Bornoans in Saint Domingue

A map of colonial Haiti (Wikipedia)

We wanted to continue our method by applying it specifically to the "infinitely rare" Borno captives in Saint Domingue. The only detailed source on the Bornoan presence among Saint Domingue's African population comes from the French naturalist Descourtilz, who described those of the Rossignol Desdunes plantation in the Artibonite region. We are only told "plusiers" of this nation were present in the area. Checking the runaway slave ads posted in Saint-Domingue's newspaper only revealed 2 Borno captives, one of whom actually ran away in a group with 3 Hausa males. However, with very rough estimates based on the share of reported Borno maroons, we can perhaps get a clearer picture of their total numbers in the colony.

First, as only 2 out of 12,857 individuals reported in the press as runaways, we know Bornoans only represented about 0.015% of the maroons. If that proportion was similar to their share in the total population, we can estimate a total Bornoan population of about 78 to 124. Since their presence is only attested rather late in the colonial period, we prefer to base the estimate on the slave population in 1789-1791. Using an estimate of about 500,000 for the slave population in 1790 (although Geggus has suggested perhaps as many as 510,000) would mean that perhaps 78 were of the Borno nation. Of this estimate, it is probable that several died during the "seasoning" period of their adjustment to colonial slavery in the Caribbean. However, a total estimate of about 78 (possibly far less due to the paucity of documented Borno maroons) is at least somewhat plausible. After all, if a total of 153,057 slaves in the colony were imported on French ships from the Bight of Benin, 78 would represent less than 1% of that total. It is at least historically plausible that, in the second half of the 18th century, that 0.05% or so of the African captives from the Bight of Benin may have ultimately come from Borno. 

The figure of 78, again, is only a very rough estimate. But it might be consistent with perhaps a handful of large continents of Bornoans being sold to Europeans on the coast. Alternatively, the number could also be the result of small numbers of Borno captives being sold to traders at Porto Novo or Ouidah or Badagry over a long period of time. Once one takes into account the high mortality rate among African slaves, this general estimate of 78 could be significantly reduced to possibly as low as 39 or even fewer Bornoans, split among slaveholders in the Artibonite region and other parts of the colony.

Mozambiques and East Africans in Colonial Haiti

Trying to find details on the "Mozambiques" and East Africans in colonial Haiti is, rather difficult. They were largely imported into the colony during the last 2 decades of colonial rule, often being imported at Le Cap, Saint-Marc, and Port-au-Prince. While Jesuit historian Charlevoix mentioned an early presence of Monomotapa and Madagascar slaves in the colony, they were not considered desirable slaves by the French. However, the development of the Mascarenes and the insatiable need for labor in Saint-Domingue made East Africa and Mozambique a supplier of over 20,000 captives to the colony from 1773 until the 1790s. As the above maroon case indicates, some of these "Mozambiques" had even been enslaved in the Mascarenes for a while, learning French (and presumably, Mauritian Creole?) before being brought to Saint-Domingue. 

Michel, a Macoua (Makua) 

Trying to determine the "nations" of the Mozambiques in Saint-Domingue is difficult. The only two "nations" we have seen explicitly mentioned in the colony are Makua (Macoua, Maquoua) or Maconde (of Tanzania and parts of Mozambique). Despite the appellation, many of the "Mozambiques" came from diverse areas in Southeastern Africa. The Makua may have been a larger proportion of the total, but if the composition of the "Mozambiques" in the Mascarenes is a reliable indication, Saint-Domingue may have included Mondjavoas, Senas, Moussenas, Yambanes, Mouquindos, Maravis, and Niamoeses in addition to Makua and Maconde. This ethnic heterogeneity seems to have been completely lost in the eyes of Saint-Domingue's slaveholders, who should have known the "Mozambiques" were quite different from other Africans yet not a singular group in themselves.

