- Collection Overview
- Collection Description & Creator Information
- Access & Use
- Collection History
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Collection Overview
- Title:
- Antoine Guerry Duclaud Papers
- Repository:
- Manuscripts Division
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/8k71nm333
- Dates:
- 1759-1794 (mostly 1771-1775)
- Size:
- 1 box and 0.2 linear feet
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (scamss): Box B-001090
- Language:
- French Dutch; Flemish
Abstract
Consists of correspondence and documents of Antoine Guerry Duclaud, a French officer employed by the Dutch West India Company who deserted and settled in the Dutch colony of Surinam (now the independent Republic of Suriname) in 1771. The papers document Guerry Duclaud's move to Surinam with the intention of starting a plantation, his business renting the labor of enslaved Africans he brought from Guinea, and his return to Europe in 1775 after failing to make a profit. This collection offers insights into Dutch trade, economic conditions, the institution of slavery, and resistance to slavery by maroon communities in Surinam in the 1770s.
Collection Description & Creator Information
- Scope and Contents
Consists of correspondence, business and legal records, and other documents of Antoine Guerry Duclaud, a French officer employed by the Dutch West India Company who deserted and settled in Paramaribo in the Dutch colony of Surinam (now the independent Republic of Suriname) in 1771. The papers primarily document Guerry Duclaud's move to Surinam with the intention of starting a plantation, the establishment and furnishing of his residence there, his business renting the labor of enslaved Africans he brought from Guinea, and his return to Europe in 1775 after failing to make a profit in South America. This collection offers insights into Dutch trade, economic conditions, the institution of slavery, and resistance to slavery by maroon communities in Surinam in the 1770s.
Guerry Duclaud's letters home to his sisters in France describe his plans to establish himself as a planter in the Dutch colony of Surinam, as well as his many struggles and ultimate failure. He writes of family matters, acquaintances, money owed to various traders, and the costs involved with maintaining his business operations and financial affairs. The letters also provide a colonist's account of maroon uprisings in Surinam and the frequent violence between Dutch plantation owners and Maroons who had liberated themselves from slavery and regularly returned to attack plantations, assassinate plantation owners, and liberate enslaved laborers. Duclaud's letters relay the tense situation in detail, noting that each colonist's household was required to be armed in order to help patrol the colony; he also attributes many of his financial difficulties to the effects of the maroon insurgency on the colonial economy.
Other materials documenting Guerry Duclaud's time in Surinam include contracts, invoices, merchandise lists, receipts, promissory notes, accounts with Dutch merchants and traders, and other financial and legal documents, including materials related to his involvement in the slave trade. There is also a passport allowing Guerry Duclaud to return to Europe in 1775, as well as a journal and legal document related to his affairs in the 1780s and 1790s after his return to France.
- Arrangement
Original groupings were maintained.
- Collection Creator Biography:
Guerry Duclaud, Antoine
Antoine Guerry Duclaud was born around 1741 in La Rochefoucauld, France, to Pierre Guerry, sieur du Claud, and Marie Pintaud, and moved to the Netherlands as a young man. He served in the armed forces of the Dutch West India Company in West Africa from 1762 until 1771, when he deserted with the intention of traveling to the Dutch colony of Surinam to establish a plantation. On his way, Guerry Duclaud stopped in Guinea where he acquired twelve enslaved people, two of whom died on the transatlantic journey to Surinam. Guerry Duclaud settled in the coastal city of Paramaribo in 1771. Failing to become a planter, he went into business renting the labor of the enslaved Africans he brought with him. During this period, Surinam's maroon communities were regularly raiding plantations and posed a significant military threat to the Dutch colonial economy. Depressed by his poor financial prospects, Guerry Duclaud decided to return to Europe after his sisters informed him of the possibility of receiving a pardon for deserting. He sold his property, house, furniture, and enslaved laborers and returned to France in 1775. He later became a cloth merchant and married Marie Migeon with whom he had several daughters. He died in 1803.
Collection History
- Acquisition:
Purchase, 2017 (AM 2018-37).
- Appraisal
No materials were separated during 2017 processing.
- Processing Information
This collection was processed by Kelly Bolding in November 2017. Finding aid written by Kelly Bolding in November 2017.
Access & Use
- Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use
Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
- Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
- Credit this material:
Antoine Guerry Duclaud Papers; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/8k71nm333
- Location:
-
Firestone LibraryOne Washington RoadPrinceton, NJ 08544, USA
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (scamss): Box B-001090
Find More
- Subject Terms:
- Insurgency -- Suriname -- History. -- 18th century -- Sources
Maroons -- Suriname -- History. -- 18th century -- Sources
Plantations -- Suriname -- History. -- 18th century -- Sources
Slave records -- Suriname. -- 18th century -- Sources
Slave trade -- South America -- History. -- 18th century -- Sources
Slaveholders -- Suriname -- History. -- 18th century -- Sources
Slavery -- Suriname -- History. -- 18th century -- Sources - Genre Terms:
- Accounts. -- 18th century
Correspondence -- 18th century
Documents -- 18th century.
Financial records. -- 18th century - Names:
- West-Indische Compagnie (Netherlands)
Guerry Duclaud, Antoine - Places:
- Netherlands -- Commerce -- Africa, West -- History. -- 18th century -- Sources
Netherlands -- Commerce -- Suriname -- History. -- 18th century -- Sources
Suriname -- Economic conditions. -- 18th century -- Sources
Suriname -- History -- To 1814. -- Sources
