Journal de mon séjour à Philadelphie 1793
Publisher: s.n.
Published: 1793
Place of publication: S.l
Language: fre
Number of pages: 23
Subjects: Manuscripts; Personal narratives; Refugees; French; History
Notes: Ms. codex.

Title from recto of leaf [1]

Author's name appears on verso of leaf [22]

The author was born in France and began his career in the civil service in Toulouse. Shortly before the French Revolution, he left to settle in Saint-Domingue, where he had relatives that owned plantations in Cap-Français. He witnessed the slave revolts of 1791 and left the island in 1793 when the followers of François Biassou set fire to Cap-Français. He hastily boarded a French ship for America where he made his way from Frenchtown, Maryland to Baltimore and then to Philadelphia, where there was a large refugee community.

In this particular journal written in July through September of 1793, the author describes his stay in Philadelphia and gives information about his day to day expenses and records copies of his letters to associates in Marseilles. While the journal primarily concerns his stay in Philadelphia, he also revisits the scenes of the the conflagration in in Cap-Français in 1793. The author gives a first hand account of the refugee life in Philadelphia, as he sought reimbursement from his debtors, also living in Philadelphia, who pleaded bankrupcy. He mentions the exhorbitant cost of living in his new home and speaks of an epidemic (possibly smallpox?) that raged in the city in the Summer of 1793. He also plans business ventures to recoup some of his lost wealth. At the end of the journal, the author books passage on a ship bound for France, closes the books on all his business affairs in Saint-Domingue, draws up his will and registers it in Philadelphia, and purchases provisions for the trip. The author recovered nicely when he returned to France, and became a playwright and a librettist.

John Carter Brown Library copy bound in contemporary full calf wrapper; there is a whole in the rear wrapper.

John Carter Brown Library copy acquired with the assistance of the Harper Fund.