Chicago’S Authentic Founder: Jean Baptiste Point Dusable or Haitian Secret Agent in the Old Northwest Outpost 1745-1818

Copyright 2015 Marc O. Rosier.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-2653-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-2654-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-2652-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014901816

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter I:   A Speck from the Columbian Storm

Rivalry in Hispaniola

Haiti in the Eighteenth Century

The City of Saint-Marc, DuSable’s Traditional Birthplace

Chapter II:   Coming and Going in the Empire

The Saint-Domingue–New Orleans Line

DuSable in New Orleans

To the Old Northwest by Boats

To the Old Northwest by Overland Roads

Chapter III:   The Question of Origin

The Canada–Detroit Theory

The Ex-Slave Theory

Proposal to Free Negroes

The Out of Haiti Tradition

Chapter IV:   DuSable Emerges from the Two Lands

DuSable in the Land West of the Mississippi under the Spanish

Letter of the Louisiana Cession

The Land East of the Mississippi under the English

Chapter V:   Onward to Peoria

Peoria Landowner

Chapter VI:   The Seed of Departure

The Invasion and Occupation of Illinois

Illinois: A Dependency of the Commonwealth of Virginia

DuSable Leaves Peoria

Fall of the Virginian Empire

Chapter VII:   DuSable Enters the Land of the Potawatomi

The Host Nation

Chicago’s First Family

Chapter VIII:   DuSable Founded Modern Chicago

Where Was Chicago?

What of the Name Chicago?

Where Were They Who Loved Chicago?

Chapter IX:   Assessing the Need

Chicago’s First Modern Business

The Structure of DuSable’s Lakefront Operation

Chapter X:   The Northwest in the Balance

Gathering War Cloud over the Chicago River

At Home in River du Chemin

The Arrest

The Case against DuSable

Probing Cooperation

Chapter XI:   In the Hands of Commandants and Chiefs

Detroit and Michilimackinac

Power of the Commandant

Upper Canada under Simcoe

The Demand of Maskeash

The Black Chief

Shaping the Destiny of the Midwest

Chapter XII:   Fleeing the Harvest

By Crooks or by Hooks

Building of Fort Dearborn

Slavery in Chicago after DuSable

The Killing of Jean La Lime, DuSable’s Buyer

The Burning of Fort Dearborn and the Killing of Its Residents

The Mysterious Death of Francis May

Chapter XIII:   St. Charles, Missouri

Home Away from Home, DuSable in St. Charles, Missouri

Land Grants in Peoria

The Instrumentality of the Law

Chapter XIV:   Enemies, Friends, and Colleagues:

The DuSable Circle

Chapter XV:   Haiti as the Continental Lighthouse

Haitians and the US War of Independence

After the Bois Caiman Ceremony

Toussaint L’ouverture, Guarantor of the US Trading

Success in Haiti

Supplying Bolivar’s War Machine

for South American Independence

The Dominican Republic

Mexico

Helping Cuba

Helping Europe: France and Greece

Helping Blacks in the United States: Illinois

Chapter XVI:   Retaliation of the Colonial Powers

and the Forces of Slavery

Thomas Jefferson

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Invasion of Haiti to Enslave the Blacks

The Haitian Opposition: Toussaint, Dessalines, Christophe, Lamartiniere, Maurepas

The Armistice

The Betrayal of Toussaint: Execution of Haitians

A United Haiti Defeats the Expeditionary Forces of Napoleon

Dessalines’s Address

Chapter XVII:   The Empire Builders

Unlikely Beneficiary of the Haitian Revolutionary War

Benjamin Franklin and the King of France

The Knight Strike: The Jefferson Embargo on Haiti

The French Indemnity

The American Seizure of Haitian Fertilizer-Rich

Island of La Navase

Spanish Aggression

German Aggression

The American Seizure of Haitian Gold Reserve,

Invasion, and Occupation

A Pattern of Political Instability, Exploitation, and Plunder

Minoterie D’Haiti

Tele Haiti

Ciment D’Haiti

Labadee: The Raw Deal

Déjà Vu

Chapter XVIII:   The Campaign for Disinheriting DuSable

Juliette Kinzie: Dutiful Daughter-in-Law

Juliette Kinzie: Dutiful Daughter-in-Law

The Feared Ambassador

Chicago: A Haitian Colony?

We Don’t Need No Prince of Peace

Chapter XIX:   Conclusion

The DuSable Legacy

Selected Bibliography

Appendix A: Aux Habitans D’haïti.

In loving memory of my mother, Jeannette Rosier, and my father, Santhomas Rosier.

Introduction

Jean Baptiste Point DuSable arrived in the Northwest¹ during the enforcement phase of the Treaty of Paris² that ended the Seven Years’ War of 1754–1763 between France and England. After losing the war, France turned over much of its territory to the victor, Great Britain, and to France’s ally, Spain. Two of the biggest chunks of territories ceded were Canada and the Northwest. By the terms of the treaty, England took Canada and all the land east of the Mississippi. A secret arrangement between the king of France and the king of Spain in 1762, prior to the treaty allowed the land west of the Mississippi to go to Spain.³ DuSable’s point of entry into the region—New Orleans, Louisiana, and his areas of settlement in St. Louis, St. Charles, and other locations in the company of his friend and associate Jacques Clamorgan—placed him in Spanish territory west of the Mississippi. His movement in Peoria, Cahokia, River du Chemin, Chicago, Michilimackinac, Pine River, and Fallen Timber, on the other hand, placed him in British territory east of the Mississippi, in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.

If Jean Baptiste Point DuSable was born in Haiti⁴, as tradition holds, his appearance in the Northwest region coincided with the turbulent period of territorial transfer and demographic shift that sent the disillusioned French across the Mississippi into Spanish territory in St. Louis, Missouri, or New Orleans, Louisiana. The march to join Pierre Laclède⁵ in building a new colony for the French in St. Louis and to flee the occupying British forces forced families and friends to go in different directions. His search for black relatives who might have been among the old pioneer Haitian slaves brought in the region by Crozat and Renault⁶ to work the lead mines had to have been a frustrating one at the moment. The search would have yielded very little benefit since most of the old French villages on the Mississippi had been almost completely depopulated. He might have had a slight edge if he was born in one of the old French villages to a descendant or survivor of Crozat’s or Renault’s old pioneer slaves.

Knowing the terrain would have increased his chances of finding relatives and friends in a relatively shorter period of time than the months and years it might have taken otherwise.

