“Eighteenth Century French Atlantic Black Seamen”

In eighteenth century France there were relatively few black seamen. This article seeks to demonstrate however, largely through the use English language sources, that considerable numbers of blacks served on French vessels throughout the Atlantic basin, that their labor was critical to the maintenance of France’s Atlantic maritime empire, and that the nature of the freedom they had was fragile and often undermined by enemy seamen’s desire for profits through selling black seamen into slavery.