Le portail de Bainet

We randomly encountered a painting of Gabriel Leroy depicting the portail of Bainet in the 1950s today. Since the painter was from Jacmel, it was included in a series on Jacmel, Jacmel en photos, by Jean-Elie Gilles. Although this painting is only showing one part of our ancestral town, it is always a pleasure to see more paintings of Bainet.

Jeannis

Whilst perusing old records and files, we came across the birth record for a relative (related by marriage) from Jacmel. Born in 1920, he was the son of Letrois Jeannis, a man who appears to have been a descendant of Mérisier Jeannis (1833-1908). 

Slaves of Jean Celin Cangé & Marguerite Butet

From the notarized records of Saint-Domingue, we were able to finally see an inventory for members of one of the very large families of free people of color. In this case, the Cangé. In 1773, after the death of Jean Celin Cangé, an inventory was written listing the goods of his estate. Obviously, their human property were also enumerated in the document. Alas, some of it is difficult to read due to the handwriting of the notary. Nonetheless, we were able to construct a quick table showing the numbers of slaves held by Cangé and his wife. Through our great-great-grandmother, we are probably descendants of members of the Cangé family and/or their chattel. 

We suspect Jean Celin Cangé was baptized in 1694, born to a presumably white father of Spanish origin and a black woman, Marie Therese Damelide. The latter may have been from one of the Spanish colonial territories (Santo Domingo? Veracruz?). In 1703, a census for the Jacmel area listed the father of Jean Celin as the owner of only 2 female slaves. Well, by 1773, the estate of the son held 14 slaves, only 3 children. Creoles were the largest group, but they were clearly not the wealthiest, most important planters in the Jacmel quartier. Indeed, some of their slaves were quite old, and the habitation only held 4 houses/shacks for the slaves. 

We will, obviously, need to see inventories and other records of property owned by different members of the Cangé to see to what extent members of the family became wealthy. One branch, at Petit-Harpon, was able to produce the Pierre Cangé who later fought in the Haitian Revolution. That branch built a coffee plantation with slave labor. Here, however, at the habitation situated near the rivière Gauche, the plantation ran by Celin and Butet grew cotton. We need to find more detailed notarized records for coffee plantations and other types of farms in the hills and valleys of the region, closer to our ancestral "roots" in the Bainet-Jacmel area. 

On Magloire Ambroise...

Whilst perusing an article on Magloire Ambroise by Alix Ambroise in the Revue of the Haitian Historical Society, we noticed some inconsistencies. according to Alix Ambroise, Magloire was born on the Pasquet habitation. He married Theophile Cangé, the daughter of Pierre Cangé. However, when checking the parish registers, we came across a Marie Rose Theophile who was the daughter of Jean Louis Cangé and Marie Charlotte Favre. It would seem that Alix Ambroise, presumably a descendant of Magloire Ambroise, the hero of Jacmel, made an error.

Jacmel and the Slave Trade

Checking the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database at slavevoyages.org only reveals a total of 2528 captives disembarked at Jacmel over the course of the colonial period (and over half from Central Africa). Of course, there were undoubtedly some undocumented voyages. Consulting  But it is interesting to note that Jacmel was not a major port of call for slave ships coming to Saint-Domingue from Africa. One wonders or assumes that most captives carried on French Slave ships must have arrived in Jacmel from Les Cayes or, perhaps, the ports of Leogane, Petit-Goave and Port-au-Prince via an overland route. Checking Mettas's Répertoire des expéditions négrières françaises au XVIIIe siècle reveals a few more slave ships that traveled to Jacmel. For instance, in 1786, Le Jason stopped at Jacmel and Leogane, coming from Angola with perhaps 450 slaves, which we could not confirm in the Saint Domingue press. In the same year, Les Bons Amis stopped at the port of Les Cayes and Jacmel with a human cargo of 287 from the Gold Coast (which presumably meant the broader French definition). Another ship, Les Deux Cousins, arrived in Jacmel with 190 people from Angola or Louangue, in 1788. 