None of the potentially inhibiting circumstances—disconnected from relatives and friends—seem to have dampened his determination. He first surfaced in the historical records a landowner. He purchased a lot from Jean Baptiste Maillet near the old French fort in Peoria, Illinois, in 1773; here he lived in a home that he built and in which he raised a family. He farmed or put part of the land in productive use.⁷

As soon as DuSable had made these adjustments and learned to navigate between the Spanish and British forces on either side of the Mississippi, a third contender, the Virginians or Americans, led by George Rogers Clark and Clark’s men, appeared on the scene and conquered the French villages in Illinois from the British in 1778.⁸ French Peoria, one of the conquered villages, was no longer suitable for the peace-loving DuSable to transact business and raise a family. He fled to Chicago and opened a trading post here. British agents, officers, and commanders, like Thomas Bennett and Arent Schuyler DePeyster, readily recognized and associated him with Chicago.⁹ Trader Hugh Heward visited his establishment.

His neutrality came under suspicion because of his extensive trading in the American-controlled areas in Illinois and his possible contacts with Clark’s men.¹⁰ Even though Pierre Durand, a British agent, had entrusted significant loads of goods in DuSable’s care, the British promptly arrested DuSable in River du Chemin in 1779 and seized Durand’s goods.¹¹

After an entire year of incarceration at the British fort in Michilimackinac, three bands of the Chippewa Indians and their chief Maskeash descended on the fort, where Lieutenant Commander Patrick Sinclair was in command. They demanded DuSable’s immediate release and appointment, in place of Francis dit Balancour, as manager at the British supply depot near the Pine River in Michigan.¹² Subsequent appearances with the Indians, especially the Potawatomi and their allies, placed him at the helm of some of the Fire Nation’s bands.¹³

Upon resigning his commission at the British government warehouse in Michigan, he returned to Chicago to be with his family: Katherine, his Potawatomi wife, and his two children, Susanne and Jean Jr.¹⁴ His continuous residency in the village lakefront allowed him time to expand the trading post. He added a bakery, a smokehouse, poultry, a henhouse, and other buildings that held dozens of bulls, cows, and other horned animals. A significant number of tools for the barn and classic furniture for his residence show that, in addition to being a wealthy settler and pioneer, he was a visionary and a developer.¹⁵ The ongoing war among the contending sides—the British, Americans, and Indians—sometimes compelled his presence. After Anthony Wayne had defeated the Indians in 1794 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, DuSable appeared with the Indians of St. Joseph, Michigan, to help them plead their case. While his counsel might have spared some lives, seeing that the Indian cornfields had been torched and their villages destroyed, he could not prevail upon General Wayne to withdraw the ruinous land concession demanded. The American general was adamant. He treated the Indians like the defeated foes that they were and forced them to make their mark on the Greenville Treaty, ceding to the United States significant land concessions. Wayne required the Indians to cede millions of acres in various states to the United States. DuSable’s own lots near Peoria’s old fort and Chicago’s lakefront lay in the path of the expanding America. By the time the American Congress divided the Northwest into territories such as Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan,¹⁶ DuSable was now sure that he could not save the Potawatomi or Chicago. He allowed himself to be convinced by self-serving colleagues, liquidated the prosperous business he had built (selling it for a token sum to Jean La Lime) and moved to St. Charles, Missouri.

His return to Missouri might have been a way to reconnect with the other, perhaps older, side of his relations in the Mississippi basin, resuming the cultivation of relation with family and friends. His relationships with influential men like the Chouteaus and the Clamorgans had to inspire him, even if it was too late for him to capitalize on any opportunity they might be able to afford him at this point. He enjoyed public respect in St. Charles, St. Louis, and surrounding communities. The amount of his real estate portfolio in St. Charles shows that he did not intend to fully retire upon leaving Chicago.

While in St. Charles another opportunity came to increase his realestate holding. Because he had built a house and made other improvement in the village of Peoria in the 1770s, he was qualified to receive a land grant of 800 acres from the US government. By 1815 when this decision was issued, his enthusiasm had dwindled, and the grant was swept away in the speculative avalanche that favored the aggressive speculators of the time. It was not enough that he had the means to wait for more favorable land prices; lack of interest made immediate liquidation a more desirable option. Unfortunately, the serenity he sought was frequently interrupted by pestering litigation, petit court trials, and, he was often held liable for small sums that finally landed him in a debtor’s jail. Neither event, however, deprived him of all his properties. He was able, in the end, to transfer a house and other material possessions to Eulalie Barada, while securing from her a commitment that she would see to his need and eventual burial in the Boromeo Church cemetery in St. Charles, Missouri.

Soon after his departure from Chicago, the American government took possession of the thirty-six-mile lakefront tract that General Anthony Wayne had taken from the Indians when the Greenville Treaty was drafted back in 1795. Fort Dearborn, Chicago’s first police department, was erected in 1803–1804 directly across the river from DuSable’s former trading post, now the home of John Kinzie. Kinzie killed Jean La Lime, the French man who William Benett and John Kinzie had chosen to play the role of purchaser and to whom DuSable had sold the entire lakefront estate. In the same year of La Lime’s murder, 1812, the Potawatomi killed most of the fort’s residents and burned it down. The Indians spared Kinzie and his family. After the fort was rebuilt in 1816, Kinzie and others returned to the village. More treaties were drafted to remove the Indians from Chicago completely. With the Indians out of the way, easterners and others poured into Chicago.

With the newcomers came the family historian, Kinzie’s daughter-in-law, Juliette Magill Kinzie. She was the wife of John Harris Kinzie, one of Kinzie Sr.’s sons who grew up in DuSable’s former property across the river, a stone’s throw from Fort Dearborn. She arrived in Chicago after her father-in-law’s death, but she used information from her mother-in-law (Kinzie’s widow), family letters, business transaction records, personal experiences, and the recollections of allies and friends to re-create a Chicago that was founded and led by John Kinzie until his death in 1828.

In the process of laying the foundation to make a case as to why Kinzie was the natural founder of the city, pertinent information that only DuSable himself, during his long dealing with Kinzie could have revealed, leaked out that a black settler named Jean Baptiste Point DuSable from Haiti or the French colony of Saint-Domingue had lived among the Indians and had made improvement in Chicago.¹⁷ This reluctant acknowledgment was nearly wiped out when J. Kinzie portrayed DuSable as a foreigner who much abused his host’s hospitality by meddling in internal political affairs of the Potawatomi to further his own ambition. She claimed the Potawatomi finally caught on when DuSable asked to be made head chief among them and unanimously rejected him. Without the authority to harness the military might of the Indians, his trading monopoly in Chicago was worthless to him; he needed to have control over both for his plan to succeed. Tormented by the rejection, he broke up relation with the Potawatomi in a fit of anger and left Chicago.

