Jan C. Jansen in Search of Atlantic Sociability: Freemasons, Empires

Jan C. Jansen In Search of Atlantic Sociability: Freemasons, Empires, and Atlantic History Schriftenreihe Bulletin of the German Historical Institute Washington, D.C., Band 57 (Fall 2015) Herausgegeben vom Deutschen Historischen Institut Washington, D.C.

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IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY: FREEMASONS, EMPIRES, AND ATLANTIC HISTORY

Jan C. Jansen RESEARCH FELLOW, GERMAN HISTORICAL INSTITUTE

In mid-1740, Charles Brunier, Marquis de Larnage, the governor-general of Saint-Domingue, the French colony on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, sent a letter to the French Secretary of State of the Navy, in which he shared his discomfort with recent events in the coastal town of Léogane. A land surveyor, Sir Viaux, who had only recently arrived in France’s most important colony, had started to attract public interest by “proclaiming himself a leader of the freemasons and pretending to [have been] given orders and the necessary power to establish one or even several freemasons’ lodges in Saint-Domingue.” To the governor-general’s horror, Viaux had already managed to attract some “neophytes” among Léogane’s inhabitants, including notable members of the army, the royal magistracy, and the regional court (conseil supérieur). Without knowing what the fraternity was about, “since one has to be part of it to be initiated into its mystery,” the governor-general told Viaux that he would arrest him and send him back to France if he heard of any further reception or assembly without a formal authorization from the French government. Marquis de Larnage did not consider such an authorization desirable because he was convinced that such a lodge and its secret proceedings would constitute a source of public uproar, of “divorce and dissent . . . in almost every household”: “some ladies were made to believe that the object of this institution and brotherhood was to get along without women, others that the freemasons devoted themselves to the devil.”1

The governor-general apparently did not need to fall back on coer- cive measures to stop the meetings of the lodge, for it left no further traces in the colonial archives, masonic records, or other available sources. While Viaux’s social activities in Léogane remain a footnote in the history of Saint-Domingue, they are part of a much larger story, 1 Charles de Brunier, comte involving not only this island but the entire Caribbean. At the time de Larnage, to the Secre- when Marquis de Larnage discovered freemasonry in Léogane, the tary of State of the Navy, Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, expansion of this relatively new organization to the islands in the comte de Maurepas, July Atlantic Ocean was already in full swing. Since the late 1730s, masonic 25, 1740, COL C9A/52, Archives nationales lodges were being established throughout the West Indies, particu- d’outre-mer (ANOM), larly in the British and French colonies, including Saint-Domingue, Aix-en-Provence, France; all translations are mine where a lodge is reported to have been active in the port town of Les unless otherwise noted.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 75 Cayes since 1738.2 During the eighteenth century, masonic lodges are estimated to have consisted of several thousand members in the French West Indies alone — a considerable number if we take into account the limited size of the white male population that was, at that time, the main and almost sole constituency of freemasonry in the Antilles.3

On a larger scale, the short-lived lodge in Léogane and its many 2 See Alain Le Bihan, “La Caribbean sister lodges point to the global expansion of freemasonry Franc-Maçonnerie dans les and related forms of fraternal association and sociability during the colonies françaises du XVIIIe siècle,” Annales historiques eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. With roots in medieval and de la Révolution française 46 (1974): 39-62; André early modern stonemasons’ lodges, modern freemasonry took shape Combes, “La Franc-Maçonnerie in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Great Britain.4 Rapidly aux Antilles et en Guyane française de 1789 à 1848,” in spreading throughout continental Europe, masonic lodges became La période révolutionnaire aux a well-known element of sociability in Enlightenment Europe, a Antilles: Images et résonnances (Schœlcher, c.1989), 155-80; secluded world meant to facilitate the practice of the ideals of José Antonio Ferrer Benimeli, fraternity and humanity across social, national, and confessional “Vías de penetración de la masonería en el Caribe,” boundaries. Parallel to its steady expansion in Europe, this secluded Revista de Estudios Históricos world transcended the borders of the European continent within a de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña 1 (2009): 3-19; few decades. At the end of the eighteenth century, wide networks Cécile Révauger, “Freemasonry of lodges were in place stretching from Europe to North and South in Barbados, Trinidad and Grenada: British or Home- America, into the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. As made?,” Journal for Research into the cited cases in the Antilles suggest, empires — continental and Freemasonry and Fraternalism 1 (2010): 79-91. intercontinental alike — constituted important infrastructures for the expansion of freemasonry. 3 See the vast prosopographic study: Elisabeth Escalle and Mariel Gouyon Guillaume, Despite this global dimension, the academic and non-academic Francs-maçons des loges françaises ‘aux Amériques’ study of freemasonry has been largely encased in national (or sub- 1770-1850: Dépouillement du national) frameworks. In return, scholars in transnational, imperial, fonds maçonnique conservé au département des manuscrits or global history have devoted only scarce attention to the worlds de la Bibliothèque nationale of masonic or other related forms of sociability.5 Building on some (Paris, 1993). recent historiographical trends, this essay argues for connecting the 4 David Stevenson, The Origins study of sociability to transnational and global history. Focusing on of Freemasonry: Scotland’s Century, 1590-1710 the example of freemasonry in the Atlantic world, and especially in (Cambridge, 1988); Margaret C. the imperial Caribbean, it seeks to highlight some of the prospects and Jacob, The Origins of Freema- sonry: Facts and Fictions potentials that a history of Atlantic masonic networks and sociability (Philadelphia, 2006), ch. 1. in the decades around 1800 can off er to the comparative history of

5 Dévrig Mollès, “L’histoire empires as well as to Atlantic and global history. In doing so, I will globale et la question ﬁ rst give a brief outline of freemasonry as a research topic of social maçonnique: éléments pour une analyse,” Revista de history and of its global expansion. I will then discuss diff erent scales of Estudios Históricos de la analysis before sketching some analytical perspectives of an Atlantic Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña 6 (2014): 4-32. history of freemasonry.

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I. Freemasonry and the “Associational Revolution” of the Eighteenth Century At the time when Marquis de Larnage enquired about the freemasons, their society had already become a conspicuous element of Western European societies. Modern (“speculative”) freemasonry6 took shape institutionally in early eighteenth-century Great Britain, even though its origins have been subject to debate. Scholars have traced its historical connections back to the (“operative”) stonemasons’ lodges in the late medieval and early modern British Isles, to compagnonnages or journeymen’s fraternities, to knightly orders and to other initiation societies in early modern Europe.7 Freemasonry, as it manifested itself institutionally in the early eighteenth century, was part of a multitude of associations, learned and literary societies, academies, and clubs that marked the eighteenth century as the “century of sociability”8 par excellence. Freemasons organized themselves in “lodges,” a term referring to both the group of members as well as the venue of their meetings. These lodges were affi liated with so-called grand lodges (also referred to as “obediences”). The ﬁ rst of these was the Grand Lodge of London, established in 1717, followed by other grand lodges in Dublin, Paris, and Edinburgh in the 1720s-30s. By the late 1730s, lodges had emerged throughout the British Isles and continental Western Europe. By then in Marquis de Larnage’s native France, lodges existed in every major city — a development the governor of Saint-Domingue may have missed, for he had spent most of 7 On this debate, see Stevenson, Origins of his career since the 1710s outside of metropolitan France. Freemasonry; Jacob, Origins of Freemasonry; Like other societies during the eighteenth century, the freemasons Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, La République universelle strove for individual virtuous and moral improvement in an associa- des francs-maçons: tional setting. Core values were tolerance and fraternity. The emer- De Newton à Metternich (Rennes, 1999), 23-52. gence and rise of freemasonry were thus closely related to the high For a survey of pre- value placed on sociability during the Age of Enlightenment, which eighteenth century societies, see Wolfgang considered sociable intercourse and fellowship with like-minded Hardtwig, Genossenschaft , and “digniﬁ ed” individuals as a privileged path to civic virtue and to Sekte, Verein in Deutsch- land: Vom Spätmittelalter 9 a better society. At the same time, freemasonry maintained a more bis zur Französischen complicated relationship with the rational Enlightenment than other Revolution (Munich, 1997).

8 Ulrich im Hof, Das gesellige 6 Freemasonry comprises a the historical actors con- convenience, this paper Jahrhundert: Gesellschaft multitude of masonic in- ceived and experienced uses in most parts a sin- und Gesellschaft en im stitutions, grand lodges, freemasonry as an inte- gular form and wherever Zeitalter der Aufk lärung doctrines, and ritualistic grated and (more or possible abstracts away (Munich, 1982). systems. Some scholars less) coherent space from the various diff eren- thus tend to talk of “free- due to some basic fea- tiations. As we will see, 9 Stefan-Ludwig Hoff mann, masonries.” Yet notwith- tures which will be pre- this is not to say that free- Civil Society, 1750-1914 standing various internal sented in the following masonry was a uniform (Basingstoke, 2006 [orig. conﬂ icts and diff erences, pages. For the sake of movement. German ed. 2003]), 11-23.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 77 movements of the time such as the academic movement.10 Through their symbols and organizational forms, the freemasons placed themselves in a gray area between rationality and ancient mysteries, between mechanist theory and alchemy, between transdenomina- tional leanings and overtly Christian positions, a mixture that held an appeal for many of their members.

