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Trading Races

Joseph and Marie Bunel, a Diplomat and a Merchant inRevolutionary Saint-Domingue and Philadelphia

P H I L I P P E R . G I R A R D

Late in 1798, a merchant and diplomat named Joseph Bunel

arrived in Philadelphia to meet with U.S. President John Adams. He hadbeen sent by Toussaint Louverture, the dominant political and military

figure in northern Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), to obtain a re-

sumption of U.S.Dominguian commercial relations. The U.S. Congress

had instituted an embargo in retaliation for French privateering attacks,

bringing Saint-Domingues once-prosperous trade to a sudden halt.

Bunels mission proved a resounding success. Within six months,

Louverture signed a treaty that reopened Saint-Domingue to U.S. com-

merce, even as the Quasi-War still raged and the U.S. embargo contin-

ued to affect other French colonies.1

This interesting episode of U.S.Haitian relations has appeared in

several English-language scholarly works in recent years, all of which

mentioned Bunel as Haitis de facto first ambassador to the United States,five years before Haitis formal declaration of independence and 64 years

Philippe R. Girard is associate professor of history at McNeese State University.Research for this article was made possible in part by a PEAES fellowship fromthe Library Company and the archival resources of the Historical Society of Penn-sylvania. The author would also like to thank the three anonymous reviewerswhose comments greatly helped refine the original argument of this article.

1. On the impact of the U.S. embargo, see Gazette (Philadelphia), Mar. 12,1799; Toussaint Louverture to John Adams, 16 Brumaire 7 [Nov. 6, 1798], RG59, Microfilm M9/1, U.S. National Archives, College Park (hereafter NARA-CP).On the 1799 treaty reopening trade, see Edward Stevens to Timothy Pickering,

May 3, 1799, 208 MI/1, Archives Nationales, Paris (hereafter AN).

Journal of the Early Republic, 30 (Fall 2010)

Copyright 2010 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. All rights reserved.


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352 JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC (Fall 2010)

before the United States recognized Haiti. Bunels visit, argued David

McCullough in his Pulitzer Prize-winning John Adams, was also notablefor marking the first time a man of African descent was the dinner guest

of an American president. Given U.S. racial mores prevalent in 1798,authors from Garry Wills and Douglas Egerton to Nicholas Santoro and

Robert Levine similarly emphasized how highly unusual it was for a U.S.

president to engage in close political intercourse with a person of color.

When Independence National Historical Park prepared in 2003 to add

a Presidents House to its existing monuments in downtown Philadel-

phia, one of the architectural firms proposed to honor Joseph Bunel as a

leading member of Philadelphias free-colored community.2

Bunel also appears in many French-language works on the HaitianRevolutionbut, surprisingly, as a white man. The incertitude over such

a basic fact as Bunels race is one of many enigmas in the life of a histori-

cal figure who is often mentioned in passing in the literature, but is rarely

discussed at length. The main hurdle is practical. Bunel left behind a

significant documentary trail, but his life was spent between France, the

Caribbean, and the United States, and relevant documents are dispersed

between the British National Archives in Kew (for his negotiations with

Jamaica), the U.S. National Archives in College Park (for his 1798 visitto Philadelphia), the Archives Nationales in Paris (for his disputes with

the French government), and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (for

2. The first time from David McCullough, John Adams (New York, 2001),519. For other works that describe Joseph Bunel (hereafter JB) as a Mulatto, seeDouglas R. Egerton, The Empire of Liberty Reconsidered, in The Revolutionof 1800: Democracy, Race, and the New Republic, ed. James Horn, Jan Ellen Lewis,

and Peter Onuf (Charlottesville, VA, 2002), 314; Garry Wills, Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power(Boston, 2003), 38; Nicholas J. Santoro, Atlas ofSlavery and Civil Rights: An Annotated Chronicle of the Passage from Slavery andSegregation to Civil Rights and Equality Under the Law (New York, 2006), 30;Robert S. Levine, Dislocating Race and Nation: Episodes in Nineteenth-Century

American Literary Nationalism (Chapel Hill, NC, 2008), 29. For other works onJB and U.S.Haitian relations, see Alexander DeConde, The Quasi-War: The Poli-tics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France, 1797-1801 (New York,1966), 135; Tim Matthewson, A Proslavery Foreign Policy: HaitianAmerican

Relations during the Early Republic (Westport, CT, 2003), 6667; Gordon S.Brown, Toussaints Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution(Jackson, MS, 2005), 137. On the Presidents House, see http://www.phila.gov/presidentshouse/howardrevis.htm.


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Girard, TRADING RACES 353

his wife). The conflagration of the Haitian Revolution and subsequent

instability in Haiti have compounded the problem as some relevant de-

posits were lost or sold to private and university collections from Gaines-

ville, Florida, to New York.3

These archival sources establish with quasi-certainty that Joseph

Bunel was white, but, even more importantly, they help shed light on

three peculiarities of his career that have been ignored in the existing

scholarship on both sides of the Atlantic. The first is Bunels unexpect-

edly close association with black Haitian rebels. One could expect that a

lengthy servile war would have further polarized a colonial society

founded on the twin pillars of slavery and racial inequality, but recent

scholarship has shown that racism was a rather novel, and far from com-prehensive, ideology in Saint-Domingue. Bunels personal trajectory as a

white Frenchman who served a succession of black regimes (while find-

ing himself at odds with metropolitan authorities) confirms that revolu-

tionary Saint-Domingue was a societal kaleidoscope in which racial,

social, political, financial, gender, and national affiliations competed as

an individuals defining characteristic; of those, monetary gain was possi-

bly the most relevant in Bunels case.4

Conversely, one could have expected rebellious slaves to pursue aradical, messianic diplomatic agenda aimed at spreading the Dominguian

slave revolt to neighboring sugar colonies, Jamaica in particular. Instead,

3. For French-language works on JB, see Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur lhis-toire dHati suivies de la vie du general J.-M. Borgella (11 vols., Paris, 1853),4: 44; Faine Scharon, Toussaint Louverture et la revolution de Saint-Domingue(2 vols., Port-au-Prince, 1957), 2: 12837; Pierre Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture:

un revolutionnaire noir dAncien Regime (Paris, 1989), 36467; Jacques de Cauna,ed., Toussaint Louverture et lindependance dHati: temoignages pour un bicenten-aire (Paris, 2004), 82, 100. For sources on the Haitian Revolution, see David P.Geggus, Unexploited Sources for the History of the Haitian Revolution, Latin

American Research Review 18, no. 1 (1983), 95103.4. On racism as a novel phenomenon in Saint-Domingue, see Laurent Dubois,

Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Cambridge, MA,2004), 5; John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-

Domingue (New York, 2006), 4749. On racism as a minor phenomenon even in

the 1780s, see Dominique Rogers, On the Road to Citizenship: The ComplexRoute to Integration of the Free People of Color in the Two Capitals of Saint-Domingue, The World of the Haitian Revolution, ed. David P. Geggus andNorman Fiering (Bloomington, IN, 2009), 6578.


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far from employing Bunel as the revolutionary vanguard of the black

proletariat, Louverture andmore surprisinglyhis successor Jean-Jacques Dessalines used him to pursue traditional aims such as expand-

ing trade and enhancing national defense. In one particularly troublingcase, Louverture even instructed Bunel to purchase African plantationworkers from British slave traders.5

The last, wholly overlooked dimension of Bunels life is his partner-

ship with his wife, Marie Bunel. Mirroring her husbands unexpected

role as the white representative of a black revolution, she was a black

woman engaged in long-distance trade, a career path normally dominated

by white men. For many years after Haitis independence, while her

husband resumed his diplomatic and commercial ties with Haiti, MarieBunel lived a financially rewarding life in Philadelphia and remained

quite aloof from the destiny of the young black republic where she had

been born. Altogether, the career arcs of the two Bunels reinforce the

growing trend toward describing Saint-Domingues racial taxonomy as

merely one of many historically relevant social markers, since gender,

class, place of birth, and political views all played a significant role in

shaping their existence. To this list must be added financial self-interest,

which was the single most relevant factor as their eventful lives unfoldedbetween France, Saint-Domingue, and Philadelphia.

Relatively little is known about the Bunels before the Haitian Revolution,

but one can make some educated guesses based on clues left in the

archival record and what is known of the typical lives of men and women

of their social and racial background. Taken together, these identify the

Bunels as an upwardly mobile multiracial couple: she, a black freed-woman who had become a slave owner and a merchant; he, a French-

born plantation manager and merchant.