The historical records prove Juliette Kinzie wrong about DuSable’s relation with the Potawatomi. DuSable’s partnership with the Potawatomi was such that a core of native supporters claimed him as their leader and rallied behind him in the region; their support allowed him to discharge all the duties incumbent upon the office, even though his formal installation as Potawatomi chief was long delayed and ultimately canceled for unrelated reasons prior to his departure from Chicago in 1800.

He maintained his friendship with Jacques Clamorgan, a land speculator who held a Spanish commission in the Louisiana Territory, specifically in Missouri and the uncharted land of the Mandan and Osage Indians along the Missouri River and beyond.¹⁸

John Wentworth, another Chicago resident from the East, was a congressman, owner of one of the city’s newspapers, mayor of Chicago, and historian. He elaborated on DuSable’s settlement in Chicago beyond Juliette Kinzie’s revelation without submitting in evidence any proof, creating suspicion that his tenure in Congress may have exposed him to facts, figures, and other classified information to which other historians were not privy. Moreover, the unparalleled bias he propagated against DuSable in his capacity at the time again placed DuSable on the outer fringes of western civilization.

Historical development in Haiti, DuSable’s place of origin, made DuSable unfit for recognition as founder and incapable of making Chicago a place where black and white people could coexist. This time, the appeal targeted a different reaction. It took Wentworth’s listeners to the brink of racial despair, supposedly subjugated by an oppressive black majority. The bloody Haitian Revolution that ended slavery on the island and subsequent Haitian sponsorship of abolitionist endeavors to bring about the end of the importation of Africans into the Americas and the end of the slave system angered a huge percentage of Americans, from Thomas Jefferson to the present. More vexing still to white slaveholders and their allies were Haiti’s aggressively ambitious black restoration and repatriation programs.

DuSable’s motives were immediately linked to the ephemeral process of the Haitian Revolution. Had DuSable’s petition to the Potawatomi council to be graced with the cloak of the chieftaincy been successful, Wentworth declared, DuSable would have made Chicago a Haitian colony in which black would rule white.¹⁹

CHAPTER I

A Speck from the Columbian Storm

Christopher Columbus’s audacious voyage of conquest to the New World and subsequent Spanish plunder of the continent’s gold generated intense protest by the Portuguese and inflamed the jealousy of several other European countries.²⁰ Many of those powers—Italian city-states, France, and England—had failed to sponsor the now very lucrative adventure, a rejection they came to regret. Indeed, since the early 1430s the Portuguese had reached the outskirts of Africa. Within less than two decades hence, the West and East African trading networks had been disrupted and taken over by Portuguese merchants.²¹ In light of Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage to the Americas, a second papal bull became necessary. Portugal pursued the papal decree without delay in order to force Spain to respect previous agreements reached regarding Portugal’s right of ownership over lands south of Cape Bojador.²² This avenue was to be Portugal’s only hope of curtailing Spain’s giant gains, as announced by Columbus. Pope Alexander, himself a Spaniard, attempted to settle the dispute between Spain and Portugal by dividing the pagan world into two spheres of occupation. Portugal was to take all lands east of the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands, and Spain all lands to the west.²³ In the compromise that followed the pope’s judicious intervention, Spain ceded Brazil to Portugal.

This arbitrary division, however, was not applauded by all the other candidates who, in search of trading opportunities and raw materials, such as Spain enjoyed, had invested resources during these daring voyages of discovery. Had those been the only two contenders and coveters of the wealth of the nations and tribal lands in Asia, Africa, Australia, and the New World, the issue would probably have been resolved in the sixteenth century. Many future conflicts that were to follow, resulting in the deaths of millions of indigenous peoples, would have been averted. That was not the case. Britain, France, Holland, and Russia, to name a few, took their cases to the seas, seeking redress in the traditional way—war. The warrior people were not prepared to leave their futures up to chance, or in the hand of a universally benevolent arbiter, no matter their confession to the contrary: Most Christian, defender of the faith or holy Emperors, as their sublime titles may indicate. In matters of warfare their God deferred to them. Never again would there be peace on earth. The strength of their arms represented a more dependable guarantee, one that would—at least, if all else failed—secure for them a say in how their collective future as nations and realms would be shaped.²⁴ Indeed, aloofness while one power grabbed the entire wealth of a whole continent would have dire consequences—a lesson many nations and peoples around the world have learned only too late to have averted the most egregious inhumanity ever visited on earth.

Rivalry in Hispaniola

Spain’s wish to be left alone to enjoy the loot her conquest of the American Indians had brought her was not to be honored. On the contrary, her hold on the western hemisphere invited hostility from all European rivals, countries that wanted the harvest of gold Spain now enjoyed. One way to wrestle the wealth from Spain was to set up pirate colonies in the new world from which to launch expeditions against Spanish fleet carrying ready wealth from the rich American colonies. Queen Elizabeth of England dispatched Francis Drake, her most lethal weapon, against Spain’s interests in the Americas. Drake cruised the high seas, capturing Spanish ships and colonies. St. Domingo, St. Jago, and Carthagena, among other Spanish possessions in the Americas, were seized. By the time Spain ransomed the islands, the English had destroyed the infrastructure. The chaos that ensued left the islands wide open to those unwanted elements—the undesirable pirates.²⁵ French filibusters infested the length and breadth of the American seas and oceans, pillaging Spanish ships. P. Pierre-Francois Xavier de Charlevoix was a French Jesuit traveler and historian of the French Empire. He wrote that the very name filibusters or freebooters smacked terror in the heart of Spanish residents in the Americas.²⁶ The French pirates normally attacked ships leaving America loaded with gold, silver, and exotic merchandise of the New World, said Charlevoix. The pirates’ favorite ship was the Spanish galleon, which they usually stalked till it sailed to the pirates’ ambush at the Bahama canal; here in the most death-defying stunt, the fearless pirates unleashed attacks against ships far superior in tonnage, weaponry, and manpower.²⁷ The quantity and quality of the Spanish cargoes alone could persuade the pirates to spare the ships’ occupants. When the ships’ contents were judged meager in the estimation of the pirates, the crew was indiscriminately drowned.²⁸

