Primary Sources:

Letters de Louisiane Database (Via Louisiana Digital Library) – This database includes 38 letters written in the late 18th century by individuals in Louisiana commenting on the French Revolution.  During the Revolution, French refugees (many from Saint Domingue) sought refuge in Louisiana and brought certain political sentiments with them.  Many refugees from Saint Domingue influenced planter elite in Louisiana, deterring them from joining the popular protests that was taking hold in Louisiana as a result of the French Revolution.

 

Letter, Armand Duplantier to his brother, January 10, 1796 (Via Louisiana Digital Library) – Duplantier was born in Voiron, France in 1753.  He served as General Lafayette’s aide-de-camp during the Revolutionary War and in 1782 moved to Louisiana.  The above letter was written to Duplantier’s brother and references the slave revolts in Saint Domingue.

 

Mémoire historique et politique sur la Louisiane (1802) by m. De Vergennes (Via Louisiana Digital Library) – De Vergennes was Louis XIV’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and wrote about his travels to a number of places including India, Saint Domingue, Corsica, and French Guiana.  See part III: Mémoire sur L’Ile Saint-Domingue starting on page 230.

 

Portrait of Etienne De Bore (Via Louisiana Digital Library) – De Bore was an émigré from Saint Domingue and was mayor of New Orleans from 1803-1804.

 

Les Cenelles (1845) – First published collection of African American poetry, authors include émigrés from Saint Domingue who were living and writing in New Orleans (Via Louisiana Digital Library).

 

Online Exhibits:

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience Online Exhibit – Haitian Migration: 18th & 19th Centuries.

 

The Historic New Orleans Collection: Common Routes St. Domingue-Louisiana Online Exhibit

 

Secondary Sources:

Caryn Cosse Bell, “Haitian Immigration to Louisiana in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries” (Via Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)

 

Richard Campanella, “An Ethnic Geography of New Orleans” (Via richardcampanelle.com)

 

Paul Lachance, “Were Saint-Domingue Refugees a Distinctive Cultural Group in Antebellum New Orleans? Evidence from Patterns and Strategies of Property Holding” (Via Página CAI San Gérman)