Network Mapping: French Print in Exile

France’s nineteenth-century revolutions forced thousands of refugees and exiles from their homelands. From the Napoleonic Wars to the events of the July Revolution of 1830, the February Revolution of 1848, and the subsequent Paris Commune, successive waves of Frenchmen were expelled or driven to flee. Many of those displaced settled in France’s contemporary and former American colonies. Some were drawn by shared language or the prevalence of French cultures in these areas, but their options for resettlement were also frequently limited by ongoing warfare. Multiple coalitions of empires battled to quash the nascent French Republic, conflicts over Spanish succession and the subsequent invasion of Spain by France followed abruptly, and sporadic conflict with Great Britain continued. These and other factors made Louisiana and the French Caribbean the most attractive destinations for many of the displaced. Once these migrants arrived in America, they played a disproportionate role in the production of printed material there, and the print they created was often distinctive. I will create a poster illustrating the successive waves of immigration and displacement following France's revolutionary conflicts by using multiple digital humanities applications. It will also highlight the print contributions of these exiles and refugees. My aim is to trace these migrants and their print culture, while at the same time providing information and examples about the digital humanities technologies being employed.