had Creole free women of color like Adelaide Boisdore and provided for them, it seems this is a part of the Treme history in New Orleans.

Bayou Road was laid along the historic portage route from Bayou Saint John to the Mississippi River. The portage permitted travelers to land up river of New Orleans along the bayou and then journey down to the River for trade. The route was shown to European settlers by Native Americans who had established a trading ground at the location of the historic LeBreton Market – halfway between the bayou and the French Quarter.

Bayou Road was one of the first brick roads laid down in New Orleans.

The Galatas schooners would leave Bayou Liberty and Bayou Bonfouca with the Dubuisson, Laurent and Cousin goods and bricks cross the lake into Bayou Saint John. Travel up the bayou to the Esplanade Ave dock, where they would unload their goods for the land journey to the French Quarter (The Old Portage).

The father of Adelaide’s children was Francois Dubuisson.