1793-Nov.-30: Governor Carbonell of Caracas reported to Gardoqui on the arrival of French “emigrants” and prisoners who were suspected of spreading republica…

1793-Nov.-30: Governor Carbonell of Caracas reported to Gardoqui on the arrival of French “emigrants” and prisoners who were suspected of spreading republican propaganda. He noted that the Spanish authorities were struggling to distinguish between loyalist refugees and “Jacobin” agents who sought to destabilize the colony. Carbonell expressed particular concern that French-speaking blacks and mulattoes were “perverting” the ideas of the local enslaved population through “unsophisticated” but effective conversations. He argued that the mere presence of these individuals acted as a visual and verbal signal of the possibility of liberation. This correspondence highlighted the trans-imperial challenge of policing political “contagion” in the Caribbean.