More research is necessary, but it seems like the Jacmel Quarter's slave population may have had demographics that present a mix of both Les Cayes (the Sud) and the West (Leogane, Port-au-Prince). This could be seen in the relatively high proportion of Ibos among Jacmel's slave population (a characteristic shared with the Sud). On the other hand, the more frequent slave ships bringing captives to Leogane, Petit Goave and Port-au-Prince likely supplied a large share of the African bonded labor that arrived in Jacmel. Smuggling and inter-colonial trade with the Dutch and English also supplied captives, though it is difficult to quantify. According to the Intra-American Slave Trade Database, a number of vessels brought captives to Jacmel from Kingston, Jamaica (a total of 331 captives disembarked). Of course, the trade was going on earlier, if the appearance of slaves from Curacao and the English West Indies is any reliable indication. Thus, to an unknown extent, the Jacmel area was also supplied by captives from English, Dutch and possibly Spanish colonies. But the Intra-American Slave Trade Database mainly shows ships bringing captives from Jamaica or the British colonies to the ports of Saint-Domingue's South.

Anyway, checking the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database's data visualization feature for the total number of captives disembarked at Les Cayes reveals a disproportionate Bight of Biafra share, which likely corresponds with the elevated Ibo presence in the South of Haiti (Sud). Yet the Bight of Biafra share for captives imported at Cul-de-Sac, Leogane, Port-au-Prince and Petit Goave was tiny, only 1158. But compared to Les Cayes, the ports of the West imported far greater numbers of captives from the Senegambia (13,414 versus 3686 for Les Cayes). One wonders if the consistent numbers of "Bambara" in parts of the Jacmel quarter in the second half of the 18th century is likely due to "Bambara" captives brought from Leogane and Port-au-Prince, since very few Senegambians were imported at Les Cayes after 1750. Thus, we suspect Jacmel, Bainet, and Cayes-Jacmel's African population to represent a mix of the characteristics of both the "West" and the "South" in the colony, possibly resembling the "West" but having a greater share of Bight of Biafra captives. 

Pierre Cange

 

Checking Saint-Domingue's press also included some surprising finds of free people of color families. One of them, a large one whose surname is borne by many Haitians today, appear in this article from the 1780s. Apparently he sired 10 children. 

Rough Estimates for the "Nations" of Jacmel Slaves (c.1782)

Another crude method of calculating somewhat plausible numbers for the "nations" of the Jacmel Quartier's enslaved population is to use the numbers from the 1782 Census. While probably an undercount or plagued by inaccuracies, it does provide a total number of the slave population, which means one can use the numbers from Roseline Siguret's study of the quartier's indigo and coffee estates from 1757-1791 to crudely approximate the possible distribution of "nations" in the popular of the region. While very imperfect, doing so gives the numbers above for the "nations" in Siguret's table. 

First, the Creole preponderance is undeniable, although it may have been even higher if slave imports at the port of Jacmel were low, as was the case in 1786. Slaveholders would have had to rely on smuggling or the intra-colony slave trade to provide new captives, probably a mix of both. The next striking feature is how, assuming our crude estimate is somewhat close to the reality, the huge Congo and Central African presence was. The "Congos" and Mondongues plus smaller numbers of other groups who appear to be from Central Africa (Maiemba, for instance) were about 24% of the total slave population. That said, one is shocked by our estimate for the still reasonably high numbers of Senegalais, Mandingues, Bambaras, and other Upper Guinea "nations" in the region. Furthermore, the Ibos, in our estimate, were over 9% of the total slave population. 

