Charles Deslondes is a name lost to history. By design. Born in either Haiti or Louisana around 1789, he was described on plantation records as a “Creole mulatto slave,” a “field laborer.” As a young man, he was loaned to a cruel planter, Colonel Manuel Andry, as the overseer to the master’s eighty-six slaves. Charles’s position afforded him more power and privilege, a better life than those he managed. In a ruthless system of forced labor, you’d think he’d bask in his upgraded status. But he was still enslaved. Not his own man. He never would be. Associating with two ...