A Mozambique who spoke Portuguese and Spanish

It also appears that some of the "Mozambiques" had spent substantial time in the Portuguese colony or among Lusophones. For instance, the above case of a runaway demonstrates how some "Mozambiques" could speak Portuguese and Spanish. This may explain why some of the "Mozambiques" encountered by Descourtilz were also devout Catholics (in his eyes). They, like some of the "Congo" in Saint-Domingue, were influenced by Roman Catholicism and may have added to the already Christian (or partly Christianized) segment of the enslaved population. Unfortunately, it is difficult to say to what extent these Catholic "Mozambiques" formed a significant part of the "Mozambique" population in Saint-Domingue, but they were conspicuous enough to be noticed by Descourtilz.

4 runaway Makuas. Perhaps the large concentration of "Mozambiques" in some areas favored marronage as they found people from the same or similar ethnolinguistic backgrounds to escape with.

A runaway slave of the Maconde "nation" appears here.

As for East Africans, purchased from Kilwa, Mombasa, Monfiat and Zanzibar, Saint-Domingue received a little over 2000. Vidargent, of the Malingue nation, may be an example of this East African (Tanzanian) presence. The French slave trader, Morice, used the word Malingue to refer to captives purchased from Kilwa. The name may be a corruption of Maningo or Machinga, peoples from the hinterland of Kilwa or the Tanzanian interior. Malingue could also refer to a completely different African "nation" in West or Central Africa, but we thought it interesting that Morice used the same word in the 1770s and an African of that "nation" appeared in the colony around the same time. This presence of captives purchased via the Swahili Coast was on a much smaller scale and, alas, the "nations" of these groups in the colony of Saint-Domingue are not clearly specified or listed in the archive. We know from Moreau de Saint-Mery that captives purchased from Montfiat, Kilwa, and variosu spots on the eastern coast of Africa could be found, including from some closer to the Cape of Good Hope (Natal Africans?). 

Sadly, our only somewhat detailed account of "Mozambiques" in colonial Haiti remains the work of Descourtilz. For example, he conversed with a Mirault who owned many Mozambiques, including one who allegedly consumed human blood. Again, it is via Descourtilz that we learn that some of the Mozambiques were Catholics through Portuguese influence. Even more useful is Descourtilz's brief and problematic description of the "Vaudoux" of the Mozambiques. According to him, their "Vaudoux" practice consisted of imploring their "serpent" or "vaudoux" for the favor of their masters, the acquisition of money, to find love or for other wishes. He even described a Mozambique "Vaudou" reunion which allegedly occurred at the Pelerin habitation in Saint-Louis. According to him, the Mozambiques met in a secret spot and as part of their ritual, a child was beaten or severely injured. Since Descourtilz did not witness some of the things he described, he must be used cautiously here. Nonetheless, we may be reading a very biased, incomplete account of diviners and spiritual practices of southeastern African peoples. 

After Haitian independence, the presence of "Mozambiques" was noted for some time. For example, a colonel named Louis Mosambique was killed by Petion in Saltrou for what may have been an attempted conspiracy or revolt in 1816. In terms of cultural legacy, it's possible their presence in Haiti was comparable to that of Brazil. They came in large numbers, but far smaller than other groups and therefore their cultural impact may be minimal. Instead, they were more likely to become part of the established culture among the enslaved. Nonetheless, it is both fascinating and horrifying to see the links between the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean for the slave trade to the Mascarenes and the Caribbean. 

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. 

Bambara Runaways in Saint-Domingue

 

Samba, runaway "Bambara" in 1767. Samba as first name may be more indicative of a Fula or perhaps other Senegalese origin. Actual "Bambara" origins may be more likely when paired with a description of runaway slaves bearing evidence of facial scarification.

Part of the problem with gathering precise information on "Bambara" captives in Saint-Domingue is that the French themselves didn't seem to know much about them. They appear to have learned that there was indeed a "Bambara" language but runaway ads like the one above express confusion. We suspect "Mandingue" was meant instead of Bambara, particularly since Mandingues and Bambaras spoke related tongues.

Yet another example of the ambiguity of "Bambara" and other nations in Saint-Domingue. If the Tacoua were Nupe, then it seems unlikely for a Nupe person to speak "Bambara." If "Bambara" here is interpreted broadly as a Mande-related language, then it is possible for a Nupe woman to have also spoken or learned a language related to "Bambara." But it raises questions about the accuracy of labels like "Tacoua" and "Bambara" in the colony.