Accounts are unanimous in describing Marie Bunel as black, but in

prerevolutionary Saint-Domingue this label applied to a socially diverse

5. On Louverture and Dessaliness refusal to export the revolution, see Jean-

Jacques Dessalines, Proclamation, Jan. 1, 1804, AB/XIX/3302/15, AN; Phil-ippe Girard, Black Talleyrand: Toussaint Louvertures Diplomacy, 17981802,William and Mary Quarterly 66 (Jan. 2009), 106.


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group that ranged from despised, impoverished Congo (African-born)field slaves to elite Creole (Caribbean-born) free-coloreds. Marie Bunelwas a Creole, which immediately gave her some prominence in a popula-

tion dominated by recently imported slaves. Before she married JosephBunel, she was known as Fanchette Esteve or Marie-Francoise Mouton,which may reflect her past slave status since slaves often went by thename of their master or of their plantation (one U.S. newspaper article

described her as the slave of Mr. Esteve, but the article also mistakenlyreported Dessaliness capture and is of uncertain reliability). As for Fan-

chette (diminutive for Francoise), it was a decidedly undignified firstname, which she may have abandoned in favor of her other, more main-

stream first name as she moved up the social ladder.6

In the French Caribbean, another important social distinction sepa-rated the masses ofnouveaux libres (freed when France abolished slaveryin 1794) from the anciens libres (whose freedom predated the revolu-tion). Marie Bunel most likely belonged to the latter group. In her 1999dissertation on free people of color in Cap Francais before the Haitian

Revolution, Dominique Rogers listed a Fanchette Mouton as one of sev-eral highly prosperous free women of color (despite contemporary ste-

reotypes castigating all free women of color as prostitutes and courtesans,many made their living as small entrepreneurs). A 1798 letter describedMarie Bunel as a merchant specializing in clothing items, and three yearslater a merchant about to leave Cap Francais gave her full legal authority

to run his business in his absence. Both documents confirm her financialprominence, while backing Rogerss more general conclusion that freepeople of color had achieved a high degree of social and economic inte-

gration by the late 1780s, at least in Cap Francais. Marie Bunels latercorrespondence also indicates that she was a close friend of famous revo-lutionary families from the Cap Francais area, the Louvertures and the

6. Slave of Mr. Esteve from Aurora (Philadelphia), Mar. 22, 1802. On MarieBunel (hereafter MB) as a Creole, see Grand-Jean to [MB], Sept. 18, 1804, Folder22, Bunel Papers, Arthur Bining Collection, (Phi)1811, Historical Society ofPennsylvania, Philadelphia (hereafter BP-HSP). On MBs various names, see [Un-known] to MB, Oct. 24, 1803, Folder 7, BP- HSP; MB, Know all men by these

presents . . . , Oct. 11, 1810, Folder 32, BP- HSP. On slave names, see JeanFouchard, The Haitian Maroons: Liberty or Death (1972; repr., New York, 1981),184.


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Christophes in particular, and it is highly possible that they had known

each other since the prerevolutionary era.7

The most common path to emancipation in prerevolutionary Saint-

Domingue was for a master to free his mixed-race offspring and theirslave mother, so a black woman like Marie Bunel had most likely beenemancipated in her lifetime in exchange for sexual services. That shewas Joseph Bunels former slave is a tempting, but ultimately unproven,

hypothesis. Alternatively, their relationship may have started when hewas still a young man recently arrived from France, since it was common

for penniless newcomers to live with free black women in the popularneighborhoods of Cap Francais. Such partners could be unofficial con-

cubines (menageres) or outright wives. In the Bunels case, one sourceindicates that the two only married under Toussaint; that is, after Lou-verture became the most prominent figure in the colony in late 1798.

When in power, Louverture insisted that long-standing common-lawunions be sanctified by marriage, so the Bunels probably formalized theirrelationship at his insistence. One source also describes Marie Bunel as

Louvertures mistress, a relationship that is not altogether improbablesince Louverture (his outward Puritanism notwithstanding) had many

affairs; but the documentary record is too sparse to reach a definite con-clusion on that particular point.8

7. On free women of color in Cap, see Susan M. Socolow, Economic Rolesof the Free Women of Color of Cap Francais, in More than Chattel: Black Womenand Slavery in the Americas, ed. David Barry Gaspar and Darlene Clark Hine(Bloomington, IN, 1996), 279, 281, 293; Dominique Rogers, Les libres decouleur dans les capitales de Saint-Domingue: fortune, mentalites et integration ala fin de lAncien Regime (17761789) (PhD diss., Universite Michel de Mon-

taigne, Bordeaux 3[?]), 1999); Garrigus, Before Haiti, 72, 176; Rogers, On theRoad to Citizenship. On MB as a 1790s merchant, see Augustin Clervaux toMB, 6 Pluviose 6 [Jan. 25, 1798], Folder 13, BP-HSP; Aujourdhui ving-neuvieme jour du mois de Brumaire . . ., Nov. 20, 1801, Folder 16, BP-HSP.On MB as friend of the Louvertures and the Christophes, see Pascal to [Louver-ture], 10 Germinal [9?] [Mar. 31, 1801], Folder 9C, Kurt Fisher Collection,Howard University, Washington DC (hereafter KFC-HU); Henri Christophe toMB, June 12, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP.

8. Under Toussaint from Louis Ferrand to Denis Decres, 20 Germinal 13

[Apr. 10, 1805], B7/11, Service Historique de la Defense-Departement delArmee de Terre, Vincennes (hereafter SHD-DAT). On sex as a path to emanci-pation, see Arlette Gautier, Les surs de Solitude: La condition feminine danslesclavage aux Antilles du XVIIe au XIXe siecle (Paris, 1985), 174; David P.


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Free people of color usually embraced the white plantation model,and Saint-Domingues unusually large free-colored community ownedmany plantations and slaves before the revolution. Free women of color

owned and traded slaves as well; so did, most likely, Marie Bunel. InDecember 1802, nine years after slavery was abolished in Saint-Domingue, she asked her legal representative to protect and keep acareful eye on my former subjects [emphasis added]. A list of fourteenblack individuals followed in the manner typically used when describingprerevolutionary estates, complete with the workers skills and offspring.She also expressed her desire to enforce all the governmental laws andregulations that apply to them, as well as those that the government may

pass in the future. As Marie Bunel well knew, France had effectivelyrestored slavery in Guadeloupe that year and was widely suspected ofpreparing to do the same in Saint-Domingue, so the comment under-scored her willingness to recover her former human property if Franceever restored slavery in Saint-Domingue (a restoration of slavery wouldnot have affected anciens libres like her).9

Geggus, Slave and Free Colored Women in Saint-Domingue, in More than

Chattel, ed. Gaspar and Hine, 268; Myriam Cottias, La seduction coloniale:damnation et strategie, in Seduction et societes: approches historiques, ed. CecileDauphin and Arlette Farge (Paris, 2001), 130. On unions between poor whitemen and free black women, see Michele-Rene Hilliard dAuberteuil and Antoinede Sartine, Considerations sur letat pre sent de la colonie francaise de Saint-

Domingue: ouvrage politique et legislative, presente au Ministre de la Marine (2vols., Paris, 1776), 2: 27376. On the menageres, see Justin Girod-Chantrans,Voyage dun Suisse dans differentes colonies dAmerique (Neuchatel, 1785), 140;Gautier, Les surs de Solitude, 16668. On Louvertures insistence that his collab-orators should marry, see F. R. de Tussac, Cri des colons contre un ouvrage de M.

lEveque et Senateur Gregoire, ayant pour titre de la litterature des negres (Paris,1810), 231; Madison Smartt Bell, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography (New York,2007), 198. On MB as Louvertures mistress, see Cauna, Toussaint Louverture,82. On Louvertures other affairs, see Michel-Etienne Descourtilz, Voyage dunnaturaliste en Hati, 17991803 (1809; repr., Paris, 1935), 153; Pamphile deLacroix, La revolution de Hati (1819; repr., Paris, 1995), 304.

