Maunsel White

White married a French Creole, Celestine de la Ronde, who hailed from a wealthy New Orleans family allied with military leader and future U.S. president Andrew Jackson.

[2] During the War of 1812, White bore the rank of captain and commanded the Louisiana Blues, a company of uniformed volunteers that participated in the Battle of New Orleans.

[1] White became acquainted with General Andrew Jackson, commander of the American forces at New Orleans, who appointed him to negotiate with the defeated British regarding the exchange of prisoners and restitution of slaves.

Possessing only an informal education, White entered business as an accounting clerk, and over many years worked his way into a position of wealth and influence in New Orleans.

He eventually founded his own cotton factor business, Maunsel White and Company, which also sold sugar, molasses, tobacco, pork, and corn.

White tried to operate Deer Range as a model plantation, investing heavily in new equipment to modernize and streamline sugar production.

A large slaveholder (he owned over two hundred slaves at Deer Range alone), White once wrote to an acquaintance, "I have made myself a solemn promise never to sell a Negro – it is a traffic I have never done.

Furthermore, observed the newspaper, "by pouring strong vinegar on it after boiling, he has made a sauce or pepper decoction of it, which possesses in a most concentrated form all the qualities of the vegetable.