Fishing In Troubled Waters

JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY
TALK IN THE MACMILLAN READING ROOM
“Incendie du Cap. Révolte générale des Nègres. Massacre des Blanca,” Saint-Domingue, ou Histoire de ses révolutions ... , Paris, [1820].
Original in the John Carter Brown Library.
Fishing In Troubled Waters
Glimpses of the Haitian Revolution
in the Brown Family Business Papers
Johnhenry Gonzalez
University of South Florida
Barbara S. Mosbacher Fellow
During the 1790s as the French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue erupted in Revolution, American merchants continued to trade with this colony in turmoil. A handful of remarkable documents scattered among
the papers of Brown, Benson and Ives are of special interest to historians of the Haitian Revolution. In 1793
the Brown ship Morning Sun transported roughly forty displaced Saint-Domingue refugees to Europe. In the
same year the Brown vessel Harmony visited two British-controlled ports in war-torn Saint Domingue. Wary of
French blockades, Brown, Benson, and Ives seem to have declined British invitations to profitably supply their
armies in Saint Domingue. Instead in 1799 they took advantage of resurgent sugar production under Governor
General Toussaint Louverture by mounting several trading voyages to Cap Français. Finally, the Brown business papers include a rare and hitherto-unknown primary account of the August 1791 slave uprising. This brief
but remarkable letter probably represents the jewel of the Haitiana materials in the manuscript collections of
the John Carter Brown Library.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016 ∙ 4:00 p.m.
MacMillan Reading Room, John Carter Brown Library
Talk at 4 p.m., Q & A follows
For more information, call 401-863-2725, or email: [email protected]