9. My former subjects from MB, [Untitled] (27 Frimaire 11 [Dec. 18,1802]), Folder 109, BP-HSP. On the free-coloreds land and slave assets, seeCarolyn E. Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below

(Knoxville, TN, 1990), 19; John D. Garrigus, Redrawing the Colour Line: Gen-der and the Social Construction of Race in Pre-Revolutionary Haiti, Journal ofCaribbean History, 30, no. 12 (1996), 39; Stewart R. King, Blue Coat or Pow-dered Wig: Free People of Color in Pre-Revolutionary Saint-Domingue (Athens,


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Joseph Bunels past is equally obscure. There is no known portrait of

him, so one must rely entirely on a disparate archival record to assess

his skin color and social background. Baptismal records indicate that he

was born in March 1753 in the Norman city of Pont-Audemer and thathis full name was Joseph Robert Eustache Bunel de Blancamp. His

mother, Anne-Reine Durand, was a commoner. On his paternal side, he

descended from a family of minor nobility that had produced a tanner

and an echevin (city official) earlier in the century, but his father may nothave inherited the title because a document described him as a mere

bourgeois merchant. As of 1785, Joseph Bunels younger brother

Louis-Joseph was a vicaire (priest assistant); his sister Marguerite mar-

ried in 1787, by which time their father had died. It is technically possi-ble that Bunels mother was not white, but people of color only

numbered 5,000 in all of France in the 1780s, most of them in Paris and

Atlantic ports, and finding a mixed-race couple in rural Normandy is

unlikely. Taken together, surviving documents point to a middling pro-

vincial background that was typical of the many ambitious young

Frenchmen who headed to Saint-Domingue in the 1780s in search of the

fabled wealth of the perle des Antilles.10

Several contemporaries also describe Bunel as a Frenchman and a

GA, 2001), 119, 141. On women of color owning slaves, see Socolow, EconomicRoles of the Free Women of Color, 286, 289.

10. Bourgeois from Abbe Piel, Inventaire historique des actes transcrits auxinsinuations ecclesiastiques de lancien diocese de Lisieux (Lisieux, 1895), 5: 339.For JBs batismal record, see Registres paroissiaux, Pont-Audemer, Notre-Damedu Prey, 8 Mi 3150, Archives Departementales de lEure, Evreux. On JBs ances-

tors, see M. Charpillon, Dictionnaire historique de toutes les communes du departe-ment de lEure (Les Andelys, 1879), 867, 933. On JBs siblings, see Piel,

Inventaire historique 5:339, 631, 718. On the number of people of color inFrance, see Sue Peabody and Tyler Edward Stovall, eds., The Color of Liberty:Histories of Race in France (Durham, NC, 2003), 2; Michael D. Sibalis, Lesnoirs en France sous Napoleon: Lenquete de 1807, in Retablissement de lescla-vage dans les colonies francaises 1802: Ruptures et continuites de la politique colo-niale francaise (18001830), ed. Yves Benot and Marcel Dorigny (Paris, 2003),100; Pierre Boulle, Race et esclavage dans la France de lAncien Regime (Paris,

2007), 109, 142. On the large proportion of newcomers in Saint-Domingue, seeGirod-Chatrans, Voyage dun Suisse, 22730, 239, 245; Auberteuil, Considerationssur letat present, 1: 14749, 15867, 2: 33, 4057, 27376.


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European, or, even more clearly, as a bad White. All three witnesses

were from metropolitan France, where mixed-blood individuals lighter

than Quadroons were generally considered white, which leaves open the

possibility that Bunel was a light-skinned individual whom the morerace-conscious colonists, who argued that it took six generations to wipe

out the stigma of miscegenation, would have refused to accept as one of

their own, but the odds for such a distant African ancestry are quite low.

Bunels metropolitan background may also explain his later willingness

to collaborate with Louverture and Dessalines, since modern concepts

of scientific racism had not yet taken hold among the French rank-

and-file as of the late eighteenth century.11

The earliest document mentioning Joseph Bunel in Saint-Domingueis a 1788 legal ruling sentencing le sieur Bunel, a negociant(merchant)in Port-au-Prince, to pay 4,372 livres to a captain from the Norman port

of Le Havre. The term sieur (sir) was normally reserved for white

males, whereas men of color had to go by the moniker le nomme, orknown as. Such racial characterizations continued to appear in legal

documents even after the abolition of racial inequality in 1792, and in

his 1807 will Bunel described himself as the legitimate son of sieur

Bunel and dame Anne Durand, a term normally reserved for whitewomen. Bunels use of such terms is another clue to his racial affiliation,

though social status could occasionally preempt race in Saint-Domingue

and some prominent mixed-race individuals managed to receive the

sought-after sieur in legal documents notwithstanding their African

ancestry. Using a French name like Bunel was another giveaway, since a

11. Frenchman from Ferrand to Decres, 20 Germinal 13 [Apr. 10, 1805],B7/11, SHD-DAT. European from Cauna, Toussaint Louverture, 100. Abad White from Guillaume Mauviel, Memoires sur Saint-Domingue . . .,May 24, 1806, 1M599, SHD-DAT. On the less stringent definitions of racialpurity prevalent in France, see M. J. La Neuville, Le dernier cri de Saint-

Domingue et des colonies (Philadelphia, 1800), 10. On racial taxonomy in thecolonies, see Auberteuil, Considerations sur letat present, 2: 82; Francis Alexan-der Stanislaus Wimpffen, A Voyage to Saint Domingo in the Years 1788, 1789,and 1790 (London, 1797), 61; Mederic Moreau de Saint-Mery, Description de

la partie francaise de lisle Saint-Domingue (3 vols., 1797; repr., Paris, 1958),1: 86100. On the French rank-and-files late conversion to scientific racism,see Boulle, Race et esclavage, 44, 80.


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1773 law required free people of color to use African-sounding names

(though some prominent free-coloreds did manage to use their fathersFrench name in practice).12

Francois-Marie Kerversau, a French officer whose accounts are oftenreliable, described Joseph Bunel as a former procureur, then a mer-chant, of very low reputation. Procureurs were managers who oversawthe plantation of absentee owners and were overwhelmingly white, as

were merchants (typical male free-colored professions included small-scale planter, militiaman, sailor, and artisan). A report by the French

agent Gabriel dHedouville also described Bunel as a former procureurand a man despised by public opinion, while two U.S. and British

sources lambasted him as one of the greatest scoundrels I ever knew inmy life and a man of mean character. Such snide remarks are interest-ing in a colony that sharply distinguished between the elite grands blancsand the petits blancs rabble. The procureurprofession was lucrative andsought after, but it suffered from a bad reputation because managers hada tendency to overwork the slaves to boost short-term profits at the ex-

pense of the long-term viability of the labor force. Planters also criticizedFrench merchants as greedy leeches.13

12. Sieur Bunel from Extrait des registres du greffe de lamiraute de Port-au-Prince, June 11, 1788, Folder 13, BP-HSP. Dame from Testament de

J[ose]ph Robert Eustache Bunel, Jan. 28, 1807, Folder 11, BP- HSP. On theuse of sieur, see Garrigus, Colour, Class, and Identity on the Eve of the HaitianRevolution: Saint-Domingues Free Coloured Elite as Colons Americains Slaveryand Abolition 17 (Apr. 1996), 1943; Garrigus, Before Haiti, 16469; King, BlueCoat or Powdered Wig, 8, 163. On the continued use of racial terms after 1792,see Dubois, Inscribing Race in the Revolutionary French Antilles, in The Color

of Liberty, 95107. On free-colored and French names, see Auberteuil, Considera-tions sur letat present, 2: 81; Joan Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods (1995;repr., Berkeley, CA, 1998), 227; Garrigus, Redrawing the Colour Line, 38;King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig, 166, 168.