Another example of the ambiguity or perhaps broad meaning of "Bambara" can be seen in the case of a runaway named Fevrier. His nation, Saufo, probably Soso (Susu), a group present in the colony in larger numbers than we think, is described as a "type of Bambara." This suggests any group of peoples speaking languages similar to Bamana and probably non-Muslim could become a "Bambara."

Another ad for a runaway includes someone who spoke both Bambara and Thiamba. If Thiamba referred to the broader cluster of Gur peoples, then it is possible this man spoke Mandingue or Bambara. 

Even free blacks in Saint-Domingue called themselves Bambara. The case of Jacques dit Bambara is an interesting one, since he owned slaves and property near Mirebalais. 

Other "Bambara" runaways appear with Islamic names. Moussa, or Musa, could have been from another of different ethnic groups. We have encountered Bambara runaways with names like Boucary (Bakari) and Mamadoux.

Another ambiguous case involved a Bambara runaway who supposedly spoke Nago (Yoruba). If accurate, this is rather remarkable unless the "Bambara" maybe learned Nago in Saint-Domingue? The runaway ads also include one for a Bambara who spoke Mine, which is a bit more plausible.

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. 

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.

Joseph-François-de-Sales comte d'Oulry Ingrandes

While perusing Moreau de Saint-Méry's vast encyclopedia, we came across reference to yet another colon who wrote about the island's indigenous peoples. In this case, Joseph-François-de-Sales comte d'Oulry Ingrandes, is said to have composed a mémoires sur les coutumes et les cultes des naturels de Saint-Domingue that may have been lost. This author was also also affiliated with the Cercle des Philadelphes in the colony, and presumably followed and contributed to that scholarly organization's research and collection of indigenous antiquities. What surprised us, however, was this man's marriage to Anne-Barbe Buttet. Anne-Barbe Buttet, daughter of Louis-Marin Buttet, was a cousin of a mixed-race woman who married a Cangé and lived in the Bainet-Jacmel area in the 18th century. Saint-Domingue truly was a small world...

Bainet Origins with Ancestry DNA Estimates

Our Haitian parent took a DNA test via Ancestry recently. A native of Bainet, we find their results to be what one might expect of an average Haitian person: mainly sub-Saharan African in origin (and a mix of various parts of West Africa and West Central Africa) and some European ancestry (mainly French). None of this is too surprising, and we always knew our mother's family had some European ancestry. However, we believe she was trying to find more precise data on her African ancestry. Unfortunately, the algorithm and samples used by Ancestry appear to be rather limited on details or precision when it comes to sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, we see results broken down by nation without any additional breakdown on specific ethnic groups within these occasionally vast or large nations & regions. For instance, what does it mean to be 25% Nigerian, like our parent? Nigeria is a large country with dozens of ethnic groups. We know some of the modern-day populations of Nigeria were enslaved in Saint Domingue, like the Yoruba, Nupe, Hausa and Ibo, but this genetic ancestry estimate only confirms that broadly. Nonetheless, as the amateur, self-proclaimed genealogist, I shall endeavor to connect her results with my previous feeble attempts at tracing our roots in the context of Bainet and Haitian history.

First, the easy part. The 11% European ancestry, only designated as 5% French. We believe there must be issues or occasional problems with the algorithm for detecting French ancestry. Or, alternatively, one of our very distant forebears may have been of Spanish or Iberian origin and took a French name upon arrival in Saint Domingue. As for Wales and Scotland, these are perhaps misread for French ancestry or, perhaps, a remnant of a Scottish family that lived in Bainet in the 1700s. We refer, of course, to the MacGill family of colonial Bainet. The first of that name in Bainet appears to have been a Michel MacGille, who died in 1750. ANOM, which has digitized the parish books of Baynet, has Michel MacGille listed as a native of Montserrat (?), indicating that he may have been from the British isles but resident in the Antilles before relocating to Bainet. Perhaps the Welsh and Scottish ancestry indicated in the Ancestry DNA estimate is also from this man, who could have raped an enslaved woman like so many planters and colons in the Antilles. Overall, the European ancestry is likely from France, and inherited from free people of color, including families we have ranted about previously at this blog. 