In addition to these more general features of freemasonry, six aspects are of particular importance for the context of this essay. First, the freemasons were a voluntary association, that is, an organization based on the principle of free and individual membership whose existence was dependent neither on the state nor the church. While 10 These esoteric traditions and dimensions have been this gave it a certain degree of independence, agency, and ambiguity, emphasized by Monika Neugebauer-Wölk, Esoterische it also added to the precariousness of an organization that constantly Bünde und Bürgerliche had to solicit the authorities’ tolerance. The public appearance of Gesellschaft : Entwicklungslinien zur modernen Welt im freemasonry in diff erent parts of the world was thus to a large extent Geheimbundwesen des 18. driven by the desire to convince monarchs and governments that they Jahrhunderts (Göttingen, 1995); Monika Neugebauer- posed no threat but were beneﬁ cial to the social and political order. Wölk, “Esoterik als Element Rather than being the only voluntary organization of the time, the freimaurerischer Geschichte und Geschichtsforschung,” freemasons were part of what historian Peter Clark has called the Quatuor Coronati Jahrbuch 40 “associational revolution,” during which manifold associations and (2003): 1-24. societies popped up throughout eighteenth-century Europe. Shaping 11 Peter Clark, British Clubs and a semi-private, semi-public space for conviviality, leisure, and friendly Societies 1580-1800: The Ori- gins of an Associational World intercourse, these clubs and societies set the stage for the prolifera- (Oxford, 2000), 471. tion of modern associations in the following century.11 12 Mark Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America Second, freemasonry was a homosocial organization, that is, an or- (New Haven, NJ, 1989); Mary ganization that was, at least in theory, only open to men. While there Ann Clawson, Constructing Brotherhood: Class, Gender, were, in practice, various intersections and links with mixed-gender and Fraternalism (Princeton, 1989). spaces and organizations, the lodge room was considered a major institution for the shaping of male subjectivities, positioned between 13 Mary Ann Clawson, “Fraternal Orders and Class Formation the allegedly diverging or even separate spheres of the marketplace in the Nineteenth-Century and the family.12 United States,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 27 (1985): 672-95, here 689; Third, and closely related to its homosociality, freemasonry was a Nicholas Terpstra, “Deinsti- fraternal organization. Along with other religious and non-religious tutionalizing Confraternity Studies: Fraternalism and fraternities, it maintained a kinship-like bond — a “symbolic” or Social Capital in Cross- “ﬁ ctive kinship,” as cultural anthropologists and social scientists Cultural Contexts,” in Early 13 Modern Confraternities in have termed it — between its members. Conceived of as a brother- Europe and the Americas: Inter- hood, freemasonry was to a large extent built on a family model. national and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Christopher Family metaphors not only characterized the ties between individual Black and Pamela Gravestock members (referred to as “brothers”), but also served to describe (Burlington, VT, 2006), 264-83, here 264. and negotiate the relations between diff erent institutional branches

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(that is, between “mother” and “daughter lodges” or among “sister lodges”).14 The fraternal ties between members also included the duty of mutual aid and help for “brothers” in need.

Fourth, freemasonry was a society based on initiation, integrated by means of rites, symbols, passwords, and secret signs of identiﬁ ca- tion. Rites marked the admission into the brotherhood as well as the passage between the degrees that a freemason could obtain. The ritualized (and sacralized) space of the lodge was supposed to foster amicable and kinship-like bonds among the members. While the secrecy of their meetings and of the knowledge shared by the initiated lies at the core of freemasonry, it would be misleading to place freemasons in the category of political “secret societies.”15 In contrast to well-known conspiratorial secret societies such as the Illuminati, freemasons never sought to hide the existence of their institution or its raison d’être. Scholars have thus suggested alternative terms such as “discreet society” for this form of sociability based on secrecy.16

In empirical reality, however, the boundaries between (apolitical) 17 While classic conspiracy “discreet societies” and (political) “secret societies” were porous and theories can be considered outdated, numerous everything but clear-cut. scholars have continued to assess the interrelation Fift h, the internal workings of the lodges obeyed certain rules and between political change, revolution, and freema- procedures that stood in partial contradiction to the political and sonry. For some of the major contributions, see social structures surrounding them. Thus, all members, regardless Reinhart Koselleck, of their rank in society, were considered equal within the lodges. The Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the lodges organized themselves along certain democratic and partici- Pathogenenis of Modern patory procedures. They based their proceedings on written bylaws Society (Cambridge, 1988 [original German ed. (also referred to as “constitutions”) and appointed their offi cers 1959]); Ran Halévi, Les through periodic elections among their members. This fact, along loges maçonniques dans la France d’ancien régime with the cult of secrecy, has given rise to manifold theories framing (Paris, 1984); Margaret the masonic lodges as places of resistance or conspiracy against re- C. Jacob, Living the En- lightenment: Freemasonry 17 ligious and political authorities. It is true that some lodges, in very and Politics in Eighteenth- speciﬁ c contexts, may have been drawn into political action. Yet if Century Europe (Oxford, 1991). On the classic de- we look at the social background of their membership, freemasonry bate, turning around the was, by and large, not a refuge for political dissidents, insurgents, or masonic involvement in the French Revolution, see Charles Porset, Hiram sans-culotte? Franc- 14 Jessica Harland-Jacobs, article by Wolfgang 16 Dieter A. Binder, Die maçonnerie, Lumières Builders of Empire: Free- Hardtwig, “Eliteanspruch diskrete Gesellschaft : et Révolution: trente ans masons and British Imperia- und Geheimnis in den Geschichte und Symbolik d’études et de recherches lism, 1717-1927 (Chapel Geheimgesellschaft en der Freimaurer, rev. ed. (Paris, 1998) and more Hill, NC, 2007), 206-15. des 18. Jahrhunderts,” (Innsbruck, 2004); in the recently Kenneth Loiselle, in Aufk lärung und English and French con- Brotherly Love: Freemasonry 15 For the logics and func- Geheimgesellschaft en, ed. texts, the terms “society and Male Friendship in tions of secrecy in this Helmut Reinalter with secrets” and “société Enlightenment France context, see the seminal (Munich, 1989), 63-86. à secrètes” are also in use. (Ithaca, 2014), ch. 6.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 79 revolutionaries. Eighteenth-century lodges are, in fact, more properly characterized as “sites of social compromise,” as social spaces in which parts of the aristocracy and higher middle-classes — also, in part, the clergy — could mingle and interact with each other.18

Finally, modern freemasonry was from the outset characterized by a pronounced cosmopolitan attitude. The founding document of English freemasonry, the “Constitutions of the Free-Masons” (1723) by Rev. James Anderson, described freemasonry as “the Centre of Union, and the Means of conciliating true Friendship among Persons that must have remain’d at a perpetual Distance.”19 Similar expres-

18 See, e.g., Daniel Roche, “Die sions of cosmopolitanism became a recurrent element in offi cial ‘sociétés de pensée’ und die and unoffi cial masonic discourse, in catechisms issued by the grand aufgeklärten Eliten im 18. Jahrhundert,” in Sozialge- lodges, in speeches held at local lodges, and in the correspondence schichte der Aufk lärung in between lodges or individual freemasons. Considering themselves Frankreich, ed. Rolf Reichardt 20 and Hans-Ulrich Gumbrecht as protagonists of the eighteenth-century “moral International,” (Munich, 1981), 77-115; Freemasons sought to ignore confessional, political, social, national, Gérard Gayot, “War die französische Freimaurerei and continental boundaries. Although the belief in a Supreme Being des 18. Jahrhunderts eine was a prerequisite for membership (at least until the late nineteenth Schule der Gleichheit?,” in Aufk lärung/Lumières und century, when some grand lodges in continental Europe started to Politik: Zur politischen Kultur initiate atheists), the freemasons’ creator god, the “Grand Architect der deutschen und französischen Aufk lärung, ed. Hans Erich of the Universe,” was supposed to transcend speciﬁ c religious de- Bödeker and Etienne François nominations. In fact, however, freemasons were divided on the crucial (Leipzig, 1996), 235-47. question of how the cosmos that they set out to (re-)unite would be 19 The Constitutions of the Free- designed and where its boundaries would be drawn. Discussion and Masons: Containing the History, Charges, Regulations, etc. of dissent around this question would become a leitmotif of masonic That Most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity (New history, fueled by the rapid spread of freemasonry. York, 1855, reprint of London, 1723), 50. II. Sociability Within and Across Borders 20 Koselleck, Critique and Crisis, 79. Most of the features just enumerated, including secrecy, were not

21 See on French provincial unique to the freemasons, but could be found in other eighteenth- academies the landmark century associations as well. What distinguished freemasonry was study by Daniel Roche, Le siècle des Lumières en province: the combination of all these aspects and its grand scale and transna- Académies et académiciens pro- tional reach. Only a few other non-religious movements of the time vinciaux, 1680-1789, 2 vols. (Paris, 1978); comparative adopted institutional structures of a comparable intercontinental perspectives in James E. scope. Compared to the academies that developed similar transna- McClellan III, Science Reorganized: Scientiﬁ c Societies tional networks and served as hubs of hospitality for the members in the Eighteenth Century (New of the eighteenth-century République des Lettres, the lodges proved York, 1985); Didier Masseau, 21 “Academies, Provincial,” to be more open socially. As a matter of fact, freemasonry stood Encyclopedia of the Enlighten- out as the foremost institution of what I would call cross-border ment, ed. Michel Delon, vol. 1 (New York, 2013), 14-18. sociability.

