BREÜILLY (M.)
[Passport allowing an enslaved man to travel to Saint-Domingue.]
A RARE PASSPORT GRANTING AN ENSLAVED MAN PASSAGE TO HAITI
A rare survival. This passport grants the right of Calvin, an enslaved man of African descent, passage to Saint-Domingue.
The document grants him passage under Capitaine le S. Dutertre (du Tertre?) at Nantes, and stipulates on arrival that he must present himself to the commissioner of the relevant department. It further states that he should be allowed to pass freely (“laisser librement passer”) and without any impediment. This pre-printed form has been slightly, but significantly, amended in that one of the key words “disarmed” (“désarmé”) has been struck through.
Saint-Domingue’s economy underwent rapid expansion in the years following the Seven Years’ War (1756-63), and continued until the 1791 Haitian Revolution - during this time it was known as the “Pearl of the Antilles.”
