French West Indies collection [Box 1 Folder 7 & 8]

French West Indies collection [Box 1 Folder 7 & 8]

Following in the footsteps of the Dutch and British, French settlers arrived in the Caribbean in the 1630s and established trading ports on the islands of Saint-Domingue (later Hispaniola), Martinique, and Guadeloupe. The settlers, with the aid of indentured servants and later African slaves, cultivated numerous crops that were eventually exported to France. The French West India Company, established in 1664, was a private trading company that oversaw the trading of coffee, sugar, cotton, and indigo between France and her islands in the French West Indies. Philippe Buache was most likely the official cartographer of her royal highness, the Queen of France. In this capacity, he explored the West Indies with the goal of creating physical and geographical depictions of the French colonies and their environs. The French West India Company papers span from 1712 to 1757 and were written primarily in French. They consist mainly of correspondence sent from merchants in the French West Indies and the geographical writings of cartographer Philippe Buache. The papers offer insight into the geography and trade of the West Indies in the 18th century; Buache also wrote about the geography of Australia and Antarctica. Most of the letters were apparently captured by an English privateer during the English-French War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748), and never reached their destination but were probably carried into some part of the English colonies in America

Buache, Phillipe, 1700-1733, and others (Creator)

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

French

0219