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Parallel to its institutional consolidation, the lodge network expanded on an international scale. Only a few years aft er the foundation of the Grand Lodge in London, the fi rst lodges were established in various parts of continental Europe. On the eve of the French Revolution, an estimated number of more than one hundred thousand people were involved in freemasonry or related organizations in Europe; in France at that time, at least fi ve percent of the male urban adult population were lodge members.22 Freemasonry was not only “the fi rst secular civic association to achieve success on a European-wide scale,”23 but it went rapidly beyond the boundaries of the continent. The spread of English freemasonry since the foundation of the fi rst Grand Lodge in London 1717 may serve as an example.24 Around 1800, the (at that point, two) English Grand Lodges had already created dense networks of local lodges in Europe as well as overseas. By the end of the eighteenth century, the English Grand Lodges and their provincial bodies had recognized more than two hundred lodges in North America, more than forty in South Asia, and more than fi ft y in the West Indies. Many more followed in the next decades. A century later, the network had become denser, with particularly important nodes in North America, South Africa, Australia, South and South 22 John M. Roberts, “Free- East Asia, as well as in places like Egypt, where a dozen English masonry: Possibilities of a Neglected Topic,” The lodges had been established. These fi gures only refer to local lodges English Historical Review offi cially affi liated with the English Grand Lodges. They do not in- 84 (1969): 322-335, 322; Etienne François and Rolf clude those lodges affi liated with other grand lodges, such as those Reichardt, “Les formes de in Ireland, Scotland, France, the Netherlands, or (from the 1780s) the sociabilité en France du milieu du XVIIIe siècle United States, which proved no less devoted to the global expansion au milieu du XIXe siècle,” of freemasonry. Likewise, the fi gures include neither intrinsically mo- Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine 34 (1987): bile military lodges nor those lodges or lodge-like associations that 453-72, here 465-66. did not manage — or even aspire — to become formally recognized 23 Hoff mann, Civil Society, 12. by masonic offi cialdom. 24 For a list of English lodges up to 1894, see John The Saint-Domingue lodge that Comte de Larnage referred to in 1740 Lane, Masonic Records, was in many ways paradigmatic of the rapid expansion of masonic 1717-1894 (London, 1895); for the post-1894, sociability. Gravitating around one person, it points to the major role the list has been comple- of individual initiatives in the expansion of the masonic “cosmos.” mented as Lane’s Masonic Records, version 1.0, URL: Like many such “pioneering” lodges, it remained (at least for a cer- www.hrionline.ac.uk/lane. tain period) outside of the formalized network of European grand The period of existence of the lodges included in lodges, therefore leaving no traces in the offi cial masonic archives, the list varies consider- but only in “profane,” public or private, records. Finally, the lodge ably, from several months to several decades. For in Léogane remained a short-lived experience, a fate it shared with further numbers from the many other such associations, particularly in an overseas context British imperial context, see Harland-Jacobs, that was marked by an eminently mobile and unstable constituency. Builders, 3-5.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 81 Thousands of other lodges, however, went beyond such an initial stage. They were held together by a transnational federal structure and quasi-diplomatic relations. A local lodge became part of the masonic network only when it was recognized by a grand lodge. Such grand lodges had very diff erent — and oft en confl icting — jurisdictions. While the English grand lodge(s) claimed to function as the universal “mother lodge” with a barely restricted scope of action, grand lodges in continental Europe started to assert sovereignty over territories that increasingly converged with national state borders.25 And yet, even the activities of these “national” grand lodges exceeded the territories of the nation-states. In regions with a high number of active lodges, so-called “district” or “provincial grand lodges” were established. In the course of national independence movements, such as in the new world around 1800, provincial grand lodges could transform themselves into new national grand lodges. Already during the eighteenth century, a regular and at times intense masonic correspondence emerged, and this was not only between the local lodges and their respective grand lodges. Local lodges communicated with members belonging to diff erent obediences as well, and the grand lodges developed a system of international relations in which they could establish, maintain, sever, or resume diplomatic relations between each other. In addition, freemasons belonging to diff erent lodges were bound to mutual hospitality and assistance — including logistical, material, or fi nancial support for members in need. Early on, the lodges encountered the problem of non-members trying to exploit these masonic structures of mutual aid. As a consequence, the eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of a complex system of certifi cates, secret signs, and passwords designed to help freemasons to reveal themselves to each other. The masonic certifi cates, in particular, became highly demanded “passports” to the world of the Enlightenment, enabling members on the move to draw on the lodge network and, if needed, on its resources.

The rapid expansion of freemasonry was not centrally planned or or-

25 Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, chestrated. Rather, it occurred “in ﬁ ts and starts, non-stabilized rapid L’Europe des francs-maçons advances, [and] temporary retreats.”26 At the current stage of research, XIIIe-XXIe siècle (Paris, 2002), 101-34. we still know little about the diff erent mechanisms that supported this expansion. At least four driving forces can be pointed out, how- 26 Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, L’Autre et le Frère: L’étranger et la ever. First, this expansion was closely connected with migration. The franc-maçonnerie en France lodges made movements of people easier, but many of them were also au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1998), 154. the products of this mobility, both in its voluntary and involuntary

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forms. Refugees or people in exile established lodges as much as travelers, merchants, diplomats, or settlers. Second, along with the movement of civilians, the mobility of soldiers played an important role. Lodges established or recognized by freemasons in the armies (oft en organized in ambulant lodges) were among the marks left by military campaigns and invasions. Third, rivalry and conﬂ ict between grand lodges contributed to the emergence of a masonic geopolitics, in which competing grand lodges sought to extend their spheres of inﬂ u- ence and authority. In the English context, for instance, the rivalry of more than six decades (1751-1813) between two grand lodges (the “Antients” and the “Moderns”) stimulated the foundation of new lodges, especially outside of Europe. Fourth, political structures of rule played a large role in the expansion and transregional institutionalization of freemasonry. This holds true for the nation-states and, as recent research has shown, perhaps even more so for large-scale political entities such as empires.27 These imperial dimensions inter- sect with the aforementioned factors, since in many cases empires provided the framework for these diff erent forms of mobility and military expansion.

III. Different Scales of Analysis A lodge, the basic unit of freemasonry, was simultaneously embed- ded in several contexts of diff ering scale. First, the lodge was an es- sential feature of local public life, organizing a segment — in most cases the notables and primi inter pares — of local society. Second, the lodge was integrated into an “obedience,” an institutional network orchestrated around a — regionally and/or nationally deﬁ ned — grand lodge. Third, the lodge was part of a large-scale 27 Harland-Jacobs, Builders. intercontinental, if not global network that was institutionally 28 See, for a similar critique, stabilized and underpinned by an ideology of cosmopolitan fra- Jessica Hartland-Jacobs, ternalism. Given how intrinsically these three dimensions are in- “Worlds of Brothers,” Journal for Research into terrelated, it is astonishing that until very recently scholars have Freemasonry and Fraterna- taken little notice of freemasonry’s cross-border and large-scale lism 2 (2011). 28 dimensions. 29 Robert F. Gould, History of Freemasonry: Its Though one of the most eminent historians of freemasonry, Robert F. Antiquities, Symbols, Con- stitutions, Customs, etc. Gould, had already in the late nineteenth century described it Derived from Offi cial as a phenomenon of global reach, subsequent generations of aca- Sources Throughout the World, 4 vols. (New York, demic and nonacademic scholars have almost invariably privileged 1885-89); see also Robert a local, regional, or national scale of analysis.29 Thus, for instance, F. Gould, A Concise History of Freemasonry (London, there has been no systematic research on the close connection 1904).

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 83 between migration, migrant cultures, and freemasonry, with the notable exception of Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire’s groundbreaking study on eighteenth-century France.30 Although Beaurepaire’s work 30 Beaurepaire, L’Autre et le Frère. The scope of pointed to the necessity of reassessing the role of “foreigners” in Beaurepaire’s book goes beyond this topic. “national” freemasonry, it does not seem to have stimulated comparable studies for other countries. This also holds true for the 31 See the landmark study by Stephen C. Bullock, Revolutio- U.S. context, in which the colonial origins of freemasonry and its nary Brotherhood: Freemasonry intrinsic connections to migration are obvious. Yet, although the and the Transformation of the American Social Order, study of freemasonry and of fraternalism as a whole in the United 1730-1840 (Chapel Hill, NC, States has been a vibrant ﬁ eld of innovative scholarship over the 1996); and the important recent books by Ami Pﬂ ugrad- past two decades, it has remained largely encased in a national Jackisch, Brothers of a Vow: framework and has devoted only passing interest to its transnational Secret Fraternal Orders and the Transformation of White Male or transatlantic entanglements. Histories of freemasonry in North Culture in Antebellum Virginia America represent its colonial origins predominantly as a negative (Athens, GA, 2011) and 31 David G. Hackett, That foil for freemasonry’s national self-assertion and Americanization. Religion in which all Men Likewise, while studies have scrutinized the masonic life in many Agree: Freemasonry in American Culture (Berkeley, 2014). European or non-European port cities, they have, until very re-

