- Title
- “A Little Rough in His Manner”: Two Captivity Narratives from Revolutionary Guadeloupe 1795
- Creator
- Candlin, Kit
- Relation
- Caribbean Quarterly Vol. 70, Issue 1, p. 11-31
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00086495.2024.2323376
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- THIS ARTICLE EXPLORES THE CAPTIVITY NARRATIVES OF two British men captured by republican rebels in the British West Indian colony of Grenada in 1795. The narratives they wrote include not only the details of Fédon’s Rebellion in Grenada but also, crucially, a view of the republican-held colony of Guadeloupe and the regime of Victor Hugues, which I analyse here. These narratives of imprisonment come from two rare books, both of which are histories of the Grenada conflict and are supported by relatively unknown letters from Victor Hugues to Julien Fédon. They have yet to be used for extensive study. Because of the circumstances of their capture and subsequent journey to Guadeloupe, the recollections of Dr John Hay1 and the Revd Francis MacMahon2 offer important insights and impressions of the republican regime in Guadeloupe – a regime which, as Laurent Dubois and others have keenly observed, lacks scholarly attention.3 The paucity of archival material makes these accounts that much more valuable.This article investigates the chaos of the republican power base in Guadeloupe during the second half of 1795 and the varied experience of captivity that both men witnessed. Along with their observations, I highlight their own struggles to comprehend both republicanism and Hugues himself. I also place their detention within current debates around prisoners in the age of revolutions. Implicit in this analysis is the varied and multicultural nature of the large population of detainees in revolutionary Guadeloupe. The recollections of these two men shed light on the growing tension in the region between American sailors and merchants and Republican France. The Quasi-War, which would emerge in 1798 between the United States and France, broke out only two years after the capture of Hay and MacMahon, and the formative stages of the tension can be seen in their stories. Finally, I investigate the complex challenge to nationalism that the revolution presented. The accounts offer a glimpse into the complexities of national belonging and identity in this period, especially between French whites who were bitterly divided by politics and ideology, but also between British sailors and Americans.
- Subject
- republican rebels; history; rebellion; rare books
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1502862
- Identifier
- uon:55277
- Identifier
- ISSN:0008-6495
- Language
- eng
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