P. M. Lapice

Lapice was born on Santo Domingo (now Haiti) and escaped during the Haitian Revolution, traveling as a young boy to New Orleans with his parents and brother.

While a resident of that city he became one of the most popular and prominent men and had built up under his direction the famous Bullet Bayou levee, which saved a large section from overflow".

[5] In 1833 he advertised that he wished to buy cypress logs for a steam mill he was building; "raftsmen will find it in their interest to stop their rafts a few miles above Natchez and give him a call at the Saw-Mill".

Marshals, 493 people, ranging from centenarian Old Sampson to 15-month-old Margarette, were to be sold from four plantations in Louisiana by auction at the St. Louis Exchange in New Orleans on Saturday, March 20, 1850.

[2] Economic historians have found that by the time of the American Civil War, Lapice was one of the largest slave holders in St. James Parish, Louisiana.

[15] Records from one Louisiana parish show that the firm Lapice Brothers produced 600 hogsheads of sugar and 25,000 gallons molasses in 1860, by using the labor of 245 enslaved people.

[15] In 1863, Lapice was appointed to a delegation of Louisiana planters who met with Abraham Lincoln "to request of him Such action and assistance, as while restoring the State to the Union, will as far as possible, secure the prosperity of the loyal people therein".