32 See, for some of the most cently, been only moderately interested in its fundamental overseas important contributions in connections.32 this fi eld, Johel Coutura, La franc-maçonnerie à Bordeaux, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles (Marseille, There are several reasons for the neglect of freemasonry’s large-scale 1978); Johel Coutura, Les dimensions. First, institutional history is signifi cant for a fi eld of francs-maçons de Bordeaux au 18e siècle (Marcillac, 1988); research that tends to draw to a large extent on institutional archives. Eric Saunier, Révolution et As a matter of fact, from the end of the eighteenth century on, the sociabilité en Normandie au tournant des XVIIIe et XIXe nation-state became the predominant organizational framework siècles: 6000 francs-maçons of freemasonry. Starting in continental Europe and then spreading de 1740 à 1830 (Rouen, 1998); Fred E. Schrader, to the imperial and non-imperial world, existing or emerging grand “Aufk lärungssoziabilität und lodges increasingly defined and protected spaces of territorial Politik in Bordeaux,” in Aufk lärung/Lumières und sovereignty that geographically coincided with political boundaries, Politik, ed. Bödeker and in most cases those of nation-states.33 Second, as a reaction to François, 249-74. anti-masonic movements, which oft en nurtured fears of internation- 33 Beaurepaire, L’Europe, 101-12; for a more detailed alism and world conspiracies, freemasons in Europe and the United account, see Yves Hiver- States tended to emphasize their patriotism and support of the Messeca, L’Europe sous l’Acacia: Histoire des franc- nation-states and authorities they were subject to. They themselves maçonneries européennes du thus contributed to minimizing the transnational character and XVIIIe siècle à nos jours, vol. 2, Le temps des nationalités et de global reach of their institution. Third, as a consequence of institu- la liberté (Paris, 2014). tional history, the masonic institutions of research which have

34 Harland-Jacobs, “Worlds of emerged in recent years (in Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Brothers,” 17; Pierre-Yves Kingdom, for example) still tend to privilege national units of Beaurepaire, “Masonic Stud- 34 ies,” in Dictionnaire de la analysis. Finally, it should not be surprising that the (still franc-maçonnerie, ed. marginal) topic of freemasonry and sociability has not diverged from Beaurepaire (Paris, 2014), 165-70. the general patterns of academic historiography, which has

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until recently prioritized the nation-state over other possible units of analysis.35

The recent surge in transnational, entangled, and global history approaches has contributed to a greater awareness of freemasonry’s cross-border dynamics. Entries on freemasonry have been included in some of the recent dictionaries in transnational and world history.36 Likewise, new dictionaries and handbooks on freemasonry have appeared that endeavor to take comparative, transnational, and global perspectives more seriously.37 So far, this increasing interest has hardly trickled down to the fi eld of empirical research. Projects 37 See Le monde maçonnique des Lumières (Europe- and published research engaged explicitly in cross-border sociability Amérique et colonies): Dic- have remained scarce. Since the late 1990s, however, some scholars tionnaire prosopographique, ed. Charles Porset and from various backgrounds have broken new ground in the study of Cécile Révauger, 3 vols. cross-border sociability from a variety of perspectives. These con- (Paris, 2013); Handbook of Freemasonry, ed. Bogdan tributions do not only illustrate the new insights that larger scales and Snoek; Dictionnaire of analysis can provide for both the study of freemasonry and for de la franc-maçonnerie, ed. Beaurepaire. transnational, transcultural, or imperial history; they also represent diff erent ways of reframing the topic, even if it is premature to speak 38 A diff erent way to distin- guish perspectives is pro- of established fi elds of research. Three of these major areas shall be vided by Harland-Jacobs, briefl y sketched.38 “Worlds of Brothers.” 39 Margaret C. Jacob, The (1) A European perspective: Freemasonry was, fi rst and foremost, a Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and European phenomenon. It emerged out of a European context and Republicans (London, saw its most rapid expansion in Europe. Until recently, however, 1981); Jacob, Living the Enlightenment; Jacob, scholars have rarely taken these European dimensions into account. Strangers Nowhere in the Following Margaret C. Jacob’s pioneering studies, other scholars World: The Rise of Cosmo- 39 politanism in Early Modern have started to describe freemasonry on a European scale. While Europe (Philadelphia, PA, these studies helped to go beyond one particular national context, 2006), esp. ch. 4; R. William Weisberger, they have remained in a primarily comparative framework that is less Speculative Freemasonry interested in the manifold connections between the cases studied. and the Enlightenment: A Study of the Craft in Against this backdrop, an entangled history of European freema- London, Paris, Prague, and sonry has gradually taken shape, a project put forward in several Vienna (New York, 1993); Hoff mann, Civil Society. seminal works by French historian Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire.40 Build- ing on his studies on the close connection between migration and 40 See esp., Beaurepaire, L’Autre et le Frère; Beaurepaire, République universelle; Beaurepaire, 35 For a rapid overview Henrik Bogdan and Jan Akira Iriye and L’Europe; Beaurepaire, over masonic and aca- A.M. Snoek (Leiden, Pierre-Yves Saunier L’espace des francs-maçons: demic research, with 2014), 117-35. (Basingstoke, 2009); Une sociabilité européenne a particular focus on Encyclopedia of Global au XVIIIe siècle (Rennes, the French context, 36 See Oxford Encyclopedia Studies, ed. Helmut K. 2003); Diff usions et see Charles Porset, of the Modern World Anheier and Mark circulations des pratiques “Masonic Historiogra- (Oxford, 2008); The Juergensmeyer, maçonniques, XVIIIe-XXe phy,” in Handbook of Palgrave Dictionary of 4 vols. (Los Angeles, siècle, ed. Beaurepaire Freemasonry, ed. Transnational History, ed. 2012). et al. (Paris, 2013).

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 85 freemasonry in France and drawing on unexploited sources outside the institutional archives (especially ego-documents), Beaurepaire has, over the years, shed light on the driving forces, dynamics, and patterns of freemasonry’s transnational expansion in Europe and its gradual and protracted institutionalization as a Pan-European sphere of interaction. His studies constitute an important argument for a better integration of masonic history into the “general” history of Europe. Freemasonry’s close relation to mobility and to certain mobile groups (diplomats, merchants, migrants, as well as prison- ers of war), and its interaction with networks of correspondence, 41 For more recent studies in this direction, see for example diplomacy, business, or ethnic groups makes it an important feature Joachim Berger’s studies on masonic internationalisms of an entangled socio-cultural history of Europe since the eighteenth since the mid-nineteenth century. Although Beaurepaire’s studies were mainly focused on the century Joachim Berger, “European Freemasonries, eighteenth century and the Francophone sphere, they demonstrate 1850-1935: Networks and the promising new perspectives and insights that a European scale Transnational Movements,” European History Online, of analysis provides, both for the history of cross-border sociability Dec 03, 2010, URL: http:// and an integrated European history in general.41 www.ieg-ego.eu/bergerj- 2010-en. (2) An intercultural perspective: Freemasonry did not remain a Euro- 42 See the contributions in pean organization alone. Academic research has become increas- La Franc-maçonnerie en Méditerranée (XVIIIe-XXIe ingly interested in its early boom in the European borderlands, siècle): Circulations, modèles, especially in the broader Mediterranean basin.42 In fact, lodges fl our- transferts, ed. Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire (Nice, 2006) (= ished not only on the Euro-Mediterranean coast, but also in the Cahiers de la Méditerranée 72). Levant, the Middle East, and North Africa — areas that were mostly 43 See, especially, Bruno part of the Ottoman Empire until the early twentieth century. While Etienne, Abd el-Kader et la many of the early lodges in these regions were founded and popu- franc-maçonnerie (Paris, 2008); Thierry Zarcone, lated by European migrants, traders, diplomats or colonists, scholars Mystiques, philosophes et francs-maçons en Islam: Riza have highlighted the fact that throughout the nineteenth century Tevfi k, penseur ottoman freemasonry enjoyed increasing popularity among certain seg- (1868-1949), du soufi sme à la confrérie (Paris, 1993); ments of local — and to a large extent Muslim — societies. The Zarcone, Secret et société most important contributions to an understanding of non- secrète en Islam: Turquie, Iran et Asie centrale, XIe-XXe European, “native” freemasonry in the Middle East and North Africa siècles (Milan, 2002); Zarcone, have come from French academics, notably from political scientist “Freemasonry and Islam,” in Handbook of Freemasonry, ed. Bruno Etienne and historian Thierry Zarcone. While these two schol- Bogdan and Snoek, 233-57. ars have engaged with diff erent aspects and areas — Etienne with See also some important earlier works: Xavier Yacono, the question of the adherence of Emir ‘Abd al-Qadir (1808-83), the Un siècle de franc-maçonnerie most prominent leader of the anticolonial resistance in nineteenth- algérienne (1785-1884) (Paris, 1969); Karim Wissa, century Algeria, and Zarcone with masonic or para-masonic societies “Freemasonry in Egypt 1798- throughout the Ottoman Empire and Iran — both have described 1921: A Study in Cultural and Political Encounters,” Bulletin freemasonry as an object and arena of cross-cultural appropriations, of the British Society for encounters, and transfers.43 Zarcone, especially, has pointed to the Middle Eastern Studies 16 (1989): 143-61. various structural and ideological affi nities and interactions between

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secular fraternities and certain religious (especially Suﬁ ) brother- hoods, a phenomenon that historian Maurice Agulhon had already discovered in the radically diff erent Catholic context of Southern France.44 Less concerned with aspects of mobility than the European approach, the studies by Etienne, Zarcone, and an increasing number of other researchers emphasize the role of freemasonry and comparable structures of sociability for intercultural relations and transfers in borderland contexts.45

