For several generations, 1790 to 1865, it was not unusual for a young white Creole man to take a free woman of color as his mistress, set her up in her own house and have several children with her before he reached his mid to late twenties and married a French woman to raise his legitimate family.
This was different from plantation life throughout the South where it was well known that some white masters consorted with their female slaves. Those relationships were not openly recognized, and children born of such liaisons were considered black and slaves, taking their status from their mothers. In New Orleans placage, the local term for open miscegenation, did not involve slave women but rather free black women who had a limited degree of choice as to whether they were to become a mistress and whose mistress they would be.
The relationship was often a long-lasting one, sometimes continuing long after the man married. Children born in placage generally took their white father's last name, were supported by him, and even in some cases indirectly inherited large sums upon his death. Daughters were often raised to become mistresses of the next generation of white Creole men, while sons were sometimes sent to Paris to be educated, as there were few schools for such children in New Orleans.


www.frenchcreoles.com/CreoleCulture/quadroons/quadroons.htm