John James Audubon - Early Life

Early Life

Jean-Jacques Audubon was born in Les Cayes in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) on his father's sugar plantation. He was the illegitimate (or natural) son of Lieutenant Jean Audubon, a French naval officer (and privateer) from the south of Brittany, and his mistress Jeanne Rabine, a 27-year-old chambermaid from Les Touches in the same Province of Brittany (now in the modern région Pays de la Loire). They named the boy Jean Rabin. His mother died when the boy was a few months old, as she had suffered from tropical disease since arriving on the island. His father already had two mixed-race children by his mulatto housekeeper, Sanitte (described as a quadroon, meaning she was three-quarters European in ancestry). Following Jeanne Rabin's death, Jean Audubon renewed his relationship with Sanitte and had another daughter by her, named Rose. Sanitte also took care of the infant boy Jean.

The senior Audubon had risen from his early days as a cabin boy, and commanded ships. During the American Revolution, the father Jean Audubon had been imprisoned by the British Empire. After his release, he helped the American cause. He had long worked to save money and secure his family's future with real estate. Due to slave unrest in the Caribbean, in 1789 he sold part of his plantation in Saint-Domingue and purchased a 284-acre farm called Mill Grove, 20 miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to diversify his investments. Rising unrest in Saint-Domingue from African slaves, who greatly outnumbered French colonists, convinced Jean Audubon to return to France, where he became a member of the Republican Guard. In 1791 he arranged for his natural children Jean and Rose, who was very light-skinned, to be delivered to him in France.

The children were raised in Couëron, near Nantes, France, by Audubon and his wife Anne Moynet Audubon, whom he had married years before. In 1794 they formally adopted both the natural children to regularize their legal status. They renamed the boy Jean-Jacques Fougère Audubon. When Audubon, at age 18, boarded ship for emigration to the United States in 1803, he changed his name to an anglicized form: John James Audubon.

From his earliest days, Audubon had an affinity for birds. "I felt an intimacy with them...bordering on frenzy must accompany my steps through life." His father encouraged his interest in nature:

"he would point out the elegant movement of the birds, and the beauty and softness of their plumage. He called my attention to their show of pleasure or sense of danger, their perfect forms and splendid attire. He would speak of their departure and return with the seasons."

In France during the chaotic years of the French Revolution and its aftermath, the younger Audubon grew up to be a handsome and gregarious man. He played flute and violin, and learned to ride, fence, and dance. A great walker, he loved roaming in the woods, often returning with natural curiosities, including birds' eggs and nests, of which he made crude drawings. His father planned to make a seaman of his son. At twelve, Audubon went to military school and became a cabin boy. He quickly found out that he was susceptible to seasickness and not fond of mathematics or navigation. After failing the officer's qualification test, Audubon ended his incipient naval career. He was cheerfully back on solid ground and exploring the fields again, focusing on birds.