Flohr

The “Flohr” is a text that is unique in form and content. a major work in the collection of manuscripts conserved in the department of cultural heritage of the André Malraux multimedia library, it is a rare account of the European participation in the process by which the Insurgents won their independence and founded a State based on new values; it also delivers useful observations that nourished multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic history, centered around the exchanges and interactions between the Europeans, American Indians, and Africans, this “Atlantic history” that some historians — still few in number in France — have been writing for about twenty years.¹ Beyond the account of a decisive moment in Atlantic history, the Flohr also illustrates the complexity of travel literature in the eighteenth century, the porosity of genres and the influence that its most widespread forms exerted upon a young rifleman enrolled in the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment when he set about writing an account of the expedition of his regiment. a close study of the text was essential in order to put Flohr’s account into perspective, and to measure the importance of rewriting in retrospect. Far from nullifying the value of this tale, this collective work, on the contrary, aims to facilitate its readability and underscore its complexity.

Le « Flohr » est un texte singulier dans sa forme comme dans son contenu. Pièce majeure du fonds des manuscrits conservés au département de patrimoine de la médiathèque André Malraux, il apporte un témoignage rare sur la participation des Européens au processus par lequel les Insurgents ont conquis leur indépendance et bâti un État fondé sur de nouvelles valeurs ; il livre également des observations utiles pour nourrir l’histoire multiculturelle, multiraciale et multiethnique, centrée sur les échanges et les interactions entre les Européens, les Amérindiens et les Africains, cette « histoire atlantique » que quelques historiens – encore peu nombreux en France – écrivent depuis une vingtaine d’années. Au-delà du témoignage sur un moment essentiel de l’histoire atlantique, le Flohr illustre aussi la complexité des écritures de voyage au XVIII^e siècle, la porosité des genres et l’ascendant que les formes les plus répandues ont exercé sur un jeune fusilier engagé au sein du Royal-Deux-Ponts lorsqu’il a entrepris de composer un récit du voyage de son régiment. Un travail en profondeur sur le texte était indispensable pour mettre en perspective le témoignage de Flohr, mesurer l’importance prise par la réécriture a posteriori. Loin d’annihiler la valeur de ce récit, ce travail collectif entend au contraire faciliter son accès et mettre en lumière sa complexité.

The original manuscript was transcribed and translated into French by Albert Schreiber. This version of the text was the object of a collective effort aimed at facilitating the reading of the text composed by Flohr and highlighting its major contributions. This preliminary research was undertaken by four second-year Master’s students. Grégoire Binois worked mainly on Flohr’s contributions to the history of war practices and culture, Daniel Fischer on American history, Edern Hirstein on Flohr in particular, and on the reconstruction of his itinerary, the precise analysis of his text, and Thomas Tricot carried out the iconographic research that accompanies the footnotes.

In the coming months this version will be completed by contributions from Jean-Luc Eichenlaub on the codicological analysis of the manuscript, from Mireille Pétry, who traces the manuscript’s journey until it reached the department of cultural heritage collections at the André Malraux multimedia library, and from Martial Guédron on the drawings that Flohr included to enrich his text.

Isabelle Laboulais, Modern History Professor, University of Strasbourg – SAGE UMR 7363

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1. For more on Atlantic history, see the historical record organized by Cécile Vidal for a one-day workshop organized at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in 2006: http://nuevomundo.revues.org/10233