Early reports by Pope Leo XIV explore the first American Pontive's growth in Chicago, and the years he spent in Peru, first as a missionary and then a bishop.
Genealogist Jari Honora breaks the story of the Pope’s ancestral connection with the Creoles in the New Orleans color community. Honora is a family historian at the Williams Research Center, a historic New Orleans collector, who has given research lectures to my graduate students and consulted with me about her work. In his study of Leo descent, he can also find some official documents that list Haiti as the birthplace of his grandfather, Joseph Norval Martinez.
The Creole lineage of Louisiana Pope is interesting. But many commentators strive to understand the connection with Haiti if they mention it completely.
As an expert in Haiti in the 19th century, I studied the period when the ancestors of Leo might have traveled between Haiti and New Orleans before moving to Chicago. Their story is part of a broader story of U.S. citizenship and immigration.
Haiti-born grandfather
It is worth noting that the Leo family tree is not completely direct.
At least one record shows that Joseph Norval was born in Louisiana. The 1910 census seemed to have reinvented family lineage: Martinez is now “Martina”, Joseph’s birthplace is “S. Domingo”, and he is said to be a Maltese.
However, more documents - numerous census records and his marriage certificate - identified Martinez's birthplace as Haiti. Despite some inconsistencies, a 1866 boat ride list does indeed list members of the Martinez family, including his father and three siblings.
Just because Leo's grandfather was born in Haiti, it doesn't mean he is Haitian. Instead, he belonged to a class of people in New Orleans, known as the "Creoles of Color".
Three-pronged racial order
It is important to understand the historical complexity of Creole identities in New Orleans and Louisiana and continue to be important today.
The descriptor "Color Creole" is somewhat out of place. It appeared in the late 19th century in Louisiana, classifying descendants of historical subordinate classes as people of color, or “Gens de Couleur libres” in French.
It originated from the tripartite racial order during the colonial period of America, France and Spain, and the authorities created a hierarchy of the legal class: enslaved people, free people of African descent and white people.
In theory, people of color cover many people. It can describe people who were previously enslaved. People who have never been enslaved; people born in Africa; or people who have extended, mixed-race American families.
In Louisiana in the 19th century, the term usually refers to the free status of birth in people of mixed racial ancestry, albeit with varying degrees of slavery. They usually speak French and are Catholic.
Although they are bound by repressive laws and can never become citizens and get the right to vote, people of color can own, inherit and sell property, including those who are enslaved. Most are artisans and shop owners, and a few become very rich through trade and real estate.
The Martinez family is perfectly suited in this community.
The 1850 census record of Joseph Norval Martinez's father and Leo's great-grandfather Jacques Martinez was the tailor and modest owner of the property of New Orleans. They were never enslaved, but they seemed to be enslaved.
People of color have become worse
So why was Joseph Norval Martinez born in Haiti?
At some point, his parents might feel they had to leave New Orleans.
Despite their relative prosperity, people of color in Louisiana and throughout the United States were subject to increasing legal restrictions, repression and violence in the years leading up to the Civil War.
This situation worsened in the 1840s and 1950s as white Southerners worked to further restrict citizenship and difficult racial rights. In 1857, a Supreme Court ruling by Dred Scott confirmed that no one who had descended from Africa, including people of color, had no right to citizenship.
For those who remained in the South, the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 would make life more difficult.
During the first half of the 19th century, many people of color from Louisiana immigrated to France. But the two main choices in the 1860s were Haiti and Mexico.
However, when the Martinez family left, Mexico was involved in a conflict with France. Meanwhile, Haiti is developing an ambitious plan to attract immigrants.
After the Haitian Revolution in 1804 (an uprising against French colonists), the country became the first country in the world to permanently ban slavery. Therefore, many people of color view Haiti as a beacon of freedom and equality.
Indeed, Haiti has long been promoted to a free soil republic: anyone of African descent will enjoy freedom and ultimately Haitian citizenship. Several Haitian presidents carried out immigration campaigns, attracting enslaved and previously enslaved workers in the United States.
To cope with deteriorating conditions for people of color in the United States, Haitian President Fabre Geffrard launched a particularly ambitious campaign to set up the Haitian Immigration Bureau and staff with agents in New York, Boston, New Orleans and other major cities. Louisiana newspapers promoted Geffrard's immigration program, which included land offers for families and individuals. Geffrard's focus is on attracting agricultural workers - the Martinez family may induce that kind of job. Despite this, it is still popular with skilled craftsmen.
It was in this case that the Martinez family might have left New Orleans for Haiti. Currently, there is little information about their voyage, but the journey will respond to many family histories from Louisiana to Haiti in the 1860s.
According to my study of census and notarized archives, the Martinez family left sometime after the birth of Adele, a daughter of New Orleans in December 1861 and before the birth of Joseph Noval in Haiti in 1864.
The promise of reconstruction collapsed
The Martinez family did not stay in Haiti.
According to the passenger list, they returned to New Orleans in February 1866.
Like many experiences of immigrating to Haiti, they may find the conditions difficult. The success of Louisiana's wartime reconstruction may also encourage them to rebuild their lives in New Orleans.
They returned to abolishing slavery. Free people of color are at the forefront of the battle for civil rights and are the leading architect behind a progressive, equal national constitution that calls on all citizens to have equal access to education.
Martinez's children may benefit from this provision - albeit briefly. Census records in 1870 show that they all enrolled: Michelle (14), Gillard (12), Adele (9) and young Joseph Norval (6).
They will also witness the violent rebound of reconstruction, which is particularly intense in Louisiana. In 1866, a white mob besieged those who tried to amend the state's constitution to occupy black voters, known as the Mechanical Academy Massacre. In the following years, the state was plagued by more violence.
Joseph Norval Martinez married Louise Baquié in 1887 and they continued to have six children in New Orleans, all girls. He was a cigar manufacturer – a common enterprise of people of color during this time – and later served as a clerk.
Through the Separate Car Act, the family was subject to increasing segregation, a Louisiana statute of 1890 that divided train cars into race. The Supreme Court continued to uphold Louisiana regulations in 1896 and covered the "independent but equal" doctrine throughout the South.
American Story
Martinez and Baquié remained in New Orleans until 1910, when they joined the millions of black Americans who migrated from the south to the north and west in the early 20th century, known as the Great Immigration. Important parts including Martinez and Buckey ended up in Chicago.
Their youngest daughter, Mildred Anges Martinez (Leo's mother), was born there.
Joseph Norval Martinez's census record tells a complex story about the history of race in the United States 1900 years ago, he was listed as the "M" of "Mularto". In the 1900 census, he was listed as black. Then in the 1910 census, he was listed as white.
The Martinez family cannot decide on the ethnic description assigned to them in the census, but they have some requirements for birthplace and ancestry. Martinez, in the context of apartheid, disenfranchisement of civil rights and violence, appears to have the 1910 census called white bloodlines - Malta.
That's it - and there are many - that make their story a true American story.
One thing we do know is: Martinez and his family have regained his original ancestry after they settled in Chicago. The 1920 census listed Martinez's record as Haiti.