Seeking prize court documents in Guadeloupe

Dear Ms. Frisoli,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

In regards to French records, we suggest that you contact Guadeloupe's Departmental Archives and France’s Overseas Territories Archives Department in Aix-en-Provence. If the Guadeloupe records you seek have survived to the present, they should be able to advise you about where and how to access them.

Additionally, we located the Prologue article Records Relating to French Spoliation Claims that discusses records in National Archives custody relating to claims presented by United States citizens against France, Spain, and Holland for vessels and cargo taken by privateers prior to September 30, 1800.  The following is a list of National Archives Catalog descriptions for the major sets of records mentioned in this article. Please note that while many of these records series are dated in the Catalog well after the time period you are researching, they do relate to the events of the 1790s.

• French Spoliation Case Dockets, 1885 - 1903; French Spoliation Case Files, 2/7/1885 - 5/25/1886; and Oversized Enclosures to French Spoliation Case Files, 1885 - 1887 in the Records of the U.S. Court of Claims (Record Group 123)
• Letters Sent Concerning French Spoliation Cases, 1899 - 1900; Evidentiary Materials Concerning French Spoliation Cases, ca. 1885 - ca. 1903; French Spoliation Case Dockets, 2/7/1885 - 3/31/1903; Letters Received Concerning Claims, 1888 - 1914; and Notices of Cases in the Court of Claims, 1880 - 1915 in the Records of the Court of Claims Section (Justice) (Record Group 205)
• Letters Sent Concerning French Spoliation Cases and Other Matters, 7/21/1899 - 2/21/1902 in the General Records of the Department of Justice (Record Group 60)
• Letters Sent Relating to the Adjudication of Unsettled French Spoliation Claims, 8/18/1885 - 8/7/1889; General Records Relating to French Spoliation Claims, ca. 1784 - ca. 1937; Record of French Spoliation Cases Decided, ca. 1886 - ca. 1915; Index to Docketed American Claims , 1881 - 1881; Docket of American Claims, 1881 - 1884; Docketed American Claims Against France, 1880 - 1884;  Records Relating to Claims, ca. 1796 - 1804; Records Relating to Payment of Awards of the Commissioners, 1886 - 1886; Records Relating to Spoliation Claims, ca. 1885 - ca. 1885; and Printed Records, ca. 1827 - ca. 1884 in the Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitrations (Record Group 76)
• Records Relating to Claims, 1837 - ca. 1923; and Letters Received, 1789 - 1906 with at least 76 items related to French spoliation in the General Records of the Department of State (Record Group 59)
• Committee Papers, 1816 - 1946 and Petitions and Memorials, 1817 - 2000 in the Records of the U.S. Senate (Record Group 46)
• Committee Papers, 1794 - 1946 in the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives (Record Group 233)
• 290 record series  related to French Spoliation Claims in the Records of the U.S. Customs Service (Record Group 36)
• List of French Spoliation Claims Authorized to Be Paid Under Acts of Congress, 1891? - 1905? in the Records of the Bureau of Accounts (Treasury) (Record Group 39)
• Records Relating to the French Indemnity, 1836 - 1841 and Correspondence Files, 1793 - 1934 in the Records of the Bureau of the Public Debt (Record Group 53)
• 13 record series in the General Records of the Department of the Treasury (Record Group 56)
• Settled Treasury Accounts, 9/6/1790 - 9/29/1894 in the Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of the Treasury (Record Group 217)
• Copies of Custom House Records Used in French Spoliation Claims, 9/25/1899 - 9/17/1900 in the Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation (Record Group 41)

These records are held by several different custodial units.  For more information about specific records, please email the unit listed as the contact under the “Archived Copies” header.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of NARA staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgement as well as a substantive response to your reference request from the various NARA units. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

The article also mentions the following publications, which are available online at HathiTrust:

• United States. Dept. of State. French Spoliations: Report of the Secretary of State Relative to the Papers On File In the Department of State Concerning the Unpaid Claims of Citizens of the United States Against France for Spoliations Prior to July 31, 1801 ... Washington: Govt. Print. Off., 1886.
• United States. Office of Naval Records and Library. Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-war Between the United States And France: Naval Operations ... February 1797-December 1801. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 193538.

We also located 62 additional publications on HathiTrust relating to French Spoliation Claims.

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!

Hi Donna -

To add to my colleague at the National Archives extensive list, you may also be interested in the Causten-Pickett Papers held by the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.  The finding aid for this collection describes it as relating to the history and settlement of French spoliation claims dating from 1793 to 1916.

The Manuscript Reading Room is currently closed to the public, but when we reopen you are more than welcome to visit to access the Causten-Pickett Papers. 

The Manuscript Division also holds a large collections of reproductions from the Archives Nationale, including colonial records that are now about at the Archives nationales d'outre-mer. Records relating to colonial Guadeloupe are found in the series Secrétariat d'État à la Marine - Correspondance à l'arrivée en provenance de la Guadeloupe, 1649-1815 (C7). I checked our list of holdings and unfortunately subseries C7 is not among them. 

Best of luck with you research and feel free to contact us if we can of further assistance.

Patrick
Manuscript Reference Librarian
Manuscript Division
Library of Congress