(3) An imperial perspective: The Mediterranean context points to the signifi cance of colonialism for the development of cross-border sociability. Empires were among the most important structures in which masonic sociability expanded and fl ourished on a global scale. While the importance of intra-imperial fraternal networks has been recognized since the 1970s, scholars have only recently begun to discover empires as a valuable unit of analysis for research into freemasonry and other fraternal organizations.46 Thanks to historian Jessica Harland-Jacobs, the British case is by far the best studied.47 Covering two centuries and a wide range of diff erent regions, Harland-Jacobs’ path-breaking study analyzes the complex interplay between the British Empire and freemasonry since the 1720s. In fact, British overseas rule and the various forms of mobility it entailed did not only constitute a main mechanism of freemasonry’s global expansion; the brotherhood also provided a fl exible social infrastructure for hierarchies, alliances, and confl icts over religion, political affi liation, social advancement, race, nationality, and ethnicity on an intercontinental scale. Although Harland-Jacobs alludes to the potential of subversive uses, she emphasizes the various social, moral, emotional, spiritual, material, and ideological functions that made freemasonry an imperial institution par excellence. Similar to the two other perspectives, these recent scholarly achievements have opened up broad and largely unknown horizons. French and Dutch imperial freemasonries still lack comparable scholarship, however, as do several important subtopics (including for the British

44 Maurice Agulhon, History of the Fraternity Geoff roy, and Setty G. Pénitents et Francs- and its Inﬂ uence in Syria Simon-Khedis (Damascus, Maçons de l’ancienne Pro- and the Levant (London, 2010), 83-98; Saïd 46 Ronald Hyam, Britain’s vence (Paris, 1968). 2015); Mouloud Kebache, Chaaya, “Au cœur de la Imperial Century, 1815- “Abd el-Kader et la franc- Nahda, francs-maçons 1914: A Study of Empire 45 Research in this area has maçonnerie française: et loges maçonniques and Expansion (London, become a burgeoning Une relation controversée,” du Liban au XIXe siècle,” 1976), 152-56. ﬁ eld, see e.g. Dorothe in Abd el-Kader, un spiri- in Diff usions et circula- Sommer, Freemasonry in tuel dans la modernité, ed. tions, ed. Beaurepaire, 47 See especially Harland- the Ottoman Empire: A Ahmed Bouyerdene, Éric 301-16. Jacobs, Builders.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 87 Empire), such as the development of freemasonry outside of white settler colonies, dysfunctional or subversive uses, and inter- or transimperial dynamics.48

The three perspectives sketched here pose a major challenge to the predominant way of analyzing the history of freemasonry, and fraternalism as a whole, in a national or sub-national framework. With varying foci, they propose radically diff erent units of analysis and promising new ways of bringing the large-scale and cross-border dimensions into the history of sociability. Their results are highly relevant for our understanding of national and local freemasonries and will necessarily inﬂ uence their study. Thus, to name but one example, the British Empire was a major arena in which the rivalry between the two English grand lodges was played out and was a signiﬁ cant factor in the rivalry’s outcome.49 To be sure, large-scale and cross-border

48 For some comparative re- units of analysis cannot simply supersede previous national or local marks, departing from the ones. As holds true for other fi elds of historical research, local, na- British case, see Jessica Harland-Jacobs, “Freemasonry tional or transnational approaches, micro- and macro-perspectives, and Colonialism,” in local prosopography and translocal network analysis must be seen Handbook of Freemasonry, 439-60. See also Pierre as complementary. The study of cross-border sociability can benefi t Pluchon, Histoire de la to a great extent from the results and the methodological fi nesse of colonization française, vol. 1, Le premier empire colonial: research conducted on a local or national scale. Des origines à la Restauration (Paris, 1990), 667-68; Georges Odo, La franc-maçonnerie dans IV. Atlantic Perspectives les colonies, 1738-1960 (Paris, 2001); Paul J. Rich, Elixir of Empire: The English Against this historiographical background, we return to the masonic Public Schools, Ritualism, lodges in Saint-Domingue and other Caribbean islands, with which Freemasonry, and Imperialism (London, 1989); Vahid Jalil this essay began. What would be the best perspective for studying Fozdar, “Constructing the them? At fi rst sight, the imperial perspective may appear to be the ‘Brother’: Freemasonry, Empire, and Nationalism in most natural and most appropriate approach. Most (though not all) India, 1840-1925” (PhD diss., of the lodges found in the West Indian colonies were indeed af- University of California, Berkeley, 2001); James W. fi liated with grand lodges in their respective colonial metropoles in Daniel, “The 4th Earl of Europe, and most of them were dominated by nationals from these Carnarvon (1831-1890) and Freemasonry in the British metropoles. Viaux’s short-lived lodge in Léogane would then appear Empire” (PhD diss., Univer- as a product of French imperial freemasonry, just as the numerous sity of Sheffi eld, 2010). lodges in Jamaica or Barbados would fi gure as part of British imperial 49 Harland-Jacobs, Builders, 23- freemasonry. But how would such an approach account for the fact 31, 45-51, 143-50. that many of Saint-Domingue’s lodges, in the midst of the Haitian 50 See, on (parts of) these lodges, Revolution (1791-1804), affi liated with a relatively new player — the Agnès Renault, D’une île rebelle à une île fi dèle: Les Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; and for the fact that, Français de Santiago de Cuba aft er Haitian independence, many of these lodges were reestablished (1791-1825) (Mont-Saint- Aignan, 2012), 304-19. in the United States or other West Indian islands such as Cuba?50 Or,

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that later on many of these lodges could be found on the East Coast of the United States, and Louisiana in particular? Such facts, I would argue, call for an “Atlanticist” perspective; that is, a perspective that takes into account the manifold interactions and connections within the Atlantic basin.

Since the 1980s at the latest, Atlantic history has become a boom- ing fi eld of historical research, especially for the period from the European discovery of the Americas until the early nineteenth century. Scholars in Atlantic history consider the Atlantic Ocean a heterogeneous zone of interaction between the Americas, Europe, and Africa that was shaped and integrated by various economic, cultural, social, political, intellectual, and environmental relations and exchanges.51 Their research sheds light on the various mobile groups and their networks (of seaman, pirates, merchants, but also of slaves and other forced migrants), on cultural transfers, on the mobility of ideas, on the emergence of creole identities and on societies that are not confi ned to one single imperial or national sphere. In practice, there are, to be sure, diff erent ways of writing Atlantic 51 On the concept(s) of history. Conceptions of “the Atlantic” vary according to the research- Atlantic history, see ers’ focus — whether they concentrate on northern or southern part, Bernard Bailyn, Atlantic History: Concept and Con- or on specifi c ethnic or religious groups. It also varies according to tours (Cambridge, MA, the way that the “Atlanticist” perspective is put into operation. In 2005); Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity an oft en cited article, David Armitage has distinguished three varia- and Double Consciousness tions of approach: those studies which take the ocean as the unit of (Cambridge, MA, 1993); Alison Games, “Atlantic analysis (“circum-Atlantic”); those focused on comparisons (between History: Defi nitions, diff erent places, countries, etc.) within this unit (“trans-Atlantic”); Challenges, and Opportu- nities,” American Historical and histories that put a region or country into a wider Atlantic context Review 111 (2006): 741-57; 52 and the contributions to (“cis-Atlantic”). Soundings in Atlantic History: Latent Structures Beyond such methodological divisions, Atlantic history’s approaches and Intellectual Currents, 1500-1830, ed. Bernard share some commonalities and diff erences with the three aforemen- Bailyn and Patricia tioned large-scale perspectives on freemasonry. Although Atlantic Denault (Boston, MA, 2009); Atlantic History: A history deals with (Western) European history, it stresses the intra- Critical Appraisal, ed. Jack European entanglements much less than the transoceanic connec- Greene and Philip Morgan (Oxford, 2009); The tions of Europe. Likewise, while it is closely related to the history of British Atlantic World, European overseas empires, Atlantic history does not limit itself to 1500-1800, ed. David Armitage and Michael the history of one particular empire. Thus, one of its major advan- Braddick (New York, 2002). tages is that it brings several empires — with their various inter- 52 David Armitage, “Three actions, overlaps, and shift ing boundaries — into view. Adopting Concepts of Atlantic His- an intercultural perspective, it shares an interest in multicultural tory,” in British Atlantic World, ed. Armitage and borderland situations. Yet, compared to the Mediterranean context, Braddick, 11-27.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 89 its story is only partly about the Euro-Christian (colonial) confronta- tion with existing non-European and non-Christian civilizations; its other part is about the violent creation of neo-European Creole and African-Creole colonial societies.