13. A former procureur from Kerversau, Rapport sur la partie francaise deSaint-Domingue, 1 Germinal 9 [Mar. 22, 1801]), Box 2/66, Rochambeau Pa-pers, University of Florida, Gainesville (hereafter RP-UF). Despised by publicopinion from Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 365. Scoundrel and mean char-acter from Charles Tansill, The United States and Santo Domingo, 17981873:

A chapter in Caribbean diplomacy (Baltimore, 1938), 17, 45. On typical careersfor free people of color, see King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig, xiii, xvii, 146, 154.On negative views of procureurs and merchants, see Girod-Chatrans, Voyage dun


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Altogether, the Bunel of the prerevolutionary era comes across as an

ambitious, up-and-coming individual who was financially far more suc-cessful than the many petits blancs starving in urban centers, but who

had yet to achieve social respectability as a well established grand blanc.Bunels later interracial marriage can only have added to public scorn.Despite the frequency of the practice, a white man was generally stigma-tized if he was officially married to a woman of color, or mesallie (mis-matched), and two white authors specifically criticized him for beingmarried to a negresse [black woman].14

What, then, of the various authors who identify Bunel as a mixed-raceindividual? Their evidence is quite unconvincing, as they draw their

information from other secondary sources or ambiguous primarysources. Santoros work cites McCulloughs biography of Adams, whichitself referred to Alexander DeCondes 1966 history of the Quasi-War,

in which Bunel was merely described as Louvertures personal repre-sentative. The books by Levine and Wills both referred to Egertonsessay, in which he claimed that U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Albert

Gallatin fumed that Adams would dine with the light-skinned Bunel, amulatto married to a black woman. But Egertons footnote lists a letter

by Thomas Jefferson and a Congressional debate involving Gallatin, nei-ther of which specified Bunels race; instead, Gallatin described Louver-ture as a black general while saying nothing of Bunels racial affiliation,thus implying that he was white. These historians most likely assumed

that the diplomatic representative of a former slave must have been aperson of color, a logical shortcut that overlooked the considerable racialcomplexity prevailing in Dominguian society.15

Suisse, 22730, 234, 253; Wimpffen, A Voyage to Saint Domingo, 86, 327;Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 33.

14. Negresse from Ferrand to Decres, 20 Germinal 13 [Apr. 10, 1805], B7/11, SHD-DAT and Guillaume Mauviel, Memoires sur Saint-Domingue . . .,May 24, 1806, 1M599, SHD-DAT. On the mesallies, see Alfred de Laujon, Souve-nirs de trente annees de voyages a Saint-Domingue, dans plusieurs colonies etrang-eres, et au continent dAmerique (2 vols., Paris, 1835), 1: 120; Garrigus, BeforeHaiti, 178.

15. Personal representative from DeConde, Quasi-War, 135. Married to a

black woman from Egerton, The Empire of Liberty Reconsidered, 315. OnJeffersons letter, see Jefferson to James Madison, Feb. 5, 1799, in http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/mss/mjm/06/0600/0646d.jpg. On Gallatins speech, see Thomas


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The outbreak of the Haitian Revolution radically transformed the world

in which the Bunels had lived. The plain of Cap Francais was ravagedduring the 1791 slave uprising, the city itself burned to the ground in

1793, and thousands of planters, free people of color, and slaves fled to

cities on the U.S. seaboard. Joseph Bunel is mentioned as residing in

Pennsylvania in 1792, and possibly in 17931794 as well, but informa-

tion on his first stay in the United States is frustratingly sparse. Whether

Marie Bunel emigrated as well is uncertain, as only 33 free people of

color reached Philadelphia during that period.16

After almost ten years of political turmoil, the situation in Saint-Domingue stabilized somewhat in 1798, when British forces left the col-

ony and Louverture established himself as de facto ruler of the North andWest of Saint-Domingue. Louverture long had a reputation as an idealis-

tic rebel committed to emancipation, but recent scholarship has shown

that he had owned slaves before the revolution, and the gulf between the

freedman and the planter community no longer seems as wide as it once

appeared. As governor, Louverture maintained and even toughened his

predecessorss cultivateur (semi-free) system, and many planters prag-matically concluded that he was the only officer able and willing to re-

store the colonys ravaged plantations. White creoles, who had longdreamed of obtaining political autonomy from France and freeing them-

selves from mercantilist trade restrictions, were also pleased to note that

Louverture shared their political and economic goals. Confident that

Louverture would prove a more congenial leader than French radical

Hart Benton, Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (NewYork, 1857), 2: 33439.

16. On JBs first stay in the United States, see General Assembly of Penn-sylvania, An act for the relief of Joseph Robert Eustache Bunel, Mar. 10, 1806,in http://files.usgwarchives.org/pa/1pa/xmisc/1805-1806laws.txt. For his possiblepresence in 17931794 (as Benet de Blancamp and Bund de Blancamp), seeWills: Abstracts, Will Book W.691 no. 418 (1793), in http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/philadelphia/wills/willabstrbkw.txt; Wills: Abstracts, Book X Part I

(1794), in http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/philadelphia/wills/willabstrbkx1.txt. Onfree people of color in Philadelphia, see Gary B. Nash, Reverberations of Haitiin the American North: Black Saint Dominguans in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaHistory 65, no. 5 (1998), 50.


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firebrands like Leger-Felicite Sonthonax, many exiles returned to Saint-

Domingue in 1798. Both Bunels were in the colony by that date.17

Saint-Domingue had prospered by exporting colonial crops, so

Louvertures hopes of reviving the colonys sagging economy lay on hisability to secure an outlet for its trade. Naval war with England hadannihilated the French merchant fleet, forcing Saint-Domingue to tradealmost exclusively with U.S. merchants, so after the United States im-

posed a trade embargo in 1798 Louverture expressed his surprise andsadness in a letter to Adams upon seeing that your nations ships have

abandoned Saint-Domingues ports. Louverture selected Joseph Bunelfor the critical missions of delivering the letter and defending Saint-

Domingues interests before the U.S. government. Louverture employeda virtually white cadre of secretaries, priests, merchants, and civil ser-vants in his administration (blacks and mulattoes dominated in the

army), so for him to select a white envoy was far from extraordinary. Asa keen politician and diplomat, he was also unlikely to send a person ofcolor to represent him in the United States (and later England and

Jamaica), regimes governed by a white, race-conscious, and often slave-owning ruling class.18

That Louverture selected Bunel specifically for this mission may alsohave been connected to his recent stay in Philadelphia, while the gover-nor of Jamaica ascribed his influence to the fact that he was one ofLouvertures relatives. Details on Bunels exact place in Louvertures

sprawling extended family are missing, but given Louvertures penchant

17. On Louverture as a slave owner, see Cauna, Toussaint Louverture, 6167.On Louvertures strict labor rules, see Louverture, Instructions aux fonction-

naires publics, civils et militaires, 24 Floreal 9 [May 14, 1801], CC9A/28, AN.On the planters ideological closeness to Louverture, see Thomas Madiou, His-toire dHati (3 vols., Port-au-Prince, 1847), 2: 71. On the Bunels 1798 return,see Clervaux to MB, 6 Pluviose 6 [Jan. 25, 1798], Folder 13, BP- HSP.

18. Surprise and sadness from Louverture to Adams, 16 Brumaire 7 [Nov.6, 1798], RG 59, Microfilm M9/1, NARA-CP. On the decline of French com-merce to the Caribbean, see Paul Butel, Succes et declin du commerce colonialfrancais, de la Revolution a la Restauration, Revue economique 40 (Nov. 1989),107996. On Louvertures white allies, see Kerversau to Eustache Bruix, 4 Vende-

miaire 8 [Sept. 26, 1799]), CC9/B23, AN; [Philippe Roume?], Rapport auxconsuls de la Republique, 1 Nivose 8 [Dec. 22, 1799]), CC9A/18, AN; MarcusRainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti (London, 1805),253; Madiou, Histoire dHati, 2: 71.


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for nepotism it is entirely possible that the two were indeed related by

marriage (one letter mentions that Marie Bunel took care of Louvertures

wife Suzanne when she was sick, and they may have been relatives).

Bunels motives for accepting the diplomatic appointment are easier toascertain. The U.S. embargo had a devastating impact on the export

business, and when the embargo was later lifted he immediately wrote to

his business contacts in Philadelphia to inform them that they could now

resume their lucrative commercial links.19

Given Saint-Domingues importance for U.S. commerce, Bunels ar-

rival in Philadelphia was noted in numerous U.S. newspapers and private

letters. All but one failed to mention his race, which would likely not

have gone unnoticed if he had indeed been the first diplomat of color inU.S. history. In his correspondence, U.S. Secretary of State Timothy

Pickering specified that Louverture was the black commander in chief

of St. Domingo when he merely described Bunel as a messenger.

U.S. newspapers articles describing Bunels 1798 visit also simply re-

ferred to him as Mr. Bunel and a gentleman. A March 1802 article

from the Philadelphia Aurora even more categorically described theBunel couple as Bunel, a white man, and his wife, a negress.20

Joseph Bunel met Pickering and a Congressional delegation fromSouth Carolina, and then dined with Adams in January 1799. Hopeful

that bilateral negotiations would drive a wedge between France and its

colony and ultimately push Saint-Domingue to independence, Pickering

responded enthusiastically to Louvertures request for a trade treaty.

