The Bauduy family was associated with the prominent du Pont family, who immigrated to the United States from France in 1802 and established the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, which manufactured gunpowder at mills on the banks of the Brandywine River just north of Wilmington, Delaware. Peter Bauduy (1769-1833), a French refugee from Santo Domingo who was a partner of Eleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834).

Pierre de Bauduy de Bellevue was born and educated in France. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, he went to Saint Domingue, where his father resided. In 1790 he married Thérèse Jueanne Julienne "Juliette" Bretton des Chapelles (1773-1837), and the following year they fled the enslaved people's uprising and came to Philadelphia. They then settled in Wilmington, Delaware, which already had a sizeable émigré community, and were soon joined by other family members from Saint Domingue and France. Pierre de Bauduy became an American citizen and anglicized his name to Peter Bauduy. The Bauduys moved to Eden Park, an estate just south of Wilmington, in 1808.

Bauduy was engaged in several business enterprises and became a partner in the gunpowder manufactory of E. I. du Pont in 1803. The partnership ended acrimoniously in 1815, and Bauduy brought suit against the firm. Peter Bauduy left Delaware for Cuba in 1819; his wife and their three youngest children arrived the following year, and they resided on a sugar plantation, also called Eden Park.

The Bauduys had eight children, six of whom survived to adulthood. Their four eldest children were: Ferdinand (1791-1814) married Victorine du Pont (1792-1861), daughter of E.I. du Pont; Mimika (1793-1855) married Vital Garesche (1782-1844)́; Cora (1796-1870) married Jean Pierre Garesché (1780-1861), and Hélène (1806-1881) married Alexandre Aristide Bretton des Chapelles (1799-1850).