1791-Nov.-29: Mary Smith wrote to William Hammet expressing her profound anxiety over the news from Saint-Domingue reaching Jamaica.

1791-Nov.-29: Mary Smith wrote to William Hammet expressing her profound anxiety over the news from Saint-Domingue reaching Jamaica. She described how the reports of the insurrection were the primary topic of conversation among both the elite and the lower classes in Kingston. Smith observed that the enslaved people appeared to be “buoyed up” by the success of the black rebels in the neighboring colony. Her letter captured the domestic atmosphere of a slave society in crisis, where the threat of rebellion felt immediate and personal. This correspondence illustrated the role of private letters in documenting the emotional landscape of the revolutionary Atlantic.