After a four-month stay in Philadelphia, which he no doubt also em-

ployed to further his private business interests, Bunel headed back to

Saint-Domingue on the USS Kingston, bringing with him his friend

Jacob Meyer, a Philadelphia merchant who had served as unofficial U.S.

19. On JB as a relative of Louverture, see Earl of Balcarres to William Caven-dish, Duke of Portland, July 18, 1801, CO 137/105, British National Archives,Kew (hereafter BNA). On the friendship between Suzanne Louverture and MB,see Pascal to [Louverture], 10 Germinal [9?] [Mar. 31, 1801], Folder 9C, KFC-HU. On the resumption of commercial links, see JB to [U.S. citizen], Apr. 28,1799, RG 59, Microfilm M9/1, NARA-CP; Marine Journal, June 21, 1799.

20. Messenger from Pickering to David Humphreys, Apr. 16, 1799, RG59, Microfilm M28/5, NARA-CP. Mr. Bunel and gentleman from Commercial

Advertiser. Dec. 26, 1798; Massachusetts Mercury (Boston), Mar. 29, 1799.Bunel, a white man, from Aurora (Philadelphia), Mar. 22, 1802.


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consul for years, and Edward Stevens, a Philadelphia doctor appointed

as his replacement. By May 1799, Louverture, Stevens, and a Britishenvoy had reached an agreement under which Louverture promised

not to allow privateers in Saint-Domingues ports and to refrain fromattacking Jamaica. In exchange, U.S. merchants would return to Saint-Domingue under the protection of the British Navy.21

Well aware that a colonial governor was not supposed to conduct

diplomatic negotiations, particularly with Frances enemies, Louverturedid his best to keep the agreement secret and did not appoint Joseph

Bunel as permanent representative in the United States. Instead, Bunelassumed the title ofpayeur general(paymaster) of the colony, an impor-

tant position that greatly facilitated his private business dealings. Onemonth after the agreement with the United States, the Tribunal of Com-merce of Cap Francais ruled in Bunels favor in a case that could have

forced him to repay a debt worth 36,000 colonial francs. Bunels politicalprominence no doubt played a role, as did the fact that his friend Meyertestified on his behalf. Bunel also did business with the Philadelphia

merchants Richard Gernon, Andrew Pettit, and Andrew Bayard, and hispersonal fortune revived along with the colonial economy. By 1800, he

was managing plantations on behalf of several absentee owners, and com-missions from a single planter earned him over 16,000 colonial francs. Acontemporary also mentioned that Bunel was charged with importingweapons and ammunition from Hamburg on Louvertures behalf. Marie

Bunel left no document from this period, but she must have been closelyinvolved in her husbands business since he gave her full power of

21. On JBs stay in the United States, see Pickering to Alexander Hamilton,

Feb. 9, 1799, in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Harold Syrett (New York,1975), 22: 47375; Gazette (Philadelphia), Mar. 12, 1799; DeConde, Quasi War,135; Tansill, The United States and Santo Domingo, 45; Stanley Elkins and EricMcKitrick, The Age of Federalism (New York, 1993), 657. On JBs return to Saint-Domingue, see Massachusetts Mercury (Boston), Mar. 29, 1799; Edward Stevensto Louverture, Apr. 10, 1799, 208 MI/1, AN; Louverture to Adams, 9 Floreal 7[Apr. 28, 1799], RG 59, Microfilm M9/1, NARA-CP; Brown, Toussaints Clause,155. On the BunelMeyer friendship and the MeyerStevens feud, see JB toMeyer, 18 Nivose 9 [Jan. 8, 1801]), RG 59, Microfilm M9/1, NARA-CP; Tansill,

The United States and Santo Domingo, 17, 58. On the StevensMaitlandLouverture convention, see Roume to Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord,17 Floreal 7 [May 6, 1799], Papers of Philippe Roume, Manuscript Division,Library of Congress, Washington, DC.


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attorney when he left the island in 1801 on a second diplomatic mission.

A later document states that she owned a rental property in Cap Francaisand two plantations outside the city, which she may have acquired

around that time.22

Louverture reached the pinnacle of his career in 1801, as he passed aconstitution that made him governor general for life and expelled theFrench agent Philippe Roume de Saint-Laurent. Afraid that France might

be tempted to use force to reassert its vanishing authority in Saint-Domingue, Louverture sent his trusted Joseph Bunel to England via Ja-

maica to renew ties with his British allies (the governor of Jamaica optedto handle the negotiations in person, and Bunel never went beyond

Kingston). Bunels main goals as a negotiator were to ensure that Britishwarships would stop harassing Dominguian commerce, and possiblyhelp protect the island from a French invasion, but there was a secret

component to his mission that adds a fascinating layer to Louverture andBunels already complex personalities. In a report to his superiors, thegovernor of Jamaica wrote that during one of their conversations Bunel

had requested on Louvertures behalf Britains assistance for the impor-tation of Negroes (from the coast of Africa) into St. Domingo: cultivators

as he termed them. Louverture, the son of a survivor of the MiddlePassage, rationalized his surprising demand by saying that he wouldgrant the slaves the semi-free cultivateur status and that their labor wasessential to the revival of the colonial economy (which as a plantation

owner was his main domestic priority). British negotiators made no men-tion of the slave trade in their counteroffers, but it is entirely possible

22. On JBs lawsuit, see Extract from the Minutes of the Clerks Office of the

Tribunal of Commerce sitting at the Cap, 17 Prairial 7 [June 5, 1799], Folder 7,BP-HSP. On JBs links to Philadelphia merchants, see JB to Jacob Meyer, 26Messidor 8 [July 15, 1800], RG 59, Microfilm M9/1, NARA-CP; This charterparty of affreightment . . ., Aug. 1802, Box 7:3, Borie Family Papers, (Phi)1602,HSP (hereafter BFP-HSP); [French merchant in Cap] to Richard Gernon, July29, 1802, Box 7:6, BFP-HSP; Gellibert to Bunel, Jan. 18, 1802, Folder 14, BP-HSP. On JBs financial gains, see JB, Doit monsieur Bivel . . ., 22 Vendemiaire9 [Oct. 14, 1800], Folder 22, BP-HSP; Doit le citoyen Bunel . . ., 14 Flore al 9[May 4, 1801], Folder 109, BP-HSP. On arms purchases in Hamburg, see Plu-

chon, Toussaint Louverture, 414. For the power of attorney, see Extrait desregistres du greffe du tribunal civil du departement du nord . . ., 9 Vendemiaire10 [Oct. 1, 1801]), Folder 16, BP-HSP. On MBs plantations, see Grand-Jean to[MB], Sept. 18, 1804, Folder 22, BP-HSP.


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that Bunel managed to direct some slavers to Saint-Domingue, since

contraband was rampant in Jamaica and British traders had routinelysmuggled slaves into French colonies before the revolution. Anger at

Louvertures contacts with slave traders played an important role insparking a major cultivator uprising near Cap Francais in October1801.23

After months of negotiations, Joseph Bunel and the governor of

Jamaica reached an agreement in November 1801 to stop British attackson Louvertures commerce, but news of the London peace preliminaries

between England and France reached Jamaica soon thereafter and theagreement proved stillborn. The peace, which Louverture learned about

from Bunel upon his return from Jamaica, meant that France was nowfree to ship squadrons across the Atlantic. Two months later, as he stoodin Cape Samana during a visit to Santo Domingo (modern-day Domini-

can Republic), Louverture witnessed the arrival of a massive French fleetthat First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte had sent to remove him fromoffice. Bonaparte had also instructed the expeditions commander, Vic-

toire Leclerc, to deport all of Louvertures white supporterspeople likeJoseph Bunel.24

23. Importation of negroes from George Nugent to Portland, Sept. 5, 1801,CO 137/106, BNA. On Bunels trip to Jamaica, see JB to Louverture, 10 Messidor9 [June 29, 1801], Box 1:5, John Kobler/Haitian Revolution Collection, MG 140,Shomburg Center, New York Public Library; Louverture, Demands made byToussaint through monsieur Bunel, c. Aug. 1801, CO 137/106, BNA; Lady

Nugents Journal of her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805, ed. PhilipWright (Kingston, 2002), 31, 41. On Louvertures contacts with slave traders, seealso article 17 of Louvertures 1801 constitution; Gerbier to Hedouville, Sept. 28,

1801, in H. Pauleus Sannon, Histoire de Toussaint Louverture (3 vols., Port-au-Prince, 1933), 3: 43; Mauviel, Memoires sur Saint-Domingue, May 24, 1806,1M599, SHD-DAT; A. P. M. Laujon, Precis historique de la derniere expeditionde Saint-Domingue (Paris, c. 1805), 8; Lacroix, La revolution de Hati, 401. Onslave smuggling, see Geggus, The French Slave Trade: An Overview, Williamand Mary Quarterly 58 (Jan. 2001), 119, 125. On the Moyse uprising, see Aurora(Philadelphia), Nov. 30, 1801.

