Inventory of Louis Torteau (1719)

In addition to Bainet plantations, it is worthwhile to explore inventories, contracts, deeds, and sales for Jacmel and Cayes-de-Jacmel. We suspect the demographics of the slave population in those parishes was similar to that of Bainet, and the 3 parishes likely received their slaves via the same mechanisms. In order to explore an early inventory, we found one of Louis Torteau from 1719. A commandant of the militia and supposedly the son of a nobleman in France, Torteau owned about 40 slaves. He appears to have been an indigo planter like so many of the early colons of the Jacmel quarter. One wonders if, due to his supposedly noble background and other connections, he might have had easier access to slaves than other colonists, who may have relied upon the Compagnie de Saint-Domingue's ineffective supply. Perhaps he was also buying smuggled captives? What is surprising to us is that he had fewer Creole slaves. With the exception of 2 adult Creoles, there were 8 children who, it is impossible to say, may have been born in Africa or the colony. If we assume the children were Creoles, then only 1/4 of his human property were Creoles. This is in sharp contrast to what the data suggests for the Saugrain in Bainet, who owned a similar number of captives in 1720. However, in their case, perhaps the Creole presence was higher due to a greater number of children. In addition, the Saugrain had been present in Bainet since at least 1703, when they owned 8 captives. Perhaps Torteau's enslaved laborers represent a later plantation owned by someone of means and status.

What is striking about the Torteau case is the marked increase in "Congos." With 10 Congos and 1 Mondongue, about 27.5% of his bonded laborers were of Central African origin. If one counts the children of "Congo" slaves, 35% of the laborers were of West Central African origin. What is also surprising in this case was the large Mine population (8 adults, plus 3 children of Mine). If the Mine or Mina represent a Gold Coast-derived group, as some of their names suggest (names like Coffy, for instance, sometimes appear among these captives), then the "Mine" could have been a sizable presence on some plantations during this era. After the Mina, the Arada and "Senegal" are next at 4 adults each. However, with 2 children of Arada captives, those of "Arada" descent represented 6 out of 40 slaves. The "Senegal" may have included a Muslim captive, named Fatima (Fatiment). The other Africans, include a Mondongue, a Bambara, a Barba (Bariba?) and one person of a "nation" we could not read. It is interesting to note the diversity of "nations" reported here, albeit in tiny numbers. With 4 "Senegal" anda  Bambara, about 5/40 slaves were from "Upper Guinea" while the other West Africans were Lower Guinea. The substantial Central African presence is also worthy of note. We hope to gather more data from inventories and notarized records, especially for coffee plantations, to help us establish with a bit more clarity some of the distinctions between indigo and coffee plantations. However, in order to do that, we must delve deeper into the data.