Database: Port-au-Prince

Today, Port-au-Prince is known as the capital and largest city in Haiti, but it took a long time to get there, changing hands as interests shifted and power changed hands.

A bustling centre of commerce, in the 1730s, the current Port-au-Prince area was part of the grand scheme of Saint-Domingue, which was then home to over 140 sugar plantations. The English did not trouble the area during this decade, and various nobles sought land grants in Port-au-Prince from the French monarchy. African slaves outnumbered the rest of the population by a large margin.

From a Maroon perspective, Port-au-Prince was significant as a trading location and a major center for slave labor. It would also become a strategic target in the slave revolution that built in starts and stops throughout the 18th Century, ultimately culminating in the founding of the Republic of Haiti.