Marie Pierre Haoussa and Louis Baronnet fils (1792)

 

IC=inconnu

One document we have been thinking about the last few days is a notarized contract from 1792. Establishing a société d'habitation de Marie Pierre Haoussa avec Louis Baronnet fils, the document is interesting for the surname of Marie Pierre: Haoussa. Although most documents in colonial Haiti spell "Hausa" as Aoussa, not Haoussa, we were nonetheless curious about Marie Pierre as a person of possible Hausa extraction. After all, colonial legislation did attempt to push free people to bear African names. Furthermore, people of African origin were sometimes known by a first name and their alleged "nation," too. 

In the case of Marie Pierre Haoussa, however, we could not trace her exact origins. It would appear that she was a free black woman owning land in Aquin, presumably i an area that may be today's la Colline à Mongons. When checking the parish registry, we did come across a Marie Pierre, black Creole, who married her "mulatto" master in 1781. But there is no indication of Marie Pierre's parents' origins in the parish books for Aquin. We were also wondering why she did not use her husband's surname, but he may not have been of legitimate birth either. Either way, Gabriel and this Marie Pierre had a number of children, he married her, and, from what we could gather, the Marie Pierre Haoussa named here could be the same woman.

In terms of her 1792 partnership with a man from Bainet, we were struck by the huge diversity in slaves both brought into their planned coffee farm. Marie Pierre was responsible for bringing 6 slaves, most apparently female. They consist of a mix of Arada, Mandingue, Thiamba, Ibo, Canga and one "nation" we could not decipher in the notary's handwriting (perhaps Aguiam?). Baronnet fils, on the other hand, was responsible for bringing in more slaves who were mostly male. Since the land was apparently held by Marie Pierre Haoussa, he may have been required to supply more of the forced labor. Either way, his enslaved workers were also very diverse in origins. One, whose "nation" looks like Guialuuka, is from a background we could not figure out. But others included Thiamba, Bibi (Ibibio), Biny (possibly Edo, for people from the kingdom of Benin), Congo, Creoles, Ibos, and a Mine. 

Naturally, we will have to conduct further searches in the notarized documents and parish registry to see if we can locate more records of Marie Pierre. But, the fact that she owned land and slaves is consistent with someone who was married to a free "mulatto" landowner for some time in the region. We suspect the "Haoussa" part of her name comes from an African-born father but have to dig deeper into the archives to prove it. 

Jacmel Quartier's Population in 1739

Another feeble attempt at our part of deriving plausible estimates for the "nations" of the Jacmel Quarter in 1739. Using the 1739 Census for Saint-Domingue (available via ANOM), and its total for adult slaves of 3727. Using our own data based on the slave population in Bainet, Jacmel and Cayes de Jacmel for the years 1719-1739, we used the proportion of each "nation" to calculate possible numbers for these nations in 1739. Of course, this is pure speculation on our part. In addition, several nations with only 1 or 2 slaves from our data are likely distorted in our table above. This is especially relevant for nations with tiny numbers or obscure names that may have been reclassified as other "nations" by 1739. One must also keep in mind that the years after 1730 witnessed an increase in coffee plantations in parishes like Bainet, which undoubtedly impacted the enslaved population in that pivotal decade. 

Nonetheless, the projected numbers for 1739 seem to fit general trends. Creoles were the single largest group, and their parents were probably disproportionately from the Bight of Benin and the Senegambian regions. Congos, plus other Central Africans, like Loango and Mondongue, were the next largest group. Yet the Mina, Arada, Nago, Ouida/Judah, and Ibo were a huge part of the adult slave population. One suspects the growth of coffee plantations, plus the more marginal position of these parishes in terms of development and access to slaves, made the planters less picky and willing to purchase whoever they could access via legal and smuggling methods. 

It is also interesting to see the persistence of the "Upper Guinea" populations among the adult slave population. Bambara and Senegal Africans, in our projection, plus Mandingue and maybe the "Mamou" as well, slaves from the Senegambia area and further east were still very much part of th enslaved population. Indeed, one wonders to what extent these Upper Guineans may have been able to relate to adult Creoles with parents from the same region. The "Mamou" may have been from the Mamou or Mamu region of Futa Jallon, in today's Guinea. It is difficult to say with any firm certainty, but Futa Jallon's wars of expansion in the 1720s did generate an increase in captives, who may have been Jallonke and some Fulbe who ended up in Saint-Domingue. Mamou, according to Marty and others, was the name of a river and region not too far from Futa Jallon's capital, Timbo. Timbou, too, could be a reference to Futa Jallon.

Runaway Slaves By Nation in the Jacmel Quartier, 1766-1790

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. 

A Sample of the Jacmel Quarter's Slave "Nations" (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. 

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.