24. On the tentative agreement with Jamaica, see Nugent to Portland, Nov. 7,1801, CO 137/106, BNA. On news of the peace, see W. L. Whitfield to Nugent,

Dec. 9, 1801, CO 137/106, BNA; Madiou, Histoire dHati, 2: 11724. OnLouverture in Samana, see Lacroix, La revolution de Hati, 283; ToussaintLouverture, Memoires du General Toussaint lOuverture ecrits par lui-meme(1853; repr., Port-au-Prince, 1982), 92; Antonio del Monte y Tejada, Historia de


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Leclerc landed in February 1802, signed a ceasefire with Louverture

three months later, and deported him in June under suspicions that hewas planning a new uprising. The racial divide played an important rolein the continuing war, particularly as Leclerc began ordering mass execu-

tions of colonial troops in the fall of 1802, but political and economicrivalries between metropolitan administrators like Leclerc and white col-

onists like Joseph Bunel were another important subtext. Most accountsclaim that Bonaparte sent the Leclerc expedition to assuage the planter

lobby, but Leclerc actually quarreled constantly with the colonial aristoc-

racy over issues like the status of plantation laborers, tax rates, and colo-nial autonomy (all three of which stemmed from similar controversies

between metropolitan administrators and colonial planters before the

revolution). Leclerc questioned the planters loyalty to the Republic and

was eager to find funds for his army, both of which put him on a collision

course with the Bunels.25

Bonaparte had instructed that the expedition should pay for itself, and

within days of landing in Cap Francais Leclerc demanded that Joseph

Bunel turn over the governmental funds he had overseen as paymaster.When Bunel refused (explaining that the citys commander Henri Chris-

tophe had taken all the cash with him before leaving the city), Leclerc

put him under arrest and threatened him with execution if he refused to

give one million francs. Bunels mercantile links with the United States

were an aggravating factor in Leclercs eyes, who confiscated a ship that

Bunel had sent to the United States and seized funds held on his behalf

by the merchants Richard Gernon in Philadelphia and James Dupuy in

Santo Domingo (4 vols., Ciudad Trujillo, 1952), 3: 215. On the instructions toLeclerc, see Bonaparte, Notes pour servir aux instructions a donner au capitainegeneral Leclerc, 9 Brumaire 10 [Oct. 31, 1801]), in Lettres du general Leclerc,ed. Paul Roussier (Paris, 1937), 26374.

25. On Leclercs bad relations with colonial elites, see Collette to Foache, Apr.7, 1802, FP/92APC/16/43, Centre des Archives dOutremer, Aix-en-Provence;Leclerc to Inhabitants of Saint-Domingue, 5 Floreal 10 [Apr. 25, 1802]), Box 4/

277, RP-UF; Joseph-Antoine Idlinger, Rapport sur lobjet propose par le citoyengeneral en chef, en la seance du 24 Prairial an 10, June 14, 1802, Box 7/496,RP-UF; Lacroix, La revolution de Hati, 358; Mary Hassal [a.k.a. Leonora San-say], Secret History, or, The Horrors of St. Domingo (Philadelphia, 1808), 34.


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New York. Such actions were part of a larger set of punitive measures

aimed at U.S. merchants that Leclerc took in the spring of 1802 in an

attempt to bring back Frances old mercantilist trade restrictions.26

By the fall of 1802, Joseph Bunel had still not given in, and Leclercput his wife under arrest to ramp up the pressure. Mass executions of

soldiers of color had become the norm in Cap Francais by that date, so

Marie Bunel genuinely feared for her life and appealed to Leclerc, then

to Donatien de Rochambeau, who replaced Leclerc as captain-general

after his death from yellow fever. Cleverly playing on stereotypes of

women as political and economical nonentities, Marie Bunel wrote to

Rochambeau that I cannot believe that the government would implicate

a woman in matters of politics, finance, or accounting that are completelyforeign to her. The signatures of twenty Cap Francais notables accom-

panied her petition, a detail that more accurately indicated her high so-

cial standing. Quite amazingly in a period rife with judicial arbitrariness,

she quickly obtained her release and headed for Philadelphia. Her hus-

band was deported to France and was only freed late in 1803.27

26. On JBs arrest, see Christophe to JB, 14 Pluviose 10 [Feb. 3, 1802], Folder109, BP- HSP; Pierre Boyer to JB, 20 Ventose 10 [Mar. 11, 1802], CC9B/21,AN; JB to Bonaparte, 18 Messidor 11 [July 7, 1803], CC9/B23, AN. On theconfiscation of JBs assets, see Leclerc to Decres, 20 Pluviose 10 [Feb. 9, 1802],CC9B/19, AN; Leclerc, [untitled], 20 Germinal 10 [Apr. 10 1802], Box 4/218,RP-UF; Louis-Andre Pichon to Hector Daure, 9 Prairial 10 [May 29, 1802], B7/13, SHD-DAT; Pichon to Leclerc, 9 Prairial 10 [May 29, 1802], BN08269 / lot

107, RP-UF; Liot to Daure, 30 Messidor 10 [July 19, 1802], B7/13, SHD-DAT;Decres to Coursault, 11 Ventose 11 [Mar. 2,1803], Folder 7, BP-HSP. OnLeclercs mistreatment of U.S. merchants, see Leclerc, Arrete, 28 Pluviose 10[Feb. 17, 1802]), CC9/B22, AN; Tobias Lear to Boyer, Mar. 11, 1802, Folder 1,Env. 2, General claims, 1799-1844, RG 76 / MLR Pl 177 239, NARA-CP; JohnRodgers to Madison, June 1802, Box 1:14, Rodgers Family Papers, (Phi)1208,

27. I cannot believe that the government from MB to Rochambeau, 2 Fri-maire 11 [Nov. 23, 1802], Box 14/1363, RP-UF. For her other appeals, see MBto [Leclerc], 11 Brumaire 11 [Nov. 2, 1802], B7/12, SHD-DAT; MB to Daure,

21 Brumaire 11 [Nov. 12, 1802], B7/12, SHD-DAT. On MBs release, see Maurinto MB, 10 July 1803, Folder 7, BP-HSP. On JBs release, see JB to Bonaparte, 18Messidor 11 [July, 7 1803], CC9/B23, AN; Marguerite Ansalle to MB, Aug. 9,1803, Folder 7, BP-HSP; [Unknown] to MB, Oct. 24, 1803, Folder 7, BP-HSP.


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After arriving in Philadelphia, Marie Bunel settled at 59 Lombard St. and

resumed her activities as a full-fledged partner in the couples mercantilebusiness. Quite boldly for a person who had just escaped execution, she

wrote to the French commander of Cap Francais to demand, in the politebut firm tone of a businesswoman, that funds seized in New York theprevious year be returned to her. She quickly became a prominent mem-ber of the Dominguian community in Philadelphia, offering bread cou-

pons, lodging, and wood to destitute exiles. She also maintained contactsin Saint-Domingue, notably with the former black mayor of Cap

Francais, Cesar Telemaque, and planters routinely contacted her fornews of estranged relatives.28

Marie Bunel became increasingly bourgeois as years went by. Likemany well-off Philadelphians, she escaped the city heat and disease tospend her summers in the countryside at Sashameny farm, Box

County (probably Neshaminy, Bucks County). When signing her corre-spondence, she switched from femme Bunel (woman Bunel or wifeof Bunel) to the more dignified madame Bunel (Mrs. Bunel). Most

intriguingly, she placed three dots next to her name, a symbol that isusually thought to indicate membership in a Masonic lodge. U.S. lodges

were strictly segregated by gender and race, but Dominguian lodges weremore accommodating (Louvertures signature also boasted three dots)and it is possible that, like many Dominguian exiles in Philadelphia, shewas truly a mason. Joseph Bunel also signed his name with three dots,

as did about 20 percent of the exiles with whom he founded a charitablesociety in 1804 to assist destitute Frenchmen in Philadelphia.29

28. On MBs role in the mercantile business, see JB to MB, May 16, [1803?],

Folder 109, BP-HSP. On her demand for reimbursement, see MB to Boyer, Mar.24, 1803, Folder 7, BP-HSP. On her philanthropic role, see Denayve to MB, c.1803, Folder 109, BP-HSP; MB, Bon pour quatre pains dun escalin, no date,Folder 109, BP-HSP. On her contacts in Saint-Domingue, see Veuve BellonyTardieu to MB, Apr. 8, 1804, Folder 22, BP-HSP; Cesar Telemaque to MB, Apr.12, 1804, Folder 22, BP-HSP. On requests for news, see Leaumont to MB, Apr.1, 1804, Folder 22, BP-HSP.

