A Wasted Week...?

Le Philanthrope and the 171 liberated captives

A lack of focus will really take its toll on your life. The last week has mostly been wasted on various little projects while attempting to deal with health problems. Instead of reading at least 2 or 3 books, I was obsessively pursuing genealogical "research" and some "historical" topics of interest. So, instead of the usual rant one would expect from this blog, this post is a short update on what has transpired over the course of the last 7 days. 

The first project, the genealogical one, is long-term and requires more documents and interviews with older relatives before anything can be confirmed. Nonetheless, it was a learning experience to comb through digitized Haitian marriage and birth records, endeavoring to decipher one name or letter in the ornate cursive of the past. Without consulting some of the older cousins of my grandparents, I cannot narrow down exactly who my great-great-grandparents were from the legible marriage and birth records. Nonetheless, I have learned exactly what part of the province we hail from and more details about Bainet's colonial and post-independence history. Talking with older relatives revealed even more surprises, such as my god-mother being present at my great-grandmother's funeral. We really take our elders for granted, even though they are a treasure trove of information, details, and stories of the past. 

As for the other project, it is a long-term one that will require travel and research funding through a variety of archives. I doubt I will ever finish it. In short, I am interested in the forms of Haitian anti-slavery after 1804. Sure, some scholars have written about the impact of the Haitian Revolution and its possible influence on slave revolts and black uprisings. But what about the role of the Haitian state in direct anti-slavery activity? Haitian abolitionism? Haitian interception of slave ships in the Caribbean? And what happened to "liberated" Africans and fugitive slaves who found a refuge in Haiti? Going through the usual secondary sources and some of the digitized Haitian newspapers revealed some new surprises, like the existence of an abolitionist society in Port-au-Prince during the 1830s. But so much digging through newspapers and the archives would be required to even begin to do justice to this topic.

So, a week has been "wasted" on obsessively pursuing these aforementioned topics and themes. Why do I do it? No one knows. Perhaps the pandemic and ill health have pushed me into the brink of madness. Regardless of my possible insanity, this short update will perhaps elucidate my silence over the last week. After all, my legions of readers must have wondered what happened to the short book posts  and usual chatter in these parts. Rest assured, the next post will cover some other random topic or book to keep you entertained.