The Spanish colony of Hispaniola, for example, held particular attraction for the destitute filibusters and the buccaneers. ²⁹ They had unsuccessfully traveled most of the islands in search of a home base, which was often denied them until 1630, when they reached Ile de La Tortue (Tortuga Island), an empty island off the coast of Haiti.³⁰ The filibusters settled down on the northwestern coast of the little island. Here, they divided themselves into several groups for the survival of the new community: a class of hunters or buccaneers, one of filibusters or pirates who specialized in evading Spanish ships, one of habitants or farmers, and one of engages to provide labor.³¹ Spanish ship captains harassed and slaughtered many of the unwelcomed residents. The tenacity of the survivors and continual assistance from St. Kitts allowed them to reach a state of relative stability and independence comparable in function to a contemporary colony. By the time Le Vasseur took control of the island from an English chief, the Spaniard don B. D. M. prepared a force of between five and 600 men to invade and reclaim the island. Le Vasseur had anticipated the point of attack and had installed a cannon, of which the Spaniards had no knowledge. A short battle followed and the Spaniards were defeated. Le Vasseur introduced a reign of terror. His tyranny was unbearable to the point that Poincy sent a newly arrived corsair from France, Chevalier de Fontenay, to assassinate him and to take control of La Tortue. He was killed by Tibau and other assassins. Spain reconquered the island and expelled the habitants. After the death of Poincy, M. du Rossey took La Tortue from the Spanish and was elected governor by all the inhabitants. Rossey returned to France, leaving his nephew La Place in charge. Upon Rossey’s untimely death, La Place held the post until 1664, when the French Compagnie Occidental (Company of the West) assumed control of all the French islands of the Antilles. By this intervention, the island fell to the control of one of the many colonial companies that modeled after the Dutch East India Company—the Company of the West.³² The Company of the West brought sixty soldiers, engaged to farm the soil, and built a warehouse that served as a trading post. When he took over as governor, M. Ogeron Gentilhomme brought in more immigrants, filibusters, buccaneers, and habitants to increase the population.

The French immigrants to La Tortue married newly arrived French women. Filibusters and buccaneers followed their example and settled down with new French ladies, whose past indiscretions they forgave but whom they also threatened to kill in case of any future infidelity. Ogeron returned to France to lobby for his reappointment. The ministers agreed to the request but burdened Ogeron with very challenging terms. He was required to provide 12 ships filled with trade goods per year. In addition, he was to supply habitants with slaves. While in France to lobby for the conquest of the entire island, the man who pacified La Tortue, Ogeron, died in Paris in 1676 and was replaced by his nephew, M. de Poincy.³³.

Spain meanwhile found it impossible to clear Saint-Domingue of the entrenched French population which spread all over the western third of Hispagnola and was also making plans to conquer the entire island. Renewed Spanish vigor emanating from the governor of St. Jago appeared, finally, to have caused the French to contemplate retreat rather than annihilation. The governor’s armed vessels and soldiers were halted as Charles II of Spain included Saint-Domingue in the package deal agreed upon at the Ryswick peace conference on September 20, 1697. Louis XIV defused a situation that could have ended in disaster for the French and convinced members of the coalition—Spain, Britain, Austria, and Germany—to sign a separate peace treaty.³⁴

Haiti in the Eighteenth Century

Now that the French had successfully wrestled the western section of Hispaniola from Spain, the structure of a colonial government was set in motion. The administration of the colony fell to two superior officers and a governor-general who commanded all military forces, presided over the superior colonial councils, passed laws, and awarded land grants and certain governmental functions to the people of his choice. The intendant controlled civil matters, including the public finances, employment, taxes, and public works.³⁵ France divided the colony into three provinces: north, south, and west. Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haïtien, and Les Cayes were the provincial capitals, respectively. Each was led by a lieutenant governor in conjunction with military and civil courts. Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince held appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the land. Beyond the courts was a seven-member committee that reviewed cases. A colonial governor had the power to annul or delay the committee’s decisions, however, his powers were checked by the king of France, who could overrule or overturn the governor’s decision.³⁶

The colony’s various communitees were grouped into fifty-two parishes equipped with a segregated militia.³⁷ One’s skin tone determined whether he served in the white, mulatto, or free black division.³⁸ The mixed people felt entitled to the same rights as their white parents or grandparents. To purge them of this pretentious feeling of equality, the whites excluded them from all public works, respectable professions such as surgeons, doctors, teachers, lawyers, clergy, and pharmacy. However, they were left with the right to own land; from that point they amassed considerable wealth.³⁹ On May 15, 1791, Abbé Grégoire granted the people of color—mulattoes—whose parents were free the same rights as the whites. Oge, Chavannes, and their followers had been executed the year before for an armed revolt that sought to get these rights. In promulgating the decree granting these rights, Abbé Grégoire managed to inflame everyone’s passion. The whites categorically rejected the proposition of sharing facilities and political rights with colored people of the colony. Mulattoes were educated abroad and were in possession of a substantial amount of wealth. Their ethnic composition relieved the whites of any consideration toward them; consequently, mulattoes were denied access to all those professions, social gatherings, and political appointments of any value simply because their complexion ranged from less than a quarter white to a shade darker.⁴⁰

Du Tertre said that all the wealth in the Antilles came from slave labor. That could only mean African slavery, for Africa provided a more reliable source of labor. ⁴¹Arawaks made bad slaves. French plantation owners reserved light duties, such as hunting and fishing, for the native Arawaks who believed hard slave labor was reserved for the Africans. The French were only too happy to keep the Arawaks from realizing their true condition—full-fledged slaves.⁴² The exclusive right to transport and sell Africans as slaves generated riots in Haiti in 1720 by the planters who felt cheated out of the profits now destined for the coffers of the Company of the West. Governor Sorel and Intendant Montholon sued for peace, and on December 27, 1722, the inhabitant representatives joined the king’s representatives—the governor and the intendant—in Léogâne to sign the treaty that ended the Company of the West’s monopoly. Despite the visible presence of Louis XV’s squadron, the agreement accomplished very little, as riots resumed and continued until 1728.⁴³

