1804 Census — Gros Morne Parish, Haiti

A census form from the parish of Gros Morne dated October 12, 1804, held at the John Carter Brown Library and analyzed by Julia Gaffield — described as unlike any other known document for this period in the first year of Haitian independence. The form uses a pre-printed sheet a decade out of date that retains categories for esclaves (left blank) while recording a white population of roughly 600, free people of color, and a total Black population of 36,069 subject to capitation tax. A remarkable demographic snapshot that complicates simplified narratives of the 1804 massacres and documents the racial taxonomy still in use in the new state.