29. Sashameny from JB to MB, Aug. 15, 1804, Folder 22, BP-HSP; FemmeBunel from MB to Boyer, Mar. 24, 1803, Folder 7, BP-HSP; Madame Bunel

from MB, Know all men by these presents . . ., Oct. 11, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP. On femme as demeaning, see Garrigus, Before Haiti, 142. For examplesof MBs signature, see MB, Bon pour quatre pains dun escalin, no date, Folder109, BP-HSP. On Dominguan freemasonry, see Garrigus, Before Haiti, 29197.


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While Marie Bunel continued her lifelong journey toward upper class

respectability, her white husband maintained his association with Saint-

Domingues black rebels, a role that is only described in the literature in

a sparsely footnoted article by Maurice Lubin. In a lengthy letter writtenfrom Baltimore in October 1803, Joseph Bunel explained to Dessalines

(now leading the rebel forces vying for independence) that he had just

managed to escape from the claws of the French government, who had

persecuted him because of his diplomatic missions to the United States

and Jamaica, and was on his way to Philadelphia to reunite with his wife.

Eager to help our unfortunate brothers in Saint-Domingue, Bunel of-

fered to meet the British ambassador to the United States on Dessaliness

behalf, explained that he had incited various merchant friends to shipgoods to rebel-controlled areas, and noted that many French merchants

had suffered so much under Leclercs reign that they now regretted

Louverture. Warning that Frances policy would be to divide colors

and nations (African tribal groups), he also told Dessalines that the

greatest union must reign among you. His letter was remarkable for

presenting the ongoing conflict as a struggle for colonial autonomy, not

as a racial war, this one year after the French army in Saint-Domingue

had begun large-scale massacres of colonial (black) units.30 Joseph Bunel must have received an encouraging response from

Dessalines, because in August 1804, seven months after Haiti formally

declared its independence, he prepared to sail back to the island. No

doubt aware that Dessalines had massacred most of Haitis white French-

men in FebruaryApril 1804, Bunel expressed great concern about his

upcoming journey and in a touching letter to Marie Bunel he asked his

On French lodges in Philadelphia, see [Freemason lodge of lAmenite], Tableaudes F. F. composant la T. R. loge francaise lAmenite , regulierement constituee alO. de Philadelphie, par le T. R. Grand Orient de Pennsylvanie (Philadelphia,1803), Freem LCP Old HSP Tt* 246 v.1, Library Company, Philadelphia. Onthe charitable society, see Les diverses nations . . . (c. 1804), Box 16:1,MSS141, HSP.

30. Claws from JB to Dessalines, Oct. 9, 1803, B7/10, SHD-DAT. On JBsrole as Dessaliness envoy, see Maurice A. Lubin, Les premiers rapports de la

nation hatienne avec letranger, Journal of Inter-American Studies 10 (Apr.,1968), 290; Brown, Toussaints Clause, 240. On the switch to racial war in Oct.1802, see Leclerc to Bonaparte, 15 Vendemiaire 11 [Oct. 7, 1802], in Roussier,

Lettres du general Leclerc, 25360.


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wife to pray to her patron the Virgin Mary for his safe return (he left on

Assumption Day). It was thus with a sense of relief and jubilation that amonth later he wrote from Haiti that his voyage had gone better than he

could ever have expected. Dessalines had rushed to meet him within sixhours of his landing in Gonaves and had bought his entire cargo on thespot, leaving Bunel with a quick 70,000-gourde profit. Bunel may havemisleadingly claimed diplomatic status to further his commercial goals,

because a Haitian historian, drawing from his countrys oral tradition,described his September 1804 visit as an official mission on behalf of the

U.S. government.31

A few days later, Marie Bunels nephew Grand-Jean wrote from Cap

Hatien (formerly Cap Francais) that he had also sold a cargo in hername and that Dessalines had expressed his ardent desire to see youreturn to the country of your birth, and how pleased he would be to see

you embrace the cause of the Haitians. On a more sobering note,Grand-Jean added that Marie Bunels plantations were in a sorry stateand that there was little chance for her to make money off her rental

property in Cap Hatien given the recent decline in the citys population.Lack of economic opportunities must have carried more weight in her

eyes than appeals to Haitian patriotism, because she remained in Phila-delphia for the time being.32

By contrast, Joseph Bunels involvement with Haiti was frequent andsustained. He commissioned three ships to Haiti in subsequent months,

one of which brought a large supply of gunpowder, and he was pleasedto note that he had more influence [on Dessalines] than all the U.S.merchants combined. The last members of the Leclerc expedition still

present in neighboring Santo Domingo were dismayed when they heardthat their compatriot was busy equipping their enemy, which may ex-plain why Bunels simultaneous attempts to renew his business partner-

ships in French ports largely met with failure. Also in 1804, Christophetold his cher diplomatique Bunel that he should transmit some corre-

31. For the Assumption Day letter, see JB to MB, Aug. 15, 1804, Folder 22,BP-HSP. For JBs account of his trip, see JB to MB, Sept. 7, 1804, Folder 22,BP-HSP. On Bunel as a U.S. envoy, see Ardouin, Etudes, 6: 108. For a similar

mistake, see Denis Laurent-Ropa, Hati: Une colonie francaise, 16251802 (Paris,1993), 239.

32. Ardent desire from Grand-Jean to [MB], Sept. 18, 1804, Folder 22, BP-HSP.


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spondence to the governor of Jamaica, with whom Dessalines had en-

gaged in largely fruitless negotiations since declaring independence. Noagreement came from these latest negotiations, but Bunel was back in

business as Haitis white ambassador.33

One document mentions that Joseph Bunel petitioned for U.S. citi-zenship, but he only appears in the 1804 and 1805 editions of the Phila-delphia Directory and his residency in the United States proved short-

lived. Despite Dessaliness notorious Francophobia and a clause in the1805 Haitian constitution that forbade foreigners from acquiring prop-

erty on Haitian soil, Bunel established his primary residence in CapHatien so that he could oversee his business, and in 1807 he wrote a

will and a power of attorney in Marie Bunels favor to let her handle thePhiladelphia branch of their mercantile firm. Christophe, who emergedas president (then king) of northern Haiti after Dessaliness 1806 assassi-

nation, continued to welcome Bunels presence in Cap Hatien (laterrenamed Cap Henry), officially because he was known as a personknown for his principles and his constant love for liberty, but probably

also because both Christophes were close friends of Marie Bunel. Chris-tophe has a reputation as an Anglophile, but his attitude toward Bunel

(and another French merchant in Cap Henry, Jean Caze) shows that hehad not completely severed all links to France.34

33. More influence from [Financial account], c. 1805, Folder 8, BP-HSP.Cher diplomatique from Christophe to JB, Nov. 6, 1804, Folder 22, BP-HSP.On JBs shipments to Haiti, see also [Ratinde?] to JB, June 14, 1805, Folder 5,BP-HSP; JB to unknown, 24 Messidor 13 [July 13, 1805], Folder 13, BP-HSP;

John M. Fadon to MB, Aug. 20, 1807, Folder 11, BP-HSP; JB to MB, Nov. 5,1808, Folder 12, BP-HSP. On French dismay at JBs smuggling, see Ferrand to

Decres, 20 Germinal 13 [Apr. 10, 1805], B7/11, SHD-DAT; Mauviel, Memoiressur Saint-Domingue . . ., May 24, 1806, 1M599, SHD-DAT. On JBs decliningbusiness in France, see Hamos St. Leger to JB, Oct. 30, 1804, Folder 22, BP-HSP. On Dessaliness failed negotiations with Jamaica, see Edward Corbet toNugent, Jan. 25, 1804, CO 137/111, BNA.

