« Si jamais je prenais du retard ». Lettres de Mathilda Percival émigrée à son mari John

Translated title of the contribution: “If I should fall behind.” Letters written by emigrant Mathilda Percival to her husband John (1859-1860)

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Mathilda Percival, libre de couleur, quitta Saint-Eustache, une petite île sous domination hollandaise, entre fin 1859 et début 1860. Elle s’embarqua pour une nouvelle vie sur l’île de Saint-Thomas, située aux Antilles danoises. Cet article s’appuie sur sept lettres de Mathilda à son mari. Elles font la lumière sur la vie et les difficultés des ouvrières émigrées au xixe siècle aux Caraïbes. Elles montrent que son expérience recoupe celle des employées de maison émigrées à cette époque, auxquelles l’émigration offrait l’occasion d’éprouver un sentiment d’autonomie et d’émancipation. Si les motifs économiques étaient certainement l’une des motivations principales du départ de Mathilda pour Saint-Thomas, les raisons de son exil définitif sont probablement beaucoup plus complexes. Il semblerait que son travail lui ait donné satisfaction. En outre, alors que l’historiographie sur la migration des femmes caribéennes porte principalement sur le xxe siècle (après la construction du Canal de Panama et s’accélérant après 1960), on sait peu sur l’émigration des femmes au milieu du xixe siècle, après l’abolition de l’esclavage. On en sait encore moins sur les Caraïbes non britanniques, constamment négligées par la recherche – une lacune à laquelle tente de remédier cet article à travers l’étude de ces lettres.

Mathilda Percival, free of color, left Saint-Eustache, a small island under Dutch rule, between late 1859 and early 1860. She embarked for a new life on the island of Saint-Thomas, located in the Danish West Indies. This article is based on seven letters from Mathilda to her husband. They shed light on the life and difficulties of female workers who emigrated in the 19th century. century in the Caribbean. They show that her experience overlaps with that of female domestic workers who emigrated at that time, to whom emigration offered the opportunity to experience a sense of autonomy and emancipation. If economic reasons were certainly one of the main motivations for Mathilda's departure for Saint-Thomas, the reasons for her final exile are probably much more complex. It seems that his work has given him satisfaction. Furthermore, while the historiography on the migration of Caribbean women focuses on the XX th century (after the construction of the Panama Canal and accelerating after 1960), little is known about the emigration of women in the mid- nineteenth e century, after the abolition of slavery. Even less is known about the non-British Caribbean, which is constantly neglected by research - a gap which this article attempts to address through the study of these letters.
Translated title of the contribution“If I should fall behind.” Letters written by emigrant Mathilda Percival to her husband John (1859-1860)
Original languageFrench
Pages (from-to)165-178
Number of pages14
JournalClio. Femmes, Genre, Histoire = CLIO. Women, Gender, History
Volume50
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2019

Bibliographical note

Issue title: Le genre dans les mondes caribéens = Gender in the worlds of the Caribbean.

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