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Blondel Plantation Page

Blondel Plantations

*1The actual physical location of the Blondel Plantations in Saint Domingue is:

Habitation Blondel, Section rurale de Caracol, Caracol
    Habitation Blondel, Section rurale de la Ravine à Charles, Jérémie

    "Section rural" rural section, is a territorial subdivision of a township,
in this case the town of Caracol and the southern city of Jeremie.
These two plantations are in diametrically opposed areas of Haiti.

  Here are two maps of the western section of the island of Hispaniola which is
  present day Haiti.  While the Blondel family was there this area was Saint
   Domingue.  Jean Marie Blondel was born in 1790 on the Blondel plantation in Caracol and his wife, Catherine Aimee Celeste DuBois was born in 1792 in Cap Français. The Blondel Family owned two separate plantations in Saint Domingue.  One was located near the city of Jérémie which is on the southern peninsula, bordering the Gonave Bay and the Caribbean Sea. Jérémie is the capitol of Grand 'Anse.  The second was near Caracol which is on the Northern Coast, facing the Atlantic Ocean.
 Caracol is just a short distance east southeast of Cap Haïtien. Cap Haïtien
    was Cap Français when the area was a French colony.  The approximate location of the town of Caracol has been added to this map by us.  It is designated slightly below and east of Cap Haïtien.  Jérémie has also been added by us in slightly larger text above the original map text identifying the town of Jérémie.  The second map shows Caracol in the the upper right-hand side near the border. It is designated by a light orange circle. Below these two maps is information and links concerning the
Blondel Plantation and Blondel family on Martinique.  On the first map several additional towns or cities have also been highlighted.  Citronniers has been highlighted as it is a town that is linked to the Loche family in "Etat Detaille", Gonaives is also marked as being another additional city associated with the Blondel family property--again according to "Etat Detaille"  -- Grand Riviere is accented because it is associated with the DuBois family. Cap Haitian is recognized because it was Cap Francais when the colony was still under French rule and this is where Catherine Aimee Celeste DuBois was born in 1792.  Notice the relative short distance between Grand Riviere, Cap Francais or Cap Haitian and Caracol.  Jean Marie Blondel was born in Caracol in 1790.   In December of 1812, Catherine DuBois would purchase her marriage license with her groom, Jean Marie Blondel, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Here is a link that has to do with the French government's actual value of these properties and their owner's reimbursement entitlement. "Etat Detaille"
    An #4 interesting bit of history that involved Caracol is that in early December 1492, Columbus and two of his ships the Nina and Santa Maria arrived off the coast of the island of Hispanola. While trying to navigate into Caracol Bay on the northwest shore, the Santa Maria hit a coral reef and began to sink. The next day, Christmas day, the crew members were able to remove the cargo before the ship went down. Believing the tragedy was a sign from God, Columbus decided to establish a colony on Hispanola and named it Navidad, the Spanish word for Christmas. Thirty-nine men from his crew volunteered to settle on the island.  That early settlement was doomed to failure, but from that day forward the future of the West Indies settlements and the native population's destiny would forever be altered.

Saint Domingue or Haiti
 
 
 
 

This is a link to a map of the island of Martinique.   Martinique  There is yet another
   plantation on this land mass that was named Blondel.   Martinique was primarily
 controlled by the British during the slave revolts in the French West Indies, albeit at the request of the French plantation owners in an attempt to establish stability and control the slave revolts that also occurred there in conjunction with the French Revolution.  *2 In fact at one point in the history of Martinique, France sent ships complete with guillotine and executioner to behead those loyal to the King of France.  The British would not allow them to enter Martinique ports and they simply returned to France.  This is a link to a brief history of Martinique: History of Martinique   Most of the chronological history of Martinique does record the island as being controlled by the French.
The land that was owned by a Blondel or Blondels is near the coast between Saint-Pierre and Fort-de-France.
 Whether or not there was a family relationship between Antoine Blondel, who is the patriarch of the French Caribbean Blondels who immigrated to the United States, and the Martinique Blondels is yet unproven, but it seems as though it is safe to assume that there was. This is a link to photographs of the abandoned plantation as it appears today and an indexed list of French Blondels living on or associated with Martinque in the 16th & 17th centuries.*3  Much of that information was submitted by Jean Claude Blondel La Rougery whose ancestors were the first Blondels on the island of Martinique. Blondels on Martinique

           The coordinates where the property was located at are:
          Latitude: 14° 44m 00s North; Longitude: 61° 10m 00s West

It is described as:
Name: Blondel
Feature: estate; a large commercialized agricultural
landholding with associated buildings and other facilities

Sources:

    *1 The information on the Blondel Plantations in Saint Domingue was submitted by Jean-Paul Manuel. This material appears in the book,  "Dictionnaire Géographique et Administratif Universel d'Haïti" which was written by Jean-Paul's maternal grandfather's paternal grandfather, Sémexant Rouzier and was published in 1891.  For additional information please contact him at: [email protected]
or visit his web site at:  https://sites.rootsweb.com/~htiwgw/
*2 Eric Wilkerson may be contacted at [email protected]
*3 The information on the Martinique Blondel family was submitted by Jean Claude Blondel La Rougery.
Jean Claude may be contacted at [email protected]
#4 American History

         Haitian and Saint Domingue Site