34. Known for his principles from V. Simon to MB, Aug. 11, 1807, Folder32, BP-HSP. On JB as a U.S. citizen, see General Assembly of Pennsylvania, Anact for the relief of Joseph Robert Eustache Bunel, Mar. 10, 1806, in http://files.usgwarchives.org/pa/1pa/xmisc/1805-1806laws.txt. On the Philadelphia Direc-

tory, see James Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory for 1804 (Philadelphia,1804), 40. On the 1805 constitution, see Gerard Barthelemy, Creoles-bossales:conflit en Hati (Petit Bourg, Guadeloupe, 2000), 295. On JBs will and power ofattorney, see JB, [Power of attorney], Jan. 28, 1807, Folder 32, BP-HSP; Testa-


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Quite surprisingly, Marie Bunel remained in Philadelphia even as her

husband settled semi-permanently in Haiti. Their separation had nothing

to do with emotional estrangement; Joseph Bunel repeatedly mentioned

his desire to make enough money so that he could retire with her in theUnited States, and before one of his visits to Philadelphia he wrote I

am eager to kiss you . . . you wont hear me knock on the door, I will go

straight to number 59. Marie Bunel continued her activities as a mer-

chant, selling clothes to her Haitian friends among other things, so fi-

nancial imperatives were probably the main reason she stayed put. By

1807, the Bunels farm in Neshaminy was large enough for their manager

to hire a black man. That year, Marie Bunel also bought a servant

to serve her in Philadelphia. She might again have become a slave owner,but more likely the term meant that she had hired an indentured servant

(a common labor form after the 1780 Pennsylvania law of gradual eman-

cipation). Interestingly, the Bunels diverging trajectories closely match

the general patterns of Dominguian immigration to Philadelphia as iden-

tified by previous scholars: White exiles like Joseph Bunel rarely settled

permanently, but free people of color like Marie Bunel, though few in

number, often did well financially and remained in the city.35

Marie Bunels correspondence dealt primarily with business issues, soit is difficult to assess how her prolonged separation from her husband

and homeland affected her emotionally. Several relatives (including her

ment de J[ose]ph Robert Eustache Bunel, Jan. 28, 1807, Folder 11, BP-HSP.On MBs closeness to the Christophes, see Christophe to MB, June 12, 1810,Folder 32, BP-HSP; Mrs. Christophe to MB, Sept. 3, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP.On Caze, see Caze to Antoine Laussat, Mar. 19, 1807, Folder 11, BP-HSP.

35. Eager to kiss you from JB to MB, Apr. 25, [1809], Folder 20, BP-HSP.Blackman from John Northrop to MB, Nov. 15, 1807, Folder 22, BP-HSP.Servant from JB to MB, c. 1808, Folder 109, BP-HSP. On JBs retirementplans, see JB to MB, c. 1808, Folder 109, BP-HSP; JB to MB, Nov. 5, 1808,Folder 12, BP-HSP. On MBs trading activities, see JB to MB, Oct. 27, 1809,Folder 20, BP-HSP; Bazin to MB, Aug. 18, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP; Mrs.Christophe to MB, Sept. 3, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP. On Dominguan exiles inPhiladelphia, see Catherine Hebert, The French Element in Pennsylvania in the1790s: The Francophone Immigrants Impact, Pennsylvania Magazine of History

and Biography 108 (Oct. 1984), 45170; Nash, Reverberations of Haiti, 59;Susan Branson and Leslie Patrick, Etrangers dans un Pays Etrange: Saint-Domin-gan Refugees of Color in Philadelphia, in The Impact of the Haitian Revolutionin the Atlantic World, ed. David Geggus (Columbia, SC, 2001), 204.


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sister and her nephew Grand-Jean) lived in Cap Henry, and her many

friends begged her repeatedly to move to Haiti, but they failed to swayher until August 1810. That month, she fell sick and paid for a young

girls burial, two events that suggest a miscarriage or infant death andmust have been devastating as no child of the Bunels is mentioned any-where else. This personal tragedyor maybe Proustian flashbacks whileeating mango and guava preserves sent by Mrs. Christophe in Septem-

berfinally awoke a desire to return to the island of her youth. In Octo-ber, she signed a power of attorney to Antoine Laussat, the brother of

the former French governor of Louisiana and a merchant who, like Buneland Caze, had been persecuted under Leclerc and was sympathetic to

the Haitian rebels. Soon thereafter she headed for Haiti, a black republicfrom which she had remained rather distant for the previous eightyears.36

Few documents remain from nineteenth century Haiti, and the docu-mentary trail on the Bunels tapers off soon after they reunited, but whatevidence exists suggests that their financial aspirations went unfulfilled.

As early as 1808, Joseph Bunel was complaining that Haitis export busi-ness had ebbed markedly due to growing U.S. and British hostility and

Haitis general economic decline. In 1811, to avenge himself of a Balti-more merchant who had defrauded him of a large shipment of coffee,Christophe seized 132,000 gourdes worth of property held by U.S. mer-chants in Haiti. The episode cost Joseph Bunel, listed as a U.S. mer-

chant, 17,891 gourdes. As he was now age 58, the financial setback(accompanied by a three-month embargo on U.S. commerce) must havepostponed his retirement plans indefinitely.37

36. On MBs relatives, see JB to MB, Sept. 10, 1808, Folder 12, BP-HSP;Femme Grandjean to MB, June 16, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP. On demands forMBs return, see Grand-Jean to [MB], Sept. 18, 1804, Folder 22, BP-HSP;[Bazin?] to MB, Aug. 6, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP. On MBs health problems,see [Receipt], Aug. 27, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP; Robert Cooke to MB, Aug.29, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP. On the preserves, see Mrs. Christophe to MB,Sept. 3, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP. On Caze and Laussats persecutions, see An-toine Laussat to [Pierre Clement de] Laussat, 12 Messidor 10 [July 1, 1802],CC9/B22, AN. For the power of attorney, see MB, Know all men by these

presents . . ., Oct. 11, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP.37. On declining business opportunities in Haiti, see JB to MB, Nov. 5, 1808,

Folder 12, BP-HSP; Bazin to MB, Aug. 18, 1810, Folder 32, BP-HSP. On the1811 dispute with Christophe, see Christophe, Ordre general de larmee (3 Jan.


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A letter dated April 1812 mentioned that Marie Bunel lived in Cap

Henry, but no ulterior document has survived and the Bunels last years,even more so than their prerevolutionary careers, are shrouded in mys-

tery. Even the better documented middle segment of their existence re-mains mystifying in many ways. Though a black freedwoman, MarieBunel showed a surprising talent for prospering in worlds that, at firstsight, should have been discriminatory toward her race, class, and gen-

der, while her white husband displayed an equally remarkable ability tocollaborate with the black leaders of Saint-Domingue, particularly Dessa-

lines, whom many white colonists regarded as a monster after he massa-cred most of Haitis French citizens in 1804.

As the husband of a woman closely connected to all the leading blackofficers of her time, and as a political renegade frequently at odds withFrench authorities, Joseph Bunel probably felt that Haiti offered the best

chance of commercial success. As a businesswoman, Marie Bunel paidfar less attention to racial or national loyalty than to pecuniary concernsand, until her 1810 return to Haiti, lived where she was most likely to

prosper financially. In both cases, their careers underline the primacythat contemporaries of the Haitian revolution often gave to commercial

over racial concerns. Various studies have also shown the complexity ofcharacters as diverse as the white planter Jean-Baptiste de Caradeux, theblack officer Jean Kina, and the French officer Charles Humbert de Vin-cent, so a case could be made that the best way to do justice to the

complexity of this era would be to eschew sweeping generalizationsabout racial warfare and instead approach the history of the revolutionfrom the individual level and carefully work our way up.38

1811), in US Serial Set no. 42 doc. 36 (27th Congress, 3rd Session), pp. 111,Government Documents, McNeese State University.

38. For the last letter on the Bunels, see Duroc to MB, Apr. 18, 1812, Folder10, BP- HSP. On Caradeux, Kina, Vincent, see David Geggus, The Caradeuxand Colonial Memory, in The Impact of the Haitian Revolution, 23646;

Geggus, Slave, Soldier, Rebel: The Strange Career of Jean Kina, Haitian Revo-lutionary Studies, ed. Geggus (Bloomington, IN, 2002), 13756; ChristianSchneider, Le colonel Vincent, officier du genie a Saint-Domingue, Annaleshistoriques de la revolution francaise no. 329 (July 2002), 10122.