Bras-Coupé

Bras-Coupé is the fictitious name of a slave named Squire, who lived from the early 19th century to 1837 in Louisiana.[1]

For other uses, see Bras Coupé.

Bras-Coupé was a talented entertainer and dancer who was allowed by his master (owner) to travel. But after numerous escape attempts, in 1834 a planters' patrol captured him and amputated his right arm as punishment.

Squire ran away again and organized a gang of escaped slaves, as well as sympathetic whites (which was unheard of in the 1830s). The gang robbed plantations, stores, and merchants. In the three years until his death Bras-Coupé's fame grew to the point where superhuman attributes were given to him, such as being immune to bullets. When shot by hunters in 1837, he survived. But while recuperating in the hut of a former ally, fisherman Francisco García, he was bludgeoned to death with a club so that García could claim a $2,000 reward.

A character named Bras Coupé with a similar life story appears in the 1880 novel The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life by George Washington Cable.

References
  1. Wagner B (2005). Disarmed and Dangerous: The Strange Career of Bras-Coupé. Caliber, University of California Press, Volume 92, doi:10.1525/rep.2005.92.1.117
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