From the outset, the Atlantic played a major role in the expansion of freemasonry and related fraternal organizations. Parallel to its expansion in Europe, freemasons’ lodges ﬂ ourished in North America from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. From this time on, the British, French, and Dutch Caribbean colonies turned into major masonic hubs and, starting in the early nineteenth century,

53 Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, freemasonry also became an important social and political factor 18-19; Beaurepaire, L’Europe, in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking parts of the Americas. In 90-9; Hoff mann, Civil Society, 4, 62; Franc-maçonnerie et sub-Saharan Africa until the end of the nineteenth century, most politique au siècle des Lumières: masonic lodges were clustered along the Atlantic coast and the Europe-Amériques, ed. Cécile Révauger (Pessac, 2006) Cape Colony. (= Lumières 7); Le monde maçonnique des Lumières, ed. This is not new. Historians of freemasonry have regularly alluded to Porset and Révauger. its transatlantic dimensions, and a dictionary published in 2013 is 54 Harland-Jacobs, “Worlds of decidedly transatlantic in scope.53 As Jessica Harland-Jacobs has Brothers,” 27. As a byproduct of her research on imperial recently pointed out, “Atlantic history is a necessary approach for freemasonry, Harland-Jacobs understanding many developments in the history of fraternalism; at has also published some studies with an Atlantic focus, the same time, the study of fraternalism can shed revealing light on see Jessica Harland-Jacobs, 54 “‘Hands Across the Sea’: The understudied aspects of the Atlantic world.” Yet, while some reli- Masonic Network, British gious fraternities, especially the Jesuits, have started to receive at- Imperialism, and the North Atlantic World,” Geographical tention from an “Atlanticist” perspective, the prospects of bringing Review 89 (1999): 237- together Atlantic history and the study of freemasonry and other 53; Jessica Harland-Jacobs, 55 “‘Maintaining the Connex- secular fraternities have hardly been spelled out so far. There are ion’: Orangeism in the British only few books or edited volumes that cover freemasonry on more North Atlantic World,” Atlantic Studies 5 (2008): 27-49. than one side of the Atlantic, and those that exist do not use the Atlantic as their unit of analysis. Only few regional studies on free- 55 See for example, J. Gabriel Martinez-Serna, “Procurators masonry in the Americas, Europe, or Africa have, at least partly, an and the Making of the Jesuits’ Atlantic framing or “cis-Atlantic” approach in accordance with Atlantic Network,” in Soun- 56 dings in Atlantic History: Armitage’s typology. Latent Structures and Intellec- tual Currents, 1500-1830, ed. The disregard appears to be mutual. Historians of transatlantic mi- Bernard Bailyn and Patricia Denault (Boston, 2009), 181- gration and trade, consumer cultures, imperial rule or revolutionary 209; see the bibliographies by Shona Johnston, “Jesuits,” Atlantic History of Oxford Bi- 56 Some of the few excep- African American Free- et le système-monde bliographies Online (2012); tions are Joy Porter, Native masonry and the Struggle maçonnique (1717-1921): Jessica Harland-Jacobs, “Net- American Freemasonry: for Democracy in America Eléments pour une his- works for Migrations and Associationalism and Per- (Urbana, Ill., 2008), 45-85; toire des opinions pub- Mobility,” Atlantic History of formance in America Devrig Mollès, “Triangle liques internationales” Oxford Bibliographies Online (Lincoln, 2011); Corey D.B. atlantique et triangle (Phd diss., University of (2013). Walker, A Noble Fight: latin: L’Amérique latine Strasbourg, 2012).

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turmoil in the Atlantic world do not devote a great deal of attention to fraternal networks and the worlds of sociability. The lodges are absent from the “Atlantic Enlightenment”; they remain unnoticed in accounts of Atlantic merchants’ networks and culture; they have been of no interest to those studying Sephardic networks throughout the Atlantic world; they play no role in the analysis of refugee movements in the revolutionary Atlantic.57 In all these cases, I would argue, historians have left aside valuable new research questions, promising insights, and, not least, large amounts of unused source material and data.

Some of the general prospects that a history of freemasonry provides for Atlantic history are rather obvious. The history of freemasonry points to a still largely understudied system of networks along which people moved, got into contact, and interacted with each other over long distances within the Atlantic world. It highlights an important layer in the history of mutual aid, philanthropy, and charity in the 57 On these diff erent topics, Atlantic. Being both essentially local and global, freemasonry consti- see The Atlantic Enlighten- tutes a phenomenon that allows for the combination and reconcilia- ment, ed. Susan Manning and Francis D. Cogliano tion of the regional, comparative, and circum-Atlantic dimensions of (Aldershot, 2008); David Atlantic history. At the same time, since the Atlantic lodges are woven Hancock, Citizens of the World: London Merchants into a worldwide network, their study can help to counter a criticism and the Integration of the oft en raised against Atlantic history — namely, that its approaches British Atlantic Community (Cambridge, 1995); Atlan- risk artifi cially isolating the region from its manifold connections tic Diasporas: Jews, Conver- with the rest of the world.58 sos, and Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism, 1500- 1800, ed. Richard Kagan Besides these general aspects, several more specifi c assets and and Philip D. Morgan (Baltimore, 2009); R. Darrell prospects can be pointed out. In fact, the topic lends itself to elabo- Meadows, “Engineering ration and to asking more precise questions that might help us to Exiles: Social Networks and the French Atlantic go beyond the plausible but trivial conclusion that everything was, Community, 1789-1809,” in the end, interconnected. This requires an approach that does not French Historical Studies 23 (2000): 67-102; Maya limit itself to the mere detection of far-reaching connections and Jasanoff , Liberty’s Exiles: entanglements — a tendency that still characterizes a great deal American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World (New 59 of scholarship in global or new world history. As already stated, York, 2011). raising such questions does not mean rejecting research that is still 58 See, for example, Peter A. dominantly framed by the nation-state. As a matter of fact, over the Coclanis, “Drang Nach years nationally or regionally framed scholarship on freemasonry, Osten: Bernard Bailyn, the World-Island, and the fraternalism, and sociability has developed a variety of perspectives Idea of Atlantic History,” and reached a level of sophistication that has a lot to off er to research Journal of World History 13 (2002): 169-82. in large-scale and cross-border contexts. I will illustrate this by briefl y sketching three research questions and perspectives that an Atlantic 59 Sebastian Conrad, Global- geschichte: Eine Einführung history of freemasonry could expand on. (Munich, 2013), 100.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 91 1. Atlantic Sociability? 60 On the term and research perspectives, see Maurice Social historians see one of the most relevant features of freema- Agulhon, “La sociabilité est-elle objet d’histoire?” in sonry in a specifi c form of sociability, that is, the ideal of free, pure, Sociabilité et société bourgeoise non-purposive conviviality with others.60 Shielded from the “pro- en France, en Allemagne et en Suisse, 1750-1850, ed. fane” world, masonic lodges were meant to provide a space for the Etienne François (Paris, establishment of emotional bonds and friendship between people 1986), 12-22; François and Reichardt, “Formes de who otherwise would have remained strangers. Though such prac- sociabilité”; Fred E. Schrader, tices of sociability were not confi ned to one specifi c social group, “Soziabilitätsgeschichte der Aufk lärung: Zu einem eu- they tended to involve primarily the upper classes. The masonic ropäischen Forschungsprob- lem,” Francia 19 (1992): lodges constituted, in other words, an important element in local 177-94; Daniel Gordon, and cross-border sociability as well as in the integration of — “Sociability,” Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, ed. Alan existing or aspiring — elites. Building on this well-established branch Charles Kors, vol. 4 (Oxford, of social history, it becomes possible to study the signifi cance, forms, 2003), 96-104; Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, “Sociability,” in possibilities, and limits of such forms of cross-border sociability in Oxford Handbook of the Ancient the imperial context of the Atlantic. Régime, ed. William Doyle (Oxford, 2012), 374-87. An Atlantic perspective brings into focus places and people that 61 See the important collection tend to remain at the margins of studies framed by the nation-state. La franc-maçonnerie dans les ports, ed. Cécile Révauger and Atlantic freemasonry was to a large extent made outside of the politi- Eric Saunier (Pessac, 2012). cal and masonic centers of power in Europe, that is, in Atlantic port

62 See the case study by Roger cities both in Europe and the Americas. Scholars have only recently Burt, “Freemasonry and Busi- become aware of the fact that freemasonry in port cities bore distinc- ness Networking during the Victorian Period,” The Econo- tive traits, as the lodges met a growing demand among mobile groups mic History Review 56 (2003): that were involved in and on the move within overseas trade.61 In 657-88. this context, they have emphasized the importance of masonic cer- 63 See, for the Mediterranean context, Pierre-Yves Beaure- tiﬁ cates for travelers and of trust built through membership, which paire, “Saint Jean d’Ecosse was of quintessential importance to commercial contacts over long de Marseille: Une puissance 62 maçonnique méditerranéenne distances. Lodges in such strategically important borderland con- aux ambitions européennes,” texts tended to defy the “nationalization” of the masonic institution Cahiers de la Méditerranée 72 (2006): 61-95. and the claims to territorial sovereignty from ascending national grand lodges by maintaining and extending their own international 64 Jacques de Cauna, “Quelques 63 aperçus sur l’histoire de la networks. In the Atlantic context, interactions between European, franc-maçonnerie en Haïti,” American, and Caribbean lodges were particularly intense and of- Revue de la Société Haïtienne d’Histoire et de Géographie ten followed particular patterns that were beyond the grasp of the 189-190 (1996): 20-34, here political and masonic metropoles, such as London and Paris. Thus, 20-24. lodges in Bordeaux created numerous lodges in the French Antilles 65 Merchants were generally one and continued to play a major intermediary role between Caribbean of the most important con- 64 stituencies of eighteenth- lodges and Paris throughout the eighteenth century. Likewise, an century freemasonry; see Atlantic perspective brings into view speciﬁ c groups for which these Daniel Roche, “Négoce et culture dans la France du XVIIIe organizations and networks were of major importance: the civil and siècle,” Revue d’histoire moderne military personnel of colonial administration, settlers, seamen, and et contemporaine 25 (1978): 375-95. people involved in overseas trade.65