Overall, the trends from our estimate reveal a plurality of Creoles with a substantial "Congo" presence and Ibo presence. The persistence of African nations from the Bight of Benin as well as Upper Guinea (perhaps around 8%) illustrates a great diversity of slave imports continued well into the late 18th century. The huge Creole population, too, very likely descended, perhaps to a greater degree, from Africans purchased from the Slave Coast and Upper Guinea, too. Of course, these estimates are likely to be very inaccurate for the smaller nations, such as several whose numbers in Siguret's survey were only 1 or 2. In addition, some of the slave population's "national" identity may have switched over time, as some became another "nation" or later captives from that same background were "reconceived" as belonging to a new or different "nation" instead. Thus, the above table is meant only as a very "rough" idea of what the ethnicities of slaves in Jacmel, Bainet and Cayes de Jacmel may have been like in c.1782.

Runaway Slaves in the Jacmel Quarter

Although hardly the best method for arriving at an adequate overview of the "nations" of slaves in a region, perusing Le marronnage dans le monde atlantique's digitized runaway notices from Saint Domingue is always useful. In this case, we used the search bar to find every record mentioning Jacmel, Cayes de Jacmel, or Bainet, keeping count for the number of times a maroon each "nation" appeared. We did not include more than once maroons whose owners posted ads multiple times. Nor did we, whenever ambiguous or unclear, count slaves whose owners were not in Jacmel or were not explicitly said to have left Jacmel (or its associated regions, like Bainet). 

This method, of course, is far from perfect. And it it probable that the high number of Congos is at least partly related to the elevating numbers of West Central Africans imported in the final decades of colonial rule. Similarly, the high number of Creoles may, in part, be a result of them knowing the land better and having more connections, thereby increasing their share of maroons. Further, since many acts of marronage were of a small-scale or short duration, rather than grand marronage, this sample only reflects a portion of the totality of slave resistance. 

Despite these and additional problems, these runaway notices sometimes capture or include slaves from minority "nations" who are not always easy to detect. For example, Macoua, Mozambique, or "Black Indian" slaves, few in number in this area, were still present in this corner of the colony. Their numbers, while small, nonetheless help us contextualize slave demographics and the slave trade in various parts of the colony. The presence of Southeast Africans or "Indians" (in this case, possibly Asian Indians), as well as the numbers of Creoles from other European colonies in the Caribbean, demonstrate the Jacmel area's connections to slave trading networks that may have involved smuggling. The preponderance of nations that are difficult to identify and tiny numbers for several likewise illustrates the tremendous diversity of "nations" represented in Saint Domingue. 

An Overview of Adult Slave "Nations" in the Jacmel Quarter, 1740s

We continued our readings of the notarized records from Jacmel for the 1740s, featuring the same notary from the 1730s, Delorme-de-Boissy. Alas, some years are not represented well and we found fewer detailed records or inventories involving at least 10 adult slaves to draw our data from. Several documents were much harder to read, too, either for being too faded or the ambiguous or uncertain writing of African "nations" of enslaved persons. Nonetheless, we found enough records to draw a sample of about 178 adult slaves, and thought it worthwhile to focus on the total number for the various "nations" in the area during this period. 

One can see immediately a major Ibo component persisted in the 1740s. From our sample, they were the largest single "nation" in the region. While some habitations and slaveholders held majorities of Mine or other "nations" as property, this Ibo preponderance seems to match other patterns for the South of Saint Domingue. Next, the Congo, were a mainstay among the "nations" of slaves. We assume part of their high numbers was related to the expansion of coffee, a sector in which planters are said to have favored "Congo" slaves. What surprised us, although it probably should not have, was the large Mine, or Mina, numbers. 

Overall, the majority of captives came from the Slave Coast, Bight of Biafra and West Central Africa. Or, in other words, the Lower Guinea and Central African numerical dominance was clear. The "Upper Guinea" captives, represented by the Bambara, Poulard, Senegalois, were rather diminished compared to the Igbo, Arada, and Congo, who together comprised more than half of our sample drawn from different slaveholders in the Jacmel quarter. This majority increases even more when other Central African and Lower Guinea groups are added to the totals. In addition, some of our large number of "Unknown" or illegible nations probably fell into the Lower Guinea cluster, pointing more towards the Slave Coast, Bight of Biafra and West Central Africa as the major supplier of captives. Again, several of the Creoles may have had parents from other regions, and the population of enslaved children born in the colony (which would have boosted the Creole total) may have had parents from Upper Guinea. 

