A colonial backwater at its founding in 1676, the port town Cap-Français grew in the proceding century to emerge as the main commercial port and economic capital of Saint Domingue. Housing more than 15,000 inhabitants (most of whom were enslaved) on the eve of the Haitian Revolution in 1791, it was also Saint Domingue’s most populous town. A diverse society developed there, made up of white colonists, free people of color, and slaves who worked in colonial administration, the army, commerce, or different artisinal trades. Boasting masonry houses, a rich cultural life, and vibrant commercial sector teeming with luxury goods from across the globe, contemporaries christened Cap-Français the “Paris des Antilles.”
Dominguians derived their wealth, like many others across the Atlantic world, from the enslavement of people of African descent. The town served as a major entrepôt for enslaved Africans and the egress for the slave-produced tropical goods of the interior. When, in 1791, enslaved Dominguans sparked a revolution that would eventually end slavery in the colony, Cap-Français became a major site of struggle. Twice the town burned and twice its residents worked to rebuild and revive its commercial prosperity.
For the first time, In the Streets of Le Cap give researchers and students the opportunity to visualize the demographic and economic transformation of Cap Français between the colonial and revolutionary eras. Our project is based on the georeferencing of data contained in three cadastres of Cap Français using GIS software. Drawing on these unpublished sources, one can draw up a precise map of the city and its populace in 1776 at the beginning of the American War for Independence, in 1787 just before the French Revolution, and in 1803, during the Haitian War of Independence. In the final version of our project, researchers will have direct access to an interactive map of the three cadastres as well as the raw data. Using these data, researchers will have the opportunity to retrace the trajectories of individuals and families, observe the social and racial configuration of the urban landscape, as well as analyze the overall dynamics of the city on a larger scale.
Contact us at streetsoflecap@gmail.com for inquiries.
In the Streets of Le Cap 