Skip to content
🇭🇹   BETA  ·  9,776 entries published  ·  90,224 entries away from the 100k milestone.       🇭🇹   BETA  ·  9,776 entries published  ·  90,224 entries away from the 100k milestone.       
You are offline — some content may not be available
1686-09-30

ORDINANCE of the King, providing that the number of indentured servants in Saint-Domingue shall equal that of the nègres, on penalty of confiscation of the excess of the latter

Haitian

HIS MAJESTY being informed that what has contributed most to the growth of the Colony of the Coast of Saint-Domingue is the great number of indentured servants who have gone there, several of whom later became settlers and even established considerable plantations there; and it being important to continue these shipments and also to increase them, His Majesty has ordered and orders, wills and intends, that beginning on the first of May 1687, all the settlers of the said Coast, of whatever rank and condition, shall be required to have a number of indentured servants equal to the number of nègres whom they keep to work their plantations; wishing that once the said time has passed, the nègres whom the said settlers have beyond the number of indentured servants shall be forfeited and confiscated to His Majesty; who directs the sieur de Cussy, Gouverneur of the said Coast, to see to the enforcement of the present Ordinance, which shall be read, published and posted where needed, so that no one may claim ignorance of it. DONE, etc. of Leeward America.

Source  ·  p. act 00:327 Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions des colonies françoises de l'Amérique sous le Vent (Vol. 1) (1784-1790), p. act 00:327