The African origins, the fun part, is, sadly, the most difficult to make sense of. Overall, our parent is mainly West African rather than Central African. However, this West African ancestry is rather well-distributed across that vast region. Although Senegal is represented at 3% (perhaps a sign of distant Wolof ancestry, although "Senegalois" were not always defined as such in the records of Saint Domingue, Mali (18%) is rather high. While this is a problematic category and lacks ethnic breakdowns, we assume this "Mali" ancestry in Bainet is likely traceable to the Bambara and Mandingue populations. We know Bambara were a sizable minority of the enslaved population in 18th century Bainet. Mandingue and other related peoples were also present in Saint Domingue, some of whom were actually Muslims. The rather high Mali results obtained here may be a sign of an important concentration of Bambara and Mandingue peoples in Bainet or its environs in the 18th century.

How to interpret the Ghana & Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Benin & Togo results is also difficult. We know from French records that Cotocoli, Mina, Hausa, Borno, Nupe, Ibo, Fon, Arada, Thiamba, Ouidah, Dahomey, and Nago were exported to Saint Domingue. Again, the lack of precise breakdowns of the African DNA results means we cannot go much further than this. We can hypothesize a general descent from all or some of these aforementioned groups in Bainet. Likewise, the 14% Cameroon, Congo and Western Bantu Peoples is probably indicating some degree of "Congo" ancestry, and we know the "Congos" were numerous in Saint-Domingue. Nigeria, an enormous nation of rich ethnic diversity, included Yoruba, Hausa, Ibo, Fulani, Borno (Kanuri?), Nupe and others sold into slavery. That rich ethnic diversity in Bainet may have included a demographically important Ibo component, as Ibos were present in Bainet. Indeed, Geggus's research on the French slave trade found a significant number of captives brought to the South of the colony were from the Bight of Biafra, which would have included Ibos. 

Intriguingly, our parent is overwhelmingly of West African origin rather than Central African, which we interpret as possibly being evidence of a deeper ancestry among Creole slaves. Our thinking here is that the already demographically significant Creole slave population had less Central African ancestry by the late 1700s, and this group appears to have been the majority on some plantations in Bainet. Indeed, looking at some data on the Saugrain plantation in 1720, one finds that Creole slaves were already the largest group. The other Africans were mainly West Africans, with areas of the Slave Coast and Gold Coast represented among the bossales and a mix of other Africans from Senegal and Central Africa. By the late 18th century, Creoles appear to have outnumbered the other slaves owned by at least one Perronneau in the 1790s and on two indigoteries studied by Siguret. The enslaved workforce of Bainet appears to have been largely Creole, with significant Ibo and Congo presence. 

Of course, the above is just speculation based on limited data. Sex ratios, plantation inventories, and more precise data on the growth of the slave population in Bainet is required. However, we find our results to be generally in concordance with that of a summary of 45 Haitian Ancestry DNA results analyzed here. The main difference is that our parent had far less Central African ancestry and more Mali. We would love to see more data from Bainet and people with Bainet origins to see if this pattern is generally true in our region. As for the "hacked" results, they reveal trace amounts of Khoisan, Aka, Mbuti and Indigenous Americas ancestry. Presumably, because the results are less than 0.5%, Ancestry did not include them into their Ethnicity breakdown. We assume Indigenous Americas is probably Taino of some sort or another. 

Saugrain Habitation in Bainet (Anse à Canot)

The Saugrain habitation in early 18th century Bainet is actually one of the indigoteries for which we have some data on its enslaved workforce. Much of our interest in the Saugrain comes from Alexis Saugrain, the son of Francois Saugrain and a woman named Barbe. Alexis, Charles, and Francois were the sons of these two and all three appear to have been born in Saint-Domingue (in Grand-Goave). Their father, who remarried a few years before his demise, expired in 1719. Their father was presumably from Normandy, as the Jacmel parish registers indicate in his marriage to a Marguerite Francq. The parents of Alexis and his brothers appear in the 1735 testament of Francois Saugrain, naming Alexis as his heir. Charles Saugrain also gave some of his property (including 3 slaves) to Alexis in that same year...

