Sweet Sugar- Dwan Pitre Wyles

There were two things in life a man needs when living on the banks of the Mississippi River in Southeast Louisiana; sugar for income, and a woman for company. The sugar in this region was planted by slaves. Sugarcane was grown, harvested and processed by their hands, and transformed into granulated sugar, molasses, and rum. The women of the region were molded by heritage, social expectations, and by men, both the fathers that raised them and the men they would marry.

Jean Noel Destrehan acquired his knowledge of sugar cane production from his brother-in -law, Jean Etienne de Bore’. Purchasing a Louisiana plantation on the east bank of the Mississippi River, in what is present day St. Charles Parish; Destrehan would make his wealth off the rich soil and backs of the enslaved, until his death in 1823. Sugar cane would bring him elevated status in New Orleans and even political power once his sugar dynasty was created, but if it were not for the strength and dedication of his wife, Marie Claudine Celeste Elenore Robin de Logny Destrehan, things could have turned out much different for Jean Noel and his descendants.

Celeste Destrehan’s story steered a course for her husband and their family name, transforming it into the title of one of Louisiana’s oldest plantations and the town that grew around it. The Destrehans’ legacy interwove with the history of sugar, making it a staple in households around the world.