“So there was Louise D’Avezac de Castera Moreau, 17 or 18 years old, and a sodden refugee on an English Frigate and headed towards Jamaica with a handful of other displaced wealthy women from her family at her side.”
The first lines of a “Bodice Ripper”, or the opening scene of a dramatic period film?
Neither. This is the beginning of a fascinating portrait of an actual historical figure, written on the Clermont Historic Site blog, by the site’s Education Director, Kjirsten Gustafson.
It is the second installment of a series of posts on the life of Louise D’Avezac de Castera Moreau Livingston, an intriguing real life character, whose life took her from a childhood on a vast plantation in Haiti, to New Orleans, and eventually the Hudson Valley. The portrayal integrates her biography with history and a social perspective that is so well thought out and written, it deserves to be seen by a much larger audience. When visiting the great estates that are open to the public, with their emphasis on their most “important” or “famous” residents, the colorful “supporting players” are too often forgotten. Clermont and the Hudson Valley is lucky to have Ms. Gustafson take such an interest in its history, unearthing these characters and events, bring them to life and adding another dimension to our knowledge of what life was like in these grand homes along the Hudson.
Go to http://clermontstatehistoricsite.blogspot.com/ to read this amazing, real life tale.
Can’t wait for the Third Installment!