Caught between the two forces, the more cruel of the planters concocted intrigues after intrigues in the hopes of fomenting discord between the two strata above. Meanwhile, on those below, the slaves whom those planters despised with all the hatred hell can muster, they brought maximum cruelty to bear.⁴⁴ Even though their success lay in the well-being of the African slaves, blinded by hatred, they could not substitute that hatred even to save their own skin; thus, they succumbed to the most servile type of slavery ever inflicted on oneself.⁴⁵ Etienne Descourtilz distinguished between the original planter and the slaveholder who lived closer to the time of the Haitian Revolution. Descourtilz portrayed the planters as kind and hardworking men who provided the Africans the best living arrangement that could be provided; the heirs, on the other hand, lived in France and hired plantation managers. The abuses that are often associated with plantation slavery were inflicted during that time and by careless managers and the original owners’ sons and daughters.⁴⁶

Auberteuil studied the French colonial system in Haiti for 30 years. His conclusions were that the masters’ brutality had, in fact, corrupted the natural predispositions of the slaves to work hard, prosper, and obey the law and authority. The colonists’ abuses and inhumanity brought the slaves to the conclusion that they were not in the presence of human beings deserving respect and obedience. The sharp decrease of the slave population illustrated the extent of the abuse. Starting out with 800, 000 in 1680 under normal conditions or minimum treatment, this number would remain constant or experience some growth, but not in Saint-Domingue. By the time Auberteuil published his remarks in 1776, this population dropped to 290,000, less than half its original size. To those who wished his silence, Auberteuil responded that their silence only benefited injustice and that their inaction was no more than timidity in disguise.⁴⁷ Cette portion du peuple est digne de l’attention du gouvernement puisque c’est la partie industrielle de la nation.⁴⁸

The blacks represented the industrial sector of France; therefore, it was the duty of responsible government to intervene in the affairs of Saint-Domingue. Haitian products allowed France, the mother country, to trade with all northern nations. Here in Saint-Domingue, 3000 planters were aided by the colonists-at-large to produce those things France used to trade with other nations.⁴⁹ The Company of Saint Louis, founded in 1668 and disbanded in 1720, conveyed land and supplies to Saint-Domingue planters, who were expected to repay with products taken from the soil at harvest time at prices favorable to the company. Often the planter found himself in perpetual debt too, due to unfair practices by some company officials.

Ardouin picks up the point and shows that on paper the colony was under the leadership of the governor-general and multiple layers of subordinates.⁵⁰ A national council, composed of the governor-general, intendant, presidents of provincial councils, general procurator, colonial ordinance minister, and heads of the militia, was formed to manage the affairs of the colony under the guidance of the home country. One source of particular friction on this front was the exclusion of the planter class. This exclusion and other grievances severed the natural bond one would expect to have existed with the mother country. The planters went on to nurture feelings of independence and offered themselves up for adoption. France’s arch rival, England, positioned itself to benefit from any rift that might develop between the world’s richest colony and the mother country; the British wasted no time in adopting a daughter colony.

True Haiti was the pearl of the Antilles or the most prosperous of the colonies, but the wealth was no cause for a black or mulatto to boast of his or her place of birth. The wealth the Métis acquired did not seem to equal their longing for social acceptance and equality with the land’s higher caste. As long as they were denied social and political recognition and rights, they would not stop fighting. The grand Blanc or the petit Blanc or the Creole French planters reaped all the benefits. Many lived luxuriously in Europe while their slaves agonized on their thousands of Haitian plantations, distilleries, and factories, producing indigo, sugarcane, cacao, coffee, tobacco, and other products to unload and refill more than 700 merchant ships that crowded Haitian harbors each year. Two-thirds of all France’s revenues came from Haiti.

The Haitian independence dealt France a near deathblow; as Silvia Marzagalli has shown, the rest of the world did not escape the change unscathed.⁵¹ The wealth the Haitian slaves worked and died for went to embellish La Rochelle, Nantes, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Le Havre, and other cities; between 1730 and 1769, La Rochelle alone sent hundreds of ships to Haiti to unload merchandise and to collect goods produced by Haitian slaves—202 ships between 1730 and 1739, 167 between 1740 and 1749, 81 between 1750 and 1759, and 110 between 1760 and 1769.⁵² Considering the length of time it took ships to cross the Atlantic to Haiti, the high seas almost never knew a day of rest from those profiteering vessels. If these figures are accurate, 202 ships made the numerous voyages in nine years; this translates into 22.44 ships per year, or about two ships from La Rochelle a month. When the Haitians finally threw off the French leeches, the French organized their friends and convinced their enemies from around the world to launch an embargo that crippled the infant nation’s commerce.⁵³ The French last cowardly act was yet to come. The French governor and military general, Rochambeau, had surrendered on the battlefield in 1803, granting Haitians slaves their independence. Dessalines, the Haitian general, spared Rochambeau’s and the lives of the few thousands remaining French and allowed them to leave the island. The French king and his advisors dishonored themselves when they reneged on the terms of surrender and forced the Haitians to purchase the island for about 100 times its economic worth.

The City of Saint-Marc, DuSable’s Traditional Birthplace

A city founded in April 1695, Saint-Marc’s⁵⁴ proximity to the Gulf of Gonâve attracted the attention of self-serving pirates and France’s rival maritime powers, who competed with the city for the wealth of the new world. The idyllic location provided easy docking, unloading ease, and immediate access to land, saving days, weeks, and possibly months in transportation costs and lost earnings. Still, few residents, outside of the circle of filibusters, buccaneers, hunters, and fishermen, hurried to populate the coastal city. For the time being, Saint-Marc could only count a loose aggregation of houses built alongside narrow streets. Small as the early population was, a place of worship had to be erected to meet the spiritual need of the inhabitants. Saint-Domingue coastal areas existed in the quicksand world, shifting dependency, claim, and counterclaim of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. English, French, Spanish, and Dutch pirates roamed the seas in a constant search to plunder the loot that the other intended to carry home to his or her majesty and investors to enrich and embellish the homeland. The region might have been deemed too volatile at that time for lasting occupancy. Pirates and traders, on the other hand, who led close to a nomadic existence, might have deemed the coast a haven, suiting their lifestyle perfectly. Du Tertre reported English and Spanish incursion in Ile de la Tortue. This image had to be extinguished soon if the population was to reach a certain level of respectability.

In 1716, the mother church in Artibonite planted a chapel in Saint-Marc. In this extension the communities’ babies were christened, marriages were performed, the sick received last rites and absolutions, the possessed were exorcised, propitiatory masses were offered for the forgiveness of the sins of the dead, and a host of other redemptive services were offered to save the souls of the community. Governor Duclos’s 1720 ordinance, however, required all new towns to be equipped with not just a place of worship but a full-fledged church. The Church of Saint-Marc was built in compliance with that ordinance. The effort was short-lived. Six years later, in March 1726, the city burned down, sparing only a few houses. A new plan, submitted to the governor by colonial architect Marquis de la Lance, two years after the fire, was approved in December of the same year. The new plan moved the city boundaries to the Saint-Marc River in the north and placed the church on the city’s southern edge.

