Abstract
John La Farge, the eldest of nine children, was born in New York City in 1835. His parents were French refugees.1 As a young man, the father had been an officer in the French Navy, and took part in the famous but ill-fated expedition led by General Leclerc against Santo Domingo in 1806. He was captured by the insurgent negroes, who, however, spared his life so that he might teach their prospective president how to read and write-- or so states the family tradition. But when some of his native friends warned him of an impending massacre, he escaped and fled to Philadelphia.