Florestine was born into slavery in Natchitoches, Louisiana. She was the daughter of Victorine, a Creole mulatresse, and Jean Cortes, the white Creole man who owned her, her mother, and grandmother. Florestine's mother was able to buy her own freedom but not her daughter's, so Florestine remained enslaved into adulthood, even after giving birth to three children. David H. Boullt, the children's father, a dentist and government official, purchased and emancipated Florestine and their children. Over the next two decades, David Boullt and Florestine amassed great wealth and ultimately owned a plantation with enslaved laborers. After the Civil War, Florestine's husband and sons became Radical Republicans, active in politics and holding almost every office in Natchitoches parish. After numerous threats of violence from the White League and the Ku Klux Klan, David Boullt fled Natchitoches parish. Years later the Boullts' story would surface again and make national headlines. Ultimately the majority of Florestine's children left Louisiana, chose to identify as white, and did the best to put the past behind them while continuing to support each other and hold fast to family ties.