272 Jean Foucharddesignations supplied by the Santo Domingo papers and apparently relating
to cantons and villages rather than to ethnic groups in the proper sense of the
term. Fortunately, from 1780 on, the newspapers of Cap Haïtien and of
Port-au-Prince began to describe slaves, maroons and Negroes for sale in
terms of the major ethnic groups to which they belonged.
Details given in notices of sale from 1764 on and descriptions of maroons
from 1780 on are more revealing. On the basis of this information, I shall try
to arrange in three categories the ' nations ' which went to make up the popula-
tion of the colony, using the geographical divisions put forward by Moreau de
Saint-Méry.
This classification is less hazardous than a classification based only
on religion, or on a common language, or again, on common political or
social interests.
No doubt a very exacting critic could find in the suggested classification
several details which are not entirely consistent with the norms adopted.
Nevertheless this system is the one that comes closest to the facts, and that
gives the best general outline of the origins of our ancestors.SudaneseThis group includes the various peoples of the West African coast and the
nearby communities on the banks of the Senegal, Gambia and Niger rivers :
Senegalese, Wolofs, Calvaires; Fulani, Tukulors; Bambaras, Mandingos,
Bissago(t)s; Susus.GuineansThese are the peoples who lived further south but still north of the Equator,
in the whole of the area round the Gulf of Guinea, including the Ivory Coast,
the Slave Coast and the Gold Coast (now Ghana) : Kangas, Bourriquis, Misé-
rables, Mesurades, Caplacus, Nagos, Mines, Minas, Yorubas, Thiambas;
Fons, Agousas, Socos, Fantins, Mahis, Dahomans, Aradas, Cotocolis, Popos,
Fidas, Hausas, Ibos, Mokos of Benin.
BantusThese peoples lived south of the Equator, chiefly in the kingdoms of Congo
and Angola, which marked the limits of the French slave trade. They included:
Kongos, 'Francs Kongos', Musombis, Mondongos, Malimbas, Angolas.
To these were added, towards the end of the colonial period, large num-
bers of Mozambicans (especially from 1773 on), together with a very few
Negroes from such places as Madagascar and Mauritius—the sole contibu-
tion, though a large one, from East Africa.