As an incentive to attract even more residents and entrepreneurs, the city issued a land grant in 1738. The grant increased the size of the city substantially. Included in the grant were a savanna, church possession, and other items. The pace of settlement was disappointing; grant recipients were still reluctant to commit themselves to a city that had once been burned down. The royal concession, meanwhile, was being used to grow crops for personal consumption and as a means to generate extra cash at the local market, where surpluses were sold and traded. After one year of that vast concession, Saint-Marc could only boast ninety houses. The new homes brought much-needed and encouraging signs, however. What the royal officials still worried about was the pace of construction and the slow population growth. A twelve-year wait had not satisfied their expectations. They offered another grant, yet the desired outcome—sturdy population growth—eluded the city.

Unwilling to wait for the natural process of birth and emigration to play themselves out, St. Marc’s royal officials once again announced more grants in 1771 to attract new residents. This latest concession completed the series of land grant incentives for the century, which set the size of the city for a very long time. The last grant went largely to increase the church holding. The increase fell mostly along Africa Street and Petite Riviere. Due perhaps to the large slave population, the area became known as Petite Guinea, or Little Guinea. The strip of land between the mountains and the sea would involve the home of countless merchants, ship captains, slaveholders, slaves, free blacks, mulattoes, whites, and royal officials. Streets were laid out in all cardinal directions, bearing and designating mostly local scenes. Thus, Rue Neuve (New Street), Rue de l’Eglise (Church Street), Grand Rue (Main Street or Broadway Boulevard), Rue de la Marine (Marine Street), Rue des Guepes (Wasps Street), Rue Saint-Germain (Saint Germain Street), Rue Saint-Simon (St. Simon Street), Rue Bourbon (Bourbon Street), Pointe Traversiere (Crossing Point), cul-de-sac, Rue Saint-Charles (Saint Charles Street), Rue Royal (Royal Street), Rue D’auphin (Dolfin Street), and Rue Afrique (Africa Street)⁵⁵ all depicted transitory European life. Since Europeans did not consider themselves foreigners anywhere, the affairs of their homeland and their interests in the Americas were forced on all others. The issues that killed peace and took the lives of untold millions in the Americas were not always the most relevant to non-Europeans.

Houses were built along these streets. Saint-Marc’s builders relied on very useful local building materials—gigantic rocks. Those rocks were arranged with a great display of unmatched skills; the structures embellished the city with such exuberance that many distinguished officials and merchants, such as M. Saint-Macary and M. Beauchamp, were proud to make Saint-Marc their home. Here the well-to-do took their vacations along the city’s beaches and at the most famous resorts.

The width of the streets was to be 48 feet, and certainly none narrower than 35 wide. In August 1784, city administrators enacted yet another ordinance requiring, this time, that brooks be diverted along residential streets and to fill all ditches, leveling up sideways and byways so as not to leave anyplace for water to sit and possibly fester. To better avoid swampy conditions that would have provided nesting opportunities for malaria-spreading mosquitoes, all streets were to be paved. City residents, while cognizant of the health benefits, had other equally legitimate worries, causing them to object to the ordinance. Residents feared that the lack of a sewer system would cause the paved port city to flood very regularly during the rainy season. They opted instead to install a series of sidewalks. Connecting sidewalks leading to and emptying into a vacant field would certainly provide some outlet for the water to flow but were by no means a perfect solution.

Residents could barely keep up with the barrage of regulatory initiatives. City enforcers kept a watchful eye on those who might not comply with the ordinances. Ordinances of November 1739 and 1742, March 1768, July 1771, August 1780, and February 1782 made property owners directly responsible to water their front lawns and streets beginning at 7:00 a.m. each day. The chief of police enforced the rules very diligently.⁵⁶ The land grants were incentives enough to keep residents coming.

If tradition holds true, DuSable was born in Saint-Marc in 1745; his birth would have occurred during a population boom encouraged by public officials to attract residents to the coastal town. As a child, he would have watched his streets flood fairly regularly by the Saint-Marc River or the Grand Riviere, which ran from south-east to north-west, dividing residents of either side of the bank. Wooden bridges were built for residents to cross, but they quickly fell in disrepair when, added to pedestrian use, carts carrying heavy loads made the bridges their frequent passageway, exposing the town to a potentially catastrophic situation.⁵⁷

To avert the unspeakable, Marquis de Bretton des Chapelles and Senechal proposed a solution in 1784. The idea was to build a concrete bridge on Grand Street. The plan would serve country farmers, as well as those who resided in Saint-Marc proper. Support poured in from all directions.

Within a year’s time, town officials delivered an ornate bridge. When combined with the city’s public plaza, an area of three hundred amenities, Saint-Marc appeared, indeed, to be a delightful place. Unfortunately, for all its beauty, the magnificent bridge did not represent a model of durability. Engineers had underestimated the destructive capability of the Saint-Marc River. The beloved bridge’s last day came early when forces of the waters used debris from the wooden bridge as leverage and ripped the defenseless edifice apart. The remains were finally uprooted and carried away to litter a wide field down stream. ⁵⁸

The Saint-Marc outdoor market was held in the park in 1743. Here everything was sold until 1785, when a city ordinance grouped sellers according to the goods they were selling; a black and white division existed for the time being in the city’s outdoor market. Roots and the vegetable market were moved to Bellecombe. The white market was moved to the alley of the park, where they (whites) sold dried goods. The new markets were arbitrated by a police corps.⁵⁹

The city church, jailhouse, and courthouse, or senechaussee, were created in 1724. Growing up, DuSable would have seen the city’s gigantic courthouse, the bridge, and the church on his way to the open market with his mother or father. The king’s admiralty court was staffed and held in the senechaussee since January 12, 1717. He would have missed the segregation of the market; in his time, the races bought and sold in the same market.