Alexis Saugrain's brother's testament from 1735 names their parents. Yes, I know...3 different generations of men named Francois Saugrain. Alexis had a brother named Francois, father called Francois, and a grandfather named Francois...

In 1720, the property of the Saugrain habitation was listed and can be found on among the Saint-Domingue Notariat from Jacmel in the 1720s. Luckily, FamilySearch's website included it among their limited Saint-Domingue Notariat records. We have produced a crude table illustrating the enslaved population by its "national" origins. The Creole predominance this early in a Bainet plantation is a little striking.

Nation		Quantity
Arada		5
Creole		20
Senegalois		1
Minne (Mine)		4
Nago		1
Mamou		3
Mondongue		1
Loango		1
Samba?		1
Adouri?		1
Jouda		1
Oueda		1

From 1703, when the Saugrain household only included 8 slaves in the census, their habitation increased to 40 enslaved laborers by 1720. Half of their human "property" consisted of Creoles, mostly children and born in the colony. Suzanne, the woman we suspect to be the same slave of the Saugrain who gave birth to a daughter who married a Gory in 1738, was the only Creole born outside of Saint-Domingue. The other notable feature of the data is the weak presence of Central Africans. The ubiquitous "Congos" are only represented by 2 Central Africans, 1 Mondongue and 1 person who probably came from or via Loango. The Senegalois presence is also limited, despite the Senegambia region probably providing a more sizable portion of Saint-Domingue's slave population than in later decades.

Thanks to ANOM, we know Francois Saugrain married a Marguerite Francq in 1717, whose father was from Jamaica. Baptisms recorded for other children of Jean Francq refer to him as a slave of Francois Saugrain...

In this sample, clearly the Slave Coast and Gold Coast were the major sources of Africans. The Minne or Mine represented 10 percent of the total. If one combines Arada, Jouda, Nago, and Oueda, then 20 percent came via the Slave Coast. Allada, once the dominant kingdom in today's Benin, claimed suzerainty over Ouidah during the period before 1720 and powerful Oyo to the north also contributed to the provision of captives through its slave trade. Of the African-born population on the plantation, 40 percent appear to have been from the Slave Coast. If the identification of the ambiguous "nations" could be confidently asserted, then the Slave Coast proportion might have been even higher. Unfortunately, we have no idea what to make of the Mamou, Samba (?) and the other unknown nation. Google searching brings up a Mamou in Guinea, which probably isn't what we are looking for. The other 2 are unknown to us and Debien has not provided any clues. It is interesting to note that none of the adult males were Creoles. Supposedly the Saugrain did own an adult Creole a few years before 1720, a native of Jamaica named Jean Francq. But he must have been freed since his children were freed by the Saugrain. 

We cannot decipher the "nation" or ethnic background of Andre.

Naturally, we cannot ascertain how representative the Saugrain habitation was for Bainet or Jacmel in the 1720s. Indigo plantations must have differed from other types, and we know the Compagnie de Saint-Domingue was still the main (legal) source of slaves. Perhaps smuggling (such as a slave from Jamaica and a slave from Curacao) provided much of the laborers? We would have to find inventories, deeds, and testaments for other parts of Bainet or Jacmel for a more representative sample of Bainet's African population in the early 1700s. Yet it is still interesting to know what one early Bainet plantation looked like and the world one of our (probable) enslaved ancestors experienced. 

Pierre Celin dit Cangé

The signature of Jean Pierre Cangé appears here, when he became the godfather to a Jean Joseph Stanislas in 1781. 

What makes trying to piece together the origins of the Cangé in the 18th century so difficult is their large numbers and the repetition of the same names (Jean, Pierre, etc.). One glaring example is the appearance of at least two people with Pierre Celin as part of their full name. Both were supposedly the sons of Jean Cangé and Marguerite Butet, but they married different women and were not the same person. Our tentative reconstruction of our great-great-grandmother's father's family assumes descent from one of them, the younger one not born in 1729. 

