Isle Brevelle

Located in the Natchitoches Parish in Louisiana, in approximately 18,000 acres of land between the Cane River and Bayou Brevelle (near Montrose).[1][2] Two major highways in Isle Brevelle include LA 119 and LA 484.[2]

The Louisiana Creole community is made of descendants of French and Spanish colonials, Africans, Native Americans, and Anglo-Americans.[2]

Nicolas Augustin Metoyer (1768–1856), was the son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin and Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer, and he has been considered the "grandfather" of the community of Isle Brevelle.[3] He was born into slavery and remained in bondage (initially to Don Manuel Antonio de Soto y Bermúdez and wife Marie des Nieges de St. Denis DeSoto)[4] until 1792, at the age of 24.[3] Around this same time his mother, Marie Thérèse Coincoin was also freed from enslavement and they, as a family started collecting local land, which eventually amassed to 6,000 acres.[3] At the center of this collected land was Isle Brevelle.[3] During this era and in this location, mulatto people lived similarly to white Southern planters, in large mansions with expensive furniture, and in some cases they held their own slaves.[3]

Nicolas Augustin Metoyer's home no longer stands, but the church he built, St. Augustine Parish still does.[3]

• Badin-Roque House
• Coincoin–Prudhomme House (or Maison de Marie Thérèse)
• Melrose Plantation
• St. Augustine Parish

• Marie Thérèse Metoyer (1742–1816), a planter, former slave turned slave owner, and businesswoman.
• Clementine Hunter (c. 1887–1988), self taught folk artist, she lived at the Melrose Plantation within Isle Brevelle.[5]
• Billie Stroud (1919–2010), self taught folk artist, used Isle Brevelle as one subject of her work and spent time there.[6]