1793-Aug.-Late: A young enslaved woman from Charleston, recently sold and transported to Saint-Domingue, wrote an “enigmatic” letter to her mother describing…

1793-Aug.-Late: A young enslaved woman from Charleston, recently sold and transported to Saint-Domingue, wrote an “enigmatic” letter to her mother describing the state of the country. She reported that the revolutionary authorities were “obliged to give Liberty to all the negroes” to serve as soldiers because there were no white men left to defend the territory. Living with another girl from New York under the same master, she described the region as a “troublesome Country” while awaiting transport to France. The letter was discovered among the papers of the ship Fox, which was bound from Cayes to Baltimore. This rare correspondence provides a personal glimpse into how enslaved North Americans perceived the unfolding emancipation in the Caribbean.