Description

In the second half of the 18th century, the French colony of Saint-Domingue emerged as one of the wealthiest territories in the Western hemisphere. Its economy was heavily based on slave labor and the production of sugar. Cap-Français (present-day Cap-Haïten) was the cultural capital of the colony and one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Americas. In August 1785 a group of white residents of the city founded the Cercle des Philadelphes, a society whose aim was to elevate the intellectual and cultural level of their colony. In its ...