In 1755, Pierre Louis Celin Cangé married Marie Therese Petit.

Our Cangé ancestry appears to derive from the Pierre Celin dit Cangé, who was the father of Jean Pierre, baptized in 1760. That Jean Pierre went on to marry a Saugrain and became the father of Jean Charles, the man we suspect was the grandfather of our great-great-grandmother. From what I could gather, the Pierre Louis Cangé who married Marie Therese Petit (the woman whose family suddenly became "Indians" later in the 18th century) was actually the father of the general who went on to fight at the Battle of Savannah and became a general during the Haitian Revolution. That Pierre Cangé later fell in disgrace after the 1805 Santo Domingo campaign and was killed by order of Henri Christophe in 1806, according to Histoire de Toussaint Louverture by Pauléus Sannon.

So, there appear to have been two men brothers named Pierre, children of the free people of color Marguerite Butet and Jean Cangé. Pierre Celin dit Cangé had a number of children with a Françoise or Marie Françoise Geoffroi or Geffroy, before he married her in 1770. The other one, Pierre Louis Celin, married a Petit and sired a number of children. If our theory is correct, our great-great-grandmother was a descendant of the Pierre Celin dit Cangé. As mentioned in our previous speculative posts about her origins, we are still lacking a birth record for her father and would like some information on her Alexandre mother. However, it does seem likely that her father was a descendant of the Jean Charles born in the 1780s. We also know that Jean Pierre Cangé was still living in the Valley of Bainet in the 1790s, and it is likely that his son remained in the same area. Unfortunately, we still couldn't identify any of the African-born forebears of these free people of color or figure out the origins of the Geoffroy before Pierre Geoffroy.

Pitiot

Another family related to the Bainet Gory in the 18th century was the Pitiot. A swift perusal of ANOM's Bainet materials revealed that the first Pitiot in Bainet, Jean, was a native of Port de Paix who died in 1761. His son, a "grif" named Michel, married Marie Victoire Gory. Their child, Jean Joseph Pitiot, was baptized in 1781 and had the same godfather as our Anne Marie Joseph Gory. 

Marie Victoire Gory, the mother of Jean Joseph Pitiot, was also the godmother of Victoire Suzanne Monteise, the woman who appears to have been the mother of Anne Marie Joseph. Unsurprisingly, in a small place like Bainet, along the L'Islet River, every knew each other and those from the same family likely lived on the same habitation or nearby. The Pitiot connection surprised us in that Jean Pitiot came to Bainet from Port de Paix, on the other side of the colony. 

Drouillac Hunting

Our current theory assumes this Françoise Drouillac, who passed away in 1761 in Leogane, was the mother of Marie Françoise Paponet, who married Joseph Gory in 1771.

As part of our quest to trace the origins of the forebears of Anne Marie Joseph Gory in our tentative family tree, we decided to attempt to tackle the issue of the Drouillac. According to our theory, Anne Marie Joseph's father was the grandson of a Paponet who married Joseph Gory. Her mother, a Drouillac of Leogane, appears to have died in 1761 and was presumably born in the early 1720s or late 1710s. Paponet had a son from a previous relationship who married Agathe Gory. The product of that union, a Joseph baptized in 1776, seems like the best candidate for Anne Marie Joseph's father. Even if we are wrong, at least we are further establishing the familial network of the Bainet Gory in 18th century Saint-Domingue.

The 1771 marriage entry for Joseph Gory and Paponet appears to indicate that Françoise Drouillac was deceased, which supports the idea she was the Drouillac who died in 1761. 

So, who were the Drouillac? Another round of searching Leogane entries of baptisms, marriages and deaths via ANOM's site helped to partly address the question. We found a few individuals who were likely siblings of Françoise, including a Pierre, Ignace, and François. Although I am not sure all had the same mother, they appear to share a Gilles Drouillac as their father. Assuming they were all born in the 1710s and 1720s, we assume Gilles Drouillac was probably born in the late 17th century and was a "mulatto" scion of a Drouillac and a black woman we could not locate. 

Ignace Douillac, who died in 1744, was the son of a Gilles and a woman named Marie Therese. We assume Ignace was a sibling of our Françoise.

