Emigration and Imagination: Boston's Connection with Haiti
John Dodge. "A memorial upon the subject of Hayti ... presented to the Hon. John Quincy Adams, Esq.": autograph manuscript, 1821. |
Throughout his political career, John Quincy Adams was one of America's foremost advocates of state recognition for Haiti. While serving as Secretary of State, Adams received this letter from John Dodge, a Boston merchant who spent nearly two decades in Haiti. Dodge urged Adams to pursue trade agreements with the Haitian government to relieve "the many disadvantages under which that trade is now pursued, owing to the lamentable misinformation of our citizens as to the powers and capabilities of the Haytians." MS Fr 12 F – Gift of Samuel Abbott Green, 1897. |