SOURCE: "Victor Séjour and His Times," in The Negro History Bulletin, Vol. V, No 7, April 1942, pp. 163-66.

In the essay below, Perkins gives a brief literary biography of Séjour.

Victor Séjour, Genius Of Drama

Victor Séjour, the most versatile writer and brilliant dramatist among that unusual group of free colored Creoles who lived in Louisiana, along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Seaboard, was born in New Orleans, June 2, 1817, illegitimate son of Eloisa Philippe Ferrand, and Juan Francisco Louis, Victor Séjour Marcos, a native of San Marcos (San Dominque).¹ There is a lack of accord as to the date of his birth, varying from 1809 to 1821, but the record in St. Louis Cathedral establishes the correct date of his birth as that above. This liaison was legitimatized by marriage on January 13, 1825.² The child preferred to call himself "Victor Séjour," and by that name he...