Program

Legends & Lore®

Subject

House, People, Site

Location

1 N 4th St, Ste. Genevieve, MO 63670, USA

Lat/Long

37.979435, -90.047799

Grant Recipient

City of Ste. Genevieve Tourism Dept.

In 1791, as violence swept through San Domingue during what is now known as the Haitian Revolution, a Frenchman named Jacques Guibourd sought a desperate means of escape. Working as a secretary for a wealthy plantation owner, he faced an uncertain future amidst the rebellion. According to local legend, his life was saved by Moros, an enslaved man who concealed Guibourd inside a wooden shipping barrel and sealed it shut, allowing him to be smuggled out of the country.

Together, Guibourd and Moros sailed for France, hoping to find refuge. Instead, they arrived to discover a nation consumed by the turmoil of the French Revolution. The chaos and destruction they encountered offered little safety or stability.

Undeterred, the two men looked elsewhere. They heard about a community of French-speaking settlers residing in the Louisiana Territory of America. By the late 1790s, they had reached Ste. Genevieve, where they established new lives far from the revolutions that had uprooted them.

Several years later, in 1806, Guibourd built a house in Ste. Genevieve. The home remained in his family for more than a century, until 1907. Today, it stands as a historic house museum, preserving the memory of Jacques Guibourd, Moros, and their extraordinary journey.