Importing Prostitutes into Tortuga?

[Mission]

So, I came across this on Wikipedia while researching Tortuga (which I believe is pretty well common knowledge in Buccaneering circles):

"In 1645, in an attempt to bring harmony and control over the island, the acting French governor imported roughly 1,650 prostitutes, hoping to normalize the unruly pirates' lives."

That got me curious where this 'fact' came from, so started looking around on Google and found sources claiming the Governor Jean Le Vasseur brought anywhere from a 100 to hundreds to this upper number of 1650 women. Some accounts claim they were swept off the streets of Paris with enticements to move to the New World, others hinted they were women tricked into going, while most just didn't say where they came from. Some accounts claim that the importation had nothing to do with gentrifying the buccaneers, but was an effort to stamp out homosexuality. (This sounds suspiciously like Professor Burg's inane theorizing.)

Probably the most palatable web-based explanation I found comes from a blog called Pirates of the Caribbean: The History Behind the Legends:

"He [Le Vasseur] wrote back to France and offered to take ‘undesirable ladies’ if the French prison system wished to empty their dungeons of female prostitutes, thieves and petty criminals. LeVasseur hoped with the arrival of women that the Buccaneers might be enticed to settle down to a more manageable life of planting and family. A few did, but most men held to the fast life of stealing from the Spanish."

Except, once again, no references. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth, no matter how palatable it is.


Le Transport des Filles de Joye a l'Hopital by C. La Vasseur (1780) (No, not entirely relevant. I just found it in my search.)

The closest thing I found to period commenting on this (with a reference, although one I can't find/read) agrees with none of these 'facts'. it is from an article called "The Horrors of San Domingo" in the September 1862 Atlantic Monthly,

"In 1667 there was an auction-sale of fifty girls without character at Tortuga. They went off so well that fifty more were soon supplied. [Victor] Schoelcher says that in the twelfth volume of the "Archives de la Marine" there is a note of "one hundred nymphs for the Antilles and a hundred more for San Domingo," under the date of 1685."

So is that the source? If not, does anyone know where this alleged fact come from?

[Brit.Privateer]

After some searching, I've struck garlic! French that is.

I think I found your source. The French priest who traveled the French Caribbean at this time, Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre, seemed to have a lot of thoughts on women in the Caribbean during this time. I know of this because of previews from the book The Libertine Colony: Creolization in the Early French Caribbean. Author Doris Garraway says of Du Tertre, "...Du Tertre portrays European women as the indispensable catalyst for the emergence of a social order. In his narrative of colonial origins, there was once a land of disparate, nomadic brutes, who made their living trading pelts, raiding ships, producing crops, and the like, until God brought French women to domesticate them." (pg 127). "According to Du Tetre, the practice of amassing women from in and around Paris began around 1640." (pg 128). For what you are interesting in (and anyone interested in further studying the French Buccaneers), you might want to obtain The Libertine Colony. It's published by a reputable press, Duke, where the past decade research into French Caribbean colonies and slavery has been a huge craze (in other words, you couldn't ask for a better place to see such a book published from). http://www.amazon.com/The-Libertine-Colony-Creolization-Caribbean/dp/0822334658
Even more good news, Du Tetre's works are readily available for free and downloadable. But there there is one catch - I couldn't find any translations to English. Why? I suspect that since some French scholars tried to discredit the accuracy of such works so much that no one thought it would be worth it (besides the fact that it's not a subject normally approached by English speakers until recently). But Doris Garraway appears to have a goal here of showing that they are still useful.

Anyway, that's what I can give you in response to an original source. If the number reported is correct, its probably sitting in that source. If not, maybe it will give you the correct number (if it ever existed and wasn't an accidental swapping of number and date), or maybe Garraway's secondary source might have it (remember, you can only preview so many pages online, so who knows what else is in there).

On another note, the idea that the, "prison system wished to empty their dungeons of female prostitutes, thieves and petty criminals," is a reasonable one. It wasn't easy to recruit people to go live in the Caribbean, especially in the seventeenth century. Many whites saw it as a death trap for white people (disease), and a place where Europeans might become uncivilized and savage (this idea remained well into the 19th century, with the 1880s and 1890s seeing the beginning of changing this concept with the introduction of tropical cruises and resorts coming around and people started marketing the tropical climates as actually good for health, not altering of your morals, and as a reward for working hard in the cold North). The English engaged in transferring criminals to work in and populate colonies frequently. After about 1650 or so, with a number of colonies established with a number of men, and the colonies finally becoming profitable, the organizers of colonies wanted to maintain and keep a population to continue profits. It seemed as though the closer one got to the equator, the fewer women there would be (the New England colonies had nowhere near this problem, they were pretty self sustaining and had only minimal immigration after the 1650s, and grew out of sheer population fertility). So, colonies want to keep colonies growing, and there are mostly men. It already sucks living in this warm environment remote from European civilization, and tons of people went back to Europe after working a few years in the colonies (if they survived). The men are demanding more women for the colonies. If that is what will get them to stay (and if the by product of them pairing up might be giving birth to a population of people more acclimatized to living there, and therefore doing things for the colony that could make money), the colony organizers and governments therefore realized that it was in their interest to try their best to get women to the colonies. Even though slavery of Africans was already well started by this point, it was the second half of the seventeenth century that established said slaves as the dominant work force in these warm climate colonies. But, even with that, it was still desired that a small population of white people be maintained in colonies to oversee this slave workforce and defend the colony from possible attack.

Hope any of this helps what you're working on. What is this for anyway Mission?

Edited February 13, 2014 by Brit.Privateer

[michaelsbagley]

I believe some of this may stem from the myths that surround "Les filles du Roi" (the King's Daughters). Who were sent to Neauveau Français (Quebec) and not generally the Carribean. While there is some historical fact to the shipping women of modest or humble means to the new world from France, the tales have grown and gotten wilder with the ages.... Most were not prostitutes, just poor girls, or women with poor prospects in the old world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Filles_du_Roi

[Brit.Privateer]

I believe some of this may stem from the myths that surround "Les filles du Roi" (the King's Daughters). Who were sent to Neauveau Français (Quebec) and not generally the Carribean. While there is some historical fact to the shipping women of modest or humble means to the new world from France, the tales have grown and gotten wilder with the ages.... Most were not prostitutes, just poor girls, or women with poor prospects in the old world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Filles_du_Roi

I like it, finding the origins of the story and the stereotype. I suspect back then that the law may have had a number of women in prison that the system said were prostitutes, but, we are taking the word of 17th century French courts that were probably just trying to process through people as quickly as possible. Wouldn't be surprised if there were a number of women (and men) in jail for vague or false reasons. "That person is poor, is accused of thieving and prostitution, she says not guilty but the accuser does, seems about right. Guilty, ___ years in prison, next - we have 20 more cases today to get done."

17th and early 18th century Canada - written about quite a bit by Canadians, but their history is not that well known outside of Canada it always seems. I am often impressed with Canadian research efforts into obscure topics or those things that are not that interesting initially (their monographs on weapons for the 17th and early 18th century are amazing).

[Mission]

Thanks! I appreciate all the research and information. Thanks particularly for the book reference. I am interested in finding out more about the corsairs. They often tend to get lumped in with the buccaneers because they were active around the same time.

I am actually not working on anything related to this topic right now, although I am collecting info on sailors and promiscuity in order to write something about vices during the period (smoking, drinking and this) as they relate to health. I came across it on Wiki while looking for info on Tortuga and it was one of those wonderful stories that I wanted to find period proof for before mindlessly repeating another pirate canard. Plus I am always looking for interesting new topics to post on the pub.