Landry, Pierre Caliste, 1841-1921

<p>Pierre Caliste Landry (April 19, 1841 – December 22, 1921) enslaved and became an attorney, Methodist Episcopal minister, mayor, newspaper editor,and state legislator in Louisiana. He was elected in 1868 as mayor of Donaldsonville, making him the first African American to be elected mayor in the United States.</p>

<p>Pierre Caliste Landry was born into slavery in 1841 on the Prevost sugar cane plantation in Ascension Parish, the son of Marcelite Prevost, an enslaved cook, and Roseman Landry, a white laborer. The plantation had one of the largest slave populations devoted to sugar cultivation in the state.</p>

<p>Landry was sold at auction, at age 13, to the Bringier family, which owned 35,000 acres on various plantations. He was likely purchased as the property of Louis Amedée Bringier, who was born on and had inherited the Hermitage Plantation in Ascension Parish (other Bringier plantations were located in St. James Parish).</p>

<p>Pierre Caliste Landry, a former slave turned educator and minister, is noted as the first African American to be elected mayor of a town in the Unites States. Landry was born into slavery on April 19, 1841 on a sugar cane plantation in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. He was given the name Caliste at birth by his mother, Marcelite, an enslaved cook on the plantation, and his father, Roseman Landry, a white laborer. Caliste was sent to live with Pierre Bouissiac and his wife Zaides, a family of free African Americans and was educated at a local school for free children. However, despite his owner’s wishes that he be freed, Laundry, at the age of 13 was sold for $1,665 to the Houmas Plantation, whose owner was Marius St. Colombe Bringer.</p>

<p>The Bringer Family owned over 35,000 acres of land on various plantations. Landry was allowed to continue his education in the plantation schools and live inside the family mansion. After working various positions, Landry was appointed superintendent of the yard and allowed to form a business partnership with the head butler on the plantation. They operated a plantation store, selling candies and goodies Landry made.</p>

<p>In 1866, Landry, now freed by the 13th Amendment, changed his first name to Pierre and moved to the African American community in Donaldsonville, the former capital of Louisiana between 1829 to 1831. Within a year, he started two day schools and a night school for the children, built the first home owned by a former slave, and opened a small store.</p>