1818-Jun.: Two black Jamaican sailors stranded in London applied for aid to return home, explicitly stating their desire to reach Saint-Domingue to find work.

1818-Jun.: Two black Jamaican sailors stranded in London applied for aid to return home, explicitly stating their desire to reach Saint-Domingue to find work. They hoped to secure employment on a drogger or coasting vessel within the black republic, where they could live in freedom. Their ambition illustrated how Haiti remained a powerful magnet for mobile black people seeking economic and social autonomy. Even in the heart of the British Empire, the image of Haiti as a land of opportunity for the “masterless” remained potent. This desire to migrate to the black republic highlighted the limited horizons for free black mariners in the post-war Atlantic.