What helped make things easier is the number of children Pierre and François had. The baptismal entry for the daughter of the latter, Rose Victoire, actually named Gilles Dujacq (Gilles Drouillac) as the godfather. Interestingly, François was named as a free black, perhaps because he was a dark-skinned grif son of a "mulatto" and a "black" woman? Elsewhere we have noticed the shifting color or racial terms used to describe the population of Saint-Domingue, so we assume the parish priests just recorded what they thought as more accurate "racial" category for nonwhites (or, in some cases, chose to omit any mention of their racial origin). 

We also have established by 1752, Gilles Drouillac resided in Grand-Goave. Assuming Marie Therese was the mother of all (or most) of his children, including Françoise Drouillac, we can probably infer that she was a "griffe" born sometime in the early 1720s or late 1710s. She actually appeared as the godmother to the child of Pierre  in 1743. So we know at least a few things about her origins and her parentage. The Drouillac were still around in the late colonial era in Grand-Goave, too. A Marcel Drouillac, son of a later Gilles Drouillac married in 1794. We assume his father was the Gilles baptized in 1756, a son of Pierre Drouillac. 

A daughter of Pierre Douillac (Drouillac) and Marie Rose was baptized in 1743. Her godmother was Françoise and the child actually bore the same name as Françoise's daughter.

The harder, more time-consuming task that remains is to search for Gilles and Marie Therese early on in Leogane. Who knows, perhaps that could contain a reference to an African-born person or lead to a revelation about other possible Drouillac-Gory connections. We just wish Drouillac had a consistent spelling so we don't have to search for Douillac, Douliac, Dujac, Dujacq, and Drouillac. Alas, we still have to identify the Paponet father of Marie Françoise and the father of her son. That would require a trip to Grand Anse and a more thorough search of the voluminous Leogane parish register.

Marillac Origins

Although we are not descendants of the Marillac (the paper trail is insufficient to establish it), we thought it would be worthwhile to trace the origins of Anne Marie Joseph Gory's godfather. We already discovered that he married what appears to have been the sister of Anne's mother. Moreover, both Marillac and Anne Marie Joseph appear to have been descendants of a woman enslaved by the Saugrain in the 1720s, Susanne. What about the Marillac name, and that part of his past?

A quick perusal of the Marillac of Jacmel and Bainet via ANOM clarified a lot. The first Marillac, or Marillan (?) in Jacmel was a native of Agen, Jean Marillac de Monplesy. He married a Marie Elisabeth Marin of Martinique in 1722. We assume his wife was a woman of color (this remains to be determined), and their children then married or had children with other free people of color. One of their children, Jean Baptiste, was born in 1728, or so. That Jean Baptiste was, in turn, the father of the Jean Baptiste Marillac who married a Marie Louise Monteise (Gory). 

The mother of the Marillac who was closely connected to the Gory was a Saugrain (Sougrain), Marie Barbe. She was, from what we could gather, one of two twins born to an enslaved woman of the Saugrains, Susanne. Baptized in 1725 and declared free, she went on to have Jean Baptiste Marillac in late 1757 or early 1758 with the senior Jean Baptiste. 

Jean Baptiste Marillac, fils in this case, had a Bainet Saugrain (probably also a daughter of Susanne) as his godmother in 1758. This explains how he was related to several of the Gory. Then to further link the Marillac and Gory, he went and married Marie Louise Monteise (or Montes), the daughter of a Frenchman and a Gory. Our theory is that his wife was the sister of Anne Marie Joseph's mother, Victoire Susanne (named after their enslaved ancestor?). 

We know of one other child by the first, white, Marillac. His daughter, Magdeleine, was baptized in 1732 in Jacmel. She had an illegitimate child baptized in 1753, Marie Magdeleine. This daughter, Marie Magdeleine, appears to have been the mother of a child with a Louis Saugrain (or Sougrain, the name was spelled differently from the original), Marie Louise. This daughter, Marie Louise, married Jean-Pierre Cangé. In short, all these families were marrying or having children with the same few families of similar status (no surprise), and in some cases marrying cousins.