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Taken together, the Atlantic lodges enable us to examine how diff erent layers of local, imperial, and transimperial sociability intersected within their network. A brief look at one case may help to illustrate this awkwardly abstract idea: Saint-Domingue in the second half of the eighteenth century, later to become Haiti. As in metropolitan France, freemasonry prospered in the second half of the eighteenth century in the French colonial sphere. In some parts of the Caribbean, notably in Saint-Domingue, an extraordinary density of lodges — 66 Cauna, “Quelques even by Western European standards — developed, shaping the aperçus”; Escalle and social life of the coastal towns in particular.66 With certain varia- Gouyon Guillaume, Francs-maçons; Combes, tions, the lodges brought together aristocratic planters or their local “La Franc-Maçonnerie”; Jean Fouchard, Les plai- agents, military and civil representatives from the metropole, urban sirs de Saint-Domingue: creoles, absentee landlords, and merchants, including slave traders. Notes sur la vie sociale, littéraire et artistiques The aspiring group of free men of color who also sought entrance, (Port-au-Prince, 1988), however, remained excluded for a long time. The lodges were thus 96-97; François Regourd, “Lumière coloniale: Les closely connected to the structures and confl icts of Saint-Domingue’s Antilles françaises dans la colonial society. Yet — and this would be the second layer, which we République des lettres,” L’Atlantique 33 (2001): may call imperial — they also maintained close ties with lodges in At- 183-99, here 198. See, for lantic port cities, such as Bordeaux and Le Havre, where freemasonry comparisons with another island of the French Antil- also fl ourished in the second half of the eighteenth century. Those les, the important study by lodges were, to a large extent, dominated by merchants — including a Anne Pérotin-Dumon, La ville aux îles, la ville dans signifi cant proportion of men involved in the transatlantic slave trade. l’île: Basse-Terre et In the critical period of late 1780s and early 1790s, when debates Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, 1650-1820 (Paris, 2000), about the abolition of slavery came to a head in French politics, the 606-08. lodges in the Antilles and in Atlantic port cities formed an important 67 Eric Saunier, “L’espace imperialist and pro-slavery lobby within French freemasonry.67 At caribéen: Un enjeu de the same time — and this would be a third layer — the lodges in pouvoir pour la franc- maçonnerie française,” Re- Saint-Domingue functioned as important platforms of a transatlantic vista de Estudios Históricos de la Masonería Latinoame- community that formed itself beyond state and imperial borders and ricana y Caribeña 1 (2009): organized itself in the Antilles, just as in American and European 42-56, esp. 49-52. port cities. Thus, some of the lodges included large proportions of 68 See the critique by non-French members and kept up connections with other lodges in Nicholas Canny, “Atlantic History and Global History,” the Americas outside the French imperial sphere. in Atlantic History, ed. Greene and Morgan, Freemasonry should not be seen as another cohesive and self- 317-36, 327-28. contained segment of the Atlantic world along the lines of a “Black 69 Pierre Chevallier, La Atlantic” or a White, Green, Catholic, Protestant, Native American, première profanation du temple maçonnique: Ou Iberian or German Atlantic. Instead, the study of Atlantic freema- Louis XV et la fraternité sonry can help to counter the “balkanization” of Atlantic history into 1737-1755 (Paris, 1968), 34; Saunier, Révolution 68 69 multiple sub-Atlantics. Due to its ductile nature — its “plasticity,” et sociabilité, 78, 161; as some have termed it — masonic sociability associated with other Beaurepaire, République universelle, 24 76, connections and relationships, be they based on kinship, religious, 167, 170.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 93 political, or professional solidarity, or on national origin. Lodges thus seem to have been of particular importance for diverse groups within the Atlantic world: for certain diasporas (such as the Sephardic Jew- ish diaspora in the British and Dutch Caribbean), within the armies, and for certain professional groups, all of whom used the masonic network to reinforce their group solidarity and cohesion over long distances. Studying freemasonry in this context may help us to gain a better and more complex image of the Atlantic as a world organized in several overlapping networks, instead of in adjacent, monolithic blocs.

2. Cosmopolitanism, Colonialism, and Slavery

I have already referred to the decidedly cosmopolitan attitude that freemasons cultivated. Notwithstanding certain regional and national variations, freemasonry embraced prominent cosmopolitan elements of Enlightenment thinking early on. With the support of the brotherhood, their members were supposed to be “strangers nowhere in the world,” to take on Denis Diderot’s famous 1751 deﬁ nition of cosmopolitanism.70 Masonic cosmopolitanism was based on ideals of inclusiveness and tolerance, on the belief in the unity of mankind, and on a sense of “world citizenship” (Weltbürgertum).71 Seen against the backdrop of its cosmopolitan declaration of faith, freemasonry sought to form a “universal family tied together by aff ection.”72

Masonic cosmopolitanism was without doubt one of the driving forces behind the global expansion of freemasonry. Yet, at the same time, its rapid expansion posed serious challenges to its practice of cosmopolitanism. As freemasonry spread throughout Europe and beyond, it became an urgent matter for freemasons to deﬁ ne who the members of their “universal family” would be, who its citizens were, and where the borders of the cosmos they would inhabit would be 70 Jacob, Strangers. On masonic drawn. Thus, in practice, the freemasons’ cosmopolitanism did not cosmopolitanism, see ibid., 95-121. necessarily make them agents of a radical “secularization” or internationalism. Despite their notorious conﬂ icts with the Roman Catholic 71 Harland-Jacobs, Builders, 64-66. Church and with offi cials of other dominations, leading eighteenth- century members tended to anchor freemasonry, to varying degrees, 72 Bullock, Revolutionary 73 Brotherhood, 26. in Christian values and traditions. Already Anderson’s Constitution of 1723 sought to bar the way to a radical form of internationalism by 73 This point has been recently stressed by Loiselle, Brotherly stressing that a freemason “is a peaceable Subject to the Civil Powers, Love. wherever he resides or works, and is never to be concern’d in Plots 74 Constitutions (1723), 50. and Conspiracies against the Peace and Welfare of the Nation.”74

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Against this backdrop, the history of globalizing freemasonry (and other fraternities) was from the very beginning marked by a fundamental tension between an ostensibly inclusive ideology and exclusive membership practices. Already in the European context, masonic cosmopolitanism stood in conﬂ ict with several forms of exclusion: generally, women were excluded from the brotherhood; in many countries Jews, in some cases Catholics, and almost everywhere the lower classes were excluded as well.75 Yet, the real litmus test for masonic cosmopolitanism came with the lodges’ expansion overseas. Here, freemasonry experienced other cultural and social diff erences, which led to new mechanisms of exclusion and distinction from non-Christians and non-Europeans. The masonic tension between universal claims and exclusive practices was thus not just a charac- teristic of European bourgeois culture, as some have suggested.76 It also ﬁ t in easily with one of the basic mechanisms of imperial rule: the tension between universalist incorporation and diff erentiation.77

An Atlantic perspective thus sheds new light on the masonic “politics 75 On women and Jews, see of diff erence” and its interaction with non-masonic hierarchies and especially Jacob, Living the forms of exclusion. The Atlantic lodges started as places of sociability Enlightenment, 120-42; Jacob Katz, Jews and for the “white” Atlantic of Creoles and migrants of European origin. Freemasons in Europe, Lodges in North America and the West Indies alike followed pat- 1723-1939 (Cambridge, MA, 1970). terns of racial segregation by vigorously opposing the admission of people of color. However, and at the same time, the lodges’ claims 76 Stefan-Ludwig Hoff mann, The Politics of Sociability: to universalism attracted free men of color, ex-slaves, and colonized Freemasonry and German people, who demanded to be allowed to take part in freemasonry.78 Civil Society, 1840-1914 (Ann Arbor, 2007 [orig. Moreover, opposition to the existing forms of exclusion came not German ed. 2000]), 4, 32- only from the groups that were being excluded, but also from within 35, 164-66, 290-94. freemasonry. Freemasons in the metropoles and colonies regularly 77 See Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, Empires clashed about how to deal with excluded groups, such as persons of in World History: Power color or polytheists. Taking these embattled boundaries of sociabil- and the Politics of Diff e- rence (Princeton, 2010), ity as its starting point, an Atlantic history of freemasonry promises 11-13. new insights into the complex relationship between imperial rule and 78 On the debates between cosmopolitanism — both as ideology and social practice — during the the British West Indies Age of Enlightenment. The coherence of the masonic network pro- and London, see Aviston Downes, “Freemasonry in vides a vast ﬁ eld for the study and comparison of diff erent forms and Barbados, 1740-1900: mechanisms of exclusion, both in the colonies and in the metropoles, Issues of Ethnicity and Class in a Colonial Polity,” and of the complex interactions between imperial culture overseas and Journal of the Barbados civic culture in Europe. The Atlantic perspective can help to extend Museum and Historical Society 53 (2007): 50-76, this comparison beyond the borders of one empire. More than any- here 60-64; Harland- thing, it also points to the institutions of slavery and the slave trade, Jacobs, Builders, 215-20; Révauger, “Freemasonry and the complicated relationship freemasonry maintained with them. in Barbados,” 85-86.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 95 3. An Infrastructure for Transfers?