An Overview of "Nations" in the Jacmel Quarter (1718-1739)

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. 

A Snapshot of Bainet's Slave Population in 1739

Though only data from the Notariat covering part of Bainet, the breakdown in African "nations" may be illustrative of broader patterns in Bainet. The first table, with numbers from an act of retrocession by Julien Pierre Perronneau in 1739, lists slaves from the estate of the deceased Dumas. While only involving 17 slaves, 11 of them adults, this may have been representative of the enslaved workforce of small-scale indigo planters in Bainet. One is struck by the tiny Igbo and Congo presence, with no group enjoying an overwhelming majority. The children, some of whom were definitely born in the colony, would bump up the Creole population. One would imagine that on an estate like this, some of the Creoles and children may have inherited or been drawn to an already established slave culture in this part of Saint Domingue. This likely reflected earlier patterns in the slave trade for this part of the colony.

The other "snapshot" of what the origins of slaves in Bainet is derived from a bail of several to Perronneau, also from 1739. Louis Le Roy leased 21 adult slaves and 7 children to Perronneau, and the majority were Creoles. And after Creoles, the only African group who numbered more than one were Creoles. Again, we see in this Creole preponderance a similar pattern with the slaves of the estate of Robert Fleuret or Alexis Saugrain. Part of this surely reflects the longer length of time some planters had owned slaves in the colony. But it may also be related to the less destructive impact of indigo and coffee on slave mortality rates, leading to a larger Creole population in some cases. Indeed, another list of slaves owned by a Perronneau near the end of the century also possessed a Creole majority.

Inventory of Jerome de Livet (1739)

 

While continuing our search through notarized documents from Jacmel, we found one from 1739 from the estate of the deceased Jerome de Livet or Livet, a Jacmel planter. Their presence in the region can be attested as early as 1712, though of their 31 slaves, only 8 were children (not included in the table). However, 4 of the children were described as Creole, while some of the adult Creoles were "English" (presumably acquired via intercolonial slave trading). Interestingly, there were nearly twice as many adult males as women among the estate, so one is not surprised that the number of "Creole" children was rather small. This inventory is also unique in that the rare "Madagascar" slaves make an appearance. While Charlevoix had mentioned small-scale imports of Madagascar and even "Monomotapa" slaves into the colony, they were supposedly not considered good workers. Yet the de Livet estate included on Thomas, a "Madagascar." This brings to mind the story of a free person of color, a Roumat, said to be the grandchild of a black Madagascar woman later in the century. The fact that Ibos and Congos were not the largest groups (both trailing Creoles) demonstrates how variable each plantation could be in its workforce.  

The "Nations" of Jean Lacroix's Slaves

One of the owners of the largest number of slaves we have encountered so far in the Jacmel area was Jean Lacroix, a surgeon and planter who died in 1737. As the above table illustrates, with numbers from a notarized document from 1738, digitized at Family Search, his estate included 53 adult slave (plus 20 children). Included among these adults were several Creoles who came from other colonies, including some from English colonies, 1 from Martinique and 1 "Spanish" slave. And while men outnumbered women, the gender imbalance wasn't as stark as it could be on other estates. 

The substantial child population and Creole population attest to some degree of longevity of the plantation and local births. Moreover, one is struck by the huge diversity of captives here. In addition to the familiar Congo, Ibo, Arada and Mondongue, one sees a Tiamba (which was difficult to read in the text), a Timbou (again, difficult to decipher), Bibi, and more English Creoles than one would expect. Yet the general pattern of a substantial Congo, Ibo and Arada presence is undeniable, as is the low number of Upper Guinea Africans. One wonders about the origins of the Creoles in this case, but one clearly sees a pattern of imported slave labor favoring West Central Africa and Lower Guinea. The high number of Creoles suggests possible smuggling or inter-colonial slave trading. The difficult to decipher digitized documents in the Minutes notariales, 1704-1803 make it hard to know exactly what the slaves were doing in this case, but it may have involved indigo and other tasks. 

