Although our amateurish attempts to tally the number of each "nation" among the enslaved in the Jacmel Quartier is only just beginning, here are our results from our perusal of the Saint Domingue Notariat, particularly the amazing resource, Minutes notariales, 1704-1803. We decided to focus on the years from 1718-1739 for now since that period covers the early transition to coffee in the region during the 1730s. Utilizing the archive's collection of records by the following notaries, Neys, Delorme-de-Boissy, Fouquet, and Laville, we scoured the digitized collection on the Family Search website. We would have loved to have begun earlier, but we do not know which records survive that would cover the slave imports in this part of the colony from c.1698-1718. Perhaps they would have been similar in origin to slaves in Grand-Goave and Leogane, where some of the early Bainet and Jacmel planters moved from. Or, alternatively, some were those imported by the Compagnie de Saint-Domingue via the Slave Coast and West Central Africa (as well as those smuggled via English or Dutch traders, as suggested by the appearance of a few English Creole slaves).
Furthermore, in our collection of the data, we focused on inventories, leases and documents naming at least 10 adult slaves. We also focused on documents that actually gave the "nations" of most of the enumerated bonded persons. Some notaries did not record this information, sadly, so we left the information out. It is a shame, since they sometimes recorded "exotic" slaves of "Indian" origin in 1719 but did not provide the "nations" of other captives. Nonetheless, due to the difficulty of reading some documents and the occasional inclusion of slaves without a specified "nation" in other contracts, we still ended up with a rather large number (16) who are not of a clear "nation." For a similar reason, we omitted the number of children since their precise "nation" is either not provided, although we suspect that in several cases they were born in the colony or arrived at such a young age they would have been "Creolized" more quickly than adults. In addition, earlier records also use names for "nations" that disappear in the 1730s, perhaps reflecting changes in the pattern of slave imports or the complex creation of new "nations" within the colonial context. Last but certainly not least, we could not always precisely state what type of plantation the aforementioned captives labored at. Many of the records mentioned indigoteries, barrels of indigo and similar information about the specifics of the plantations, yet it is likely that some planters invested in indigo and other crops.
Let us return to the numbers. Our sample of 243 adult slaves over a period of nearly around 20 years represents only a snapshot of what the "nations" of the quarter's 2532 slaves may have been in the 1739 census. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note that it already seems close to the patterns in Siguret's table of "nations" for the Jacmel quartier for the period 1757-1791. Already, the two largest "nations" may have been "Creole" and "Congo" by 1739. And one would suspect the Creoles, even larger when counting children, were often the children of captives from the Slave Coast, Senegambia and Congo brought to the colony in the early 1700s or late 1600s. We suspect the name Loango was dropped in favor of "Congo" to reflect what may have been additional sources of Central African captives in the colony. Furthermore, the increase in the Bambara population in Siguret's data might reflect the growth and decline of Bamana states like Segu over the course of the 18th century, producing additional "Bambara" captives sold on the Senegambian coast. We similarly imagine that the high number of Aradas was also connected with Dahomey's expansion and conquest of Ouidah and Allada, probably producing more "Arada" slaves (although "Arada" almost certainly encompassed many different peoples sold on the Bight of Benin) in the 1720s and perhaps, 1730s. The early appearance of the Barba (Bariba) also suggest some captives from areas north of Dahomey and Oyo were being sold on the coast.
When broken into larger regions of Upper Guinea, Lower Guinea and Central Africa, one sees that the "Upper Guinea" captives were a much smaller proportion of the slave population. The Bambara, Mandingue, Senegal, and other possible "Upper Guinea" nations represent only a small fraction of the total, probably less than 10%. Since some of the "unknown" nations and perhaps a decent fraction of the Creoles were children of slaves from Upper Guinea, their influence in the region might have been stronger than detectable from the limited data available. Nonetheless, they were clearly smaller in numbers than those from Central Africa and Lower Guinea. When reviewing the notarized records, some of the Senegal slaves may have retained their names (including one woman named Fatima) and aspects of their culture probably contributed to the formation of an early Creole "slave culture" in the region.
Central Africa, whose "Congos" produced the largest African "nation" in the quarter, were of major demographic importance. At least 61 were from Central Africa, meaning at least 25% were from this region of Africa. It was possibly higher if one considers some of the "unknown" or ambiguous "nations" to be Central Africa. Overall, the Congos were undoubtedly a major presence in the area. The expansion of coffee plantations in the 1730s may have favored an even larger increase of their numbers since coffee planters are said to have favored Congos, according to Geggus. Unfortunately, the lumping together of so many Central Africans (Congos) and the few Mondongue and Loango homogenizes them. Nonetheless, some were undoubtedly from the Kongo kingdom or nearby areas. One Congo was even named Miguel, while others retained their African names (Macaya, Zomby). As speculated by others, Kongo Catholicism may have been a factor here in spreading or at least shaping local Christian practices.
Last, but certainly not least, Lower Guinea. The majority of the enslaved population appears to have roots there, as seen in the high numbers of Mines, Ibos, and Aradas. Adding the few Nagos, Oueda and Jouda to this suggests a proportion of at least 37% of the total. Again, the Creoles likely included many whose parents hailed from this region, too. As several scholars have long noted, the predominance of a cultural influence from Aja-Fon peoples likely dates to this period era in the colonial slave trade. Like other parts of the colony, the Jacmel quarter seems to have also been very much populated by captives from the Slave Coast. In addition, a significant number of Ibo and Bibi also point to the Bight of Biafra as an important source of captive labor. Arada, Nago and other groups from this period remained an important part of the slave population in the period from 1757-1791, too. Siguret's study of indigo and coffee plantations found a pronounced Ibo and Arada presence, a pattern we have also noted in Bainet in 1791.
Unfortunately, much of ANOM's collection has not been digitized and we are missing pre-1790s Bainet notarized documents. We may continue this little project by reviewing Delorme-de-Boissy files from the 1740s, which could give us better insights into the nature of the coffee boom. Its impact on slave demographics and the patterns of "nations" in the colony may challenge or support our current thinking on this matter. Data from Grand-Goave and Leogane would also be worth reviewing for a broader regional approach, beyond the southeastern corner of the colony.
