estimated that more than 3,000 people fleeing Saint Domingue would enter Philadelphia in the next 30 months, establishing a link between Saint Domingue-later to become Haiti-and Philadelphia that exists to this day (Nash 1998:47).

From a political or philosophical point of view, no other American destination was as influenced by the presence of refugees or émigrés as Philadelphia-a city that endeavored to live up to the ideals of the founding fathers of a young republic. Unlike other American cities in the late 18th century, Philadelphia was a free city in a free state and the center of an anti-slavery movement, making the reception of black refugees, still bound by slavery, a particularly thorny issue. Moreover, Pennsylvania's gradual abolition acts of 1780 and of 1788 guaranteed freedom after six monthsto any enslaved black brought into the state by an owner establishing residence (Nash and Soderlund 1991). In New York City, in contrast, a majority of the African American population was still enslaved (72.6 percent) (Gilje 1987). Indeed, the Encyclopedia Britannica identified Philadelphia during this period as a leader in global efforts to better the human condition. Its initiatives in penal reforms, educational innovations, and public health, and above all, its campaign against slavery marked Philadelphia as a center of civil reform (Nash 1988).

In the midst of this reform-minded city, white émigrés from Saint Domingue accompanied by their enslaved blacks created a contradiction that fundamentally challenged the ideals that Philadelphia, and by implication the nation, aspired to. The aim of this paper is to examine that contradiction and