Que ce soit dans le cadre impérial français ou britannique, les huguenots ont été présents aux Amériques, sur le continent ou aux îles, du milieu du XVIe siècle à la fin du XVIIIe.

During political unrest, from the Revolution to the Restoration, the French took refuge in the United States. Some bought land in states recently opened for settlement from companies, but these speculations ended in failure.

New Orleans is the USA’s most Caribbean town, in part because, in the wake of the Haitian Revolution, it welcomed some 15,000 refugees (White colonists, free people of color and enslaved people) from the French colony of Saint-Domingue between 1791 and 1810. 

In 1755, the Acadians were expropriated by the British. Descendants of the French who had inhabited “Acadia” discovered by Samuel de Champlain during the previous century, they were sent to other colonies in America, France and the Caribbean. The expression “Grand Dérangement” or “Great Upheaval” describes this historic event.

The abolition of slavery did not put an end to the labor-intensive production or low market value of products destined for exportation to the metropole. In order to maintain this system, more than 96,000 laborers, both men and women, from Africa, China, and, by a large majority, from India, were introduced to Guadeloupe, Guyana, and Martinque under the aegis of the French government with contracts of employment lasting several years.