The Huguet Plantation in 1737

Whilst perusing the digitized Saint-Domingue Notariat at Family Search, we came across another list of slaves from a habitation in Jacmel. The estate of the deceased planter Huguet, who was already established in Jacmel by 1712, it is likely safe to assume he ran an indigo plantation. What is striking here, however, is the absence of Creoles. With the exception of the 7 children (not included in the table because their exact origins are not specified and many if not most may have been born in the colony), the only Creole was an "angloise" woman, possibly from Jamaica or another English colony of the Caribbean. Her presence might also explain the preponderance of Ibos. 

Besides the Ibos and Congos, no other "nation" had more than one representative on the estate. The large Ibo presence may have been linked to intercolonial slave trading between the French in Saint Domingue and English partners. It is probably not a surprise that smuggling or contraband trade in slaves was so important for this part of the colony, since the Compagnie de Saint-Domingue in earlier decades was not successful at fulfilling its quota of captives. One would also think that some of the colons who moved to Jacmel, Bainet, and Cayes de Jacmel in the early 1700s also brought slaves with them from their previous homes, too. Another striking aspect of the plantation, however, is the relatively balanced gender ratios among the adult slaves. 10 adult males to 8 women is not as extreme as other plantations. 

We are still looking for coffee plantations in inventories, testaments, and deeds to see how the boom in coffee plantations after 1730 may have impacted the region's demographics. But one pattern that is clear is the large Igbo presence, even relatively early on, for some plantations. Another interesting feature of this plantation was seeing what looks like the Yoruba name Kemi (Kemy) for the Nago slave, showing the persistence of African names was sometimes recognized in Saint Domingue. 

Dessalines in Jacmel (1801)

Whilst revisiting the records from the parish registries for colonial Jacmel, we saw Jean-Jacques Dessalines made an appearance! This must have been after successfully concluding the War of Knives against the forces of Rigaud. Dessalines was actually the godfather for a child of Terrien and Cangé origin born in the Bainet. This is perhaps not too surprising, although Henri Christophe later changed his opinions about General Pierre Cangé, who was related to these people. 

Hausa Ancestry in the Jacmel Region

Jean Baptiste Maturin appears in 1801, when he married Anne Ogé, on folio 49 of the ANOM's digitized archive of the état civil. 

To give a real example of how some Haitians have minor Hausa or northern Nigerian ancestry, the example of Jean Baptiste Maturin is enlightening. To determine this Hausa connection, one must consult the parish registers of Saint Domingue from those "exciting" years between emancipation and Haitian independence. Many ex-slave cultivateurs appear in these registries as free people, getting married or registering the births of their children. If one is lucky, one might find an ancestor who had been formerly enslaved and, occasionally, details about their African or Creole background. 

In this example, we see in the 1801 parish register for Jacmel that Jean Baptiste Mathurin married Anne Oge, a Creole who was born in Jacmel. Jean Baptiste Mathurin, however, was a native of the "Hausa country in Africa" and therefore, obviously not native to Jacmel. As a Hausa, a minority among the African "nations" and with extremely skewed gender ratios, it was no surprise he married a Creole woman. This would explain why some Haitians do indeed descend from Africans of diverse regions, but it may only present itself in genetic testing at trace amounts. 

Family Search's website is precious for finding documents. Here is digitized the 1853 marriage record of Jean Philippe Mathurin. 

Unsurprisingly, Mathurin and wife Anne Oge had at least 2 children, Jean-Philippe Mathurin. Indeed, Jean Philippe was named as a child of Jean Baptiste in 1801, born before he married Anne. Apparently he had a brother, Edouard. Jean Philippe was around 16 years old when his parents married, probably because they were free and it was easier to do that and have stable family structures. Jean-Philippe Mathurin himself would have 5 children with Marie Louise Jacques, before marrying her in 1853. One can verify that Jean-Philippe Mathurin was indeed the child of Jean Baptiste Mathurin and Anne Oge because his marriage certificate lists his place of birth as Gosseline, the very same area Jean-Baptiste Mathurin and Anne Oge were living in back in 1801. 