The French ship Algonquin traveled from Paris to Saint-Marc. The responsibility of transporting the merchant ship’s cargoes each time it arrived fell on the town blacks. They used wooden carts. Slave ship captains brought sick slaves to the river to wash off wounds sustained during the transatlantic crossing and to die in the city’s precious water source. The city judge went so far as to order ship captains not to rent houses upstream.⁶⁰ The port of Saint-Marc received fifty ships from France yearly.⁶¹ DuSable would have seen sugar factories and would have witnessed a city surrounded by mountains. To travel to Port-au-Prince, he would have gotten on the King’s Highway along the Saint-Marc River. He would have passed through the dried ravine riverbed or the de Sable community in the vicinity of the Canot River in an area littered with sugarcane factories.⁶²

He or his mother would have had to spend much of the gourdes he had saved up for the all-important trip to the capital. The fare would have cost several gourdes, sixteen from Saint-Marc to Arcahay and twelve to complete the trip to Port-au-Prince. Accompanied by another passenger, he would have qualified for the sixteen-gourde reduced fare.⁶³

On November 21, 1751, when DuSable was just six years old, the city of Saint-Marc experienced a terrible earthquake. The terror was to continue on March 8, 1764, and May 14, 1786. Whereas Port-au-Prince was spared, Mont-Aroui and Aux Cayes were hit.

Saint-Marc Population.⁶⁴

The Saint-Marc militia was composed of the following demographics before, during, and after DuSable was born, lived in, and left the city.⁶⁵ In 1755, when he was a child of ten, St. Marc was ruled by M. Bizotton de la Motte. Bizotton initiated a series of corvees, or unpaid public works, gatherings called into existence to build the city’s much-needed infrastructure and to increase the size of the local militia for defense. Five batteries were posted along sensitive entrances to and around the city. Each new mayor added more batteries in another area he deemed vital. Bizotton began with River des Guepes and River Conot. Those measures complemented previous installations put in place; in 1740, M. de Larnage installed two military batteries of eight cannons each in front of the city. In 1748, a third battery was posted, raising the number of cannons to twenty-five. In 1755, Bizotton de la Motte reinforced the bay, and in 1766, M. d’Estaing did the same.⁶⁶

Saint-Marc’s planters took full advantage of the availability of slave labor. They established various types of factories to process and convert the parish’s natural resources into usable products to meet European demands.⁶⁷ DuSable would have heard of a rich planter in town named M. des Dunes. Dunes hired nine children and seven slaves in 1756, a time of war with the British. As the Seven Year’s War went on, Dunes found a way to accumulate 1,500 blacks, 1,500 beasts of burden, and 2,000 carreaux, a 200-acre farm.

All the three tables above trend upward. The increase in the white and black population translated into more available free men for the local militia and slaves for the growing indigo, sugar, coffee, and other factories in St. Marc. The resulting prosperity made it possible for many blacks to obtain their freedom. Whether DuSable was born to a slave or free black woman, a negligeable fraction of that prosperity trickled down somehow, making it possible for him to secure a seat on one of those ships bound for New Orleans, Louisiana. Any psychological comfort he may have enjoyed on the one hand, he was equally chastised on the other for it as a subject of the French Empire, for the child who was destined to found the city of Chicago, as fate would have it, was born in the very eye of a raging storm. France’s colonial prosperity in St. Domingue and in St. Marc in particular enraged her arch enemy and rival, the British. Nothing short of a war to redraw the map would satisfy.

CHAPTER II

Coming and Going in the Empire

The port city of New Orleans, Louisiana, is located only 110 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Here the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans sits on the Mississippi; second only to the Nile, the Grand River, with its voluminous flow of water, could accommodate the largest sea vessel of the time. In 1722, Governor Bienville ordered Pauger, his engineer, to measure the depth and suitability of the mouth of the Mississippi for navigation. His engineer found that the addition of a few dikes would complete depth requirement to make the mouth of the Big River a viable maritime path to harbor and wharf for incoming ships from France, New France, Saint-Domingue, Martinique, and other places.

The Saint-Domingue–New Orleans Line

Haiti was France’s breadbasket during colonial days. Two-thirds of France’s revenue came from the labor of more than half a million Haitian slaves originally brought on the island from various regions of Africa. Cap-Haïtien (Cap-Français then) was the center or reference point for all French water transport to and from the Americas. Over 700 French ships descended on the prosperous colony of Haiti annually from Marseilles, Le Havre, Bordeaux, Nantes, La Rochelle, Dunkerque, and other port cities to load and transport the wealth—cacao, indigo, sugar, molasses, rum, tobacco, cotton, sisal, and other raw materials—to France. The busiest times of the year were April and September, when these ships crowded the Haitian ports; at these times the winds were most favorable.⁶⁸ The city of Cap-Haïtien ranked much higher than New Orleans and controlled all French trade activities in the Americas. This administrative and economic dominance did not sit well with New Orleans or other port city officials in the Americas, who devised ruse to evade royal oversight in order to form secret trading alliances with other rival colonial port cities. Dawdy wrote,

The centripetal force of Saint-Domingue sugar boom quickly made it the most important stop of the French trans-Atlantic trade. It became a transfer point for the rest of the French American colonies. The island even played middle man to Canadian trade. In Saint Domingue prices were high and the officials were vigilant. To circumvent both factors, New Orleans formed trading relationships with Veracruz and Havana. New Orleans was one among dozens of port cities in the greater Caribbean that largely abandoned the trans-Atlantic to the mega ports such as Cap Francais or Havana.⁶⁹

Saint-Marc, DuSable’s hometown, hosted 50 French merchant ships per year.⁷⁰ Le Page du Pratz received a grant from the Company of the West and settled in Natchez, Louisiana. He described the route that French ships traveled to go to Haiti during the colonial period. No matter their destination, French ships first stopped in Haiti to restock and to rest. We stayed fifteen days at Cap Francois, to take in wood and water, and to refresh. After the two-week rest, du Pratz’s ship repositioned itself to reenter the waters for New Orleans. We sailed from Cap Francois, with the same wind.⁷¹ The same wind sent the French sailing past Tortuga (Ile de La Tortue) and the Spanish part of the Island of Hispaniola, or Santo Domingo. From here, the crew spotted the Haitian city of Port-de-Paix (pacific harbor) on the northern coast of the western third of the island. This maneuver brought them to the tail end of the island of Santo Domingo, in the direction of the island of Cuba. Du Pratz cruised along the southern coast of Cuba; he passed Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on the left. As they headed toward Louisiana, the captain oriented the ship in a northwesterly direction. The crew left Cuba and nearby Cape Anthony, and immediately began steering for Louisiana on a northwest course. Juggling around the islet of Candlemas, they kept a sturdy course toward Isle Dauphine and entered the Gulf of Mexico. After some difficulty, du Pratz’s crew made it to Louisiana after three months on the water. Du Pratz continued, We were then put on shore with all our effects. The company had undertaken to transport us with our servants and effects, at their expense, and to lodge, maintain and convey us to our several concessions or grants. The 800 sailed to Cap-Haïtien. The author of this account, Le Page du Pratz, was on board one of the ships carrying the colony of 800 to Louisiana, where they arrived on August 25, 1718.⁷²

