Mme. Volunbrun, Hamilton, and the New York Manumission Society (1801–1802)

In 1801, although he was a legal counselor for the NYMS, Hamilton refused to comply with its instructions to assist in prosecuting slaveholding white Haitian immigrant Mme. Jeanne Volunbrun for refusing to emancipate her slaves, as she was required to do under New York law and France’s law emancipating its West Indian slaves in 1794. Several hundred Haitians protested outside her home, demanding that she release her slaves. John Lang, Hamilton’s friend and editor of the New-York Gazette, printed articles condemning the black protesters and the NYMS. The NYMS’s preoccupation with the Volunbrun case is reflected in the comparatively abundant detail of its Minutes on the matter. By this time, Hamilton had lost his sympathy for the antislavery cause. As a lawyer, he represented slaveholders and may have earlier met Mme. Volunbrun.