Eulalie de Mandéville

Eulalie de Mandéville
Born	1774 New Orleans
Died	1848
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, businesswoman
Known for	Most accomplished free woman of color engaged in business in the Antebellum South

Eulalie de Mandéville, also referred to as Cécée MacCarty (1774–1848), was a prominent American entrepreneur, recognized as the most accomplished free woman of color engaged in business within the Antebellum South.

She was born in New Orleans to Count Pierre Enguerrand Philippe, Écuyer de Mandéville, Sieur de Marigny, and Marie Jeannette, an enslaved Congolese woman, with both Eulalie and her mother gaining freedom upon her birth. Raised alongside her half-siblings, including Bernard de Marigny, in the household of Françoise Delille de Marigny, she entered into a plaçage relationship in 1796 with Eugène de MacCarty, a member of a notable French-Irish lineage. Their cohabitation began in 1808 and produced five children, all baptized at St. Louis Cathedral under the MacCarty surname.

As an esteemed member of the Marigny family, Eulalie received early inheritances comprising cash, slaves, livestock, and land located in St. Bernard Parish. Subsequently, her brother Bernard provided her with property in Faubourg Marigny along with timber to construct rental housing. She launched enterprises including a dairy farm and a dry goods store while overseeing real estate transactions and lease agreements. Her import operation supplied manufactured products from New Orleans to merchants extending as far as Attakapas. The success of these ventures enabled her to invest in equities, property holdings, discounted banknotes, and high-yield loans facilitated through MacCarty’s brokerage firm, accumulating wealth amounting to $155,000 by 1830. Upon her passing, her estate was appraised at $250,000, positioning her among the wealthiest African-American business figures nationwide during the period from 1820 to 1865.

Eulalie owned 32 enslaved individuals, making her the largest slaveholder among New Orleans’ free people of color; however, this number was less than that of significant Black plantation owners outside the city limits. Shortly before Eugène’s death in 1845, they solemnized their union through a religious marriage ceremony; she inherited $12,000 from his estate. His family challenged the will under the provisions of the American Civil Code of 1825, contesting both the inheritance rights of persons of color and whether Eulalie’s assets should be regarded as belonging to MacCarty. The courts ruled in her favor after hearing supportive testimony from her uncle by marriage Enoul Livaudais and half-brother Bernard de Marigny, determining that the majority of her wealth existed prior to their marriage. This verdict was upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1848, which underscored parental inheritance rights taking precedence over claims from collateral heirs.