Dumont de Montigny left a travel account, as well. The account relived in descriptive eloquence a journey the author took to Haiti and how he and his fellow passengers returned to Louisiana. At the time the Company of the West was granted the responsibility of the colony of Louisiana, de Montigny and a crew traveled to Haiti and Louisiana. The ship left the Orient between 1718 and 1719, traveling to Louisiana. Instead of traveling directly toward their destination, the captain headed straight for Haiti. Upon reaching Cap-Haïtien, after a successful crossing, the crew stocked up on fresh water and other beverages for the rest of the voyage and collected wood. In this instance, the captain reached as far as the Gulf of Mexico, leaving Haiti, but could not reach the New Orleans harbor. He retraced his steps through the Bahaman Canal back to Cap-Haïtien and then back to Louisiana by the same route.⁷³ Weary passengers failed to appreciate the difficulties even experienced pilots of large vessels faced entering and leaving New Orleans. As Shannon Dawdy showed, entering New Orleans’s front door was a rather difficult 100-mile passageway wrought with dangers caused by shifting water and silt. While Lake Pontchartrain and surrounding lakes provided a faster and less complicated back door entrance into the city, this option was accessible only by small ships, which were themselves exposed to sudden windstorms and high waves.⁷⁴

Another travel account of the Cap-Haïtien–New Orleans line was provided by M. Bossu, a knight of the Military Order of Saint-Louis, or Chevalier de l’Ordre Royale et Militaire de Saint-Louis, ancient Capitaine d’une Compagnie de la Marine. Bossu carried a letter of recommendation, detailing his credentials and expertise as he set sail for Cap-Haïtien on March 19, 1770, aboard the transport ship Aimable Genevieve. After 43 days on the water, the crew dropped anchor in Cap-Haïtien.⁷⁵ Bossu presented his credentials, a letter of recommendation to Vice Count Choiseul, brigadier general of the king’s forces on the island of Haiti. The general provided Bossu with a passport and allowed him to set sail for Louisiana by the first ship sailing for the colony. During the short stay, Bossu visited a few sites of Cap-Haïtien, and then on May 22, 1770, he got on a brigantine sailing from Cap-Haïtien to New Orleans. A southwest wind and darkness made it difficult for the crew to dock. They tried to dock twenty-six breaststrokes offshore to wait for daylight, because they could not see land; the violent fracas of the wind tore off their docking cable, forcing the crew to spend two days floating on the water before they entered the mouth of the Mississippi. Bossu and two others got off on the balise and chartered a large pirogue and again set sail for New Orleans. They traveled 30 leagues⁷⁶ before they finally reached the city three days later.⁷⁷

In his journal, Bernard de la Harpe also provided an account that is consistent with the other travel accounts—French ships consistently traveled directly to Haiti’s port of Cap-Haitien before reaching their destination in Louisiana.⁷⁸ The ship Union, carrying the king’s orders to Louisiana, first reported to Cap-Haïtien before arriving in Louisiana. Another French ship, le Marechal d’Esterees, with Captain M. De La Godelle at the helm, got lost on its way to Haiti and docked in Cuba. M. Godelle was replaced and, with the help of an English ship, Marechal d’Esrees was guided to the city of Leogane, Haiti, where it docked safely before returning to the port of New Orleans, Louisiana.⁷⁹ Africans destined to the various French slave plantations arrived from Whydah, Angola, and Guinea aboard the ships Africain and Duc-du-Maine.⁸⁰ The ship La Nereite brought blacks from Angola.⁸¹ The fertile plains of Haiti supplied some of the corn and wheat required to feed the settlers and their slaves. Sometimes it was necessary to dispatch a ship there to bring those food items.⁸² Captain M. Berranger commanded a ferry boat from Cap-Haïtien, carrying corn to Louisiana.⁸³ A traversier was sent to Saint-Domingue to bring turkey and wheat to Louisiana.⁸⁴ On September 20, 1721, the Company of the West established ways for colonists to repay the company on the advance made in slaves and supplies.

During the French and Indian War, French ships traveled in convoys to and from Louisiana, making Cap-Haïtien (Cap-Francais then) the principal docking point to avoid British attacks on the high seas.⁸⁵ Barges were used to transport troops from a warship in Ile aux Coudres to Quebec City.⁸⁶ The last French dispatch to Canada during the war was provided by Joseph Cadet, a private merchant in the king’s employ. In 1760, he used the frigate Machault to reach Canada. Between 1748 and 1759, merchantmen ships (150 ships in all) made a total of 150 voyages from principal ports in the mainland of France, including Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Le Havre, Marseilles, and Bayonne, to Canada.⁸⁷ A flute carrying DuSable due northwest from the Saint-Domingue colony to the Louisiana colony, depending on weather, would normally spend two weeks (forty to fifty days in some cases) in transit. It took ships longer to reach the American colonies than it did to return to Europe. Hundreds of ships traveled to all the French colonies in the Americas and throughout the world to load or unload goods and slaves. Those ships going to the Caribbean islands traveled all seasons because of the tropical climate. DuSable’s fellow passengers would have been missionaries returning to Louisiana or en route to Canada.

Merchant ships were not limited to a single role. In 1727, the slave ship l’Annibal, bound for Louisiana, made an about-face instead and went to Saint-Domingue; its entire cargo was sold to the planters of that colony. Hugh Thomas found that Haitian planters imported forty thousand Africans yearly into the colony to work the field, factories, and distilleries.⁸⁸ The Alcide, a 63-gun man-of-war, was captured on June 8, 1755. Its duties had been to escort troops and vessels to Canada during the Seven Years’ War.⁸⁹ Bordeaux was responsible for 40% of trade with Africa and the Americas. Of 420 departures, 166 departed from Bordeaux.⁹⁰

Those who are born within an empire, regardless of their station within it, make the necessary adjustments to preserve and to take advantage of their conditions. The one element that always needs shelter from such weight but that almost always perishes is the self. If DuSable had been one of this rule’s very few exceptions, he learned rather quickly to survive in the world that was