SUMMARYAyiti's census stops separating "Indes" from "Nègres" (colonial Ayiti, 1703, then the 1730s onward) [Connections: Gulf, Louisiana, Texas & Mexico, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDPer Smyth, the 1703 general census separated Native Americans ("Indes") from Africans ("Negres"). From the 1730s, census makers stopped separating African and Indigenous people, which made the Natchez harder to find in the archive. Runaway advertisements in Affiches américaines (1769–1790) describe "Indian," "black Indian" and "mulatto Indian" slaves, including a 1785 notice of a man from "Mississippi" with skin "a little red." A 1769 Port-au-Prince court record describes Guillaume Levaque as "of Indian blood" and the "son of a chief." In 1733 Bienville wrote that he had "seen here, my lord, the chiefs of the Natchez who are slaves."
PATTERNThe census category for Indigenous people was erased right after Natchez captives arrived, so Native and African people were merged on paper
LENS (WW9)The census dropped the column, and the Aboriginal people went into the "nègre" count
OPENSmyth cannot confirm that any of the runaways were Natchez. The 1730s census changes need checking in ANOM (French colonial archives). Ask permission or use the dissertation before publishing quotes