1793-Mid: Governor Carondelet reported to the Spanish Minister of State that the government was only able to obtain intelligence through the free people of c…

1793-Mid: Governor Carondelet reported to the Spanish Minister of State that the government was only able to obtain intelligence through the free people of color. This admission underscored the central role that nonwhite networks played in the circulation of news across the Caribbean and the Gulf Coast. Free blacks and mulattoes utilized their social positions and maritime connections to monitor developments that the white elite attempted to suppress. While officials used this information to deport “daring” dissidents, they remained dangerously dependent on the very class they sought to control. This dynamic proved that the “unmastered” information channels of the Afro-Atlantic were more effective than the formal apparatus of the state.