Francisca Montreuil was a baker in Spanish New Orleans who bought herself and her children out of slavery one signature at a time, then built an estate that crossed into American rule. This is her documented record.
Black Creole History
Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell: The Lafayette Parish Widow Who Built the South Liberty Oil Field
Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell was born in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, in 1859 and died in Liberty County, Texas, in 1940. Between those two dates she built an oil and gas estate the Supreme Court of Texas construed twice. The wells still produce under her name today.