Enslaved women and girls were more exposed to abuse because of their gender. They were also expected to be good breeders and their children could be sold like cattle to other plantations as soon as they reached the age of 10 , according to the 1825 Louisiana Civil Code. Sexual exploitation added a further degree of horror to the lives of enslaved females. Each individual described in official records as a 'mulatto' was, by definition, related to white people to some extent. A priori, they were born only to enslaved females who had been impregnated by their masters. This was common before emancipation.  
The couple who later became the ancestors of the African-American Haydel family, Victor Theophile Haydel (1835-1924 [Figure 2]) and Marie Celeste Becnel (1833-1885) were both born on the Haydel plantation. Anna, Victor's mother, was a mixed-raced American, born on the East Coast, probably in Virginia. There is no official document referring to any 'relationship' between either of the two enslaved women and their white masters. However, it was common knowledge that, although both men were married, refusing sex with a white man would not have been an option for these women.  
![img-2.jpeg](img_ref_3)
figure 2. Victor Haydel around 1920  
Francoise, Celeste's mother, was a cook on the plantation, where she gave birth to eight children between 1819 and 1835. She had finally been freed shortly before she died on 29 December 1841. The brother and brother-in-law of Marie Azélie Haydel were the fathers of Victor and Celeste, respectively.  
Anna was 60 years old and in very poor health (maladive) when she was valued at 100 piastres in the inventory of Marie Azélie Haydel's estate. According to her family's oral history, she remembered boarding a ship bound for Louisiana with her mother and one or two of her brothers. The mother died at sea and her body was dropped off the side of the ship. Anna was bought at the slave market in New Orleans by Marcellin Haydel. Her brother or brothers was or were sold