In France during the years of the French Revolution and its aftermath, the younger Audubon grew up to be a handsome and gregarious man. He would speak of their departure and return with the seasons. He called my attention to their show of pleasure or sense of danger, their perfect forms and splendid attire. He would point out the elegant movement of the birds, and the beauty and softness of their plumage. "I felt an intimacy with them.bordering on frenzy must accompany my steps through life." His father encouraged his interest in nature: įrom his earliest days, Audubon had an affinity for birds. They renamed the boy Jean-Jacques Fougère Audubon and the girl Rose. In 1794 they formally adopted both the children to regularize their legal status in France. The children were raised in Couëron, near Nantes, France, by Audubon and his French wife, Anne Moynet Audubon, to whom he had been married years before his time in Saint-Domingue. La Gerbetière, mansion owned by Audubon's father in Couëron, where young Audubon was raised In 1788 he arranged for Jean and in 1791 for Muguet to be transported to France. Increasing tension in Saint-Domingue between the colonists and slaves, who greatly outnumbered them, convinced the senior Jean Audubon to return to France, where he became a member of the Republican Guard. Due to repeated uprisings of slaves in the Caribbean, he sold part of his plantation in Saint-Domingue in 1789 and purchased a 284-acre farm called Mill Grove, 20 miles from Philadelphia, to diversify his investments. He had long worked to save money and secure his family's future with real estate. After his release, he helped the American cause. During the American Revolution, he had been imprisoned by Britain. Bouffard also took care of the infant boy Jean. Following Jeanne Rabin's death, Audubon renewed his relationship with Sanitte Bouffard and had a daughter by her, named Muguet. His father already had an unknown number of mixed-race children (among them a daughter named Marie-Madeleine), some by his mixed-race housekeeper, Catherine "Sanitte" Bouffard (described as a quadroon, meaning she was three-quarters European in ancestry). His mother died when he was a few months old, as she had suffered from tropical disease since arriving on the island. Another 1887 biographer has stated that his mother was a lady from a Louisiana plantation. He was the son of Lieutenant Jean Audubon, a French naval officer (and privateer) from the south of Brittany, and his mistress, Jeanne Rabine, a 27-year-old chambermaid from Les Touches, Brittany (now in the modern region Pays de la Loire). Early life Īudubon was born in Les Cayes in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) on his father's sugarcane plantation. Dozens of scientific names first published by Audubon are still in use by the scientific community. He is the eponym of the National Audubon Society, and his name adorns a large number of towns, neighborhoods, and streets across the United States. Audubon is also known for identifying 25 new species. His major work, a color-plate book titled The Birds of America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. He was notable for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations, which depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictorial record of all the bird species of North America. John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin Ap– January 27, 1851) was a French-American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist.
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