The masonic lodges are generally regarded as one basic element of the nascent public sphere in eighteenth-century Europe. According to Jürgen Habermas’ classic study, forms of informal sociability, as practiced by masonic lodges and other private clubs, served as fertile ground for the emergence of a bourgeois “public sphere,” in which ideas would be subject to open, non-hierarchical, and rational debate.79 Even if intellectual exchange was not the lodges’ primary and original purpose, they provided a platform and an infrastructure 79 Jürgen Habermas, The Struc- tural Transformation of the that brought people into contact and exchange. Books, ideas, and Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois So- concepts circulated within their network. ciety (Cambridge, MA, 1989 [original German ed. 1961]), An Atlantic perspective on freemasonry sets out to explore to what esp. 35, 107. The late Eng- lish translation has sparked extent this also applied to the Atlantic world. In fact, the eighteenth- intense debate about the century Atlantic emerged as one of the main spaces of interaction for assumptions and limits of Habermas’ concept of 1962; freemasons. Thus, in masonic history, the eighteenth- and early see on the debate Habermas nineteenth-century Atlantic was a particularly dynamic area of insti- and the Public Sphere, ed. Craig J. Calhoun (Cambridge, tutional change and fragmentation that gave rise to the creation of MA, 1992); Anthony J. new systems, such as independent grand lodge networks.80 The La Vopa, “Conceiving a Public: Ideas and Society in Atlantic Ocean was the main breeding ground for what became the Eighteenth-Century Europe,” most widespread masonic rite in the world, the “Ancient and Ac- The Journal of Modern History 64 (1992): 79-116; John L. cepted Scottish Rite,” a high degree system which took shape in Brooke, “On the Edges of the various interactions between Western Europe, the West Indies, Public Sphere,” The William and Mary Quarterly 62 (2005): and the U.S. East Coast. Brought to Saint-Domingue by a French 93-98. trader from Bordeaux, Etienne Morin, in the 1740s, the “high de- 80 Devrig Mollès, “Le ‘triangle grees” fl ourished in the Antilles, before coming — via Jamaica — to atlantique’: Emergence et expansion de la sphère the United States, where they received their defi nite systematic maçonnique internationale, form.81 Yet, the lodges’ function as an infrastructure for transfers and une analyse statistique (1717-1914),” Nuevo Mundo exchanges (of all kinds) went well beyond the confines of Mundos Nuevos, November inner-masonic history. As historian David Shields and others have 25, 2014, URL: http:// nuevomundo.revues.org/ pointed out, freemasonry and other sociable associations played a 67498. major role in the formation of a polite (male, white) public sphere 82 81 Daniel Ligou, “Les ‘Isles’ aux in colonial British America. Moreover, in the eighteenth-century origines du rite ancien et ac- Antilles, numerous links can be found between lodges and local cepté: Quelques notes sur la maçonnerie des hauts grades learned societies that saw themselves as part of the universal Repub- dans l’Amérique Française à la lic of Letters.83 fi n du XVIIIe siècle,” in Période révolutionnaire aux Antilles, 419-36. 83 See especially the connections James E. “Le Cercle des Philadelphes 82 David Shields, Civil Tongues well-known Cercle des McClellan III, Colonialism du Cap-Francais à Saint- and Polite Letters in British Philadelphes in prerevolu- and Science: Saint Domingue: Seule académie America (Chapel Hill, 1997). tionary Saint-Domingue, Domingue in the Old coloniale de l’Ancien See also Hackett, That Religion, with diverging interpre- Regime (Baltimore, 1992), Régime,” Mondes et cultu- 19-54. tations as to its masonic 181-288; Pierre Pluchon, res 45 (1985): 157-85.

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A classic, though still intriguing question is to what extent the lodges, whether intentionally or unintentionally, enhanced the transfer of ideas and organizational forms that contradicted or subverted existing political structures. From an “Atlanticist” point of view in the context of colonialism and slavery, we have to ask whether opponents of imperial rule and anti-slavery activists also used the lodges to organize themselves. Much like in the European 84 A good overview of the context, this question cannot be easily answered. As already stated, French case is provided by Eric Saunier, “Les francs- the Atlantic lodge system was deeply entrenched in the structures maçons français, la traite 84 des Noirs et l’abolition de of colonial societies and the slave trade. However, it also attracted l’esclavage: Bilan et per- actors and groups who called into question existing structures. This spectives,” in La société des plantations esclavagistes: holds particularly true for the transatlantic revolutionary complex Caraïbes francophone, around 1800: throughout the Atlantic, freemasonry attracted not anglophone, hispanophone : regards croisés, ed. Jacques only colonial elites, but also the aspiring middle classes in British de Cauna and Cécile North America — most notably in the case of New England — who Révauger (Paris, 2013), 137-48. considered masonic lodges as places for the construction of a (post-) revolutionary social order.85 The lodges also attracted free men of 85 See the classic study by Bullock, Revolutionary color throughout the Americas who strove for social respectabil- Brotherhood. ity and political equality.86 Lodges in continental Europe provided 86 On black freemasonry in support for their revolutionary brethren in North America, and the Americas see, e.g., All freemasons in Jamaica helped set up overtly revolutionary lodges in Men Free and Brethren: Essays on the History 87 Central and South America. Yet, masonic lodges were also of major of African American signifi cance for antirevolutionary refugees and exiles from British Freemasonry, ed. Peter P. Hinks and Stephen America, Europe, and the West Indies.88 So far, the connections Kantrowitz (Ithaca, 2013); between freemasonry and the American and French Revolutions Cécile Révauger, Noirs et francs-maçons: Com- have been analyzed separately; an Atlantic perspective will allow ment la ségrégation raciale s’est installée chez les frères us to examine the role of the masonic networks in connecting the américains, 2nd ed. (Paris, diff erent arenas of the revolutionary Atlantic, including the use of 2014); John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti: Race and these networks by both revolutionary activists and their adversaries, Citizenship in French Saint- many of whom crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean between the United Domingue (New York, 2006), 291-96. States, Europe, and the Caribbean. 87 Beaurepaire, L’Autre et le Frère, 607-30; a classic Conclusion study on the revolutionary lodges in Central and The short episode of the lodge in Léogane in 1740 discussed at the South America is Américo Carnicelli, La Masonería en beginning of this essay has provided a fi rst glimpse into a vast world la Independencia de of fraternal sociability that expanded throughout the Atlantic world América (1810-1830), 2 vols. (Bogotá, 1970). in the following decades. This lodge and the reactions to it also give us a sense of the signifi cance — positive or negative — that histori- 88 Harland-Jacobs, Builders, 112-19; Nathalie Dessens, cal actors attached to the issues of sociability and freemasonry. This From Saint-Domingue to signifi cance stands in sharp contrast to the relative indiff erence of New Orleans: Migration and Infl uences (Gainesville, later generations of historians of the Atlantic world. In neglecting 2007), 145-47.

JANSEN | IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIC SOCIABILITY 97 this topic, historians have not only missed out on promising new insights, but have ignored an important facet of the historical actors’ everyday life and experience. In fact, masonic and other fraternal organizations were ubiquitous throughout the diff erent Atlantic empires and emerging nations of the Atlantic world; they were closely intertwined with all kinds of voluntary and involuntary mobility in the Atlantic; they were a central feature of Atlantic port cities in Europe, the Americas, West Africa, and the Caribbean; they intersected with various professional, political, ethnic, or religious networks stretching across the ocean; and they played a prominent role in the turmoil of Atlantic revolutions, wars, and the struggles over slavery and its abolition. Against this backdrop, we need to inquire how and to what extent the Atlantic world was shaped and integrated by freemasonry and other forms of fraternal sociability, and how, in turn, fraternalism and sociability was shaped by the Atlantic world.

As this essay has argued, bringing the histories of sociability and Atlantic history together will be benefi cial for both fi elds of research. Taking up a classic topic of social history, the study of cross-border sociability can contribute to the emerging fi eld of a global or transnational social history, which needs to be more than a history of migration and mobility. As other scholars have started to demonstrate for other cases, the study of sociability and fraternalism in cross-border and large-scale contexts opens up new perspectives and new research questions. Research concepts and methodologies that have so far been applied mainly on a national or regional scale reveal themselves in a new light and generate new insights. As I have sought to demonstrate, the history of “Atlantic sociability” consists of several intersecting histories: a history of many thousands of people seeking to cultivate kinship-like ties and a specifi c form of sociability across continental boundaries; a history of power structures and exclusion, which were in constant confl ict with a utopian universalism; and a history of the exchange and appropriation of ideas that could, at times, challenge existing political and social structures. Numerous further perspectives on “Atlantic sociability” will be fruitful: the Atlantic lodge networks can tell us a lot about the shaping and large-scale transmission of gender norms, about the management of emotions and friendship across long distances and cultural boundaries, and about the globalization of anti-masonry and conspiracy theories, to name but a few possible topics. Finally, the obvious limits of Atlantic masonic “brothering” — forms of exclusion and sectarianism, schism, and new borders — should also urge us to

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think more about the limits of expansion, about ruptures, and about processes of disconnection at a time when “connectivity” seems to be becoming our fetish.

Jan C. Jansen is a Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washing- ton DC. He is the author of Erobern und Erinnern: Symbolpolitik, öff entlicher Raum und französischer Kolonialismus in Algerien, 1830-1950 (Oldenbourg, 2013) and co- author, with Jürgen Osterhammel, of Kolonialismus: Geschichte, Formen, Folgen (C.H. Beck, 2012) and Decolonization (under contract with Princeton University Press). He has published articles in the ﬁ elds of colonial history, North African and Mediterranean history, migration history, and memory studies. His current book project deals with the expansion and the role of masonic sociability in the British and French Atlantic spheres (c. 1770-1850).

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