The above example serves to show how "Hausa" ancestry could be inherited by Haitians in small amounts. Perhaps most, like Jean Baptiste Mathurin, ended up in relationships with non-Hausa women and were rather quickly largely absorbed into the Creole population. In areas like Jacmel, the slave population was already substantially Creole by the late 1700s, and outside of perhaps a few extreme cases, it was not likely for Muslim Hausa to have found communities of fellow believers to build a community with, as happened in Trinidad or even among the Fulanis encountered by Descourtilz in Saint-Domingue. 

The Inventory of Philippe Latouche in Bainet (1737)

Looking at little later in the Jacmel quarter, we found a 1737 inventory for the deceased Bainet planter, Philippe Latouche, located in the Gris-Gris section. The estate held 18 slaves, no children. We assume it was dedicated to indigo and may have had some typical characteristics of similar plantations in the region during the 1730s. What immediately comes to mind is that nearly half the slaves were "Congos" with only 2 Creoles (1 from Martinique). 

The Arada were present, yes, and 2 were of unknown derivation (one not provided while the other is illegible), but the Ibo and Bambara were only represented by 1 each. We must look for more inventories from the 1730s-1750s, but the "Congos" were always a sizable part of the population. By now the "Loango" seem to disappear (or perhaps the French were already using "Congo" as a general term for Central Africans), so one wonders about the French slave traders active in Loango during this time. 

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.

Slaves of Robert Fleuret in 1720

Whilst perusing, once again, notarized documents digitized at Family Search's website, we encountered another list of slaves of what was probably an indigoterie in Bainet. Listed as property of a Robert Fleuret, the son of a Robert Fleuret who died in 1714, the information helps us understand more about the origins of the enslaved population in Bainet. One is struck by the Creole majority, although 3 were young children and a few older Creoles were children of slaves of the habitation. Yet after the Creoles, the next largest group were "Aradas." 

The woman who appears to have been of "Ibo" origin, Catherine. The Minutes notariales on Family Search contain several notarized documents, such as this one from 1720.

Surely, many of these were not natives of the kingdom of Allada, but captives from other regions of modern-day Benin and Togo who were sold through Ouidah and Allada. The next largest group of Africans, Loango, which would probably have been simplified as "Congo" in later records of Saitn Domingue, we see 2. One of them, who was named Macaya (or Macaye?) was around 45 years old. One of the Arada, Margueritte, was said to be around 65 years old. The sole "Ibo" captive, assuming we read the document correctly, was around 45 years old. The data, overall, matches the data from slaves owned by the Saugrain in the 1720s. Of their African-born slaves, a plurality were from the "Slave Coast" region. 

In 1721, the minor Robert Fleuret's habitation is taken up by commandant Provost, and we see a different list of slaves working the estate. Now the bonded labor is enumerated as 4 Creoles, 7 Aradas, 2 Loango, 3 Ibo, and 1 Mine (Mina). In addition, there were 4 children, making for a total of 21 slaves. This habitation, which must have been managed by someone other than the minor Fleuret, increased its enslaved workforce but retained a plurality of Arada. The increasing Ibo presence is important, however.

Indian Slaves in Early Jacmel (c.1719)

 

Whilst perusing the archive of digitized notarized documents from Saint Domingue, from Jacmel, specifically, we encountered a reference to 2 enslaved Indian women. Fouquet serving as notary, the document indicates the presence of a few "Amerindian" slaves in the Jacmel region during the early 1700s. Sadly, nothing of their origin is indicated, although we assume they may have been from the mainland Spanish colonies or "Caribs" from the Lesser Antilles. They were mentioned in the context of Marie Jeanne Creagh's marriage to Torteau in 1719. Family Search's site is such a treasure...